Pirates & Privateers: James Dodd's & James Moore's Books

They capture our imaginations. They majestically sail across oceans. They play a key role in Britain’s defense of the realm. Yet we tend to think of these wooden walls as if they spring from an idea to fully built ships. The truth is far different, and although they may not measure up to today’s technology, these fighting vessels are the most technologically advanced of their day. This book delves into what it takes to build a ship from the seedling of an oak tree to the ideal warship that leads to an island nation’s supremacy upon the seas.

The backbone of the Royal Navy sprang from a captured Spanish ship, originally built by French shipwrights in 1740. This man-of-war was superior to all existing vessels in the English fleet, so the Admiralty decided to base future warships on her design. One of the two-deck, seventy-four-gun vessels to be built was HMS Thunderer, whose keel was laid in 1756 at Woolwich, the first royal dockyard. It took four years of construction before her launch in the middle of the Seven Years’ War. At the dawn of the next century, 139 out of 800 ships were seventy-fours.

This is far more than just a book about ship construction and the Royal Navy. It also shines a light on Britain’s shipping industry, the timber trade, the elements needed to build ships, the dockyards where they are built, and the people needed to turn designs into finished products. Ten chapters and an epilogue comprise this volume, beginning with “The Origins of the 74” and concluding with a recap of Thunderer’s career from her launch to her loss in 1780.

Dodds is both a shipwright and an artist, whose black-&-white drawings provide readers with a clear understanding of each facet along the way. Moore sails yachts and writes books about ships. Their expertise shines through, turning what might be a ho-hum dry treatise on shipbuilding into a fascinating and easy-to-understand narrative. Originally published in 1984, this new edition is beautifully rendered and well worth the price. There are so many details presented that even those familiar with ship construction will discover new tidbits of information, while those with little understanding of the industry will come away with a deeper appreciation of what it takes to build one wooden fighting ship out of more than 3,400 oak trees.

Meet James Dodd