British Warship Recognition: The Perkins Identification Albums

Book excerpt: The Richard Perkins warship identification albums form one of the most detailed studies ever undertaken of the changes to the appearance of Royal Navy ships. However, it is a unique hand-drawn manuscript artefact in the care of the National Maritime Museum, so despite its value it is rarely seen by anyone besides the museum's curators, for whom it is a precious resource, used on an almost daily basis. In collaboration with the Museum, Seaforth is undertaking the first publication of this monumental work in a superbly produced multi-volume edition that captures all the qualities of the original. Every page is reproduced at full size, making the extensive hand-written annotation readable, while the fine-line drawings retain all the colours that Perkins used to denote appearance differences and alterations. Following the Museum's binding arrangement, the fourth volume of the series completes the coverage of all cruiser-type ships down to the Belfast class of 1939 begun in Volume III. This second part includes most of the smaller cruisers from about 1916 back to the Amazon class corvettes of 1865. This is a publishing event of the utmost importance for every enthusiast and ship modeller, who for the first time will be able to own a copy of a unique and invaluable reference work.