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History buffs will enjoy this richly illustrated commemorative book

Warships are unbelievably complicated creations. Not only are they as wired and triply redundant as spaceships, they have to be able to take and give punishment. They are technological marvels and they are weapons. It is no wonder that more than a century ago, the naval philosopher Alfred Mahan postulated that a nation's fortune waxed and waned with its navy.

"Fit to Fight -- Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard 1908-2008" By Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard Association (Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard Association, $39.95)

But every hammered rivet, every bit of electrical wire, every square of decking, every yard of chain and bolt of flagging, every bucketful of paint and every welded seam, each was placed there by the hand of skilled workers. And when the ship came back damaged, these same hands repaired it and made it fit to fight.

The sheer scope of work involved in servicing modern ships comes through clearly in the pages of "Fit to Fight -- Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard 1908-2008," a glossy, commemorative book created to mark the shipyard's century mark, achieved last month.

The largest industrial employer in the islands, the Pearl Harbor shipyard has a fascinating, marked history, ranging from its creation in the tidal backwaters of Pearl Harbor -- lots of blasting and dredging required to make room for ships -- to the tragic collapse of Drydock No. 1 to what was surely the yard's finest hour: the amazing repair of aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in 1942, a three-month job reduced to three days, and she raced off to be sunk at the Battle of Midway. Arguably, the yard might have saved the islands from occupation.

Created with the same can-do attitude from within the shipyard, with the credits largely anonymous -- for the late Navy League member and journalist Bill Bigelow, it was his last project -- the book is a no-nonsense recounting of the yard's history with an interesting collection of well-chosen photographs and a staccato, just-the-facts text style. Oddly, two of the errors that jump out should have been the easiest to spot, misidentifying USS Oklahoma as USS Nevada, and a Brooklyn-class cruiser as USS Pennsylvania.

The book also discusses the social history of the shipyard, such as the war-bond drives, the massive influx of civilian workers during the war years, and the creation of artificial towns such as CHA-III, which had its own baseball team and dairy.

The print run was largely aimed at shipyard workers and their families, but naval-history enthusiasts will want their own copy.