When Britain ruled the waves

For 100 years Britain ruled the waves – and even beyond, to the drama of the First World War, underpinned by its tremendous imperial resources.

But then the tiger across the Atlantic began to extend its claws and with the Second World War the baton was seized firmly by America.

Peter Padfield, in two previous books, has covered the Dutch sovereignty of the seas and Britain’s development as a world power in the 19th century.

Now, in Maritime Dominion and the Triumph of the Free World, this exceptional author demonstrates Britain’s continued passion for its ships and oceans over the past 150 years.

Within the scope of this battle-strewn era Padfield has a field day, from the Crimea to the Cold War.

I’ve always been interested in Tsushima, when the Japanese Admiral Togo destroyed a Russian fleet that had travelled half-way around the world, but here the author also presents the giant clash of navies at Jutland, the submarine battle of the Atlantic (of which Padfield wrote an earlier book), the sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse off the coast of Malaya, the aircraft carrier battle of Midway, which doomed Japan in the Pacific.

Beyond this is the author’s deep understanding of marine technology — such as the development of the Dreadnought, an awesome beast of firepower that rendered all previous battleships obsolete, and allowed the global trade that fuelled an empire.

There will not be a better book than this on Britain’s naval campaigns.