Book Reviews

Sasha Barac and Roger Boxall. danger, like the Indian Ocean and the Cruisers Exposed: Marvels of the East Indies, are avoided. World seen in the travels of Ednbal. In the popular cruising seas there Self-published, www.ednbal.com, are places and events when cruisers 2016. 468 pp., maps. US $85.99, get together—hundreds, sometimes paper; ISBN 978-1-53479-161-9. thousands of boats congregating in (Kindle version available.) one harbour. That is a considerable itinerant population. Crossing the The authors of this book, Sasha Barac Atlantic to attend one of these events and Roger Boxall, hail from Western is almost commonplace. Needless to Australia. They are members of the say, few of these cruisers spend one surprisingly large, international, hundred percent of their time afloat. floating population of long-distance Most sailors have a house ashore to cruisers. Their own boat, Ednbal, is which they must return from time to a Beneteau 393, and is typical of the time. Some have children and grand- smaller class of long-distance cruis- children who join the boat for the ing sailing yachts. A yacht in the 10- holidays, but some have small to 15-metre range is a seaworthy children who live on board and are vessel and modern electronic instru- home- (or boat-) schooled. ments and communications have That is the world described in greatly improved safety at sea. Of Cruisers Exposed. The book is a course, any vessel can be over- logbook of sorts, recounting Ednbal’s whelmed if the weather is bad journeys from 2007 to 2015 but it is enough, but there are not a lot of not arranged in chronological order. disasters among cruising yachts. Rather, it is an account of their There are always adventurers friendship with other yacht dwellers who want to challenge the Arctic or with whom they cruise for a while Antarctic seas, but for the most part, and pursue adventures ashore. They these cruisers frequent warmer waters part, but some months or years later, — although not everywhere. The they reconnect and so the chapters of Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the the book are named for their friends’ South Pacific draw great congre- boats and recount the cruises they gations of these sea gypsies but have taken in company. There are regions where piracy is a constant thirteen of these sections. In the course of the authors’ travels they

The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord, XXVI, No. 4 (Oct. 2016), 435-483. 436 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord naturally did some extended sight- Brad Beaven, Karl Bell, Robert seeing ashore. For example, while in James (eds.). Port Towns and Urban Turkey they travelled to Georgia and Cultures, International Histories of later to Petra, and while in Colombia, the Waterfront, c.1700-2000. to Machu Picchu in Peru. After the London: Palgrave Macmillan, www. initial expense of the boat, the palgrave.com, 2016. 289 pp., illus- cruising life is not all that expensive, trations, tables, notes, bibliography. especially when you buy in local US $29.95, paper; ISBN: 978-1-137- markets and catch a lot of your own 48315-7 (E-book available, ISBN fish, although you still need an 978-1-137-48316-4.) income in the background to pay for trips ashore, spare parts, harbour fees Hey Sailor, Looking for Trouble? and, in many places, bribes. One nice feature of the book is the recipes for Ports are measured by the annual food and drink. It is plain Sasha and number of million tonnes of cargo Roger lived well, especially in secure handled, the number of cargo anchorages, socializing with other containers loaded and unloaded, the sailors. The maps attached to each size of the port area, the number of section show the immense distances ships entering and leaving, the total Ednbal travelled (and is still length of quay walls, the number of travelling. At the time of writing, she freight trains filled and emptied, was in French Polynesia). market share and the value of all Who would benefit from and cargo. Often, the annual results are a enjoy this book? Anyone who dips port's economic indicators. Ship's into it, especially if he or she has crews have always been of less been to some of the places described. concern to results-driven port Its greatest benefit, however, would authorities. They leave these temp- be to those who are contemplating oral guests largely to their own extended cruising. The accounts are devices in the ports in which they full of practical hints. One very visit or stay over. practical admonition: if you are prone The majority of studies into to seasickness, this life is not for you! urban-maritime history focus on the Nor should one forget that life on port’s role within a variety of board is not always idyllic. Sailors economic networks. The cultural sig- all have to cope with sudden gales, nificance of this maritime-urban hidden reefs, dragging anchors and, space has been generally ignored. In not least, officialdom. These days, it Port Towns and Urban Cultures the is the yacht sailors who are the true editors’ aim, through the exploration repository of seamanship skills. of a series of ports from around the globe, is to advance the reader's Charles Maginley understanding of how each port was Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia a crucible for the forging of distinctive urban and maritime identities. Moreover, it examines the Book Reviews 437 relationship of the port with its urban it a somewhat bewildering combin- hinterland, together with the cultural ation. The editors, however, have connections that may have existed succeeded in their mission. This between international ports. book most certainly contributes to Port districts have always had a urban-maritime history. Moreover, it wide array of facilities that could is a good read. provide sailors with all sorts of pleasures and necessities. Pubs and Jacob Bart Hak boarding houses served as crossroads Leiden, The Netherlands. of maritime communication on shipping news, jobs and local Ian Dear. The Tattie Lads: The untold information. The sailor's stereo- story of the Rescue Tug Service in typical image included whoring, Two World Wars and its battles to heavy drinking, brawling and save cargoes, ships and lives. violence. It becomes clear, however, L o n d o n : B l o o m s b u r y , that in his free time ashore the www.bloomsbury.com, 2016. seaman had to associate with his viii+312 pp., illustrations, appendix, work colleagues, or wander alone in notes, bibliography, index. UK a strange environment. In a culture £20.00, US $40.00, hardback; ISBN of male honour, violence was seen as 978-1-8448-64-1-0. (E-book a natural way of resolving conflicts available.) among men. Outsiders talked about ports as 'sinks of infamy, and Much has been written about abominations of almost every hardship and heroes in the Battle of description'. Lovely stories. But the Atlantic, but virtually nothing has there is more to history than digging been available on the stoic rescue up old clichés. This book’s approach tugs that salvaged men and ships to the nature and character of sailor from the clutches of the enemy and town culture and port-town life, and the vileness of the North Atlantic. the representations of port towns that Ian Dear has helped fill that gap in were forged both within and beyond our knowledge with his splendid urban-maritime communities delivers book The Tattie Lads. insight in the lives and deaths of ports The real focus of Dear’s work is themselves, as if they are living the Second World War, which he entities. In a way, a port is just as tracks through eight chapters. His alive as the men and women who account is roughly chronological, depend on it. starting in chapter 2 at the The book contains twelve studies, concentration of rescue tugs at six of them focus on English ports Campbelton early in the war, and and cultures, and three are about follows a somewhat anecdotal course ports in South Africa, Australia and through the various classes and New Zealand. The remaining studies theatres. Having tackled the originals discuss urban-maritime life in (the “Saints and Brigands”) in Sweden and Finland. The latter make chapter 3, Dear moves on to the 438 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord exploits of the Dutch rescue tugs keep them on course: manila line and which arrived following the collapse wire cables chaffed and parted with of Western Europe in 1940, then alarming frequency. Days of gruell- picks up the exploits of the first war- ing work often ended with the built tugs, the Assurance class, in the damaged ship foundering near the Battle of the Atlantic in chapter 4. coast. The rescue tug service expanded Twenty rescue tugs were lost to tremendously when the USA entered, enemy action or to the sea. and as the mid-war building programs Englishman was swarmed by aircraft in Britain began to bear fruit: these and sunk in January 1941, and stories are the subject of chapter 6. Empire Wold simply disappeared off Mediterranean operations follow in Iceland one brutal winter day in chapter 7, the “Jaunty, the cripples November 1944: no trace was ever and the feisty Empire class” in found. It proved easy to find Sesame chapter 8, and the Normandy after she disappeared with all hands campaign of 1944 in chapter 9. A on 11 June 1944. She was towing a short epilogue tells a brief tale about portion of the artificial harbour to one Pacific tug. Normandy when she was attacked by Dear’s account is based on an German motor-torpedo boats. When extensive body of secondary Storm King found Sesame’s pier head literature, but he has also mined section stationary in the Channel her reports of proceedings and logs at the captain reported that, “we found the British National Archives in Kew. tow line bar tight so we knew there The result is less a comprehensive was a tug on the end of it.” The book account of the Rescue Tug Service ends with a harrowing account of the and more stirring tales of rescues and tug Lariat towing a damaged tanker salvage operations which Dear has through a typhoon in the South stitched together into a coherent Pacific. Lariat was hurled about like narrative. Most of the tugs, a cork, and was very nearly lost when especially early in the war, were she rolled enough to ship green water comparatively small, under 500 tons, down her funnel. But the tow line and coal fired. In the worst weather never parted and both vessels arrived imaginable, and under constant threat safely. from U-boats, aircraft and surface The book contains an appendix raiders, they set off on long forays listing some 100 vessels of the into the North Atlantic to bring home Rescue Tug Service. By the end of stricken vessels—or what remained the war they had salvaged nearly 3 of them. Tows often took a week or million GRT tons of shipping: more at barely a walking pace, and roughly the equivalent of annual often at or beyond the technical losses to enemy action for any year of capability of the tugs themselves. the war except 1942. This was no Few tugs had winches, so vessels mean feat. They also brought home under tow careened their way across 254 warships. the ocean while the tug laboured to Book Reviews 439

The Tattie Lads is not the full and Spanish-American War and also final word on the Rescue Tug undergoing modernization in the Service: the winder context, early 1900s under President Theo- background to the building schemes, dore Roosevelt. The American policy, operational control issues, Army, on the other hand, with the impact of the salvage operations on exception of the brief 1898 war with the war effort and more critical Spain, had not seen major combat appraisal of what it all meant remain since the end of the American Civil to be told. But it is enough for now War in 1865. The USMC was in a that Ian Dear has rescued the rescuers different position: most of the from obscurity. Recommended. USMC’s activity throughout its prior history had been small unit actions. Marc Milner The singular exception to these small Fredericton, New Brunswick unit actions was the seizure of Guantanamo Bay by the 1st Marine Brigade in the Spanish-American Ed and Catherine Gilbert. Osprey War. Due to its small size and inten- Warrior # 178: US Marine in World sive training, the USMC was more War I. Botley, Oxford: Osprey prepared that the U.S, Army for a Publishing, Inc., www.osprey major conflict—but as the authors publishing.com, 2015. 48 pp., illus- point out, that was a difference more trations, bibliography, glossary, of degree than actual preparedness. index. UK £11.99, US $19.00, CDN The First World War demanded that $23.00, paper; ISBN 978-1-4728- the USMC become a large land force, 1387-9. a historical fact which forever altered the USMC’s role in American The United States Marine Corps military conflicts. (USMC) is America’s most renowned The authors rightly note the military force. Until the First World American occupation of Vera Cruz, War, the USMC was a small, lesser- Mexico, as the USMC’s rehearsal for known branch of the U.S. Navy participation in the First World War. Department. This book briefly tells Approximately 1,300 Marines landed the story of the USMC’s Marine at Vera Cruz in March, 1914, Brigade, part of the American occupying the port as a result of the Expeditionary Force (AEF) in the tumult caused by the Mexican First World War, which brought the Revolution. Vera Cruz saw the USMC to the esteemed position it USMC used as light infantry, rather holds to this day. than a small landing force. The chief In April 1917, when the United result of the occupation, however, States entered the First World War, was that the U.S. Navy and USMC American military war preparedness demonstrated their capacity for rapid was mixed, at best. The U.S. Navy transport and the possibility of was in the best condition for war, transforming USMC units into a having been successful in the 1898 larger, more cohesive combat force. 440 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

When America entered the First colour plates depict combat, rest World War, the USMC demanded to areas, and medical care—all parts of play its part in the AEF. Despite the wartime experience. Also some opposition by the U.S Army, included are useful maps of combat the U.S. Marine Brigade became an areas which clarify the action for the integral part of the Expeditionary reader. Force. The authors include a useful The authors begin their narrative narrative of the Marine Brigade’s with a brief introduction, a review of actions. Their greatest and best- the Vera Cruz occupation, and a known action was one of their first — chronology of the USMC in the First Belleau Wood. In that combat, the World War. They then go on to Marine Brigade successfully stormed outline the Marine Brigade’s German positions in Belleau Wood, organization, belief and belonging, but at great cost. Floyd Gibbons, a enlistment and training, unit correspondent embedded with the organization, appearance and Marine Brigade, wrote of the equipment, life on campaign, first Marines’ great success; the resultant combat, museums, collections, and publicity placed the brigade, and the re-enactments. A bibliography, glos- USMC as a whole, directly in the sary, and an index complete the book. public eye — a position which it The writing is concise and to the occupies to this date. Gripping first- point. These sections are woven to- hand accounts of the battle add spice gether seamlessly without a break in to the narrative. As a tribute to the the narrative. Marines’ sacrifice, the French Like all Osprey books, this one is government renamed Belleau Wood well-illustrated with many period Bois de la Marine Brigade — The photographs, reproductions of First Wood of the Marine Brigade. World War posters, and colour plates This is a valuable short work, illustrating the Marine Brigade’s serving as a useful reference guide as uniforms and equipment. It is worth well as a starting point for further noting that the Marine Brigade reading. The “selected references” originally went to war with a forest- section lists several books on the green uniform. Over time, this colour Marine Brigade. It is recommended was found to be too close to the for those who want to know more German uniform — feldgrau — a about America’s most famous fight- greenish grey. That, coupled with the ing force. heavy wear and tear or combat, forced the Marine Brigade to switch Robert L. Shoop to a U.S. Army uniform of khaki- Colorado Springs, Colorado brown, although distinct USMC insignia were retained. The various firearms are shown in colour plates and provide a good guide to USMC equipment in the First War. Other Book Reviews 441

Paul A. Gilje. To Swear Like a usage of the sailor and the non- Sailor. Maritime Culture in America, sailor’s description of life afloat. 175-1850. Cambridge, MA: Cam- Here the literary work of James bridge University Press, www. Fenimore Cooper and Herman cambridge.org, 2016. xviii+390 pp., Melville (two men with experience at illustrations, notes, bibliography, sea) are employed (along with index. CDN $108.95, hardback: numerous lesser known authors) to ISBN 978-0-521-76235-9. capture both shipboard language usage and the landsman’s knowledge Paul Gilje’s To Swear Like a Sailor of sailors. Gilje demonstrates that examines in detail the use of the sailor and mainland worlds were language (both foul and fair) by the closely linked, influencing each American sailor from the eve of the other’s vocabulary and its expression. American Revolution to the mid- Gilje delves into the ship’s log nineteenth century. He explores the book and the sailor’s journal. He place of sailors, their reputation (real thoroughly reviews their development and mythical), and their language in and draws on dozens of them to mainstream American public illustrate the value of their content to discourse, literature and fine art. A let us look inside the sailor’s world. multitude of examples serve as evi- He describes how, over time, the dence for his conclusion that the merchant log books of the period sailor and his language, and society’s melded a bare record of location and understanding of both, is far more time (which served as a navigational complex, interwoven and nuanced instrument) with the informality of a than previously considered. Gilje personal journal and sketch book. repeatedly reminds the reader that The former approach to log-keeping America was originally a sea-faring reveals little, the latter is a rich cache society, tied to the sea for its of interpersonal ship dynamics, founding and its first livelihoods of family relationships, insight into the fishing and trade. To comprehend mind of the sailor, and an intimate America, one needs to look into the look at daily life aboard a ship. world of the sailor and its interaction Sailors recorded all sorts of inform- with mainland United States. ation in their journals, from the fish The subject of the main title is they caught, through the peoples they covered in a chapter on swearing, the encountered in far off places, to sailor’s harsher language. sketches of the landfalls they made. Questioning the moral and socially The journals and logs represent their refined nature of someone’s mother view of the world in which they or his legitimacy of birth, or simply lived. The logbook also influenced damning him, seem to be by far the the development of the novels of worse insults to be flung, often Cooper and Melville. Gilje, how- stirring the aggrieved to fight the ever, explores only the logbooks of declaimer. A separate chapter exa- merchant and whaling ships, not mines the non-swearing language 442 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord those of the navy, where content was history and a tradition of borrowing strictly regulated. tales from other sources. It appears The spinning of yarns is the topic to have been widely read ashore and of chapter 4. Yarns were originated afloat; influencing other would-be- by mariners to pass time, influence authors to write similar tomes. Pirate shipmates, family and others, reshape adventures, shipwrecks, and disasters truth or keep memories alive. Gilje at sea were mainstream states that it fell to the British entertainment. The author touches on underworld (bestowing on it a rather a host of other popular books that dark mark) before returning to the made their way to sea, to show the world of the sailor. Through the broad taste of sailors in their reading wide dissemination of sailor stories, material. We come to see a far more the very phrase “spinning a yarn”, he literate person than we might have suggests, “became imbedded in thought. Gilje notes merchant ships American print Culture” (133), exert- with small libraries, and men with ing a robust influence on contemp- their own collections that they read orary writers. repeatedly and traded eagerly with Sea songs and shanties are sailors from other vessels, making the unpacked in the next chapter. Their ship a conduit for spreading literacy evolution from British origins into and book-borne knowledge. American styles and usage is traced The final chapter turns to the fine by means of copious examples. arts and takes the reader through Songs covered every possible topic editorial cartoons, illustrations from from love to shipwreck. They novels, prints, and scrimshaw, all evolved by being traded between land depicting the world of the sailor. and sea, by professional and amateur Sailor drawings often appear devoid musicians. They portrayed the sailor of perspective and are focused on the in several roles. One was as national ship rather than shipmates. Sailors saviour in times of war, fighting the and their concerns were often a way enemy. In peace, they ran the trade for cartoonists to comment on and fishing necessary for national political or social issues of the day. economic survival. Seamen were The book’s cover is one such depicted as the faithful departing example, referring to the evil of lover as well as the adulterous British impressment and the lack of Casanova. Gilje notes that the national pride in American sailors development of sea songs and who sailed in British ships. As with shanties was influenced by depictions of the sailor in novels and revolution, war, and peace, creating a verse, the drawn representations were unique American genre. at times a caricature of the sailor and The Pirate’s Own Book forms the used for comic relief, or as a central text around which Gilje messenger of unabashed straight talk. explores the sailor’s literacy. The The ‘sailor character’ appears to have Pirate’s Own Book was a risqué played the role of Shakespeare’s fool; volume in its day, with a twisted Book Reviews 443 providing humour but speaking the surrounding text. The endnotes are truth others dared not utter. useful, as is the volume’s index. The In each area covered, Gilje notes list of sources is exceptional, that the American sailor’s linguistic underlining the thoroughness of traditions first resembled those of the Gilje’s research. British sailor. This is to be expected, The book will appeal to those as most colonists were of British interested in maritime cultural history descent, the colonies were founded in general, United States’ maritime on British culture, and many of the history in particular, and to a lesser sailors would have sailed on British extent Britain’s maritime past. Those ships. But, in each area, American studying the linguistic culture of late sailors (and their society) pulled colonial through antebellum America away from the British, giving the will also find the book a worthy read. language their own linguistic turn. As with his previous work focusing The American Revolution and the on sailors, Gilje’s To Swear Like a War of 1812 were the two periods Sailor is an excellent addition to our during which major change took understanding of both life afloat and place, though after 1783 departure the sailor culture’s integration into from British usage and the shaping of the larger society. a more uniquely American sailor’s vocabulary and larger identity was Thomas Malcomson almost constant. Toronto, Ontario All of this marvelous content is wrapped up in the epilogue, in which Gilje disassembles a seaman’s chest, Robert Glover and J. Barto Arnold unpacking the sailors’ worldly III. The Blockade-Runner Denbigh possessions, including their books, and the Union Navy. College Station, scrimshaw, letters, journals and TX: INA, Denbigh Shipwreck clothing. While this does stray a bit Project, www.nautarch.tamu.edu, from the linguistic theme, he pulls it 2015. 436 pp., illustrations, maps, back by referencing Melville’s table, notes, bibliography, index. US symbolic use of the seaman’s chest in $40.00, paper; ISBN 978-0-7975874- Moby Dick. 4-3. Thirty-one black and white contemporary illustrations, or images The authors of this work set out to of sailors’ artwork are spread compile a graduate dissertation unevenly across the text. As published in 1974, which focused on expected, ten of these are in the an evaluation of the West Gulf chapter exploring art created by, or Blockading Squadron, along with about the sailor. The illustrations are several seasons of archaeological just another level of the thick fieldwork starting in 1997 conducted evidence amassed by Gilje to on the blockade-runner Denbigh. establish his conclusions. Each The intent was to use this image is fully discussed in the information, along with contemp- 444 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord orary accounts and archival docu- from local archives, Arnold ments of the Civil War, to re-address successfully proved that the blockade and re-evaluate the effectiveness of was not all that effective, and those the Union blockade efforts along the southerners with the wherewithal had western Gulf Coast. The book opens the opportunity to maintain a lifestyle with an overview of the blockade- to which they had become runner Denbigh Shipwreck Project accustomed before the war. and then is divided into two main The reasons the runners tended to sections: the complete 1974 be successful along the Gulf Coast, dissertation by Robert Glover, for a good part of the war, and the followed by a section on the archival why the blockaders often failed, material and notes, which are used to centre around two items: types of answer the question: how did both vessels that the runners used and the the blockaders and the runners fulfill avarice of the blockers had for prize their duties or goals? money. In both cases, primary as While it is possible to view the well as secondary sources illustrate land battles of the Civil War, and the solid reasons for both arguments. strategies of the Union and the The Denbigh was a well-built side Confederate leaders, in quite concrete paddle-wheel steamer, typical of the terms and understanding of the vessels runners often used. Fast outcomes, the efforts by blockade- steamers driven by expert and crafty runners and those assigned to stop captains faced Union captains who them appear to be different. Over were often distracted by the lure of time, there has been discussion of the prize money, providing a background effectiveness of the runners and the of derring-do and adventure. There blockaders, and the effect the was also the opportunity for those blockaders had on the outcome of the runners to make vast fortunes in only Civil War. In other words, historians two or three successful runs. and researchers have long debated the While this work credits two historical ambiguity of this topic. J. authors, it is clear that it is Arnold Barto Arnold collected and organized who assembled the historical the contents of this work, specifically information into an organized work, Part II, to understand blockade starting with a well-written running from the Southern point of dissertation by Glover that constitutes view. He chose not to simply use the Part I. Arnold expertly incorporates number of ships captured by the a well-written text and intertwines it Union blockaders as reported by with images of contemporary them, or the number of runners that historical documents. In the end, were reported to have outrun them, Arnold succeeds in his aim of but to look at which ships pierced the presenting readers with an blockade, and what often went up for historically accurate summarization sale in Southern cities. With that clearly makes his point about the newspaper advertisements, bills of non-effectiveness of the West Gulf sale, and auction records recovered Coast Blockading Squadron. Book Reviews 445

While this reviewer had no issues $165.00, hardback; ISBN 978-1- with spelling, grammar, clarity, word 13893-128-2. choice or argument, just about all of the illustrations were copies of To many, the First World War contemporary (hand-written) conjures up images of mud and documents with very few maps and trenches, death and no man’s land. no photographs. These could be The Naval War in the Mediterranean included to enhance future editions of opens an entirely new perspective on this work. Although this work does the war. Its subject is, literally, a not lend itself to casual sit-down backwater, but author Paul Halpern weekend read, it should be viewed as describes its actions, personalities a useful reference source. and significance to the conflict as a The Blockade-Runner Denbigh whole. and the Union Navy, while interest- The Great War in the ing, would appeal most to those who Mediterranean is a swirl of air, land, are interested in the Civil War and surface and underwater combat, maritime archaeology. It would also shifting national alliances, officers fit well on the bookshelves of those contending for commands, victories interested in maritime history, and defeats. The main foci of the maritime and international law, and book are the Dardanelles Campaign, the business of war. As this reviewer struggles between Austria-Hungary is currently working on a manuscript and Italy in the Adriatic, and raids on documenting a history maritime commercial shipping. crime along the Gulf Coast, this work The section on the Dardanelles has proved to be a valuable asset. Campaign, better known as Gallipoli, Not only has J. Barto Arnold was most interesting. The goal of the succeeded in his main objective of attacks was to force the Turks out of understanding the effectiveness of the the war and ensure the safety of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, but Suez Canal. I had read about the this reviewer has already benefitted landings, but this told the naval story from his secondary aim of providing of what was, at its inception, a springboard for individual research supposed to be a naval battle. When in other areas. plans to have the Greek Army seize the Dardanelles floundered over Wayne Abrahamson Greek distrust of Bulgaria and Pensacola, Florida Russian designs on Constantinople, attention turned to naval bombard- ment of Turkish fortifications. Paul G. Halpern. The Naval War in These, too, failed due to over- the Mediterranean, 1914-1918. New estimates of the effects of flat York, NY: Routledge, trajectory naval gunfire against land www.routledge.com, 2015. targets and underestimates of Turkish (Originally published 1987). 632 pp., resistance. illustrations, bibliography, index. US 446 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

The initial bombardment of the submarines, some of which sailed Turkish forts at the entrance to the with German crews and under either Dardanelles began on 19 February German or Austrian-Hungarian flags. 1915 and by 1 March, the British Although largely fought by sub- were prepared to destroy the inter- marines, the Austro-Hungarian “Fleet mediate defenses and clear the In Being” kept larger Entente forces minefields. As ships moved into the unavailable for deployment else- more restricted Straits and mines kept where. Much of the action was them off shore, the balance shifted in directed to sinking Entente, part- favour of the Turkish artillery. icularly British, merchant shipping in Hopes for the Russian Black Sea conjunction with the submarine war Fleet to attack the Bosporus from the on the Atlantic. In the Mediterran- east were dashed after Russians chose ean, the concept of naval escort that to fight closer to their own bases of grew into convoys was experimented supply. When sea power proved with and tested. The allocation of unable to bring Turkey to its knees, patrol areas was a matter of both British colonial forces and French apportionment of the work load and a troops (largely to maintain French recognition of spheres of influence in influence in the Levant) began their the region. The breadth of worldwide bloody and, ultimately unsuccessful, involvement is shown by the intro- assault on the beaches. The naval duction of Japanese and American role began with landing and ended vessels into the Mediterranean. This with evacuating the troops, the latter theatre also contributed its firsts, being the most successful aspect of including the first launch of a torpedo the whole campaign. Between those from an airplane. Toward the end of bookends, the Western navies the war, the Russian collapse and supplied the troops ashore while their surrender set off a scramble between submarines interdicted Turkish Russia, Ukraine, and Germany for the supplies to the Gallipoli Peninsula. ships of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, This book highlights several and the response of Britain and interesting aspects not covered in France to that threat, which never other studies of the war, some of really materialized. which seem obvious once the author This book is extremely detailed, lays them out. Much of the conflict spending much ink on the names of centered in the Adriatic where equal- officers, (Capt. von Trapp, before he ly weak Austro-Hungarian and Italian discovered the Sound of Music, being forces had to rely on their respective the most recognizable), ships, and the allies for supplies and defense while details of engagements. While I threatening to attack across each found it useful to learn new concepts other’s homeland. For Italy, that about the strategy involved, the flow meant entreating Britain and France of the combat and how it affected the to devote vessels to protecting Italian larger war, as a casual reader, I could waters. For Austria-Hungary, it have gathered as much or more from involved the overland transport of a version that was half the length. Book Reviews 447

This is a definitive and thorough The navy officer corps is narrative for experts in the field and described at the outset as developing would be of greatest interest to them. in a restricted system of beliefs, which facilitated superb operational James M. Gallen performance, “But what made the St. Louis, Missouri Navy arguably the most operationally adaptable of the services made it intellectually weak and uninterested Peter D. Haynes. Toward a New in understanding the Navy’s deeper Maritime Strategy: American Naval purpose and strategic effects” (8). Thinking in the Post-Cold War Era. The first chapter, “The Cold Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute War”, contrasts the ascendancy of the Press, www.nip.org, 2015. ix+292 Air Force with a strong strategy pp., illustrations, maps, notes, development organization and its bibliography, index. US $49.95, strategic nuclear weapons with its cloth; ISBN 978-1-61251-852-7. sputtering performance, particularly in the view of the legislators who The author presents a detailed history determined levels of funding. With of the organizations and people the advent of the ballistic missile responsible for strategic thinking in submarine, which is seen as placing the U.S. maritime services, the U.S. Navy at the heart of nuclear principally the U.S. Navy, from the deterrence as the “nation’s only end of the Cold War up to 2007. invulnerable second-strike platform”, Toward a New Maritime Strategy is came the placement of submarine written by a specialist in strategy officers into high-ranking positions, development for other specialists. In including three Chiefs of Naval the introduction, Haynes defines Operations (CNO) from the 1970s to strategy as the relationship of the 1990s. At the same time, tech- seaborne U.S. military force to politi- nology and engineering became the cal purpose. “This book examines pre-eminent backgrounds for a how key U.S. naval strategic state- successful career path. Meanwhile, ments and policies were developed the wider education of naval officers and the documents themselves, which was neglected to the extent that they are manifestations of U.S. Naval are described as constricted and thinking” (12) and specifically “illiterate” in such aspects of “provide the CNO [Chief of Naval education as would permit strategic Operations] with a way to rationalize thinking. The revolution wrought by the Navy and its claims on the Robert McNamara’s centralizing defense budget” (13). The bulk of style of management is seen as the work is focused on the evolution furthering that condition: “Starting of the Office of the Chief of Naval in the 1960s the path to promotion Operations (OPNAV), which was changed to managing weapon responsible for development of systems programs and personnel and strategy. has not changed much since” (27). 448 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

The final barriers to developing civilians. In contrast N3/N5 had a maritime strategic thought include a half-dozen admirals, including a continental mentality and a fixation three-star admiral, a two-star deputy, on the battle-centric portion of and a two-star admiral that led its Mahan’s teaching at the expense of one-hundred-person N51 (formally his systemic, political economy-based known as OP-60)” (89). theories. Hayes sees the U.S. Navy Language is informal and loaded sailing into uncharted post-Cold War with expressions that have meaning waters historically naïve and within the target audience, that is, strategically inept. naval officers and politicians familiar The bulk of the work is divided with strategy and tactics. Sometimes, into chapters with headings based on the author’s comments are unnerving; the titles of the strategic planning for example, “The Vietnam War was documents developed during the essentially a laboratory for the period, from The Way Ahead (1990) RAND theorists” (251), or a passing to A Cooperative Strategy (2007). reference to the Tomahawk missile The process is seen within the being an agent of “coercive context of unfolding political events diplomacy”. Nevertheless, the work and the personalities and influence of is lively and hard-hitting, often succeeding key politicians, such as, containing critical analyses of the secretary of defense. The influence of people and organizations recently the Goldwater-Nichols Defense responsible for developing naval Reorganization Act of 1986, which strategy, particularly OPNAV. Other was intended to optimize and organizations include the Office of downsize the military with its the Secretary of Defense (OSD), U.S. emphasis on “jointness” or the Naval War College, and the U.S. integration of the armed services, Headquarters Marine Corps. The runs through the discussion. book is remarkable in that it traces The author traces the evolution of minutely the influence and activities the bodies that make up OPNAV of individual senior officers, describ- which succeeding CNOs sought to ing concepts such as the Bush control by changing the mandates and administration’s “Transformation” internal organization. The text is and cost-cutting inherent in “The dense with acronyms, which is to be Enterprise”. Alongside the theme of expected where the organizations inter-service rivalry between the have arcane short forms, such as Army and Air Force for resources, is N513 (Strategic Concepts Branch) the friction between the Navy and the and OP-00K (CNO Executive Panel) Marine Corps, especially after the and U.S. Marine equivalents. In Marine Corps came into prominence terms of staffing OPNAV: “Kelso with the wars in Iraq and also ensured that N8 had the power Afghanistan. By the end of 2004, the and resources it needed. N8 had a author describes the Navy as operat- three-star admiral, five two-stars, a ing in heavy seas: “The United States dozen one-stars, and four hundred was engaged in what appeared to be Book Reviews 449 two long-term ground wars, whose diagrams. Since the work is intended implacable requirements had elevated for experts, a full list of acronyms the importance of the Army and the and terms is presumably unnecessary. Marine Corps, and called the It is a fascinating polemic that ends importance of the Navy into with the attempt to elevate the U.S. question” (176). That the Marine Navy once again to the heights Corps is seen as a competitor, despite enjoyed during the Second World being one of the naval services, War: “Regardless where global- further confuses the picture. ization may lead, there is only one The author returns continually to organization on earth currently his central thesis: that the real capable of conceiving and executing strategic importance of naval forces a maritime strategy. The fact that the is in underwriting the political, U.S. Navy cannot do so alone does commercial, and security conditions not relieve it of the requirement to for global prosperity. In this way, he exercise strategic leadership” (252). elevates naval strategy into a com- ponent of wider maritime strategy, Ian Dew and Kathy Traynor although he concedes that it does not Thunder Bay, Ontario resonate with the American public or legislators in the way that direct threats do. This work is revolution- Ben Hughes. In Pursuit of the Essex: ary in that it makes public what has A Tale of Heroism and Hubris in the always been very private, that is, the War of 1812. Barnsley, S. Yorks: Pen workings of the organizations making & Sword Maritime, www.pen-and- up the naval services and of the sword.co.uk, 2016. xvi+255 pp., individual people in them. It is part maps, illustrations, notes, of a movement that intends to shape bibliography, index. US $46.95, future naval and maritime strategy to £25.00, cloth; ISBN 978-1-47382- make it open and understandable by 364-8. legislators. In the final chapter, “Recom- Ben Hughes has written a detailed mendations”, the importance of account of the naval engagement general academic credentials for between HMS Phoebe and US Essex naval officers, in areas other than on 28 March 1814, off Valparaiso engineering and science, is seen as Bay, Chile. He details the Essex’s necessary for development of a final voyage from its departure from strategic ethos. “The Navy needs to Delaware Bay, 27 October 1812, explain in clearer and more compel- through to its fate as a British prize, ling terms the merits of a maritime- seventeen months later. HMS systemic approach.” (252) Phoebe and HMS Cherub receive The lack of a bibliography equal attention, from their assignment detracts from the book`s value as an to hunt down and capture the Essex to academic work. Illustrations are in their ultimate end, long after the the form of dense, inscrutable conclusion of the War of 1812. The 450 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord narrative is based on the journals of (Captain Tucker), left from midshipmen Allen Gardiner and Portsmouth, England, to hunt the David Farragut (British and American threat to the Pacific American, respectively) as well as the whaling fleet. Captain Hillyar, a very ships’ logs and the captains’ religious and disciplined man, correspondence. It also examines the brought both characteristics to bear leadership of the two opposing on his crew. He diligently trained his captains, the American, David Porter, men to hit a mark at a distance, and, and the British, James Hillyar. This like Porter, he also drilled his crew is a well balanced, straightforward on boarding. On learning that the description of the events and people Essex’s armament was chiefly involved, with minimal analysis carronades, Hillyar decided against a outside of contemporary comment. close engagement, where Porter In alternating chapters, Hughes would have the advantage of weight, brings Hillyar and Porter from their choosing instead, to use his long points of origin, across the Atlantic, guns, from a distance, to dismantle around Cape Horn and into the the American ship. The British never Pacific. For David Porter, the goal caught sight of the Americans, was to disrupt Britain’s Pacific hearing only news of their success. whaling industry by capturing Throughout the book, Hughes whaling vessels and seizing their traces the ships’ exploration, highly valuable cargoes of oil. Porter describing the Galapagos, the is depicted as an energetic officer Marquesas, and the area around seeking the glory of a single-ship Valparaiso Bay in rich detail. The action, with an evenly matched most dynamic is a sub-story that British ship. He is driven, both to develops around the men that Porter cause as much damage to British left on Nuka Hiva, in the Marquesas. trade as possible, and to obtain prize Their misadventures with each other money for him and his crew. The and the local population is a tale of Essex’s armament was dominated by betrayal, mutiny, abandonment and short-range but powerful carronades escape, worthy of its own book. and Porter honed his men’s skills in With his work mainly done, and gunnery and boarding. the British on his trail, Porter decided Once in the Pacific, Porter sailed to head for home, but first sailed to in search of British. Frustrated at Valparaiso for supplies, information first, he eventually found and and possibly, one or two more prizes. captured several whalers. Instead of He arrived there on 3 February 1813 sending them home as prizes right and Hillyar appeared five days later. away, he built up a small flotilla to An immediate combative encounter extend his reach. One vessel he was barely avoided, as both officers captured and armed to accompany the knew the law against fighting within Essex, he named Essex Junior. neutral waters, and neither took the Hillyar, in the Phoebe, first step to break it. After a couple accompanied by HMS Cherub of weeks of threatening each other in Book Reviews 451 harbour, Hillyar took Phoebe and his post-war career saw far less Cherub out to sea and began a turmoil than Porter’s. blockade of the bay, waiting for Though he did disrupt the British Porter to attempt to break out. whaling fleet for 1813, Porter did Hillyar declined Porter’s very little else in the waters off the invitations to meet in his ship in close west coast of South America. He lost combat and continued the blockade. the Essex (one of the very few With changing political circumstance frigates in the American Navy) and in Valparaiso and the need to head most of his prizes. In the home before more British vessels contemporary debate over Hillyar’s appeared, Porter attempted to break choice to stand off and bombard the out of the Bay. A failed ruse to Essex, rather than run in and engage distract the British off their blockade in a close broadside to broadside positions and a snapped main topmast battle (which he was likely to lose), as a result of a sudden squall finally Hughes sides with Hillyar’s choice as brought Porter and his crew under being what was called for, rather than Phoebe’s guns. After the first the more ‘heroic’ close action. exchange of fire at close range, The five maps provided are Hillyar assumed a position far helpful, in detailing the routes of the enough from the Essex to bombard opposed ships and the islands they the Americans with his long guns. visited. The illustration of a frigate Amid the squalls that blew through sail plan is helpful in dealing with the the bay during the battle, Cherub extensive descriptions of sail hand- barely managed to keep to the fringe ling throughout the book. The 30 of the battle. What Hughes does not illustrations range from small photos account for is why the Essex Junior of the two main captain’s signatures remained four miles away and did not to full-page images of contemporary attempt to join in the fight. After two paintings. They are placed in the hours of battering, Porter recognized centre of the book and provide some the Essex’s hopeless situation and interesting depictions of major and surrendered. Essex Junior surrend- minor characters in the story. ered a week later. Official ship logs, crew musters, In the aftermath of the battle, captain’s letters, personal journals, Porter worried about his reception in published contemporary material and America and worked to explain his secondary sources used by Ben actions and the loss of the Essex. Hughes are detailed in notes and Hillyar oversaw repairs for the ships listed in the healthy bibliography. and paroled Porter and his crew, This is a well researched, detailed sending them home in Essex Junior. examination of the events The defeated Porter arrived home, to surrounding this famous engagement, a hero’s welcome for his Pacific which makes some of its errors exploits. The victorious Hillyar around the larger context of the war returned home to less fanfare, though frustrating. For example, Sir Isaac Brock was not Governor-General of 452 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

Canada and Sir John B. Warren was Star Spangled Banner National not a Vice-Admiral but an Admiral Historic Trail, or may have seen (9), and General Ross did not march Louisiana license plates denoting the to Alexandria after sacking Battle of New Orleans. Part of the Washington (189). These are rela- problem with conveying the historic tively minor issues, but their presence sense of the war is that few even will annoy the more knowledgeable understand the reasons for the reader. conflict. Complicated diplomatic This irritation aside, Hughes has events pushed the United States to provided a very good, evenly declaring war on Great Britain, even balanced and thorough account of the though the country’s army and navy meeting of HMS Phoebe and USS were virtually non-existent. In fact, Essex. His reliance on Gardiner and much of the conflict at sea would be Farragut’s journals adds a new layer fought by privateers, an ill-defined of description and comment to the occupation that modern readers story. Well worth having on one’s inevitably equate with legal piracy. bookshelf, the book will appeal to Faye Kert’s painstaking research and those interested in the specific thoughtful prize-winning book details incident, the War of 1812 more these key weapons of the maritime generally and naval engagements, War of 1812. particularly those featuring a pursuit Licensed by their home and a dramatic showdown. governments with a “letter of marque and reprisal,” privateers had the Thomas Malcomson authority to attack and capture enemy Toronto, Ontario commerce. After capturing an enemy vessel, Kert describes how privateers took them to friendly ports where Faye M. Kert. Privateering: Patriots admiralty courts condemned them, and Profits in the War of 1812. permitting the sale of cargoes and Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins ships. Privateers pocketed the profits University Press, www.press.jhu.edu, from this honourable calling that 2015. viii+215 pp., illustrations, combined patriotism and profit; the tables, bibliography, index. US more glamorous but dishonourable $55.00, cloth; ISBN 978-1-4214- piracy is illegal robbery and criminal 1747-9. (E-book available.) violence at sea. Converting a private merchant vessel into a naval The War of 1812 does not figure into auxiliary, privateers enjoyed the the American creation story, nor does protection of and were subject to the it currently garner much attention in obligations of the laws of war. If the collective memory. Despite a captured, privateer crews were recent bicentennial for the conflict, entitled to treatment as prisoners of few Americans even noticed the war, whereas pirates would be celebration. Some may have cele- hanged as criminals. brated in Maryland or Virginia on the Book Reviews 453

The extensive business model of This important contribution corrects privateering existed because of the earlier lower estimates, and denotes profits to be derived from a conflict one of the book’s most noteworthy against commerce. Merchant invest- achievements. ors, ships’ captains, sailors, The war on commerce did have longshoremen, government officials, an impact on the conflict. U.S. jurists, and others profited from the privateers captured some 1,900 war on trade. Very few privateers, British merchant vessels, driving however, brought in big prizes or insurance rates up by at least thirty captures, even though every privateer percent between 1812 and 1814. But anticipated profitable results. The with more than 21,000 British Liverpool Packet of Liverpool, Nova merchant ships, American captures Scotia, captured as many as one represented less than ten percent of hundred prizes, grossing as much as the total number of British vessels at four million dollars. In reality, fewer sea—hardly the cause of an economic than half of all privateers ever disaster. Because of the Royal captured a single ship. Of those who Navy’s blockade of the American did, only one in three ever arrived in coastline, few commercial cruisers a prize court for adjudication. Other went to sea after the first six months times, privateers encountered naval of the war. Nonetheless, Kert forces and engaged in ship-to-ship estimates that Canadian privateers combat where they found death rather brought in five million dollars to than elusive wealth. Ultimately, as Nova Scotia and New Brunswick the risk increased during the war, while American privateers took at reportedly the opportunity for profit least ten million dollars into U.S. increased yet skimpy surviving ports. The economic impact of this records make it impossible to activity tricked throughout port town determine the true profitably of economies at a time when commerce privateering. was suffering because of the war. Kert organizes the book into five Finally, governments also profited sections along with an introduction, from the court and legal fees and conclusion, and appendix of prize custom duties, proving that the makers and prizes. Chapters on the trickle-down effect of privateering origins of privateering and prize law had an impact on all segments of are juxtaposed against chapters on society. the cost of war and the perils of Kert’s book provides an intel- privateering. Through twenty-plus lectual roadmap for future scholars years of prodigious research in legal who want to pursue the exciting records, newspapers, personal and world of privateers. Her notes, business papers, Kert documents 45 charts, and tables detail laborious but privateers commissioned in Nova important archival work that provides Scotia and New Brunswick, along the foundation of this study. Add- with 1,172 commissions issued to itional appendixes (on U.S. privateers 625 vessels in the United States. and letters of marque, Atlantic 454 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

Canada’s privateers and letters of Brian Lavery. The Last Big Gun. At marque, prizes taken by American War & At Sea with HMS Belfast. privateers and letters of marque, and London: The Pool of London Press, prizes taken by Atlantic Canada www.pooloflondon.com, 2015. 352 privateers and letters of marque) are pp., illustrations, maps, bibliography, also available on the book’s website index. US $36.95, cloth; ISBN 978-1- at www.press.jhu.edu to provide 910860-01-4. fodder for future historians wanting to delve into this topic. Brian Lavery is a well-known Just as scholars have not maritime author specializing in definitively answered what caused accounts of the Royal Navy (RN) the War of 1812, they have also not from the perspective of the men who defined the role and impact of served. This particular book comple- privateers either. Kert’s outstanding ments some of his earlier works such book, joining with Jerome R. as Churchill’s Navy, In Which They Garitee’s The Republic’s Private Served, All Hands, and some twenty Navy: The American Privateering other volumes. As Lavery notes in Business as Practiced by Baltimore his introduction, this particular book in the War of 1812 (1977), begins to on HMS Belfast is specifically answer many of those complex intended to address the experiences questions about the role of privat- of the ‘big ship navy’ of battleships eering during the second conflict and cruisers and complement his between Great Britain and the United earlier books, Assault Landing Craft States. The War of 1812 represented and The Frigate Surprise which the high point of privateering activity covered the small-ship RN. The lives and Kert’s book ably describes how of those who served in the larger privateers faced dangers, fought ships of the Royal Navy, or any navy battles, and tried to advance the for that matter, are of a quite different prosperity of their communities. nature from those who served in the Some did so far better than others. It little ships. should be on the bookshelf of HMS Belfast was commissioned everyone interested in the War of in August 1939, and was ready just 1812 and maritime history during the weeks before the outbreak of the age of sail. Second World War. Her initial complement was regular RN seamen Gene Allen Smith and from the start, it was a ‘happy Fort Worth, Texas ship’ with the mix of captain, officers and men rubbing along well, making the ship correspondingly efficient and effective. Active throughout the conflict, Belfast experienced a wide range of service over the six war years. The initial half of the war was somewhat inglorious as the ship was Book Reviews 455 damaged in the Firth of Forth, not far of France. Belfast was to provide the from Edinburgh, in November 1939. army with shore bombardment off the The cruiser had triggered a magnetic landing beaches. Assigned to protect mine, one of Hitler’s ‘secret weap- the Juno and Sword beaches, HMS ons’ that was overcome via ‘degauss- Belfast provided direct fire support to ing’ to reduce or eliminate the natural the Canadian Army engaged there. It magnetic field created by any ship. is clear that shore bombardment Repair of the damage took no less proved less effective than desired, than three years, almost the length of largely due to inadequate commun- time to construct a new ship–her keel ication between the army and the had been badly distorted by the warships involved. Nonetheless, as mine’s explosion and the repair the Normandy campaign progressed, process complex. She rejoined the the effectiveness of the naval guns fleet in August 1942. improved as all involved learned their There is no question that the business. greatest action involving HMS After the Normandy campaign Belfast was the sinking of the ended and war in Europe entered its German battlecruiser Scharnhorst on final months, the allies turned to 26 December 1943. The Battle of concluding the war in the Pacific. North Cape, as the engagement is HMS Belfast was shifted to the Far known, was the RN’s last ‘big gun’ East as part of this redeployment of action. The Scharnhorst was target- the RN’s strength. The ship needed ing a convoy bound for Russia while modifications for prolonged service HMS Belfast, in company with two in tropical waters, notably adequate other cruisers, provided close escort ventilation, and repair of the wear duties. Further off, the battleship and tear of the previous two years. HMS Duke of York provided distant This was completed by the summer cover. The weather was appalling of 1945 and HMS Belfast headed off but the cruisers protecting the convoy to Australia to join the British Pacific did their job, with HMS Belfast Fleet. Lavery touches on the difficul- prominent among them. In due ties obtaining crews as many sailors course, HMS Duke of York caught up were less than keen on going to fight with the Scharnhorst and pounced. Japan. Indeed, the challenges The resulting engagement saw the experienced by the RN have a direct German ship overwhelmed and sunk correlation to the same problems that with heavy loss of life. Rescue work affected the RCN on the same issue. was complicated by the gale force In essence, most of the men and winds, heavy seas, darkness and officers of the RN were perfectly anxiety over the presence of U-boats. content serving king and country After a year on Arctic convoy against the existential threat posed by duties, highlighted by the Germany, but were less committed to Scharnhorst action, HMS Belfast was the distant threat of Japan. Defence redeployed to support Operation of colonial and imperial interests Overlord, the long-awaited invasion were of far less moment than defence 456 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord of hearth and home to most, which is also delves briefly into design an interesting reflection. features of British cruisers of the HMS Belfast was involved in 1930s, as well as the potential use of dealing with the aftermath of the the ship in the first fifteen years after Japanese defeat, particularly in the war. This was a time of rapid arranging for the surrender of technological change as well as vast Japanese forces in bypassed areas as modifications in the potential conduct well as looking after and caring for of war between major powers, the liberated European population creating a great deal of uncertainty and prisoners of war (POWs) from about how these challenges would be Japanese hands. The ill-treatment met. One consequence was the experienced by both groups shocked demise of the ‘big gun’ and with that, the men of HMS Belfast and left a the day of the cruiser was done. The deep impression. Yet this was not author has provided an excellent the end of Belfast’s service. She bibliography, which includes both continued in the post-war RN, fought primary and secondary sources. The in the Korean War, experienced a selection of photographs is an major refit in the late 1950s and was interesting blend of wartime and finally paid off in 1970 after a museum shots. Included on the number of years as a depot ship. The inside front cover of the book is an original intent was, unsurprisingly, to ‘exploded’ view of the ship, which is simply scrap her as was normal prac- a pleasure to pour over. One wishes tice, but the decision was made to it were bigger. I have no difficulty in create a museum ship in concert with recommending this book. Indeed, if the Imperial War Museum. To that you are visiting London, you must end she was moored in the Pool of visit the ship itself. London, opposite the Tower of Lon- don, where she remains to this day. Ian Yeates, Lavery has written a thoroughly Regina, Saskatchewan enjoyable book on HMS Belfast and her career in a Royal Navy that had changed out of all recognition Ron MacKay, Jr. The U.S. Navy’s between her 1939 commissioning to “Interim” LSM(R)s in World War II: the time of her paying off. The Rocket Ships of the Pacific combination of ‘human interest’ Amphibious Forces. Jefferson, NC: digressions with the recollections of McFarland and Company, Inc., those who served in the ship, www.mcfarlandpub.com, 2016. alongside an operational history is vii+344 pp., illustrations, maps, compelling. It is a reminder, if any is appendices, glossary, notes, biblio- needed, that what makes a warship graphy, index. US $45.00, paper; effective is the crew. It helps that the ISBN 978-0-7864-9859-8. ship had an interesting war, and played a significant part in it. While This work can best be described as a not central to Lavery’s purpose, he construction and combat chronology Book Reviews 457 for the United States Navy’s twelve urgency to result in “uneven qualities “Interim” Landing Ships, Medium of workmanship and disparate levels (Rocket), following the ships and of completion” amongst the sup- crew from the drawing board through posedly uniform vessels (27). The to the end of the Second World War. unique difficulties faced by the eight To craft such a work, the author ships mounting fin-stabilized rockets relies not only on surviving official verses the four carrying spin- records, period documents, and stabilized examples is also heavily photographs, but an impressive documented. While the “Finner” collection of interviews and material LSM(R)s faced problems with their from a mix of 75 surviving LSM(R) outboard launchers and crewmembers of all ranks. Chapters seaworthiness, the tribulations of are broken up into the distinct periods their “Spinner” cousins seems worse. of the vessels’ combat service, From the outset, this quartet of presented in a chronological order Rocket Ships suffered from supply and followed by statistical and construction problems, with the appendices. The bulk of the work crippling lack of proper rockets focuses on 26 March to 18 June forcing their firing tests to be done 1945, the period in which the with jerry-rigged oversized rockets. LSM(R)s were actively involved in Meanwhile, manufacturing flaws on the Okinawa operations. their hastily installed launchers The introduction discusses actually delayed their arrival into the available sources for MacKay’s Pacific since they desperately needed “comprehensive operational history,” repairs and maintenance after passing along with the deficiencies caused by through the Panama Canal. war, most notably the loss of all Chapters three through ten form official documents pertaining to the core of the work, thoroughly LSM(R)s 190, 194, and 195 follow- documenting the combat operations ing their destruction in May of 1945 of the LSM(R)s from their arrival at (3-4). Additionally, all interviewed the Kerama Rettos through their final survivors are listed under the ships in fire support missions off Okinawa. which they served, showcasing the McKay notes both the greenness of author’s wide range of first-hand the crews during their initial actions sources from a dozen vessels. The as well as the helpful side-effect of rest of the book is divided into their unintentionally early salvos — thirteen chapters. The first two can which actually cut approach lanes be viewed as a pair, documenting the through dense coral reefs for the Rocket Ships from inception through approaching landing craft. While not to their deployment to the Pacific. directly mentioned, one cannot help MacKay does an admirable job of but draw comparisons to the reefs conveying how rushed and unusual around Tarawa, and how this “jump- the creation of the LSM(R)s was, ing of the gun” probably saved a with the roughly drafted plans good number of lives. Post-action combining with secrecy and wartime crafting of their own firing doctrine 458 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord shows the ingenuity of the crews, naval terms, notes, a bibliography, while information regarding Japanese and an index. suicide boats, kamikazes, and Oper- The overall composition of the ation Ten-Go builds up to the work is well thought out. There is a LSM(R)’s first real experiences with variety of rare, original photographs the horrors of war, and to the and period sketches, along with eventual loss of three vessels. technical drawings to enhance MacKay impartially presents both understanding of the general sides of a divisive issue, most notably construction and layout process in the the assignment of the LSM(R)s to the early chapters. Maps, both vintage dangerous task of Radar Picket Duty. and modern, aid with visualizing the By presenting the opinions of the larger scale aspects of operations and interviewed survivors on the subject, the LSM(R)s’ place in them. Not- McKay shows that while some felt ations within the text explain less that the Task Force Commander common terminology such as mils, Dennis L. Francis was trying to and the division of sources in the “make a name for himself,” other bibliography into subsections based men held that it was the “unfortunate on which archive possesses the decision” of a pair of Admirals and specific documents is an inspired that their Commander had done his choice to aid others in their research. best to have them removed from the The only place where there seems to hazardous duty (131-132). There is be a break in the flow is with a also a good deal of coverage photograph on page 85. The regarding friendly-fire controversies photograph shows LSM(R) 196 firing during the landings at Iheya Shima, off Aka Shima, but the caption and where McKay argues that it was not direct references in the text appear to the LSM(R)s, but rather “one or more be referring to an image taken during U.S. Marine fighter-bombers, and the same operation which was used reckless ground fire” that caused the on the work’s cover instead. casualties instead (229-232). The However, this is a relatively minor final three chapters document the error in the grand scheme of the post-combat retrofitting of the work. LSM(R)s into ammunition carriers As it stands, The U.S. Navy’s for the invasion of Japan, and their “Interim” LSM(R)s in World War II return to the United States following is a solid overview of an often the secession of hostilities. A series neglected piece of naval history of helpful appendices covering during the final stages of the War in characteristics, crew, markings, and the Pacific. Technical data is provid- ship data follow to provide more ed in a manner that is understandable detailed statistical information on the to the lay reader, and the inclusion of vessels, their crews, and their post- firsthand accounts helps illuminate war dispositions. Finally, there is a details that are often lost when glossary of relevant military and nothing but official documents remain. This piece can therefore act Book Reviews 459 as a solid research tool not only for run was not beaten until 1952 by the readers interested in the Rocket Ships current holder of record, the SS themselves, but for those focusing on United States. the experiences of sailors during the Thus began the mystique Okinawa Operation and the origins of surrounding “the Queens” and the modern American missile ships as reputation of Cunard itself. Catering well. to the rich and famous, as well as to lesser mortals, Queen Mary and her Charles Ross Patterson II younger sibling—the larger Queen Yorktown, Virginia Elizabeth of 1938—established a reputation for luxury, service and an elite standard of travel comfort William H. Miller. Cunard’s Modern unobtainable elsewhere. It was a Queens. A Celebration. Stroud, carefully cultivated image nurtured Gloucs: Amberley Publishing, www. by an outstanding Cunard Line PR amberley-books.com, 2014. 128 pp., organization supported by a complicit illustrations, bibliography. UK British Government hungry for the £19.99, paper; ISBN 978-4456-3387- US dollar revenue the ships gener- 9. ated. Of course, the elite standards really applied only to First-Class The Cunard Line has been around in passengers. Those who travelled in its various corporate guises since its the lower-priced classes had to make founding in 1839 by the Nova do with much less. Scotian Samuel Cunard. In the early In the twenty-first century, twentieth century, the company estab- Cunard is a very different corporate lished a reputation for luxurious entity. While it is still the only ship- premium passenger services on ping company offering scheduled scheduled voyages between New passenger services on the North York and Britain. In the 1930s, trans- Atlantic run, it is no longer British- Atlantic travel became an extremely owned — it is part of the giant competitive business; even to the Carnival conglomerate. None of its extent that national prestige was ships are registered in Britain (but in invoked in order to build bigger, the Crown Colony of Bermuda, faster and more luxurious passenger which entitles them to fly the Red liners. Britain, France, Germany, the Ensign); and, the last ship the United States and Italy vied for the company built in Britain was the unofficial but highly prestigious Queen Elizabeth 2 (commonly known “Blue Riband”. This was awarded to as QE2). She was launched 49 years the ship making the fastest west- ago and now rests idly alongside a bound crossing of the Atlantic and no pier in Dubai. The mystique lingers, nation was a dominant winner until however, and is energetically prom- the new Cunarder RMS Queen Mary oted by the contemporary incarnation first won in 1936, and followed that of the company. The current crop of with another victory in 1938. This Cunard ships are essentially one-class 460 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord cruise liners operating in a business The section on the farewell environment just as competitive as voyages of the QE2 comprises 55 that of Blue Riband days. The repu- pages; by far the longest. This may be tation of the old days is a competitive apt, however, as QE2 was the last of edge enhanced perhaps by the new the line of true “ocean liners” and her crop of “Queens”—the current fleet retirement marked the end of a long of Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and era of elegant-looking ships. The the new Queen Elizabeth. It is these new “Queens”, as the photographs three ships, and the now retired QE2, show, display little to distinguish that this book looks at. them visually from their many similar The author is a noted New York- cruise-ship contemporaries. In the based maritime historian and author. opinion of this reviewer, most His specialty is passenger liners and modern cruise ships are far from he has written extensively on the elegant and graceful in their subject. In this book, he focuses on appearance. Again there are side- three specific periods in which two or lights, including one about a lady three Queens were in the same place who made the ship her home for nine at the same time in 2008 and later in years! The final segment of the book 2010. The book is a paean to an aura covers the introduction into service of of time past, carefully recreated in a the new Queen Elizabeth in 2010. modern image where the opulence of This reviewer found the book a bygone era can be obtained without disappointing because there is little the necessity of being rich and substance in much of it. Of its 128 famous. pages, only 40 contain text. The bulk The first section (they are not of the book is photographs of each of entitled as Chapters) opens in the ships in almost every conceivable January 2008 when all three ships situation—under construction, at sea, arrived in New York at the same time in harbour, entering harbour, leaving to great fanfare. This event is des- harbour, performing manoeuvres or cribed almost breathlessly and is simply lying alongside a pier. For the followed by a short history of true aficionado of cruise ships and Cunard. Then the narrative moves devotees of Cunard liners, and ahead to April 2009, when the three Cunard itself in particular, this is liners were once again together, but likely a treasure trove. Some of the this time in Southampton, England. photographs are excellent but the Interspersed within the text are book seems to suffer because of the sidelights — a piece on the Hotel overexposure of the subjects. Manager of the QE2 and the reflec- Definitely a niche market book. tions of a former cook in Cunard ships. There is a certain lack of Michael Young cohesion in this part of the narrative Nepean, Ontario which, unfortunately carries on into the other sections. Book Reviews 461

Lawrence Paterson. Steel and Ice: He seldom sent his best captains and The U-boat Battle in the Arctic and crews anywhere else. Any and all Black Sea 1941-45. Annapolis, MD: efforts that detracted from vigorously Naval Institute Press, www.nip.org. working that battle space were 2016. 252 pp., illustrations, appendix, essentially wasted. Appalling notes, bibliography, index. U.S. weather conditions in the Arctic and $15.21, cloth. ISBN 978-0-7509- the shallow waters off the Kerch 6363-3. (Published in the UK by the Peninsula and Caucasus / Crimean History Press, Stroud, Gloucs.) coasts that precluded U-boat efforts (Kindle version available.) to disrupt Soviet ground offensives meant that every submarine attached Nothing exemplifies the vastness of to these peripheral areas was in effect the Second World War more than the a submarine lost. There were to be appearance seventy-odd years on of no “happy times” in these secondary studies and stories that illuminate still theatres. obscure corners of the conflict. As was so often the case in Lawrence Paterson’s study of U-boat battles elsewhere, Hitler personally operations on the watery northern and compounded the problems confront- southern flanks of the Eastern Front ing him in the Black and Barents fits snugly into the category. The Seas. While the Fuhrer paid little Arctic and Black Sea theatres of attention to the former (though not to operation posed sharply different the fate of his armies ashore), his challenges to Hitler’s U-boat arm. In insistence that Norway was an the icy, storm-lashed seas above inevitable Allied invasion corridor Scandinavia and the Russian coast that must be contested by a formid- where total darkness reigned four able force of U-boats sensibly months of the year, German sub- weakened his navy’s struggle for mariners strove mightily and with control of the Atlantic. Paterson some success to disrupt where they traces mounting German failures with could not destroy the Allied convoys understanding and no little sympathy. to Murmansk. In the Black Sea, a After mid-1943, Germany`s for- relative handful of boats maintaining tunes progressively darkened and U- a high tempo of operations sought out boats everywhere went on the enemy merchant shipping and defensive, cursed by poor equipment, warships assisting in the initially half-trained men and a growing loss sporadic but ever-growing Soviet of morale. Paterson recounts one counteroffensives after Stalingrad. incident of cowardice by a command- As Paterson makes clear, ing officer in Norway, but there were frustration dogged and soon crowned doubtless many more despite an all efforts. Karl Doenitz, head of the infusion of younger captains burning U-boat service, and then Navy with Nazi determination to fight to Commander in Chief, understood that the bitter end. Germany’s decisive theater of oper- Paterson’s stories generally make ations at sea was the North Atlantic. for good reading. If his prose seldom 462 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord rises above the level of battleship Germany’s attack on seaborne trade grey, it is nonetheless serviceable, during the Second World War is and in one instance, reaches a level of probably best associated with the U- undeniable poignancy as he recounts boat, and yet they were not the only the tale of a fearfully burned merch- weapons the Kriegsmarine fielded ant seaman (probably American) during the conflict. Big warships, plucked from Arctic seas only to such as Bismarck, were also famously endure an icy hell in a lifeboat before sent out to attack the sea-lanes as finally succumbing in hospital were a handful (nine, to be exact) ashore. (92-94) armed merchant cruisers. Modern, But there are problems. Both the well camouflaged and relatively text (including chapter endnotes) and inconspicuous, they hunted for the bibliography seem to have been enemy merchant shipping literally hastily thrown together. Many across the globe from 1940-43. accounts of individual operations One of these nine German raiders lack citation; an essay detailing the was the Komet or “Raider B”, as she handful of archival materials used would be known by the Admiralty. would be of great help. The editing Interestingly, Komet would not is too often sloppy. Words are become the most successful, or have dropped and occasionally sentences the longest voyage, or the most make little or no sense in context. adventures. It was just another Much is redeemed by striking warship in a time of war going about photographs, especially those in a mission that had been assigned. colour, which bring back sights, Aside from an excellent sounds, smells and atmosphere across introduction situating the raider seven decades. Despite its several within its historical context and a drawbacks, this is a study that should chapter on the narrative of Komet’s be read by anyone interested in life, the value of the book lies in the exploring the relatively remote 200 previously unpublished photo- corners of Second World War naval graphs of the ship’s first raiding history. voyage between July 1940 and Nov- ember 1941. Mysteriously, where Lisle A. Rose these photographs came from or were Edmonds, Washington found is never explained and leaves the interested reader with many questions. What was the chain of Olivier Pigoreau. The Odyssey of the custody? Where were they acquired? Komet. Raider of the Third Reich. This intrigue is further deepened Paris: Histoire et Collections, when the author later states that the www.histoireetcollections.com, 2016. photographs had serial numbers and 176 pp., illustrations, sources. US if the numbers were chronological, $34.95, paper; ISBN 978-2-35250- then some 40-odd photographs have 455-9. disappeared from the collection — those documenting the ship’s passage Book Reviews 463 through the North-East Passage from boat, or another raider were never Norway to the Pacific Ocean. What that far away. They illustrate a well- happened to these images? Were organized supply system for the they seized upon return for political raiders and the intricate disguises reasons? Lastly, there is also the employed by the German ships. question of the photographer who is Especially in the Pacific, the raiders never positively identified, but the masqueraded as Japanese vessels, author makes a convincing case that which was useful pre-Pearl Harbor, it was likely the ship’s surgeon, Dr. but strained diplomacy. The German Jürgen Hartmann. raid on the British Phosphate The pictures themselves are a installations at Nauru, while fascinating study and well annotated extremely successful, would deprive without drawing too many Germany’s ally of vital raw materials conclusions. Those familiar with the when they joined the war—an study of photographs, especially interesting chapter in the Pacific War wartime collections and albums, will that was overshadowed by immediately see several themes subsequent events. coming out in force. Aside from the Perhaps the biggest lesson, and numerous photos of ships, from both one that all military historians should sides, the photographer captured remember, is that battle represents at daily life aboard the ship. From the very most, one-tenth of posted crew photographs to shots everything that transpires. Days, snapped at random, the images are weeks, and in the case of the Komet, highly varied. Photos taken ashore seven and half months went by give the feel of typical ‘tourist’ without a single capture or ‘action.’ photography while those of sinking When action did happen it was sharp enemy ships and captured goods and — and as several photographs show prisoners are ‘trophy shots’, — deadly. Although the victims were documenting the raider’s success. well cared for and loss of life was Worth noting is that all the minimized as much as possible, it pictures of the commander are almost was wartime and enemy merchant- stereotypical ‘Captain’ pictures, men fought back with what they had, while there are no scenes of the often times both wireless and with officers’ mess or ‘fun’ aboard ship. the few guns they carried. The crew appears in generally good The author’s previously physical condition and seems to have mentioned introduction should be enjoyed various amusements on noted as one of the best written on board, breaking up the mundane tasks the subject, useful for a popular with line-crossing ceremonies, audience as well as professional boxing matches, captain’s birthday scholars. One memorable example is parties, etc. Readers will also note the statistic that, on average, German that, although raiding was almost armed merchant cruisers sank 90,000 exclusively a lone-wolf operation, the tons per ship while U-boats averaged pictures reveal that a supply ship, u- only 15,000 tons apiece (13). One 464 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord could argue what exactly this means, maps, notes, bibliography, index. US but at the very least, it offers much $75.00, UK £52.00, cloth; ISBN 978- food for thought. The book’s pre- 1-60223-251-8. face, written by a former French naval officer, also links the topic to The lucrative export of furs had been the modern period where as late as a key driver behind Russia’s rapid the Cold War, NATO naval exercises expansion into Siberia starting considered enemy raiders breaking around 1600. Furs were still the out and attacking both sea-lanes of main national export in 1741 as communication and enemy warships. control over the Kamchatka Penin- Aside from a few odd phrases sula — the last portion of the and what this reviewer found to be Eurasian mainland to be absorbed — randomly placed footnotes in the text, was still being consolidated when the an issue that could well have arisen inexorable search for fresh hunting during translation, the book’s only and trapping grounds took Russia real shortcoming was the missing into Alaska. Exploring and Mapping background for the collection of Alaska is a comprehensive descrip- photographs and the unanswered tion of how knowledge about this questions it raised. A short discuss- vast and remote region was accum- ion of what we can see — or cannot ulated in successive expeditions for see — in the photographs would also commercial and scientific motives have been beneficial to the work. and how the results were made Overall, the photographs were a available (or supressed). Despite the great find and they are now presented daunting challenges of operating in in an easy-to-access manner for what remained a barely accessible anyone interested in the topic. area, the steady progress over the Readers from all backgrounds will decades in geographic exploration enjoy this book and specialists in the and studying and describing peoples, field should be pleasantly surprised. fauna, wildlife and resources was a It is a recommended read and a singular achievement. One of the chance to “step back aboard.” distinguished experts involved in producing this book, Professor Rich- Christopher Kretzschmar ard Pierce, asserts that it in terms of Upper Hampstead, New Brunswick the volume of information gathered, the Russian output exceeded that of any other contemporary colonial Alexey Postnikov and Marvin Falk power operating in a territory of (Lydia Black, trans.) Exploring and comparable size. (462) Mapping Alaska. The Russian Exploring and Mapping Alaska is America Era. 1741-1865. Fairbanks, the result of collaborative effort by AK: University of Alaska Press. academics whose lifetimes have been Distributed by The University of devoted to study of Russian expan- Chicago Press, www.press.uchicago. sion, its role in Alaska and edu, 2015. ix+525 pp., illustrations, cartography. It was originally pub- Book Reviews 465 lished in Russian in 2000. The lead the Postinkov narrative to reflect author is Dr. Alexey Postnikov of the scholarship after the Russian version Russian Academy of Sciences, an was published. The finished product internationally recognised authority is a pleasure to handle: well-bound on the geography and cartography of and attractive with very clear Russia. Born in 1939, he has had a typefaces and an excellent index. long and distinguished academic This book is a rich resource but lacks career, starting interestingly at sea a good overall map of Alaska. This when as a graduate he served in a makes following the descriptions of research vessel. The story of the various expeditions difficult, English language version is complex, particularly when obsolete names for involving many hands. Postnikov rivers are used. apparently collaborated on this book As Russian influence spread into with Richard A. Pierce, an American eastern Siberia and then Alaska, the historian who was at Queens geographic knowledge of indigenous University in Kingston, Ontario for peoples was assimilated into a grow- 29 years before spending a decade at ing picture. The narrative explains the University of Alaska in how the fur traders and government Fairbanks. During his long academic expeditions deliberately incorporated career, Pierce authored, published native place names in their surveys. and translated from Russian several The significant contributions to historical studies, and in later years, knowledge about the Alaskan coasts on Russian Alaska. He had appar- by British voyages, and those by ently originally planned to publish his French and Spanish explorers are not English translation at the same time neglected. Postnikov carefully des- as the Russian version, but this did cribes the accuracy of successive not happen and he subsequently surveys and the techniques being asked Dr. Lydia Black, a colleague in used to determine latitude and Fairbanks and another distinguished longitude. Exploration and surveying historian of Russian Alaska to help. involved operating at extreme dis- Black, a native speaker and well tances from European Russia using known ethnographer and translator in vessels constructed on the frontier. her own right, unfortunately died in There were many strands to the 2007 before completely finishing the process; Postnikov describes how project. It was left to Dr. Marvin Vitus Bering established schools in Falk, also of the University of coastal Siberia as early as the 1730s Alaska, to oversee polishing of the to train navigators. Several of such translation and selection of illus- locally-trained mariners would, in trations from the university’s time, undertake substantial Rasmuson Library. The original cartographic and hydrographic illustrations provided by Alexey surveys. The push to steadily expand Postnikov were unfortunately not geographic knowledge came from a available for inclusion in the English- combination of commercial and language edition. Falk also updated government interests. The commer- 466 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord cial drivers are exemplified by the about new areas had obvious entrepreneur Grigory Shelikhov advantages — the Hudson’s Bay (1747/48 - 1795), and after its found- Company operated in a similar ation in 1799 the Russian-America fashion for the same reasons. But Company, which was a monopoly secrecy bulked even larger in Russian analogous to the Hudson’s Bay practices due to the country’s isola- Company in North America and the tion, torturous heritage of internal Royal Danish Greenland Trading and external struggles and suspicion Company. Having said this, then as of foreigners. Postnikov started his now, the Russian state played a much academic career in the 1960s when more substantial role in the national the Soviet Union omitted sensitive economy than the state of Britain and areas, excluding entire large Denmark of the time. The state population areas from maps and bodies fostering exploration and making only vague schematics investigation were the Russian publically available as city maps. Admiralty and Academy of Sciences, The situation has changed since the which did not always share end of the USSR but he writes that information. the practice of cartographic and Three long chapters with copious geographic secrecy “has carried end notes trace in detail the forward even in very recent times”. successive Russian projects to map (18) and describe Alaska. This is the Three examples follow: when story of how knowledge was Vitus Bering was despatched on his accumulated and shared over time. second voyage from Kamchatka in The enumeration of expeditions and 1732, this time to establish once and results in the text is exhaustive, for all if an isthmus connected Asia including charts no longer extant and with America and to thrust towards explorations which never published the American coast, his instructions results. The long chapters are chron- were to be kept secret and specified ological but there is a succinct “…for public use another special summary of main trends in the instruction is being issued to you” conclusion. (53). A few decades later, a secret This study is forthright about Admiralty expedition in 1768-9 under how a characteristic Russian policy two naval officers succeeded in of shrouding geographical knowledge delineating where the Aleutians lay in in secrecy operated right through to the North Pacific and produced high the end of Russian America. All quality hydrographic surveys. The European states conducted their valuable expedition reports, however, affairs with secrecy at the time; the remained secret, were never Spanish also suppressed information published in Russia and began being about the cartographic achievements introduced into Russian scientific of Bodega y Quadra’s 1775 voyage literature only in the twentieth which reached southern Alaska. For century (98). Starting in 1818, a the fur traders, preserving secrecy series of seasoned naval officers was Book Reviews 467 appointed as the Russian-American Exploring and Mapping Alaska. Company Chief Manager stationed in The Russian America Era 1741-1867 Alaska. Several had first-hand is volume 17 in a University of hydrographic experience and they Alaska Press series of translations shared an interest in advancing from Russian and is a credit to the geographic knowledge. The most publishers for the quality of both its outstanding of these naval Chief contents and its attractive format. Managers was Ferdinand von This is a substantial and rich Wrangell, in office between 1830 and academic work which brings together 1835, who published a famous study insights accumulated over the on the geography and ethnography of lifetimes of its distinguished Alaska in 1839. Virtually all collaborators about how knowledge skippers of Russian-American concerning Russian America was Company vessels were instructed to gathered and disseminated. improve existing charts and to search for new islands. (315). Secrecy, Jan Drent however, continued to apply to Victoria, British Columbia exploration. As Postnikov notes, the words “its goals must be kept secret” were underlined in the instructions Jürgen Rohwer and Mikhail S. for an 1838 exploration along the Monakov. Stalin’s Ocean-Going northwest coast of Alaska. (328). Fleet. Soviet Naval Strategy and The Russian presence in Alaska Shipbuilding Programmes 1935- was along the Aleutians, Kodiak 1953. London: Routledge, Island and the most accessible www.routledge.com, 2014. Cass portions of the southern coasts along Series, Naval History and Policy. with the southeastern Panhandle. xvi+334 pp., illustrations, tables, Traders also worked the western appendices, bibliography, index. US interior south of the Yukon River and $54.95, paper; ISBN 978-0-415- the lower 300 km of the Yukon. In 76125-3. addition, charting was done on the northwest coast. By 1867, these were This is a complex subject and the the best mapped areas accompanied authors handle it very well, as well by a body of ethnographic combining the strategic and studies that had been compiled along geostrategic levels of what was going with investigations of mineral on in the Soviet Union between 1935 resources, flora and fauna. The and 1953 with the proposed and Russian population in the vastness of actual procurement that was carried Alaska never exceeded 2,800: 800 out. They explain not only why ships Russians plus fewer than 2,000 were built but also why specific ship persons of mixed race termed designs were chosen, including a “Creoles” in Russian descriptions, chapter actually titled “Why Did analogous to the Métis of Canada. Stalin Build his Big Ocean-Going Fleet?” This chapter offers an 468 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord interesting counterpoint to such but, if built big enough and strong works as Admiral Sergy Goshkov’s enough, still carried enough cachet to The Sea Power of the State (1979), enhance the prestige and pre- David Fairhall’s Russia Looks to the eminence of the Soviet state. Sea (1971) and Dismukes & Thankfully, the book’s structure McConnell’s Soviet Naval Diplomacy is in direct contrast to the complexity (1979). In essence, it examines the of the topic. It follows a Soviet navy’s switch from building chronological path, principally the what was a very modest, mostly five-year plans which were the core coastal force, to a large and Soviet planning medium. The impressive ocean-going fleet with an authors outline a clear priority of emphasis on vessels that would inputs that enables the reader to enhance national status. What really easily follow their analysis while sets this book apart is its extensive gaining an understanding of the use of previously-closed Soviet process. While this book is certainly archives to add an important layer of an exceptionally detailed work that illumination to the subject. will be of great assistance to any The book delves deeply into academic, the quality and clarity of Soviet shipbuilding strategy and its writing also make it accessible for Stalin’s role within the procurement the pleasure reader. This clarity is process. It examines how important especially true with the tables, which his personal perspective was to the synthesize a huge quantity of data viability of any project and how his about proposed designs, into a thinking on the geographic reality structure that is both understandable and geostrategic situation of the and informative. Some excellent Soviet Union permeated everything. photos, including one of HMS Royal Stalin remained sceptical about the Sovereign (144) as the Arkhangel’sk value of aircraft carriers and was during her service with the Soviet drawn to battleships, even though the navy further enhance the reader’s experience of the Second World War experience. demonstrated the need for long-range The fact that a British battleship strike capability. In fact, the authors served as the pride of the Soviet navy constantly refer to the ongoing Soviet from 1944-9 is one of the debate over the relative value of ship consequences of Soviet procurement designs as having a major influence problems. At one point, the Soviet on naval procurement plans. It is very navy even attempted to have clear that the Soviet navy was not battleships built in the USA, because really wedded to any particular the domestic yards and machinery design as a core ship upon which to plants were not able to produce what build their fleet. This may explain was needed for such complex vessels. why, in the end, the navy ended up Another example of the ongoing with the Sverdlov class ‘Cruiser’. Soviet saga of battleship procurement This was the smallest class of vessel was the attempt to procure suitable considered capable of everything, geared turbines. Although they Book Reviews 469 ordered four sets from the Swiss firm, notes, bibliography, index. US Brown, Boverie & Cie (88), only two $34.95. ISBN 978-0-7643-5033-7. sets were delivered prior to the German invasion. This meant that The American privateers were the battleships were never completed. arguably the most effective seaborne Luckily for the Soviets, their operation that contributed to the procurement from Italian sources was British defeat during the Revolution more successful, and provided War. Although they sailed from New essential ships that were of great England through South Carolina operational importance during the ports, much of the activity occurred Second World War. off the coast of New Jersey, the Ultimately, this work stands on stretch of coastline between New the quality of research and on the York Harbor and the Delaware Bay information provided and is really port of Philadelphia. Shomette only limited by the length of the divides the book into three book. There is much scope for progressive but interlocking sections: further analysis and extrapolation Resolved, Deprivations upon the from the data assembled. For Trade, and Iron Depression. He example, there are fascinating states that this book is not a history of illustrations of aircraft carriers late-eighteenth century American designed in the 1930s that look like a privateering. Still, its vast scope and combination of American and British attention to detail make it an designs—which apparently originated excellent source for any scholar in Italy. The data provided by wishing to learn about this specific Rohwer and Monakov not only enterprise during this era. provides insight into Soviet naval The author defines privateering, procurement and design, but also into how it came about in the nascent the thinking of other nations. United Colonies, how the British Moreover, by discussing the Soviet developed a counter-initiative, and leadership’s attempts at foreign relates a series of tales of its procurement, the book provides a effectiveness from both vantage context for decisions made at similar points of the conflict. The captiv- levels in other countries. ating writing is sprinkled with references that add to the authenticity Alex Clarke of the narrative. Shomette takes the Epsom, Surrey reader through intriguing tales of bravado in the tiny ports of Little Egg Harbor, Barnegat Bay and Barnegat Donald Grady Shomette. Privateers Inlet where privateers intercepted of the Revolution. War on the New British commercial vessels. New Jersey Coast, 1775-1883. Atglen, PA: Jersey was partly a rebel colony, but Schiffer Publishing Ltd., with a core of loyalists including the www.schifferbooks.com, 2016. 447 colony’s Royal Governor, William pp. illustrations, maps, appendices, Franklin, the illegitimate son of 470 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

Benjamin Franklin. The nascent state Perhaps Shomette’s best writing was a centre of the vital iron works was his account of Captain Joshua and salt industries. Salt was vital to Barney and the Hyder Ali. Barney the sustenance of the population for was one of the heroes of both the general health issues, preservation of Revolutionary War and the later War meat and fish, and food flavouring, of 1812. Through bravery, boldness, and was, therefore, a valuable brilliance and a great deal of good commodity. fortune he overcame a superior The book leads the reader British force, including the 20-gun through a series of privateering sloop-of-war General Monk and the adventures that are spellbinding. 16-gun brig Fair American. Later he These include the convoluted story of fooled the frigate Quebec near the Connecticut’s privateer captain capes of Delaware Bay. This Gideon Olmsted (ancestor of famed involved the twenty-two year old landscape architect Frederick Law Barney’s clever use of the duplicitous Olmsted), who was captured, “rule of the contrary” enticing the exchanged, escaped and ultimately enemy into a maritime trap, a defeat landed in Philadelphia with a against overwhelming odds that valuable prize, the Active. Problems became legendary. ensued in determining whether There are many other tales but Pennsylvania or the new Continental the most riveting is found in roughly Congress had jurisdiction over the the last fifty pages concerning sale and distribution of the proceeds maritime prisoners of war and the from the sale. The legal wrangling horrors they experienced onboard the went on for many years until Olmsted prison ship HMS Jersey. Not be read was sixty-one, but he was not paid before bedtime, these chapters until he was eighty-four and by then vividly describe the noxious smells, received only a token recompense. the insanity and hopelessness, acts of Another tale of note was the cruelty and deprivation that took Joshua Huddy affair, a tale of a place onboard these floating prisons. privateer who was captured by the Shomette evokes “the cruel, horrible British and hanged in retaliation for days and nights . . . spent in her the perceived murder of an squalid hold, a thousand mariners at Englishman, Philip White. This led a time . . . thirsting, moaning, puking, to all sorts of accusations and and suffering, with as many as ten a counter-accusations about recrimin- day dying from disease, starvation, ations, the “eye for an eye” policy and unending brutality.” (9) Foul and prisoner exchange rules. The smelling excrement tubs were story is legalistic as was the Olmsted “laboriously carried up the ladder to chronicle, but it caused one to think the upper deck [each morning] with about the problems of communication the contents often slopping over the during this time and the so-called sides upon the bearer and then rules of war which were in effect. pitched over the side of the ship in Book Reviews 471 the same locale where salt water for eighteenth century, a class (caste) cooking was hauled up.” (268) system commonly separated The author tells of the appeal to important prisoners from the general set up a prisoner exchange that was convict population. That noted, this sent to General George Washington. detail is of little importance. The response was slow in coming. In general, this book is well Washington was the commander of written, well organized, thoroughly the Continental Army and these were researched, interesting and thought- captured mariners, many from the provoking. Shomette’s command of privateer fleet, and, therefore, outside his subject provides a significant his official authority. In addition, the contribution to maritime history prisoners held by the army were students by his illumination of mostly British and Hessians soldiers privateering as it occurred during the and their release would likely critical formative years of the United reinforce Washington’s battlefield States of America. In addition, the opponents. In a drawn out and some- prolific historian provides difficult- times dramatic negotiation, some to-find information about the American sailors obtained their Pennsylvania privateer fleet of the freedom, but approximately 20,000 period as well as an extensive lost their lives in the most horrendous bibliography. I thoroughly recom- way. Shomette ends with the multi- mend this work to all students of the layered story about the Brooklyn American Revolution. monument that commemorates their sacrifice. Louis Arthur Norton There are a few flaws that the West Simsbury, Connecticut editors at Schiffer apparently missed including proofreading errors and leaving some illustrations mislabeled Daniel Owen Spence. A History of or misspelled. The book’s focus is at the Royal Navy: Empire and times peripatetic, but does exten- Imperialism. London: I.B. Taurus, sively cover privateering operations www.ibtauris.com, 2015. xviii+238 along the New Jersey Coast. pp., illustrations, maps, tables, notes, Shomette asserts that William bibliography, index. UK £20.00, Franklin was incarcerated in the cloth; ISBN 978-1-78076-543-3. “Catacomb of Loyalty,” the Simsbury (now East Granby) copper mine David Owen Spence’s contribution to locally known as New-Gate. the National Museum’s History of the Conflicting Connecticut historical Royal Navy Series is ambitious documents imply that he was held in indeed. Condensing more than five Wallingford, Middletown and Litch- hundred years of British history into field. Franklin’s imprisonment in the a single 200-page volume on the copper mine seems unlikely because Royal Navy and the British Empire is he was a Franklin and a New England no simple task, and yet, Spence Royal Governor. During the late appears to have done just that. In this 472 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord volume, he argues that the British Despite the small print, Empire Empire and its navy were inter- and Imperialism creates a context for dependent, not only for the purpose objective consideration of the merits of gaining a global empire, but and shortcomings of the British maintaining it as well. Britain’s navy Empire. It highlights the “tension provided the “hard” power to secure between local interests and imperial the empire but it was also the strategy” that occurred over control instrument of “soft” power that of Royal Navy ships as they sailed imbued British culture (including the empire from home to the colonial Christianity), society, and law across outposts (18). Spence writes, the globe. Invariably, this history “influenced by Victorian morality, concludes that the “Royal Navy” was romanticism, neo chivalry, and the “a fundamental force in shaping the cult of Nelson, many naval officers world as we know it” (196). felt justified in exceeding their The author uses a chronological official orders to pursue a higher narrative to make his case, but at imperial calling” (37). They felt times, his chapters become more compelled to be paternalistic towards topical in focus. The book generally other peoples and cultures, extolling follows the arc of the British Empire the merits of British science and from its Elizabethan roots through its values. For example, the chapter, elegant decline in the twentieth Pax Britannica, describes how the century. Briefly diverting from the expansion of the British Empire form of the other chapters, chapter facilitated the general end of slavery two focuses thematically on “Science around the world as the Royal Navy and Exploration” by quickly covering secured global trade, suppressed the earliest expeditions of the Pacific piracy, and helped spread Britain’s in the seventeenth century to the idea of liberalism (45). Later, the conquering of the South Pole in 1911. author describes how colonial Other chapters explore the nexus authorities, tired of the inequalities between the trappings of empire and and hypocrisies of the British system, imperial culture, highlighted by an supported post-colonial independence increasing dependence on colonial and a global network of navies navies to support Britain’s imperial modelled after the Royal Navy. interests. Black and white photos of Spence’s exploration of British the Royal Navy, colonial activities culture and the Royal Navy is and imperial subjects contribute particularly illuminating. The 1808 visually to Spence’s argument Army patronage and sex scandal with throughout the text. There are four the Duke of York shocked British coloured leaves of royal naval vessels elites to the point where many from the age of sail. It is a nicely thought it compromised the war bound volume, but the small type- against Napoleon and the French. In face (7-point font) makes this book response, British writers “portrayed an optical challenge for the reader. naval officers as romantic, chivalrous, paternalistic and Book Reviews 473 commanding gentlemen, resistant to On the other hand, readers who political and moral corruption” (87). already possess a general under- As a result, the Royal Navy came to standing of the history the British represent “British manliness” and Empire and the Royal Navy will imperial righteousness. British naval appreciate this work and the literature provided a “moral sophistication of Spence’s narrative. compass” for those questioning the empire, portraying the Royal Navy as Jon Scott Logel “the virtuous embodiment of Portsmouth, Rhode Island patriotism, self-reliance, courage, paternalism and duty, which made them better leaders and gentlemen” Jo Stanley. From Cabin ‘Boys’ to (91). The author notes that this was Captains. 250 Years of Women at the rendering lampooned famously by Sea. Stroud, UK: The History Press, Gilbert and Sullivan. Just as signi- www. thehistorypress.co.uk, 2016. ficant was the role of the Royal Navy 304 pp., illustrations, appendices, in spreading English sport to the glossary, notes, bibliography, index. corners of the empire. The Royal UK £20.00, paper; ISBN 978-0-7524- Navy encouraged football (soccer), 8878-3. cricket, sailing, and scouting—all in the vein of “nationalising the force” Jo Stanley’s stated purpose was to (106). write a truthful book, an unbiased Beyond the effects of soft power picture of life as it actually was for in the colonies, the Royal Navy also women who went to sea, across time, enabled a mercantile shipping indust- and for a variety of reasons. This is a ry that contributed to an ever- serious study of the seafaring life of increasing body of quality seaman women in Britain and the United available to serve in war and peace. States over the last 250 years, from Imperial naval operations “… in- menial jobs to positions of respon- creased flows of trade, which sibility, and a discussion of how and accelerated Britain’s industrialization why those opportunities and working ahead of its rivals” (193). Britain’s conditions improved over time. It naval exploits influenced “romant- contains a wealth of detailed icism” in British arts and entertain- information based on a combination ment, and ultimately reinforced of personal interviews and historical imperial justifications for subjugating records about real women who went other peoples to British rule. to sea. While this study covers the time Stanley’s language is plaintive, span of the British Empire, it still is and for the most part, her literary only a compliment to the literature of style is intense. In the introduction British maritime history. Those new and throughout the book, she to the past of the British imperial sometimes assumes a first-person experience and the Royal Navy may voice, explaining to her readers her find this volume less than satisfying. rationale for undertaking this 474 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord research, choosing specific research women who denied that gender was methods, and so on, and then re- important to their sea-going careers. examines these topics in Appendix 1. The book is formatted into The book also includes other helpful chapters based on similar positions, appendices, including a chronology such as “From Convict Matron to of women who went to sea, a list of Cruise Director.” The information in cross-dressers, a brief explanation of these chapters is discussed in roughly the organizations in which the chronological order, following the women in her book served, and a progression of those women as they multidisciplinary social analysis of assumed increasingly responsible the concept of the ship as a woman. positions, and the social and Stanley writes from a feminist economic reasons that contributed to perspective, including discussions of their advancement. The text is women who were motivated to go to accompanied by numerous sea for a variety of reasons, but were photographs of smiling women, as forced to defy social norms regarding well as some etchings from earlier acceptable women’s roles in order to periods, and biographical sketches of seize the opportunities that would women Stanley interviewed who held fulfill or start them on the path these positions. toward their occupational goals. Her Many of the women she study includes women disguised as interviewed talked about their love of men (cross-dressers) out of necessity, the adventure and freedom of the because some jobs were only offered seafaring life, the chance to see the to men, as well as those who were world, and their appreciation of the “visibly female” but who dressed in environment, ranging from the beauty traditional male attire because it was of the ocean, closeness to nature, and required or appropriate, or because of the industrial environment of a ship, choices they made associated with to the luxury and romance of their sexual orientation. She also “floating hotels.” includes those who assumed As Richard Henry Dana Jr. wrote traditionally feminine roles, such as in the first sentence of the concluding accompanying their husbands or chapter of his iconic sea travel working in pink-collar occupations. narrative, Two Years Before the Mast Beginning in the 1970s, women could (1840), “There is a witchery in the be employed in the navy and/or sea, its songs and stories, and in the merchant marine as deck workers, mere sight of a ship, and the sailors’ and more recently, as ship’s officers dress, especially to a young mind, and captains. In addition, she which has done more to man navies examines the importance of gender to and fill merchant men, than all the the men with whom women worked, press gangs in Europe…” The same both in terms of occupational is probably true for women. It would advancement and the ways in which have been helpful if Stanley had the women were treated, as well as to devoted more discussion to the factors that influenced girls and Book Reviews 475 young women to consider the Oxford: Osprey Publishing, Inc. seafaring life. Early in the book, she www.ospreypublishing.com, 2015, posed the question, “What starts a 48 pp., illustrations, colour plates, woman on a seafaring path?” Books bibliography, index. UK £10.99, US which purport to provide an unbiased $18.00, CDN $22.00, paper; ISBN picture of life at sea are not new to 978-1-4728-1119-6. maritime history, and the reactions of many of the women she interviewed The 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War toward the seafaring life are very was the first “modern” war of the similar to those described in sea twentieth century, and marked three narratives and novels written by and things: the beginning of the decline about men. Sea literature, such as of Czarist Russia; the emergence of Dana’s book, as well as songs about Imperial Japan as a world power; and sea life, such as those of Charles the future dominance of the Imperial Dibdin, were very popular with both Japanese Navy (IJN) as a military sexes, and are known to have force. Stille briefly describes the sea influenced boys and young men to go combat and the ships that to sea, so it is quite possible that it characterized the IJN in its first great had the same effect on girls and test against a European power. young women. Stanley discusses the Although a relative newcomer to lives of women who went to sea in the naval world, the IJN was well- amazing detail, but it would have equipped and its officers trained at a been helpful if she had included more first-class naval academy. Its detail about what initially motivated successful performance in the First little girls to consider a life at sea, Sino-Japanese War 1894-95 should and in particular, if she had asked have made foreign observers aware of that question to the women she this new naval threat. The result of interviewed. that war was increased tension Stanley's book has a between Japan—now a major East multidisciplinary focus which should Asian power—and Imperial Russia. appeal to a variety of academic Russia had eyed expansion eastward disciplines, including, but not limited for many years; Imperial China to, maritime history and culture, encouraged Russian expansion into gender studies, and American and Manchuria and Korea which British social and occupational eventually brought Russia into history. conflict with Imperial Japan. Russian intrigue eventually led to Japan’s loss Marti Klein of its war prize of Port Arthur, in Laguna Niguel, California Manchuria’s Liaotung Peninsula (which was quickly taken over by the Russians). A Russian-backed coup Mark Stille. Osprey New Vanguard # d’état then overthrew the Japanese- 232: The Imperial Japanese Navy of backed government of Korea. During the Russo-Japanese War. Botley, the period 1897-1904, Russia built 476 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord railways in Manchuria and dominated neutral port for internment. By this that land both economically and time, Japan had reached the end of its militarily. During China’s Boxer resources in manpower and Rebellion in 1900, Russia sent economics, while the defeats at 100,000 troops into Manchuria. For Mukden and at Tsushima sapped its part, Japan managed to isolate Russia’s will to fight on. American Russia by signing a non-intervention President Theodore Roosevelt offered treaty with Great Britain. By 1904, it to mediate a settlement to the war, was clear that a war between Imperial which both sides accepted. The 1905 Russia and Imperial Japan was only a Treaty of Portsmouth was the result matter of time. and Roosevelt earned a Nobel Peace Imperial Japan struck first on the Prize for his efforts. night of 8-9 February 1904, with a Stille’s book is a useful destroyer attack against Russian introduction to the IJN of 1904-1905. battleships docked at Port Arthur, Wisely, his narrative of the naval although the Japanese ships inflicted engagements of 1904-1905 is brief minimal damage on the Russian enough to inform the reader without ships. (The Japanese concept of a exhaustive detail. It is clear that, surprise attack on a foreign naval with the exception of Tsushima, the base was repeated with much greater naval engagements were closely success at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 fought. Included is the attack on Port December 1941.) Land combat as Arthur, IJN activities during the siege well as a number of sea engagements of Port Arthur, and the Battle of the between the two countries followed Yellow Sea (a narrow victory for the as the Japanese and Russian armies IJN). The Russian Navy was almost met in many conflicts over the next victorious when an IJN shell killed year with Port Arthur and Mukden Russian Admiral Vilgelm Vitgeft, falling to Japan. But the Japanese causing the Russian ships to break off army was exhausted. Russia, with its the engagement and return to Port near-inexhaustible reserves of Arthur. He also mentions brief naval manpower, could have ultimately engagements between the IJN and the defeated the Japanese on the ground. Russian Vladivostok naval squadron But the Russians chose a naval before describing the climactic Battle strategy: they sent a polyglot naval of Tsushima. force from their Baltic Fleet to Following the narrative is the challenge the IJN. After an epic heart of the book, featuring in-depth seven-and-a-half-month voyage, the descriptions of the various classes of Russian ships met the IJN on 27-28 IJN ships—battleships, armoured May 1905, in the Strait of Tsushima. cruisers, protected cruisers, The IJN, under the able command of unprotected cruisers, coastal defence Admiral Togo Heihachiro, ships, gunboats, destroyers, and annihilated the Russian ships with 34 torpedo boats. All are detailed with of the 38 Russian ships sunk, each ship of each class (and in some captured by the IJN, or fled to a cases, each sub-class of ship) listed, Book Reviews 477 together with charts showing their Imperial Russian Navy of the Russo- specifications: displacement, Japanese War. dimensions, propulsion, speed, range, protection, armament, and crew. An Robert L. Shoop accompanying chart shows the Colorado Springs, Colorado different ships’ builders, dates laid down, dates launched, and dates Craig L. Symonds. Operation commissioned. As well, Stille Neptune: The D-Day Landings and includes a brief narrative of the ships’ the Allied Invasion of Europe. various roles in the 1904-1905 war. Oxford: Oxford University Press, The book is heavily illustrated www.globaloup.com, 2014. 440 pp., with period photographs, many illustrations, maps, tables, notes, colour sideview plates of various IJN bibliography, index. US $25.95, ships, illustrations of the surprise paper; ISBN 978-0-19998-611-8 attack on Port Arthur and the Battle I doubt that the distinction between of Tsushima, and a cutaway view of Operation Neptune and Operation Mikasa, Togo’s flagship at Tsushima, Overlord needs defining for readers which has been preserved as a of the Northern Mariner. Operation museum in Japan. These illustrations Neptune, of course, refers to the offer readers a visual sense of the maritime aspects of the invasion of ships and break up the array of the Normandy and is often glossed over, charts. They will be of aid to the or worse, taken for granted and modeller as well as the historian. ignored, in the accounts of the Anyone looking for a detailed military campaign. There are at least study of the IJN in 1904-1905 will two reasons for this. One is the not find it in this book. Many books common assumption that the naval have been written about the Russo- war was won, the Axis naval forces Japanese War; Osprey alone has two and capabilities were derisory, and other books available for those there was really nothing to it. The wishing to learn more (Osprey second is that Operation Neptune was Essential Histories #31: The Russo- a stunning success, virtually flawless Japanese War 1904-1905 and Osprey in execution and result, and as such, Men-At-Arms # 414: The Russo- can be put to one side. Closely Japanese War 1904-1905.) The connected to that notion is the fact Imperial Japanese Navy of the Russo- that the ground campaign went Japanese War should be seen as a anything but according to plan and so handy reference to the IJN ships and that is the more fruitful arena for as a starting point for further reading drama and historical study and and research into this fascinating analysis. conflict which led to so much in the Symonds has provided a critical future. In recommending this book, corrective to this common this reviewer hopes that Mark Stille appreciation of those cataclysmic will write a companion volume on the events surrounding the highly successful return of the Western 478 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord allies to the northwest European established from the very beginning continent and so commenced the that Germany was the chief threat and liberation of France, the Low would be dealt with first. While the Countries and, ultimately, the British assessment of this reality was invasion of Nazi Germany itself. He straightforward, it was less so for the reminds us that Operation Neptune Americans at a surface level. Isola- was a vast, complex and fraught tionist sentiment was a powerful undertaking that was unquestionably force in American politics and the most difficult naval operation Roosevelt had to accommodate this ever attempted. A seaborne assault factor with great care and sensitivity. against a heavily defended coast, in As well, the perceived immediate contested waters, with the landing threat was Japanese as, indeed, it force numbering in the multiple tens turned out to be on 7 December 1941. of thousands of soldiers and their Nonetheless, senior American equipment, vehicles and supplies, military, naval and political leader- was without precedent and, let’s be ship had all independently concluded clear, could not be done today with that Germany had to be dealt with the resources at hand by even the first and that conclusion did not shift United States, let alone the much with the Japanese surprise attack on diminished reach of then- Pearl Harbor. Symonds’ account of contemporary other powers. this thinking and the developing The author, an emeritus professor Anglo-American relationship is well from the U.S. Naval Academy has done. written a marvellous account of With this framework established, Operation Neptune. While empha- Symonds provides an excellent sizing the American side of the account of the strategic planning, equation, he is even-handed and discussions and compromises that led covers the British side of events with to the invasion of June 1944. He lays sensitivity and generosity. He is a out the perspective of the participants rare American historian in his clearly and comprehensively. willingness to credit the contribution Chapters follow that cover the build- of the British and essentially accepts up of American forces in the United that it was a genuine partnership Kingdom, logistical matters, and how between, if not equals in the material the necessary shipping was designed sense, certainly so in the moral one. and built. In operational terms, he The account is wide ranging and covers the differences in procedures covers to a good level of detail the between the two allies, praising in strategic discussions and arrange- particular the imaginative use of ments made between American and technology by the supposedly British officers, as well as those made hidebound and rigid British. Another at the political level between chapter covers the training required Roosevelt and Churchill. These for the assault forces and the lessons discussions had got underway before learned from those exercises. the entry of America into the war and Against this background, the core of Book Reviews 479 the book describes Operation Grant H. Walker. The Rogers Neptune itself vividly. Symonds Collection of Dockyard Models At the ranges widely and inserts anecdotes U.S. Naval Academy Museum Volume from the participants both high and I, First and Second Rates. Florence, low. The sheer scale and painstaking Oregon: Seawatch Books LLC, detail involved in Operation Neptune www.seawatchbooks.com, 2015. 242 is brought to life and the achievement pp, illustrations, appendices, index. of those responsible for it—such as US $85, cloth; ISBN 978-09904041- RN Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay and 7-0. his subordinates, American and British—is remarkable. Operation The Henry Huddleston Rogers Neptune was the midwife to the Collection of ship models at the U.S. successful D-Day invasion, and hence Naval Academy Museum is an the liberation of Western Europe. It exceptional collection, renowned to deserves to be much better known, serious ship modellers, and the respected and, indeed, revered as is subject of a well-known and well- its much higher profile offspring. worn catalogue, originally published Symonds has conducted thorough as a pamphlet in 1946 and subse- research into the archives of the quently by the USNI Press (editions United States— including the 1954, 1958, 1964, 1971). For ship memoirs of participants that are model builders, historians, and ship retained in a number of repositories. model lovers, however, the current He has provided an excellent publication by Grant Walker takes bibliography of both primary and access to the wonders of dockyard secondary sources. Most of his models to a whole new level. research on the British side of things The approach of telling the is by way of these secondary sources. history of ship design through an There are only cursory references to examination of contemporary ship Canada in the volume as one might models has developed an enthusiastic anticipate. There are numerous following and has resulted in the maps, diagrams, illustrations and publication of a number of well photographs to illuminate the text. received volumes, two examples These are well done and helpful. being, the Robert Gardiner and Brian This is a useful history of Lavery offerings in the Seaforth Operation Neptune. It tells a Publishing/Naval Institute Press neglected story well and it is a story “History in Ship Models” Series that deserves to be known much (2012 and 2014 respectively, both better. Symonds book is an excellent previously reviewed in these pages). addition to the shelf of anyone This latest contribution to the genre, interested in the Second World War the first of a planned series of four, is and I recommend it accordingly. complementary to the previous two. While it follows the mould of placing Ian Yeates the models within the historical Regina, Saskatchewan context of the operational history of 480 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord the ships concerned, and of the Throughout the text and in advances in naval architecture and of dedicated appendices, the author naval science of the period, where it discusses the origins and provenance differs is in the degree of detailed of the models in terms of purpose, inspection of each individual model, builders, and succession of owners. and in the identification of This is a fascinating part of the book differences in modelling approach, as it emphasizes just how exceptional technique, and evidence of and unlikely it is to have such a restoration. In this sense, the history collection assembled in one place. of the models themselves takes the While it is commonly supposed foreground. that dockyard models were The core of the book (181 pages) constructed as part of the design (and examines seven models of the Rogers design approval) process, the author Collection, three First Rates and four points out that that this was generally Second Rates, representing ships not the case, but that solid hull (or spanning the years 1682 to 1828. 'bread and butter') models were used The presentation of these models is for this purpose. The more detailed supported by a truly exceptional dockyard style (framed) models took collection of photographs, ranging simply too long to build to be from complete ship photographs effectively used in this way (in one spanning full pages, to close-up documented case, p. 202, a rigged details (for example, of figureheads model for the Admiralty boardroom at more than twice actual size), to took four years to build, with up to numerous interior shots taken with a four builders involved). Rather, the surgical arthroscope, to a couple of x- author concludes that what we know ray shots and even one CT-scan as dockyard models would most image of a model in cross-section. likely have been built as gifts in the The quality of photographic patronage system then prevailing. He reproduction in terms of resolution notes that Pepys received models and colour is, with one sole from Antony Deane and Phineas Pett, exception, quite outstanding. The respectively master shipwrights at interior shots (in the case of one Harwich and Chatham Dockyards. model, no less than 12 of them) show Pepys' successor as Clerk of the Acts an astounding degree of attention to to the Navy Board, Charles Sergison modelling detail, all the more (1655-1732), himself amassed a surprising in that some of it was considerable collection of ships eventually completely enclosed by models, 15 in all, which were the completion of the model. The purchased from his family by Col. author speculates (177) that this Henry Huddleston Rogers in apparently wasted effort may have December 1922 for the (then) been due to the maker(s’) showing considerable sum of £6000. the model off to interested parties at Col. Rogers, a U.S. Artillery various stages of construction. officer who served in the Mexican campaigns against Pancho Villa and Book Reviews 481 in the First World War, was heir to Adelaide, build by Sir Robert the immense Huttleston Rogers Seppings, Surveyor of the Navy fortune and thus, after his military 1813-1832, for his patron and the service, had the leisure and means to ship's namesake, Queen Adelaide. indulge his collecting urge, which Interestingly (and somewhat turned more and more to ship models. tragically), this model (illustrating a His personal interest and wealth, number of Seppings' significant applied through acquisition and design innovations) came into private restoration of the models, rather than royal hands after Seppings construction of a private museum, was unceremoniously dismissed on and eventual bequest to the U.S. the dissolution of the Navy Board and Naval Academy, is a significant (and appointment of Sir William Symonds significantly unlikely) factor in the (a yacht designer) as Surveyor. preservation and augmentation of Ironically, relative to this tale of the Sergison's collection as an integral connection of dockyard models to whole. As the author notes, the patronage, Seppings' fate was circumstances of the discovery of probably sealed by the fact that other models (one unidentified model (regardless of their war-fighting having been found hanging in the merits) King William IV found rafters of an antique dealer's lumber Seppings' rounded sterns “displeasing room!) highlights that the patronage to the eye” (185), while Symonds had origins of the models led to their successfully designed a number of ownership in private hands rather Royal Yachts. than in state institutions, and hence, The memorial to the majority of vulnerability to dispersion in un-named model makers remains economic hard times (as after the their works, preserved in a number of First World War). collections, but most effectively And what of the model makers presented in this marvellous volume. themselves? As Walker notes, due to This book is a tremendous testament their production largely as patronage to the exceptional technical and gifts, the models are associated more artistic craftsmanship embodied in with the donor than the maker. There the models. Just as one measure of is one notable exception where, in the the accuracy achieved, one series of 1990s, handwritten notes (dated 1774 measurements used the remarkable and 1787) were found inside two consistency of ‘room and space’ over models identifying the builder as one 30 frame spacings, compared with the George Stockwell, 'moddler' at specified frame spacings of the Sheerness Dockyard. A subsequent 1706/1719 establishment in order to note dated 1820 was found in one of determine the unusual scale ration of Rogers models signed 'George the model. For this and many similar Stockwell son of George Stockwell insights, this volume is very highly Moddler'. The only other model of recommended for all interested in the the collection with a known builder miniature nautical archeology was the most recent, HMS Royal enabled by contemporary ship 482 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord models. Anticipating a continuation resources, the three authors have of the high standard of production really poured a lot of their lives into and scholarship, this reviewer awaits this wok and it shows. Their choice eagerly the subsequent volumes. of black and white photos throughout lends it a level of authenticity Richard Greenwood although the shades of grey chosen Victoria, British Columbia for the plans, whilst useable, are a missed opportunity for splashes of colour that could have been quite J. Michael Wenger, Robert J. enlivening. One would buy it, Cressman, and John F. Di Virgilio. however, for the words, not the “No One Avoided Danger”; NAS illustrations. Kaneohe Bay and the Japanese This work follows a logic, not Attack of 7 December 1941. only a chronological order, but what Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute an eye-witness would experience. It Press, www.nip.org, 2015. provides a fulsome understanding of xx+188pp., illustrations, lists of what happened, along with a real names, glossary, notes, bibliography, sense of being there; for example, index. US $34.95, UK £28.50, cloth; what it would have been like flying in ISBN 978-1-61251-924-1. a patrol bomber based in Kaneohe Bay, before, during and after the The often-quipped axiom “never Japanese attack on Hawaii. Patrol judge a book by its cover” has surely bomber is where the “PB” in “PBY never been better demonstrated than Catalina” comes from, the “Y” by this work. On first glance, the standing for Consolidated, the cover is an understated black and company that built them. white photo of a burial party, with the Kaneohe Bay was, in many ways, title in bold red and a drab khaki the most crucial strike for the green background. Its appearance Japanese, as it was the PBY belies the drama and quality that lie Catalina’s based there that were within, a story of hardship and capable of finding their carrier force. triumph, of brave young men and Especially in the pre-radar era, women rising to the occasion in a aircraft had assumed the scouting role part of the Pearl Harbor attack that is previously assigned to naval cruisers, often overlooked in favour of the namely, finding the enemy. For the more famous portions. United States Navy and the force on This is a book which deserves to Hawaii, the scouting fell to flying be read. It will certainly be of great boat squadrons. The Japanese interest to both the academic and destruction of Kaneohe Bay, and the interested reader, although it may be equipment, personnel and facilities a little densely packed with content there, represented a major setback for for the casual reader. In compiling the U.S., both in the immediate and the exceptionally well researched longer term. Unfortunately, this is a text, with an exhaustive list of forgotten and largely overlooked Book Reviews 483 episode in comparison to other and analysis. The authors then focus strikes, such as the attack on Hickam on the day of the attack, delivering a Field. As the book highlights, in both lot of intricate detail quite quickly, cases, US aircraft had been lined up but not overwhelmingly. Once in neat rows for the strafing Japanese, again, personalizing the story helps to almost certainly against the instincts break up what could otherwise be of the officers directly responsible for huge blocks of information, making it them. This decision was exacerbated much more enjoyable to read. by the withdrawal of the heavy Anti- The reader is left with a lasting Aircraft unit from the US Army’s 98th image of the sheer mental Coast Artillery unit. unpreparedness of the US forces. The book does not just consider a Time and again it highlights people single day in December: it starts by trying to raise the alarm only to be explaining the background of the ignored. It might have been base, its commissioning in February arrogance, it might have been the 1941, the state of its manning and its Sunday/day off effect, it might have personalities. The emphasis on been any number of things, but the individuals is explicit, for the authors result was to catch the US military seem to have found a photograph of quite literally napping. The lesson almost everyone they mention. we are left with is that if money is Whether it was Cdr Harold M. Martin going to be spent hiring and training (who would go on to become a full people, then when they say Admiral and retire in 1956, after something is wrong, someone should having held commands like that of 7th listen. After all, if they are going to Fleet and 1st Fleet in his career), the be ignored, why bother spending the commissioning base commander or money in the first place? Grace Watson, whose husband Raphael “Ralph” Watson died in the Alex Clarke attack on Kaneohe Bay, and many, Epsom, Surrey many, others. This is all part of their personal approach to highlighting the history and developing the narrative—but again it is definitely value added and highlights the effort they have made. After covering the origin of the base, they discuss how decisions were being made, and how personnel dealt with those decisions. This provides valuable background, a baseline, from which to compare the men’s actions prior to December 7 and what they did on the day. Again, this adds a fascinating level of depth