Author, Naval History
My name is John Henshaw and I am a naval history enthusiast. I was talked out of a Cadet Midshipman’s course at the Royal Australian Naval College - HMAS Creswell - by my parents at the tender age of thirteen; something I have always regretted. (I guess parents know best – I always thought so as one!) However, my interest in the sea, in general, sailing, and all things maritime never waned.
After an education at Wesley College Melbourne, University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (now RMIT University) I pursued a career in property development as a consultant, as an executive of an international developer then as a designer-builder-developer in my own right. Designing and building things satisfied my creative urges, plus drawing and watercolours.
Once retired, my passion for drawing and the sea found expression in writing my first book on naval history which, typically of all my books, features extensive technical drawings of ships involved, many of which would never have been seen before.
Drawings of the Past - Meticulously Drawn, Historically Grounded. -
Over the years, I’ve created a library of over 360 detailed technical drawings – of numerous types of warships to merchant vessels – all carefully rendered using Computer-Aided Design (CAD).
Each one tells its own story, some of which have been obscure or simply overlooked over the years.
These aren’t sketches – they’re general arrangement type drawings of profiles and deck plans, all drawn to scale.
Browse the DrawingsBritain was ill-prepared for the Battle of the Atlantic – the most important battle of the European war. The Royal Navy’s lack of adequate anti-submarine vessels necessitated the creation of a new ship class – the frigate. This work details the development of the frigates with 29 drawings, including variations that never proceeded.
The captured German ship HMS Audacity was the first true escort carrier. Originally a merchant ship, she was hastily converted by the Royal Navy and deployed in 1941. This work examines each class and type of Escort Carrier in detail with 40 drawings and ship histories.
Operation C was a two-pronged thrust by the Imperial Japanese Navy into the Indian Ocean in April 1942. This work chronicles the Eastern Fleet’s survival and includes 35 detailed warship and aircraft drawings.
The main problem with axial-deck aircraft carriers– that is, ones using conventional arrested landings where aircraft having landed…
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Predictably, when World War II commenced, Britain was caught out, desperately short of ocean-going convoy escorts such was…
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In September 1941, two years after the commencement of World War II, Britain was beleaguered relying on trans-Atlantic…
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