British Warships Recognition - The Perkins Identification Albums , VOLUME 1

By Richard Perkins, subtitled 'Capital Ships 1985-1939'

Published by Seaforth in 2016, 176 pages. Very large Hardback with Dust Jacket - c.31cm by 41cm (N7448)

Brand New Book

Between the first and second world wars a keen amateur photographer (Richard Perkins) amassed one of the worlds largest personal collections of warship photographs, and while he was building this collection he found that many were neither identified nor accurately dated. This led him to begin compiling an album of his own drawings, which incorporated as much detail as possible on individual ships that could be amended as he discovered more information. His main concentration was on features differentiating ships of the same class and, wherever possible, precisely dating alterations to their appearance, all portrayed in exquisite multi-coloured annotated line drawings. This project grew into an enormous resource covering virtually every Royal Navy ship from 1860 to 1939 (when the Second World War forced him to stop work). This vast collection of drawings was later bound into eight large folio volumes that became a key reference for the curators of historic photographs, but unknown and almost inaccessible to the interested public. This makes this first publication an event of the utmost importance for every enthusiast and ship modeller, and each volume reproduces all the drawings at full size and in colour, just as Perkins drew them.

From the rear side cover: The identification albums compiled by Richard Perkins comprise more than 5,000 exquisitely detailed coloured drawings of every major British warship built between 1860 and 1939. One of the great treasures of the National Maritime Museum, they are bound in eight large volumes and have, over the years, offered an unparalleled source of information for the Museum's staff. Although conceived for the very specific purpose of identifying ship images, what the Perkins albums actually provide is the most thorough and comprehensive record of British warship appearance ever achieved.

In association with the Museum, Seaforth Publishing is reproducing the complete work in facsimile, replicating the original as closely as possible in page size, colour and arrangement, thus making one man's astonishing expertise available to everyone. This first volume covers dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers, as well as pre­ dreadnoughts back to the Majestic class of 1895. Features of each volume:

• Hundreds of the most beautifully delineated warship profile drawings, arranged by type and class
• Alterations and unique features colour-coded
• Modifications dated and described in the notes, with major ships depicted by individual drawings for different stages of their careers
• Analysis of the most minute differences between sister ships, like patterns of scuttles or funnel details, often shown in close-up sketches .
• Separate comparative drawings devoted to particularly useful distinguishing marks like funnel bands and top-hamper
• Class tables summarising methods of identifying sister ships
• Tables of where and when ships were deployed

This is a publishing event of the utmost importance for every enthusiast and ship modeller, naval historian and collector, who can now, for the first time, own a copy of a truly unique and invaluable reference work.