"Jane's Merchant Ships" highlights the key recognition characteristics of most of the world's important ships, and makes it easy to find the name, flag and main characteristics. It covers vessels of 70 metres and above in length overall. This 800-page yearbook uses the modified "Talbot-Booth" recognition system. This long-established system has been expanded and updated to improve efficiency and reflect modern merchant ship design. "Jane's Merchant Ships" displays line drawings of more than 6000 ship classes - all shown broadside, with shading to clarify the outline. The recognition system gives each class (ships grouped together by appearance) a lettercode based on certain features of the ship. By putting these codes in alphabetical order, you can find them like a dictionary. The drawings are divided into 21 ship types (tankers, bulk carriers, passenger ships, etc.) and each of these sections includes several pages of photographs illustrating examples of the type - over 1100 photographs in all. Once the right identifiction has been made, one can get more information about each ship. Under each line drawing, the following information is given - name, builder and date of build, tonnage, dimensions (length overall and maximum draught), machinery design, speed, and a list of other vessels with similar appearance. Also available on CD-ROM and EIS.