Bibliograph

Early American ships, by John Fitzhugh Millar

Type

Label

Early American ships, by John Fitzhugh Millar

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 240-241) and index

Illustrations

illustrationsplates

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Early American ships

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

15153725

Responsibility statement

by John Fitzhugh Millar

Summary

This book contains extensive information on North American ships built through the year 1790. An introductory section explains basic features common to all ships of the period, including design, construction, color-schemes, rigs and purposes for which they were built. It gives an outline of the history of American involvement in the evolution of those features, as well as comparisons with the major European types, accompanied by profuse illustrations. A four-page chart shows 64 important flags in full color, some of them not available in any flag-books. The rest of the book is devoted to details of over 200 ships of all sizes (in alphabetical order), giving an account of the history and significance of each ship, as well as partial and complete lines plans of each hull, either redrawn from original plans found in archives around the world or reconstructed from surviving shreds of information. Nearly all the known surviving eye-witness portraits of the original ships are reproduced--some of them published for the first time in two centuries--and the text includes many fascinating facts and conclusions previously known only to a few experts. Among the more remarkable ships are the Havana-built Santísima Trinidad (by far the largest ship in the world in her day); a 1730 cargo-schooner recently dredged from the bottom of a South Carolina river; Benjamin Franklin's design for swivel-sailed yachts; the various ships commanded by John Paul Jones; early steamboats and a submarine; and a 1730 Chesapeake Bay ship discovered by archaeologists while the foundation was being dug for a Manhattan skyscraper in 1982. Appendices include a surprising account of how the American Navy came to be founded in 1775. An up-to-date Bibliography provides references for further reading. -- Back cover

Classification