BARROW BUILT SUBMARINES

Originally published as a fund raiser for the Barrow Submarine Heritage Centre telling the story of the submarines built at barrow, the book as published by NavyBooks now traces the history of all shipbuilding at Barrow in Furness. The main subject remains the submarines starting with HOLLAND 1 following the development of the submarine through to the current ASTUTE Class. Each class is covered by a technical description, a brief history and technical issues of the class, such as the ill fated steam powered K Class and an illustration. Illustration is an understatement as what marks out this book from others on shipbuilding is the artwork. Every class description is completed by a print - some of the submarine alone, some montage of the class. The 66 full page colour prints are magical and were taken from paintings executed by Tom Murphy, a Barrow man who, after a career in the Merchant navy, returned to his origins as an engineer in the Barrow yards. The class descriptions of the submarines are a marvellous tribute in themselves to the submarine service. Amongst the submarines built at Barrow were the midget submarines of there X Class. The print of XE-3 is a wonderful depiction of the raid on the Japanese cruiser TAKAO in Singapore, and the courage of Ldg Sea Magennis VC, in placing the charges under the ship; the print has been signed by XE-3's Commanding Officer Lt Ian Fraser VC. Other notable prints include one of HTP powered EXCALIBUR and EXPLORE, and another of the nuclear powered SOVEREIGN with the battleship SOVEREIGN. The last section comprises 11 "decade paintings" - montages of the different ships and submarines built during each decade and an index of all Barrow built ships and submarines. In his foreword the President of the Submariners Association describes the books as an "easily read capsule" of the history of the submarine service. This perhaps undersells the book; it is a graphic and immaculately presented pictorial story of the submarines of Barrow.

This is a somewhat unusual book. I was expecting a book about Barrow Built Submarines but what we actually get is a book of paintings of Barrow Built Submarines! That being said the paintings are beautifully presented and depict submarines very well in their natural habitat through the great talent of the artist; Tom Murphy. The book is divided into 3 sections. The first and by far the largest is the section with individual paintings of Submarines from 41 individual classes. Each painting is presented on an almost full page with a caption and facing it is a page giving us information on the class technical details, specifications and weapon fit, and of the individual submarine depicted.The next section is devoted to vessels built at Barrow for foreign powers. This includes Commonwealth Nations, Israel and Brazil, as well as some built for the Royal Navy but passed to Commonwealth coutries to operate during wartime. Finally we have ‘Decade Paintings’ telling the story of the Shipyard 10 years at a time and a list of vessels not listed in those paintings. The book will possibly be of limited use to modellers but to any modellers with an interest in Submarines it should prove very attractive and interesting CM 7/10