For naval professionals and enthusiasts, this publication provides rapid recognition of fighting ships. It is divided into nine "ship type" sections covering aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, frigates, corvettes, patrol forces, amphibious forces, mine warfare forces and submarines. Each entry is spread over 2 pages with enough detailed information and up-to-date line-drawings and photographs to assist in the identification of any one of 300 ship classes representing over 3500 warships. All pages show a silhouette of the ship in question. Sections are represented in alphabetical country order. Where there are several ships for a country they appear in alphabetical class order. A preliminary section includes colour ensigns and flags of the world's navies; a line diagram and a bows-on and stern-on profile of a typical warship, indicating all the the recognition features; and a glossary of terms.