MAN-OF-WAR
by Richard Platt & illustrated by Stephen Biesty
In the wake of Stephen Biesty's Incredible Cross-Sections (1992) comes this big, magnificently designed browsers' delight, first (or second?) of a series. The year is 1800; a British fleet sweeps grandly toward the viewer, its huge flagship, fictional sister to H.M.S. Victory, in the lead. Then Biesty slices this ship into nine sections, taking readers from stem to stern both visually and thematically—each spread presents a different topic, from the crew's living conditions and leisure activities to officers' duties and, climactically, battle stations. Biesty renders each deck and duty in enthralling detail: the ship swarms with tiny men dousing fires, stowing or breaking out gear, working and playing with equal vigor, using the toilets, lying in the surgery near buckets of severed limbs, chasing rats in the stores. Platt's captions explain what's going on and provide an easy course in nautical jargon. The great ship is last seen sailing away victorious, its sails damaged by cannonfire, its opponent a dismasted wreck. Vivid, busy, and dramatic. Index. (Nonfiction. 10+)