Sheffield, United Kingdom : Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust, 2016

For centuries, Britain commanded the seas and protected her Empire with a formidable fleet of wooden warships, the fundamental design of which changed only gradually over the years. But by the mid-nineteenth century, rapid technological advances and shifting political alliances had forced the Royal Navy to abandon the wooden walls that had served it so well in the past and begin to experiment with new armour-plated ships.
In this quickly changing landscape new players emerged and rivalry for Admiralty contracts was fierce. The Sheffield steel-making firms of John Brown and Charles Cammell soon dominated the growing armour-plate industry and by the end of the century they had been joined by Armstrong's in Manchester, Beardmore's in Glasgow and another Sheffield firm, Vickers. Together these five companies controlled the market, and new research presented here demonstrates how they shared the benefits between them.
Forging the Fleet tells the story of the armour makers from the first wrought-iron plates of 1860 to the complex cemented steel which protected the British fleet at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. It is a story central to Sheffield's industrial history and to our understanding of the beginnings of the relationship between industry and the military - a relationship that continues to this day.

9780863212710

623.418 NA

English

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