'Steam, Steel and Shellfire; The Steam Warship 1815-1905', edited by Robert Gardiner, published by Conway Maritime Press, ISBN 0- 85177-564-0, price £ 28.00

With so much emphasis given to the exploits of the British Army during the nineteenth-century, it is easy to forget that this was the golden age of British sea-power, when Britannia literally 'ruled the ways". The Royal Navy emerged from the Napoleonic Wars with virtually no rivals to challenge her supremacy; in the second half of the century, Britain fought only one war against a major power capable of challenging her at sea - the Crimean War - and even her the Russians shied away from a direct confrontation at sea.

The implications for the Empire were colossal - Britain was able to patrol her possessions with total confidence, rushing troops to hot- spots on land across the world, without fear of a challenge en route. It is no coincidence that Naval landing parties were a feature of so many land campaigns; they reflected the ubiquity of British Naval power.

This large-format, well-illustrated book - part of an ambitious twelve-volume 'History of the Ship' - explores aspects of the Empire's navy in a series of thematic chapters, each written by an expert in the field. It was an age, too, of tremendous technological advancement, which took the battleship from the classic Ship of the Line of Nelson's time to the Dreadnought, the fore-runner of today's battleship. Sail gave way to steam - fluidly, in the manner of such things, rather than in a sudden break, as is often supposed - and steel replaced wood. Along the way there were digressions, such as a flirtation with rams, and innovations, like the submarine and the torpedo. These, together with the impact of the American Civil War which, as in so many other spheres, proved the mixing ground of old and new, are all fully considered in a handsome and fascinating book.

Reviews

Introduction
Fearful Hard Times: The Siege and Relief of Eshowe 1879
Lord Chelmsford's Zululand Campaign 1878-1879
But Burdens Shouldered; Anglo-Zulu War Graves and Memorials in the United Kingdom
Deeds of Valour: A Victorian Military And Naval Trilogy
Warrior Chiefs of Southern Africa
Fuzzy Wuzzy; The Campaigns in the Eastern Sudan, 1884-85
Buller: A Scapegoat?
Steam, Steel and Shellfire: The Steam Warship 1815-1905
Victorian Military Campaigns
British Campaign Medals: Waterloo To The Gulf
Guns of the British Empire: Firearms of the British Soldier, 1837-1987
Reflections From The Bridge: The Victorian Sapper in Photographs
Osprey Round - Up: Colonial Titles
Pony Wars Round-Up

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