A Shipyard at War: Unseen Photographs from John Brown’s Clydebank, 1914-1918 Hardcover – Picture Book, December 15, 2014

John Brown's Clydebank shipyard was in a unique position when it comes to modern naval history. It was the first British shipyard to employ an in-house photography department, it built many of the most famous British ships of the 20th century, and although it no longer exists as a company, more than 40,000 of their negatives are currently stored at the National Records of Scotland. "A Shipyard at War" is both a successor and companion volume to Ian Johnston's "Clydebank Battlecruisers", published to great acclaim in 2011, including mine. Although that book focused solely on the five battlecruisers built at the shipyard, this one offers up a tasty smorgasbord of rare photographs sure to delight the serious maritime history buff.The majority of the photographs focus on the building and fitting out of the 54 ships (including 37 destroyers, four capital ships, three submarines, and two ocean liners) constructed at the yard between 1914 and 1919. The book is presented in a chronological scrapbook manner, book-ended by a brief introduction and a timeline of the yard's wartime activities. For the capital ship fans, "Tiger", "Repulse", and "Hood", are all represented by images cut from "Clydebank Battlecruisers", while "Barham" receives a healthy dose of construction shots. The famous Cunarder "Aquitania" occupies almost the entire first quarter, from keel laying to launching and fitting out. The remainder of the yard's wartime work takes up about three-fifths of the book. There are detailed shots of the interior of the submarine "E35", photos of ships passing down the Clyde or arriving for refits and machinery installations, and images of Mark IV tank hulls under construction, machinery components prior to installation, and female "dilutees" at work. There is a LOT of good stuff here - trying to describe it all would be hopeless!When these photographs were taken, the Royal Navy was the world's largest, and British heavy industry was the envy of the world. Most of the them are presented at extremely high quality, scanned at high resolution directly from the original glass plate negatives. People used to seeing century-old reproductions of warship photographs might have their socks knocked off. You can actually count the number of rivets in the ships' hulls in many shots, and read the chalk markings on structural components. There's even an adorable shot of a tiny narrow-gauge locomotive blowing it's whistle as it steams past the hull of the "Repulse".The only thing really stopping me from giving this book five stars is the somewhat haphazard presentation of some of the photographs. Seaforth still hasn't gotten the hint that it's a bad idea to plop a photograph of a ship across two pages in such a manner that masts and funnels end up falling into the gutter. The problem isn't quite as epidemic here as it is in some of their books, but it's present enough to be irritating. Some of the photographs are overexposed or damaged, and many are faded along the edges. I suspect that some of the photos in "Clydebank Battlecruisers" were subject to some subtle cropping and Photoshopping, but the overall quality of photo reproduction in this book isn't quite as good.A couple of minor issues aside, this book is a little treasure trove, and an invaluable addition to the maritime archaeology of 20th century Britain. With this book, "Clydebank Battlecruisers", and "The Battleship Builders" all published in the last five years, Ian Johnston is definitely a naval historian to look out for. I couldn't help but notice that the introduction mentions that John Browns' photographers took 1,016 photographs of the "Queen Mary" between 1929 and 1936. This liner buff would grab a copy of "Building the Queen Mary" if anyone publishes it in the near future (hint, hint...).

This is an excellent book on the John Brown Shipyard on Clydeside before and during WW I. There are many great photos of pre-war passenger liners and wartime battlecruisers, battleships, light cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and auxiliary or other ships under construction. A couple of the best photos, I thought, show the interior hull framing and engine rooms of the passenger liners "Aquitania" and the "City of New York" before the decks were constructed. I also found the photos of the construction of the battlecruiser and battleship gun turrets and installation of the guns to be fascinating. The famous 150-ton cantilever crane is featured in many photos.Unfortunately, there are no tabulations of ship dimensions or performance characteristics. There are also no ship design development histories. There are a couple of interesting charts that depict the building times on the slipways and in the fitting-out basin.

Excellent necessary companion volume to the author's earlier "CLYDEBANK BATTLECRUISERS" of identical format. The quality of the photographic reproduction is excellent overall, which is a major accomplishment when the 100 year age of the glass plate negatives is considered. That they have survived at all is a marvelous windfall for historians, but to have done so in such excellent condition is nearly miraculous. This volume gives a much more comprehensive overview of the numerous and varioius processes involved in warship construction of all types a century ago than the battlecruiser volume, which is why I consider it a necessary companion. The ratio of text to photos is just right, and the captions are most informative. the author going to great pains to point out details that are clearly visible, but not immediately obvious to the untrained eye. It is only because of the astonishing quality of the original images and their state of the art reproduction that many of these details can be seen at all. The serious First World War historian's library is woefully incomplete without these two volumes.

ery useful to me as a model ship builder. Many unique, sharp, detailed overhead views of ships, weapons, equipment, and fittings.

The historic photographs in this book are amazing. What a treasure trove. And, they are so crisp and clear. If you're interested in ships, ship construction, ship history, Scottish history, you can't go wrong with this outstanding book.

I found the quality of the photos to be incredible. The printing quality is good too. I'm also amazed that the shipyard took the business of documenting themselves so seriously (the photos were taken by professionals employed by the shipyard). Highly recommended for anyone interested in the source material or the era. There's a picture of Jan Smuts, who commanded troops hostile to the Empire during the Boer War, speaking at the shipyard! It's really an amazing piece of work.

Great coverage of both warships and commercial vessels

The concept of this book, focusing on one yard and the WW1 years, is a special one and hopefully the father of additional efforts. Ian Johnston doesn't just compile the photos, he studies them carefully and, knowing how shipyards work and construction proceeds, has written informative captions which bring out the rich detail which ship lovers want. Highly recommended.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough for it is simply superb. Following on from his book on Clydebank Battlecruisers published in 2012, Ian Johnston has written another using archive photographs showing the ships built by John Brown, and other yards, before and during the First World War.Johnston has laid the book out in chronological order from pre-War ships to 1918. After a short, informative introduction, he moves to the main subjects of the book: photographs of the construction of liners, warships, and merchant ships. It is not an exaggeration to say every photograph in this book requires close study. It does not matter whether the photograph deals with the construction, launching or sea trials of the ships concerned anyone interested in ships or engineering for that matter will find them instructive and informative.The text accompanying each photograph complements them. One of my favourites is of Aquitania. It's the first photograph in the book and it shows how big these ships were. Another is of War Thistle - a Clydebank Standard Ship, in dazzle camouflage. It would be stunning if it were in colour. In addition, I have to commend Johnston in not repeating any of the photographs of the battlecruisers shown in his previous book. There is some interesting social observation too regarding women working in the yards as "dilutees", and distinction between those who wore "bunnets", soft caps, and bowlers.This book is worth buying whether you have a general or serious interest in ships. Therefore, buy it if you can, you will not regret doing so.Will1957.

Another Ian Johnston masterpiece. Never lets you down. So much detail, not just the ships but the business, politics,finances and histories behind them. And then there's the quality of the photographs, Excellent. Well packaged,arrived on time and undamaged.

As with Johnston's previous books utilizing the John Brown photographic archive, this book is fascinating. Another wonderful and unique set of plates described in the detailed and informative style of the author. Highly recommended.

Great book, great price, excellent fast delivery from 'Speedyhen' what more can I say.Harry123

Beautiful picture book. A little redundant though,, limited examples of ships,, whatever, it is a good book.