There is attitude and then there is Attitude.

Shipwrecks are an intriguing topic, and this book features many interesting ones, some well-known (the Birkenhead, for instance), and some very hard to learn about (the Raleigh is a good example; this is only the second book I've been able to locate to have a significant section on that 1922 shipwreck). But be prepared to pair the information with a side of strong opinion.

Too often, this doesn't feel like history; it feels like polemic -- the Navy can do no wrong, and the government should hand them all the money they need so they can go on doing no wrong. Which, considering the way the Royal Navy's attitudes fossilized in the late nineteenth century, is surely a dangerous attitude. Were there times when the Navy was right and the government wrong? Patently. But the reverse was true, too. The crankiness grates.

Also, the physical format of the book makes reading difficult. It's a standard-sized hardcover, but the margins are unusually small. The print is in a fairly compressed font, and the printer on which it was printed appears to have had limited resolution. The result is that you have to make an unusual number of eye movements to read a line, causing extra effort, and making it harder to find the start of the next line. This makes reading something of a mechanical chore. If there is ever a new edition, I hope that will be repaired.

I don't want to imply that this is entirely a bad book. To repeat, there is good information here. But I really did get tired of reading it, on more than one occasion, for more than one reason. ( )