Greg T

While I do like a well-produced reprint, what Giggle does with digitization of rare books (in ANY field) often borders on the criminal as they often do not scan the folded plates, and I could very well imaginDo you need to reset your password?e the separate volume of the tipped-in plates of Steel's Nav Arch and seeing them scanning the blank pages between and not the plates themselves. And there is a reason why the plates are there: illustrations! I had been looking for this 2 vol set for years as there was (once) an online version of 1805, but it disappeared, so I bought the original, along with Hardingham's Acoomplish'd Ship-Wright (1705) as the bookseller offered to sell the older for a few hundred off, and when you get a like new for a 300-year-old book at a discount, buy it! The point I had about Giggle not scanning what it should is best shewn (for me and IMHO) is Pierre Bouguer's 'Traité du navire, de sa construction, et de ses mouvemens' (Theory or Treatise of the ship, its construction, and its movements - the first URL), one of the very first treatments and analysis of sailing vessels from a physical perspective. And the rare full-color scan (often archive.org has the unprocessed jp2 files in color if the final is black and white only and you need to check accuracy) has no plates! WAAH! SO! Off to bnf.fr and Gallica! only to find: black and white scans, but at least SOMEONE has them. BTW: If anyone needs the plates for Chapman's Arch Nav Merc: digitaltmuseum.se has them and they are ALL in color! And black and white version also exists. And Steel's Elements of Rigging and Seamanship et al is at the second URL with medium resolution scans. Royal Collection Trust has the full 24 MB scans but they are pricey and nut they have you sign an Official Secrets Act form... ; ) https://books.google.com/books?id=gGZX6oxZ1-UC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false https://maritime.org/doc/steel/index.php