In the late 1700's a country had to have a navy of some sort and with thousands of miles of shorelines, it was imperative that the new United States have one to face the British fleet. Each of the colonies formed their own navies, and a Continental Navy was also formed. Many of the ships used were those that were purchased or captured or converted. Some were new built as well.

Despite a lack of funding, the new Navy did fairly well against the Royal Navy, though in the end was so decimated that the Continental Navy basically ceased to exist by the end of the war. Of course, when France entered the conflict on the side of the US, she brought with her a large and formidable navy, so the real need for a large Continental Navy ceased to exist.Still, there were many great battles with the Royal Navy with ships named Ranger and Bonhomme Richard and captains like Barry and John Paul Jones.

In this volume, author Mark Lardas looks at the design and the development of ships built in the US as well as those purchased or converted. We also see how these ships performed in battle  with many now-famous captains, ships and events. The book then goes into a look of each of the classes of ships built and each of the three major types is provided a section. This is superbly illustrated by Tony Bryan and includes cut-away illustrations of several types. An inclusion of period art work and illustrations also helps us to see what these ships looked like.

An excellent book on a most interesting subject and one that I am positive you will find to be of interest. One that will be pulled from the shelves time after time and one I can highly recommend to you.

December 2009

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