Anatomy of the Ship

The Battlecruiser Hood

Book Cover HMS Hood

By John Roberts

I want to say, right from the beginning, that I was very impressed by this extensive look at the HMS Hood. The book is chalked full of facts that will expand the readers knowledge of this important ship that was in the Royal Navy and was destroyed by the Bismarck on May 24th, 1941.

This ship was designed during World War I, 1914 – 1915 and construction was begun before all the lessons from Jutland were studied. By the standards of 1915 – 1917 she was an advanced design. The lessons learned from the Battle of Jutland were not applied to the design of this ship. At the time of its completion, it was the largest, fastest and one of the most handsome capital ships in the world. In 1923-24 she was sent on a world cruise in “showing the flag” on a grand scale as the most glamorous ship in the Royal Navy.

This book is divided into 26 separate sections. Each section provides a detailed look into the construction of the ship and its design failures. The first 21 pages of the book provide the written background and information about the ship. The written information consists of the following information;

Introduction
Design
Construction
Service History
The Loss of Hood
General Arrangements and Hull Structure
Machinery
Armament
Control Systems
Ground Tackle
Aircraft
Modifications

 

While only 21 pages in length, it is chocked full of detailed information that details the battlecruiser HMS Hood of the Royal Navy.

HMS Hood

The Photographs are the next section is the next section of the book. While only 12 pages in length, here again you can see the detail of the ship and can see the lines of the ship and why it was considered such a handsome ship.

Hood-1    Hood-2

The remaining sections of this book are the architectural drawings. These drawings are those that were submitted to the Director of Naval Construction (DNC). These drawings (92 pages) take up the remainder of the book and are highly detailed as one can expect. The drawings are;

Hood-4

The drawings are based on the Admiralty official drafts that were held by the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The general scale of these drawings are 1/600 (50’ = 1in) with the details drawn to multiples of that scale wherever possible (i.e.. 1/300, 1/150, 1/75, etc.). The scales used are included in the headings to the keys where applicable.

Hood-5

 

Summary

The Historian, Ship Builder, Modeler and Scratch Builder will all find the details of this book refreshing. The details of the ship within the pages of this book are a delight to look at. They will find all the details will add to their knowledge of this ship. Also, the modeler, ship builder and scratch builder will find the Drawings invaluable. If your looking to add a book to provide details to a build, Anatomy of the Ship, The Battlecruiser Hood, will be an invaluable addition to your library.

This 127-page paperback book is now available from Osprey Publication.

Paperback

$24.00

(The pictures and drawings used in this review were taken directly from the Battlecruiser Hood book and are used with permission of the publisher.)