From a booksellers description Black and white illustrations with color frontis-piece. [From jacket flaps] The scope of the present volume is both wide and varied, covering as it does a period of about three hundred years from the time of Charles II, 1642, to our own day and including World War II. While it is not planned as an exhaustive history, it nevertheless tells how the British soldier lived while afloat and what kind of ships carried him to many parts of the world in his campaigns, and in the 17th century in what we now regard as tiny ships, ranging from 900 to 1,500 tons. Voyages in them might last weeks, sometimes months, and food and accommodation were appalling. The story of British troopships, however, could not be told without a considerable background of military history and the many battles in which our soldiers were engaged, on the Continent of Europe, and elsewhere. This is indeed an important and interesting feature of the story, lucidly told. But the story of the ships themselves is perhaps even more fascinating. The author describes how they developed from the small wooden craft of three hundred years ago to the giant transports of our own times; what they looked like both internally and externally, their structure, their armament, and often ornate appearance.