''Ships of the Royal Navy'' is a naval history reference work by J. J. Colledge (1908–1997); it provides brief entries on all recorded ships in commission in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

from the 15th century, giving location of constructions, date of launch, tonnage, specification and fate. It was published in two volumes by Greenhill Books. Volume 1, first published in 1969, covers major ships; Volume 2, first published in 1970, covers Navy-built

trawlers Trawler may refer to: Boats * Fishing trawler, used for commercial fishing * Naval trawler Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes; they were widely used during the World War I, Fir ...

, drifters, tugs and requisitioned ships including Armed Merchant Cruisers. The book is the standard single-volume reference work on ships of the Royal Navy, and Colledge's conventions and spellings of names are used by museums, libraries and archives. For more data on ships of the pre-1863 Royal Navy, see '' British Warships in the Age of Sail''. A revised third version of the Volume 1 work was published in 2003 which added the ships of the late 20th century. The revision was conducted by Ben Warlow. A fourth edition was published in 2006, reinstating some of the smaller vessels that the third edition had omitted. A further revised fourth edition was published in 2010 to include requisitioned ships, e.g. Armed merchant cruisers, Merchant aircraft carriers, as well as small craft, e.g.

landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. ...

and Admiralty-built trawlers.

References

* * {{cite book , last1 = Colledge , first1 = J. J. , author-link1 = J. J. Colledge , last2 = Warlow , first2 = Ben , year = 2010 , orig-year = 1969 , title = Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy , edition = 4th Rev. , location = London , publisher = Chatham , isbn = 978-1-935149-07-1 1969 non-fiction books 1970 non-fiction books Books about the Royal Navy Nautical reference works 20th-century history books