If you are interested in naval history or in naval architecture, perhaps from the point of view of a ship model builder (my own interest) this book is really excellent. It presents a variety of truly unusual small ships, and explains the rationale behind their construction. It is one of those books you can pore over for hours with great photos (and lithos from the 19th century) depicting ships you might not find in standard references. As modeling subjects, some of them are really intriguing.

The only flaw in the book is in its emphasis on the British Navy -- and lack of emphasis on the French. In this respect it is like a narrative of half of a boxing match. The French side of the story is indeed discussed in the text, but there are big holes in the history as presented. The French were, in the late 19th century, obscessed with Coast Defense (their "Defense Mobile" and created a technology based upon it. The French (and English) steam torpedo boats from the yards of Normand, Thornycroft and Yarrow, which were so much a part of this era and philosophy, are presented only as a sort of aside, and there are no photos of any of these high speed coast defense vessels.

That said, it is nevertheless a beautiful and well written book: you simply have to fill in the blanks with some other research, as for example, Prof. Ropp's book on the French Navy.