The Destroyer Campbeltown [Hardcover]

I have just purchased the second edition (published in 2004) of this book. While all the books of the "Anatomy of the Ship" series are labours of love for their creators, I am somewhat disappointed with the result of Mr. Ross's effort, and I feel that the editors of the Conway Maritime Press have lowered their high standards in publishing this title.

Now, it could be argued that as there are no actual vessels of this type remaining in existence, some details just are not available, but this argument does not carry very far when one considers the very high standards of the books in this series on the Yamato, Hood, Victorious, and Warspite.

The most irritating feature of the drawings is the absence of frame space numbering on the various scrap views of the ships profile (except for two sketches which are obviously direct reproductions of original builders drawings). This makes it a little difficult for the ship-enthusiast to orient him- (or her-) self while picturing the vessel in the mind's eye. Another basic fault, considering the industry standard for the presentation of ship drawings, is that none of the profile views indicate the names of each of the decks.

The plan views of the various decks do not include basic details like doors or hatches through bulkheads (but perhaps these were few in number, as I realize these historically-significant vessels were built austerely).

Unlike other books of this series, the only engine room auxiliary equipment which is given a separate illustration is one of the propulsion steam condensers. It would have been interesting to see drawings of an American-made evaporator, or feed water pump, as other books in the series do provide these details...

No mention is made in the text or drawings of the electrical generation equipment, nor are there any photographs or drawings showing details of the accomodations...

I do know from reading other accounts of the St. Nazaire Raid of March 1942 that the explosive charge was made up of a number of depth charges, and was located in the hull just aft of the pillar supporting the 12-pounder on the focsle, but this book does not mention these details, nor does any drawing even show the location of this pillar...

I am a ship enthusiast and own five of the titles in the Anatomy of the Ship series, and this is the first book in the series that I have purchased that I feel is not worthy of a five-star rating. It is a shame that Conway Maritime Press did not take the opportunity with this second edition, published in 2004, to address these flaws which existed since the original 1990 edition.

Apparently this is only the second review of this book that has been submitted to Amazon: the first one gave it a 5-star rating. If Conway decides to someday publish a third edition (maybe in some down-loadable format??), and brings this title up to the standard of other books in this series, I will gladly give it a higher rating, but compared to other books in this series, it rates a 2-star from me.

This book contains the best plans of flushdecker as I found. I suggest this book for all modelers. Personally I make a good model from this plans. Some very good quality photos included in this book are very useful too. Based on plans of early version of Campbeltown You can make model of almost all fourpipers as You want.

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews  3.5 out of 5 stars