The Naval Annual

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Title page of 1887 edition, published 1888 Brasseys 1887-1888 title page.jpg
Title page of 1887 edition, published 1888

The Naval Annual was a periodical that provided considerable text and graphic information (largely concerning the British Royal Navy) which had previously been obtainable only by consulting a wide range of often foreign language publications. [1] During its life it underwent a number of title changes.

Contents

The Annual was started by Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey, in 1886. Though often compared with Jane's Fighting Ships , the two British annuals were, in fact quite different. The Brassey series began a dozen years earlier, and its special strength was the dozen or more detailed articles on naval (plus, from 1920 through 1935, merchant marine) matters, authored by experts. They covered British and other nations' naval developments ranging from the latest ships to overall policy.

The first five or six Brassey volumes used a second printing colour (a light blue green) to highlight armored portions of naval vessels' hulls. Through 1949, the series was also known for its extensive tabular presentations of individual ship details. But unlike Jane's, the Brassey series was not designed for use in identifying ships at sea. Starting with the 1950 volume, content broadened to cover air force and army topics in addition to naval material, with a continued emphasis on British forces. Long runs of the Brassey volumes are relatively uncommon in American libraries.

Editors of Brassey's Annuals 1886–1992 [2]

(For this 15-year period, the Annual covered naval and merchant shipping, plus occasional articles on maritime aviation.)

Brassey's Naval Annual

Brassey's Annual – The Armed Forces Yearbook

Royal United Services Institute and Brassey's Defence Yearbook

See also

Footnotes

  1. Preface to the first edition of The Naval Annual, July 1886.
  2. Editors from 1886–1986 from Ironclad to Trident, pp. v–vi.
  3. Royal United Services Institute and Brassey's Defence Yearbook, 1989
  4. Royal United Services Institute and Brassey's Defence Yearbook, 1990
  5. Royal United Services Institute and Brassey's Defence Yearbook, 1991
  6. Royal United Services Institute and Brassey's Defence Yearbook, 1992

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References

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