The book examines all of the nearly 500 of the Navy's unique miscellaneous auxiliary (AG) and unclassified miscellaneous (IX) vessels. It provides individual histories, specifications and illustrations for more than 40 of these ships in 32 chapters, as well as concise directory listings for another 400 vessels. The main text is supplemented with a glossary of terms and abbreviations, bibliography and three apprendices, and is further reinforced with a useful detailed index.