Great Liners at War

MotorbooksInternational 1997, 160pp, b/w illustration, 0-7603--0346-0,£15.95,

Caught short of suitable military tonnage in time of war, navies have long relied upon the orocedure denoted today by the acronym STUFT, or Ships Taken Up From Trade. England's response to the Armada of 1588 was almost wholly STUFT-based, and from 1889, the new White Star liner Teutonic set a trend among European nations for designing passenger ships for rapid conversion to naval use when required.

First published in USA, this album surveys the military exploits of 9 well-known passenger ships, from Brunel's Great Eastern ( briefly a North Atlantic trrop ship) to Queen Elizabeth 2's Falklands service. Without claiming to be comprehensive, Stephen Harding reveals little-known episodes such as the gunnery duel in August 1914 between Cunard's Carmenia and and the German liner Cap Trafalgar, the intensity of which is evident from photographs of the resulting damage to Carmania, the victor.

A few textual errors occur. Great Eastern's builder was Scott Russell, not Russell Scott, and Wilhelm Gustloff was a motor-ship, not a steamer as captioned. Seven of the nine liners featured were British-built, but this bias is perhaps justified by the huge individual contributions made by Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, each ultimately capable of uplifting more than 15,000 troops at a time. JCR