Armada Guns
Originally published in 1961, this masterly study of the guns used by the rivals in the Armada campaign remains an essential contribution to the understanding of the event, for it gave a new perspective to the whole battle. The long-drawn-out struggle in the summer of 1588 was the first major sea-action which was a straight artillery-duel and nothing else. With that the ship-borne gun began its long reign which lasted unbroken from the Armada to the Coral Sea and Midway Island.
Michael Arthur Lewis (1890-1970) read history at Trinity College, Cambridge, followed by a year at Grenoble University (and would have played in the French national rugby team had the authorities not discovered that he was British). His subsequent academic career was spent wholly in naval education, teaching at the Royal Naval College Osborne (1913-20, serving as lieutenant in the Royal Marine Artillery in World War I), at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth (1920-34) and finally as Professor of History and English at the Royal Naval College Greenwich (1934-55). A fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, he was active in the Navy Records Society (vice-president) and the Society for Nautical Research (president). In 1952-3 he introduced all 26 episodes of the American documentary series Victory at Sea on BBC television, earning the public soubriquet of ‘the TV Prof’. He authored or edited 22 books: two of light verse, six thrillers (‘clutch and throttle’ as he called them), thirteen on naval history, and one on genealogical gleanings from his own family tree. He retired in 1955, having been awarded a CBE for services to naval education.