Buy 1911 Olympic & Titanic Shipbuilder Distinguished Liners from The Shipbuilder Volume 1 and Volume 2: 1911 Olympic & Titanic Shipbuilder The Shipbuilder Volume 2 Complete Review

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Complete Volume 2 Book Review published in Nautical Collector Magazine

"Distinguished Liners from The Shipbuilder, Volume 2: 1907-1914 presents fascinating details of 53 ocean liners gathered from the text and photographic records of 43 issues of the well known Shipbuilder magazine that were first published up to the outbreak of the First World War. Within the 314 composite pages of Volume 2, Mark Warren has placed at our fingertips details of a shipbuilding era that ushered in knowledge and experience that remain in use to this day. Extensive material, including plans and diagrams, will be found on the Aquitania, Imperator and Vaterland – three ships which paved the way for modern, giant liner production. Also carefully selected for inclusion is comprehensive material on the Otway, Franconia, Laconia, Kristianiafjord and Bergensfjord, Gablonz and Marienbad, Gelria and Tubantia, Alsatian, Calgarian, Britannic and Cap Trafalgar. Less exhaustive – but no means less fascinating – articles will be found on 37 additional passenger vessels, including ill-fated ships such as the Principessa Jolanda, Hesperian, Afrique, Waratah, Vestris, Niagara and Statendam.

"The details and salient design features of these 53 diversified ocean liners are portrayed in 221 pages of original Shipbuilder text accompanied by 212 original text photographs. In the journey through this epic recreation, the reader will also discover 20 oversized gatefold plans, 11 transverse cutaways, 29 diagrams, 64 additional text plans and five pages of full color interior plates – all taken from the original publication and painstakingly assembled and reproduced here in chronological order. Through descriptions and graphic depictions, the evolution of the early maritime achievements of this century are laid bare for the probing mind of the reader.

"But the trek through this era is not told only through the original text. Included in Volume 2 are 116 original advertisements that were also found in The Shipbuilder. These were carefully scrutinized and hand picked by Mr. Warren as being representative and evocative of the shipping epoch displayed in the text itself. Within these fascinating ship-related commercial endorsements will be found another 101 photographs. In addition to oceangoing product and service illustrations, the reader will also encounter ads containing 35 exterior liner depictions as well as 20 of liner interiors. Among these ads are no less than 30 pages of advertising for the Cunard "first-string" fliers Lusitania. Mauretania and Aquitania. Then too are the 21 ads for the White Star steamers Olympic, Titanic and Britannic, including an unbelievably rare full page depiction of the now most famous ship in the world proudly proclaiming that "The Largest Vessel Afloat, White Star Liner R.M.S. "Titanic", Left Southampton for New York April 10th, 1912." The reader can only surmise the significance and horror this phrase precipitated five days later when, truly, the Edwardian world died giving birth to the twentieth century that we now recognize and understand.

"As the twentieth century was spawned into this age of technological enlightenment, it was left to the magnificent floating palaces depicted here to serve as its standard bearer. The Aquitania, the quintessential maritime example of the marriage between engineering and aesthetics is given 26 pages of coverage as well as five folding plans. The enduring Cunarder served her owners for more than 35 years and survived profitably well past the Second World War. Even then, in early 1950, Cunard was still advertising her service, as potential buyers were interested in her acquisition to take immigrants from Europe to Australia. This is quite a testament to her builders and to her chief architect, Leonard Peskett. But the design of this four funneled beauty found its origins in Peskett’s earlier work on Cunard’s Franconia and Laconia. By comparison of the photos and plans for these three ships, all contained herein, the student and enthusiast of marine architecture can understand how the concept of this "test and try" philosophy produced one of the single most outstanding pieces of marine engineering ever assembled.

"The Aquitania section of Volume 2 features text that is completely different than that found in the 1914 Aquitania "Souvenir Number" of "The Shipbuilder." Additionally, of the 26 text photos in Volume 2’s Aquitania section, four are previously unknown, as they had not been included in the 1914 "Souvenir" edition.

"Other paragons of shipbuilding skill are also represented here in Volume 2. The Imperator, 52,117 tons of German know-how, is actually dissected, as originally constructed, for the first time in more than 80 years with 41 pages of incredibly detailed text as well as one 20-inch folding transverse cutaway. Within this section are 29 photos (15 of them interior), 18 pages of diagrams including complete general arrangement plans, engine room plans, transverse and longitudinal cutaways as well as complete and minutely detailed first class passenger accommodation deck plans. Additionally, there are also five advertisements for this monstrous vessel. Her even bigger fleetmate, the Vaterland, is similarly treated in her own fantastic 20-page exposition, as is the legendary Cap Trafalgar, which has 18 pages and three folding plans devoted to her magnificent and hitherto virtually unknown interiors, machinery and layout. Nowhere else can such a record be found. The Cap Trafalgar was but on her third voyage when engaged by Cunard’s Carmania in the only armed duel between two ocean liners during the First World War. After 100 minutes of intense, close-range shelling, the Cap Trafalgar, flagship of the Hamburg Sud-Amerika Line, was completely destroyed and sent to the bottom in flames, but not before she lobbed 72 direct hits on the Carmania – which incredibly survived.

"As an invaluable historical record, one of the many significant aspects of Volume 2 can offer the reader is the ability to see these three German liners, Imperator, Vaterland and Cap Trafalgar, as they were designed to be operated by the companies they were built for, even though they actually served very little time under the German flag. The information contained here about them is extremely rare and next to impossible to obtain today. Other oversized folding general arrangement plans like those for the Imperator and Cap Trafalgar, will also be found in the sections of Volume 2 detailing the almost equally well known liners, Franconia and Laconia, Kristianiafjord and Bergensfjord, Gablonz and Marienbad, as well as Alsatian and Calgarian.

"Although mentioned by name only about 20 times in the text as a result of her more thorough treatment in Volume 1 – references to the Titanic – or rather fallout from her design flaws – are scattered throughout Volume 2. A now seemingly hard to believe dissertation, written in March 1912, is included regarding the arrangement and stowage of big-ship lifeboats: "The advent of passenger-carrying vessels of immense size has brought the authorities in most maritime countries to realize the necessity for revising the existing rules relating to life-saving appliances … and further important changes may be predicted in the near future." Regarding the new double-acting Welin lifeboat davits, the article later states that, "In the case of the White Star liners Olympic and Titanic this type of davit was fitted throughout to make it possible to double, or even treble, the number of boats, should such increase ultimately prove to be necessary." Should prove necessary? Prophetic indeed!

"Strolling through the entire 11-page section devoted to the Britannic, intended running mate to the Olympic and Titanic, is like walking through a live mine-field. References (and inferences), to the ship’s "seaworthiness" are found subtly worked into every paragraph, "Messrs. Harland & Wolff have probably had a greater experience than any other single shipbuilding firm in the design of the structural detail of modern Atlantic liners, and the Britannic embodies every lesson of accumulative experience." That statement more or less covers the design, provisioning and operation of the new steamer – three things that put her elder sistership on the Atlantic Ocean floor.

"Safety and technology notwithstanding, the fashion and trends of the time are also clearly portrayed. Magnificent photographs display the grandeur and aplomb associated with first class shipboard life. The majestic interiors of the Vaterland and Imperator are without equal. However, smaller and lesser known ships nevertheless had outstanding accommodation. The Cap Trafalgar embodied a top-desk, two-storey dining room concept that has since not been seen until the recent entry into service of the giant new cruise ships. The Alsatian was every bit the "social conscience" of the times that the big pace setting ships were, but on a more conservative scale. It should also be remembered that she introduced the novel structure of the "cruiser" stern to Atlantic travel – a technical concept that was to endure in passenger ship design for another 80 years. These features are all displayed for the journeying reader to encounter in photos and plans. Another magnificent feature is the dustjacket – a faithful, full-color reproduction of a 1914 view of the Aquitania that blends well with the full-color photograph of the Baltic’s smoking room on the back.

"Not to be forgotten, the ships of lesser stature as well as the lower passenger classes of accommodation are also given much attention in this cavalcade of shipping. Descriptions of the Orsova’s accouterments for her "living freight" are no less fascinating. Her interior appointments are described as "chaste and subdued" as if to distinguish her from a ship of lesser morals, even though her smoking room did patronize the advocates of "my lady nicotine." She was designed to be a ship of "…space, air, light and ventilation." But the open grates in the upper sections of the stateroom partitions that ensured fresh air circulation through her cabins must have certainly put a damper on the activities of her passengers, thereby lending a new meaning to the "chaste and subdued" atmosphere that her design had attempted to achieve.

"Despite their carefully executed interiors, these were first – and always – ships, subject to the perils and physical dangers of the open sea. The section detailing the Waratah gives a solid description of the ship, including her passenger layout: "All cabins are commodious and airy… At the fore end of the promenade deck are the first-class entrance hall and drawing room, and opening onto the lobby are eight special staterooms, six of which are intended for one passenger each." One can only speculate how compensating these comfortable staterooms proved to be as they turned into tombs when the ship capsized at sea on her second voyage, taking her 211 passengers and crew to the bottom of the South Indian Ocean.

"All in all, Distinguished Liners from The Shipbuilder, Volume 2 is a beautifully hand-bound, hand stitched and gold stamped treasure trove of historical maritime data, details and depictions. This is a piece of maritime history unparallel by anything available today. I suggest that the best way to indulge yourself with Mr. Warren’s latest masterpiece is to take Distinguished Liners from The Shipbuilder and settle back and let your imagination, guided by the photos and text contained in Volume 2, wander off with you into the post-Edwardian world of shipbuilding and the wonder of ocean liners. But to complete the effect, take a fresh Havana from the humidor and grab a warm brandy before sinking into an overstuffed leather wingback chair with this, the ultimate ocean liner book."

Gordon R. Ghareeb, Lakewood, California