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by Stuart Buxton.
Hardback (6.3×9.3 inches). 360 pages. 2025.
During the American Civil War, the CSA paid for warships to be built overseas. While a technical violation of neutrality laws, the sums made winking at the laws acceptable.
The ship originally designed as the Sphinx for “France” (i.e. CSA) served under five flags: Denmark as the Stoerkodder, Confederate States of America (CSS Stonewall — made it to Cuba just as the war ended), Spain as the Fragata H. Nuestra Salud del Carmen (bought it and one day later sold it to the USA), USA back to being Stonewall), and Japan (Kotetsu). She was an ironclad ram by design and leaked like crazy from day one. The downside of all this winking were shortcuts and less than optimal construction.
In Japan, she proved its worth in combat with other ironclads in the country’s civil war between the Emperor and the Shogun. Here’s where a couple of naval scenarios could play out on the tabletop.
Not all is about the ship. The book contains a long account of the Emperor-Shogun war that hardly mentions naval matters until the Kotetsu shows up. It’s good to have a background to the final naval battles.
The book contains 19 black and white photos and 10 black and white illustrations.
It’s an interesting read and the final battle in Japan could make for an interesting tabletop scenario.
Enjoyed it.
— Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
