Bevæbnede handelsskibe var generelt var passagerskibe bevæbnet med gamle 6" kanoner og brugtes som erstatning på mangelaf militære krydsere. Bogen omhandler især britiske AMC'er i de to verdenskrige.

“An extraordinarily detailed account of the development of Royal Navy cruisers . . . a towering work” from the author of Fighting the Great War at Sea (Warship 2012). For most of the twentieth century, Britain possessed both the world’s largest merchant fleet and its most extensive overseas territories. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Royal Navy always showed a particular interest in the cruiser—a multipurpose warship needed in large numbers to defend trade routes and police the empire. Above all other types, the cruiser’s competing demands of quality and quantity placed a heavy burden on designers, and for most of the interwar period, Britain sought to square this circle through international treaties restricting both size and numbers. In the process, she virtually invented the heavy cruiser and inspired the large 6in-armed cruiser, neither of which, ironically, served her best interests. This book seeks to comprehend, for the first time, the full policy background—from which a different and entirely original picture of British cruiser development emerges. After the war, the cruiser’s role was reconsidered, and the final chapters of the book cover modernizations, the plans for missile-armed ships, and the convoluted process that turned the “through-deck cruiser” into the Invincible class light carriers. With detailed appendices of ship data, and illustrated in depth with photos and A.D. Baker’s specially commissioned plans, British Cruisers truly matches the lofty standards set by Friedman’s previous books on British destroyers. “Wow! . . . Lavishly illustrated with a photograph or line plan on almost every page. The text is packed with technical information, detail, and description of design, construction and application of these important ships.” —Clash of Steel

A naval historian reveals the full story of the HMS Jervis Bay and the merchant ships that valiantly saved lives during the WWII Battle of the Atlantic. On November 5th, 1940, the thirty-eight merchant ships of Convoy HX84 were making their way across the North Atlantic, escorted by the armed cruiser HMS Jervis Bay. In mid-ocean, they were attacked by the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer. Though the Jervis Bay charged at the enemy, she was hopelessly outgunned. Within twenty-two minutes, the ship was destroyed. Meanwhile, the merchantmen scattered under the cover of a smokescreen. But the radar-equipped Admiral Scheer was still capable of picking them off one at a time. Captain Hugh Pettigrew, commanding the highly armed Canadian Pacific cargo liner SS Beaverford, began a desperate game of hide and seek with the Scheer, which continued until the Beaverford was sunk with no survivors. Thanks to this sacrifice, thirty-three merchantmen were able to escape. Later the neutral flag Swedish freighter Stureholm, commanded by Captain Olander, picked up survivors from the Jervis Bay. While Jervis Bay’s Captain Edward Fegen was rightly awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery and sacrifice, the history books only mention the Beaverford and the Stureholm in passing. This thrilling book puts the record straight.

A serious study of the reasons why some warships have achieved bad reputations. It covers the period from 1860 to the present day, and looks at a wide range of nationalities and ship-types. Some examples are the Russian Popoffkas; the French battleship 'Brennus'; and the British vessel 'Captain'.