Preston is so damn cranky, and he lets it all out in this very idiosyncratic list of crappy warships. Some of them are hilariously bad: early ironclads that flipped over after a 20 degree list; the circular Popovkas which spun when firing their guns and could not make way against even a mild current; hydrogen-peroxide powered submarines that mostly choked their crews. However, the hilarious follies are outnumbered by the banally bad-pricey cruisers that couldn't take heavy seas, attempts to outmatch falsely reported speeds on foreign ships, and way too many attempts to "fit a quart into a pint glass" by second-rate powers like the French and Japanese.

Unfortunately, this book is caught halfway between freakshow and system. Preston knows what kinds of ships he likes: tough, moderately-sized, seagoing ships, with conservative armor and armament. He is merciless on anything innovative, sometimes rightfully with a Swedish combined cruiser-aircraft carrier-minelayer, and sometimes unfairly as when he dismisses missile armed corvettes as a class. He hates it whenever "enthusiasts" get ahold of naval procurement, but I get the feeling he'd be happiest with 72 gun ships of the line, and damn this newfangled steam.