BOOK REVIEWS

William Barr. Arctic Hell-ship. The Voyage Arctic as commander of an exploring of the HMS Enterprise 1850-1855. expedition consisting of HMS Enterprise Edmonton, AB: Press, and HMS Investigator, the latter www.uap.ualberta.ca, 2007. xiv + 318 pp., commanded by Robert McClure. illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, Given such an important command, index. CDN $ 34.95, paper; ISBN-13: Collinson dithers on his way around Cape 978-0-88864-433-6. Horn, first waiting on the slower Investigator, and then speeding on ahead. The number of books spun from the Collinson left Hawaii before McClure could dramatic failure of Sir ’s catch up with him, and then made an 1845-1848 expedition of in search of a inexplicably wide and slow arc into the is beginning to approach Bering Sea. For reasons the author explores the number of biographies of Bonaparte. in detail, Collinson then decided that his The long and growing catalogue of ship should locate winter quarters by 1 Frankliniana includes more or less August, thereby losing half of his first straightforward general histories such as Arctic navigating season and allowing the Martin Sandler’s Resolute (2006); disaster intrepid McClure to pass him. While narratives like Scott Cookman’s Ice Blink McClure blazed north to , (2001); forensic anthropology studies Collinson thought it more prudent to winter (Beattie and Geiger’s Frozen in Time in Hong Kong. The author hints broadly (1988)); literary non-fiction like Barry that McClure, being no fool and perhaps Lopez’ Arctic Dreams (1987); even novels, with a sufficient gleam of Collinson’s such as Robert Edric’s The Broken Lands character, pressed on by stretching his (1992). orders to their literal and figurative outer This study falls into one of the limits. Ultimately, McClure would claim newer sub-genre of Franklin works— the discovery of the Northwest Passage for studies of individual commanders involved himself. in the Franklin saga. It joins David Murphy’s Arctic (2004), on Leopold The author’s remit is to examine McClintock—the man who solved the why Collinson found it necessary to hold so Franklin mystery; and Michael Smith’s Last many of his officers in chains for large Man Standing (2006), on — segments of his otherwise competent whom one might say created it. voyage that spanned three Arctic winters. In the case of Arctic Hell-Ship, the Collinson did not learn the fate of Franklin, commander is , a flinty, but was eventually able to sail along the by-most-accounts competent, British naval northern coast of North America all the way officer whose specialty was marine to an overwintering in Cambridge Bay on surveying. In 1850, Collinson’s linear , an impressive feat of ice career as a better-than-average chart maker navigation. was suddenly thrown a wicked curve. The The title of this work clues the Admiralty, desperate to find out what had reader immediately to the author’s judgment become of Franklin and his two ships, of Enterprise’s captain. Collinson, an Erebus and Terror, ordered Collinson to the officer largely overmatched by his The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord, XVII No. 2, (April 2007), 67-92 68 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord assignment, is revealed as an indecisive since they only distract from the generally martinet. Yet this judgment is somewhat excellent flow of the text. Place names and undermined by the author’s eagerness to nomenclature are given in their original convict Collinson so quickly. Through the spellings and rather randomly accompanied use of exclamation points and aspersions, by modern spellings or English equivalents. the prosecutor sums up for the jury too early For example, the author insists on using the and too often. Virtually every move or Russian transliteration ‘mys’ without at missive by Collinson earns an immediate least once translating it for the general critique. A more subtle case that allowed reader as ‘cape.’ The modern name of the wonderful historical detail to speak for Chusan Island is given (Zhoushan Dao), but itself would have sufficed. The trap could the modern name of Oueehow (Niihau) is then have been sprung in a blistering final not. This is a bit strange since the author chapter. Instead, poor Collinson, inept uses the names Maui, Oahu and Hawaii in perhaps, possibly superstitious, almost the text, without first giving the archaic certainly a zealot and a tippler, is convicted Sandwich Islands spellings (Mowee; by the author before the reader has had a Woahoo; Owhyhee)—and one guesses that chance to hear all the evidence against him. ‘Oueehow’ and its yam fields are by far the The excellent nature of the primary least known of them all. source scholarship mirrors the care and The author is an exemplary polar expense taken to add colour plates of historian; the publisher should have seen to Assistant Surgeon ’ paintings it that his manuscript received a copy-edit to the volume (a minor miracle in itself for a the equal of his scholarship. As for Richard university press). Unfortunately, this work Collinson, he should never have been taken is compromised by a poor copy-edit. There away from his chart table to be put in are numerous misspellings as well as charge of men on a desperate mission in a sentences repeated within short spaces. On remote and hostile landscape. p. 8 we are told that the purpose of Collinson’s expedition was “to search for P.J. Capelotti the missing Franklin expedition via Bering Abington, Pennsylvania Strait” and then three sentences later that the purpose was “to search for the missing Franklin expedition via .” Or Lance E. Davis and Stanley L. Engerman. on p. xi where we are told that this is the Naval Blockades in Peace and War: An “first detailed account of the voyage since Economic History Since 1750. New York, Collinson’s own narrative,” then, just two NY: Cambridge University Press, sentences later, that the book is “a detailed www.cambeidge.org, 2006. x+ 453 pp., study ( the first since publication of notes, tables, index. US $99.95, cloth; isbn Collinson’s own narrative in 1889).” (And 0-521-85749-X. no, the space between the parentheses and ‘the’ was not closed up.) By 1918 German civilians were consuming References to illustrations are off only 22 percent of their pre-war weekly diet by two pages, suggesting that the of meat and 27 percent of the fats. Small manuscript went through a final typesetting wonder that the privations of the civilian without the pagination being given a final population and shared memories of the check. References to previous or “turnip winter” of 1917 became so deeply foreshadowed events are wildly mis- ingrained in the national conscience, and for numbered, and should have been left out, the Germans, such a vivid legacy of the Book Reviews 69

Great War. The punishing shortages were points. To be fair, Davis and Engerman, also felt next door in the Netherlands, which despite frequently tentative conclusions, and had remained neutral: 1918 consumption of after weighing the opinions of various meat and fats was 29 and 53 percent of the authors, do decide that the British blockade weekly 1914 levels. Among the causes of against the United States in the War of suffering was a shortage of farm labour in 1812, the Union Blockade of the Germany due to the colossal cumulative Confederacy during the Civil War, and the manpower requirements of fighting a two- Second World War American submarine and front war. One of the key causes was the aerial mining campaign against Japan were dislocation of normal trade patterns caused clearly effective. by the Allied naval blockade implemented One of the attractive features of this in 1914. It was, in fact, maintained until the study is its broad scope. The authors sketch Treaty of Versailles was signed by a in the evolution of international law defeated Germany in 1919. These statistics governing blockades and embargoes and are found on pages 209-10 of a recent study underline how belligerents consistently by two American economists, Lance Davis violated agreements made in peacetime.The and Stanley Engerman. authors write that an embargo – the decision Davis and Engerman set out to by a government to stop or limit exports to examine the economic implications of naval harm an external power – is the mirror blockades in a series of case studies. Both image of a blockade, which is an attempt to have had distinguished academic careers choke off imports by an opponent. While and candidly write that they are not military they do not discuss in detail the economic historians. Their book is based on impact of recent embargoes, such as the one published secondary sources. Its usefulness which attempted to restrict imports of oil by for further study is limited by the lack of a Rhodesia in the seventies, there is extensive bibliography. The text is interspersed with coverage of a fifteen-month American 142 detail-crammed statistical tables. embargo on exports to Britain from 1807 to Unfortunately, there are only two graphs; a 1809. This was intended to pressure Britain diagram showing the bullion holdings by into ceasing seizures of American trading the Bank of buttresses a discussion vessels on the high seas and the infamous of how Napoleon’s Continental System, impressment of American seamen by the aimed at choking off trade with Britain, Royal Navy. In fact, the embargo was leaky succeeded in drawing down specie holdings and cumulatively harmed the United States by his enemy. (p.33) A welcome graph on – exports fell by 75 percent in 1808 and page 267 shows tonnage sunk by German imports by 60 percent (p. 89). Meanwhile, U-boats during the Second World War. If England experienced a damaging 60 percent ever there was a study based on statistics increase in cotton prices, but trading which cries out for competent diagrams and patterns were adjusted and British exports to graphs to underline the lessons to be other parts of the Americas surged. Exports extracted from masses of facts, it must be of American-grown cotton to Britain would this one. be a key factor during the Civil War five The authors draw heavily on decades later. The Confederacy initially quotations in presenting their case studies. embargoed exports of cotton in an attempt This feature, coupled with a tendency to to coerce Britain and France into summarise the differing views reached in recognizing its sovereignty and disregarding the original studies, requires the reader’s the Union blockade, which was then of close attention in order to extrapolate key limited effectiveness. A year later, when the 70 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

South changed its strategy, exports resumed, imports. The Canadian portion of these but on a limited scale, since it proved imports was about the same as it had been impractical to export large quantities of in pre-war years (22 and 25 percent), but cotton in the types of smallish, fast vessels shipments from Russia and India (due to which were successful blockade runners. ship shortages?) had plummeted (p.215). These vessels were, however, able to import At times, the emphasis on statistics substantial quantities of rifles, clothing, obscures actual events. Thus, the blankets and footwear --and indeed, these shipbuilding effort by the United States imported stores kept the Confederate armies starting in 1917 was truly prodigious (see in the field for the final year of the war (p. tables p. 225) but by the Armistice in 1918 148). Overall, the authors conclude, the it had actually delivered only 470 of the Union blockade was a significant factor in 1,429 ships laid down under a program of the defeat of the South. As for the standard designs which foreshadowed the interrupted cotton trade, British importers successes achieved in the Second World found new suppliers in other temperate War by North American yards. The shipping areas, and while the South eventually crisis, however, had been overcome through resumed a leading role, it was never again the convoy system and centralized control as dominant as it had been before 1861 (p. of available tonnage, including the efforts of 156). the American Shipping Board. The new The coverage of the First World tonnage arrived too late to affect the war. War is dominated by an analysis of the The German blockade of Britain in German submarine campaign. There is the Second World War occupies one- fifth of interesting coverage of a German study the book. Unchacteristically, the authors forecasting that a naval blockade would focus on the U-boat campaign and Allied cripple Britain by interrupting imports of anti-submarine warfare rather than its wheat. In fact, the study was based on economic effects or resource costs. flawed data and the British effectively Nothing is said about increased agricultural imposed control on domestic food supplies production in Britain, which once again and consumption – an early modern mitigated the effects of the attempted example of government intervention in the German blockade. The analysis draws national economy. A new ministry, Food heavily on a narrow range of sources, such Control, was created which fixed consumer as the idiosyncratic views of Clay Blair prices and purchased foodstuffs in bulk (1996) and the official histories by Roskill abroad. A new branch in the existing Board (published between 1954 and 1961) and of Agriculture stimulated increased Morison (1947-1956 and 1963). production by British farmers. By 1918, the Unfortunately, several technical aspects of domestic production of wheat had shot up anti-submarine warfare have been by 60 percent and that of oats rose by 50 misunderstood. For example, there is a percent over the 1914 figures (p.184). The general discussion of the significance of vital role of the United States in Britain’s centimetric radar in detecting U-boats on economic survival is underlined by the fact the surface, but later it is implied that only that by 1918 American imports had risen aircraft-fitted radar forced German from 22 percent in 1914 to 42 percent. The submarines to dive where they became authors underline that these war-year vulnerable to detection by ship-fitted sonars imports were financed by the United States. (p. 263). In fact, the widespread fitting of By war’s end, the United States was centimetric radar in escort warships in 1942 supplying 52 percent of all wheat and flour enabled them to detect U-boats approaching Book Reviews 71 on the surface at night. The authors do not has had few specific studies. Its broad deal with Allied resource allocation issues scope includes useful discussions of the such as the assignment of available shipping legal aspects of blockades and embargoes in late 1942 to meet soaring demands that and of how these principles have been threatened vital British imports. applied─or more often ignored. The book The statistical focus is firmly on U- is, therefore, stimulating and its extensive boat and merchant ship construction, and statistical tables are “value added.” These ship sinkings which leads to a discussion of are generally inserted for reference without how many hypothetical additional German specific discussion, however, and the lack submarines would have been required to of graphs is a real drawback in grasping match the sinking rates achieved in early their significance. Recommended as a 1942 (p. 312). The result is a figure of 1,469 reference for those interested in pursuing new boats in 1943, compared with actual further study of this neglected area. construction of 279. While this computation underlines the fact that U-boat Jan Drent production was theoretically insufficient to Victoria, British Columbia maintain a previously-reached sinking rate, it is of limited value. By 1943, Allied anti- W.A.B. Douglas, Roger Sarty, and Michael submarine warfare proficiency and Whitby, et. al. A Blue Water Navy; the resources actually deployed were both Official Operational History of the Royal steadily improving. At the same time, the Canadian Navy in the Second World War, Germans improved their existing U-boats 1943-1945, Volume II, Part II. St. and switched production to faster boats with Catharines, ON: Vanwell Publishing, much greater underwater endurance (of [email protected], 2007. xvii + 650 pp., which only a handful eventually reached maps, illustrations, photographs, glossary, front-line status). In other words, the appendices, bibliography, index. CDN outcome of the campaign would hinge on $60.00, cloth; ISBN 1-55125-069-1. several factors and not just the numbers of operational U-boats versus available Allied This volume completes the official tonnage. operational history of the Royal Canadian Davis and Engerman write that the Navy in the Second World War. As is U.S. submarine and aerial mine blockade of typical of many histories prepared in Japan was eventually decisive. Their governmental offices, A Blue Water Navy description of how the campaign was was a team effort. The volume’s conducted is buttressed by detailed statistics bibliography identifies more than thirty showing the impact of the blockade on the scholars, in addition to the principal authors, Japanese economy. The authors again who prepared studies that were the devote several pages to U.S. submarine intellectual basis for much of the volume. operations and miss the point that the Alec Douglas, a longstanding leader of superb American radar was a major factor ’s official military history program, behind the tactical effectiveness of their together with Roger Sarty and Michael ships. It is arresting to learn that in 1942 Whitby, the book’s other senior authors, almost 30 percent of U.S. submarine deserve great credit for organizing and captains were found wanting and relieved of managing a complex and highly successful their duties (p. 372). project. Naval Blockades in Peace and War Part 1 of the Operational History, addresses an area of naval warfare which published in 2003, ends with a discussion of 72 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord the Atlantic Convoy Conference held in Canadian role in combined operations in Washington, D.C., in March 1943. At that European waters. Despite the tragic losses time, British and American leaders agreed suffered in 1942 by Canadians in the to establish a Canadian-controlled, anti- disastrous raid on Dieppe, RCN officials submarine zone known as the Canadian were anxious to show that their service was Northwest Atlantic Command, an action more than an anti-submarine force. They that confirmed the Dominion’s maturity as willingly participated in the amphibious an independent military power. But operations in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and important as convoy protection and other France. In addition to operating landing anti-submarine measures were for the Royal craft and ships, Canadian naval forces Canadian Navy, this history shows that the provided naval gunfire support, defended Royal Navy continually urged Ottawa to the beach head against enemy naval attack, deploy additional ships and men to and facilitated the post-landing logistical European waters. Often these were the build-ups. In taking on these tasks the most effective Canadian forces available. authors conclude that the RCN became a That situation, combined with perennial blue water navy as opposed to the earlier problems in assuring effective training, coastal-oriented force concentrating on the weakened to some extent the RCN’s war against U-boats in the North Atlantic performance in the Western Atlantic. In shipping lanes. fact, the authors note that Canadian forces The authors argue that senior RCN operating in that area sank no U-boats officers were preoccupied during the during the last eighteen months of the war Second World War with laying the with Germany. But they also observe that foundation for a capable post-war fleet. the goal of anti-submarine campaigns is not Indicative of their dreams was the the destruction of U-boats. Rather it is to commissioning of the small carrier HMS assure the safe arrival of merchant ships, a Nabob in 1944. Although Nabob was a feat largely achieved by the RCN. British Royal Naval ship, the majority of Historians often write off the her crew members were Canadian. Another German submarine campaign as posing milestone in the development of the RCN little danger after the ruinous losses suffered was the acquisition of the service’s first two by the enemy in May 1943. But Alec cruisers, HMCS Uganda and HMCS Douglas and his colleagues remind us that Ontario. Both vessels served with the the U-boat threat did not entirely disappear. British Pacific Fleet. As the War with Japan This was notably the case in the bloody ended, naval officials in Ottawa had month of September 1943, when there was a ambitious plans for a Pacific Fleet concentrated submarine assault on the trans- (scheduled to be available in 1946) Atlantic convoys ON-202 and ONS-18. composed of three light cruisers, two light Using the newly introduced acoustic carriers embarking Canadian air groups, and torpedo, along with radar detectors and nineteen destroyers. other measures, German submarines sank or A Blue Water Navy is written at a severely damaged five convoy escorts and tactical level that usually does not detail the six merchant vessels sailing in those personal experiences of RCN personnel. formations. But the Germans also took But when this type of information is heavy casualties, losing three of their U- provided, it is very useful. A notable boats and taking severe damage to two example is a full account of the 1943 others. mutiny on board HMCS Iroquois. Senior Much of this volume deals with the RCN officers investigating this matter, as Book Reviews 73 well as the authors of this history, approve Due to their efforts we finally have a of the relief of Iroquois’ harsh commanding comprehensive operational account of one officer and display some sympathy for the of the major navies of the Second World crew, although they do not entirely excuse War. This is a volume that, together with its lack of discipline. The authors state that Part I, deserves to be in major libraries as there are a number of other instances of well as on the personal bookshelves of mass protests by Canadians from the lower naval professionals, students of the military, deck, explaining that sometimes this was and modern historians in Canada and the only means they had to air legitimate abroad. grievances. Another intriguing insight in the Dean C. Allard handling of personnel came near the end of Arlington, Virginia the war when an election was held on board the cruiser Uganda in which 80% of the crew voted against continuing to participate Norbert Elias. The Genesis of the Naval in the Pacific war. As a result, in July 1945, Profession. Dublin, UK: University College Uganda detached from the British Pacific Dublin Press, www.ucdp.ie, 2007. xii + 172 Fleet and returned to the West Coast. This pp., appendix, note, index. US$ 84.95, event is described by the authors as a cloth. ISBN 978-1-904558-80-4. disaster. Observers from Britain and the Distributed in North America by Dufour United States, where the compulsory Editions, www.dufoureditions.com . mobilization of military manpower was a central feature of their war efforts, must Here is a sociological explanation for the have been amazed by this exercise of command structure of the Royal Navy and democratic self- determination while the its competitors during the “Age of Fighting fighting raged. But the authors point out Sail.” The author, Norbert Elias, a German that Uganda’s resignation from the Japanese by birth and one of the most prominent conflict reflected Canada’s deep political sociologists of his time, died in 1990. The divisions regarding the draft. Due to the author of several significant books, he also sizeable opposition to compulsory military wrote articles that comprise about a quarter service, Canada’s political leaders pledged of the material that appears in The Genesis early in the war not to use that measure. of the Naval Profession. Knowing that Instead, the Dominion depended entirely on Elias had intended to produce a book-size volunteers. treatment of the subject, the editors merged As one will gather from the his published articles with drafts found discussion of mutinies and Uganda, A Blue among his papers to create the book, as part Water Navy does not shrink from addressing of the ongoing program at the University sensitive subjects. This volume is also College Dublin to publish Elias’s collected impressive due to the breadth of its works in English. research, including extensive investigation According to Elias and his editors, of Canadian, British, American, and tension lay at the roots of the system that German records, and full use of the eventually gave commissioned officers their enormous body of published materials that indisputable status aboard English men of has become available over more than six war. When England and its neighbours decades. developed navies in the 1500s, the ships Alec Douglas and his colleagues were sailed and commanded by “tarpaulin” perform a great service for modern history. masters, men who had worn cloaks of oiled 74 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord canvas all their lives as they learned the develop the same system contributed to the craft of sailing from the bottom up. As the inferiority of their fleets. strategic importance of fleets grew, As N. A. M. Rodger points out in command afloat became an attractive his The Command of the Ocean (pp. 112-18 alternative for military officers who sought et passim), the evolution of the officer class active service and the potential honours it in the Royal Navy during the 1600s and offered. These were the “gentlemen” from afterwards was complicated and was the upper crust who received their influenced as much by the prevailing appointments to command at sea largely government, politics and patronage as by through patronage, who had little or no anything else. These matters are covered knowledge of ships and would not lower briefly in Genesis which is written in a dry, themselves to the manual labour that was an academic style, making it hard to follow in essential aspect of the seafaring life. Not places. It lacks the salt in the words of surprisingly, conflict occurred over the issue someone who knows the navy, such as you of who held supreme authority in such will find in Christopher McKee’s A armed vessels, the tarpaulin commanders or Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession. I the gentleman commanders. The was hoping for some brilliant new controversy that developed between genealogical and social analysis of the gentleman soldier Thomas Doughty and officers of the sailing navy and their tarpaulin captain Francis Drake during the forebears, but got sociological theory latter’s round-the-world voyage, and which instead. led to Doughty’s conviction of At the time of writing, Genesis is insubordination and execution in 1577, is not on the Indigo-Chapters online list, but it used here as a key example of the tension can be found at similar American websites that existed afloat. where its lowest price is $62.01 After a lengthy period, the (Amazon.com) which is outrageous, resolution of the command dilemma was to especially given the brevity of this thin introduce into the navy boys from the volume. Perhaps if opportunity had allowed middle and upper class with good Norbert Elias to devote more time, in what connections to serving officers and to have was a long and productive life, he would them learn the skills of seamanship. These have compiled a deeper explanation of his were the volunteers and the midshipmen views that was more useful to the ongoing who made up the young gentlemen in the studies of the sailing navy. cockpit and were separate from the able seamen who stood a chance to rise to the Robert Malcomson rank of master after years of service. By St. Catherines, Ontario 1800, experienced “officers and gentlemen” commanded Britain’s ships and, as one French officer remarked, “An English captain is nearly always the best seaman on board ship.” (p. 97) The role of the master (a later equivalent of the tarpaulin) in the Royal Navy is given credit, despite the previous statement, and his exclusion from the commissioned class is explained. A late chapter is devoted to showing how the failure of Holland, France and Spain to Book Reviews 75

Howard J. Fuller. Clad in Iron: the primary documents is often daunting and American Civil War and the Challenge of the fascinating “woods” of the technical and British Naval Power. Westport, CT: Praeger geostrategic struggle between Britain and Publishers, www.praeger.com, 2008, ix + the Union often vanish in the thicket of 409 pp., illustrations, maps, notes, “trees” about particular developments and bibliography, index. US $ 34.95, cloth; personalities in the before Union. The last ISBN 978-0-313-34590-6. two chapters, the most interesting from the point of view of geostrategy, international This is a detailed, well-referenced, fas- relations, and technology transfer, all cinating account of the development before unstated but implicit themes in Fuller’s and during the American Civil War of two work, feel “tacked on,” yet they make the new forms of warship and a complex naval book. arms race involving three powers. The Fuller points to four naval issues or armoured, broadside-gunned frigate was developments during the Civil War that are developed in France in 1859, then spread to central to his analysis. The first two were Britain, the Union, and the Confederacy: the the Trent Affair of late 1861 and the Battle low-freeboard, turreted monitor was of Hampton Roads. Fear of possible British developed in the Union. The British intervention on the side of the Confederacy experimented with turreted ships, but did using such powerful armoured frigates as not build monitors as such. All these forms Warrior caused the Union to back down were confusingly referred to by over the Trent Affair. After the success of contemporaries as “ironclads”; all were Monitor against the Confederate armoured steam driven, all were screw propelled. frigate, Virginia, at Hampton Roads in the French, Union, and Confederate ironclads spring of 1862, however, Union attitudes to used iron armour over wooden frames; only Britain hardened. Had the Trent Affair British yards built true, wrought-iron occurred after Hampton Roads, the outcome armoured ships. The problem of developing might have been very different, as Fuller such new technologies is central to the convincingly argues. The later part of the book. Fuller notes that what began as a war saw two further critical issues. The “Cold War” between France and Britain first revolved around the serious technical evolved into a near-war between Britain and problems in developing the Passaic class America. Union naval posturing was as monitors, substantially up-gunned from much against Britain as against the Monitor, the resultant slowness completing Confederacy. Radical new technologies the much more powerful Miantonomoh- called forth massive revisions in naval class monitors, and the failure to complete geostrategy. The British saw a need for the blue-water monitor/battleship Dictator. armoured frigates to protect their shipping A sub-theme is the Union failure to finish lanes against commerce raiders, moving to the one armoured frigate that could have the improved box-battery armoured ship in challenged Warrior, Dunderberg. This part the mid-1860s. America perfected the of Fuller’s account shows less confidence monitor to defend its coasts, to act as a than his handling of the Trent Affair and substitute for coastal fortifications, and to Monitor’s development. A major theme of attack Confederate forts. his book is that the Union was, after the Although fascinating, the book Trent Affair, increasingly willing to reveals its origins as a highly focussed challenge Britain’s naval power, and dissertation on a small part of America’s therefore the reasons for the failure to Civil War. The detailed evaluation of produce the warships that would have been 76 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord most effective in that challenge should be Barry Gough. Fortune’s a River: The more fully developed. The second issue, Collision of Empires in Northwest America. ably covered in the penultimate chapter, was Madeira Park, B.C. Canada: Harbour the failure of Union monitors to force Publishing, www.harbourpublishing.com, Charleston in April 1863 in the face of 2007. 413 pp., illustrations, maps, Confederate forts, and thus the failure of appendices, index, bibliography. CDN that part of Union geostrategy founded on $34.95, cloth; ISBN 978-1-55017-428-1. the belief that monitors, unaided, could blast their way into defended ports. As long as seafarers have sought a living In his final chapter Fuller gives an from the sea, seafaring nations have used account of the cruise of Miantonomoh to their navies as instruments of empire. Europe in 1866 without suggesting any Matters of politics, policy, and profit have clear reasons for that cruise. He briefly often been a maritime burden. When the mentions Monadnock, another surveyor’s lead line is hauled aboard, when Miantonomoh-class monitor, dispatched to the smoke from a schooner’s broadside San Francisco for coastal defense. Given clears, when a birch bark canoe heavily that Union geostrategy emphasized the laden with beaver and otter pelts beaches at importance of monitors as substitutes for a trading post, river bottoms, profit, and forts, the political reasoning behind political policy can come together. Such is Monadnock’s trip would be of interest. The the burden of Professor Barry Gough’s reason for Miantonomoh’s trip to Europe is meticulously researched and brilliantly much clearer, though Fuller fails to develop written Fortune’s a River: The Collision of it. CSS Alabama and other Confederate Empires in Northwest America. commerce raiders had done vast damage to Gough asks how British Columbia Union merchant ships. Charles Sumner, became British, and how Oregon, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Washington, and Alaska became American. Committee, argued that Britain should pay He finds the answer primarily in trade compensation of over two billion dollars for carried out by the British, Canadians, prolonging the war some two years. The Russians, Americans, and Spanish from the London Times made very clear, once they 1790s to 1818. From a perspective long had seen and evaluated Miantonomoh neglected by historians, Gough gives an against vessels such as Warrior, that extensive and perceptive treatment of the American naval power was vastly superior. Pacific Northwest First Nations on the eve Before Miantonomoh’s voyage, Britain of colonization. Against this backdrop simply refused to consider the Alabama appear Canadians Alexander Mackenzie, claims: after it they agreed to re-examine Simon Fraser, and David Thomson, who the operations of the British neutrality laws pursued profit under the Union Jack and the that had allowed Alabama and other corporate flags of the Hudson’s Bay and Confederate raiders to depart British yards. North West Companies. The bottom line Eventually they paid over fifteen million drove Americans Meriwether Lewis, dollars for the ships lost. William Clark, and John Jacob Astor with his Pacific Fur Company to hoist the Stars Peter J. Hugill and Stripes for profit. Whatever their College Station, Texas colours, these buckskin entrepreneurs’ aims were beaver, otter, trading posts, and seaports. Let flags and scraps of paper and treaty follow. Book Reviews 77

Trade first, treaty later. The U.S., the theme was “go west.” Columbia River, that ‘river of fortune,’ was From the Aleutians to Alta key. As ‘trade went before flag’, and as the California, Gough argues, “the maritime ‘commercial world preceded actions of the preceded the continental in imperial state’, the Columbia’s fort at Tongue Point, influence and heightened the rivalry or a ‘Gibraltar of the West’, was indeed worth made it more complex.” (p.10) As the the trouble, for Old Oregon was a trading Rockies barred a viable commercial realm the size of Western Europe, ruled overland link between East and West, it was over by what Washington Irving called the ships doubling Cape Horn that carried the ‘lords of fur and forest.’ Long the land of cargoes. Political dominion followed the the aboriginals, it was hotly contested merchantmen. through sloop diplomacy by the Canadians, Gough paints a broad canvas, then Americans and Old Europe’s great powers. takes a small brush to portray the telling Since the late 1500s the Spanish had details of local habitations and names. maintained a Pacific trade, Manila to There is the Connecticut Yankee sailor and Acapulco, on Mexico’s west coast, near 15º author John Ledyard, whose pithy account N Lat. Her galleons, laden with silks and of his adventures antedates the explorations spices, trans-shipped their cargoes overland, of Lewis and Clark. There are the Scottish thence by ship to Spain. So from the 1760s fur trader Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s onward, near 50º N Lat., the dream was to discoveries; the Danish captain Vitus establish a similar port, perhaps on the Bering, lost in history; Russian navigator Columbia River, where East Indiamen could Alexi Chirikov and Russian-American disembogue their Oriental cargoes and meet Company manager Alexander Baranov; goods brought overland from Montreal and Spaniards Bruno de Hezeta, who discovered other East Coast ports. The bar at the the mouth of the Columbia, and Esteban Columbia’s mouth was to prove an obstacle, Martínez, who commanded the post at and Seattle and Vancouver were eventually Nootka Sound. to take on the trans-Pacific trade. Professor Gough begins with the Canadian Alexander Mackenzie American War of Independence and early saw the profit in such enterprise. He expansion westward after the Treaty of was, Gough writes, ‘a businessman of Paris in 1783. Old Europe and New immense vision, thought in expansive America both sought this last frontier. War global terms about how he could outflank erupted in1812, over not just the issue of the East India, South Sea and Hudson’s Bay impressment of seamen, but of boundaries companies.’ (p.83) He observes that as well. To the relief of the British, the American president Thomas Jefferson’s Treaty of Ghent, signed Christmas Eve, continental vision, made manifest in canoes 1814, returned conquests and boundaries to and tow barges of the Lewis and Clark the status quo ante bellum, thus halting Expedition that followed the Louisiana American expansion northward. But the Purchase (1803), was far ahead of his Oregon boundary was left an open matter to contemporaries’ views. Similarly, that New be settled at some later date. Meanwhile, Yorker with long-established Canadian Americans saw their “manifest destiny” as connections, John Jacob Astor, sought to reaching north by northwest to 54º 40’ (to hitch his fur fortune to the Stars and Stripes the southern boundary of Russian Alaska flying over his Fort Astoria on the banks of and Spain’s northern claim). The British the Columbia. For both Canada and the insisted on sovereignty south to the 78 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

Columbia River, near 46º N Lat. When, in in reminding us that a few canoes and the summer of 1859, just a year after Britain barges, colliers and sloops can be the true declared Canada a Crown Colony, an vessels that carry history forward. American shot a Hudson’s Bay Company pig rooting in his garden in the San Juan J. S. Dean Islands, only adroit diplomacy prevented Racine, Wisconsin war. Diplomacy again averted war in 1872, when after a year of arbitration in Geneva, Kaiser Wilhelm I’s commission settled on L. Francis Herreshoff. The Golden Age of the location of the western end of the 8,891 Yachting. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing, km. Canadian-U.S. border. The Inter- www.nimbus.ca, 2007. 192 pp., CDN national Boundary Commission, established $35.00, paper; ISBN 978-157409-251-6. in 1794, was at last made permanent in1925, nearly yesterday. If the true measure of the success of a book It is important to see Gough’s is the number of times it has been reprinted achievement not as some antiquarian or reissued since its original publication historical enquiry into a few outposts where date, then Francis Herreshoff’s study of the the buckskin and moccasin traded pelts for age of America’s great yachts is in a class rifles and whisky, and later caught and by itself. The author was both a terrific canned chinook salmon, but as an raconteur and a designer, a sailor of great endeavour to find the commercial and standing, who also had a passion for all imperial roots that still feed the dynamics of aspects of his special field that he was able Canadian and U.S. enterprise, of NAFTA, to communicate on many levels to his of visas, passports, quotas, and jobs. public. This new edition from Sheridan Of course any book raises quibbles. House presents Herreshoff’s original text There are a few questions raised, such as the along with a number of spectacular fate of , and there is the contemporary photographs of the yachts contrast between the high energy in the singled out for special notice by the author. chapters devoted to the pounding surf along Francis Herreshoff was one of the the Pacific coast, the let-down as we trudge most important figures in yacht design in up the chapters along the muddy banks of America. His designs were among the the Missouri River, before returning to that finest to ever hit the water and a few of energy when we again reach the crisp salt them set records that were unequalled air of the Pacific. during his lifetime. One of the best Fortune’s a River should be read by examples of Herreshoff’s craft was corporate heads, as well as academic ones, Ticonderoga, a racer of incredible durability on both sides of the border. Gough’s book and one of the fastest yachts ever built. He has been long in the making, and owes had a passion and appreciation for the much to his many previous books and their history of the sport of yacht racing and like research, and no small part to his many authors who have made baseball their life’s years of sailing these waters. The passion, Herreshoff wrote about yachts. His scholarship is sound, the style engaging, the writing was peppered with sea lingo and yet illustrations copious and well-reproduced. was incredibly accessible to the general The book makes fascinating reading, and reader, to whom Herreshoff often directed has practical value in clarifying Canadian- some gentle sarcasm. U.S. relations, both historic and actual, and Herreshoff begins his examination by taking the reader back about six Book Reviews 79 thousand years to the dawn of seafaring majesty and grace for the magnificent before skipping ahead rather rapidly to the vessels of a bygone era that Herreshoff turn of the last century. He systematically clearly treasures. covers most of the major yachting The new edition is printed competitions during the following chapters handsomely with excellent reproduction of and provides a well-balanced look at the original photography and is presented in everything from the Lipton Trophy to the a soft cover coffee table format. A special running of the America’s Cup. mention should be made of the foreword by Herreshoff’s passion extended Peter Spectre, which provides a warm throughout the whole range of yacht design, introduction to Herreshoff, his life and his with a special passion for the spectacular passion. The tone compliments Herreshoff’s steam yachts built at the turn of the last own style in many ways and gets the new century. The Vanderbilts and Astors owned edition off to a fine start. It would be large, luxurious yachts that in many cases interesting to imagine what Herreshoff’s hearkened back to the age of iron and steel impressions of the current state of yacht hulled clipper ships in their design. They design and racing would be, especially what were beautiful status symbols and as much a he might think of the America’s Cup being part of the era as the great ocean liners with held by a Swiss consortium but still, we which they shared space in the Hudson or have this new edition to remind us of on the eastern seaboard. The chapters another age, Herreshoff’s golden age of devoted to these vessels illustrate the depth yachting and therefore all credit to the folks of his passion and his chapter on their at Sheridan House for this valuable ultimate decline is a wonderful tribute to the reprinting of a true classic. end of an era. One usually is not expecting to find pithy social commentary in a book Richard MacMichael about yachts but Herreshoff cleverly uses Halifax, this to explain the rise and fall of the millionaires and their yachts and looks at all of the factors contributing to changes in Adm. (Ret.) James L. Holloway, III. fashion and design in yachting circles. Aircraft Carriers at War. A Personal When it comes to covering Retrospective of Korea, Vietnam, and the individual races of note, Herreshoff is able Soviet Confrontation. Annapolis: Naval to impart a real sense of drama into his Institute Press, www.navalinstitute.org, word painting that makes the reader a part 2007. xiii + 479 pp., illustrations, index. US of the actual event. The well chosen $ 34.95, cloth; ISBN 1-59114-391-8. photographs convey a sense of tension as Distributed in Canada by Vanwell two vessels fight for supremacy and Publishing Ltd. position. His descriptions of some of the great yachts of the era are superb, with Aircraft Carriers at War follows the classics such as Britannia, Columbia, development of a platform, and a naval Shamrock and the three legendary Valkyrie officer, through four decades of naval all being singled out for special praise. battles, peacetime operations, and shifting Herreshoff is deftly able to convey a great views of naval warfare. Holloway’s ex- deal about each yacht in a brief period of perience, which ranges from his early days time and, as stated before, the photographs as an ensign in the Second World War to his he has chosen to illustrate each vessel add to leadership as Chief of Naval Operations the overall effect, creating a sense of 80 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord between 1974 and 1978, contributes a rare Holloway is at his strongest when breadth of knowledge to this memoir. he writes from his contemporary voice, Holloway graduated from the U.S. particularly through fierce firefights, such as Naval Academy in the Class of 1943, when he follows the track of his grease proceeding quickly to become gunnery pencil across a chart through anti-aircraft officer on the USS Bennion. From his fire and tracers into the valleys of Korea. position in the gun director, Holloway saw (pp.59-60) Personal accounts remain the one of the last battles of naval warfare in most compelling portion of Aircraft which aircraft did not play a part. He joined Carriers at War, even when Holloway rises the ranks of the naval aviators in 1946 with to a position of leadership. From his his graduation from flight training. As a position as commander of the USS naval aviator, Holloway flew bombers and Enterprise, Holloway describes his calls for then jet aircraft from carriers in the Korean tactical air assets to deploy flares over War. He commanded an attack squadron Haiphong Harbor so that surface ships that participated in the Lebanon crisis of Newport News and Providence can find 1958, when his squadron was ordered to put their targets. (p.322) Holloway’s tone aircraft on nuclear strike alert. becomes less sure in the portions of the Between 1965 and1967, Holloway book in which he comments on the larger commanded the USS Enterprise, which perspective of the Cold War and national made two combat cruises off Vietnam. He concerns. then led the Nuclear Attack Carrier Program Historians and lay readers alike in the Pentagon before commanding a will also appreciate the frequent Carrier Division and taking command of the appearances of familiar characters, Seventh Fleet from 1972-1972. Holloway including Admirals Rickover and Zumwalt, became VCNO, and then CNO in 1974 with John Warner and Donald Rumsfeld. In each the admonition from President Nixon to, case, Holloway’s personal access and “get some discipline back in the Navy.” (p. connections with these individuals develops 338) following the divisiveness of the significant interest for the reader. When Vietnam War. called at a moment’s notice to Secretary of Holloway’s work is structured Defense Rumsfeld’s office, then-CNO along roughly chronological lines, and deals Holloway contacts the SecDef’s aide to with each of the periods in Holloway’s determine what international catastrophe career not only from a personal perspective, was taking place. Upon his arrival, but also by taking into account the Cold however, Holloway finds Rumsfeld and two War, which shaped much of his forty-year former Academy wrestling friends in a haze career. At over 400 pages, Aircraft Carriers of cigar smoke looking to chat about the old at War makes for a rather long memoir. Its days. (pp.363-364) twenty-one chapters and nearly innumerable Scenes such as those described sub-chapters reflect the conflict of above make Aircraft Carriers at War a conveying both a personal story and valuable contribution to the field of senior historical commentary within the same naval officer memoirs, despite the challenge work, and often significantly distract the of a confusing chapter structure and less reader. More careful editing could have compelling overarching commentary. been helpful in solving this problem, and Holloway also includes one angle that, might have assisted in emphasizing the although not an explicit objective of stronger portions of the book while cutting Aircraft Carriers at War, is a relevant some of its length. outcome of the work. Among his personal Book Reviews 81 stories, Holloway reviews the history of the coastal waters of northeastern North technological development of the aircraft America within a decade of John Cabot’s carrier, which is well and uniquely demonstration that a trans-Atlantic trip portrayed in terms of Holloway’s within a reasonable amount of time was operational experience. Developments such both possible and worthwhile. Risky, yes, as jet aircraft, the angled carrier deck, but not an insurmountable barrier. implementation of new safety devices and The result in recent years has been conventions take on a new importance when a steady output of works that highlight the Holloway addresses them in terms of how importance of an “Atlantic” perspective in they shaped carrier operational understanding the desire, persistence, and effectiveness. Future readers may find that viability of overseas settlement. Thus, in these observations are an unexpected and Fish Into Wine, his study of settlement in valuable product of this work. seventeenth-century Newfoundland (Chapel Hill, 2004; reviewed in TNM/LMN in Christine El-Zoghbi January 2005), Peter Pope showed that the Washington, DC fishery and settlement at Newfoundland thrived in considerable measure because Newfoundland was a commercial node in a Stephen P. Hornsby, British Atlantic, complex network of trade that crisscrossed American Frontier: Spaces of Power in the Atlantic and included New England, Early Modern British America. Lebanon, Great Britain, southern Europe, and other NH: University Press of New parts of the Atlantic world. Similarly, In England ,www.dartmouth.edu/~upne/, 2005. Search of Empire (Cambridge, 2004; xv + 307 pp., maps, illustrations, reviewed in TNM/LMN in October 2005), photographs, figures, notes, index. US $60, Jim Pritchard’s interpretation of France’s cloth; ISBN 1-58465-426-0; US $29.95, American and Caribbean empire, succeeded paper; ISBN 1-58465-427-9. so masterfully in presenting the strengths and weaknesses of that empire within an There was a time when the Atlantic Ocean Atlantic context. was perceived by historians as a barrier to Now we have Stephen Hornsby be overcome; the Atlantic was a tackling the daunting task of presenting a “challenge,” something to be “conquered.” coherent – and very readable – analysis of Those who specialized in North American Great Britain’s vast North American and colonial history emphasized how quickly Caribbean empire over the course of the infant societies developed distinctive roughly 250 years in fewer than 300 pages. new identities. I myself took a graduate It is a work that owes a great debt to the course back in the 1970s dedicated to the many, many scholars whose particular study of “North American Colonial studies have now been woven into an Societies.” That the course might more impressive synthesis. It is also a work appropriately have been offered as a study written by an historical geographer, who of “North Atlantic Societies” had not yet brings his discipline’s perspective to bear on taken firm root. Yet in hindsight, it should the subject. It is an effective – and therefore have been obvious that the Atlantic was less successful – work. of a barrier than it seemed. Consider how Hornsby is best known for his quickly thousands, even tens of thousands, contributions to the historical geography of of Europeans began routinely crossing the nineteenth-century Cape Breton Island and, ocean to exploit the rich fishing grounds in more recently, a collection of essays that he 82 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord co-edited with John Reid on the connections familiar” (p.71), one in which the Royal and interplay of the maritime provinces and Navy remained an important instrument to the adjacent New England states. With preserve and protect commercial British Atlantic, American Frontier, investment, with the result that they Hornsby tackles a decidedly larger theme, remained subordinate to the political the development of Great Britain’s New influence of Great Britain. Their societies World empire in the seventeenth and were “drastically simplified,” where those eighteenth centuries. Drawing on the ideas in control maintained a temporary presence of Frederick Jackson Turner and Harold until they could return, prosperous and Innis, he argues that early modern British triumphant, to their British homeland. In America should be divided into two kinds contrast, the “continental staple regions” of of spaces – an oceanically- oriented Chapter 3 saw the establishment of more maritime empire that included the fur trade permanent societies in response to centred on Hudson Bay, the Newfoundland availability of land and agricultural fisheries and the Caribbean sugar islands, opportunities – as early settlers and planters and a territorially oriented empire of came to dominate local agriculture, the settlement along the American seaboard. merchants shifted their attention to shipping Between these two spaces, a third space and trade. Because it did not generate soon developed, one dominated by port wealth on the same scale as, say, the trade in towns and staple products which linked the sugar, the export of “continental continental interior with the world of commodities” was left to the management overseas trade. of local merchants, thereby opening the Hornsby organizes his analysis into door to the gradual emergence of local six chapters, beginning with a discussion of élites. The shift of coastal regions away the way in which the English Atlantic was from subordination to Great Britain was first created between 1480 and 1630, intensified by the “agricultural frontiers” of followed by separate chapters each on the the fourth chapter, which reinforced the “Atlantic staple regions” (Newfoundland, commercial role and growth of coastal the West Indies and Hudson Bay), the communities. As a result, the British “continental staple regions” (coastal New Atlantic became “a collection of England, tidewater Chesapeake and South commercial nodes” linked by shipping lanes Carolina), the “agricultural frontiers” (the (p.224). The growing confidence of British New England interior, the mid-Atlantic American society in its ability to manage its farming regions, and the southern commercial affairs gave it confidence as backcountry), and the towns of British well in its political competency and set the America, before closing with a chapter that stage for the breakdown of the British explains the fracturing of British America American empire through revolution. after 1750 in terms of the social, economic One can quibble with some of the and cultural patterns of the different spaces. finer details – no synthesis built on so Hornsby maintains that the sweeping a scale can escape the “Atlantic staple regions” remained the consequences of compressing a great many commercial preserves of merchants resident particulars (as, for instance, in Hornsby’s in or dominated by metropolitan markets, view of the tightening Imperial embrace credit systems, and investment patterns. after 1763; see pp.229-232). Nevertheless, These regions were characteristically part of the work succeeds in showing not just the “a maritime commercial empire [that was] way in which the British Atlantic empire capital intensive, hierarchical, and developed, but also in showing that the Book Reviews 83 reasons why some parts of that empire commemorate and officially recognize broke away in 1776 while others remained Britain’s historical relationship with the sea. tied to the mother country cannot be The rise of Britain to world power status explained except through an understanding parallels the establishment and maintenance of the economic, social, political and of naval power, a historical point well- cultural evolution of the previous 250 years. emphasized in Lavery’s chronicle. Britain’s history emerges from the pages of The Olaf U. Janzen Island Nation with clarity but also with Corner Brook, Newfoundland brevity that will leave the truly interested reader seeking more information. Colour photography of historic sites and vessels, Brian Lavery. The Island Nation. A History reprints of paintings from the collection of of Britain and the Sea. London: Conway the National Maritime Museum, as well as Maritime Press, www.chrysalisbooks.co.uk, artist-rendered illustrations all enhance the 2005. 176 pp., illustrations, maps, glossary, aesthetic appeal of this book. Also, bibliography, index. UK £20.00, cloth; interspersed throughout the narrative are ISBN 1-84486-016-7. (Distributed in highlights of some of Britain’s most Canada by Vanwell Publishing) memorable and historic maritime images – including HMS Victory, Endeavour, Cutty Naval historian Brian Lavery has Sark, HMS Belfast, Titanic, and many more. undertaken the massive task of chronicling The easy-to-read narrative is compelling, Britain’s relationship with the sea and the taking the reader on a journey that visits not role it played in shaping that nation’s only the ocean but inland harbours and destiny. As the title implies, the student of rivers as well. The author recounts various Britain cannot separate its history from its tales involving a diversity of vessels, geography. Given the broad scope, the including merchant ships of the great length of this book permits only a topical commercial age, slave traders, and exploration for the general reader. Lavery battleships of both world wars. accomplishes this purpose with a balanced, Lavery also introduces the reader to if brief, treatment of the high points of the colourful personalities of Britain’s British naval history. Simultaneously, the seafaring past with the common familiarity author seeks to address a variety of related of one who knows them well. Indeed, one topics touching upon the British fascination would expect an undertaking such as this with water-going vessels. The author has one to address the iconic figures of British arranged the book’s sixteen chapters both history, and in this, the author does not topically and chronologically, therefore disappoint. Admiral Nelson, Captain Cook, succeeding in providing organization to the Sir Francis Drake and others featured in awesome task of telling a story that literally these pages come to life with exacting spans millennia. Lavery begins this text by summaries of their individual contributions reaching back to the formation of the island to the richness of the overall story. For his approximately 6,500 years ago and by the accounts, the author draws upon a vast array end of the work, he has reached into the of secondary sources and therefore makes modern age and beyond. no new arguments or contributions to the Commissioned as part of the academic examination of the British navy. National Maritime Museum’s Sea Britain The scope and ambition of the book, initiative of 2005, this work coincided with however, targets those with less knowledge a year-long national festival to celebrate, and perhaps less appreciation of Britain’s 84 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord fascinating maritime heritage. In this way, ships resulted in short-lived vessels. The The Island Nation doubtlessly fills a haste was due to the desire to earn a fast readership void in the market for its topic. dollar by allowing the builders and shippers With the anticipated general audience, the to take advantage of shortages of shipping author provides an extensive glossary for during peaks of the economic cycles. The those unfamiliar with naval terms, as well as Atlantic Canadian Shipping project a gazetteer of historic naval sites throughout explored this myth as one of its research Great Britain. These features increase the areas. Unfortunately, the primary published value of the book to its expected readership. output of that effort, Maritime Capital, did The arrangement of the text in short not have the time to fully explore the topical chapters with a resulting lack of technical details of how the poorly built academic detail makes this work a starting vessels of the 1820-30s improved greatly in point for the consumer with an interest in the following two decades. With The Britain’s naval history, although the reader Egeria, Eric Lawson examines not only the will find much more within its pages. literature of shippers and insurers and what Following the historical chronicle that they believed at the time, but he also traverses through the Middle Ages, the examines one particular Saint John, New expansion of empire, the age of steam and Brunswick wooden ship, the Egeria. This immigration, Lavery also approaches a study is particularly important because the diverse range of secondary topics, including ship is still in existence and can thus, prove lore regarding fishing, weather, leisure or disprove the belief in the poor boating and shipbuilding. The book construction of New Brunswick vessels. A concludes with an examination of the role unique case study of longevity, this is the of the Royal Navy today, in a post-Cold War first of two volumes. Volume 2 will look at environment and facing the unique the detailed history of the Egeria, her challenges of an age of global terrorism. owners, and voyages. The Island Nation makes a fascinating and Lawson spends the first 41 pages readable contribution to the study of examining the issue of why there was a Britain’s historic, turbulent and evolving perception that Canadian-built (i.e. New relationship with the sea. Brunswick) vessels were inferior. His extensive research into ship owners’ letters, Cheryl H. White testimonials to Board of Trade inquiries, Shreveport, Louisiana and Lloyds’ survey records clearly show that by the 1850s, Canadian-built vessels often were as well, if not better built, than Eric Lawson. The Egeria. An example of British-launched vessels. The creation of a mid-nineteenth century New Brunswick ship Lloyds’ surveyor position in Saint John, construction. Bowen Island, B.C.: Ship New Brunswick, helped ensure that vessels Research Services, [email protected], met Lloyds’ specifications. In fact, Lawson 2007. 70 pp., illustrations, tables, recounts how some shipbuilders often bibliography, index. CDN $ 49.95, paper; exceeded the minimum dimensions criteria ISBN 978-0-9780998-0-0. laid out in the regulations in order to make the vessels stronger. This enabled them to Until two decades ago, there was a common achieve the highest insurance rating which perception among historians and wooden reduced the rate a shipper had to charge. ship owners that hasty construction of Lawson does not just rely on ship nineteenth-century New Brunswick-built Book Reviews 85 owner’s documents, but goes into an interference from the folds. Coil binding analysis of vessel losses to show the change also aids in seeing the cross-sections with in longevity of the vessels over the decades. greater clarity. He also examines the remaining Lloyds’ Overall, the author is to be com- surveyor reports for Egeria and twelve mended for this technical study, and I can’t other vessels of the same decade to show wait to see Volume 2. their more than adequate construction materials. He includes the detailed Bradley Shoebottom surveyor’s comments for Egeria to show the Fredericton, New Brunswick day to day observations of the vessel’s construction to indicate the surveyor was “on the job.” Hilda Chaulk Murray. Of Boats On the To prove that the Egeria was Collar. How It Was In One Newfoundland solidly constructed, Lawson spends the last Fishing Community. St. John’s, NL: Flanker half of the book showing surveyor reports, Press, www.flankerpress.com, 2007. xii + cross-section schematics, with photographs 140 pp., illustrations, maps, glossary, of his visits to the Egeria. Egeria is now bibliography, index. CDN $ 21.95, paper; part of a wharf structure in Stanley, the ISBN 13 - 978-1-897317-08-2. Falklands Islands. Lawson has visited the vessel numerous times (1983, 1988, and “…The phrase “on the Collar”‘represents to 1994) so he is able to determine the hull’s me a firm and unchanging way of life. But rate of decay. alas we live in a scientific and tech- The last half of the book is a nological age and old ways disap- treasure trove of information for those pear” (Otto Tucker, Foreword, p.vii). interested in the construction details of a Hilda Chaulk Murray has produced a wooden sailing ship, although there is some work which is a testimony to conjecture since parts of the vessels were Newfoundland’s rich culture and history buried under rubble. Whereas other authors shaped by the commercial cod fishery. sometimes guess at vessel construction, An extensive discussion of the fishing Lawson has concrete evidence Although the first half of the book provides excellent community of Elliston, Bonavista Bay, context, the excitement is in the remainder. (originally known as Bird Island Cove) as As a student of shipbuilding in Albert well as the subsequent neighbouring County, New Brunswick (100 km further up settlements it inspired, forms a highly the Bay of Fundy from Saint John), I found readable commentary on that heritage. Lawson’s technical shipbuilding The volume, as the author notes, grew out descriptions greatly aided my knowledge of of an undergraduate term paper when she vessel construction as Albert County was at Memorial University in the 1970s. builders left little written evidence. It provided the motivation to expand her The only minor grievance is the efforts and led to a much more extensive somewhat under-utilization of available chronicle of a way of life that has white space in the book’s coil-bound, 8 ½ disappeared from our collective x11-landscape format. Some photographs memories. could have been much larger. That being The author shows us that the said, the landscape layout is critical for success of the fishermen she knew was tied showing the cross-sections without to a fellowship and camaraderie within the 86 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord local community, as opposed to later fresh fish and the accompanying need for imperatives resulting in different, more large fish plants to prepare the catches for economic-centered cost-benefit analyses market. The author points out how the that have resulted in larger factory trawlers coastline evolved as settlement took hold, supplanting the work done by individuals in promoted by needs of local fishermen. communities like Elliston. Although many They were involved in a fishery financed by may not recollect this era and its the local merchants such as Slade & importance, Harold Innis’ landmark volume, Company, who provided the capital and The Cod Fisheries: The Story of an support for a system of credit and debt that International Economy (Toronto: University kept many bound for so long and dominated of Toronto Press, 1954), is an effective the story of Newfoundland. This supplementary source for anyone trying to dependence on coastal access, due to the understand the role that fishing industries specific demands of fish harvesting and once played around the globe as an processing equipment of the time, produced economic engine of progress. Documenting a need for fishing rooms, receiving areas the history of the commercial fisheries in where the fish were brought ashore to be North America and abroad, Innis illustrated filleted and salted. how the quest for cod and other species Murray’s research into the became important to the settlement and evolution of the fishery throughout the subsequent economic and early political twentieth century has permitted a more development of North America in the effective understanding of the basic labour- eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. intensive nature of its early operation and Ms. Murray’s goals are certainly equipment. As she notes, hook-and-line more modest than Innis’; nevertheless, her fishing (one of the early fishing methods), is discussion of the fishery of her youth and now coming back into fashion in contrast to the role of her forbears is a remarkable the more modern approaches that have led achievement. The author’s research comes to the depletion of fish stocks. The through clearly in her many interviews over subsequent considerations of seine and trap time on the various aspects of the fishing also give readers insights into the commercial small boat fishery. Her assets intricate knowledge and expertise required for this task are formidable: she is adept at for all small boat crew, and the effort that placing her own childhood memories in a had to be invested in bringing the catch highly readable, non-technical style. At the ashore to be salted. same time, however, this work is more than The discussion on the fishing a stroll down memory lane. The formative rooms, their deployment, erection and usage sections of the book, for instance, lay out an is a unique chapter that many would not effective discussion of the origins of the otherwise have the opportunity to learn Elliston area, effectively arguing the many about. Again, the author’s past experience roles played by the sea as the source of combines with good historical inquiry to economic survival and progress. Present show just how indispensable these circumstances and events around the structures were to the overall economic massive collapse of the cod fishery in the success of those who struggled for 1990s have tended to obscure this prosperity in the out-port Newfoundland of contribution, largely because of the role the past. Coastal facilities were played by technology and public policy in indispensable in a time when dry fish moving the fishery away its former (yaffle) was the center of a commercial dependence on salt fish to one based on network dominated by local merchants. Book Reviews 87

They provided the capital so necessary for childhood memories throughout the later individual fishermen to maintain their chapters as she attempts to sketch the equipment and subsequent means of community she knew as a child. Her survival. Each spring, the local ‘splitting documentation of the genealogy of Elliston tee’ was reassembled and rebuilt to receive and Maberly effectively highlights the the coming season’s catch. Using her own importance of the valuable coastal frontage recollections as a fifteen-year-old working indispensable to the creation of fishing at the tee to cut open the recently arrived rooms for the salt fishery. These structures catch, Murray describes the yearly would drive subsequent patterns of processes of construction as well as the settlement and development throughout the subsequent cycle of the actual fishing coastal areas. process whereby the catch was unloaded, While Murray has produced a very salted, and stored in preparation for the final commendable discussion, it would have salt fillets being shipped off to the been more effective had she given more respective merchant. Once the catch was attention to the differences which have salted, the fish were spread out on fishing distinguished fishing as a unique occupation “flakes,” large outdoor platforms where the where knowledge, values and expertise finished product was dried. After a period, stand out from the present requirements of the resulting product was stored in an our modern society. She does note the accompanying shed to continue the process. importance of the apprenticeship and share The author also considers various systems that ultimately prepared sons and types of small boats and their construction other crew to acquire the needed skills and together with a subsequent discussion on the capital necessary to successfully outfit and tools required for boatbuilding in general. operate vessels (pp.76-77), but that is as far This is particularly useful for anyone as the commentary goes. interested in the types of craft which were Being a fisherman could not be predominant among small-boat fishermen. learned in any school or formally taught; She also notes the changes and evolution of knowledge was transmitted from father to these vessels which resembled modern-day son in the practical give and take of skiffs and rowboats. By the 1920s, building everyday life. This was a completely by mould, the accepted mode of different perspective from the conventional construction, had largely been supplanted wisdom of accepted resource economics by model. The rodney, a towboat capable of since the 1950s which has, until very engaging in both the trap and seine recently, dismissed the relevance of fishing fisheries, is just one example of the many families like the Chaulks, Pearces, and designs elaborated in great detail. Murrays in favor of sponsoring larger fresh Mechanization also affected these vessels, fish processing and large factory freezer introducing gas engines which were trawlers as the key component in the future appropriately adapted to the particular needs development and sustainability of this and demands of fishermen throughout the sector. This trend has guided the thinking twentieth century. When a particular boat of public intervention and the subsequent returned from a day of work at sea, they management of fish stocks as part of a would be moored offshore on the “collar,“ a larger vision for regional economic section of coastal frontage where such craft development throughout Atlantic Canada were kept overnight during the active since the Second World War. Regional season. economic initiatives sponsored by The author capitalizes on her successive federal and provincial 88 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord governments reflected this mindset, and that pushed the captains to brave the worst justified the developmental thinking which time of year for storms in superannuated was only partially modified by the trend lake boats, to fulfill a demand created by towards extended coastal fisheries one of the holiest religious celebrations on management in the late 1970s by many the other. countries. We only have to look at the The subjects of the book are the collapse of the cod fisheries of the 1990s to vessels, scows and schooners that carried realize that this premise was misguided. the lumber, stone, hay, and a thousand and When all is said and done, one things needed to build the cities. They however, this book does merit examination: were mostly 50 to 500 ton schooners, with it offers insight into how work is supposed the smallest being 17 tons with a crew of to be about people rather than the present one. obsession with dollars and cents. The only In the first chapter, the author question left unanswered is whether we are introduces the reader to the Scheunemann capable of realizing that economic theory family and it is their story that is followed does not lead to the quality of life we all throughout the book. Neuschel also want and desire. The recent focus on introduces the reader to a mystery, the environmental matters and climate change disappearance of the schooner Rouse worldwide may yet give us the ability to Simmons in 1912. In succeeding chapters, learn this lesson, but it will require us to the reader learns this is no mystery, but an revisit books such as this one in order to accident long overdue. Eleven strong realize that we should not downplay the chapters explore the social and personal values of a working community so integral histories of families of the maritime to the identity of Newfoundland and, for community of Ahanapee, Wisconsin. that matter, Atlantic Canada. Remaining chapters describe the role of the Christmas tree in Germanic culture, and William Dubinsky finally there is a chapter on the legacy of the Halifax, Nova Scotia Christmas tree ships. The most insightful portion of Neuschel’s book is in the chapters on social Fred Neuschel. Lives and Legends of the history. There are fascinating sidelights of Christmas Tree Ships. Ann Arbor, MI: The political history, such as immigrants being University of Michigan Press, of socialist tradition. A wonderful picture www.press.umich.edu , 2007. 264 pp., of settlement around the lakes is drawn illustrations, maps, tables, notes, sources. along with a most vivid description of forest US$24.95, cloth; ISBN 978-0-472-11623-2. fires and their aftermath. He puts the Great Chicago fire of 1871 into the perspective of This book explores the maritime an ecological and personal nightmare. communities and social history of the Great Neuschel pieces together a community of Lakes in the period after the American Civil relationships among family members War. Fred Neuschel examines communities through the generations of sailors in the that thrived along Lake Michigan through community of Ahnapee. He tells of the the curious lens of a religious icon, the devastating effect on families of soldiers Christmas tree. It looks at the sad and killed or disabled in the Civil War and its tawdry ending of the sailing era on the aftermath. The chapter entitled “Sailors in Great Lakes and the paradox of the the Battle for the Harbor” is most notable alternating necessity and greed on one side since it depicts the struggle for control of Book Reviews 89 the harbour on the Ahnapee River. It also book is almost completely based on English deals with the friction between native- born and German language sources and has no Americans and immigrants, mostly of mention of the Scandinavian peoples, northern European descent, and their especially Finns, who would have been relationships in a maritime town run by a involved in the clearing of the forest of the xenophobic Connecticut Yankee. The Upper Peninsula of Wisconsin to make way description of the role of natural factors, in for agriculture. this case in geographic unsuitability of the Anyone wanting to know about the town of Ahnapee to be a port, is precise and basic history of European settlement and illuminating. trade of the period can use this book in their Three appendices consisting of library, because it paints a picture of the vessel information, newspaper reports, and merchant marine at the most basic level, at captains who engaged in the Christmas tree the level of the barges and scows used to trade, would be of considerable interest to collect the material. The marine researcher those familiar to the area, but not much use interested in ships will learn little that is to the average reader. In terms of graphics, new, so this work does not belong in a there is an indecipherable map of the library dedicated to marine research. Lives Wisconsin/Lake Michigan area. A more and Legends of the Christmas Tree Ships is useful graphic should include drawings and mis-titled, because the ships are merely the plans of the typical vessel, which would stage on which the drama is played out. have been worth at least a thousand words. The cover photograph, however, is colourful Ian Dew and fires the reader’s imagination about the Thunder Bay, Ontario lake and the sound of the schooner moving through the water. Newspapers and archival sources are as extensive as the Notes. Richard Osborne, Harry Sprong & Tom Primary sources, such as city directories and Grover. Armed Merchant Cruisers church and municipal records, are utilized 1878-1945. Windsor, U.K.: World Ship since the principal characters in the book Society Ltd., www.worldshipsociety.org, left few biographical materials behind. 2007. 328 pp., illustrations, references, This book makes a significant appendices, index of ships. ₤45 plus contribution to the social history of the postage, card stock; ISBN 0-9543310-8-7. Great Lakes and especially the tale of the Christmas tree ships and the Scheunemann This large volume, ten years in the family. We learn little of the ships and preparation, is a most complete history of boats, however. Any information about British and Commonwealth Armed their lines, construction or sailing Merchant Cruisers (AMCs), from their characteristics is scattered throughout the experimental beginning in 1878 to the end book. There are complex, somewhat of the Second World War. Every ship taken rambling analyses of the place of the up for this role, even if never actually Christmas tree as a religious celebration, placed in service, is documented, from her which would be perhaps better in a work on building as a commercial passenger ship or social or religious history. freighter to her final scrapping, with her A chapter linking the communities various owners, dates of AMC services, and vessels that traveled the lakes preceding armament, size and utilization. As a the period of European settlement would reference tool, it should form a valuable have helped put the work into context. The addition to any collection. Having recently 90 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord completed a volume on Canadian-registered peacetime preparation – the early merchantmen that were sunk in the Second experimental days in the late nineteenth World War, I am impressed at the number of century, the period before the First World photographs the authors managed to find ─ War, and the interwar era. An indication of not every ship to be sure, but most of them, how seriously the Admiralty took the largely in their civilian guise, but many as potential employment of merchantmen and AMCs as well. During the lean years, the their crews in a possible war emergency is merchant shipping companies placed low the expenditure of over ₤2 million between priority on taking ship photographs, so this 1889 and 1913 in votes for “the Royal collection represents some pretty major Naval Reserve of Merchant Cruisers” (p. searches. 27). Surprisingly, as early as 1920 the More interesting, perhaps, is the Admiralty were again considering the use of careful coverage of the development of the AMCs and the advantages of making Armed Merchant Cruiser. Whereas it is subvention payments to owners to have truism that democracies are never prepared ships specially strengthened to take 6-inch to go to war, the number and scope of and even 9-inch guns, if the future need peacetime trials for the potential arming of arose, while they were being designed and civilian ships as auxiliaries to available built. Other problems were also carefully warships is really quite amazing – and considered, such as the need for protected heartening. The date 1878 was selected magazines, shell hoists, range finders and because that year the Royal Navy took over other requirements beyond the guns a modest passenger liner being constructed themselves. As well, as warships were at Harland & Wolff’s for British Shipowners scrapped in the 1920s and 1930s, a few of Ltd., commissioned her as HMS Hecla, and their guns were retained in storages around armed her as a trial to assess if this was a the world – in the U.K. as well as in such practical proposition. As with almost all distant venues as Indian paorts and at AMCs for the rest of their careers, the Esquimalt, Canada – against the possible results were debatable. There could well be requirement for such ships. It was really requirements to have such auxiliary armed quite a prescient handling of the problem, merchantmen to make up for shortages of even if there were within the various navies naval cruisers, they could indeed perform pretty strong doubts that these ships would certain duties reasonably; but for many be useful, and suspicions that they might be reasons they could never, in the opinions of more of a drag on resources in men, most naval officers and many ship-owners, armament and administration than their uses be a satisfactory replacement for purpose- would warrant. built warships. Their large open spaces – But necessity being the mother of holds and engine rooms – made their invention, at least in the early stages of both survival of a torpedoing unlikely, which wars, the AMCs were put to hard and indeed proved too often to be the case. The continuous use around the world. In the tall structure of their engines, usually steam, First World War, the 10th Cruiser Squadron, triple expansion, and lack of any form of at the cost of 14 vessels, maintained a protection except for alongside coal bunkers distant though largely effective blockade of in some made them more exposed to Germany, and certainly relieved the Navy of damage from surface gunfire than their the need to employ scarce cruisers. naval counterparts. Germany used them as merchant raiders, a All of the arguments, pro and con, completely different employment of armed are carefully discussed for three periods of merchantmen as hunters of distant ships as Book Reviews 91 compared to protectors or blockaders, is an the German U-boat menace. Absent from interesting point the authors cover but either festivity was a leading scholar of the briefly. U.S. Navy in the First World War ─ William Many of the as actions, both N. Still, Jr. successful and those resulting in the loss of Perhaps the organizers were not AMCs to both U-boat torpedoes and surface cognizant of Still’s fine Crisis at Sea, a gunfire, are told as examples of what these tome that extensively discusses U.S. naval ships experienced. The Appendices are aviation operations and includes a chapter detailed tables of AMC acquisition and detailing the challenge of laying 56,611 employment – the names of all ships taken mines across the North Sea. If they were up, by year, with and without subvention aware, they probably would not have made payments, from 1890 to 1914; all the ships an extra effort to invite him. In the that served in the 10th Cruiser Squadron to Canadian case, Still overlooked the role 1917; ships stiffened for possible service played by the Canada in training American during the early interwar years, and a pilots. With regard to Strauss, Still quotes detailed list of AMCs taken up during the the Navy’s commander in England, Admiral Second World War. Really a most William S. Sims, who upon hearing of interesting and potentially useful volume – Strauss’s selection to lead the mining effort like its ships. wrote to the Chief of Naval Operations: “the selection is not a good one . . . you have Fraser McKee sent me the leading pessimist of the Toronto, Ontario Navy.” (p. 48) As for the mine barrage, Still concludes that the effort did not warrant the cost. William Still. Crisis at Sea. The United In his overall assessment of States Navy in European Waters in World America’s naval involvement in the War 1. Gainesville, FL: The University European war, however, Still gives the Press of Florida, www.upf.com, 2006. xix + Navy high marks even though America’s 741 pp., illustrations, notes, bibliography, shipbuilding program continued to support a index. US $100.00, cloth; ISBN war plan geared to fighting the German 0-8130-2987-2. High Seas fleet in the mid-Atlantic when, in reality, German submarines proved to be the Recently, at the Royal Canadian Air Force threat. Because America’s involvement in Museum in Trenton, Ontario, and in the the war that ended in November 1918 was hamlet of Mount Morris in western New so brief, the shipbuilding program would York State, gatherings were held to unveil have little effect on the war’s outcome. Nor plaques commemorating events and people could America’s fledgling aircraft industry associated with the First World War. In meet the challenge of producing the needed Ontario, the American Naval Attaché aircraft. America’s naval aviators would thanked the Canadians and dedicated a have to pilot European-built aircraft. plaque to recognize their role in training Essentially, the Navy went to war with what U.S. Navy pilots for service overseas. it had in April 1917, and Still’s narrative South of the border, Mount Morris details how the Navy deployed its ships and townsfolk gathered to unveil a monument to sailors. Joseph Strauss, a native son and deceased Still lionizes Admiral William S. U.S. Navy admiral who led the effort to lay Sims as one of the Navy’s greats. That his a mine barrage across the North Sea to stop name does not roll off the tongue as readily 92 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord as do Jones, Decatur, Bainbridge, Farragut, harder to turn, however, and thus accounted Halsey, and Nimitz can be attributed to the for few U-boat kills. During the Second fact that during the First World War, there World War, the U.S. Navy deployed were no great sea battles involving the U.S. stubbier destroyer escorts to battle the U- Navy. Indeed, in his introduction, Still boat threat. suggests that this was the reason for there Still also provides ample narrative being so little interest in the Navy’s role in about U.S. Navy operations in France and in the First World War in contrast to that of the the Mediterranean. For example, with Army and Marine Corps. battleship production slowed to address Thanks to this book, which is the other shipbuilding needs, the Navy mounted best comprehensive study of the Navy’s role 14-inch guns on rail cars and delivered in that conflict to date, it is easy to these batteries to the Western Front. appreciate the challenges the Navy met that Finally, two chapters are dedicated are germane today in the global war against to the recruitment, training, and welfare of terrorism. For openers, the First World War the thousands of bluejackets who served represented America’s first involvement in a during the First World War. That Still could major coalition war. Still contrasts how the capture the deck plate perspective can be Army and Navy took opposing approaches. partially attributed to surveys of surviving General John J. Pershing insisted on an veterans conducted in the 1970s by the U.S. American Expeditionary Force that would Army’s Military History Institute at Carlisle fight on the Western Front as an Barracks, PA. He also can be thankful that independent army. Admiral Sims was of a the Navy made a concerted effort to collect quite different opinion and placed American and catalogue correspondence and other naval units directly under the command of important documents. As documented by the British Admiralty. Cementing his 148 pages of notes and a 50-page reputation as an Anglophile, Sims did bibliography, Still’s research was extensive, everything possible to promote harmonious but not exhaustive. Indeed, in his relations. Overall, the cross-Atlantic navies introduction he identifies additional worked well together and this harmonious repositories in France and Italy (not relationship would serve both navies well Canada) that he could not tap during his two during the Second World War and beyond. decades of research but that hopefully future Also germane today, Still grasped scholars can delve into. The dedications in the importance of logistics and “the train.” Ontario and New York illustrate that the Naval leaders clearly understood that First World War has not been forgotten. As sustaining an overseas fleet required bases the centennial of the Great War approaches, and repair facilities. In contrast to the this important book will be heavily European navies, U.S. Navy ships were referenced. much more capable of self-repair, and tender ships containing machine shops David F. Winkler could perform larger repairs. In addition, Alexandria, Virginia Still dedicates a chapter to analyze the sea handling capabilities and weapons systems of American warships. Again, the U.S. Navy scores well as Still notes American destroyers fared well in heavy seas in contrast to their British counterparts. The long and sleek American “tin cans” were