BOOK REVIEWS

Thomas A. Adams and James R. Smith. developed slowly through the First World The Royal Fleet Auxiliary. A Century of War, the inter-war years, and the early Service. London: Chatham Publishing, part of the Second World War, but it was www.chathampublishing.com, 2005. 192 the war over the vast distances of the pp., illustrations, appendices, index. UK Pacific Ocean from 1942 to 1945 that saw £19.99, cloth; ISBN 1-86176-259-3. the rapid development of the Fleet Train (Distributed in Canada by Vanwell and the ability to re-supply while at sea. Publishing Ltd.) In this respect, the Royal Navy followed the lead of its American counterpart. Why produce a book about a largely During the post-Suez era, when Britain unsung part of Britain’s maritime gave up many of its overseas bases, the organisation at this time? The answer to need to refuel and resupply the fleet the question is set out not only in the remained, together with the challenge of introduction but also in the foreword (by operating the increasingly sophisticated HRH Prince Andrew), the preface and support ships and, now, helicopters dedications to this work: 3 August 2005, needed to accomplish the mission. marked the centenary of the Royal Fleet This book tells the story of the Auxiliary (RFA). Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s ships, crews, It is not always appreciated that organization and methods in six chapters after the change from sail to steam and proceeded by a general introduction. It wood to iron, Britain’s nineteenth-century chronicles the principal events from 1905 naval supremacy would not have been in a year-by-year and month-by-month possible without a network of supply format, incorporating frequent data panels bases and coaling stations around the and making extensive use of half-tone world. The fleet had to return to these illustrations. There is a separate section depots to replenish and particularly, to of 16 pages of colour photographs. The refuel. But these bases required a world- book concludes with a fleet list giving the wide logistics operation to ensure the years in service, the class type and role of Navy’s materiel was available wherever each vessel. Six appendices cover the fleet was based. The civilian-manned wrecks, losses and casualties; Royal Fleet support ships were collectively known as Auxiliary medals and battle honours; sea “fleet auxiliaries” and following an 1864 flags; colour schemes; ships’ badges and Order in Council, flew the Blue Ensign, funnel badges; and pennant numbers. though it was not until an Admiralty There is also a detailed index. Circular of 3 August, 1905, that the title In adopting this approach, the “Royal Fleet Auxiliary” was adopted for authors have achieved a concise Admiralty-owned but civilian-manned chronological record and readily ships and with chartered merchant ships accessible reference book on this given the title “Mercantile Fleet neglected branch of Britain’s maritime Auxiliaries”. This arrangement heritage. While this is not the first work

The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord, XVI No. 4, (October 2006), 75-123 75 76 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

on the topic, the previous major work by appendices, glossary, bibliography, index. E.E,.Sigwart, also titled The Royal Fleet UK £16.99, cloth; ISBN 1-84415-323-1. Auxiliary, was published in the 1960s and therefore, does not deal with post-Suez The clash between the Spanish Armada developments, the Falklands and the end and Queen Elizabeth I's fleet in 1588 of the Cold War, as well the increasingly continues to generate great interest. The important contribution by helicopters. precise reasons for Spain's failure and the The strength of Adams’s and English navy's roll in the defensive Smith’s work is that they have brought victory are still hotly debated. It is not the topic up to date and yet still managed surprising then, that writers are still keen to compress all the data they assembled to wade into the fray over four hundred into a relatively few, extremely well years after this battle was waged. illustrated pages of dates, facts and John Barratt's Armada 1588 is a information. It is this approach, however, new book which explores this epic which results in the main problem with encounter. To examine the critical events, the work. It is a dry read and lacks Barratt adopts an interesting format of analysis of the information the authors providing the reader with a daily log that have presented. The jacket tells us that also details the weather and wind speed on each day. Daily developments are both men are professional authors, as well supplemented by contemporary as having served on various Royal Fleet commentary from Spanish and English Auxiliary vessels, so their views would participants. This provides a great deal of have been interesting, although colour to the account. admittedly such analysis would perhaps Because this book is intended for have doubled the size of the book. a general audience, there are no footnotes The brevity and format of this or endnotes. It is, therefore, difficult to book and the lack of other up-to-date know the sources for the quotations and alternatives will undoubtedly make it a information. It also makes it hard to key reference work on the topic, but those evaluate the claim that both the series hoping to comprehend more fully the (Campaign Chronicles) and this book are factors which shaped the Royal Fleet based on Athe latest historical and Auxiliary in the various stages of its archaeological evidence.@ There is little history will need to look elsewhere. support for this. That is not to say there isn’t “cutting edge” research available. John Francis For instance, the revised edition of Colin Greenwich, UK Martin and Geoffrey Parker’s The Spanish Armada (1999) includes unpublished information from the Streedagh Strand archaeological team on John Barratt. Armada 1588. Barnsley, S. artillery and gun carriages from three Yorkshire: Pen and Sword Books Ltd., wrecks off Ireland. They have also www.pen-and-sword.co.uk, 2005. ix + incorporated information from Alan 182 pp., maps, illustrations, notes, Ereira’s award- winning documentary, Book Reviews 77

“Armada.” (Martin and Parker, p. xiii) search for Spanish plunder which While Barratt gives Martin and Parker’s detracted from the defence of England in book a hearty endorsement, he lists the 1588. Such episodes are frequently earlier edition (1988), which does not glossed over or omitted in the heroic contain the latest research, in his portrayals of Drake and his fellows but bibliography. Although Barratt's Barratt is frank. There are other bibliography lists some of the standard interesting Asidebars@ in the book as well, books in the field, it is a far from including one on the other Armadas: most comprehensive examination of the extant people wrongly assume that 1588 was the literature. We can appreciate why one end of the story when, in reality, the war could not cover the many works on the between England and Spain lurched on Spanish Armada, particularly the large for almost two more decades until 1604. number released in 1988 for the 400th Arguably, the most interesting anniversary. Barratt rightly states that “A part of the book comprises Barratt's own full bibliography of all the hundreds of perspectives in the closing section of the books and articles that have been written book. Here he ventures more into dealing with various aspects of the argument rather than narrative as he Armada Campaign would fill a book in tackles the issue of culpability. He their own right.” (p.177) Yet, it is not emphatically absolves the naval novice, clear if the books listed in his the Duke of Medina Sidonia, from the bibliography are the sum total of his Armada debacle and places the blame research. If so, he has neglected articles squarely on the Spanish king, Philip II. entirely. There is a wealth of information Few would argue with Barratt’s in journals which shed light on specific assessment that Philip’s ill-informed aspects of the Anglo-Spanish engagement influence on the “enterprise of England” of 1588. This seems to be a major had fatal consequences. Barratt’s weakness of the book. comments, however, show his lack of We must applaud the author for appreciation for the passionate religiosity the inclusion of some noteworthy topics. of the sixteenth century: “Philip’s In one of the most interesting sections, assumption that the Almighty would Barratt discusses differing English and provide the necessary miracle to bring Spanish attitudes to health care and about victory, was a clear abdication of Aveterans’ issues.” This has been done responsibility and a refusal to face elsewhere more thoroughly, but it is an reality.” (p.146) Philip II saw himself as important subject that often gets left out the champion of the Catholic Reformation of many standard accounts. Writers are as well as his Spanish empire. He was a normally anxious to credit Britain’s more zealous Iberian Catholic imbued with his modern use of gunnery, tactics and own sense of mission to save the “One shipbuilding techniques but Philip rarely True Faith.” Barratt does not appreciate gets credit for caring for his seamen. The that, for Philip, this was his responsibility “losers” were treated far better than the and his reality. “winners.” (p.140-1) Barratt also takes issue with some of Elizabeth's sea dogs' Overall, Armada 1588 is a fairly balanced 78 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord introduction to the topic. The book is hunting were abundant, the bounty of the brimming with maps, illustrations, area lay in the sea. Seals, salmon and cod glossary, biographical notes on some of were the most important species for leading combatants, as well as other commercial purposes. Prehistoric peoples appendices which are helpful for a non- and the Inuit depended on coastal marine specialist. In the bewildering jungle of resources. The Innu, however, built a Armada books, Barratt’s offering is a culture on hunting in the interior, good place to begin one’s study. depending on hunting caribou, but also fresh-water fishing and trapping small Cheryl Fury animals for furs. The fur trade attracted Saint John, New Brunswick the interest of sixteenth-century migratory Breton and Basque fishers or whalers. Under the seigneurial system of New France, a few Quebec-based traders Cleophas Belvin. The Forgotten developed sealing and salmon posts along Labrador. Kegashka to Blanc-Sablon. the coast. War with the British in 1758 Montreal, PQ: McGill-Queen’s University led to the destruction or abandonment of Press, www.mqup.ca, 2006. xxvii + 198 these posts. The British regime in Quebec pp., photographs, map, illustrations, assigned rights to the posts to English notes, bibliography, index. CDN $39.95, merchants at Quebec who carried on the cloth; ISBN 978-0-7735-3151-2. seal hunt, salmon fishery and related trade much as had the French before them. This descriptive history of the little- Although the governor of Newfoundland, studied communities along the north Hugh Palliser, tried to limit colonial shore of Quebec between Kegashka and control and property rights on the coast, Blanc-Sablon implies a two-fold thesis. the Quebec Act of 1775 confirmed Firstly, the people of European descent Quebec’s jurisdiction. Privateering developed communities in a borderland during the American Revolution, and between New France (later the British subsequent illegal trade by American colony of Quebec), and the British fishers in the area, saw the coast returned fisheries settlements in Newfoundland to administration by Newfoundland, and Labrador. Secondly, local settlers, which had the only naval force that could both francophone and anglophone, who effectively police the region. came to refer to their area as the “coast,” The British returned control over made their own culture and economy the coast to Lower Canada in 1825. This based on the exploitation of coastal development was not as significant as the marine resources. bankruptcy of the latest commercial Belvin’s history begins with a interest in the area, the Labrador New discussion of the local environment and Concern, which collapsed in 1928 ecology. The coast’s short summers and because of a series of failed seal hunts. long winters meant that, while terrestrial The bankruptcy opened the coast to resources such as fur-bearing animals for permanent settlement by anglophones trapping and large game animals for from Newfoundland, the Orkneys, and the Book Reviews 79

English West Country, and francophone that increased fishing effort might be a settlers from other parts of Lower Canada. factor, but more usually suggests that Throughout the nineteenth century, “irregularities in the inshore cod fishery settlers established sealing, fisheries, were due mainly to variable climactic trapping, and related activities such as [sic] conditions.” (p.110) Belvin notes berry-picking by women and children. that one of the most important People lived in isolation with few medical developments in more intense fishing and educational facilities, visited effort, the cod trap, was designed by occasionally by schooners from Halifax William Whiteley in 1865 at Bonne- or Quebec. Continued American Espérance on the coast. He further intrusions in the area forced the describes a process of fisheries governments of Quebec and Canada to modernization in the 1960s and 1970s become more interested in the region. that was similar to developments Throughout the second half of the throughout Atlantic Canada. Canadian nineteenth century, settlers from and international scholarship on fisheries Newfoundland eventually outnumbered modernization and the intensification of the francophone population of the coast as fishing effort had grown rapidly since the they continued to come searching for early 1990s, but Belvin does not take it salmon and cod. Throughout the early into account by maintaining an older view twentieth century, church missions that the cod fishery suffered from changes provided more services to the coast, and in ocean temperatures, federal fisheries the Quebec and Canadian governments policies and foreign over fishing. expanded mail and transportation services Finally, The Forgotten Labrador and imposed fisheries regulations. The is too provincial in its view of the coast. second half of the twentieth century The book raises issues that demand a brought expanded public services, more regional approach. For example, municipal government and regional there was little interest by the Quebec or cooperation, but also fisheries Canadian governments in providing better industrialization, resource depletion and medical services until Wilfred Grenfell the consequent undermining of the basis began to advocate for it in conjunction of coasters’ distinctive life. with his work on the Newfoundland side Belvin pursues description at the of the coast. Local telecommunications, expense of analysis. Introduced as the particularly television, followed initial precursors of European settlement, access to broadcast services from the aboriginal people disappear from the Newfoundland and Labrador side of the narrative with the appearance of the border. Local interest in Quebec French and English, although the Innu language laws among francophone continued to live in the region and coasters appears to have been prompted influence settlers. As well, Belvin by local resentment of the anglophone mentions numerous failures in seal and descendants of settlers from fish catches as a problem for the people of Newfoundland. Quebeçois nationalism the coast, but provides an inadequate may well have undermined the local explanation for their occurrence. He hints culture of the forgotten Labrador as much 80 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

as did the depletion of marine resources in cover Stewart’s initial experience as a the area. cabin boy on Philadelphia merchant vessels, his first commission as a Sean T. Cadigan lieutenant in 1798, his military service in St. John’s, Newfoundland the Quasi-War with France, the Barbary Wars, and the War of 1812, and his rise through the ranks to his ultimate promotion in 1862 to rear admiral on the Claude Berube and John Rodgaard. A retired list. Stewart commanded a total of Call To the Sea (Captain Charles Stewart seven warships, including the USS of the USS Constitution). Washington, Constitution, and carried the American D.C: Potomac Books, Inc., flag through the Atlantic Ocean, the www.booksintl.com, 2006. xvi+200 pp., Mediterranean Sea, and the Pacific Ocean. illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, Berube and Rodgaard provide first-rate index. US $22.95, paper; ISBN 13-978- accounts of the naval engagements in 1-57488-966-3. which Stewart actively participated. Readers interested in popular naval Popular histories of the sea usually offer biography will not soon forget the readers the most riveting accounts of authors’ description of Stewart naval battles. Claude Berube and John commanding Syren in the Mediterranean Rodgaard’s A Call to the Sea does not during the Barbary Wars, or his break from this trend. This biography of simultaneous actions on board the one of America’s most peripatetic naval Constitution against both Cyane and commanders, Captain Charles Stewart Levant. The authors are very good (1778-1869), delivers a tour de force of writers. action. Those interested in sea-borne Berube and Rodgaard portray military tactics will find this book a Stewart as nothing less than a naval hero. stimulating read. Those looking for a The authors lavish unabashed praise on critical evaluation of Stewart and the U.S. Stewart and tend to exaggerate the truth at Navy will be disappointed, however. times. Knowing readers familiar with the Berube and Rodgaard provide a rich maritime histories of northern detailed narrative of Stewart’s life. On seaports such as Newport, Boston, and the personal side of the story, the authors New York City will raise an eyebrow relate Stewart’s family background, his when they read that the city where marriage and divorce, the birth of his Stewart was born and raised was “the children, and his death. The naval greatest English-speaking city outside of commander’s private business life is London, England.” (p.2) We are also told discussed only in a cursory fashion. One that “Stewart would have stood out from would like to know more about the his contemporaries, including Stephen precise manner by which Stewart Decatur.” (p.12) Yet, the authors do not financed his wife’s extravagant lifestyle critically evaluate Stewart’s command and their family’s multiple homes. As far decisions. His orders to run the USS as his professional career, the authors Constellation aground off Norfolk, Book Reviews 81

Virginia without so much as firing a shot the early American navy. Such readers at any British warships during the War of will find Christopher McKee’s A 1812 surely deserved more explanation Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession than: “He did this to prevent the larger more rigorous and conclusive on this British ships from following, gambling score. that the British lacked the detailed knowledge of Hampton Roads and that Christopher P. Magra. they would not risk grounding as well.” Northridge, California (p.68) Similarly, Berube and Rodgaard do not critically evaluate Stewart’s leadership ability. We are told that Stewart was “the consummate naval John Brooks. Dreadnought Gunnery and commander.” (p.260) The fact that the Battle of Jutland. The Question of enlisted men deserted from, and died on, Fire Control. (Cass Series Naval Policy vessels under his command is never and History). New York, N.Y.: systematically investigated in any way. Routledge, www.routledge.com, (Taylor And, if Stewart’s tactical abilities were so & Francis Group) 2006. xiv + 321 pp., unique as to place him above sea lions figures, tables, notes, bibliography, index. such as Decatur, then an explanation is US $ 75.00, cloth; ISBN 0-714-65702-6. needed as to why his last active duty put him in charge of a naval yard. Was this In his foreword to this book, Dr. Andrew simply a matter of age? Moreover, the Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval several times Stewart was brought before History, King's College, University of a court martial are explained away as the London, concluded: "History is a debate mere machinations of self-interested without end." (p. xii) His Ph.D. student, political enemies. Were there, dare I ask, John Brooks, is a retired computer chinks in this hero’s armour? engineer who returned to academia. His Serious scholars interested in the dissertation is the basis for this book history of the U.S. Navy will be left which focuses on the process of the wanting more out of A Call to the Sea. development of a big gun fire control The authors have conducted some system for British battleships and research into primary materials such as battlecruisers during the first decades of memoirs and naval records. Citation is the twentieth century. There were sporadic, however. In addition, the book competing systems, those of Frederick relies heavily on secondary works, and Dreyer and Arthur Pollen. The ultimate these works are not consistently the most test of any system was perceived to be the up-to-date, authoritative pieces of battle of Jutland, 31 May-1 June, 1916. scholarship. Moreover, a stronger effort The Grand Fleet of Britain under the could have been made to situate Stewart’s command of Admiral John Jellicoe met life within a wider context. Academic the German High Seas Fleet in the North readers will be left to draw their own Sea. Admiral David Beatty commanded conclusions as to the larger significance the Grand Fleet’s battlecruisers and a of Stewart’s accomplishments in terms of squadron of the latest, most powerful 82 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord dreadnoughts. In the opening phase of the Britain’s official naval historian of the battle, the German battlecruisers, known First World War, was the victim of as the Scouting Force, confronted Beatty political pressure and delays in preparing late on the afternoon of 31 May. his history. By that time, Beatty was First Brooks is most interested in this Sea Lord, and the volume about Jutland early stage of the battle, called the Run to did not appear until 1923, shortly after the the South. German gunnery was far death of Corbett. The leading naval superior. The powerful British officer-scholar of the 1920s to thirties, dreadnoughts with Beatty were late Herbert Richmond, favoured the Pollen entering action in this phase. Three fire control system. The new generation British battlecruisers blew up before the of scholars of the Royal Navy of the main fleets met very late in the day. 1940s to sixties, Arthur J. Marder and British gunnery was better at that time but Stephen Roskill, also discussed these when the Germans attacked with issues. Indeed, Marder issued a second torpedoes, Jellicoe turned away. That edition of his volume on Jutland. In the action ended the main phase of the battle. 1970s to eighties Jon Tetsura Sumida The Germans escaped to their base and joined the debate, focusing on fiscal immediately declared victory. In fact, matters. Admiral Sir John Fisher was they had sustained extensive and made First Sea Lord of the Admiralty in debilitating damage, not made public. 1904 with a mandate to reduce naval British reports were subdued, confused, costs. For him, the battlecruiser was the and delayed. Ultimately, there was no answer, the best ship type to provide question that Jutland was a strategic maximum striking power most British victory. Nothing had changed; the economically. Interestingly, Fisher, Grand Fleet, despite ship losses heavier popularly renowned as the father of the than those sustained by Germany, still had dreadnought battleship, in fact opposed clear superiority and dominated the North the type but was forced to accept it in Sea. order to get his battlecruisers. Since Jutland was not another In addition, Sumida has dealt victory by annihilation for the Royal extensively with the Pollen fire control Navy like Trafalgar, assumptions might system. In his view, the Pollen system be made that the Dreyer fire control was superior to the Dreyer system. In system which was adopted failed. Did 1925, an Admiralty investigative that mean that Pollen’s competing system commission awarded Pollen £30,000 could have resulted in a better outcome? because of plagiarism and other factors There is a debate. related to his system. That might be seen In fact the there has been almost as vindication. continuous controversy about battle That is a brief background to John performance at Jutland, including the Brooks enthusiastic entry into the fire quality of the fire control systems on both control debate. In the Dreyer/Pollen sides, virtually from the moment the last controversy, he argues the Dreyer system shots were fired in the night of 31 May-1 was superior, especially under the June 1916. The great Julian Corbett, conditions at Jutland. With the Pollen Book Reviews 83

system, "they would have hit even later compared to the more electric and and less often than was actually the case." complex Pollen system, were influenced (p. 288) Brooks insists that British by cost factors? failures were due to tactical and training So, the debate continues and faults, ultimately traced to Beatty. During Brooks successfully furthers it. History the Race to the South and subsequently, thrives on debate, and we all look forward Beatty committed several tactical errors, to the next stage. especially related to signalling, communication, leadership, and Eugene L. Rasor command. Beatty-bashing is ubiquitous. Emory, Virginia In Dreadnought Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland, Brooks spends the first six of nine chapters presenting details, sometimes in excruciating detail, about R. Thomas Campbell (ed.). Confederate gun fire control in modern navies. Naval Cadet: The Diary and Letters of Extensive, even excessive, use is made of Midshipman Hubbard T. Minor, with a direct quotes. There follows a long History of the Confederate Naval chapter reviewing the battle of Jutland, Academy. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & especially that first phase prior to the Company, Incorporated Publishers, confrontation of the two main battle www.mcfarlandpub.com, 2007. viii + fleets. Brooks’s research is impressive – 216 pp., illustrations, maps, tables, there are almost 1200 footnotes in total, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. located at the end of each chapter. US $ 39.95, paper; ISBN-0-7864-2645-4. Brooks rightly presents (1-800-253-2187) complicating factors. For example, Dreyer was "in-house," a rising, Perhaps one of the reasons why the impressive officer of the Royal Navy and, Confederate navy accomplished so much ultimately, Jellicoe’s flag captain in HMS with so little in the four short years of its Iron Duke. Conflict of interest appears to existence during the American Civil War abound. But Pollen was a private lay in the breadth of its own expectations businessman, aggressively pursuing as a nascent world naval power ready to profits. He was dealing with the Royal take its place in history. A poem from a Navy, sometimes with great frustration on Southern magazine of the period their part, and with other navies. Brooks expresses it perfectly: insisted that the subsequent award of £ See yonder bright flag as it floats on 30,000 was not vindication. Dreyer also the breeze; had grounds for compensation. It is feared by its foes, though young In addition to excessive detail and on the seas; reliance on long quotations, a serious gap Like a bird on the ocean, ‘tis met all is obvious. No mention is made of fiscal alone, and budget factors. Surely Admiralty But a deed of dishonor it never has considerations in the choice of Dreyer’s known. less complicated, more mechanical system In defending its rights much blood 84 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

has been shed, history of that academy from beginning to As an emblem of this, see its borders end, following it along the way with the all red. thread of the diary and letters of one of its Then look at the center, the blue and cadets, Hubbard T. Minor. the white -- The U.S. Naval Academy formed The assurance our cause is true, just, at Annapolis in 1845 had many obstacles and right. to overcome, some budgetary, some O, long may it float o’er the ocean’s political, some social. But the dark breast, Confederate version faced a far greater Till the sun, moon, and stars sink challenge, total war going on around it forever to rest; and no time to lose. Its cadets had to mix And its gallant defenders forever scholarship and theoretical training with prove true; active service duty at the guns in action With this wish, flag of freedom, I’ll aboard ship. Editor R. Thomas Campbell bid thee adieu! devotes the first half of the book to the With this wish, flag of freedom, I’ll background of the organization and bid thee adieu! participants in the academy, both its [printed in The Civil War In Song And teachers and its students, giving a good Story by Frank Moore, 1889. (p. 91) overview of what was happening and who Earlier editions (New York, 1866, 1867) was doing it. One of the first things a issued under the title: Anecdotes, poetry reader with any knowledge of the and incidents of the war.] Confederate Navy will note is the intimate It was noble sentiments like this atmosphere surrounding the whole and the full intent of making a navy as operation. In such a small force, good as any nation’s on earth that caused everybody knew everybody, with lots of the Confederate government to not only marriages and relations tying one fund and organize ships and the crews to participant to the next. Hubbard T. Minor man them, but also to found a naval was one of three related Minors in the academy intended to serve the same CSN, and it’s often hard to keep track of purpose as the still-young U.S. Naval which ship each person had just stepped Academy in Annapolis, which many of off of as they pass through the narrative. the first Confederate naval officers For instance, as “Capt. Kell” appears themselves had attended. A world-class briefly at one supper along with “cousin navy is only as good as its officer corps, Bob Minor,” one realizes that he was the which requires training in everything first lieutenant on the CSS Alabama, and from seamanship to gunnery to foreign the man was wounded on the CSS languages, history, and diplomacy. Those Virginia in the first battle of the ironclads. ideals were behind the Academy at There are many more similar instances of Annapolis, and equally provided the wonderful recognition, as famous officers fundaments for the Confederate Naval pass through, almost in cameo roles. For Academy set up in Richmond on the CSN fans, this collection definitely offers James River aboard the school ship CSS uniquely wonderful, insouciant celebrity Patrick Henry. This book encapsulates a snapshots. Book Reviews 85

The bulk of the book is comprised pp., illustrations, maps, tables, of the diaries themselves, which are full appendices, notes, bibliography, index. of the details of everyday life that make US $19.95, paper; ISBN 1-58544-516-9. you feel like you are right in the middle of the situation. Young Minor’s attentions alternate between itching to go fight In this clearly written and richly (which he does, with considerable illustrated study, Annalies Corbin bloodshed in the storming of the USS endeavours both to recover the history of Water Witch) and pining away in the the steamboat Red Cloud and to recapture throes of love and courtship of a damsel the commercial and expansionist activities in town, whom he would later come back of settlers along the upper Missouri River to marry after the war was over. The in the nineteenth century. With a focus midshipman had a way of getting himself “on identifying and understanding an into trouble, either by delinquency or by often-forgotten past” (p. xvi), she being a little too pushy and insistent, so examines the intertwined histories of the his difficulties often provoke a smile even region’s merchant communities, as he presents them with great government agencies and transportation seriousness. That doesn’t apply to his systems, all through the lens of the incredible hardships at the end, suffering maritime historian. from bloody dysentery while in desperate Corbin’s main achievement lies retreat from Union forces at the war’s in her retelling the familiar story of end. Finally, following his papers which westward expansion from an unfamiliar end with the war, various appendices and perspective. Rather than emphasize the notes flesh out the incidents surrounding centrality of wagon trails and railroads, the cadet’s personal narrative. she presents the Missouri River as the All in all, this little book (just principal “corridor of expansion” (p. xvi), over 200 pages in length) condenses the and contends “the key to gaining access to scene and the story into a priceless jewel the deepest parts of the interior of North of a window upon the heart of the hopes America was to understand and ultimately and dreams of the Confederate Navy, to conquer the Mississippi-Missouri river surrounded with supporting historical system.” (p.7) Although land background so as to not miss any of the transportation plays a vital role in her players mentioned therein. story, and the histories of the region’s main wagon lines and railroads are John Townley delicately woven into her narrative, she Sea Cliff, New York grants riverine concerns primacy. Why this maritime perspective? Annalies Corbin. The Life and Times of the Steamboat Red Cloud or How According to Corbin, a detailed study of Merchants, Mounties, and the Missouri the Red Cloud and its history reveals the Transformed the West. College Station, importance of steamboat navigation of the TX: Texas A&M University Press, Missouri River to the commercial www.tamu.edu/press, 2006. xvii + 145 development of the American-Canadian 86 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

West. The Red Cloud was linked to the but she provides no citation and offers no growth of the region’s most prominent thorough critique of any arguments, ideas nineteenth-century trading centre, Fort or evidence. Benton, and one of its most influential Corbin draws heavily upon merchant firms, Isaac G. Baker and primary source material standard to Company. As Fort Benton transitioned historical analysis, including business from a fur-trade post to a gold rush records, personal papers, government boomtown to an inland entrepôt, the documents (both American and Canadian) commercial activities of its citizens and newspapers. Her use and analysis of expanded. These activities included these sources is for the most part sound, importation and exportation, wholesale but tentative. Many have been combed and retail, finance, and the provisioning over by historians and come from the and small-scale administration of the secondary sources she references. What Canadian North-West Mounted Police. new evidence she presents is used to Central to all of these developments was reinforce previous scholarship rather than the extension of steamboat navigation into advance original ideas. This results in a the upper reaches of the Missouri River. number of missed opportunities. Corbin’s scope is sweeping. She For instance, Corbin’s analysis of proposes at once a detailed study of one the role that the Red Cloud played in the steamboat and a complex narrative of the movement of people and goods is territorial and commercial expansion of surprisingly limited, given the ship’s the United States and Canada. Her prominence in her narrative. She presents emphasis on the Missouri River reveals a information concerning the Red Cloud in project of great promise and potential. one of two ways. First, she provides The extent to which she succeeds in tables that list cargo manifests of each convincing the reader of the importance voyage to and from Fort Benton as they of the Missouri is limited, however, by appeared in the Benton Weekly Record. the length of her study: she attempts this These tables indicate which firms rather ambitious project in only 108 participated in the steamboat trade, the pages, and the total is lessened when the quantities traded, and, to a lesser extent, numerous maps, tables and illustrations what was traded. But the tables ultimately (59 in all) are accounted for. Although have limited value, as Corbin does not she presents the reader with a wealth of integrate them into her analysis. Second, information, she does not allow herself she comments on arrival and departure the space to develop her ideas or to dates, the quantity of goods and number advance new historical analysis. She does of passengers per voyage, and not engage in any sustained way with descriptions of goods received and broader historical debates about shipped. Although she provides detailed nineteenth-century transportation, descriptions of the ship’s history, she westward expansion and economic offers only summary conclusions as to the development. Only once – in the preface importance of the Red Cloud to changing – does she challenge “previous research patterns of trade and transportation. Nor concerning western transportation” (p.xv), does she fully demonstrate how the Book Reviews 87

history of the Red Cloud complicates our Nelson in recognition of the battle’s two understanding of important changes in hundredth anniversary in 2005, readers other areas of economic life in the region, have also been treated of late to several such as production, consumption, finance, fine biographies of commanders whose and ideology. names are not as synonymous with the Despite these problems, Corbin’s great naval engagements of the work is a valuable addition to the under- Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras as that studied riverine history of the American- of the iconic vice-admiral. Recent Canadian West and is accessible to a wide assessments of such contemporaries of audience of academic and non-academic Nelson as Admirals Cochrane, readers. It raises important questions that Collingwood and Keith offer refreshing demand further research and provides a perspectives to a period of British naval fresh perspective from which to find history that some thought was exhausted. answers to those questions. Although our Retired Royal Navy officer James understanding of the frontier has Davidson makes a similar contribution in expanded considerably in recent decades, his study of Sir John Jervis, later Admiral research on the West’s major rivers has Lord St Vincent. not. More studies like Corbin’s are Readers of Davidson’s book will needed if we are to understand better the undoubtedly agree that Jervis’s story economic developments that reshaped the warrants at least as much, if not more, North American continent in the attention than that of any one of Nelson’s nineteenth century. “Band of Brothers.” Not only did Jervis serve with distinction during a colourful Jeffrey D. Kaja career at sea spanning over fifty years at Ann Arbor, Michigan the end of which he attained the rank of Admiral of the Fleet, but he also presided over the Admiralty as a reforming First Lord during a tumultuous period when James D.G. Davidson, Admiral Lord St. corruption, mutiny and nepotism Vincent: Saint or Tyrant? The Life of Sir weakened the Royal Navy and Napoleon John Jervis, Nelson’s Patron. Barnsley, threatened England with invasion. S. Yorkshire: Pen and Sword Books Ltd., Moreover, it was Jervis’s early www.pen-and-sword.co.uk, 2006. 230 recognition of Nelson’s tactical brilliance pp., illustrations, maps, bibliography, along with his continued patronage, appendix, index. UK £19.99, €29.15, which essentially positioned Nelson to cloth; ISBN 1-84415-386-X. earn his victories in the famous battles of the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar. The timing of this book is indeed As with any respectable appropriate. Inundated with both popular biography, the complexity of its subject is and academic works celebrating and revealed early. The title itself, though a scrutinizing the Royal Navy’s now false dichotomy posing the question of legendary victory at Trafalgar and the whether Jervis was a “saint” or a “tyrant,” exploits of its hero Vice-Admiral Lord does capture the conflicting nature of how 88 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

his contemporaries regarded him. instrumental in making the Mediterranean Davidson’s hope, that readers will arrive and Channel Fleets models of discipline in due course at a positive assessment of and efficiency as they maintained close Jervis, does not interfere with his giving a blockades of Spain and France balanced portrayal. For example, the respectively during a high time of replacement of an entrenched system of mutinous sentiment and the constant promotion based on nepotism with one threat of invasion. Though he was utterly approaching a meritocracy was one of tactless and responsible for lowered Jervis’s chief objectives as First Lord, morale in the short-term, Jervis made though Davidson repeatedly reminds us many lasting reforms as First Lord. These that Jervis possessed extremely influential included placing the royal dockyards patrons of his own, including his mother’s under the complete control of the cousin, Admiral Lord Anson, and Admiralty, instituting a Commission of Anson’s close friend, Admiral Sir Charles Naval Enquiry aimed at rooting out Saunders. As far as rewarding merit, corruption and inefficiency, and Davidson inserts some doubt as to improving sailors’ welfare in the form of whether Jervis deserved full credit for higher standards of shipboard health and perhaps two of his most notable victories. hygiene, as well as enhanced pensions. His first major success at sea, as captain Some significant problems do of the Foudroyant in 1782, came largely arise in this book. Davidson employs as a result of the tactical sense of a direct quotations much too often. Chapter midshipman who suggested Jervis take seven is especially tedious, as an the helm opposite to the one intended, onslaught of 22 lengthy quotations in less thereby avoiding heavy casualties and than twenty pages gives the appearance of dealing the enemy ship its fatal blow. a lightly edited collection of letters rather Furthermore, Jervis’s most famous than a thorough analysis. The book is triumph, at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent well researched in terms of Jervis’s in 1797, which secured him his peerage as published letters, speeches and orders, but the Earl of St. Vincent, was largely due to offers no new primary material. Finally, Nelson’s independent action in breaking Davidson misses a golden opportunity to the line and causing the Spanish fleet to write the definitive modern biography of fall into disarray. Jervis by foregoing the use of citations As Davidson convincingly and refusing to incorporate nearly the argues, what Jervis did not have as a entire body of excellent recent scholarship tactician he made up for as a strategist. to appear on the Royal Navy for the His skill in recognizing and harnessing period 1793 to 1815. Of the 15 sources talent and creating the right opportunities included in the bibliography, just two date for those with it (such as Nelson) to thrive from inside the last half-century. A made him indispensable to the Royal glaring omission is the superb DNB entry Navy. A fierce proponent of traditional for Jervis. naval discipline in which obedience to the There are also a few minor navy and the nation came before all else, quibbles. Canadian readers will be Jervis’ unbending resolve proved annoyed by the careless spellings of Book Reviews 89

“Arcadia” (p.13) and “Louisberg”(p.16), Salewski of Kiel University and accepted and somewhat dismayed at the absence of as such in 2001. It concerns a most a map detailing the northeastern part of crucial period in the history of Germany North America, especially since Jervis as a State and of the German Navy—the participated in General Wolfe’s Reichsmarine, as it was called at the spectacular victory at Quebec and General time—in particular. By accepting the Amherst’s recovery of Newfoundland in terms of the Peace Treaty of Versailles the final battle of the Seven Years’ War in (signed 28 June 1920), Germany lost its North America. The appendix consists of Wehrhoheit, the right to determine the a table of rates, of peripheral value when size and composition of its armed forces the inclusion of a time-line highlighting as a fully sovereign state. The terms of Jervis’s record of service would have the treaty were particularly severe been far more practical. regarding the size and composition of the Despite the above-mentioned navy. All more modern ships which had disappointments, the book is informative, survived the self-destruction of the main well written, comfortably paced and body of the Hochseeflotte at Scapa Flow exhibits a carefully selected set of (21 June 1920) where it had been illustrations. Particularly for the non- interned after the Armistice of November specialist, the author succeeds in creating 1918, had to be surrendered to the former a strong appreciation for Sir John Jervis enemy powers or scrapped. as both an admiral and First Lord during The German navy was denied the a momentous period in the histories of employment of aircraft and submarines. both the Royal Navy and the British Its strength was limited to six battleships nation. of the ‘pre-dreadnought’ category, six light cruisers and 24 destroyers or torpedo Michael Dove boats. The number of personnel was St. Thomas, Ontario limited to 15,000 men, who had to serve as volunteers for a long period (25 years for officers and senior NCOs, 12 years for other ranks). A maximum size was fixed Peter Doepgen. De Washingtoner for units to be built to replace existing Konferenz, das Deutsche Reich und die ships. In this respect, the most Reichsmarine Deutsche Marinepolitik inconvenient regulation was the one 1921 biz 1935. [Deutsche Maritime limiting the size of new replacements for Studien/German Maritime Studies, vol. battleships to 10,000 tons, as it was 2]. Bremen: Hauschild Verlag/ Deutsches impossible to build a “dreadnought” of Schiffahrtsmuseum, www,hauschild- this tonnage. Germany was also obliged werbedruck.de, 2005. 277 pp., notes, to adhere to a limit on the age of ships bibliography. € 32.00, cloth; ISBN 3- before they could be replaced: twenty 89757-313-X. years for battleships and cruisers, fifteen for torpedo vessels. In this way, the This book was written as a doctoral thesis Reichsmarine was reduced to a second or under the supervision of Prof. Michael third rank navy capable of nothing much 90 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord more than coastal defence and ‘showing strategic arms limitation treaty of modern the flag’. time  and the London Treaty (1930). In The story Doepgen tells us with a this way, Germany would gain access to wealth of detail (derived from extensive the exclusive and limited circle of major study of the relevant records both from naval powers. She would have to adhere Germany and elsewhere and an to quantitative and qualitative restrictions impressive number of literary sources) is as regards number and size of ships, et essentially the struggle to free the German cetera, but they would be much less navy from the restrictions outlined above. severe than those she had had to accept at It is interesting to note that in this Versailles. How important this was for struggle the German government and the the German naval leadership is best leadership of the German navy did not illustrated by a remark made by the always see eye to eye. As Doepgen German Rear-Admiral von Freyberg to points out, it should not be overlooked the British Admiral Kelly during that in the early 1920s, the reputation of disarmament talks in Geneva (1929). the German navy within the country itself Von Freyberg referred to the German was at a rather low ebb: the battle fleet plans to build Panzerschiffe, ships of had rarely been in action, the submarine (officially) 10,000 tons, more heavily offensive had failed, and the lower deck armed than a cruiser and faster than a of the navy had provided the impetus for battleship (the famous ‘pocket battleships’ the revolution which swept away the Old of the Second World War). He Order. So there was ample reason to maintained that there was an easy way to question the value of a strong German get Germany to shelve the Panzerschiff navy no longer fettered by the Versailles project: to invite her to join the Diktat. Later on, in the summer of Washington Treaty. The successive 1927, there arose an awkward situation failure of all such German efforts to be when it came to light that the “ransport recognized as a naval power of the first Department” of the Naval Command was rank was mainly due to French engaging in activities aimed at acquiring opposition. During the 1930s, weaponry forbidden in the Versailles however, the Marineleitung saw this Treaty. This ”Lohmann affair” even led dream become a reality in a “backdoor” to the retirement of Defence Minister manner. The first milestone marking this Gessler and Admiral Zenker, commander- process was the recognition by the British in-chief of the navy. The aim of the Empire, the US, France and Italy of naval leadership always remained to get Germany’s right to organize its armed rid of the Versailles restrictions and so forces with the same independence as restore to Germany the navy she needed. other states. This occurred during Their strategy involved trying to gain international disarmament negotiations at acceptance for Germany as a signatory of Lausanne on 11 December 1932, restoring the various international naval arms the Wehrhoheit principle, even before limitation treaties that were concluded in Hitler rose to power. As a result, the ‘twenties and early ‘thirties, notably Germany was part of the naval agreement the Washington Treaty (1922)  the first of 18 June 18 1935, between the British Book Reviews 91

Empire and Germany. This conceded to Larrie D. Ferreiro. Ships and Science: The the latter country a naval strength of 35 Birth of Naval Architecture and the percent of that of the Empire navies. As Scientific Revolution, 1600-1800. for submarines, Germany was allowed a Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, tonnage of 45 percent of that of the www.mitpress.mit.edu, 2006. 432 pp., Empire; this could be changed to 100 illustrations, bibliography, index. US percent if certain emergencies occurred. $45.00/£29.95, cloth; ISBN -10:0-262- As we can see this treaty indeed implied 06259-3 ISBN-13:978-0-262-06259-6 restrictions, but at least for the time being these were for practical purposes Naval architecture is remarkable for meaningless because Germany was given having no single, easily accessible volume a free hand to build as large a fleet as her available for students interested in the shipbuilding capacities permitted and with history of the subject. Perhaps, this is the types of ship she wanted. because like shipwrights, who for Doepgen presents a clear picture thousands of years built ships without of the sometimes complicated processes knowing any science, historians have he has studied and thereby broadens the studied maritime and naval activities view of everybody interested in this without knowing very much about how period of German history. This does not ships move through the sea. They see no mean, however, that the book is easy to need to know. Yet, ship science  ship read and to use as a tool for one’s further theory, the author calls it  is required to studies, even for someone who is au predict in advance the performance of courant with German. What one ships after they are built. This is a particularly misses is a chronological challenging, important book, and deserves table of the many events described or a wider audience than just naval architects referred to and an index. The book interested in the origins of their appears to be remarkably free of factual profession; historians, students of sea errors. I disagree, however, with the power, naval officers and seafarers should statement that the Panzerschiffe were not read it too. larger than Versailles allowed.(p.10) The Larrie Ferreiro is well qualified to firm of naval constructors domiciled in write it. He holds degrees in both naval the Netherlands which played a not architecture (a master’s degree from unimportant role in the “secret University College, London) and history rearmament” of the Reichsmarine was not (a doctorate in the history of science and called Ingenieurskantoor voor technology from Imperial College, Scheepvaart but Ingenieurskantoor voor London). Indeed, his PhD thesis forms Scheepsbouw. (p.126) the basis for this work. He has also worked as a naval architect designing Philip Bosscher ships for the British, American and den Helder, Netherlands French navies and the US Coast Guard. This self-contained work is the first of the author’s planned two-part history of naval architecture from its beginnings to the 92 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

present day. This volume covers the birth of naval architecture while on a ten-year of naval architecture during the Scientific geodesic mission in the Peruvian Andes to Revolution from the early seventeenth measure the figure of the earth. century, when men began to expand on Bouguer’s book contained no practical Archimedes’ fundamental theorems, instructions for how to build a ship, but which became integrated into rational explained for the first time how to predict mechanics and began to play a role in the characteristics and performance of a naval architecture, until the French ship before it was built. The account of Revolution and Napoleonic Wars stifled Bouguer and his book, which appeared in much government-sponsored research at 1746, sets the stage for the six substantive the end of the eighteenth century. The chapters that follow. First, the author author’s aim is to explain how and why describes the changing naval and naval architecture developed and was maritime situation in Europe, which acted subsequently used by constructors. His as a catalyst for the development of and most important thesis is that the same men need for naval architecture as part of ship who expanded differential and integral design. He then moves on in chapters calculus and explored planetary orbits, two, three and four, to define and discuss tides and vibrating strings developed the three major elements of ship theory naval architecture. Just as the men who that emerged during the seventeenth and explored ballistics were not artillerists, eighteenth centuries: manoeuvering and those who developed ship theory were not sail theory, ship resistance and shipbuilders. What united these men was hydrodynamics, and stability theory, their interest in rational mechanics. including the concept of the metacentre, Ferreiro also argues that much of the which naval architects still use today. work of developing ship theory was Chapter five introduces and discusses carried out under the auspices of navies several major authors whose works whose administrators were interested in affected the development of naval improving ship design and construction in architecture during the period: Paul Hoste, order to control their constructors and a French Jesuit mathematics professor and expenses and to counterbalance superior author of the first modern work on naval numbers in the British navy. Why tactics, Leonhard Euler, a Swiss Europe’s largest navy was disinterested in mathematician who wrote in Latin while the development of ship theory is another in Saint Petersburg, Henri Duhamel du sub-theme in this complex story. Monceau, founder of the French school of The author introduces the main naval constructors in 1741, Jorge Juan y theme by presenting the central figure in Santacilia, a Spanish explorer and spy, the development of naval architecture, who wrote a mathematical treatise on Pierre Bouguer, and his book, Traité du solid mechanics and fluid mechanics, navire (Treatise of the Ship), in the Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, the first introduction. Bouguer was a French naval architect whose text book became mathematician and astronomer, not a perhaps the best known work on naval constructor. He never built a ship in his architecture although it was originally life. Yet, he wrote the first true synthesis written in Swedish. In this last case, the Book Reviews 93

author makes good use of the work of the bibliography, index. US $24.95, paper, CNRS’s own Dan Harris’s biography of ISBN 0-8130-2795-0. (Originally Chapman. Chapter six describes the published 1992, University of South process of professionalization of naval Carolina Press.) constructors that, Ferrerio argues, was the true legacy of this period, and the leap of The bicentenary of the battle of Trafalgar naval architecture across the English was commemorated in Britain by no Channel to the British engineers at work fewer than 20,000 separate events, 2,000 at the beginning of the nineteenth century of them on 21 October 2005. It is following the destruction of French unlikely that any thought was given to science during the French Revolution. Admiral Villeneuve’s objective in sailing Ferrerio’s book is a demanding for the Mediterranean, that is, to destroy read, with its fair share of mathematical the British and Russian fleets there, or at diagrams and equations, but the reader’s least prevent the Anglo-Russian invasion patience and diligence will be rewarded. of Naples, which in fact took place by the One of the book’s great strengths lies in end of November. The battle of Trafalgar the author’s ability to analyze each was significant, therefore, in preventing scientist’s work succinctly, to identify French mastery of the Mediterranean and where and how they got their mathematics Napoleonic expansion there, more than, wrong, yet, to explain the importance of as popularly supposed, ending the threat each man’s contribution to the whole. His to Britain itself. We must be grateful for explanations of theory appear to be clear this re-issue of Professor Flayhart’s and thorough without being unnecessarily previously well received book, identical technical. Although this reviewer has in every way to the original edition, forgotten just about all of his high school trigonometry and an early university including misprints, but with the addition course in differential calculus, the of a foreword and an expanded preface. fascination of the subject does come Overshadowed by Nelson’s across. This authoritative, engaging book titanic victory and by Napoleon’s success leaves one looking forward to tackling the at Ulm and overwhelming triumph at sequel. Austerlitz, the invasion of Naples, a side- show which ended in the ignominious James Pritchard withdrawal of the allied forces about ten Kingston, Ontario weeks after their landing, has received little attention. Flayhart’s accomplishment is to have provided the standard account of a minor episode William Henry Flayhart III. Counterpoint which ultimately had major to Trafalgar. The Anglo-Russian Invasion consequences, contributing to British of Naples, 1805-1806. Gainesville, FLA: naval mastery and the confounding of the University Press of Florida, French Emperor. The book is elegantly www.upf.com, 2004. xi + 298 pages, produced, the text clearly written and illustrations, maps, tables, notes, distills much research and analysis. 94 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

Flayhart sets the stage with an British National Archives. One account of the establishment of the Third publication in French is listed, all other Coalition that made Britain and Russia French sources are in translation. No allies despite their rivalry in the Italian or Russian materials were Mediterranean, and the plans for the joint consulted. A number of well-known and expedition to Naples. Britain had held on applicable Russian sources were to Malta despite Russian interests there, published before 1914, and others since and Russia had troops in the Ionian 1960. Most of these are in French and Islands. British opposition to a Russian some are listed in Paul W. Schroeder, The presence in the Mediterranean remained a Transformation of European Politics constant preoccupation until the First 1763-1848 (1994), pp. 263 ff., and 286, World War. Despite good will, there which also lists some relevant, were problems in cooperation between the comparatively recent Russian allies, the Russians being short of supplies monographs. Flayhart is a little unfair to and the Neapolitan government (the the head of the Neapolitan army, “an supposed beneficiary of the exercise), incompetent general,” Damas, in failing to being a considerable hindrance. An mention his forename, and in not having especially difficult problem was that of consulted the Mémoires du comte Roger de Damas (1914). Charles Auriol, La delays in communications, particularly France, Angleterre et Naples de 1803 à with London, which were sometimes the 1806 (1904-5), might have been fault of the London government. These consulted to advantage. “Russian very same communication problems had Ambassador M. Tatishchev” was in fact contributed to the collapse of a previous Minister Dmitri Tatishchev. British Mediterranean adventure, that at The most valuable section of the Corsica in 1796. The Russians were far book is the final chapter taking the story from their main bases in the Black Sea. forward. Russia became a French ally in Extensive bickering ended when July 1807. The Ionian islands fell into Alexander I of Russia, having shared the French hands and then became a British loss at Austerlitz with his Austrian ally, protectorate. Exasperation with the ordered his troops to return to the Ionian Neapolitan royal family caused the British Islands, while the Neapolitan government administration of Sir William Bentinck to could not decide on resistance to exile the queen and establish a Napoleon. Rather than return to Malta, constitution in 1812 that had General Sir James Craig, the hero of this reverberations later in the century. The account, withdrew his troops to Sicily, British presence in Sicily helped to which thereafter became a British base. handicap French attempts to regain any Trafalgar opened the door for the Anglo- naval significance in the Mediterranean. Russian expedition to Naples, and then Sir John Stuart was able to land troops Austerlitz made it irrelevant. from Sicily back in Naples, where Joseph The book is based on admirably Bonaparte had become king. On 4 July extensive research in the British Library 1806, they handily defeated a regular and a broad range of official papers in the French army and then withdrew. These Book Reviews 95 successes helped promote uprisings in After almost effortlessly completing the Calabria against French rule that took first two parts of his mission, for which he years to put down and demanded the was promoted admiral, Farragut found permanent presence of French forces. himself holed up in Pensacola, outside This, in turn, contributed to the eventual Mobile Bay, for almost two years, British decision to support Spanish begging for additional army and armoured guerrilla warfare and to land British warship support, before he could finally forces in Spain. Some veterans of Craig’s conclude his mission. Meanwhile on and Stuart’s army contributed to land, the Union advance had come to a Wellington’s campaigns. Later Bentinck standstill at the gates of Atlanta and was able to move towards northern Italy. Richmond and “if the Confederacy could All of these elements in the overthrow of deny the North a further military triumph” Napoleon stemmed from the Anglo- before the next presidential election, Russian invasion of Naples, itself the fruit Abraham Lincoln was bound to lose his of Nelson’s victory, as we are reminded presidency and “the South was certain to by W. H. Flayhart’s illuminating study. achieve its independence, not on the battlefield, but by a negotiated peace.” If J. M. P. McErlean Farragut had not been able to seal off the Toronto, Ontario port of Mobile, which represented one of the main lifelines of the Confederate military effort on land, North America today would present quite a different Jack Friend. West Wind, Flood Tide. The picture. Battle of Mobile Bay. Naval Institute Against the backdrop of rising Press, Annapolis, www.usni.org, 2004. strategic and political stakes, Jack Friend xiv + 310 pp., illustrations, maps, notes, slowly unveils the drama of Mobile Bay, bibliography, index. US $ 29.95, cloth; minute by minute as it sometimes seems, ISBN 1-59114-292-X. reciting copiously from hundreds of letters and eye-witness accounts. With Micro studies have always found the tension and frustrations on both sides enthusiasts within the field of military steadily mounting, it is almost a relief history, and West Wind, Flood Tide. The when Farragut finally engages his Battle of Mobile Bay by Jack Friend fits formidable opponent, Admiral Franklin into this tradition exceedingly well. The Buchanan, veteran commander of the CSS book meticulously describes two years of Virignia at the battle of Hampton Roads plans, delays and personal successes and two years earlier, who was defending the failures leading up to the most decisive bay with four Confederate ironclads, the naval battle of the American Civil War. most modern warships of their time. The In 1862, U.S. Captain David G. Farragut four hours of the actual battle cover sixty was ordered to lead a Union fleet up the pages of the book. After the initial Mississippi and capture New Orleans, disaster, when the US monitor Tecumseh lend support to the attack on Vicksburg struck a mine, Farragut saws no option and finally, to secure Mobile, Alabama. 96 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord but to take the lead and enter the bay E. Kay Gibson. Brutality on Trial: straight through the minefield. “Hellfire” Pedersen, “Fighting” Hansen, (Apparently, the legendary words “Damn and the Seaman’s Act of 1915. the torpedoes” were never uttered.) In the Gainesville, FL: University Press of ensuing battle, Buchanan with CSS Florida, 2006, xix+225 pp., illustrations, Tennessee, single-handedly wrought appendices, glossary, index, endnotes, havoc in the Union fleet, before finally bibliography. US $34.95, cloth; ISBN 0- being forced to surrender. We are spared 8130-2992-0. none of the desperate moments, gallant behaviour nor horror which, in the end, In Brutality on Trial: “Hellfire” earned the Union forces an expensive Pedersen, “Fighting” Hansen, and the victory, at a price which allowed the Seaman’s Act of 1915, author E. Kay Confederates to hold their heads up high Gibson attempts to supply a corrective to in defeat. Human loss on the Union side the romantic vision of the waning days of ran into the hundreds, against little more sail. For Gibson, wife of acclaimed than thirty on the Confederate side. maritime historian Charles Dana Gibson, Like many Civil War episodes, the first few decades of the twentieth the story is one without villains and each century represented a time when bucko mates and bully captains continued to side is equally praised for its acts of harass their crews, in open violation of heroism and self-sacrifice. Jack Friend’s federal statutes. While others lament the sense of historical drama is infectious, passing of ships with billowing white and gives his book the flavour of a canvas sails rather than belching television documentary; his poetic smokestacks, Gibson reminds us that inclination spurs him to sprinkle his those glorious ships were often hellish narrative with citations from Homer. workplaces, coated in the blood of their Most satisfying is the way he allows us to crews. What makes this era different follow the careers of the main characters from preceding ones, when corporal after the battle. His traditional approach punishment was regularly meted out on in focussing on personalities and action, board American sailing ships, was that however, also leaves many aspects of the sailors, armed with new laws and American Civil War navies untouched, supported by a progressive government, for which I was glad to have Sondhaus’s were starting to fight back—and win— Navies in Modern World History by my against the capricious and arbitrary will of side. Nonetheless, I am sure that for Civil their officers. War enthusiasts this volume will provide In this slim volume, many years a rewarding experience. in the making, Gibson details the abuses aboard two particular American vessels, Alan Lemmers the Puako and the Rolph, with by far the Amsterdam, the Netherlands greatest emphasis on the former ship. Utilizing an impressive array of primary source documents— from periodicals to consular dispatches and from courtroom Book Reviews 97 testimony to legal documents— Gibson pages of Brutality on Trial are devoted to attempts to recreate the brutal world that “Fighting” Hansen and the Rolph. The was the American merchant marine. story, however, is much the same. A Aboard the Puako, the master, Adolph demon of a mate, with a well-known Pedersen and his two sons, Dolph and reputation for hard drinking and hard Leonard, meted out terrible punishment to fighting, Hansen was arrested by their multinational and multiethnic crew American officials in South America after during the tumultuous war year of 1917. they received complaints from numerous None escaped the wrath of the Pedersens, sailors about the treatment they had enduring daily beatings with belaying received at his hands. Hansen had pins, knuckle dusters, and a novel torture previously been convicted of murder, and known as “the water treatment,” where the beatings he administered on the Rolph cold bilge water was continually pumped left one crewmember blind and another onto the captive sailors. The abuse was deaf. Like the Pedersens before him, so severe that two members of the crew Hansen was tried and convicted of assault jumped overboard and committed suicide and other charges, and sentenced to prison rather than face such continued in a case that was interpreted as a mistreatment. To protect themselves, the landmark victory for non-licensed Pedersens forced the remaining maritime workers. crewmembers to sign statements that they Gibson is careful to provide some were conspiring to commit mutiny, and context: wartime demands on American that the punishments they received were shipping meant that fewer berths were warranted. When the San Francisco- occupied by skilled mariners and that this, based ship, which had been ferrying in turn, meant that ships’ officers worked lumber from the Pacific Northwest to with untrained crews who often needed South Africa, put in at Cape Town, the “hands-on training.” Gibson also states aggrieved seamen called on local that the Pedersens were fearful for their authorities to intervene. Citing the lives, and believed that their ship had Seaman’s Act of 1915, the authorities been targeted by German saboteurs who seized the Pedersens and transported them were determined to sink the vessel and for trial to New York City. Here, in what kill the officers. While this does much to Gibson describes as a sensational trial, the explain the mindset of Pedersen— and to men were acquitted of murder. Convicted some extent Hansen— it, of course, does of various other charges, however, the trio not excuse the brutality that these crews was sentenced to prison terms of various encountered. Nor does it address the fact lengths. Curiously, upon his release, the that such treatment was de rigeur on elder Pedersen was again placed in charge American sailing ships for the better part of another ship, which, like the Puako of American maritime history. These before her, was owned by a shipping sailors, the progeny of Jack Tar, were company controlled by the mayor of San merely experiencing the same treatment Francisco. that their predecessors had suffered for While the case of the Puako is generations. What makes these cases treated in great detail, fewer than twenty different was that the vicious cycle of 98 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

abuse that had marked the maritime and epoch Gibson is trying to represent. workplace since time immemorial was On its own, alas, this is but a finally starting to change. Armed with the compendium of two incidents that are Seaman’s Act of 1915, and various other unremarkable except in their resolution. pieces of progressive era legislation, the common sailor and waterfront labourer Timothy G. Lynch was finally able to stand up for himself. Vallejo, California While Gibson provides an illuminating view into the world of the American merchant marine during the Progressive Era, this book leaves much to Maura Hanrahan. Domino. The Eskimo be desired. For one, Gibson gets lost in Coast Disaster. St. John’s, NL: Flanker her sources. For pages on end, the reader Press, www.flankerpress.com, 2006. 221 is subject to dry courtroom testimony or pp., maps, illustrations, appendices, index. verbatim excerpts from consular CDN $16.95, paper; ISBN 1-894463-80- correspondence, much of which is 3.. repetitive and superfluous, and little of which is interpreted by a trained The story of the 1885 super-storm that historian’s eye. Worse, Gibson fails to wrecked the Labrador shore still figures in provide sufficient historical context about that region’s oral history. Nor has it the world in which maritime workers slipped from formal history because of its lived, the boarding houses, bawdy houses, crippling effect on the mercantile-based crimps, shipping agents, blood money, economy of the time, which relied on the and other unsavory aspects of maritime Labrador fishery, and, in the long term, its employment markets. Also absent is a influence on the governance of discussion of the context of progressive measures, such as the great strength of Newfoundland. The interwoven stories of organized labour on the Pacific Coast, ship girls, English crewmen, livyer with its attempts to unionize these men, families, Newfoundland fishing fleet thereby allowing them to better protect families, merchant dynasties, and the themselves against these abuses. Aside famous Bartletts of Brigus, are all woven from some tantalizing references into this creative work of historical concerning the International Workers of fiction. Clouds gather and winds quicken the World and the political agency of men from the outset and an uneasiness prevails such as Andrew Furuseth, there is little as one wonders who is doomed and who here to suggest that there was any such will survive among this complex cast. movement. In fact, much of Brutality on Throughout the nineteenth Trial is presented devoid of any context, century, hundreds of fishing vessels with the author assuming a good deal of arrived on the south-central Labrador knowledge on the part of the reader. Had coast each summer to fish for cod. The the milieu of the maritime workplace been fleet came from Britain and New England more widely explored, one would have but mainly from Newfoundland ports. It gained a much fuller insight into issues comprised tens of thousands of people  Book Reviews 99

men, women, and children  who spent key historical figures and elements of the fishing seasons on the coast living in fishing life are well chosen, although the wood or sod houses whose ruins still dot women don’t appear nearly as fish- that shore. Some of these families stayed begrimed and down-trodden as I imagine in south-central Labrador, forming the them. There are twenty-seven short bulk of today’s population base. chapters over 188 pages that move Conditions on board fishing vessels were through several main characters and of the worst kind, but life in damp and across many settings in time and space. crowded hovels was the even more The rollicking pace from character to terrible setting that caused Dr. Wilfred character and from place to place at Grenfell to found The Mission to Deep moments reads like a compilation of short Sea Fishermen, which offered medical stories and one wonders whether the far- and social services to a poor and flung thematic net could have been drawn undernourished people. in part way to focus on fewer characters Well suited as curriculum and to develop one or two histories over material for secondary level or even many. Hanrahan may have made a literacy programs, in a style that is fresh strategic decision in this respect, however, and never cumbersome, Domino is intent for the movement of the chapters invokes on describing the strictures of a resource- that of vessel caught in an ever-increasing based economy, the class self- wind. consciousness of the time, and the rich ethnohistory of the region. Hanrahan’s Marianne P. Stopp presentation of attenuated lives on a bleak Wakefield, Quebec and stone-grey shoreline are incredibly evocative and form the clothesline from which flap well-ordered and well- Donald R. Hickey. Don’t Give up the researched historic details. Ship! Myths of the War of 1812. Toronto: Not only should this volume Robin Bass Studio, become curriculum material, but it is www.rbstudiobooks.com, 2006. xxix+430 accessible to any reader both in price pp., illustrations, maps, chronology, (under $20.00) and in concept and appendices, endnotes, index. CDN readability. Newfoundland and $39.95, cloth; ISBN 1-896941-45-1 Labrador’s past is emerging through a (Canada). growing body of similar writings, which all demonstrate that its culture and history Donald R. Hickey, professor of history at are unique and distinct – there’s nothing Wayne State College in Nebraska, is a like them in Canada. Domino is history distinguished scholar of the period of the without the ten-dollar words, and the early American republic and probably the presentation of individual experience over leading American authority on the War of cramped structural analysis and 1812. Hickey’s book, The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict (1989), remains a theorizing. The photographs that portray 100 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord standard treatment of the war. In his and he provides a brief overview of the latest book, Hickey examines myths of war. Chapters 1 through 6 treat various the War of 1812 and, through this vehicle, aspects of the war, including the myths discusses the latest scholarship on what is and controversies, while the Epilogue certainly one of the most confusing, least deals with the war’s legacy. Hickey has understood, and generally ignored also included a detailed chronology of the conflicts in American, Canadian, and war. Several appendices treat popular British history. Unlike many American songs associated with the War of 1812, studies of the war, Hickey has shipwrecks and rebuilt ships from the endeavoured to give proper recognition to war, and the origin of the term, “War of the role played in the conflict by the 1812.” Numerous period illustrations and British, Canadians, and Native excellent maps contribute greatly to the Americans. text. The War of 1812 was indeed a The scholar and novice alike will strange conflict. It was certainly not a find in this book a gold mine of useful war sought by Great Britain, locked in a information. In the body of the book, life-or-death struggle with France. questions in bold type pose such queries Americans were sharply divided over the as: Did the British incite the Indians? war. New England, the part of the When did the British declare war? When country that should have been most was the first land battle? Who shot concerned about the chief causes of the British Major-General Isaac Brock? Why war  free trade and sailors’ rights in did General Hull surrender Detroit? Did fact, opposed the conflict. Americans the British dine in the White House? Who expected the war to be short and were the best American generals? Who victorious, ending with Canada part of the were the worst American generals? United States. It did not happen, but this Hickey also evaluates the effectiveness of “Second War for Independence” had far different weapons systems, including reaching effects, including the creation of Canadian nationalism. naval ordnance, rifles, and Congreve In his discussion of myths, rockets. Hickey also appraises the roles Hickey begins by identifying three played in the war by women, African individuals he considers to be the chief Americans, and Indians. early mythmakers of the war and who set While the War of 1812 seems much of what was to come in motion. small indeed next to most other American They were British naval historian William wars, nonetheless, it had important and James (The Naval History of Great lasting effects. For both the United States Britain and other books), Benson J. and Canada, it shaped national Lossing (The Pictorial Field Book of the development for the remainder of the War of 1812), and Henry Adams’ nineteenth century. The war had an (History of the United States of America). especially important impact on Canada, In his prologue, Hickey discusses key creating both Canadian heroes and events of the period and problems Canadian nationalism, as well as fear of confronting Britain and the United States, Book Reviews 101

American expansionary policies, thus cloth; ISBN 1-59114-959-2. Distributed helping to insure that Canada would not in Canada by Vanwell Publishing Ltd. become part of the United States. The Indians were the major losers in the war. “The only thing that ever really frightened The end of their way of life was me during the war was the U-boat peril.” inevitable but the war greatly speeded up This is a quote from Winston Churchill. this process and the takeover of their At the peak of hostilities, German U- lands. The British realized that to retain boats sank over one hundred merchant the loyalty of Canadians, they would have ships each month. By the end of the war, to reverse their traditional policy of total losses numbered about 2600. The protecting the Indians. As Hickey makes main battlefield was the North Atlantic, clear, this “Second War for but in the South Atlantic, Mediterranean, Independence” also confirmed American Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, nationhood. It marked the birth of U.S. merchant vessels also fell victim to the naval power, led to the acquisition of part Axis forces. Merchant mariners endured of Spanish West Florida, and brought a everything the enemy could throw at new respect for the United States in them: bombs, torpedoes, mines and Europe. It also speeded up manufacturing gunfire, and, for those captured, imprisonment, mistreatment, torture and and industrialization. execution. In order to get as much cargo This book deserves the highest across the sea as possible, safety praise and certainly belongs in every regulations for labour and cargo were academic library. An easy read, it is that eased or disregarded. These circumstances rare work that is at once scholarly and diminished the chance of survival for the immensely entertaining. It is also unusual pawns in this conflict — approximately in that one can both read it as a narrative 60,000 Allied mariners died in service. account that proceeds more or less Roger Jordan’s comprehensive chronologically and employ it as a handy book, The World's Merchant Fleets 1939, contains details of ocean-going merchant vessels at the end of 1939 and their reference source for specific topics and wartime fates. The book has two parts. In issues. the first part – The World’s Merchant Fleets - the information is divided by Spencer C. Tucker country and shipping company. Data is Lexington, Virginia given for each ship: dimensions of the vessel, year of construction, name of builder, tonnage, propulsion, speed, and number of passengers. More than three Roger Jordan. The World's Merchant hundred black and white photographs Fleets 1939. The Particulars and Wartime give a well-balanced representation of the Fates of 6,000 Ships. Annapolis: Naval merchant fleets in this era. The second Institute Press, www.usni.org, 1999. xvi + part of the book – Losses -- contains data 624 pp., illustrations, index. US $ 59.95, on the fates of some 3,000 ships that were 102 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord lost to all causes between 1 January1939 and 31 December 1945. Types of losses John R. H. Kimball. Disasters Etc.: The are distinguished as between those Maritime World of Marblehead 1815- resulting from marine hazards and enemy 1865. Portsmouth, NH: Peter E. Randall action during the Second World War and Publisher, www.perpublisher.com, 2005. also the Spanish Civil War, including x + 191 pp., photographs, illustrations, losses after 1945 as a result of striking maps, references, index. US$ 25.00, cloth; mines. This information is provided in ISBN 1-931807-36-1. alphabetical order by cause. Jordan’s book is not prosaic. It Marblehead is a small coastal town north contains hundreds of pages of neatly of Boston, between Salem and organized data. One would expect to find Gloucester, Massachusetts. The at least some statistics, but alas this is not Naumkeag first peoples, then, from 1629, the case. It would have elevated data to the English, used the harbour as a fishing information and added value to this port. It is probably best known to the already rich book. Without a doubt, this maritime world for its inhabitants’ solid product of painstaking, laborious reliance on the Atlantic fishing economy research is a valuable contribution to the in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, maritime history of the twentieth century. and for their involvement in the American The reader should be warned, however. In Revolutionary War both in the the first part of his book, the author Continental Navy and privateering. focuses on the merchant fleet, as it existed John Kimball’s book about at the beginning of the war in 1939. As a Marblehead is a useful addition to the result, only the wartime fates of some of existing literature towns of the North the merchant vessels are covered. There is Shore. This is not a break-through no mention of the vessels that came into history, but an account of a time between service after 1939. For example, none of wars when Marblehead focused on fishing the very great number of cargo ships built and trade. It is nicely laid out and under the Liberty and Victory programs illustrated and filled with interesting during the war is mentioned. The book, in quotes and long passages from many the end, has an unfinished feel about it. journals, newspapers, and other sources. As a maritime historian with a keen The book, however, suffers from too interest in merchant shipping in the much quotation, giving the impression of Second World War, I would certainly like a cut-and-paste assemblage. It would be to see these gaps filled in the same an enjoyable read for someone casually excellent manner in which the author has interested in Marblehead’s maritime past. compiled the information presented in the I imagine this is the targeted audience, present volume. especially people who come to Marblehead for recreation. Jacob Bart Hak Historians who want to study the Leiden, The Netherlands North Shore or that period in New England’s history probably will find Kimball’s book useful, but difficult. He Book Reviews 103 does offer quotes from and citations of tense changes in mid-paragraph, to some primary sources that one might want eliminate many unnecessary quotations, to explore. Much of the text, however, is and to bring some of the long end-notes derived from several standard maritime into the text. Historians will find the histories of the Northeast. Kimball also book useful mostly for leads to some seems to accept as true passages in late- primary sources. nineteenth-century publications about things that happened generations before Warren Riess those passages were written. Bristol, Maine Tracing Kimball’s precise sources is a quite frustrating exercise. For example, the reader might see something in quotes and think it is a primary John Lambert . Anatomy of the Ship. The account, only to find it comes from a Fairmile “D” Motor Torpedo Boat. twentieth century author. The text is London, UK: Conway Maritime Press, often vague in its references, such as “a www.conwaymaritime.com 2005. 120 writer describes,” so that the reader must pp., photographs, illustrations. UK work through the citations to get any £25.00, cloth; ISBN 1-84486-006-X. useful information. The citations are (Originally published in 1985). cumbersomely arranged. Grouped at the end of each chapter, they are a mix of This book, a re-issuing of the 1985 long explanatory notes of up to a half printing, was researched, written and page in length and abbreviated references illustrated with superb draughtsmanship that might only give the author’s last by John Lambert. Long known for his name and a page number. outstanding work regarding smaller Kimball’s past profession as an calibre weaponry and the smaller vessel attorney who specialized in financial types to which those weapons are most matters shows in his more than casual suited, Lambert is also the author of interest in the financial dealings and Allied Coastal Forces, Volumes I and II. recourses to litigation of the fishermen Nonetheless, what Lambert and maritime traders. I think this is his initially felt would be a relatively simple strongest addition to the literature. research project with some time on the Kimball succeeds in explaining some of drawing board turned into anything but. the intricacies of the financial and legal On commencing his research, he arrangements and practices. His discovered that there was little readily explanation of the system of letters of available in the way of material. He credit for the Asian trade (pp. 72-3) is a turned that sparse start into a superb job noble effort, but I think might have of research, documentation, a worked better with a simpler example. photographic record, and outstanding The story about Marblehead in draughting recording the details of the Disasters Etc. is a good one and those type. In total, this book provides a with a casual interest will enjoy it. I think comprehensive look at the Fairmile “D,” it could have used more editing to correct its development and use, from its design 104 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord to its final form when the last “D” in follows, including many dating to the service, (then classed as a Fast Patrol beginning of the construction of these Boat) paid off at HMS Hornet, Gosport, vessels. These photos include framing Hampshire, on 5 September 1956. and an engine-room mockup photo. This volume follows the standard There is also a wealth of information format used in the Anatomy of the Ship contained in the operational photographs series and starts with the usual dust jacket of numerous boats, most taken under notation that “This highly acclaimed wartime conditions, including close-up series aims to provide the finest details shots that will be invaluable to documentation of individual ships and model builders. The book is rounded out ship types ever published.” It continues: with 68 pages of Lambert’s superb “The drawings are accurate, visually draughting covering everything one exciting and totally comprehensive, would want to know about the vessel offering ship buffs, historians and type. modelmakers a novel insight into the The Fairmile “D” was developed technicalities of each type covered.” at the Admiralty as a “long” boat when While the dust jacket states that William John Holt, then head of the boat the book is “Complete with a 1/75 Scale section of the Royal Corps of Naval Fold-out Plan,” this is a misnomer; there Constructors, in essence, spliced a are no foldout plans as normally destroyer-type bow onto a fast motorboat understood by readers familiar with them. stern. It was intended as a deterrent to the A starboard profile and a plan view are formidable German S-boats (from reproduced on the back of the extremely Schnellboote, but always called E-boats stiff and multi-folded dust jacket; a very by the allies), which were more efficient poor substitute for a fold-out, at best. and more heavily armed. The E-boats’ Contents include a Forward and powerful Mercedes-Benz lightweight Acknowledgments, followed by an diesel engines of over 2,000 hp had the Introduction to the Fairmile “D” which advantage of a less volatile fuel than the includes: charts covering the particulars petrol (gasoline) carried by their of the type, which was generally known opponents. They were also better armed. as a “dog-boat”; comparative performance In fact, it was not until the release of the data for all Fairmile types; scantlings for QF (quick firing) 6 pounder them; particulars regarding builders of the 7hundredweight Mark II gun that the Fairmile types A, B, C, D, F, H, with the Fairmile “D” could finally outgun the E- type series number ranges; and an boat. By then, the “D” was fitted with excellent section on armament. A listing four Packard 4M-2500 engines with each of the completion dates and fates by boat developing 1250 maximum brake number follows this. Particulars of the horsepower producing 34.5 knots on an range of weapons used on the boats are 85-ton hull (as designed). Tank-tested in provided, as are details regarding the Admiralty Experiment Tank at Haslar machinery, including variations by boat at the end of 1939, the “D” did not take its number. A section containing 28 pages of final shape until March 1941. It was built extremely well-produced photographs in small boatyards across the country Book Reviews 105

from kits supplied by a central store imagination of the world.” (p.16) facility at Brentford. This approach “Samuel Cunard, the Steam Lion, led by allowed modifications to the design as example—and in so doing left us with an required, prior to shipment. example to emulate.” (p.135). As published, four drawings, One of the most successful international including the all-important lines drawing, businessmen of the nineteenth century and five excellent photographs cross came from Halifax. His impact on the gutters, making the drawings virtually transporting of goods and people around useless to many of the targeted the world has long since been forgotten, readership, including model builders. The particularly as aircraft have replaced ships five photographs would have been of as the way to get to Europe and other more use as fold-outs. If true two-page parts of the globe. fold-outs can’t be provided, as is done by The person is, of course, Samuel other publishers and some magazines, the Cunard. John G. Langley’s new drawings on either side of the gutters biography of this famous entrepreneur is should at least have generous overlaps to a concise account of the man who allow for copying and accurate re- changed the way and speed with which aligning the sections to allow study of the transportation and communication took complete drawings without the place in the 1800s. The author deals first inconvenience of the gutter. with the arrival of Cunard’s parents in Despite this ongoing complaint Nova Scotia, Samuel’s early years, and with the Anatomy series regarding the use then moves to a detailed examination of of fold-out plans, this is a superb account his commercial accomplishments, of the history and development of the illustrating how his judgment and Fairmile “D” written by an outstanding foresight played an important role in the researcher well qualified to handle all development of the Canadian economy. aspects of the project. Samuel Cunard’s forefathers were German Quakers, who, led by William Roger Cole Penn, settled in present-day Pennsylvania Toronto, Ontario in the United States. Desiring to remain under British rule at the end of the American Revolution, these settlers became part of a new wave of immigrants to Nova Scotia and other parts of British John G. Langley. Steam Lion: A North America known as the Loyalists. It Biography of Samuel Cunard. Halifax, was in Halifax that Samuel Cunard was N.S.: Nimbus Publishing Ltd., born in 1787. www.nimbus.ca, 2006. 169 pp., Langley pays special attention to illustrations. CDN $29.95, cloth; 978-1- Cunard’s strong work ethic, an asset that 55109-623-0. was undoubtedly acquired from his father. The author points to this as the reason for “The foundation had been laid for a his emergence as a prominent maritime company that would capture the merchant in the city. He notes the 106 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord important contribution made by the addition to his fleet of vessels, included Cunards in developing the local economy coal mining, whaling, banking, and the in Nova Scotia and abroad. Initially, construction of several canals around the spurred on by the Napoleonic wars and expanding colonies the need to get troops and supplies to the The volume is also effective in European battlefield, Cunard’s father, probing Cunard’s personal life, which was Abraham, founded A. Cunard & Son. dealt a severe blow by the death of his Although this operation was later wife, Susan, who died giving birth to their disbanded, and replaced by S. Cunard & ninth child. As a widower and single Son, the experience and knowledge parent, he certainly must have been gained during these early years proved grateful for the support and help extended extremely useful and beneficial, to him by his mother-in-law for broadening the movement of a varied housekeeping and parental number of products from all over the responsibilities. Samuel’s obligations in world. Halifax became an important port early life were the education of his of call, moving goods of all types from younger brothers and sisters. This spirits to coffee. This flow of imports, certainly aided in the development of his combined with an extensive collection of ability to juggle conflicting priorities waterfront real estate, laid the between work and family. groundwork for the business success Langley reveals that Cunard’s gained by Samuel Cunard throughout his later business life was not all that career. prosperous, indicating that the appearance Langley also discusses Cunard’s of wealth is not always an accurate specific advances, particularly as they depiction of one’s actual financial applied to the use of steam-powered ships situation, particularly when the repayment to link Halifax with Boston, as well as of debts is involved. Cunard owed money with several ports in Britain. Later, New to a variety of creditors in the 1830s York was also included, giving local which came to the point where his ability merchants, as well as passengers, an to travel abroad was strictly regulated additional point of access to the crucial until these loans were addressed. American market. Cunard’s most The author also discusses important accomplishment, however, is Cunard’s final years which were spent in still the carrying of mail, passengers and England as a member of the British goods from Britain to Halifax, and then aristocracy and as a trusted advisor to the on to other parts of Nova Scotia, central British Government on colonial affairs. Canada, and the United States. The Cunard’s death in 1865, two years before profits from this initiative made Cunard Confederation, marked a new era in the extremely wealthy for his time, and ever-evolving economic and political assured him a role in the developing focus of Canada, one which has not been economies of the British North American all that kind to the seafaring spirit of colonies which became part of Canada in Atlantic Canada. 1867. Cunard’s other interests, in If the volume has any particular Book Reviews 107 flaws, it may be its inability to appeal to Historical Office, who contributes a an audience fixated on the here and now, preface setting the subject in context. The as opposed to the past century. publication originated as “Battle Nevertheless, it is always the past that Summaries,” compiled by Commander J. determines the future. This book should Owen of the Historical Section, and not be overlooked. It gives us an issued in 1944 and 1945. These were important examination into one of our revised after the war by Commander L. J. provinces’ most famous sons and his Pitcairn-Jones and issued in 1957 with a extensive milestones. “Restricted” classification for use within the navy. The revisions included use of William Dubinsky additional confidential information and Halifax, Nova Scotia some (very limited) use of Italian and German sources. The editor informs us that Pitcairn-Jones had access to the special intelligence, commonly referred to Malcolm Llewellyn-Jones (ed.). The as “Ultra,” but this still could not be Royal Navy and the Mediterranean divulged in the mid-1950s and, as this is Convoys. A Naval Staff History. London: a facsimile reproduction, there is no Routledge, www.routledge.com, 2007. mention of it in the text. The editor has, xviii + 154 pp., maps, illustrations, whenever possible, translated the file sources, appendices, index. UK £65.00, references in the original to the current cloth; ISBN 978-0-415-39095-8. file numbers in the National Archives (formerly Public Record Office). This is The attempts to sustain Malta in 1941 and extremely useful to anyone wanting to 1942 resulted in some of the most conduct more detailed research in the memorable naval operations of the original documents, although there are Second World War. In turn, British air some cases where no trace of the original and sea forces based on Malta threatened could be found. German and Italian supply lines to North The convoys studied in individual Africa where the land operations swung chapters are, for the most part, well back and forth. This also had its effect on known to naval historians by their code the convoys, for the success of Rommel’s names. “Excess” (January), “Substance” army could, at times, reduce the amount (July) and “Halberd” (September) took of aerial protection given the convoys. place in 1941. The 1942 operations were This volume is a facsimile “M.G.1" (March), “Harpoon” and reproduction of the naval staff history, “Vigorous” (June), and “Pedestal” Selected Convoys (Mediterranean), 1941- (August). “Pedestal,” with its iconic 1942, containing a detailed examination memory of the battered oiler Ohio, finally of the seven major operations during this arriving with its precious cargo after an period. It is part of the publisher’s series epic struggle, receives the most detailed “Naval Staff Histories,” now edited by Dr treatment. The majority of the Italian and Malcolm Llewellyn-Jones of the Naval German attempts to stop the convoys 108 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

came from the air, supplemented at times turn back. by motor torpedo boats and submarines In recent years, the boundaries of which, in the case of Pedestal,” could be naval history and its understanding have very effective. “M.G.1" was the only been greatly expanded and enriched by convoy that involved surface action with non-combat studies involving the the Italian fleet, when Rear-Admiral administrative, technological and Vian’s light cruisers and destroyers held financial dimensions of the subject. This off a strong Italian surface force centered book is an old fashioned, narrative history on the battleship Littorio. Nevertheless, of operations, the end result of all that the constant threat of the Italian fleet had planning and preparation. Official a strong influence on other operations, publications can be dry and hard to get and in the case of “Vigorous,” forced the through. This, given the subject, is convoy to return to Alexandria without certainly not, and the text is supplemented reaching Malta. by excellent maps and diagrams, the former in full colour. The focus is The study ends with a thoughtful obviously on British operations. The few chapter of comment and reflections citations related to the Italian side and including a comparison with the Arctic attempts to reconcile British and Italian convoys. The realities of geography made accounts refer rather vaguely to the convoying particularly hazardous because “Italian Official History” or “Italian convoys from the west had to run the sources” without specific references to gauntlet of the relatively narrow passage file, volume or page numbers. The names between Sicily and Cape Bon, and ships of Italian commanders rarely appear and from the east ran through the area ships smaller than cruisers, such as between Crete and Cyrenaica, dubbed destroyers, are not always mentioned by “bomb alley.” The British managed to name. Details on the German forces keep Malta supplied–barely–but the cost involved are even more scant. One learns was high. The three 1941 operations nothing of the identification of the described brought 29 ships to Malta with Luftwaffe units involved, the relative the loss of one sunk and two damaged, strength and availability of aircraft, or any but the navy lost a cruiser and a destroyer cooperation (or its lack) with the Italian and had other ships damaged, including air and naval forces. There are estimates the battleship Nelson and the precious of the number of bombers attacking, but aircraft carrier Illustrious. The latter was no figures given for their fighter escorts. lucky to survive and remained out of A full account of the enemy side, service until near the end of the year. The however, was not the intention of the year 1942 was even more arduous and authors of the staff study. Their work was there was the loss of an aircraft carrier originally an “in house” account of (Eagle), two cruisers, an anti-aircraft British operations. For a study of the cruiser and nine destroyers, plus twenty of campaign in all its aspects, one would the sixty supply ships that originally now consult works like Jack Greene and sailed for Malta with another ten forced to Alessandro Massignani, The Naval War in Book Reviews 109

the Mediterranean, 1940-1943 (London: spent building ships. Five years after his Chatham, 1998). start in 1947, in the post-war world of the This book can be enjoyed both by seriously-outdated Scottish shipbuilding historians and naval buffs, but the high industry, Martin leaves to follow the call price will likely deter many who would of the sea. He spends most of the next like to acquire it. Furthermore, my copy decade in the engine rooms of a variety of had the covers (not very sturdy but ships, becoming thoroughly familiar with technically “hard”) bound upside down. marine diesel engine propulsion and a fair Considering the price, one would expect number of the modern world’s oceanic more care from the publisher. Routledge routes. After a couple of years back in a has published many excellent naval titles Scottish shipyard and in Birkenhead, he but at prices that turn aside most. In this moves to Eire to become naval architect case, the colour maps obviously add to the to the Verolme Cork Dockyard. Martin expense, but given that this is a facsimile spent his final shipbuilding years as a copy, the editorial cost to the publisher globetrotting marine consultant. was far less. When will the publishers The author considers the post war learn that there is a market outside of period covered by his personal libraries for publications like this, given monograph as something of a record of reasonable pricing? the decline and virtual collapse of the British shipbuilding industry. He Paul G. Halpern explains some of the contributing factors Tallahassee, Florida to this failure at various junctures through the book. The Dutch owners of the Irish shipyard where he spent the bulk of his Frank G. Martin. Fifty Years A career hired him at the onset of their Shipbuilder. Stanhope, UK: The Memoir greenfield operations. He was made Club, www.thememoirclub.co.uk. 2006. redundant when the doors of the yard xvii + 457 pp., illustrations, appendices, were finally closed after twenty-five years index. UK£19.50, paper; ISBN 1-84104- of trading. Martin does not let these 156-4. depressing facts permeate his narrative. His attention to minute detail, technical When an author writes a personal account explanations, ship statistics, and the of his life and publishes it in the form of people he dealt with at all levels suggest a vanity press, we may ponder why this a meticulous mind and good journal outlet was chosen. The possible answers keeping. to that ponder need not trouble the reader The book resonates with carefully of this book, Martin’s autobiographical documented first-hand information about memoir is an interesting, detailed and a wide number of marine construction and almost compelling account of his working operational initiatives. Martin puts you in life in the shipping world. That life spans the shipyard, taking you from the design a little more than the fifty years stated in office to the launch ways with the easy the title, though not all of it was actually familiarity of someone who is completely 110 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

comfortable and familiar with the entire difficult to deal with than a commercial shipbuilding process. He explains in ship owner. There is a great deal to be easily understood, but non-simplistic learned from Martin’s very personal terms, how modern ships are constructed. observations of the last half of twentieth In a similar manner, his chronological century in Scottish and Irish shipbuilding. progression through his educational and The excellent photographic working life is well laid out, tempered by illustrations throughout the text serve the humour and personal asides. He intrudes writer very well but one has to refer to the by adding occasional chapters dealing appendix to read the long, clear and with nautical but divergent topics. They detailed explanations. The Index seems may perhaps add interest, but they halt the brief, and perhaps the inclusion of a few flow, and at the same time, do not always line drawings would have enhanced the seem germane. There is a wealth of written descriptions. But these are minor useful data in his descriptions of the quibbles about a book which admirably progress in the advancement of ship fills a niche in an often overlooked area of design and the advent of new forms of modern marine history. seaborne transport. As someone who worked in the David A. Walker same field during much of the same Halifax, Nova Scotia period, albeit on the opposite side of the Atlantic, there was a great deal of nostalgia contained between the covers of this book. We, too, have experienced the Kit Mayers. North-east Passage to decline and virtual collapse of the Muscovy, Stephen Borough and the First Canadian shipbuilding industry post-war Tudor Explorations. London: Sutton for some similar and for some different Publishing, www.suttonpublishing.co.uk, reasons. Unlike Britain, Canada’s large 2005. xiii + 241 pp., maps, illustrations, and diverse shipbuilding industry was, to appendices, notes, references, index. UK a great extent, a child of the Second £20.00, cloth; ISBN: 0-7509-4069-7 World War, a pioneer industry dominating world-wide nautical trade. It The North-East Passage to Muscovy is could be posited, however, that British the story of the sixteenth-century mariner shipbuilding was declining a decade or and explorer, Stephen Borough. This is a more before the war and bowing to more well-organized and readable book where progressive yards elsewhere. the author eloquently makes the case that, Martin’s opinions and comments although almost nothing is known about regarding the interface between Borough as a character, his deeds live on, governmental and naval customers and and these alone are sufficient to put him in the pantheon of great Tudor sea the shipbuilder are cogent and well taken. captains from Devon. There is money to be made from the The three-ship expedition from owners of these government vessels, but the Thames to the Arctic in 1553 is best the governmental bureaucracy is far more Book Reviews 111

known as Willoughby and Chancellor’s. Grenfell Mission in Newfoundland. Two ships and their crews, including “the Thus, he has good cause to understand the Admirall of the fleete” Sir Hugh cold and sea conditions which Borough Willoughby, were lost and their endured in his attempts to find a north- gruesome, frozen corpses not found until east passage around the top of Russia. the next spring. Only Richard On their return to the Thames, Chancellor, “the Pilot Major of the Chancellor’s and Borough’s voyage was, fleete,” returned in the 160-ton ship at first, judged a failure: it did not bring Edward Bonventura. Borough was the back the gold, silk and spices expected by master of Chancellor’s ship and it was his its backers. During the winter of 1553-4, seamanship, Mayers speculates, that however, Chancellor had visited the court saved the Edward Bonaventura from of Ivan the Terrible, and this led to the disaster under sail and enabled the foundation of the Muscovy Company, the explorers to winter successfully in the first successful joint-stock trading White Sea. Borough went on to complete company. Moreover, Borough’s dozen or many voyages in an attempt to find the more voyages, spanning a quarter of a North-east Passage, and to trade with century, put England at the forefront of Russia. European seafaring and navigation, and On his first voyage, Borough laid the foundation of Britain’s great found Scots living as far north as the commercial empire. islands of Vardø, thus hinting at even Mayers’ account raises some earlier and unrecorded voyages to the fascinating questions. north. On his second voyage in 1556-57, In the sixteenth century, the in the tiny, ten-man pinnace Serchthrift, eponymous Borough was a lonely Borough reached the furthest east of any farmhouse on the periphery of Northam, western European, sailing on until he was itself no more than a cluster of hamlets stopped by a “monstrous heape of ice.” around a church on an estuary in North He reached 70º 25΄ East, measuring his Devon. There, for generations previous, position with instruments so primitive to a farming and fishing community had the modern sailor that no one would cross survived on little more than a subsistence the Bristol Channel with them, never economy. Borough’s family was clearly mind the Arctic Ocean. Yet his not significant enough even to have a measurement has been confirmed by proper surname. Nonetheless, at age 27, modern methods as being accurate to the he was appointed master of the largest of minute. the three ships in an expedition to find a Kit Mayers is well qualified to new sea route to the East. Stephen write this book, having sailed around the Borough was not just a single spark of world in the Whitbread Race, under the genius, but the member of a dynasty: his command of Chay Blythe, in a boat little uncle, John Aborough, spied for Henry larger than those used by Borough. VIII; his brother, William, was Controller Mayers was also a member of the first of Queen Elizabeth’s navy; his son, Greenpeace expedition to the Antarctic, Christopher, explored Persia; and his son- and was director of laboratories with the in-law, John Vassall, was one of the 112 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord founders of Virginia and may also have “one of the fowre pricipall masters in been the owner, or even the builder, of the ordenarie of the Queens majestie’s royall Mayflower. Navy,” a use which predates Charles II’s Borough attributed his successful by several years. voyages to the grace of God, which is a This is another fine volume from fine contemporary explanation, but this Sutton, at a mercifully modest price, does not satisfy a more secular age. One which deserves a place in the library of can still visit Northam and Borough, anyone interested in Arctic exploration. which are little changed from Borough’s day, apart from the ugly rash of holiday Peter Hore homes in the surrounding countryside and Iping, West Sussex, UK the rush of modern traffic. The bend where the rivers Taw and Torridge meet below Appledore is also unchanged since, presumably, young Borough first messed Evan McHugh. 1606 An Epic Adventure. about in boats there over four hundred Sydney: University of New South Wales years ago. The size of the craft swinging Press Ltd., www.unswpress.com.au, 2006. in the tide or sitting on the mud, if not the 232 pp., illustrations, maps, glossary, material of their plastic hulls, would be references, index. AU $34.95, paper: familiar to Stephen Borough too. ISBN 0-86840-866-2. So, how many good harvests were needed before the Borough dynasty The press release for Evan McHugh’s could cease its subsistence living, who latest book, 1606: An Epic Adventure, married into the family to augment its claims that McHugh, an Australian gene pool, what inspired schoolmaster journalist for the Sydney Sunday came to the village to teach Stephen, so Telegraph, is known for his ability to “tell the God’s grace could take effect? And a good story and draw out the human what then drove Borough (and the other drama.” This statement may be true for members of his family) from the safety his previous books, with subjects that run and obscurity of North Devon to seek his the gamut from Outback heroes to fortune upon the seas? shipwrecks to personal memoirs, but it is There other good qualities about unfortunately untrue for his latest work. Mayers’ book: it is well-indexed and In 1606, McHugh attempts to includes comprehensive notes and cover the exploration and mapping of the references. One of the eleven appendices. continent of Australia from the first contains the ordinances of the 1553 sighting of Cape York, located in far expedition, which might be a yardstick for northwest Queensland, by Dutch explorer all voyages of exploration. Willem Janszoon in 1606 until Matthew In passing, Mayers reveals one of Flinders, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, the first uses of the name “Royal Navy” mapped the continent from 1801-3. The on Stephen Borough’s monument on the book mentions all European explorers wall of St Mary’s church, Chatham. It who charted portions of Australia until a records that at his death in 1584, he was complete map of the continent came into Book Reviews 113

existence in the early nineteenth century. published in 1925, are outdated to say the Written for a popular market, least. More current works, like Stuart McHugh tries to draw comparisons Macintyre’s critically acclaimed general between the past and the present. For history of Australia, published in 1999 example, he tries to refute the early and later revised in 2004, would have explorers’ opinions that Australia was provided McHugh with a better grasp of little more than a dry and barren land. To current academic debates surrounding the do this, he informs the reader about the issues he is trying to address. future profitability of the crocodile skin Yet the most prominent problem industry, bauxite mining and mud crab of 1606 rests with its very writing. The meat exports. (p. 10) McHugh’s book is poorly written and suffers from comparisons are interesting and certainly verbose prose. McHugh quotes alert the reader to the uniqueness of excessively from the explorers’ journals. Australia, which held very few goods that Often, such excerpts take up whole pages early European adventurers deemed with little or no analysis following the valuable. quotations. Much of Cook’s journal McHugh’s book is about the regarding his first visit to Australia in exploration of Australia and not its 1770 is reproduced in its entirety. While colonization. While he mentions Arthur journal entries are fascinating reading, Phillip, the first governor of New South long quotations seldom enhance the Wales, and the commodore of the First quality of a secondary historical work. Fleet of convicts to arrive in Australia in 1606 does little to advance 1788, he mistakenly claims that Phillip scholarly knowledge of maritime history. had been “a retired naval captain.” (p. Written for a popular market, the book 191) Phillip had never retired from the lacks a thesis and is merely a rehashing of Royal Navy, but by the end of the published explorers’ journals with no American Revolutionary War, he, like so scholarly analysis. Released in 2006 to many other low-ranking post captains, coincide with the four-hundredth had resigned himself to the fate of anniversary of Janszoon’s sighting of collecting half-pay for the remainder of Cape York, one could have wished that his life. Several other minor factual errors the public had received a better- occur throughout the book, but are not researched and better-written book about glaring enough to detract from the work. this momentous occasion. The only One of the more prominent saving grace of 1606 lies in one of its problems of 1606 lies with McHugh’s most annoying habits: the continual source material. The most current work quotation of the explorers’ journals. By that he references is Richard O’Neill’s reading these lengthy quotations, Patrick O’Brian’s Navy, published in hopefully, the public will recognize that 2003. Indeed, the two secondary sources this time in history is, in fact, exciting and on general Australian history that the has merely been treated unskillfully by author uses as his base of knowledge, Evan McHugh. namely, Ernest Scott’s Australian Discovery, published in 1929, and Ida Kelly K. Chaves Lee’s Early Explorers in Australia, Fredericton, New Brunswick 114 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

Constantine Pleshakov. Tsar's Last original Port Arthur squadron. The Armada: The Epic voyage to the Battle of ineffectual remnants of what would be a Tsushima. New York; Basic Books, Second Pacific Squadron were powerful www.basicbooks.com, 2002. Xx +396 in numbers only, hampered by corruption, pp., maps, photographs, notes, politics, pessimism, bureaucratic bibliography, index. CDN$26.95, paper; incompetence and indiscipline. Simply ISBN 0-465-05792-6. getting his ships to the straits of Tsushima by May 1905 was a considerable The culmination of the short and nasty accomplishment for the admiral, but his war between Russia and Japan in 1904-5 fleet was virtually smashed and scattered was the despatch of a large and unwieldy in a matter of hours by the experienced armada of obsolete or untried ships from Japanese. Already blooded by their the Baltic to the Sea of Japan. Arriving in engagements with the more seasoned May 1905, the voyage of some 18,000 Russians they had fought off Port Arthur miles took approximately eight months, in 1904, Japan had lots of time to restore including lengthy layovers in Madagascar and refit their ships and crews before and French Indo-China. It was a forlorn Rozhestvensky's arrival. It was an mission ordered by a deluded Tsar unprecedented and unnecessary symbolic Nicholas II. He hoped to reverse a tragedy that played no real part in deteriorating strategic situation involving deciding the war, other than dashing the the costly Japanese siege and eventual vain hopes of the tsar. Nonetheless, the capture of Port Arthur which ran its Japanese victory was proclaimed another course to the end of 1904, together with Trafalgar, even though the hard little war the destruction of the generally well- was closer to a draw than is generally handled but unlucky Russian naval accepted, with the exhausted Japanese squadron it sheltered. Once victorious, trading bodies for territory. The Japanese the efficient Imperial Japanese Navy, secretly asked the United States president commanded by Vice-Admiral Heihachiro to broker a peace but Russia, with a Togo, the AJapanese Nelson,@ gained growing army still in the field, refused to secure command of lines of sea pay an indemnity to their financially communication from Japan to Korea and strapped enemy. Manchuria in support of land armies, Scholarly study of the war has pushing back but not destroying Russian been a challenge for westerners lacking forces north of Mukden. By this time, the knowledge of either Russian or Japanese. fleet was en route but Nicholas would not In addition, versions of events through hear of its recall. the eyes of pre-Soviet emigrés have Admiral Zinovy Petrovich clashed with Soviet secrecy and Rozhestvensky, named to command the propaganda agendas. Access to Russian ill-fated Russian naval relief expedition, archives by outsiders had been almost harboured no illusions. Russia's Baltic impossible in the Soviet era and, as fleet had already been stripped of its best Constantine Pleshakov tells it, is still not ships, captains and crews to form the without its challenges today. Nonetheless, Book Reviews 115

he has surmounted these obstacles to and mounting the operation; and provide a rich, well-paced in-depth ALingering@ addresses the painfully account of the journey to Tsushima and sluggish voyages of various fleet elements its aftermath through the eyes of the by varying routes, accompanied by spy mostly Russian dramatis personae. scares in the Baltic, firings at British Professor Pleshakov served as a fishing craft, RN monitorings, logistics, member and director of the geopolitics intelligence and diplomatic issues, department at the Institute of U.S. and dealings with obdurate French neutral Canada Studies at the Russian Academy allies. There were also prolonged delays of Sciences (1985 -1996) and has held in unhealthy climes after the Tsar numerous fellowships and positions insistently burdened Rozhestvensky with abroad, including an appointment as Karl additional useless reinforcements, Lowenstein fellow at Amherst College. including a Third Pacific Squadron. Prolific as both a historian and a novelist, Lastly, there is ABattle@ and its aftermath, he has a number of prize-winning works including the disciplinary trials and later to his credit. lives of some of the surviving officers. This particular volume adds very Pleshakov varies the pace significantly to our knowledge of the ill- between the elevated, the interestingly fated expedition and the major and minor picayune and the farcical but he players. As well, we are given some accentuates the Russians concerned from background regarding British, French and a remarkably interesting and perceptive German perceptions. Primary sources human dimension. The profile of the include the State Archives of the Russian iconic but also complex and hot-tempered Federation (Moscow), including the Tsar's Admiral Rozhestvensky is particularly diaries, the Russian State Naval Archives insightful, even to the extent of his long- (St. Petersburg) and the Russian State time affair with the wife of the heroic Military History Archives), as well as the Admiral Makharov (shades of Peirse and Bakmeteff Archive (of Russian and East Auchinleck!) and another requited passion European Culture, Columbia University, for Natalia Sivers, a nurse aboard Orel, New York). Dr. Pleshakov also explored the fleet's hospital ship. Yet he also significant Admiralty, Foreign Office and maintained a loving correspondence with Cabinet sources at the PRO, as Britain, his wife. Intelligent, brave and enigmatic, Japan's new, but still nominally neutral, he was a tragic figure of biblical ally monitored developments. As well, he proportions, capable of great things but makes extensive use of contemporary not the impossible. His staff purchased published Russian-language sources, many pairs of binoculars due to their many of which are not known in the admiral's penchant for violently throwing West. The research is impressive and the those in hand overboard every time some narrative flow quite compelling. miscreant captain failed to handle his ship The work is divided into three properly. But he was also loyal and parts: ARace@concerns the decision to generous to his subordinates, when send the reinforcement squadron and the deserved, and particularly those in overwhelming difficulties in marshalling Japanese captivity and on trial. 116 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

Pleshakov is a must for any main armies of the resources which might required reading list for the Russo- have permitted the destruction of the Japanese war. The tale is well told and it Russian forces in central Manchuria. adds important information, especially (When the Russians had no choice but to about the Russians. Nonetheless, it does sortie into the Yellow Sea, Togo's fleet adhere to prevalent themes of Russian noted some rather good gunnery prior to writings on the war, which magnify the their chance disabling of the Russian clumsiness of the corrupt Tsarist Russian flagship.) In the happy event for the bear and the power and efficiency of the Japanese, the tsar sent poor enemy  also pleasing to the view Rozhestvensky's hapless leftovers and contemporary Japanese wanted to present Togo had his Trafalgar. Ironically, of themselves, despite their also being however, the supposedly decisive sea vulnerable to error, risk and uncertainty. battle more closely resembled Spanish There are a few difficulties in Admiral Pascal Cervera's gallant sortie terms of the book’s context and against the Americans from Santiago de interpretation. As Pleshakov concedes, it Cuba a few years earlier in the face of is neither a history of the war nor of the superior American speed and firepower naval war, but his attention to these wider or, more ironically still, the kamikaze aspects in the text is far too cursory and sortie of Yamato in 1945. Had he dismissive. Important work is absent considered this literature, Dr Pleshakov from the bibliography, for example, might have been less inclined to call observations on the naval war from Sir Tsushima one of the Atop five naval Julian Corbett, Alfred Thayer Mahan and battles of human history.@ (p. xvii) Fred T. Jane. A particularly unfortunate omission from the secondary sources is John Griffith Armstrong Denis and Peggy Warner's The Tide at Nepean, Ontario Sunrise (1974), still quite possibly the most reliable and comprehensive study of the war. This alone would have been more than enough to have given Pleshakov Tom Pocock. Breaking the Chains. The what he needed to comprehend events Royal Navy's War on White Slavery. from the Japanese perspective. These Annapolis, MD; Naval Institute Press, sources suggest that the Russian Afleet in www.navalinstitute.org, 2006. viii + 216 being@ strategy at Port Arthur, with pp., illustrations, notes, bibliography, occasional jabs to underscore their threat index. CDN$ 38.95, cloth; ISBN 1- to Japanese lines of communication, was 59114-048-X. the rational choice  not seeking a decisive full-blown sea engagement. That Although overtly focusing on the it was not destroyed by the Imperial Navy repression of white slavery in the early threatened the prestige and reputation of nineteenth-century Mediterranean, this Togo's navy. Instead, the army had to do book is largely about naval warfare, with the job for them: a costly and lengthy the struggle for Greek independence as a siege against the fortress, depriving the prominent sub-theme. This reviewer can Book Reviews 117 only judge the book as a contribution to the movement for Greek independence. the debate on white slavery, for which Pocock even fails to mention that when Tom Pocock's central revisionist thesis is the French took Algiers in 1830, they that British policy was more haphazard freed the remaining white Christian and faction-ridden than has usually been slaves, but not the black Animist or stated. This is a useful corrective, as is Muslim slaves. the reminder that it was not the Congress The book suffers most of Vienna in 1814-15 that specifically conspicuously from the author's poor targeted white slavery, but the 1818 knowledge of general Islamic and Conference of Aix-la-Chapelle. Mediterranean history. There are some Nevertheless, Pocock may push his glaring howlers, such as the assertion that revisionism a bit too far, as there was Morocco at one time formed part of the arguably a strong underlying British Ottoman Empire, and that the latter's determination to “pacify” the origins went back to the first century of Mediterranean after the Napoleonic Wars. Islam. The author initially declares that The Duke of Wellington emerges the Ottomans did not take Greeks as as the villain of Pocock's story, constantly slaves, but then notes, correctly, that frustrating the abolitionist intentions of Greek Chiot rebels were enslaved on a the eccentric and amiable Admiral Sir large scale. That said, Pocock has no Sidney Smith, supported by the French grasp of the long unhappiness with diplomat Hyde de Neuville. Despite the slavery in Islam that Smith was trying to negative attitude of the British delegation exploit. In common with much that is in 1814, Smith managed to sneak himself written on this topic, there is a deafening into the Congress of Vienna to plead his silence in his book on the enslavement of cause, and he founded the quixotic Muslims by Christians, which persisted Knights Liberators of the Slaves in into the nineteenth century. This Africa. A fascinating aspect of Smith's neglected theme has been wonderfully campaign was his attraction to Islam, and treated in the writings of the Italian his invocation of the humanitarian historian Salvatore Bono, but his works principles of the Qur'an in a well-meaning are not included in Pocock's bibliography. attempt to persuade Muslim leaders to give up servitude. Indeed, the material on Indeed, it was partly to prevent the Smith in this book is the most novel and continuing enslavement of Muslims that useful for the historian of the abolition of Britain refused to allow the Knights of St white Christian slavery. Subsequent John to return Malta at the end of the chapters treat naval campaigns against the Napoleonic wars, a factor ignored by Barbary States, covering ground that is Pocock in his discussion of this strategic already well known, albeit including island. Similarly, he frequently uses the technical details of interest to naval word “pirate,” whereas the slavers of the historians. In the second half of the book, Mediterranean, both Christian and the theme of slavery almost disappears, Muslim, were almost always corsairs or although there is some interesting material privateers, operating under the on Egyptian slaving as part of repressing authorization of letters of marque. 118 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

Overall, this is a book that hovers shipping design in the second half of the uncertainly on the boundary between twentieth century. scholarly and popular history. The garish On leaving school, Kenneth dust-jacket features a famous painting by Rawson won a scholarship to the Royal Delacroix, yet suggests an unfortunate Naval Engineering College in Devonport, anti-Islamic bias. The book is very lightly the body responsible for the design of all annotated, and even citations from Royal Navy warships. His long career primary sources are not always included five years as the Professor of referenced. Archival sources do not Naval Architecture at University College figure prominently, and the index leaves London, the first Head of Forward Design much to be desired. There is only one at the Ministry of Defence, where he map, the scale of which is too small to assessed the viability of outline designs indicate places that are repeatedly for surface ships from both the Royal mentioned in the text. The bibliography is Navy and the public, secondment to skimpy, and, with one exception, Lloyds Register of Shipping to research restricted to works in English. That said, merchant ship design and finally, Chief Sir Sidney Smith's quirky campaign to Naval Architect of the British Ministry of reform and abolish Islamic slavery is a Defence. He is the co-author of the truly engaging and useful element in this book, harking back to the author's earlier standard textbook on naval architecture, biography of this interesting figure. Basic Ship Theory. Unfortunately, the death of Tom Pocock In the late 1970s, a prominent in May 2007 makes a revised edition of group in the private shipbuilding industry this book unlikely. claimed that for the past century, naval designers had failed to see that pushing a William G. Clarence-Smith sponge in the bath broadside on made London, UK smaller waves than pushing it narrow side on. They insisted publicly that the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors’ traditional long, thin design for the Type 23 coastal Kenneth Rawson. Ever the Apprentice. frigate was wrong and pressed the Navy The Memoirs of a Perpetual Learner. to develop the small, so-called “short fat Stanhope, UK; The Memoir Club, ship.” It fell to Rawson to convince the www.thememoirclub.co.uk 2006. xv + public that these claims were a complete 222 pp., illustrations, index. UK £14.95, myth, but a surprising lack of support paper; ISBN 1-84104-155-6. from the Admiralty led to him resigning from the Ministry of Defence. The This is a memoir of intellectual endeavour controversy took eleven years of and deep love of the sea and ships. It expensive and time-consuming litigation recalls a vibrant life during a period of before being resolved in his favour. At many now-forgotten changes in society University College London, Rawson and gives an insider’s view of studied hydroelasticity, the response of an developments in naval and merchant Book Reviews 119 elastic structure to forces imposed in familiar to all readers. Rawson has water. This coincided with the successfully used his own papers as disappearance in the Pacific in 1980 of a sources, supplemented by an excellent new design of bulk carrier, the four-year- memory of events as they happened. old 170,000 ton Derbyshire. It was the The book’s contribution to largest British merchant marine casualty maritime history is the light it throws on and this was followed by hull damage to prominent naval events during the last several sister ships. In 1990, a research half of the twentieth century whose team at UCL pinpointed dynamic stresses background was never disclosed to the in areas not examined by Lloyds Register general public. It will be of interest to that could have caused such fatigue. The both general readers and maritime author explains his opposition to the use historians, although the latter might be of aluminium in the construction of the frustrated by the index as it refers mainly Type 21 frigate, one of which caught on to people rather than to events or ships’ fire during the invasion of the Falklands. names. In the penultimate chapter, Rawson was chairman of the Royal Rawson asks rhetorically “so what did I Institution of Naval Architects when, in learn?” It is clear that the strength of his December 1987, Herald of Free family life has overcome any setbacks he faced in his professional career. Not Enterprise capsized and sank off every reader will share all his views, but Zeebrugge in a little over three minutes. his cogent and often biased conclusions For the first time, the RINA took a on a host of subjects make compelling leading role in the subsequent inquiries reading. and, for ten years, it campaigned for improved safety for roll-on roll-off Michael Clark ferries. London, UK There are many memoirs about shipping careers and war experiences, but Rawson ranges widely as he examines many aspects of his life and the lessons he Nicholas Tracy (ed.). Sea Power and the has drawn from it. In fact, the overall Control of Trade. Belligerant Rights from theme of this illuminating treatise is one the Russian War to the Beira Patrol, of life-long learning and chapters are 1854-1970. Published for the Navy dedicated to academic, political and Records Society, Vol. 149. Burlington, general learning as well as places of VT: Ashgate, www.ashgate.com, 2005. learning. Approximately one third of the xxxix +557 pp., list of documents and book is devoted to the author’s strong sources, index, ship index, gazeteer. US $ family life, but the writing comes alive 165.00, cloth; ISBN 0-7546-5367-6. when it turns to naval architecture and his life in ship construction and he includes Many readers will be at least passingly brief descriptions of some esoteric familiar with the Navy Records Society and its objective of “…printing technical matters which will not be 120 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

unpublished manuscripts and rare works offered illegal shelter, and the interdiction of naval interest.” The Society was of trade providing succour to an established in 1893 and this reviewer implacable enemy, depending on fondly recalls consulting of number of perspective. More generally, the British previous volumes in this series on naval dominance of the sea in the Napoleonic signalling for a paper for Barry Hunt at period was widely perceived as decisive RMC – quite a while ago now! in the event, as was its absence in the The title is appropriately preceding American Revolutionary War, descriptive of the period covered in this and again its presence in the Seven Years eclectic collection of documents that have War. Throughout this period, and before, been compiled to illuminate the legal and there was a developing set of “rules” that diplomatic challenges associated with were often ignored by the participants denial of the fruits of maritime trade to an when inconvenient, but the notion of enemy power. The period from the setting limits by which the conflict was to Crimean War to the Beira Patrol (anti- be conducted was accepted as essential. Rhodesia initiative after Unilateral The period immediately after the Declaration of Independence in 1965) was Napoleonic Wars was one of peace and one of considerable ferment regarding this the issue lay dormant in consequence. By question. In particular, there was a mid-century, however, a series of growing demand to regularize warfare in conflicts erupted, mostly short-term in general, with the humane view of duration, such as the Crimean War and minimizing its inherent brutality and the American Civil War, and the issue of “civilizing” the process. The creation of belligerent rights gained prominence, the Red Cross, for instance, is an example particularly with respect to differing of this trend and was epitomised by the perspectives between Britain and France various Hague conferences in the late- (Crimean War) and Britain and the United nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. States (US Civil War). It need not be noted that the proponents The volume is divided into four laboured in vain, as the tale of the parts. The first covers the last fifty years twentieth century attests, but the of the nineteenth century; the second motivation was surely honourable touches on The Hague Conventions and enough. the First World War; the third discusses The issue of belligerent rights the post-war period and the considerable with respect to seaborne trade has, of Anglo-American strife on these issues in course, a history that long pre-dated the the 1920s; and the final part covers the period under consideration. Indeed, every Second World War and into the 1970’s. Canadian is presumably familiar with the There is a document index, very helpful, putative causus belli between Great a general index and a ship index. At the Britain and the United States in the War conclusion of the volume is a list of all of 1812 – high handed Royal Navy The Navy Society’s publications since interference with American trade and the 1893, noting which are still available kidnapping of honest sailors; or, the just from the publisher (quite a few are). recovery of desperately-needed deserters Book Reviews 121

The volume contains extracts purpose and are well done by the editor from a wide range of sources pertinent to It is difficult to assess a book the issue, including the Foreign Office, such as this. Without question it is for the the Admiralty, Cabinet, Colonial Office, specialist and the historian. It is the Ministry of Transport and others. The absolutely not for the general reader. Of documents include Cabinet minutes, course, it has no pretensions in this memoranda, notes, policy papers, and regard. In my view, the book achieves its various items of correspondence. In aim admirably. There is much useful addition it includes the texts from the background material here that will Hague Convention and documents such as materially assist the seeker of knowledge the Declaration of London concerning the as to the use of sea power in controlling laws of naval war (1909). There is much sea- borne trade. And, importantly, it is on the perennially fascinating topic of not that expensive despite its clearly prizes (“…dreams of riches beyond limited audience. Each Navy Records avarice…” in the minds of many a naval Society volume is included in the annual officer), particularly as this freebooting subscription of £30 – volumes still aspect of naval warfare, subject to such available can be acquired through the obvious abuse, was at odds with the Society office on application. Well worth growing bureaucratization of war. As the money if you are in the market for the well, there is an interesting item (no. 45) subject at hand. On that basis, I can in the volume from a member of the recommend this volume as well as the Canadian naval staff in Ottawa to Admiral Society in general terms. Domvile, Director of Naval Intelligence in 1927. At issue was the question of Ian Yeates, blockade and neutral rights as they might Regina, Saskatchewan apply to the United States – the American position, unremarkably, was in contravention to the views held by Great Britain – and how this made the Canadian Dan Van der Vat. The Great Scuttle. The circumstance untenable. In the event of Sinking of the German Fleet at Scapa hostilities between Great Britain and the Flow in 1919. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd., United States over this issue, Canada www.birlinn.co.uk, 2007. 240 pp., map, would clearly have to stand aside. The photographs, sources, index. UK £ 7.99, inconsistencies in American policy were paper; ISBN 978-1-84341-038-6. touched upon in a refreshingly frank (Originally published 1982.) manner, but the “realities” of the matter made for great difficulties for Canada. Dan van der Vat relates the events leading Indeed. to the June 1919 scuttling of the German There are also a number of warships interned at Scapa Flow. He helpful essays at the book’s introduction describes how two men, Kaiser Wilhelm as well as for each part. These situate the II and Grossadmiral von Tirpitz, built up documents and provide necessary context. the Imperial German Navy into the These essays are essential to the volumes world’s second largest fleet. Britain, 122 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord alerted to the German threat and and their magazines empty, out of determined to maintain its naval Wilhelmshaven. One destroyer wandered supremacy, abandoned its traditional into a minefield and was sunk. isolation and sought rapprochement with On the morning of November 21, France and Russia. Van der Vat believes Admiral Beatty took the Grand Fleet, 250 that the expansion of the Kriegsmarine allied warships, to sea to meet Reuter’s was a colossal geo-political and strategic force and escort it into the Firth of Forth. error and one of the main causes of the He ordered that the German ensign be First World War. hauled down at sunset, not to be rehoisted When war broke out, the Kaiser without permission. Between 22 and 27 adopted a risk-averse policy, described as November the German ships sailed to being willing to wound but afraid to Scapa under RN escort. strike. The Kriegsmarine’s hope of They were guarded by a squadron reducing the Grand Fleet by attrition to a of British capital ships and a destroyer level where they could risk a pitched flotilla. Relations were correct but distant battle was never realized. Their resultant and the RN handled all communications inactivity was a leading cause of the between Scapa and Wilhelmshaven. mutiny in October 1918, when Merchant ships brought provisions from Communist-dominated Soldiers and Germany and, under British pressure, the Workers Councils seized control of the crew level was progressively reduced fleet. from 20,000 in November 1918, to 4,700 The Armistice provided for the in December, and to 1,700 a few days surrender of the German submarine fleet, before the scuttling. By March 1919, the but the Allied political leaders decided determined Reuter had succeeded in that German surface vessels should be gaining the upper hand over the Soldiers interned at Scapa, overruling the admirals and Workers Council, forcing the who had warned that the Kriegsmarine repatriation of the most egregious might scuttle them. The acquiescence of troublemakers. the Soldiers and Workers Council was Reuter had begun detailed achieved by a threat to seize the island of planning to scuttle by May. Cut off from Heligoland if the fleet was not ready to the outside world, he got most of his news sail by 18 November. Rear-Admiral from old British newspapers. On 20 June, Ludwig von Reuter, who had led a cruiser he read a misleading report in The Times squadron with some distinction at Jutland, of 17 June that the Allies had given was given the unenviable task of leading Germany five days to accept their peace the fleet into internment. He succeeded in proposals, leading him to believe that restoring the officers’ control over hostilities would resume on the following seamanship, although the mutineers day. He did not know that the Armistice continued to behave as an undisciplined had been extended to 23 June and that the rabble. At 1.30 pm on 19 November, Reichstag had voted to accept the Allied Reuter led nine battleships, five proposals. On the morning of 21 June the battlecruisers, eight cruisers and fifty guarding squadron, commanded by Vice- destroyers, their firing pieces removed Admiral Fremantle, left Scapa for a two- Book Reviews 123 day exercise. On his squadron’s return, Admiralty to introduce convoy in April Fremantle had been authorized to seize 1917 control of the ships under the terms of the The author concludes with an Peace Treaty. Once he had left the account of the determined entrepreneurs anchorage, Reuter sent the order to who, by 1939, had succeeded in scuttle. At 12:16, the battleship Friedrich raising forty-five of the scuttled ships, der Grosse sank, followed by fifty-two of including all five battlecruisers and seven the seventy-four interned ships, the battleships. In 1928, the battlecruiser remainder being beached. Alerted to the Moltke, which was being towed keel-up to situation, Fremantle returned to Scapa at be broken up at Rosyth, came full speed. In the confusion, nine German uncomfortably close to colliding with the sailors were shot. Reuter and the northern buttress of the Forth Bridge. For remainder of his crews were repatriated many years afterwards, irrepressible local later in 1919, when he was received as a wits called this incident Reuter’s hero. Revenge! Criticism of Fremantle seems misplaced. The Admiralty had David Ramsay recognized that seaborne escorts could not Indian Wells, California easily thwart a determined scuttling operation. Van der Vat agrees with the naval historian Arthur Marder that Reuter had ordered the scuttling on his own initiative. Given the total lack of communication between him and his government, no other deduction is credible. The publicly embarrassed Admiralty was privately relieved that the scuttling had solved the contentious problem of the ships’ future for they had no desire to see them transferred to the French or Italian navies. Van der Vat tells his story masterfully. Writing in the late 1970s, he was able to interview local eyewitnesses of the scuttling and German crew members. He makes some errors, noting that the interned ships had been undefeated in battle, yet concedes that the Kriegsmarine had lost the actions of the Heligoland Bight and the Dogger Bank, and had been strategically defeated at Jutland. Lloyd George did not force the