A) This book fills gaps in Amer. Naval History. Good. B) Bad! Not one word about the ships themselves, construction, design, guns, and other weapons. SEL Addend: 1) many excellent pics: a real plus! d)No word at all on ship types: what is a "Brig, frigate, sloop, etc. A real minus! 3) Almost all references are to secondary sources, not original data. Definition: For a History "enthusiast" or naval "Buff" only. Summation. i.e. A Useful Curiosity. S.E. Lanier

More on title page:
While containing much useful data, this book resembles a confused Phd thesis! Author forgets main purpose and wanders about.
a) There are too few maps and those are bad or hopelessly inadequate.
B)There is far too much wasted space on portraits, skethces and repeated (of the same battle or ship) paintings,
C) There is no outline or discussion of ship types of the period, such as size, armament, rigging, sails and purpose.
D) Terms such as "Corvette, Xebac, Frigate, ketch, etc" are used throughout and never defined. ( )