I had only ever browsed The Observer's Book of Ships, my first copy owned when a grammar schoolboy in the 1960s (the first edition was published c.1950, I think). I should have read this book four or five decades ago but I have read it now. What an excellent little book it is - so much to learn, as well as a trip for me down memory lane (accepting, of course, that some of the information is rather date, fifty years having passed). Well illustrated, it contains general information about tonnage, propulsion and buoyage as well as flags and the colours of shipping companies - the end of the once great British Merchant Fleet was in sight, containerisation in its infancy and the Port of London sinking fast. Other chapters cover merchant ships, harbour craft and fishing vessels, warships, sailing ships and yachts and a brief history of ships through the ages. There's an index toom actually there's two - ships by type and ships by name. Frank Dodman (1908-1997) is to be congratulated for this little mine of nautical information, ( )