Suggestions for good never-built warships books

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NobodyOne

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Hello, long-time lurker here. I am finding some books to read about warships designs that are never built. Can you guys suggest some books?
 
Layman and McLaughlin's "The Hybrid Warship"
Breyer's "Battleships of the World" has some nice speculative drawings
 
Warships for export Armstrong warships 1867-1927. German warships
1815-1945 Vol 1 major surface vessels .
 
Unlike the air domain, there are few books dedicated to unbuilt naval projects*, however there a plenty of books on navies and ship types which feature something on unbuilt projects.

Norman Friedman has perhaps the most "width" - his books on US and British ship types cover ships which were under serious consideration but never saw the slipway. DK Brown covers Royal Navy projects well in his books, with a good engineering perspective.

As to the other navies of the world, France, Russia, etc., beyond some articles in the annual Warship series, I don't know of any English-language resources.

*And I would kill for "Naval Projects of the Postwar era", "... WWII", "... Post Cold War" etc...
 
Yes on internet on various forums like this Secret Projects, Battlecruisers, Shipbucket etc just do not be afraid to ask or use the search engine.
 
Google searches is a powerful tool (as a person who doesn't own a single book and abuse google a lot... so i have quite plentiful collections of warships projects in my folders).
 
It helps if you narrow your search for a specific type and navy. Say Greek capital ship projects which basically means export designs for Greece
 
starviking said:
Unlike the air domain, there are few books dedicated to unbuilt naval projects*, however there a plenty of books on navies and ship types which feature something on unbuilt projects.

Norman Friedman has perhaps the most "width" - his books on US and British ship types cover ships which were under serious consideration but never saw the slipway. DK Brown covers Royal Navy projects well in his books, with a good engineering perspective.

As to the other navies of the world, France, Russia, etc., beyond some articles in the annual Warship series, I don't know of any English-language resources.

*And I would kill for "Naval Projects of the Postwar era", "... WWII", "... Post Cold War" etc...
Click to expand...

Keep plugging Hood, that's one of his areas of interest, but they keep making him write books on the planes instead !!
 
Thorvic said:
starviking said:
Unlike the air domain, there are few books dedicated to unbuilt naval projects*, however there a plenty of books on navies and ship types which feature something on unbuilt projects.

Norman Friedman has perhaps the most "width" - his books on US and British ship types cover ships which were under serious consideration but never saw the slipway. DK Brown covers Royal Navy projects well in his books, with a good engineering perspective.

As to the other navies of the world, France, Russia, etc., beyond some articles in the annual Warship series, I don't know of any English-language resources.

*And I would kill for "Naval Projects of the Postwar era", "... WWII", "... Post Cold War" etc...
Click to expand...

Keep plugging Hood, that's one of his areas of interest, but they keep making him write books on the planes instead !!
Click to expand...
LOL, I knew you would bring that up!
Its on the book bucket list, so one day it might happen.
 
Norman Friedman books contains info data and development of post WW2 designs in his books both about RN and USN.
I'm pretty sure there are Russian equivalents for the Soviet Navy but sadly in Russian language.
I do not know any post WW2 French or Italian navy books. Nor Japanese in that regard though there might be books in Japanese language. As for the other minor navies... There might be 1-1 books in their own language out there.
I have an official paper describing the proposals for the Canadian Navy in the cold war titled:
The Annapolis Riddle - Advocacy, Ship Design and the Canadian Navy’s Force Structure Crisis, 1957-1965 by Richard Oliver Mayne 2008
Which inculdes various Frigate, Destroyer VSTOL, ASW LPH carrier designs for example
 
Jentschura's Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1869 - 1945 is a good general source that includes all the what-if's and started but never finished ships Japan had during that period.
 
There are multiple Russian books, but they are in Russian. Russia seems to have been a paradise for dud designs; lots of sketches got what seem to have been official project numbers. The only English-language reference is Steve McLaughlin's book on Czarist and Soviet battleships, but of course his coverage is limited. There is also a book by Rohwer and another author on Stalin's Seagoing Navy, which includes sketch designs through 1953 (Stalin was very hot on big cruisers).

On the French, all you have are John Jordan's books, but you don't get dud designs. I'm not sure they existed. I have been in the French archives (Vincennes), but they offered very little post-1940. They did have the correspondence files of the French equivalent of BuShips or DNC (STCAN), but I never tried it, because it was so voluminous, without what seemed to be a usable key. I did see files of their main navy council through 1960, and I don't remember many designs which died. There are references to three of them: a dud carrier of ca 1948 (they were broke), a small escort of about 1954 (like a French Type 14), and the nuclear-powered helicopter carrier which preceded de Gaulle, PH 75. There may also have been an abortive post-Clemenceau carrier, which would have been much larger. I got the impression that both postwar and prewar, the French spent design time only on what was likely to be built. The sole prewar case of a dud design was an abortive light battleship which in effect led to Dunkerque. You can find a lot about it in John Jordan's French battleship book. The French did keep designing ships after the 1940 armistice. The carrier designs are described in two French books (Dousset and a new one by Moulins, I think). The destroyer designs were described and, I think, sketched in an issue of the magazine Marines. They mattered because they ultimately helped lead to the postwar Surcouf class destroyers (there were other important influences, including the U.S. Sumner/Gearing class). I would not be surprised if there were cruisers and even submarines, too, but I have never seen any accounts of them.

On the Italians there are books (in Italian) of official history. I don't remember whether you got many dud designs in the process.

This site seems to have more abortive designs for various countries than I have ever seen elsewhere.

Many years ago a British expert began work on a history of the world warship market. He was extremely good, and he was well placed to explore design proposals from British yards, who dominated that market for many years. Unfortunately he died very young from a fast-moving cancer, so I have no idea of what became of his notes. The warship market corresponds to the story of not-builts for the many countries which do not design ships themselves, which of course is the great majority. These are the navies whose projects are often described on this formum, and which are not widely known, hence are of intense interest.
 

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