Search results for ""Author Richard Hough""

A compelling history of the greatest ships ever launched.The importance of the fighting ship is as considerable today as ever before. Battleships are built, counted, assessed and exercised with the same determination now as at the beginning of the twentieth century, and during the Napoleonic Wars.In this riveting book, leading historian Richard Hough examines fifteen of history’s most significant and interesting battleships, from Lord Howard Effingham’s Ark Royal, which held the Spanish Armada at bay, to the American New Jersey, which took part in three wars, and whose guns still remain ready for action. From the mighty German Bismarck of 1941, destroyed on its first operation voyage, Battleship ranges to Admiral Nelson’s legendary HMS Victory, still a flagship after more than 200 yearsHough weaves these examples into a pattern of progress ranging from the galleon to the immense super-dreadnought. In addition, he focuses in depth upon armaments, structural developments, and the tactics of war – all these play a crucial part in the epic history of the battleship. But above all Richard Hough’s story is a human one, a record of men and ships, of courage and endurance – a true taste of the sea.

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In Cook's relatively short and adventurous life (1728-79) he voyaged to the eastern and western seaboards of North America, the North and South Pacific and the Arctic and Antarctic bringing about a new comprehension of the world's geography and its people's. He was the linking figure between the grey specualtion of the early eighteenth century and the industrial age of the first half of the nineteenth century.Richard Hough's biograpahy is full of new insights and interpretations of one of the world's greatest mariners.

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Soldier by instinct, sailor by fate… The relationship that defined a career – and saved a nationThe Navy almost finished the career of Britain’s greatest wartime leader. As a young minister responsible for the senior service from 1911, Churchill ruffled feathers and gave scant regard for the feelings of the admirals. When disaster struck in the First World War, it was the navy that led to his political downfall.But when he returned to power after years in the wilderness, the Royal Navy welcomed him with the cry, ‘Winston is back!’ From that point onwards, the successful pursuit of the war at sea remained his primary consideration.Within a few days of his return to the Admiralty, Churchill received a friendly overture from President Roosevelt, and there began a steady communication and friendship between the self-styled ‘Former Naval Person’ and the President of the United States, their differences subordinated in the pursuit of one shared goal: winning the war.From a veteran naval historian comes the extraordinary and gripping story of Churchill’s stormy association with the navy and the sea, perfect for readers of Richard Overy and Jonathan Dimbleby.

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