The quality of the book is first class - paper, binding, cover, dust cover, arrangement, readability, print, and indexing. It is a handsome volume and one I have proudly added to my library. Aside from these qualities, the content is absolutely extraordinary! The research demands were obviously exhausting.

"Wooden Ships - Iron Men" is a superbly researched book. It is rare to find such strict attention to pertinent facts. Furthermore, Braddock’s writing and organizational skills are absolutely outstanding. I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in Colonial maritime history, but especially to serious researchers and libraries.

You are to be commended for putting forth the effort to come up with all the facts about these men from 200 years ago.

"Wooden Ships - Iron Men" is an extremely well-documented effort written by J. G. Braddock Sr. While the book is not a family history, it is an important effort, showing the amount of research sources available and how one can research and document our colonial ancestors.

. . . The book is interesting reading for anyone with an interest in the colonial period, naval activities, and in the documents of the era.

This book is unlike any other book I've ever read. The author has accomplished the impossible. He has tied together what would be rather detailed orders, letters, etc., and made them flow in readable form. This book is not written in a narrative style. It is filled with exact data concerning four master mariners, all kin to the author. Two are named Braddock. Two are named Lyford. The exploits of these brave, talented men in the 1700s along the coast from NY to the Bahamas, but especially SC, GA, and Florida, are logged in so cleverly that you don't realize that you are not reading a real history book. Well, you are reading a real history book, but not like any other you'll find on the shelf. J. G. Braddock is a master when it comes to putting his research into readable form. You will enjoy this book if you are interested in the Colonial and Revolutionary eras, naval activities, or old documents. You will appreciate the extreme difficulties endured in those early days.

The author has documented the lives of four of his ancestors, all noted naval captains, who were related to each other through blood and marriage. His task was not an easy one; this volume represents more than five years of research. All four men figure prominently in the history of the maritime South, from the middle of the eighteenth century through the Revolutionary War.

Indeed, it is the diverse sources upon which the author relied that make the book so formidable.

The book, while not written in narrative form, utilizes extracts from actual documents of the time, showing the progression through their years of the four ships’ captains, along with input from governors, politicians, lawyers, judges, merchants ... all a fascinating reflection of the age and its styles, including harshness and shortcomings

Recommended for reading and a reference shelf.

I did not put the book down from the time I received it until I finished it at 4 a.m. this morning.