[A choice presentation photograph album marking the launch of Royal Navy King George V-class dreadnought battleship HMS 'Ajax'] by [HMS AJAX]

[s.i.]: [s.n., s.d., c1912] Contemporary full brown crushed morocco, richly gilt. A trifle rubbed and a little faded; remaining spectacularly handsome nonetheless. 39 silver gelatin/printing-out-paper photographs, half plate (114x140mm) to 360 x 270mm, mounted on 23 leaves. A suitably imposing album marking the launch of HMS Ajax, constructed by Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering at their shipyard in Greenock, and launched from there on 21st March 1912. The eventual construction cost was just shy of £2m. The third of four dreadnought battleships built for the Navy, powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, Ajax's service - which included the Battle of Jutland, the Action of 19th August 1916 and the British intervention in the Russian Civil War of 1919 - was relatively shortlived; she was scrapped in 1924 under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. . Oblong Folio.