Since its founding as an engine manufacturer in the 1820s, Cammell Laird has had connections with the British and foreign navies. The Birkenhead shipbuilding yard has made many ships for the Royal Navy including many submarines, destroyers, dreadnoughts, aircraft carriers and cruisers.

Once an employer of thousands, the yard is empty of the noise of welders, riveters, joiners, engineers and the myriad other skilled tradesmen needed to build a ship but its history remains – one that reads like a roll of honour for the British Navy; Ark Royal, Audacious, Birkenhead, Chester, Hardy, Hogue, HM/S Thetis, to name a few.

Illustrated with many previously unpublished images, this will prove to be the definitive book on the most famous of the Cammell Laird-built Navy vessels.

As well as British navy ships, the book includes a varied selection of foreign naval vessels from the Confederate blockade runner Alabama to many ships and submarines built for navies around the world.