BOOK REVIEWS

Joel Baer. Pirates of the British Isles. Stroud, justified partly by a thin veneer of patriotism that UK; Tempus Publishing, www, tempuspublish was the product of lingering anti-Spanish ing.com, 2005. 256pp., maps, illustrations, hostility, according to Baer, they were the notes, index. £20, cloth; ISBN 0 7524 2304 5. "shock troops of empire, (who) ... would also help to provide its legal rationale" (23), as Joel Baer's new study of British pirates during indicated by the expansion of British j urisdiction the period from 1660 to 1720 uses six case to deal with the problem during the early studies of notorious or celebrated pirate captains eighteenth century. Morgan was certainly a in an attempt to explore some of the wider forces highly successful colonial entrepreneur who at work that led to their success and failure. acquired land and office in Jamaica. As the These years experienced the growth of large- author points out, however, his career was scale, organized maritime depredation which unusual and paradoxical. While his raids in the acquired a global dimension as a result of what Caribbean appeared to hark back to the 1580s the author describes as the "instability and and 1590s, the changing character of Anglo- opportunism of a new age" (160). Traditionally, Spanish relations undermined the political the period has been presented as the golden-age climate under which he and others operated. of piracy when sea rovers of various What might have been interpreted as legitimate nationalities, under the leadership of a reprisals in Jamaica were increasingly seen as succession of ruthless and resourceful captains, unjustified buccaneering by metropolitan trading deliberately flouted and challenged the authority and political interests, who were concerned to of monarchies and empires. promote and protect English commercial Baer's gallery of rogues includes such expansion with Spanish America at a time of well known adventurers as Henry Morgan, intense rivalry with the United Provinces. William Dampier and William Kidd as well as Although it is significant that several other notorious rovers, including Henry Every, subsequent pirate leaders, such as Dampier and Bartholomew Roberts and Edward Thatch. It Kidd, claimed to be operating with lawful was Thatch who was immortalized as commissions, the changing nature of seaborne Blackbeard in A General History of the Pyrates depredation is reflected in the career of Henry by Captain Charles Johnson which was Every and the resurgence of piracy during the published in London during the early eighteenth second decade of the eighteenth century. There century. Baer outlines the careers and seafaring were wide ranging developments in the activities of each of his selected subjects. As he organization, character and range of piracy points out, several of these adventurers operated during these years, though it is difficult to in a grey area that was defined as much by delineate such changes through an approach that politics as by maritime law, where piracy and focuses on selected case studies. Baer provides privateering, illegitimate and legitimate plunder, interesting accounts of Every, whose plundering were dangerously confused. ranged into the Indian Ocean, and of his Henry Morgan's raids in the Spanish successors. There is a striking portrait of Thatch Caribbean during the 1660s and early 1670s, who apparently simulated maniacal acts of from his base on the recently acquired island of aggression in a shipboard spectacle of pain and Jamaica, furnish a good example of the humiliation that was designed to terrify his own opportunities and problems this environment crew as much as his victims. presented for an aggressive group of colonial But this leaves little scope for an seafarers whose numbers were increased by the extensive or critical discussion of the broader social casualties and outcasts of English colonial social and economic characteristics or expansion in America. Although the activities of consequences of piratical enterprise during these men like Morgan were motivated by greed, and years. Instead, the author explores the 82 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord relationship between piracy and the law, a University of Wisconsin Press, www.wisc. relatively neglected aspect of the subject, partly edu/winconsinpress. 2004. xvi + 346 pp., map, as a means of establishing some degree of photographs, chronology. US $29.95, cloth; contextualization, continuity and cohesion. In ISBN 0-299-20190-2. the light of the case studies discussed in this book, Baer concludes that pirates did not simply In 1978, Pamela Sisman Bitterman was about to reject the law outright; rather, they tried to become homeless and unemployed when her job acquire knowledge and understanding of the law as a naturalist on a wildlife and nature preserve and legal procedure as part of a strategy for in northern California ended. She answered a survival. This has interesting implications for the classified ad in the Co-Evolution Quarterly that understanding of pirate lives and identities, changed her life: "Tall ship Sofia, cooperatively though it is not fully pursued. owned and operated 60-year-old schooner, Baer seeks to present a balanced returns to America to enlist crew for her second discussion of his pirate captains that is free of circumnavigation" (12). the myth and legend that so easily veil the It was not the call of the sea, but rather history of piracy with a gloss of appealing the magnetic attraction of the unknown that anecdote and misplaced nostalgia. In so doing, tempted Bitterman, who was 27 years old and he draws extensively on modern scholarship seeking a new direction, to pay her share and since the 1960s and a range of published sign on as a tall ship sailor, an adventure that sources, including Johnson's General History. ended four years later when the Sofia sank off While noting the value of the latter, he reinforces the coast of New Zealand in a violent storm. recent critical comment regarding the author's By the time Bitterman joined the Sofia, tendency to exaggerate and sensationalise, and the three-masted, gaff-topsail schooner had been occasionally invent accounts of piratical activity. sailing to a succession of exotic ports-of-call The General History is a remarkable, but with a perpetually rotating crew for over a enigmatic and complex book. In the past it was decade. The aged Baltic trader had been rescued assumed to be the work of Daniel Defoe, but the from a wooden boat graveyard in Sweden and attribution is no longer widely accepted. Baer reincarnated as a floating commune in the 1960s. adopts a cautious and sensible approach in Bitterman's tale is essentially an examination of employing material from the General History, the 1970s counterculture experience aboard a though his comments on the work strengthen the 123-foot ship she calls "a lifestyle that just need for a critical study of the elusive captain happens to move by virtue of the wind and sea" Johnson that would establish a firmer (74). groundwork for understanding this important Bitterman's maiden voyage is a work as historical evidence. In accordance with harrowing sail from Boston to Bermuda in the his aims, Joel Baer succeeds in presenting a teeth of Hurricane Kendra. We sail on with lively and informative group of case studies, Bitterman to the Caribbean, through the Panama grounded in modern scholarship, which Canal, across the Pacific, and finally to New demonstrates the compelling drama of the Zealand where the Sofia is hauled out for over a subject, while drawing attention to the wider year before her final voyage. forces that influenced piratical enterprise during The author's tale is as much about the the period. "landlubbers" she meets in her travels and the political unrest of the 1970s, as about the sea. John C. Appleby She takes us on a harrowing road trip through Liverpool, United Kingdom Mexico and Central America, and into a Panama City jail where the crew is unwittingly caught up in the political chaos surrounding the final stages Pamela Sisman Bitterman. Sailing to the Far of the US handover of the Canal Zone to Horizon. The Restless Journey and Tragic Panama. With her, we make a rare visit to the Sinking of a Tall Ship. Madison, WI; The Cuna Indians off the Panamanian coast, and Book Reviews 83 discover ancient tikis on the Marquesas Islands. violent end and the desperate struggle of sixteen Bitterman recreates her story using survivors - one crew member drowned - adrift journal entries and letters home, along with for five days in a life raft before a Russian newspaper clippings and magazine articles trawler miraculously rescues them. preserved by her parents. She acknowledges that Bitterman is the first to write of the she has "reworked" the journal entries for the Sofia's restless journey and tragic sinking, a sake of the narrative and "embellished" many of "responsibility" she claims fell to her by default. the vignettes that had been merely alluded to in She raises the question, which she maddeningly the original letters and journals. Unfortunately never answers, of why it has taken her a quarter for the reader, this destroys some of the century to write the story. Bitterman describes spontaneous immediacy one expects from a the book as a "memoir of intimate perception journal. and sentimental retrospection"(4) that has helped The book is awkwardly constructed; her deal with personal tragedy. For her, the each chapter has an "Introduction," for example, writing is an act of catharsis. Ultimately, the and the text shifts backward and forward in time, story is one of life, loss, and survival that's in a confusing melange of first person narrative worth the read. and passive voice. Simply drawing on her archives as a source, rather than presenting them Joanne Ritchie as pseudo-journal entries would have made for Ottawa, Ontario a more coherent and enjoyable tale. For the most part, Bitterman's language is labourious and cliché-ridden. As she Jeremy Black. The British Empire. New Haven, embarks on her grand adventure, she muses: "A CT; Yale University Press, www.yalebooks. sound sense of ourselves will become essential. com, 2004. xii + 420 pp., illustrations, notes, Fortitude will be absolutely mandatory. Dare we index. US $ 40.00, cloth: ISBN 0-300-10386-7. really go out there? Yes. Yes! Here we go. Out to the very edge. Out and away. Here I go!" In retrospect, it is odd that with all the books on (27). British maritime power, and all the books on the Bitterman describes the Sofians' British Empire, there has not been a book which lifestyle with intimacy and a certain smugness: thoroughly investigates the symbiotic they are a motley crew of free spirits, thumbing relationship between the two. C.R. Boxer did their noses at propriety, and breaking away on classic studies on the Dutch and Portuguese the ultimate trip. They drink (a lot) and party seaborne empires, J.H. Parry supplied one on the (naked), and according to Bitterman, "walk that Spanish Empire, and now Jeremy Black has fine line between what intoxicates and what filled this niche for the British experience. A disturbs, what soothes and what scares the hell moment's reflection will convince anyone of the outta most people" (96). But despite the enormity of this task. The longevity and extent freewheeling lifestyle, sailing the ship is of both this empire and this maritime experience anything but undisciplined. make Black's task a Herculean one. Bitterman's writing is at its strongest Two stated aims of the book are when she is describing the rigours of sailing an significant. One is to dedicate as much, or mare historical vessel with no "yachty" equipment or space to the twentieth century as to the conveniences aboard. While a deep-water sailor nineteenth century, because the theme of the might notice faults in her descriptions of decline of maritime dominance is seen to be of navigation, ship handling, and equipment, there great importance. The other is to lay great stress is nevertheless an authenticity to her voice as she on war and international relations, an approach describes the complexity of working the great which runs counter to much imperial history square sails, the tedium of drills, and the writing of the recent past. While not decrying the grinding routine of keeping the Sofia ship-shape. insights thus gained, Black makes the key point She gives a gripping account of the Sofia's that the empire was established by a political and 84 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

commercial elite who sought national goals nuggets of insight about the imperial idea when ruthlessly. No serious student of the empire can Black is able to escape the narrative of lose sight of that. From at least the mid- acquisitions and challenges for some reflective eighteenth century, and well into the twentieth, comment. Hence, as a reference source for the British elite made conscious decisions to anyone interested in naval and imperial history, fund the most powerful navy in the world and to this is an excellent volume. Black has retold the promote imperial interests in the cause of imperial experience with a focus on the oceans, national greatness and prosperity. One can never and for that all students of maritime and naval fully understand British national values or history can be grateful. political and social attitudes without grasping Perhaps as a result of his travels, Black this connection. Of interest to Commonwealth never loses sight of the Dominions in imperial countries is Black's reminder that such attitudes development. Britain remains the focus, and were often exported with the settlers. The rightly so, but support or indifference to the "Imperial experience" was lengthy, pervasive imperial ethos in the colonies is always in the and very widespread. More specialized naval picture. An example is the ongoing analysis of historians will have reason to applaud the author, Canada's active imperial role tempered by the because of the efforts in recent years to relate growing benefits of the American relationship. naval history to wider historical issues to rescue Black examines the end of empire it from the academic margins. dispassionately, but with a few provocative Of necessity, the book is divided twists: it was not all caused by financial chronologically. Approximately 40 pages for the exhaustion post-1945. In practical terms, if one "Origines" of empire, 114 pages for the lengthy no longer needs a chain of coaling stations, and struggle with France to 1815, 77 pages for the if much of one's goods travel in mid-ocean in nineteenth century Pax Britannica, and 90 pages supertankers and cargo ships, the need for for the gradual twentieth century decline. An coastal control is quite small. Thus the introductory chapter and a conclusion round out relinquishing of "formal" empire does not the book. The sheer scale of the topic compels necessarily imply the end of "informal" empire. compression, and in many sections imperial The trendy use of the term "American Empire" historians will not find much that is new, except pops up as a useful example in current affairs, perhaps for naval details and issues involved; since the Americans control very little territory similarly, naval and maritime historians will find aside from the homeland. Perhaps there remains little new material in the details of the a very quiet and modest British Empire? campaigns, except for the impact on imperial Intriguing as that concept might be, Black does issues. If the book has any problems, this might illustrate how the sea has declined as a national be it. This overlap of familiar issues is also icon. Popular British culture marginalizes the indicated by the bibliography and references sea, and fewer people each year make a living which are overwhelmingly from secondary from it, particularly in the shipbuilding and rather than documentary sources. That being shipping industries. said, the bibliography is vast, as are the There is every reason to recommend footnotes (30 pages worth), which illustrate this book. Specialists will find much that is scholarship of the highest order. familiar, but also much intriguing material from The strengths of this book are many. related fields. Students particularly will find it Black is, of course, an established scholar of useful. It is the kind of synopsis which needs the very high repute. One can depend on his touch of a mature scholar, and Black has scholarship, and be assured that his judgements succeeded admirably. are carefully considered. He maintains a deft tough when juggling numerous issues and Paul Webb locales, so that as a mini-history of the growth London, Ontario and maintenance of British imperial influence, this book will go a long way. There are also Book Reviews 85

Douglas Brooks. The Tub Boats of Sado Island. drawings, as these are often far superior to A Japanese Craftsman's Methods. Japan: The photographs for clarifying details. Kodo Cultural Foundation, www.kodo.or.ip. The Tub Boats of Sado Island., an 2003. 69 pp. In Eng., 107 in Japanese. excellent little book, has a single well focused Photographs, illustrations, map, resources. purpose. The American author studied the US$25.00 plus shipping, paper; ISBN 4-902377- construction of the Sado Island tub boats, 00-4. interviewed their builders, observed them working and eventually built two examples in Pat Conaghan. The Zulu Fishermen. Forgotten Japan on his own. He describes exactly how to Pioneers of Donegal's First Fishing Industry. build the boat and the unique tools and materials Aghayeevoge, Killybegs, Co. Donegal, Eire: needed for the job. Bygone Enterprises, [email protected], 2003. Sado Island lies in the Sea of Japan 340 pp., photographs, illustration, map, nestled into the cradle of Honshu, Japan's largest appendices, references, index, paper; ISBN 0- island. The fishermen on the Ogi Peninsula, the 9545279-0-9. southern tip of Sado, have used tub boats, or more correctly the taraibune since an earthquake Brian Ward. Tarbert Fishing Boats, 1925 - 75. in 1802 drastically altered the shoreline of their Isle of Gighia, Argyll, Scotland, Ardminish peninsula. The new rocky fissured coast Press, [email protected] , 117 pp., encouraged the growth of seaweeds and photographs, illustrations, bibliography, sheltered fish in calmer waters, so only a simple appendices, £12.99, paper; ISBN 0-9542804-5- craft was needed to harvest both species. Local 8. coopers who worked making wooden fermenting vats or tubs for the miso paste producers on When three small books focussed on a variety of Sado, were asked to build the first taraibunes watercraft arrive together, and the Reviews and though the first designs were round, use and Editor kindly allows some latitude in combining latter refinements proved that a slightly them but limits delivery time, they tempt elongated tub tracked better. The oval size of comparison. The following reviews are offered taraibunes was something over 1.5 m long, with to introduce similar subjects covered by three a beam of about 1.2 m and was just over 0.5 m authors in widely separated locales. Varied boats deep. of Donegal, Sado Island and Kintyre are the The traditional builders never used topics and the books range from a virtual DIY drawings or kept written records and only a few instruction manual to a simple illustrated and wooden gauges were kept for certain specific annotated catalogue. dimensions and angles. Apprentices were never Interestingly, when books come in instructed but were simply allowed to observe bunches they become interesting by comparing their master, and act as helpers as their them as objects. The Japanese book is a little confidence grew, so traditions were passed jewel of a volume, almost Victorian in its along. Taraibune builders or apprentices usually compact solidity. Although soft covered, the came from the cooperage trade. dust jacket is cut so that the folded-in portions The bottom of the vessel is conven• are tapered and a braided silken bookmark is tional with a slight amount of rocker and reverse sewn to the spine. The others descend in quality, camber to keep bilge water away from the edges. size and format reflecting their disparate The planking is all vertical "staving." All the publishers. cedar wood components are connected with Two books include outline maps to handmade bamboo pegs in the centre of the provide contextual settings for their subject, and plank thickness, and the tub is held together by all were illustrated with photographs of different three woven or braided bamboo staves. The quality depending on age of origin and the deceptively simple craft has no metal parts. subject matter. Only two contain line drawings, Beckets or rope rings are fitted through holes at but they all could all benefit from clear each end of the taraibune for carrying handles 86 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord and act as a fulcrum for securing the single an alarming rate. Not since the Great Famine of sculling oar. No thwarts or seats are fitted. the 1840s had conditions been so bad, and that The author clearly describes the earlier crop disaster had also ruined the local building process and precedes his construction fishing enterprise. It was claimed that the coastal text with a short outline of the history of the Irish did not eat fish unless served with potatoes, craft. Taraibume building is described by so interest in the fishery fell - small yawls and following Brooks' mentor, the late Koichi Fujii curraghs were the preferred vessels. as he builds a boat, with added notes expanding In an attempt to alleviate some of the details from the methods later used by Brooks. many problems associated with poverty and to This technique works well as no minor task has improve the food supply in the region, (Donegal been overlooked because of assumed simplicity and much of the west coast of Ireland) the or triviality. At the end of Brooks' description British Government established the Congested some information is provided about the use of Districts Board (CDB). The book deals with the the boat and the equipment which goes with it, problems of the fishery and the way that the perhaps the most interesting being the "sight board attempted to solve them. The Chief glass" - the glass bottomed box the fishermen Secretary for Ireland, Arthur J. Balfour, made a use to look beneath the surface of the water. tour of the district in 1890 to assess the appalling There are many small but clear situation and form a base line from which to photographs and dimensioned drawings and grow. sketches. All are included in the "back" half of The immediate solution was to bring in the book, the 107 page Japanese section, larger, improved fishing vessels, the Zulu numbered from the back (to western readers). So luggers of Western Scotland. These vessels did the many sequential construction photos and not evolve as most indigenous craft but were drawings have to be read in reverse. English purpose-designed and came into Scottish captions for the illustrations are grouped at the operation to coincide with the South African end of the English section and are clearly Zulu Wars - hence their strange name. With the numbered, although it would perhaps have been boats came a much wider expertise, experienced helpful if these photo numbers had also been Scottish fishermen also came to train and inserted in the appropriate places in the English demonstrate how to use the boats and effectively text. There are also many full-page colour fish. Each boat carried a Scot, while with the photographs, though strangely the book's index fishermen came boatbuilders to teach the craft is only in Japanese! and to build new boats locally. Fish filleters, This is an excellent monograph about smokers, curers; and coopers were among others an unique fishing vessel, another on the list of brought in to create and train a holistic fishery. rapidly vanishing wooden watercraft. No more The author relates the chronology of the builders are taking up the labour-intensive operation very well and details the building and building task. All the existing boats are management operation. deteriorating except for a few in museums or The CDB saw that the operation was private collections. Most of the remaining funded and actually bought the processed catch working boats have been covered with fibreglass for onward transit to Dublin as well as to larger and this has only served to increase the rate of English markets. Suitable buildings and wharves rotting! Strangely the most popular current use were constructed to support the enterprise. To for taraibunes is to take tourists out on short expedite the operation a railway was built along tours for which a glass section has been fitted to the coast so that fresh product could be moved the bottom to observe the life on the sea bed. rapidly. The Zulu Fishermen. Forgotten Like many of these types of project Pioneers of Donegal's First Fishing Industry is there were good aspects and unforseen problems. about an industry resulting from a potato famine. Those who devised them were well intentioned Due to failing potato harvests, living conditions but could not always determine the scale of the in Donegal in the late 1880s had deteriorated at problems or factors which did not parallel Book Reviews 87

conditions elsewhere. When the fishery became relatively simple to compile and take to a printer. viable and stared to improve the lot of the local Unfortunately it also contains some drawbacks people, fishermen from outside the region came of the genre - a List of Contents without page with bigger boats to exploit the stocks. By the numbers and spotty editing, and it was even time the men became familiar with their boats difficult to decide which of the two Scottish and the fishery, new craft with steam engines Tarberts was involved! The author's familiarity and small internal combustion engines had come with the topic suggests that there could have into use and the local sailing fleet became more been much more information about the boat's inefficient. There was a reluctance to adapt to design, building and fishing methods. the new reality and it is not clearly stated but After the introduction, each boat in the perhaps the funding was not available for the fleet is chronologically listed and described, in new complex vessels. many instances with a photograph. The After the introductory chapters we are differences are clearly related to the various taken through a quarter of a century of the local builders who put their own design history of this noble enterprise until it finally signatures to a more or less common class. The succumbed to the increasing pressures elsewhere photographs and artistic illustrations come including the First World War. Each chapter/ mainly from the author's collection, the artistic year describes the new boats, movements of the renderings are very clear and appealing but fleets, catch types and quantity, and boat losses. unfortunately all in black and white. The vessels The many details clearly illustrate the progress are listed in ascending order of their registration and social impact of the fishery and while they numbers, all preceded by "T. T." and an added are comprehensive, they also suggest that much list in five year chronological steps is added, as more could have been done with the available the author felt more clarity was needed. But it is sources. The new trade skills enabled expan• still a little difficult to detect design develop• sion, boats and barrels were sold outside the ments of these attractive double-ended craft. district, fish was processed and the value-added It is a commendable, dedicated local of all this activity increased revenues. work and the appendices contain useful The only possible suggestion for information on the many builders and their bow improving this comprehensive volume would be and stern design idiosyncrasies, as well as to move the Appendices to the front of the book acknowledgements and a bibliography. and make them a prologue or introduction. They Altogether this book could be of interest of the detail the Congested Districts Board's mandate, Scottish fishing vessel enthusiast, but the lack of and the description of the share and loan system depth would make it frustrating to the serious goes a long way toward explaining the whole student. However, these craft have not had much process. This information, combined with the recognition and this work is a welcome excellent details in Chapter One, would improve introduction to their world. the reader's concept of the operation. The final Appendix, a letter to the shareboat crews David A. Walker advising them of the termination of the share Halifax, Nova Scotia system should remain at the end. Altogether, The Zulu Fishermen is a first class example of the social history of an introduced industrial Roger Chesneau. German Pocket Battleships. infrastructure for a limited period of external London: Chatham Publishing, www.Chatham influence. publishing.com, Shipcraft 1, 2004. 64 pp., Tarbert Fishing Boats, 1925-75 is a photographs, tables, illustrations, plans, and fine example of the kind of publication the references. US $ 24.95 paper; ISBN 1-86176- British seem to do so well. It is an enthusiast's 209-7. outpouring of collected information about his favourite topic. It appears to be a self-published Roger Chesneau. King George V Class book, the type which the computer has made Battleships. London: Chatham Publishing, 88 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord www.chathainpublishing.com, Shipcraft2,2004. After-market, etched brass frets, 64 pp., photographs, illustrations, tables, plans, available from Eduard, Gold Medal Models and and references. US $ 24.95, paper; ISBN 1- White Ensign Models are reviewed. While none 86176-211-9. Both distributed in North America are designed for the Deutschland class, others by Stackpole Books. can be used. Scale figures, decals for flags and pennants, and 20 mm weapons are available These, the first two books in a planned series, from other suppliers. state that "The aim of this innovative series is to An inspiring colour photo gallery of models is provide model makers and warship enthusiasts included. Some are kits; others are semi- or fully with a new standard of primarily visual reference scratchbuilt models - one is operational. While to both the full-size ships and their models, individuals built most models, one was by a using detailed line drawings, plans and team. photographs, many in full colour." Camouflage schemes, including those Both books use crisp, clear graphics, on catapult-launched aircraft are provided, as are photographs, text, and tables. A few photographs line drawings for the aircraft. As it was seven lack crispness, but their rarity probably years from the laying of the first keel until the warranted their use. Two-page spreads generally last ship commissioned, design changes occurred occur at the centre page of a sewn section. When between ships. Superb line drawings highlight a spread crosses a page join, the join is almost the differences, with close-up photos; refit invisible and alignment is invariably superb. In summaries are also provided. Plans of GrafSpee both books the last page contains references, a as in 1939 include a plan and outboard profile, bibliography, plan sources, videos, and websites. sixteen station drawings, but no body plan. German Pocket Battleships examines Using the same format and section the Deutschland Class, Deutschland (later sequence as the first book, the King George V Lutzow), Admiral Sheer, and Admiral GrafSpee, Class Battleships presents King George V, were designed as commerce raiders, displacing Prince of Wales, Duke of York, Anson, and 10,000 tons, with a length of 185.7 metres Howe. Displacing 35,000 tons, with a length of (609.25 feet). Their primary armament was six 700 feet, armament consisted of ten 14-inch, 28cm (11.0 inch), secondary of eight 15cm (5.9 sixteen 5.25-inch, thirty-two 2 pdrs, with a inch), close range armament and six torpedo planned speed of 28.5 knots. They were laid tubes aft. Diesel powered, with armour and down within seven months in 1937, with all five armament sacrificed in favour of speed and commissioning between December 1940 and range, they were capable of 6 knots, well suited August 1942. for their purpose. British journalists derisively While few changes occurred to these called them Pocket Battleships. In February ships during the war, those that did are discussed 1940 Germany reclassified them as heavy or shown in drawings. Kits are available from cruisers. On their first combat sorties, Admiral Réveil, GHR, Navis-Neptun, Eaglewall, Sheer took, or sank, seventeen ships; Admiral Lindberg, Tamiya, Aurora, Airfix, and Heller. GrafSpee accounted for nine; Deutschland sank Pulling no punches, these reviews give credit two in an aborted sortie. where it is due, and are recommended reading Critical reviews reveal that quality and for anyone considering the purchase of a kit. historic accuracy vary kit to kit. Anyone A range of etched brass packs and considering a purchase should study these accessories including figures, decals, 20 mm reviews; Italeri, Fujimi, Airfix, and Heller Oerlikons, railing, ladders, etc are available from provided kits. Scales range from 1:350 to 1:720; the same suppliers mentioned earlier. Most are 1:1250 kits are available for war gamers. Kits for King George V (or KGV), and Prince of come in plastic, or resin cast, and in either Wales, but some can be used for any ship in the waterline or full-hulled models. Hints and tips class. are offered and photos of the kit boxes are The photo gallery includes the provided. magnificent official builder's model of King Book Reviews 89

George V, which is in the National Maritime qualified visionary, Daniel Moreland. Moreland Museum; kit models and dioramas include a learned his extraordinarily complete set of superb model of Prince of Wales from an Airfix mariner's qualifications in the harsh world of kit by Peter Hall, a designer for White Ensign European sail training ships, yet in person is Models, and a superb scratchbuilt model of more like a Greenwich Village poet. He has a Anson by Brian King. These represent some of disconcerting way of looking off at the horizon the finest models of this class of ships anywhere. or a nearby wall while talking with anyone, and Colour schemes are provided for King parting with a surprisingly soft handshake rather George V as she was in 1941 and 1943. The than the expected steely grip of a square-rig appearance section is well equipped with master mariner. But for several years Moreland photographs, and refit summaries. Plans and has successfully brought the big, converted outboard profiles at 1:700 scale are provided for North Sea trawler home to Lunenburg after each King George Fas she was in 1940 and in 1945. voyage, and always to a waiting list of applicants Of use to scratch builders, a body plan, with a for the next trip. profile and waterline, plus twenty-four stations Fair Wind And Plenty Of It is the are included. highly subjective recollection of a young Nova With more books planned for the Scotian, Rigel Crockett, who became involved series, Chesneau has created two superb and with the ships ' s conversion along with his father, useful additions to model builders' libraries. and who then sailed alone with the ship when his Both books are highly recommended. father withdrew. The book follows the ship and its people throughout an eventful N. R. Cole circumnavigation, and documents in sometimes Toronto, Ontario painful detail the enormously difficult task Moreland faced in not only getting Picton Castle safely around the world, but making a wildly Rigel Crockett. Fair Wind and Plenty of It. A diverse, undisciplined and turbulent group of Modern Tall Ship Adventure. Toronto, ON.; individuals into a competent crew. The sea, Alfred A. Knopf Canada, www.randomhouse.ca, particularly in square-rig ships, is no place for 2004. 392 pp., map, illustrations. CDN. $ 34.95, self-absorption or incompetence, and in the era cloth; ISBN 0-676-97634-4. when ships like Picton Castle plied the world's trade routes, they were manned by crews of a The barque Picton Castle is one of the few conservative nature forced by law, circumstance success stories in the long list of projects that and inclination to self-discipline and immediate have sought to rebuild or recreate ships from the obedience to orders. golden age of seafaring under sail, and then What Rigel Crockett reveals in his make them paying propositions by taking account is a paying, not paid, crew who were amateur sailors to sea, there to suffer the rigours anything but malleable to discipline or inclined and dangers of square-rig seamanship while to the staid conservatism of seamen of the paying handsomely for the experience. nineteenth century. Deprived of the use of iron Registered in the Cook Islands, discipline or the fists of a bully mate to run his homeported in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, but ship, Moreland is depicted as a strange mystic conceived and run by Americans, Picton Castle who uses psychological games and manipulates departs regularly on lengthy circumnavigations relationships to achieve his ends. Whether from Lunenburg to such exotic landfalls as Crockett's portrait of him is a fair one is difficult Tahiti and the lesser-known islands of the Indian to determine. Certainly one wonders what tools Ocean in its wandering way around the world. Moreland could possibly use to captain a vessel Commanding the vessel and its heterogenous awash in sexual interaction, personality crew of boomers in crisis, rootless youngsters disorders and all the libertarian values of the with tattoos, and all the wounded or questing "children of the sea" - the homeless young souls such adventures attract is an odd but highly people who drift from boat job to boat job in the 90 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord yacht harbours of the world. The crew are as famous, and a few less famous. The sites range wildly different from the world of gruff from Kublai Khan's fleet, to the Titanic through fishermen or square-rig hands of a past era as it to several Second World War vessels sunk at is possible to imagine. That Moreland pulls it off Pearl Harbor. The human element underscores is astonishing, and suggests that there is more all of the writing as applied to both the site visits steel in Moreland's softness that meets the eye. and the original historical events. These stories The book never quite achieves a are told with a sense of adventure and a strong consistent voice or point of view in presenting element of the author's understanding of past the author's struggles to become a competent events and his commitment to share this seaman and resolve his relationship with his experience with the reader. difficult and other-worldly captain, although Jim Delgado is a consummate story there are signs that Crockett has it in him to teller and communicator. Combined with his become a fine writer. Fair Wind And Plenty Of love of historical research, he is a master at It is more an expunging of personal ghosts than bringing the past to life and giving it real the account of a circumnavigation, and may meaning. In discussing his personal background, convince the lay reader that only very strange he states that one of his mentors, a museum people willingly go to sea in traditional sailing curator, taught him at the early age of 14 that ships these days. For those interested in one "collecting the past meant nothing unless you young man's often painful process of self- share it with others and make it relevant and discovery, the book offers all the angst to dissect exciting for them" (217). Delgado has carried one might wish. For those interested in this lesson with him into adulthood as he spins traditional seamanship or who value the his real-life tales of adventure. His ability to continuing survival of archaic vessels and sail evoke an emotional response from the reader is training as a means of personal growth, the well illustrated in his description of visiting the world of Picton Castle as Crockett presents it is wreck of USS Arizona where we are introduced a disturbing reminder that those ancient to the evocative memories of the sailors and seafaring arts are more often kept alive today by their loved ones. Delgado's emphasis on what odd people at the edges of society rather than the those associated with each site might have felt prosaic citizenry at its core. That by the time draws the reader into the site itself. Picton Castle dropped its anchor at the voyage's The real adventure of the book comes conclusion the crew knew what to do and did it when the author describes diving on the sites. He well only serves to illustrate that the sea forces includes not only what he is experiencing as a prudence and self-discipline upon even those diver but also how he feels about the people and least inclined to accept either. events associated with the site. Divers can identify with his admissions of simple diving Victor Suthren mistakes that all divers make, and how they can Ottawa, Ontario potentially end in disaster. In pointing out what he should have done on a dive, he goes on to tell how he used his training to correct the situation. James P. Delgado. Adventures of a Sea Hunter. All of this is done with a sense of humour and an In search of Famous Shipwrecks. Vancouver: ability to laugh at oneself. Douglas & Mclntyre, www.douglas- This book is not about detailed mcintyre.com, 2004.230 pp., map, bibliography, archeological research but rather, the excitement index. CDN $ 35, cloth; ISBN 1-55365-071-9. involved, when for example, he discusses his plans to dive and explore the flooded depths of Adventures of a Sea Hunter is just that - a Mittelbau-Dora, a Nazi concentration camp and compilation of shipwreck and other stories told rocket factory. "Our goal is to venture into some in a clear and popular manner. This book of its forgotten rooms and bring back film describes the author's visits to more than fifteen footage to share with the world" (154). It is different dive sites, mostly shipwrecks, mostly about storytelling, film making and entertaining. Book Reviews 91

It is about brief encounters with a great variety with the ultimate eradication of piracy by of interesting sites as seen through the eyes of increasingly effective state navies. At the same the author. time, in discussing the ambiguity of attitudes Although the book is not archaeo• towards pirates, both past and present, it seeks to logical in nature, it carries an important dispel the romantic myths and fables that the archaeological/conservation message. Right subject is prone to cultivate. The book is from the introduction, the author emphasizes that conveniently organized, with six chapters any non-scientific, non-archeological recovery covering pirate activities and customs and five of materials destroys the story that these dealing with naval and admiralty responses. It is materials, in context, can tell us. Archaeology firmly focussed on the development of piracy in needs this sort of boost in promoting the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, though there preservation and the quest for knowledge of is some discussion of its spread into the South people, places and events in a popular readable Sea and the Indian Ocean. The growth of format. English piracy and privateering during the later While this book does not provide sixteenth century serves as a foundation for the detailed analytical research of a shipwreck or subsequent discussion, which consequently tends event, it does offer an interesting, highly to be weighted in favour of English and Anglo- entertaining snapshot of events as taken by the American activity. Earle argues that the rovers author and his team. It reaches out to the lay operating during this early period were not audience and draws them into the adventure. "real" pirates, in the sense that they either acted And, as has been succinctly stated by Donald H. or were identified as members of an outcast Keith in "The Importance of Myth, Magic and community, who were the "enemies of mankind" Stubbornness in Underwater Archaeology": (25); instead they were patriotic "protestants" Underwater archaeology needs, "Stubborn whose plunder of Iberian trade and shipping was people who can tell the difference between a widely supported, and at times even encouraged good myth and a bad myth, between science and by the monarchy. magic: and who can tell a tale that will prevail in As this study indicates, the the style of its telling, as much as by the development of English Atlantic piracy was both soundness of its facts." The author's stubborn• cause and consequence of the pirate wars. A new ness or lack thereof was not evident to me in the type of piratical enterprise emerged during the Adventures of a Sea Hunter. What was evident early seventeenth century, in which well- was his ability to bring an historic event to life organized fleets cruised between North Africa by telling a first-rate story. and south-west Ireland, occasionally crossing the Atlantic to plunder in the Caribbean or off Peter Waddell Newfoundland. For a variety of reasons, this Ottawa, Ontario outbreak of piracy did not last long. By the 1620s, organized, large-scale piratical enterprise appears to have been in terminal decline in Peter Earle. The Pirate Wars. London: Methuen north-west European waters. While the growing Publishing Ltd., www.methuen.co.uk, 2004. xii efficiency of the Royal Navy was instrumental in + 304 pp., illustrations, notes, bibliography, this success, it was reinforced by changing index. £ 8.99, paper; ISBN 0-413-75900-8. attitudes towards pirates which can be detected among royal courts and local communities. Peter Earle's study of the pirate wars is a wide- Nonetheless piracy continued to flourish, though ranging examination of the rise and fall of under different conditions in the Caribbean European and American piracy from the late during the 1650s and 1660s, and in parts of sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries. Its colonial North America at least until the 1720s. In these contexts there were also striking central theme, which provides an underlying developments in pirate customs and behaviour, continuity to the complex and varied including the emergence of remarkably development of maritime prédation, is concerned 92 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord democratic practices among some groups of of the records of the British Admiralty, rovers. The author insists that piracy remained a particularly in the discussion of the surprising, business; however in the hands of commentators though short-lived, revival of piracy during the such as captain Charles Johnson, the lives of early nineteenth century, draws attention to a pirate captains, real or imaginary, could be used body of evidence that deserves to be more to project an image of an Utopian society which effectively mined by students of the subject. In questioned the values of an emerging bourgeois addition, the brisk commentary on some modern society. During the early eighteenth century, interpretations of English and Anglo-American indeed, piracy seems to have acquired a political piracy should provoke further discussion of an and ideological edge that can be detected in the enduringly fascinating issue in maritime studies. way in which some pirates described themselves as "Robin Hood's Men" (169). Such was the John C. Appleby complex nature of the problem, that maritime Liverpool, UK states, led by Britain, ruthlessly hunted down pirate groups in what some historians, including Earle, have seen as a ruthless war of Peter Earle. The Last Fight of the Revenge. extermination. Some pirate leaders like Edward London: Methuen Publishing Ltd., www. Teach, the Blackbeard of legend, were killed in methuen.co.uk, 2004. 190 pp., illustrations, battle; many others were captured and executed. notes, bibliography, index. £7.99, paper; ISBN By contrast, Mediterranean piracy 0-413-77484-8. continued to be a problem until the early nineteenth century. But, as Peter Earle makes In an attempt to capture the richly laden Spanish clear, this was different to the kind of venturing Treasure Fleet from the Americas, Lord Thomas that developed in the Atlantic, though there was Howard sailed his ships to the Azores in April an overlap between the two, as demonstrated in 1591 to await its arrival. The Treasure Fleet had the careers of renegade mariners from northern not returned in 1590, so doubled fortunes were Europe who provided the Barbary corsairs with anticipated by the crews and masters on board some of the skills to undertake Atlantic raiding the English ships. Unfortunately for Howard, which extended as far north as Iceland. There four of the six treasure ships had already reached was a long-standing tradition of maritime Cascais at the mouth of the river Tagus while his plunder within the Mediterranean, but it was fleet was still being fitted out in London! In this confused with volatile religious and cultural way about one and a half million English pounds rivalries between the forces of Christianity and were safely procured for King Philip II. Islam. Although the Barbary corsairs were well- Meanwhile, rumours spread across the Iberian organized and business-like in approach, they peninsula, finally arriving at the Escorial in also tended to identify themselves as legitimate Simancas. From the onset, thanks to his warriors in a holy war which justified the intricately woven web of intelligence, Philip II plunder of Christian shipping and the seizure of knew that Howard's fleet had only been Christian slaves. In these circumstances, as Earle provisioned for four months. Accordingly, he points out, the Barbary corsairs fit awkwardly postponed the departure of the remaining ships into the history of piracy, though their raids of the Treasure Fleet from Havana. At the same inspired widespread terror among maritime time, the King issued orders to assemble a large communities which helped to undermine support armada and within several months, some 50 for locally-based pirates. ships and over 7,000 men (soldiers and sailors alike) were ready! Only three years after the This is a valuable contribution to disastrous Armada campaign against England, maritime history. It is a judicious, sympathetic another large Spanish fleet under the command but unromantic survey of an important seafaring of Don Alonso de Bazân was prepared to meet activity which, at varying times in the past, its English opponents; this time not in the involved thousands of mariners. It is firmly Channel, but in the Azores, just off the island of grounded in modern scholarship, while the use Book Reviews 93

Flores. The Spanish fleet made the crossing from course of honour and the course of discretion." Portugal to the Azores in a remarkably short (117), or, as the romantic, nineteenth-century time. Suddenly, while only fifty miles away poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson put it in his "Last from the English, Bazân ordered his captains to Fight of the Revenge": "Shall we fight or shall shorten sail. One of the most important ships of we fly? Good Sir Richard, tell us now, for to the fleet, San Andres, had broken her bowsprit fight is but to die!". and De Bazân thought it wise to adapt the pace The ensuing battle - known to many of the fleet to that of the damaged ship. This maritime historians as "the battle of one against allowed the English more desperately needed fifty-three" - is the subject of the book reviewed time to prepare themselves, since many of their here. Luckily, Peter Earle offers much more than crews were sick, tired and hungry, as provisions "just" a dry account of the events that took place ran very low. during the afternoon and very long, dark night of Due to recent English raids on the 30 August, 1591. He masterfully intertwines the Azorean islands, the local inhabitants were not political, military and personal backgrounds of inclined to provide assistance and food the battle, the situation in situ (that is; on and voluntarily. The main focus of their hatred was near the islands of the Azores, as well as the in the vice-admiral of the English fleet, commander the minds of the inhabitants) and the of the galleon Revenge, and former ringleader of compellingly ironic aftermath of one of the the raids on the islands: Richard Grenville, or greatest maritime epics of mankind: the battle of Don Ricardo de Campoverde, the "great heretic Sir Richard Grenville and his famous galleon and persecutor of Catholics," as the islanders Revenge against an overwhelmingly superior called him. They also did not warn the English Spanish fleet. In the end, after fifteen hours of about the nearby presence of the Armada. In intense fighting of one against five (not fifty- Earle's words: "As they stared at the armada of three!), the Spaniards managed to capture the Spain, they could only hope that the English, and ship. Although Richard Grenville died three days especially Don Ricardo in the Revenge, would later of the many wounds he had received, the reap the fate they so richly deserved" (111). remaining crew was treated respectfully. On the early morning of 30 August Earle wrote this book for two reasons. Admiral Lord Thomas Howard received news First, because he was brought up on naval about the course and presence of the armada. history and considers the story about the battle "This was devastating news. Here was the "just about the best and certainly the craziest in English fleet at anchor, with half its men ashore the long annals of England's maritime history. and many of the ships still without their ballast, How could one ship fight fifty-three?" The and an armada of fifty-three ships only hours second reason bears a less personal character, as away" (110). The galleons had to be reballasted Earle claims: " I have more to tell about the fight as quickly as possible or they would be unable to and its background than any previous writer, carry full sail for fear of capsizing. In order to since this account is the first one to make full confuse the enemy even more, Bazân decided to use of the abundant source material in the have his fleet split up: one squadron would archives at Simancas in Spain." (9). It is, approach the English from the south-east, therefore, a great pity that the author, while another one would sail from the southwest, the displaying his skills in using the divers sources direction from where the English expected the in the text, does not list the primary sources at Treasure Fleet to come. the end of the book, next to the secondary All but one of Howard's ships sources he has used in abundance. managed to escape from Bazan's trap. For Whatever one may think of the rather reasons still unknown after over 400 years, blunt statement quoted above, Earle has Grenville and the Revenge were the last to leave managed to provide more insight into the the roadsted. In so doing, he faced Spanish men- armaments, goals, activities or frustrations of the of-war coming from both sides. "Sir Richard Spaniards involved whether it is based on Grenville had two courses open for him: the personal accounts or an impressive mass of 94 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord official records piled up in the archives at other European explorers were privy to some Simancas. In this respect, much more so than in Eskimo and Norse experience of the lands to the the repetition of quotes from Sir Walter Raleigh, west. It is very possible that seafarers and Jan Huygen van Linschoten or others so familiar geographers heard rumours of distant landfalls to us from other secondary sources about the well before rapid European expansion began in Armadas, Earle's book is a well-researched, the Renaissance. If this is the case, Columbus's masterfully written contribution to our leap of faith was more grounded in the natural knowledge about maritime Europe during the than the supernatural. last decade of the sixteenth century. It will also Enterline's work deals mainly with serve to balance the stream of publications about Norse and Eskimo knowledge of northern the Revenge which focus almost solely on the regions, Greenland and beyond, that may have achievements of the English, disregarding (or at seeped into European consciousness. The least belittling) the involvement of the foundation of his argument rests on a significant Spaniards. In that sense, Peter Earle's book takes number of European maps and texts which he "revenge" for a lack of impartiality in previous uses as a barometer of contemporary geographic accounts: nomen est omen. information. There are some helpful illustra• tions, but in some cases it is difficult to discern Joost C.A. Schokkenbroek "the visual" which should accompany Enter• Amsterdam, The Netherlands line's comments about various cartographic bumps, inlets and peculiarities. His argument is hampered by the fact that many medieval maps James Robert Enterline. Erikson, Eskimos and no longer exist: all historical sources struggle to Columbus: Medieval European Knowledge of survive but outdate maps are routinely destroyed America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins as a matter of course. The author attempts to University Press, www.jhu.edu, 2002. xx + 342 glean from other sources what has vanished in pp., maps, illustrations, appendix, notes, the interim, a problematic but an interesting bibliography, index. US $ 45.00, cloth; ISBN 0- exercise. The existence of the extremely 8018-6660- X. controversial Vinland map, if authenticated, would tie many of Enterline's fragile threads together. This is no doubt why he includes an Anyone with a Ph.D. purports to have made an appendix which deals with the dating of its ink original contribution to knowledge, and almost (or possibly "inks"). all academics readily acknowledge their great debt to other scholars. In the case of Christopher Enterline candidly sets out his Columbus's landmark voyage, how original was methodology and indicates various areas where "his" idea to sail west to get the east? James he knows his evidence is wanting. Given how Robert Enterline attempts to answer this elusive his prey is, his best chance for success question in his book, Erikson, Eskimos, and lies with a sheer preponderance of evidence that Columbus: Medieval European Knowledge of contact among the Europeans, Norse and America. Eskimos occurred in some fashion. While the Trying to reassemble the scholarly maps and texts help bolster aspects of his theory, treatises, travellers' tales and maps that Enterline also makes tantalizing allusions to Columbus may have been exposed to is a tricky material findings. Viking artifacts unearthed in business. As the author readily acknowledges on North America, as well as material evidence of several occasions, such a construct is difficult to European and Eskimo influence in Norse build and almost impossible to prove. We must communities in Greenland clearly point to deal almost exclusively with historical theories Europe-Norse-Eskimo contact. From my and likelihoods and even drift into speculation perspective, these fascinating references to on occasion. This will never suffice to change material culture are an under-utilized aspect of some existing views about Columbus. Yet, his argument. Enterline's evidence may suggest Columbus and And so, the Eskimo-Norse-European Book Reviews 95 link can be made, but its relationship to and goes well beyond Christopher Columbus. Columbus and "Asia" is far less certain. Most of Nonetheless, history (and exploration!) thrive on the book is given over to stressing the former those bold enough to challenge and change connections. Yet, there is a tantalizing existing paradigms. possibility that Columbus may have made a voyage to Iceland during his early days as a Cheryl Fury seafarer. If this supposition could be supported, Saint John, N.B. Enterline's chain of connections is far sturdier. Enterline senses that his evidence is not sufficient to change the traditionalist view of Clayton Evans. Rescue at Sea: An International Columbus as a fortunate bumbler who played History of Lifesaving, Coastal Rescue Craft and fast and loose with his astrolabe and found land Organisations. London: Conway Maritime on a wing and a prayer. Yet, Enterline sees his Press, www.chrysallis.co.uk. 2003. 296 pp., work as a beginning step and outlines areas for plans, illustrations, charts, maps. £ 35, cloth; future research, much as he thinks Columbus ISBN 0-85177-934-4. "tapped into" extant sources about what might lay outside the European world. The author If your life depends upon your equipment, it is hopes to deflate the "great man theory of best to know all you can about it. In this book history" in favour of a "joint uncovering" which the author, himself the coxswain of a lifeboat, started with the Norsemen and various other has made a most thorough study of his chosen ethnic groups. profession. Globalization is a trendy concept right The book is divided into four distinct now and the author argues for medieval parts, each one expanding the reader's dissemination of information among disparate knowledge and understanding of rescue at sea. groups. What he never addresses, however, are The first section reviews the history of lifesaving attempts to hide exploration data from rival with each chapter ending with an account of a merchants, sovereigns and seafarers, especially particularly harrowing or heroic rescue at sea. those from other nation-states. Political, From here the author moves to a detailed academic and commercial competition made examination of the evolution of the modern such information much sought-after but also lifeboat, starting with the earliest craft. This fiercely protected. How might have this have section is undoubtedly the "guts" of the book, influenced the sharing of such details? for no other class of vessel has had so many Whether we buy Enterline's theories years of careful thought and experimentation put completely or in part, it is well worth pondering into its evolution. A brief third section touches the place of the Norse and the Eskimos in on peripheral fields, since shore-based breeches inspiring widespread European travels westward. buoys, modern airborne techniques and offshore Efforts to use cartography to chart European rescue systems cannot be viewed as entirely intellectual history are fraught with hazards, but separate. The final part, a country-by-county the process certainly leads to some lively debate. analysis of various approaches to rescue, begins Eventually scholarly and general opinion may with a description of each nation's coastline and fully endorse the image of a more calculating storm conditions which influenced their choice Columbus whose "leap of faith" was more of a of craft and the rescue organization best suited to hop. The author goes on to assert that Columbus their local needs. may have been the first man to use something Lifesaving at sea is an ever-developing approaching the scientific method, even though art, benefiting from each new technical advance much about his views was grounded in and from experience with earlier designs. The ultraconservative medievalism. This might be a author has wisely limited himself to coastal more difficult pill to swallow than Enterline's rescue craft, but such is the complexity of the very reasonable argument that the discovery of subject that it was only by trial and error (and America owes much to those in northern climes there have been many errors), that the modern 96 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord lifeboat has been evolved. And even that is differences of opinion, a most healthy constantly changing. In recent years for characteristic, auguring well for design example, the explosive growth of pleasure craft improvements in future years. has necessitated a whole new class of rescue National rescue organizations have vessel, and this rate of change, slow at first, has grown up in different ways, some developed by quickened with increasingly complicated government and others entirely volunteer, so that equipment and modern back-up systems. their financing and structure vary appreciably. Until two hundred years ago, a Recently, with new and better communication shipwrecked mariner, cast on a stormbound systems, operational control is becoming shore, had little hope of survival, for nowhere in centralized, enabling marshalling of widespread the world did facilities exist for his assistance. resources with the minimum of delay. At the heart of the book is the story of how Virtually unknown is how coastal communities slowly began to respond to sophisticated the modern lifeboat has become, major catastrophes in their midst. It is an for most often they are locating far from the inspiring tale with many local variations, not madding crowd. Our latest Canadian 47-footers surprising considering the extreme range of have a multiple-man system to con the craft. rescue situations. Inshore conditions in a storm Linked by headsets, each person is responsible vary greatly, depending upon the nature of the for different aspects of the controls for in bottom. Thus it is impossible to compare, say, lifesaving situations every second counts. the rockbound cliffs of the Pacific Northwest Seating too is specifically designed to lessen the with the shifting shoals and channels of the continuous spine-jolting shock from the vessel Netherlands' North Sea coast. jumping off metres-high wave tops at 30 knots. Lifesaving craft were first designed to The book is full of wonderful surprises. meet very local conditions, mostly by adapting Who would have supposed that the tiny, existing boats to better survive extreme weather landlocked nation of Switzerland has one of the conditions. A successful rescue naturally most highly developed marine rescue services in encouraged other localities to do likewise. Soon the world, or that in Chile, enthusiasm is so great national organizations began to spring up in a that volunteers actually have to pay to join a handful of countries. Success followed success, crew? and in recent years many others have followed In Canada we have our own special suit. This has not necessarily always resulted in needs. Sable Island is unique, and figures the creation of the ideal form of craft. The first prominently in the story, but our coastline, by far lifeboats were oar- or sail-powered, but by the the longest of any nation in the world, has such turn of the century, with the introduction of the extreme conditions that sometimes the only internal combustion engine, powered lifeboats means of rescue is by Search and Rescue began to evolve. Even today the debate helicopter. continues. Are unsinkable or self-righting Behind all lifesaving operations are the lifeboats the best? magnificently dedicated men and women who Crucial to the development of the risk, and occasionally sacrifice, their lives to modern lifeboat was the institution, in 1924, of save others. This is a most hazardous profession the first International Conference for the Saving and warrants the extreme thoroughness that has of Life at Sea. The nineteenth such conference gone into the creation of modern lifeboating took place recently. Participants sometimes organizations. bring their own lifeboats to the venue, and these Criticism of the book is invidious, but valuable exchanges of ideas have in turn led to a few weaknesses were noted. The system of a more standardized form of craft, suitable for referencing by part and chapter numbers is the more common type of rescue conditions in cumbersome; a little extra time spent on editing other countries. But one single type of lifeboat is would have eliminated the problem. The casual unlikely since the critical importance of saving reader may balk at the multiplicity of acronyms lives at sea will always produce strong and abbreviations, but the small effort of Book Reviews 97 referring to the appendix soon simplifies the paths led to greater global dependency. Many text. An unfortunate oversight for Canadian examples are given to show that man's readers is the paucity of coverage of the Great connection to the sea is not limited to littoral Lakes, disappointing because of the importance communities; even those far removed from the of this great body of water to our maritime shore are affected by the transmissions of culture affairs. and transfer of goods that reach them by sea. As But this is mere nitpicking for a book one contributor stated: "sea routes became the that is undoubtedly destined to become a major highways... on which genuine global history international resource. Canadian readers of The was built" (22). Global history, then, replete Northern Mariner should be proud that Clayton with exchanges of biota and culture, could only Evans, who has produced a work of such have been possible with a significant maritime humanitarian importance, is himself a Canadian. component. Contributors then trace the history of John Crosse maritime exploration, from ancient times Vancouver, British Columbia through the middle ages and into the modern era. Advances in technology, economic imperatives, intense political rivalries, and a desire to know Daniel Finamore, (ed.), Maritime History as what lay beyond the horizon (or beneath the World History. Gainesville: University of surface) rank as the most important, although by Florida Press, www.upf.com. 2004. 217 pp., no means the only motivations behind the maps, illustrations, notes, index, US $59.95, ventures. The reader is shown how advances in cloth; ISBN 0-8130-2710-1. ship design, cartography, and navigation allowed various cultures to expand their reach and usher Maritime History as World History is an edited in a new era of global interaction and collection of essays that seeks to place two interdependence; both European and non- millennia of maritime history into the context of Western cultures are examined. The relative global interactions and interdependence. With importance that disparate cultures placed on the contributions from acknowledged leaders in the sea, and their relative impact on both maritime field, including John Hattendorff, Richard and global history, is then assessed. Even the Unger, Carla Hahn Phillips and Felipe seemingly unrelated topics of deep sea Fernandez-Armesto, the collection boasts instant exploration in the twentieth century and early credibility. The diverse range of topics covered modern voyages of exploration are presented as from exploration to naval engagements, and part of the same process: political rivalries, from deep-sea exploration to literature, offers whether the Cold War or the rise of nation states, fresh perspectives and cogent analysis of both ushered in a new round of maritime activity. maritime and world history. Published jointly by Another major theme of Maritime the University of Florida and the Peabody Essex History as World History is that maritime affairs Museum, Maritime History as World History and developments were largely the extension or will appeal to the specialist as much as it will to reflection of terrestrial events. For too long, it is the casual reader. argued, maritime history has been studied as sui Each of the dozen contributors generis; something apart from the traditional attempts to demonstrate that "the story of human understanding of economic, legal, diplomatic, or development as told through maritime military histories of various political entities. exploration, commerce, or warfare, is intricately But "effective analysis of the use to which the linked to the oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers that oceans were used requires more than just the dominate the earth" (ix), and that "human obvious needs of ship, cargo, and crew. What interaction with the sea is a fundamental factor takes place on land has as much bearing on of world history" (1). One of the overarching maritime history as what happens on sea" (112). themes is that waterways served as highways for Activities at sea, from commerce to warfare, are ships, people, and commodities and that these depicted as being closely toed to events on land. 98 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

This leads to a new appreciation for maritime With the passage of over sixty years since the history: no longer confined to that which floats events of the Second War, the major histories and gets wet, it has been expanded to all those and assessments have been published and aspects of society that are affected by maritime analyzed many times. But the multitude of commerce, warfare, or policy. As John events still fascinate and draw forth yet more Hattendorff aptly puts it: "The events and issues smaller stories, minor histories that in the larger of sea history need to be seen in the light of tales only warrant a line or two or nothing at all. events and developments ashore at the same time The story of the November 1941 loss of the that events ashore need to be complemented by cruiser HMS Dunedin is one such tale. the perspective from the sea. Linked in this way, Researched and well written by Stuart Gill, the maritime history becomes the vehicle of true diplomat son of Royal Marine William Gill, who global history" (137). was one of the few survivors of her torpedoing, Maritime History as World History is it is largely a wartime biography of his father a useful addition to the literature on this subject. and his ship, told in three relatively equal Written in an engaging and accessible manner, segments: his father's story, from joining up as this slim volume is a welcome complement to an 18-year-old in December 1939 until his staid monographs that cause bookshelves, (and survival a year later; memories of others of her undergraduates), to groan. The addition of a crew taken from surviving letters or actual number of illustrations from the Peabody Essex interviews; and connecting explanatory pages Collection is a nice contribution, though one detailing wider events that came to affect questions why the placement of certain Dunedin's fate. illustrations in chapters that have seemingly little Launched at the end of the First World connection to the subject being discussed. (The War, by 1939 Dunedin was considered elderly, most egregious examples are a print of "Battle at although still effective, and was allocated mostly Sea" located in the middle of a discussion to "watching" patrols, convoy escort and general concerning Ocean Exploration in the Twentieth duties. This was typical of a useful ship when Century and an anti-U boat campaign poster in such vessels were in short supply and when the the midst of Bud Foulke's essay on Sea Voyage German Navy still had ships roaming the oceans Narratives). While not suitable as a textbook per and causing major concerns. After his briefly se, Maritime History as World History does described general Marine training, Gill joined illustrate several themes that can be the her in April 1941 and participated in mid- foundation for further inquiry. Most importantly, Atlantic and Northern patrols, ending up mostly it points out lacunae in both maritime history working out of the hot, smelly, uninteresting and global history and challenges historians to way-point of Freetown on the west African address these issues in a new light. By calling coast. This part of the story gives a for a new perspective and increased awareness straightforward and well depicted view of life at of the interplay between global and maritime sea on mostly dull patrols, with infrequent history, the contributors to this volume have boardings of suspicious vessels and occasional, performed a notable, and noteworthy, task. very occasional excitements. It was typical, not very interesting, and author Gill renders a pretty fair and familiar description of about 80 per cent Timothy G. Lynch of life aboard a warship. There were several Vallejo, California boardings of suspicious ships, often Vichy French, which were sent into an Allied port if their destination was occupied or unoccupied Stuart Gill. Blood in the Sea. HMS Dunedin and France. In June, Dunedin and her compatriot the Enigma Code. London: Weidenfeld & HMS Eagle's Swordftsh were scouting aircraft Nicolson, www.orionbooks.co.uk, 2003.239pp., when they captured the German tanker photographs, maps, appendices, sources, index. Lothringen, posted in mid-Atlantic to refuel U- £20.00, cloth; ISBN 0-297-84665-5. boats bound for South America and merchant Book Reviews 99

raiders roaming the southern oceans. The seizure hospital in Trinidad. Stuart Gill lets his father's was part of a larger Allied plan to stamp out words, and those of a few others, tell the these support ships, without giving away how it harrowing tale of survival, death of friends and was achieved. unknowns, both in the torpedoing and This in turn accounts for the subsequent floating about, including 19 Boy connection between Dunedin and Enigma of the Seamen and a Marine Band Boy, four Marine sub-title, although the decrypts of German naval pensioners who had re-volunteered and four code messages at Bletchly Park (BP) back in civilian NAFFI staff who had manned the ship's England, known as "ULTRA" traffic, were canteen. In Gill's raft, only three survived of the completely unknown to Dunedin s compliment 25 men who got away from the ship. and even her Area OICs. In the summer and fall Apart from the loss of the 419 men and of 1941, BP was reasonably successful at a valuable cruiser, the Admiralty and those at breaking these coded signal transmissions back Bletchly Park were most concerned at the and forth, although not as swift as they later possibility that the sinking of Python, who was became in 1943. As a result of reading between supposed to be left alone, and the U-boats the lines of some German traffic, the Admiralty discovering warships in the area might make the dispatched Dunedin and other cruisers and German naval staff think that the Enigma coded destroyers on hunting missions for the enemy messages regarding rendezvous were being read. tankers, supply ships and even the U-boats and While they did indeed become suspicious, those armed raiders supposed to meet up with them. in the signals and technical branches in Berlin While BP could not tell the exact coded assured them that such a thing was absolutely reference points, they could advise the searching impossible and after a few months, the British ships of general areas and sometimes even relaxed. latitudes. It was through these leads that The book is well edited with almost no Lothringen was found, and then the raider errors, particularly for someone not himself a Atlantis, located and sunk by the larger cruiser Marine or a sailor. If one might add a regret, it HMS Devonshire, and the supply ship Python by would be that the story just ends with Gill's another cruiser. And these in turn led to survival and the Enigma secret maintained. It Dunedin s loss and a very real concern at BP might have been a nice codicil to know what that the Germans might begin to suspect that happened, at least to Gill, for the rest of the war. their Enigma codes were being broken and read. The only brief reference is to a reunion of some When Atlantis was sunk, two U-boats 150 relatives and a very few survivors that took in the area began towing her boatloads of place in 2001. But better to wish for a bit more survivors toward South America, and two other than, as often happens in memoirs, receive too boats were ordered to either assist them or locate much. An interesting and well done tale. Python and get her to take them on. One of these U-boats was U-124, KL Johann Mohr, who Fraser M. McKee came across Dunedin strictly by chance and put Toronto, Ontario two torpedoes into her, sinking the ship within a few minutes. None of her boats got away and only 250 survivors were able to survive in three Kent Hewitt, (Evelyn M. Cherpak, ed.). The or four Carley floats or clutching some debris. Memoirs of Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, 1887-1972. Over the next four days, due to injuries, Newport, R.I.: Naval War College Press, 2004. dementia, sharks and loss of flotation devices, xii + 291 pp., photographs, illustrations, notes, the total was reduced to 72, their sufferings index. US $ 19.95, paper; ISBN 1-884733-20-4. vividly described in Marine Gill's words to his son years later. The survivors were eventually Henry Kent Hewitt is one of the less well known found, again by chance, by an American members of an incredible stable of outstanding merchantman, and even then another five died admirals produced by the USN during the on board before they could reach safe haven and Second World War. His list includes a number 100 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord of notable accomplishments: the planning and Hewitt's descriptions of major events execution of Operation TORCH, the amphibious and the important persons he encountered landings in North Africa; Operation HUSKY, become less revealing as Memoirs advances in the invasion of Sicily; Operations time. His participation in the pivotal USN Fleet AVALANCHE, the landings at Salerno, Exercises of 1927 and 1928 provides no Operation ANVIL-DRAGOON, the invasion of information on the staff activities involved in the Southern France, and command of the US 12th formulation of those exercises or their important Fleet in the postwar years. With such weighty influence on American war plans. Although responsibilities, the list of truly important intimately involved in staff work, Hewitt gives personages with whom Hewitt had close the reader no hints at Hewitt's abilities as a staff dealings before, during and after the war was officer, or of his intellectual capacity exhibited stellar. The admiral was not a flamboyant by his writings while a student and staff member character and the editor of this work is of the at the Naval War College in 1929-30. Hewitt opinion that this is the reason Hewitt is not as provides no justification for his high praise of widely recognized as some of his such historically important admirals as De contemporaries, despite the fact that he rose to Stigeur, Pringle, Sellars, Kimmel, Spruance, and the rank of vice-admiral and was highly Kidd. decorated for his accomplishments. The Hewitt's lack of detail in his memoirs of such an important figure in history description of central figures is not limited to the had the potential for providing important naval officers that shaped his career or his insights into major events, people and, above all, better-known classmates Raymond Spruance and the reasons behind some of the pivotal decisions Isaac Kidd. There is no photograph of Hewitt's of an era. Unfortunately, Hewitt remains true to wife, Floride, (although there are several of the "quiet and unassuming" characterization of Hewitt) and his two daughters rate only the him given by Evelyn Cherpak (xii). This briefest mention, with his second daughter not autobiographical work is one of the most introduced until acting as the maid of honour at disappointing of its type. her elder sister's wedding in 1938 ( 103). General Memoirs reads like a personal diary but George S. Patton and Fleet Admiral Ernest J. without the slightest hint of scandal, rumour or King, surely two of the most colourful American intrigue. The early years of Hewitt's life and figures of the Second World War, receive the career make for passably interesting reading same cursory treatment from Hewitt. Evidently, with stories of his youth in New Jersey, entry Hewitt was as timid with his opinions as he was into the Naval Academy in 1903, and "quiet and unassuming." participation in the round-the-world cruise of the The reader is compelled to plough Great White Fleet in 1907. Contemporary through many pages of plodding narrative to readers will be interested in the description of glean even the smallest nuggets of insight from the emergency aid provided the battleships this highly capable and experienced officer. A Indiana and Missouri after a devastating very few such "pearls of wisdom" are offered. earthquake at Kingston, Jamaica, in February Based on his experienced during the North 1907 (16). The ability of warships to render Africa landings, Hewitt does comment on the assistance following a natural disaster is not a inadvisability of combining amphibious new concept but is one that seems to have been command functions with the combat functions of rediscovered only recently. Hewitt's time in his a warship. He also advises that it is unwise for first command, the converted yacht Eagle, while the overall commander of a task force to assume conducting cartographic work in the Caribbean command of a sub-unit of that force. Beyond Sea, has some good examples of the utility of this, his description of the TORCH landings are minor warships in low-intensity, counter- extremely sketchy. The only time anything insurgency warfare in littoral areas; the exact approaching a commander's insight into major theoretical construct of today's "Three Block events is provided comes in the admiral's War" (47-61). considerations for giving permission to unload Book Reviews 101 transports in poorly protected anchorages at with an accurate survey of the Canadian navy's Casablanca and Fedala, despite indications of contribution to the war on international terrorism gathering enemy submarines. His explanations from 11 September 2001 to November 2003 sound more like excuses as the torpedoing of "through the eyes of an informed but three ships at each location resulted from independent author." Hewitt's decisions. Regrettably, Hewitt gives This goal clearly has been achieved. more detail about staff accommodations ashore Richard Gimblett, a veteran of twenty-seven being mandated by service and rank than the years service in the Canadian navy, coauthor vastly more important details of operations with Jean Morin of the definitive official history planning. of Canadian naval forces in the first Persian Gulf The second half of the book is entirely War, and leading military analyst, had produced unsatisfying. Hewitt's narrative provides no an especially informative and timely work. clarification about the problems experienced While later studies may provide a more detailed during the landings at Anzio, and incredibly, the and nuanced analysis of the strategic, landings in southern France receive absolutely diplomatic, and political aspects of Canada's no treatment at all. Instead, Hewitt launches into involvement in the global war on terrorism, an absolutely dreadful description of Operation Apollo arms readers now with a interminable official visits and the protocol focussed, balanced appraisal of naval operations issues associated with his travels. This pattern of in the North Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. meaningless listing of who-was-there carries In seven chapters, Gimblett traces how over into Hewitt's post-war duties as a fleet the Canadian navy reinforced North American commander in northern European waters, where, defences in the wake of the New York and it seems, he did little more than meet royalty, Washington attacks, and deployed warships for receive awards and decorations, and attend state operations against the Taliban and Al Qaeda dinners. forces in Afghanistan from November 2001 to It is absolutely lamentable that such an April 2002, May to December 2002, and January accomplished and important person as Admiral to November 2003. Separate treatments focus on Hewitt missed the opportunity to record candidly life at sea in the Middle East for Canada's naval his insights into the important events and people warriors and the nature of naval boarding to which he must have been privy. Sadly, there operations. The clear, concise text is is practically nothing in this work to commend complemented with a wealth of colour to any reader other than a family descendant of photographs, original paintings by naval artists, the author. maps, charts, deployment schedules, organizational charts, and other relevant Ken Hansen illustrative materials. A CD-ROM version of the Toronto, Ontario book is attached to the back cover. Operation Apollo provides not only a compilation of photographs and a description of Richard Gimblett. Operation Apollo: The golden warship deployments, operations, and command age of the Canadian navy in the war against relationships, but an insightful analysis of the terrorism. Ottawa, ON: Magic Light Publishing Canadian navy's participation in the multi• in cooperation with the Dept. Of National national effort. Gimblett emphasizes that despite Defence and Public Works and Government its small size in relation to the US Navy and Services Canada, 2004. 160 pp, DVD, even the British and French navies, the Canadian photographs. CDN $ 24.95, paper; ISBN 1- navy possessed special attributes. As a fully 894673-16-6. integrated member of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the Canadian The purpose of Operation Apollo, as related in a navy operated command, control and foreword by Vice Admiral Ron Buck, Chief of communications systems that enabled the service the Maritime Staff, was to provide Canadians to function as a "gateway" between the 102 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

Americans and the other less well-endowed at one time or another from 2001 to 2003 in the allied navies. Moreover, US naval leaders placed dangerous waters of the Middle East. such trust and confidence in their northern counterparts that soon after 9/11 the Americans Edward J. Marolda agreed to Canadian command of a task force of Washington, D.C. coalition naval forces that protected US warships in the North Arabian Sea, searched suspicious vessels for terrorists and contraband, and Michael Lewis, A Social History of the Navy escorted merchant ships through the Gulf of J 793-1815. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Oman, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Persian Books, www.chathampublishing.com. 2004.467 Gulf. As during Desert Storm, the Canadians pp., illustrations, tables, appendices, sources, understood that most likely their contribution index, ships' names. US $44.95, cloth; ISBN 1- would be recognized only if they maintained 86176-232-1. their few ships in a discrete national formation and exploited their unique capabilities. Gimblett Nelson's Royal Navy was the world's pre• acknowledges that while Ottawa and eminent fleet. It was a blue-water force that Washington had serious differences over the Iraq gained and maintained command of the sea by War, the two navies adjusted their operations in staying on station at all times in all weather, the the Persian Gulf almost seamlessly to avoid better to contain and destroy enemy vessels. needless political complications. Opposing forces, whether Spanish, Dutch, The author pursues another theme: the French or American, justifiably feared "the importance of sea power to Canada's ability to violence of the enemy", losing 377 vessels to the operate as part of international coalitions, deploy Royal Navy during this period. In striking overseas, and promote the country's global contrast, the Royal Navy lost a mere 10 ships to interests. Gimblett devotes an early chapter in enemy action but 354 to the "dangers of the the book to a summary of the navy's history in sea", and suffered up to 14 times as many the last half of the twentieth century during casualties caused by disease and individual which time it "lost its bearings in a struggle for accident as by enemy action. survival" over unification of the armed forces Professor Lewis and other historians, and experienced periods of growth and decline. such as N.A.M. Rodger, Christopher Hall and The author credits the Canadian navy's success John Keegan, to name but a few, have elsewhere against the terrorist threat to the "New Golden dissected strategy, tactics and the operations of Age" of naval development that began in 1995. the Royal Navy during this period. This But he closes the work with a warning that excellent social history by Professor Lewis, unless the naval service continues to receive new which first appeared in 1960, examines the warships and other essential resources, the shipboard and Royal Navy society that generated Operation Apollo experience might prove to be and sustained its wartime performance, from the the "apex of the modern Canadian navy." social origins of its men, to the shipboard Despite a few minor glitches such as a hierarchy and the service itself. photo with everyone's face bearing a pink hue Basing his account on a vast array of (129) and misspelling of MacDill Air Force contemporary sources, including official Base (130), the work is first-rate. Operation documents and records, accounts of shipboard Apollo should grace the shelves of all serious life, as well as personal memoirs, histories and students of naval operations during the ongoing letters, among Prof. Lewis's underlying themes global war on terrorism. All but two of the is how closely the navy mirrored contemporary navy's major surface combatants took part in the British society and how the navy's own practices effort, the "largest prolonged Canadian naval reflected and interpreted those of wider national operation since the Korean War." Gimblett does custom and practices. Inevitably, perhaps, there credit to the service of the men and women of is an element of the "In Which We Serve" view the Canadian navy—almost all of whom served of the parallel between wartime (Napoleonic of Book Reviews 103 course, not Second World War ) British society wartime population of captains...and then after and a well-run ship of the line. But there is the war, drastically reduced. In a war of ideas nothing smug about this book. Rather, it is a against republicanism and Bonapartism, it may deeply respectful account of an organization and perhaps be argued (although Lewis himself does individuals who gave the organization its not do so) talented men had to be enabled to distinctive character as a fighting force in a make their way. But those that advanced had Great War of national survival. also to show loyalty to the existing structure. For One real value of this book lies in the better and often for worse, "interest," personal careful use the author makes of his data. The patronage, helped square this circle. social and geographical origin of the sailors Fundamentally, however, the peril of showed the Royal Navy to be drawn from every sea duty played the ultimate role: welding region of Britain, but those counties that touched together the company of men (and occasional the sea contributed the most men. The divisions women) into a shipboard "family" that between Quarter Deck and Lower Deck reflected "belonged" to their ship and served it happily those of British society as a whole, each with a under the leadership of a tough, ultra-competent trajectory of its own into naval service. sea dog of a captain. Once a captain got a ship, Professor Lewis analyses the operation competence mattered. "Hero" promotions of the press gangs, carefully charts the use of followed victory in hard fights, prize money "Interest" in promotions, a system that could could also whet an appetite for action, especially accelerate the rise of talent to command but, after reforms that left a sizeable portion to the more often than not, had the opposite effect. Pay captors. structure, prize money and conditions of service Nothing in the Nelsonian Navy also receive extensive exploration. followed a grand design. Change was Yet the work is definitely a work of incremental. The practices of the service evolved history, not sociology. There are no regression slowly in response to challenges and changing analyses attempting to link ship's performance to circumstances. One of the charms of this book is crew make-up or any other "variable". No the author's ability to illuminate the threads of "general theories" are tested. Instead, careful evolution throughout the period under review, in documentary analysis is used to develop cross- some cases going back to the navy of Cromwell sectional portraits of ships and the service as a and link the evolution of practice within the whole. Moreover, the prose is graceful and the navy to those of British society as a whole. narrative sprinkled with illustrative citations Professor Lewis has a great deal of valuable from participants. information to impart in this book, not only for The picture that emerges from the students of maritime and naval history but also study is one of two interrelated complex for students of organization. They will find in its organizations, British society and the Royal pages a great many insights into the subtle Navy, the former supplying the context for the relationship between an organization and society latter which, as the ultimate defence of the and the boundaries that unite and divide them. nation, had to attract enough of the right talent and conceive and execute the right strategies to Guy Stanley defeat the enemy. The choices and the solutions Ottawa, Ontario were alike complex exercises in optimisation. Seamen had to be "prest" to serve, yet somehow induced to face not only the enemy but Michael Lindberg and Daniel Todd. Anglo- the far greater hazards of long duty at sea. While American Shipbuilding in World War II: A the pool of merchant seaman made good Geographical Perspective. Westport, C.T: crewman, the merchant marine was also Praeger Publishing, www.praeger.com. 2004. essential to British survival, so a balance had to xix + 223 pp., map, tables, ship type be found. Enough officer material had to be designations, notes bibliography, index. US inducted in order to generate the required $84.95. cloth; ISBN 0-275-97924-5. 104 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

Allied victory in two world wars was built on investment, the United States produced striking the bedrock of sea control, and the ability to results, but the standard designs and mass- move men, raw materials, machines, fuel, food produced ships required to win the war were and ammunition across the world while the rapidly rendered obsolete by the more complex Central Powers and the Axis fought in isolated demands of peace, and the rapid pace of fragments. The biggest problem for the allies technological development. The expansion in was the provision of adequate numbers of industrial capacity was not created for the long standard warships, and even more numerous, term, and consequently did not create a and simpler, merchant vessels, both to increase sustainable industry in either country. A the stock of shipping and to compensate for the comparative study which compared shipbuilding serious losses inflicted by German U-boats. In with other areas of strategic wartime production this book, the authors set out to examine the would be rather more revealing. impact of locational factors on the development The simple answer to the question of existing, and new shipbuilding facilities, posed by this book is that shipbuilding proved a employing tools developed by economic very difficult task to place with other industrial geographers. units, while aircraft, engines and other smaller The theoretical basis is set out in the items could be handled by inland factories first chapter, where locational theory and other shipyards were limited, site dependant and costly concepts are defined. Locational theory suggests to build. As the authors conclude: "Agglo• there are advantages to be obtained by meration theory, although still applicable to developing large agglomerations of connected certain industries, holds little relevance to the industries at the same point: the book is an naval shipbuilding industry of the twenty-first exercise in assessing the validity of the theory. century" (204). The evidence for the study comes from the Although this is a useful overview of wealth of shipyard and industry histories, naval an industrial phenomenon of the first half of the policy and related works. Canada does not twentieth century, reflecting the strength of warrant an index entry, let alone treatment economic and industrial history in the field it appropriate to its contribution. The footnotes are contains few surprises. In the total wars of the almost entirely derived from secondary sources, twentieth century, nations like Britain that and reflect a sustained and wide-ranging depend on the sea to survive, or like the United approach. Four further chapters examine the two States that need to dispatch their forces across World Wars, using the First World War as a key the oceans, had to increase their shipbuilding stage in the development of the mature system effort to an extent that bore no relation to employed in the second conflict, with the Inter- peacetime requirements. Their success reflected war era representing a down turn in work, before many things, but one suspects that locational concluding with the postwar collapse of Anglo- theory was not high on the list of priorities. American shipbuilding. There are few surprises. Useful Andrew Lambert advantages could be gained from agglomeration, London, England but ultimately these were countered by other factors, notably labour and power shortages. New yards were costly, and often failed to Algot Mattsson. Out of the Fog. The Sinking of deliver the ships in time, while the expansion of the Andrea Doria. (English translation edited by existing yards was often hampered by lack of Gordon W. Paulsen and Bruce G. Paulsen). space. The astonishing success of Allied Centreville, MD: Cornell Maritime Press, shipbuilding in the two world wars emerges www.comellmaritimepress.com, 2003. xiii + from this study as a remarkable effort that 168 pp., photographs, illustrations, appendices, boosted output by astonishing levels for the bibliography, index. US $ 24.95, cloth; ISBN 0- short term. Building on the experience of the 87033-545-6. First World War and exploiting massive Book Reviews 105

Collisions involving passenger ships have long the Third Mate, Johan-Ernst Carstens- been a dramatic and tragic part of our maritime Johannsen. It covers in fair detail the events history. Fifty years ago, the loss of a passenger leading to the collision, from the first sightings ship transfixed the general public much the same with the bridge officers coming to opposing way that the loss of a large airplane, such as the views on the developing situation. Many Swiss Air disaster off Nova Scotia or the Air questions abound out of the collision. Was fog a India bombing off Ireland, does now. But back factor? Was the Andrea Doria properly designed then there was no CNN to provide instant digital and ballasted? Did the crews respond properly images, on-the-site reporting, experts over cell after the collision? Did the bridge officers react phones or home video images. Instead, the news properly? What was the percentage of fault? images of shipwreck sites would be grainy Why did they settle? These and other questions photos of floating debris and ashen-faced are covered in the book, but in the format and survivors in storm-tossed lifeboats from rescue style of a review of a court reporter's transcript ships or hovering helicopters. The reporting was leaving the reader grasping for more of the sporadic and the true story took days to unfold. nuance and drama of the courtroom or legal Now the story is instant and stays in the press for strategy. only a couple of days. Shortly after the case settled, the Typically, the shipwreck story next hit Swedish America Line was due to take delivery the press when the public inquiry or criminal and of its newest passenger vessel, Gripsholm, from civil trials unfolded years later. The courtroom the same shipyard that built the Andrea Doria. drama can be even more transfixing than the Having the Andrea Doria''s stability design drama and tragedy of the initial event. The being questioned in court would have added to reporting on those trials, however, is sporadic the Swedish America Line's public relations and rare, except for the large disasters. Few nightmare. Mattsson's book details these studies have been done into the courtroom allegations for the first time. Although the case drama. Algot Mattsson's book Out of the Fog, never went to trial, pre-trial discoveries were about the Andrea Doria collision, gives us a rare held two months after the sinking. More than 60 glimpse into that arena, but it is an uninspired lawyers took part in these proceedings and about account of the tragedy and of the legal drama. It 50 reporters covered them. After four months of leaves much uncovered and fails to bring out the hearings, the case settled. Settlement was drama of the event or to fully develop the prudent. The Swedish-America Line agreed to personalities of those involved. cover the $1 million replacement of the On 25 July 1956, the Italia passenger Stockholm s bow, and Italia absorbed the loss of liner Andrea Doria was inbound for New York the $30 million Andrea Doria. off Nantucket when it collided with the Mattsson's review of the hearing outbound Swedish America liner Stockholm. contrasts the divergent styles of the maritime Eleven hours later, the Andrea Doria sank with attorneys and the different personalities of the a loss of 51 on the Italian ship and five on the ships' captains. Much more could have been Swedish, while more than 1700 people were done, however, to develop those differences that rescued. The tragedy was one of the first would have made it much less plodding read. shipwrecks to be reported live from helicopters The overlay of the legal analysis, by Swedish with reporting on black and white televisions. America Line's maritime lawyer, Gordon Many have written about the loss, notably Alvin Paulsen, is interesting but it adds to that dryness Moscow in his 1959 Collision Course. Mattsson instead of enriching the story. Nevertheless, brings out a new aspect of the story. He was the Paulsen's comments will be of interest to a information officer for the Swedish America maritime lawyer who can come to an opinion on Line. He was on the inside of the public relations the issues raised in the analysis. Both Mattsson battles and of the legal battles over who was at and Paulsen have carefully endeavoured to leave fault. their Swedish America Line bias and present a The book contains observations from neutral perspective, but in so doing, they have 106 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord lost a cutting edge turning a great story into an of history, will be fascinating to his descendants. uninspired review. As well as describing the professional side of a The Andrea Doria continues to be in sailor's life, he tells us, in colourful language, the press, as a Mecca for technical divers. The about the nightlife of the world's ports and "runs dive is deep (225 feet) and difficult (offshore, ashore," complete with consequent hangovers. dark waters, current swept). The site has claimed (You may call this "social history" if you wish!). over a dozen divers in the last 20 years. Despite The book can effectively be divided that tragic record, the shipwreck continues to into three parts. It begins with a first-hand draw divers from around the world, and despite account of conditions in Canadian merchant increased safety procedures and better ships in the postwar period. In the second group equipment, it will continue to claim more divers of chapters, we learn about the life of a and stay in the press for years. hydrographer in the fifties and sixties, a time of As the 50th anniversary of the sinking expansion in the Canadian Hydrographie is only a year away, stay tuned as well for Service. Finally, the author deals with anniversary reviews (check out http: administrative changes in the CHS and //www.andreadoria.org/) and more books and international conferences, reflecting his rise to articles on this tragic event. Perhaps an senior positions. investigative reporter will come forward and From 1948 to 1952, Tom was sailing in take up the challenge of a hard-hitting analysis lakers and in Canadian foreign-going ships on of who was at fault. worldwide voyages. This was a time when the seamen's union, backed by the communists, was Tom Beasley supplanted by a new union supported by the Vancouver, British Columbia Canadian Government, aided by thugs from south of the border. The outcome was the near extinction of the ocean-going Canadian Tom McCulloch. Navigator to Hydrographer. merchant marine. Tom was living in Port Arthur, Victoria, BC: Trafford Publishing, www. now Thunder Bay and, with a growing family, trafford.com, 2005. vi + 278 pp., illustrations, he was always seeking permanent employment maps. CDN $25.99, paper; ISBN 1-41204592-4. ashore without ever finding anything suitable. Then, in 1953, he had a stroke of luck! The This book is an account of Tom McCulloch's Canadian Hydrographie Service decided to experiences at sea and in the Canadian recruit ships' navigating officers as Hydrographie Service (CHS). It is his second hydrographers. The service was expanding and book: the first, Mandalay to Norseman, the traditional sources of staff, (land surveyors described his youth in Glasgow, his experiences and people with appropriate degrees straight in British merchant ships during the Second from university), had to be augmented. Tom World War and his postwar service in cable McCulloch was one of the first navigators to join. This was an interesting job that included ships. This story starts with his arrival in Canada some shore time processing the previous in 1948 with his wife Doreen, as nearly season's surveys, far preferable for a family man penniless immigrants, and ends in 1979 when he than the round-the-world voyage he had just had become, as he says, a comfortable completed in his last ship. The new bureaucrat. hydrographer went to the West Coast where he Autobiographies, other than those by learned his trade in the well-known survey ship the shapers of great events, politicians, Wm. J. Stewart. He was soon sent north to work statesmen and suchlike, are very largely written in the western Arctic: the DEW line of radar for one's family; not so much the children, who stations was being built. were around when most of the events occurred, but the grandchildren, great-grandchildren and From 1958 to 1961, the survey team subsequent generations. Tom's lively account of had to rely on ships of the US Coast Guard, a maritime world, even now fading into the mist RCMP and Canadian Coast Guard, which all had Book Reviews 107

their own tasks to perform. In 1962, however, a $39.95, cloth; ISBN 1-55125-055-1. new small survey vessel, the Richardson, was built, largely on Tom's initiative. He was both Despite the fact that the protection of trade is Master and Hydrographer of the Richardson one of the oldest and most essential functions of during its early Arctic deployments, including an navies, little is known about the Canadian exciting event in 1967 when the little vessel was merchant vessels lost to hostile action in the nearly crushed in the ice. Tom resolutely refused Second World War beyond their names and to abandon the ship and it took two Coast Guard gross tonnage. To address this glaring icebreakers, one Canadian and one American, to deficiency, Fraser McKee has followed the same extricate the Richardson. This section of the general format of his earlier acclaimed work, book is a valuable adjunct to the series of The Canadian Naval Chronicle (co-written with articles on the Canadian Hydrographie Service Robert Darlington), to record the loss of 67 published in the January and April 2004 issues Canadian- or Newfoundland-registered merchant of The Northern Mariner. cargo ships. Through extensive use of primary' The last chapters (1968 to 1979) deal sources, McKee has assembled an excellent with the development of the Hydrographie descriptive work that provides a wealth of Service and increasing international cooperation, overlooked information about the ships lost, the both areas in which the author had important companies that owned them, and the crews who roles. He rose to the position of Regional manned them. Hydrographer Central Region and retired as The book is divided into 18 chapters, Director General of the Bayfield Laboratory of the organization and content of which varies Marine Sciences at Burlington, Ontario. This quite significantly. Some chapters identify the section is of value to those interested in the ships lost by their parent companies, including bureaucratic changes of the period but it is not such familiar names as Imperial Oil, Canadian solely about administration. During the many Pacific, and Canada Steamship Lines, as well as overseas conferences he had to attend, it appears lesser-known operators, for example, N.M. that Tom's enthusiasm for parties and nightlife Paterson and Maryland Shipping. The remained undiminished. introduction to each of these particular chapters The book has several useful maps and has a concise but informative description of the interesting photographs. Moreover, the author in company and its activities in the years leading recounting his own experiences takes pains to up to the war. Other chapters are organized by put them in the context of current events and the the type of ships lost (Great Lakes bulk carriers, political situation of the time. From Navigator to fishing vessels), the reason for their loss Hydrographer is an interesting addition to any (German major surface warships, accidents), or nautical library, providing a personal view of the origins of the ships lost (captured, many developments in the Canadian marine requisitioned, emergency construction). The scene from the early postwar years to 1979. No particulars of each ship are given in a short one with this amount of energy would live opening paragraph, followed by a short quietly in retirement and a third book is summation of the ship's fate, its final resting promised. place, and the number of crew members lost. Thereafter, two to three pages of narrative provide more details of the ship's employment, C. Douglas Maginley, the circumstances of its loss, and the ultimate Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia fate of its attacker and commander. The names of the sunken ship's crew are memorialised in a notation that concludes each passage. Fraser McKee. Sink all the shipping there: The Wartime Loss of Canada's Merchant Ships and The actions McKee describes contain Fishing Schooners. St. Catharines, ON: Vanwell many rivetting stories of heroism, survival, and Publishing Ltd., 2004. 336 pp., photographs, tragedy. A fascinating collection of photographs tables, glossary, bibliography, index. Cdn is an excellent complement to the narrative. 108 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

These images bring home forcefully how also suffers from an annoyingly large number of desperate the shipping shortages must have been editing oversights. The word "ship' is missing to compel the employment of such small vessels from a great many sentences, which causes the as 1,800-ton Great Lakes bulk carriers on trans- reader to break stride and decipher the meaning Atlantic convoy routes. The fact that so many of of the text. One example reads, "the twenty- these ships were not even equipped with radios nine-convoy HX-52 from Halifax" (42). A seems startling by contemporary standards. number of other words are also missing, McKee's admits his work is intended misused, misspelled, or run together. Another to be principally descriptive: "This book is not distressing irregularity is the author's tendency an academic assessment of why the ships in to both use and not use the article "the" before these stories were sunk, nor of the impact of the the proper names of ships (68, one example). sinkings on world events" (ix). The solid factual Readers will find that the factual basis of this work suffers noticeably, however, reporting of the events surrounding the sinking when McKee ventures into analysis. of each ship to be very enlightening and Unfortunately, the author perpetuates many of compelling. The details and images of the ships the myths of the Battle of the Atlantic. He are reverently recorded, as are the names of the characterizes the Flower-class corvette as a crew members lost. The preservation of this vital doughty little escort, instead of the inadequate history is a worthwhile endeavour and a product of an emergency construction program significant accomplishment that far outweighs that lacked even the basic endurance or the book's other numerous shortcomings. seakeeping characteristics to function effectively (50). McKee categorizes the German armoured ship (panzerschiff) incorrectly by its widely-used Ken Hansen and highly misleading common name, 'pocket- Toronto, Ontario battleship', claiming, "the Deutschland class was the epitome of the Kreigsmarine's plans for armoured, high speed, long range commerce Stephen McLaughlin, Russian and Soviet raiders" (106). Eric Grove's recent work, The Battleships. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, Price of Disobedience, has refuted categorically www.Navalinstitute.org, 2003. Xviii+ 496 pp., any battleship connection for GrafSpee and her photographs, illustrations, tables, appendix, cruiser-like sisters and has shown that they were notes, bibliography. US $ 89.95, cloth; ISBN 1- not originally designed for trade warfare at all. 55750-481-4. McKee goes even further in this erroneous vein by referring to the German battle cruisers This is a detailed "rivet by rivet" study focussed Scharnhorst and Gneisenau as "pocket battle firmly on the design of successive battleships cruisers" (108, 110). He also has great difficulty starting with Pëtr Velicky of 1870 and ending explaining convoy evasive manoeuvring, with projects for gigantic 60,000 ton vessels confusing repeatedly the concepts of evasive routing (to avoid known submarine danger immediately following the Second World War. areas), long-leg and short-leg zigzagging (to Stephen McLaughlin, a regular contributor to the cause submarines difficulty in obtaining an journal Warship International, apparently attacking position or to throw off their torpedo worked on this project for a decade. His preface firing solutions), emergency turns (to break explains that the book is based primarily on contact with pursing submarines), and weaving published Russian sources, rather than on (to throw off gun firing solutions). McKee's use archival research. Since the collapse of the of the expression "threat-in-being" to describe former USSR, he has been able to take the strategic concept of Fleet-in-Being is a advantage of the welcome appearance of new typical indication of his weakness as a naval Russian journals devoted to warships. Sergei analyst (102). Vinogradov of Moscow, long a student of Russian dreadnoughts, collaborated with Unfortunately, the narrative of the text McLaughlin and supplied several evocative Book Reviews 109 period photographs. Readers of Warship replaced in Scotland. Remarkably, this International will find the format of this book pioneering warship's well-built hull survived for familiar, with its exhaustive coverage of the almost ninety years. In her final years, the hull history of how individual ships were conceived was used for accommodation and not scrapped and built. It is copiously illustrated with line until 1959. drawings and pictures. By the dreadnought era Russia had While McLaughlin's detailed treatment become a major industrial power. Eight modern concentrates on individual designs, fascinating battleships were laid down prior to the Great common threads emerge. Russian naval planners War. Interestingly, foreign firms were invited to had to contend with the formidable geographic submit designs. British, German and Italian handicap of maintaining fleets in widely- experts all competed and both British and separated seas in harsh climates, and the Baltic German firms would also transfer knowledge to and the Black Seas are landlocked. At the time the various Russian manufacturers involved in the first ships discussed were constructed Russia this major project. At the time, Vickers had a lagged behind other major naval powers in commanding role in the naval armaments field industrialization. But it has often been remarked and participated in several Russian projects. The that Russian warship designers were innovative text cites Basil Zaharoff, the well-connected and tailored their projects to national principal Vickers agent for Russia, who will be requirements. The iron-hulled Pëtr Velicky of familiar to aficionados of the 1980s television 1870 illustrates some of these threads. The series Reilly Ace of Spies. concept of a large turret warship was a bold leap McLaughlin has worked carefully by Russian designers as the new ship would be through the literature by enthusiasts on far larger than any earlier iron warship built in battleship design. His measured weighing of their country. Ocean-going turret warships differing opinions presumably reflects his evolved from the monitors used successfully background as a San Francisco librarian. For during the American Civil War. Their trainable example, the final design for the four turrets enabled fire over a wide arc on both dreadnoughts built in St. Petersburg was sides, while earlier iron-hulled warships had produced by the Baltic Works, one of the guns in casements which meant that they could shipyards, with considerable input by John fire only over a relatively narrow arc on one Brown & Co. McLaughlin notes that some side. Russia sources have minimized the John Brown Pëtr Velicky, built by a St Petersburg contribution, while certain western publications yard which would continue producing warships have asserted that the Russian yard used a John for over a century, had to be towed to Kronstadt Brown design. After describing the scope of the outside the harbour because a deep-water John Brown involvement, McLaughlin channel was yet to be dredged. Her principal concludes that the truth is probably somewhere designer was A.A. Popov, best remembered between the two assertions. Mounting the main today for his eccentric proposals for round armament of these dreadnoughts in triple turrets warships. But "technology transfer" would be a was groundbreaking. On the other hand, because consistent theme in Russian warship concepts these ships did not have superimposed turrets and Sir Edward Reed, the Royal Navy's chief like contemporary German and British constructor and the leading naval designer of the battleships, their armour had to be distributed time, also had a hand in Velicky's final concept. over a longer portion of the hull and could not be The guns and turrets were manufactured near of similar thickness because of weight Petersburg in new factories which also would considerations. remain involved in naval projects down through During the Great War the three the Soviet era. Quality control in the dreadnoughts completed in the Black Sea were manufacture of Pëtr Velicky's Russian-built involved in operations until the February 1917 main engines was poor. The machinery proved Revolution. While McLaughlin covers these unsatisfactory in service and was subsequently events only briefly, there is a marvellous picture 110 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

(305) showing shell splashes from the German which has only appeared in Russian journals in battle cruiser Goeben bracketing but falling short the last decade and is careful to limit speculative of a Russian pre-dreadnought in May 1915. All comments. This large volume has the usual US three Russian battleships shown are belching Naval Institute sturdy binding. Recommended copious smoke. Unfortunately, this rare shot of for students of battleship design. battleships in action is reproduced only in a small format. In order to support a planned Jan Drent amphibious operation to seize the Bosphorus the Victoria, British Columbia pre-dreadnought Sinop was fitted with anti- torpedo bulges below the waterline in 1916. These are shown in an interesting photograph on Michael Pearson. The Ohio and Malta The page 312. Legendary Tanker that Refused to Die. Barnsley, There were various schemes to S. Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Books, www.pen- modernize the three dreadnoughts built in the and-sword.co.uk. 2004. xii+ 163 pp., maps, Baltic and eventually operated by the Soviet diagrams, photographs, notes, appendices, index. navy. Contacts with western designers and firms UK £ 19.95, cloth; ISBN 1-84415- 031-3. largely ceased when the Soviets seized power. But one of the fascinating stories in "Lieutenant Commander Ferrini had delivered McLaughlin's dense narrative is that of technical what must be one of the most devastating single- contacts with foreign designers between the salvo torpedo attacks of the war" (73). That's wars. Soviet naval missions made annual visits Michael Pearson's apt summary of how four to Fascist Italy starting in the late twenties. torpedoes fired by the Italian submarine Auxun Italian experts eventually worked at the main crippled both the tanker Ohio and the cruiser Soviet naval design bureau and at several yards. Nigeria, and sank the anti-aircraft cruiser Cairo. The destroyer leader Tashkent was ordered from This happened during the evening of August 12, Italy, and in addition, the leading Russian 1942, as a convoy carrying critical supplies to designers received Italian assistance in the Malta approached the narrows between Tunisia concept for a new battleship class. and enemy air bases on Sicily. Nigeria had to McLaughlin comprehensively covers return to Gibraltar. These two cruisers had the the little-known saga of Soviet attempts in the force's only fighter direction controllers and late thirties to obtain American battleship specialized equipment. Their loss robbed the designs, components, or even to order warships force of adequate fighter direction for the rest of in the USA. The US Navy managed to stonewall its tortuous passage to Malta. Over the next two progress by exerting pressure on industry. The days, Italian and German aircraft and torpedo notable firm of Gibbs and Cox produced designs boats sank eight of the convoy's merchant ships for a gigantic hybrid battleship-aircraft carrier. and another cruiser. Eventually only the battered McLaughlin notes that President Roosevelt tanker Ohio and four other of the original 14 "unambiguously" approved the construction of merchant ships reached Malta. The hard-fought a 45,000-ton battleship for the USSR in the effort to get this famous convoy through was United States (369) in June 1938. Detailed known as Operation Pedestal. Immediately a designs for this project, however, were never celebrated saga, its story has been recounted produced. many times. This competent new re-telling Russian & Soviet Battleships fully focuses on Ohio and her tribulations. covers in great detail the designs for more than Michael Pearson apparently had a 40 battleships and various other projects which career in shipping and has published other were never realized. Partly because reliable popular accounts of naval actions. His shipping documentation was not available, western background shows in the welcome detail he material on Russian warship design has often provides about Texaco, Ohio's owners and been imaginative rather than authoritative. operators during her weeks under British McLaughlin has taken advantage of material registry, Eagle Oil. This book is based on Book Reviews 111 contemporary British documents, information liners with speeds between 16 and 17 knots, from the daughter of Ohio's master and six including two US-flag ships, were assembled for Pedestal survivors who occupied junior Operation Pedestal. Interestingly, each was positions almost six decades earlier. provided with a naval officer, signallers and Ohio was one of a class of five radio traffic decoders. splendid tankers built for Texaco by Sun During 1942, the Royal Navy fought Shipbuilding in Chester Pennsylvania. several crucial convoys through in the face of Incorporating such design features as extra heavy combinations of air, submarine and speed, which would enhance her value in surface threats. Convoy PQ 16 to North Russia hostilities, Ohio and her sisters were the largest in May had lost one-fifth of its merchant ships to (14,150 deadweight tons) and fastest (17 knots) air and submarine attacks. In June, simultaneous tankers in the world when completed in 1940. convoys to Malta from the west and east were With nine centre tank spaces they were quite badly mauled. Only two of the six merchant similar (but two knots faster and slightly ships of the convoy from the west which had smaller) than the capable T-2 emergency included Kentucky, (and none from the other tankers, of which 525 would be built to another convoy), reached Malta. Then in July, PQ 17 to Sun Shipbuilding design starting in 1941. The Russia lost 23 of 36 ships to aircraft and British lacked large, fast tankers and had already submarines. No northern convoy was run in chartered Kentucky, one of Ohio's sisters, for the August so that units of the UK-based Home heavily-defended Malta convoy in June which Fleet could help provide Operation Pedestal preceded Operation Pedestal. Kentucky had not with what would be the most powerful British been sunk and Pearson writes that Ohio's charter naval force assigned during the war for a single for the follow-on attempt in August was operation, three aircraft carriers (with a fourth personally negotiated by Churchill and President ferrying Spitfires to Malta), two battleships, Roosevelt during his visit in June 1942, after the seven cruisers and 24 destroyers. British had discovered that she was scheduled to Stephen Roskill, the British official reach the Clyde that month with the first US historian, would later comment that the only cargo of oil since Pearl Harbor. When the ship form of attack not made on the Pedestal convoy reached Britain, her American crew turned the was by surface warships larger than motor ship over to personnel supplied by the Eagle Oil torpedo boats. In fact the Italians even tried Company. Pearson describes how the British launching a radio-guided flying bomb which seamen were astonished by the standard of failed because of radio problems. The Italian accommodation in their new American-built battleship force was immobilized due to fuel ship. The facts given about Dudley Mason, the shortages, but a force of cruisers and destroyers new master, speak volumes about the longevity sent to intercept the convoy were recalled when of this company's officers. Mason had been with air cover could not be arranged. Several hours the company since starting as an apprentice 22 after the torpedo hit, Chief Engineer Wald and years earlier and had been qualified as master for his crew got Ohio underway but the damaged 11 years. Now 40, he was the most junior and ship was stopped the next morning some 60 youngest master in the Eagle Oil Company and miles short of Malta by several near misses by Ohio was his first command. Mason was given aircraft bombs. The exhausted crew was taken the pick of the company's officers for Ohio and off several hours later after attempts by a his selections of Chief Engineer Wyld (with destroyer to tow the hulk failed and it was feared Eagle Oil since 1918) and Chief Officer Gray that the ship would founder in the ongoing air proved astute. While in the UK, Ohio was given attacks. Captain Mason and a handful of his additional anti-aircraft armament and was fitted crew subsequently re-boarded Ohio after a good with an innovative Eagle Oil compressed air rest, along with a collection of volunteer system designed to push air into tanks that had survivors from at least four Pedestal ships that been holed. Like fast tankers, fast freighters had been sunk and a party from an escorting were also scarce in 1942. Thirteen fast cargo destroyer. Eventually, with a destroyer secured 112 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord alongside, a minesweeper towing from ahead years in response to luxury cruises and a spate of and a second destroyer on a line from the stern books, films, and exhibits about the great to help maintain a steady course, Ohio again explorers, the great adventures, and the great inched toward Malta where she discharged her tragedies. This publication, which reveals the valuable cargo. No longer seaworthy and not marvellous diversity of polar aspirations, repairable by the dockyard there, Ohio was used success, and failures, will feed the frenzy. as a stores hulk for the remainder of the war and Exploring polarfrontiers encompasses later towed out to sea and sunk. Captain Mason more than two millennia of exploration, from the (awarded the George Cross, the highest voyage of Pytheas about 325 B.C., to the first decoration available to a civilian) and Chief solo crossing of the Arctic Basin by Borge Engineer Wald (the first merchant service officer Ousland in 2001. The geographical scope is left made a member of the Distinguished Service unstated, perhaps intentionally. No attempt.is Order), remained with Eagle Oil until retiring made to define the term "polar" or to discuss the from senior positions in the 1950s. climatic, biogeographical, or océanographie The fuel transported by Ohio helped boundaries of the Arctic and Antarctic regions. sustain the aircraft based on Malta and enabled William Mills, head of "the world's a submarine squadron to return to the island. At finest polar library" at the Scott Polar Research the time and in the decades immediately after the Institute in Cambridge, England, has been in the war, much was made of the critical effect attacks right place to undertake the compilation of this by submarines and aircraft based in Malta had encyclopaedia. For half a century Institute staff on the flow of supplies southward across the have been producing indispensable reference Mediterranean to the Axis armies in North works for students of polar history such as Africa. More recent studies have concluded that Roberts, Brian. 1958. Chronological list of the Axis' logistical problem was more complex. Antarctic expeditions. Polar Record 9 (59): 97- Keeping the armies supplied depended more on 134; 191-239; Cooke, Alan, and Clive Holland. the capacity of the North African ports to handle 1978. The exploration of northern Canada 500 arriving cargoes and the distances to be covered to 1920: a chronology. Toronto: Arctic History in getting supplies to the front than on attacks by Press; Holland, Clive. 1994. Arctic exploration Malta-based forces. The Ohio and Malta is a and development c. 500 B.C. to 1915: an crisp and straightforward account of a well- encyclopaedia. New York and London: Garland known saga. Pearson's new dimensions are the Publishing. (Garland Reference Library of the background on the oil companies who owned Humanities, vol. 930); and Headland, Robert. and operated the ship and details about the 1989. Chronological list of Antarctic expeditions building of Ohio. This book has been attractively and related historical events. Cambridge: produced with good maps, useful annexes and University Press. well-chosen glossy photographs. While continuing this admirable tradition of facilitating polar research, Mills has Jan Drent also attempted "to provide a book that will serve Victoria, British Columbia as an introduction to new readers" (xlv). To this end the encyclopaedia's entries are written in clear narrative style, followed by references to William James Mills et al. Exploring polar other relevant entries and suggestions for further frontiers: a historical encyclopedia. 2 vols. reading. Unlike the earlier chronological lists, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC Clio, www.abc- this encyclopaedia is alphabetical, covers the clio.com, 2003. liii + 796 pp., photographs, entire polar world, extends right into the present illustrations, maps, tables, references, glossary, millennium, and is very readable. These are index. US $ 185, cloth; ISBN 57607-422-6; E- important advantages. book; ISBN 1-57607-423-4. When I first saw a reference to this publication, I assumed that one volume would be Interest in polar history has surged in recent dedicated to the Arctic and the other to the Book Reviews 113

Antarctic, but the entries relating to both regions including icebreakers? run through the two volumes and the work sells I was disappointed to find no reference only as a set. Persons who are interested in only to explorers of the Canadian Barren Grounds, one of the regions will need a powerful such as the Tyrrell brothers and David Hanbury, commitment before paying the hefty price. and surprised that there was no entry for Treating both together does have some Frederick Schwatka, who spent two years in the advantages, however. It recognizes the common region and, with Inuit guides, accomplished a physical characteristics of what early sledge journey of record length from Hudson geographers termed the "Frigid Zones"; it Bay to King William Island and back. I also felt enables the reader to draw comparisons of many that Willy de Roos, who in 1977 completed the sorts; and it makes it easy to follow the first solo transit of the Northwest Passage, and achievements of explorers and adventurers who the first by yacht, deserved an entry. have travelled in both regions, for example, The index is extremely thorough but has one James Clark Ross, Road Amundsen, Richard awkward feature. Some subjects are not listed Byrd, and Ranulph Fiennes ("the world's alphabetically on their own, only under greatest living explorer" ). headings. For example, August Petermann The entries cover expeditions (under (German geographer) can only be found under leaders' names or title of military operations), "Theorists and scholars," Akaitcho only under regions explored, countries and companies that "Amerindians," and Ouligbuck under "Inuit and sent out expeditions, methods of exploration, Greenlanders. Locating references to expedition and a variety of other important themes. Readers leaders and participants is even more frustrating are well served by a list of entries at the because one has to know their nationality. A beginning of each volume, a breakdown of Canadian reader who failed to find John Franklin entries by geographical location and subject, two in the index might eventually discover that he is chronological lists of expeditions (one by listed under "British explorers", but he might not region), and a comprehensive index. These aids know whether Joan Russell is American, enable the reader to look up information on Australian, British, Canadian, or New Zealand, specific topics, consider the general flow of or whether Mikhail Babushkin is a "Russian polar exploration through time, or examine the explorer" or a "Soviet explorer." I tried to find sequence of expeditions in a particular area. Hadow, (Table 15) in the index but a frustrating Twenty clear location maps are provided for search of all two dozen national groupings failed reference, twelve for the Arctic and eight for the to turn up his name. Antarctic. The headings are useful, but the reader The selection of entries for such a work must know in which category a subject is likely can never satisfy everyone. I note that although to fall, and this is not always obvious. Who there are entries for airplanes, airships, balloons, would think of looking for Sir John Barrow and dogs, there is none for snowmobiles. (Second Secretary of the Admiralty) under the Bombardier Ski-Doos carried Ralph Plaisted and heading "Sponsors?" his companions to the North Pole in 1968, and as A few errors, typos, and inconsis• this was probably the first expedition to reach tencies were noticed (especially unfortunate in a the Pole over the ice (the claims of Cook and reference work). On the very first page of the Peary being unproven), it would seem Introduction we read that Scott headed back appropriate to discuss the machines and their use from the South Pole in 1925 [thirteen years after in exploration. (The omission seems curious, his death] and that the book constitutes "an considering that a Polaris snowmobile used in informative [sic] resource." The 1850 Antarctica during the 1960s is displayed in the expeditions of Austin and Penny are mistakenly museum of the Scott Polar Research Institute). said to have "explored from the west." (243) And as there is an entry for submarines, "Cumberland Bay" (698) should be Cumberland discussing their evolution and role in explor• Sound. Caedmon Press is not located at ation, why not a corresponding entry for ships, "Whitby, Ontario" (762, 764) but in Whitby, 114 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

Yorkshire. Some individuals are listed with all explaining why it disappeared from the nation's their given names (for example, Charles Francis ken. Hall) but others are not (for example, Bedford Nathaniel Philbrick is very well [Clapperton Trevelyan] Pirn). qualified. He is the author of the award winning Despite the above criticisms, this is an book, In the Heart of the Sea, The Tragedy of the impressive work which describes many little- Whaleship Essex, which appeared in 2000, and known expeditions and aspects of polar is a leading authority on the history of American exploration, and I found it fascinating reading. whaling. Sea of Glory brings to life the tension- Having noticed only eight articles attributed to filled story of the self-destruction of a the six contributors acknowledged on the title magnificent maritime expedition brought down page, I conclude that the remaining 500 or so by age-old conflicts between learning and were written by Mills himself, a remarkable experience, and between the search for achievement. knowledge and self-aggrandizement. The author has carefully crafted four well-connected parts of three or five chapters W. Gillies Ross each that might well be called Genesis, Lennoxville, Quebec Antarctica, Pacific Reaches, and Reckoning, into a superb history and exciting thriller. Philbrick introduces the reader to the long political origins Nathaniel Philbrick. Sea of Glory: America's of the expedition, the fitting out of six fine ships Voyage of Discovery, The US Exploring of the US Navy, and the selection of Lieutenant Expedition, 1838-1842. New York: Viking Charles Wilkes to command its 346 officers, Penguin, www.penguinputnam.com. 2003. xxvii men, and scientists. After every captain in the + 452 pp., illustrations, photographs, maps, USN had refused to lead the expedition, notes, bibliography, index. US $ 27.95, Can $ command fell to Wilkes who was a driven man: 42.00, cloth; ISBN 0-670-03231-X. ambitious, proud, insecure, petty, abusive, and self-destructive. Possessed of little sea The United States Exploring Expedition of experience, he was jealous of those officers who 1838-1842 was one of the most ambitious were practical mariners. Later, he assumed the voyages of discovery carried out during a unauthorized rank of acting captain and century of great maritime endeavours. Its commodore of the squadron and the persona of exploits were numerous and lasting. Its members a martinet to insult, humiliate, and terrorize his not only sighted Antarctica, but gave the seventh brother officers and men. continent its name and mapped about 2,400 The expedition sailed from Norfolk, kilometres of its coast. They charted hundreds of Virginia, on August 18, 1838. During the first islands in the Pacific Ocean, including the Fiji stage, Wilkes in command of the flagship, USS Islands group, for the first time. They were the Vincente, was to investigate imaginary shoals in first Americans to chart the mouth of the the South Atlantic Ocean en route to the Columbia River and Puget Sound on the west southern tip of South America. From Cape Horn coast of North America. The thousands of the ships sailed south to the South Shetland specimens collected during the expedition's four- Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, returning to year circumnavigation of the world later formed Cape Horn in March 1839. He then sailed into the foundation of the scientific collections of the the Pacific Ocean, but only six months later did Smithsonian Institution at Washington, D.C. the expedition sight and survey its first island in Yet, while the expedition ought to be well the Tamed group. By then the expedition had known and as celebrated as Lewis and Clark's been reduced to four ships. Afterwards they famous exploration of the American West, the sailed to Tahiti and the Samoa Islands before US Ex. Ex., as it was known, vanished from heading south into the ice once more, this time national memory. Nathaniel Philbrick has below Australia. In January 1840, members of written a wonderful history of the expedition the expedition sighted land for the first time. Book Reviews 115

During the next few weeks, the ships Peter E. Pope, Fish Into Wine: The experienced furious gales as Wilkes moved ever Newfoundland Plantation in the Seventeenth deeper into the ice in a desperate attempt to Century. Chapel Hill and London: University of become the first man to land on the shore of North Carolina Press, www.uncpress.unc.edu for Antarctica. It was not to be, but Vincente coasted the Omohundro Institute of Early American a sufficient length of the coastline to enable History and Culture, Williamsburg, VA, 2004. Wilkes to claim Antarctica was a continent. xxvii + 463 pp., tables, maps, illustrations, Later that year, the British explorer James Ross, figures, photographs, glossary, index. US who had just completed his own Antarctica $59.95, cloth; ISBN 0-8078-2910-2; US $24.95, voyage, denied the American accomplishment, paper; ISBN 0-8078-5576-6. claiming to have sailed over what the Americans asserted was land. Ross also insisted that the so- This is one of the most important works on the called continent consisted of a number of history of Newfoundland to appear in the past islands. It was easy to make errors in Antarctica. twenty years. Pope supplants previous views of With less than a year to go, two more the marginal and tenuous nature of the European tasks remained to Wilkes. First, he was to survey presence in seventeenth-century Newfoundland. the Fiji Islands, and then, after sailing across the He establishes that the English colonies and Pacific to Hawaii and the northwest coast of settlements placed Newfoundland at the centre America, to survey the mouth of the Columbia of the cod fishery as one of the most important River. Then, he was to sail westward to return and early capitalist European industries. This home. The Fiji Islands survey proved tragic. book shows that the early colonies were more Wilkes was ill-equipped to deal with the fierce socially complex and economically diverse than native islanders, and after his nephew was killed, previous scholarship has suggested. An older a massacre was a near inevitable consequence. historiography, preoccupied with the political Time was insufficient and a fourth year was history of sponsored colonization and fisheries necessary before the final mission could be regulation, exaggerated the importance of the accomplished. The USS Peacock was lost in the institutional failure of colonies. While the mouth of the Columbia River before Wilkes colonies failed, many of their settlers remained, finally departed the American coast for the long comprising the first stable base for a permanent voyage home via Singapore and the Cape of population of European descent. Rather than Good Hope. He reached New York in June being isolated, people living and working in 1842. Newfoundland were an integral part of a The expedition's accomplishments "Greater New England," and of the great trades were numerous and enormous, but what should of London and the English West Country. Far have been a proud national legacy disappeared from being impoverished, fishing folk used their under the weight of recriminations, charges, and wealth to participate in the emergence of a new five courts-martial involving Wilkes and the consumerism that was beginning to change the officers of the expedition. In shaping the human nature of capitalism. drama, Philbrick is aided by the heretofore Some of Pope's findings build on the unused journals of William Reynolds. Against pioneering works of Keith Matthews and the monomaniacal Wilkes, stands Passed Gordon Handcock: that English authorities Midshipman William Reynolds whose youthful accepted residence as necessary to the admiration for Wilkes and enthusiasm for the possession of Newfoundland and the operation expedition turned to disillusion and finally to of the fishery; that mercantile investment in the blazing hatred. This is a great tale, superbly told; Newfoundland fishery established the pathways highly recommended to all. by which some fishing masters and servants could become permanent settlers; and that the James Pritchard growth of female settlement was crucial to the Kingston, Ontario growth of residency. However, Pope's book is the first sophisticated examination of life in 116 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord seventeenth-century Newfoundland. His fish. According to Pope, such local, or pioneering examination of the relationship "vernacular," markets fostered enterprises between the resident fishery and the English organized without much direction, or planning sack trade in southern European wines focuses based on abstract notions of labour and capital as on the role of the Kirke family, whom Pope market factors. Such non-directed businesses describes as the planter gentry of Ferryland. were a flexible, sensible adaptation to the Their well-documented careers, and the wealth vagaries of transatlantic market formation in the of information generated by the archaeological seventeenth century. Without "modern mass sites at contemporary Ferryland, allow Pope to markets," the many local consumer preferences provide a detailed examination of the kin-based for fish were best met by locally organized organization of the sack trade. The Kirkes settled fishing methods (31). Merchants and planter at Ferryland because they appreciated the gentry used a vernacular form of shipping, importance of having a stable supply of fish to deploying many small trading ships in their operate in the sack trade, but the colony's trade. Local communities of English fishers and greatest success was as an entrepot in the trade merchants traded and worked with growing local between Europe and the North American settlements at Newfoundland, their contact colonies. The Kirkes aspired to be a gentry in the providing the structure for a vernacular New World, and combined their mercantile migration stream. operations and social aspirations to patronize a Pope uses the concept of vernacular thriving and substantial colony. Pope uses capitalism to argue that the fishing industry archaeological evidence to recreate a fascinating could not serve as the basis for a directed or sense of what seventeenth-century Ferryland was planned West Country opposition to a settled like. His analysis ranges from the better-known society at Newfoundland. His description of description of the substantial physical fishing enterprises establishes that merchants infrastructure of the Kirke's house, storehouses, and fishers depended on year-round residence to wharves, roadway, and other colonial facilities protect their investments from each other and the to the more intimate reconstruction of hearths Beothuk. Residents found other activities in the and smithies as places of sociability and fur trade, lumber, and boat-building to conviviality as well as work. More impressive, complement the seasonality of fishing. The Pope explores the intellectual and emotional emergence of regional specialization in fishing world of settlers, such as when he discusses the outports, and the overall growth of settlement significance of the surviving remnants of plates and the fishery encouraged the local trade and used to bear rings during marriage ceremonies the development of housekeeping and hospitality (218-9). as economic activities in their own right. While Pope's innovative perspectives raise transiency continued to be a part of settlements, important questions. He finds older theoretical Pope points out that such transiency was not examinations of the role of merchant capital in unusual in any North American colonial setting, Newfoundland development to be unsatisfactory. and that communities in Newfoundland, like Unlike historians such as Gillian Cell, Pope those in New England colonies, comprised a argues that the fishing industry was always small number of resident planters living amidst capitalist, so there is no transition to explain. He a "sea of servants" (212). Pope argues that further rejects the notion that the logic of Newfoundland settlements enjoyed levels of merchant capital led fish merchants to oppose development that were comparable to their the development of a permanent local society mainland neighbours by almost any measure; and economy. Pope argues that the best way to they suffered no retarded development. think of the seventeenth-century fishing industry By stopping at this point, Pope prompts is as a vernacular one. While the fishing industry the question: if seventeenth-century Newfound• was international in scope, it was essentially an land was so similar to its neighbours, why did it aggregate of many local markets for supplies of subsequently diverge so much from them in labour and capital, as well as for demand for terms of economic development?" He does not Book Reviews 117

hesitate to speculate about long-term trends in The author of this memoir, Dr. Harry Paddon, the nature of payment for service in the fishery, worked for the International Grenfell and comes close to the problematic assertion that Association between 1912 and 1938 as its the capitalist organization of labour through principal physician in Labrador, a posting which shares remained essentially the same from the required enormous energy, dedication and seventeenth to early twentieth centuries. Lack of considerable seamanship. The main content of evidence does not restrain Pope's book on this the memoir extends well beyond the realm of point; he might as well have taken a further risk Paddon's medical practice and describes how in extending the implications of the entire book's Labradorians, including the Innu and Inuit, arguments. Pope suggests, for example, that experienced the First World War, the Spanish colonial agriculture in Newfoundland was more Flu epidemic, and the postwar industrial changes successful that earlier studies of the directed which he saw as fundamentally threatening a colonies suggested. He admits, however, that the traditional way of life. This memoir, originally ecological conditions that made Newfoundland submitted to an English publisher in 1938 only idea for cod fishing limited farming to a year prior to Paddon's death, was rejected and subsistence requirements. While residents raised never published. It now appears in print mostly more crops and livestock than has been due to the efforts of the editor Ronald Rompkey, previously acknowledged, such production himself the author of several important books on remained insufficient to encourage import the history of the Grenfell mission. He provides substitution. Seventeenth-century Newfoundland a helpful introduction, photographs, maps, a remained dominated by a successful trade that profusion of endnotes, and a comprehensive provided the bulk of its population, fishing bibliography to place this memoir into context. servants, with incomes that were better than Harry Paddon intended his memoir most of their counterparts elsewhere in the "first to portray something of the interest, the Atlantic world. Pope demonstrates that servants adventure, the pathos, and, thank Heaven, the tended to spend their incomes on the small humour of frontier medical practice during a luxuries of tobacco and good wines made readily quarter of a century in sub-Arctic Labrador, with accessible by the fish trade. By "making fish its small, scattered and mixed population." (p.3) into wine," servants contributed to the early Equally important, he wanted to draw the development of mass consumer markets, but by reader's attention to the linkages between encouraging the production of consumer goods medical and social conditions which he saw— elsewhere. In short, Pope's analysis lays the the ties between ill-health, malnutrition, basis for a staple-based interpretation of the substandard housing, unhygienic workplaces, manner in which Newfoundland would continue ignorance and the need for social, economic and to depend on the fishery, and that this political reform. Paddon continuously links the dependency would mean that local consumer problems of individual ill-health with a need for markets would be satisfied primarily by the better public welfare services and political industries of other regions. representation in Labrador. He illustrates his points using the travails of trappers, fishers, Sean T. Cadigan sealers and mariners and describes the scourges St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador of tuberculosis, antisepsis, typhus, hypothermia, gangrene, dental disease, accident, "night blindness," and other conditions as well as their possible remedy. In many instances, Paddon Ronald Rompkey, (ed.), The Labrador Memoir believed that these "diseases" might have been of Dr. Harry Paddon, 1912-1938. Montreal, QC: prevented had better attention been paid to McGill-Queen's University Press, proper nutrition and hygiene. www.mgup.ca. 2003. xliv + 304 pp., maps, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. CDN $ Of interest to the maritime historian, 44.95, cloth; ISBN 0-7735-2505-X. Paddon journeyed on water to reach his patients in all types of weather. He travelled an estimated 118 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord

50,000 miles by means of a 30-foot open motor rescue from near oblivion an obscure but boat, 40-ton crude oil burner, and 100-foot memorable account of a life well lived. It is steamer. Several chapters reflect the centrality of evident that much effort has gone into preparing these maritime journeys in his professional life: this edition. Despite the richness of its content, "Down North" along the Labrador Coast in a however, one never learns much about how Newfoundland Icebreaker; The Passing of the Labradorians (especially native peoples) Yale from the Service; The Coming of Maraval: perceived Paddon, except for what Paddon Extended Medical Cruising, and others. In himself or his family members tell us. In leaving addition, the editor provides endnotes with out other voices, the editor risks presenting a information on the length, tonnage, and skewed interpretation of the events embodied in ownership of these vessels. this memoir and of writing hagiography more so Adept at description, Paddon vividly than biography. That this memoir is not a recalls wandering from harbour to harbour, presentation but a representation of history (xliii) especially the trips from Cartwright into Lake is insufficient justification for not searching out Melville to North West River and his voyages and embracing other viewpoints and northward along the formidable Labrador coast perspectives. Aside from this interpretative toward Nain. He offers a highly literate and limitation, this is an excellent book and a major engaging commentary of these voyages contribution toward our understanding of including the physical state of his vessels, their Paddon's life, Labrador history, and the place of structural components, how and where they the International Grenfell Association within it. sailed, their encounters with squalls, gales, hurricanes, blizzards, icebergs, pack ice and Rainer Baehre, shoals, how they handled under these conditions, Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador the mariners who crewed them, and the many sailing strategies he employed. Sometimes he also speaks about the inner world as a crew Adam I. Kane. The Western River Steamboat. member who was called upon to repair or College Station, TX: Texas A&M University salvage a vessel. His memoir also offers Press, 2004. Ed Rachal Foundation Nautical observations on Labrador bankers, dories, and Archaeology Series, in Association with the aboriginal craft, as well as the difficult living Institute of Nautical Archaeology 208 pp., and working conditions of the fishers and illustrations, tables, appendices, bibliography sealers. The lure of the sea is palpable in his and index. US $39.95, cloth; ISBN 1-28244- writing: "The end of the season's cruising has 322-0. US $19.95, paper; ISBN 1-58544-343-3. ever been a sad occasion for me. The good fellowship on board; the endless variety of the The western river steamboat had a profound sea, which to me is never monotonous (231). impact on the settlement and development of the This book, however, is not primarily vast area drained by the Mississippi River and its about the sea. Throughout his memoir, Paddon's major tributaries, including the Ohio and primary focus is on the complexity of medical Missouri rivers, in the central United States. practice in Labrador. His role as physician was Following the introduction of the first steam to provide basic medical services to persons in vessel to these waters in 1811 at Pittsburgh, childbirth, those suffering from illness, or Pennsylvania, thousands more followed. This victims of accident. He would not, and did not, informative book focuses on the period between separate the personal circumstances affecting then and 1860. This was the time of major individual patients from the attendant problems advances in American inland steamboat of a sparsely settled population living amidst a technology including hull, engine and boiler fragile subsistence economy with the virtual developments, that led to the construction of the absence of necessary public institutions and classic steam packets commonly associated with other amenities. this period in American steam navigation. In closing, Rompkey has managed to Typically, these vessels featured lightly built, Book Reviews 119 shallow-draught, flat-bottomed hulls, stern or steam engineers seldom made detailed drawings side wheels for propulsion and towering cabins. or recorded specifications. Instead, they often Cargo was most often carried on the main deck, worked from sketches and by eye, to refine and because holds were too limited to be effective improve their vessels. Nonetheless, with the cargo carrying spaces. They were a different archaeological material, a surprisingly informed type of vessel from the sound and lake vessels, and detailed picture is emerging of these developed on the east coast and also used on the important vessels. In three chapters, covering the St Lawrence River and other eastern Canadian periods, 1811 -1820,1820-183 5, and 1835-1860, waterways. The western river steamers were the author discusses their development, use, and ideal frontier craft that could be built quite the innovations that improved their design, quickly and cheaply, carry substantial cargo, and functionality, safety and efficiency. I enjoyed take considerable punishment, yet be repaired this discussion and found it particularly and maintained far form sophisticated shipyards. informative. The explanations of design This detailed book, based on the innovations are clear and logical. A final chapter author's master's thesis, brings together many summarizes the discussion and outlines the aspects of the design, construction and use of importance of these wide ranging and numerous these fascinating and important vessels. After vessels during this fascinating period of placing the region and the development of steam American expansion. navigation in context, the author describes the I found much information that applies archaeological record developed from work on to Canada's history of inland navigation. 17 wreck sites. The western sternwheeler seldom Shallow draught steam vessels were used survived for more than 20 years and many ran extensively in western and northern Canada, and aground, hit snags or simply wore out due to the similar vessels operated in other parts of Canada harsh conditions in which they worked. as well. Although the construction and operation Sometimes machinery and equipment, or even of most of the vessels discussed in this book the cabins were salvaged, but frequently the predate the era of inland steam navigation in hulls were abandoned. Sometimes, if the boats western and northern Canada, the early Canadian sank in deeper water, nothing was recovered and steamboats owed a great deal in their design and a historical treasury of early steamboat engineering to the earlier developments in the information and cultural artifacts remain. United States. By the late 1850s, when the first Hundreds of wrecks litter the river river steamers began service in British channels of the Mississippi system. Columbia, for example, the vessels were already Interestingly, some of these sites are now located fairly sophisticated, and generally well suited to well away from the river channels because a the mining frontier along the Fraser River where meandering river like the Mississippi frequently they were first used. The technology did not changed its course, leaving abandoned channels come directly from the western rivers, but was where the wrecks remain, covered with soil and modified in the American west for the fast river bottom sediments. The earliest of these flowing rivers and to carry the cargos more investigated wrecks likely dates to 1830 and is typical of the mining and farming frontiers of the located on the upper waters of the Red River in Pacific Coast. The steam vessels employed on Oklahoma. The results of work on these sites, as the rivers of the American Pacific coast states demonstrated by the work at the wreck of the and in British Columbia, Alaska, the Yukon and steamer Bertrand, can be very rewarding, the Canadian North were generally of a different producing thousands of artifacts. design from the classic Mississippi packet steamer, but nevertheless, they still had a great Drawing on the information developed deal in common with the western river vessels, from these studies, and the documentary record, particularly in hull form and engine and boiler the author explores the development of the design. Moreover, there was an important steamboats. Original documentation of the early migration of steamboat men north into Canada vessels is very sparse and structural descriptions bringing with them expertise and experience. On very rare indeed. The early shipwrights and 120 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord the rivers of the Canadian prairies, some vessels of the western rivers type were used with little modification. Adam Kane has produced an insightful, well-written, thorough book that brings together a great deal of carefully integrated information, combining recent archaeological discoveries with early, documentary sources. It highlights the value of archaeological work on wreck sites and the potential those future discoveries have for increasing our understanding of this very important type of vessel, and of the social and economic conditions of the times when the western river steamboats were the most important form of transportation in this vast region of the United States.

Robert D. Turner Victoria, British Columbia