BOOK REVIEWS

J.P. Andrieux. The White Fleet. A History meet a number of scholarly standards, such of the Portuguese Hand Liners. St. John’s, as references, and includes little information NL: Flanker Press, www.flankerpress.com, beyond what is well-established knowledge 2013. xiv+361 pp., illustrations, among fisheries historians, it does a good bibliography, index. CDN $24.00, paper: job in preparing the stage for the second and ISBN 978-1-77117-236-3. main part of the book–the photographs. The 200 remaining pages are filled with For anybody interested in fisheries history, hundreds of black-and-white photographs it is obvious that the term “White Fleet” that provide an amazing insight into the refers not only to the fleet of U.S. Navy everyday life of the Portuguese dory- battleships that sailed around the globe fishery, the life and work onboard the dory- (1907-1909), but also to the Portuguese schooners, the ships seeking shelter in fishing vessels that worked the Grand Banks Newfoundland harbours, the interaction of with hand-lines up until the 1970s. While the dory-fishermen with local residents, the this “White Fleet” is mentioned in nearly strike of the dory-fishers in 1974, and a every historical analysis of the fisheries of number of other topics. the Northwest Atlantic, a comprehensive These briefly annotated historical analysis of the Portuguese distant- photographs have been drawn from various water fishing activities with hand-lines is sources, including a substantial number still missing. Although the title of from private collections that have never Andrieux’s book suggests an attempt to before been published. They are the main close that gap, it does not fulfil this reason for picking up the book. They tell a expectation, at least not in traditional tale that has not really been told before; the scholarly terms. story of Portuguese fishermen utilizing As a pictorial history of the traditional, maybe even outdated, equipment Portuguese hand-lining fisheries, this book while at the same time being part of post- was probably never intended to offer a war Europe and, more important, plying comprehensive scholarly analysis, but their trade during the 1960s and 1970s, a rather, to provide an insight into a maritime period of major societal change. world of the past and a fishery that was often considered anachronistic, outdated Therefore, while the book can be and doomed to disappear with the highly recommended to anybody interested modernization and industrialization of the in the wider field of fisheries history and fishing industries and the introduction of maritime cultural history, it is not an factory-freezer trawlers. analytical or traditional historical Andrieux’s first 76 pages provide a publication. Instead, it is a cornucopia of brief overview of the history of Portuguese authentic photographs of a fishery that was fishing activities in the Northwest Atlantic already anachronistic during its heyday. covering the time between about 1500 and One question that needs to be the 1970s. Although this overview fails to raised is whether the chapter on eating The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord XXIV, No. 1 (January 2014), 65-110 66 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Bacalhau (cod) in Portugal and the related index. US $95.00, hardback; ISBN 978-1- photographs at the end of the book really fit 84383-869-2. into the book’s overall theme, particularly those photographs that look more like Riding the coattails of the Pirates of the typical family vacation photos. From the Caribbean movies, there has been a flood of point of view of the fisheries historian, it books on pirates in recent years. Often would have been much more appropriate to these books are sensationalist and rest on include at least some pictures of former substandard research, especially those that dory fishermen working on factory-freezer try to make the most of the scant trawlers from distant-water fishing nations information we have on female pirates. like West Germany, after the end of the While pirates like Ann Bonny and Mary hand-lining period. This would have Read loom large in popular culture, John underlined the anachronistic conditions Appleby shows that a significant number of these fishermen had to face and their rapid women were involved in early modern transition into the world of industrialized piracy, although not in the roles that are so fisheries once the “White Fleet” was no often seen or celebrated. While the author longer extant. does devote a chapter to female pirates, the While one must appreciate a book real story of women’s involvement in offering such a wealth of historical English piracy is far broader. photographs for such a reasonable price, it Appleby begins with an is regrettable that the reproductions and informative context chapter on the prints of the photographs are not always the development of English piracy. In the best quality, often neither black nor white sixteenth century, more English seamen but only shades of grey. High quality prints indulged in piratical opportunities than lived would have made a wonderful coffee-table exclusively outside the law: piracy was book of aesthetic quality, but perhaps the often a male-dominated, haphazard present format is even more appropriate, maritime pursuit in and around the British since the ships of the “White Fleet” were Isles. Even those seamen whose fishing vessels dedicated to working on the livelihoods were derived largely from sea rather than enjoying the beauty of the illegal pursuits seemed to have had ocean. significant personal and business In conclusion, the book might not connections ashore. A fair number seemed be the most relevant contribution to to have maintained wives and children. scholarly literature, but it is definitely a While women were intimately welcome addition to the bookshelves of connected to English pirates as lovers and historians interested in fisheries history, wives, Appleby also demonstrates that maritime labour history, and Portuguese and piracy was heavily dependent on women Newfoundland history. who were buyers and receivers of stolen goods. These females had to have business Ingo Heidbrink acumen in order to hold their own in these Norfolk, Virginia transactions: “Doing business with pirates and sea rovers demanded flexibility, some John C. Appleby. Women and English degree of knowledge and skill, as well as Piracy 1540-1720. Partners and Victims of access to goods, provisions or services” Crime. Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, (53). As receivers and dealers, there was a www.boydellandbrewer.com, 2013. xv+264 very significant opportunity for female pp., illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, agency and women of all ranks of society Book Reviews 67 were involved. These dealings took many of the custom of petitioning those in different forms: from small-scale exchanges positions of authority to aid them in their involving hospitality to a sustained pattern distress. While victimized by the growing of receiving, often involving taverns and lawlessness at sea, women could be pro- lodging houses. Women’s “agency formed active in reaching out to those who could part of the hidden undergrowth of organized help raise ransom money and negotiate the criminality and disorder at sea.” In the release of their spouses and loved ones. earlier part of the period under examination, While they worked within channels that these relationships illustrate the intimate were established and acceptable for connections and dependence between land respectable English women, there were in and sea, as well as between genders (84). stark contrast to those spouses, lovers and During the seventeenth century, female kin willing to go to great lengths to English pirates broadened their harbour pirates or to help them break them geographical horizons as their bases were out of jail. Clearly, women performed a increasingly stationed in the Mediterranean variety of roles in the web of piracy with and Caribbean. As a result, English pirates varying degrees of agency. had more contact and relationships with Overall, Appleby’s latest offering is non-British women, in various types of well researched and written in engaging unions, in paid-for sexual transactions and prose—a wonderful marriage of academic as violent episodes at sea. For women in content and readability. Much of the the British Isles, business opportunities argument rests on anecdotal evidence, were altered by the dispersal of English making his assertions difficult to prove or piracy, but these women could be quite disprove. There are only minor flaws in a adaptive to their new realities and book which is welcome for the light it sheds challenges. on women’s roles in piracy and the interplay Appleby maintains that piracy between the genders. Stripped bare of the became an even more organized, romance of Hollywood, pirates emerge– masculinized activity in the later part of the with a few notable exceptions–not so much period. This heightened masculinization as colourful swashbucklers, but more often corresponds with a rising tide of violence in as early modern people trying to cobble piracy during the later seventeenth century together a living through an increasingly and early eighteenth centuries. This meant dangerous occupation on the fringes of the that women were less likely to welcome maritime world. Their female loved ones, contact with pirates as they were more sexual partners, accomplices and victims likely to be victimized. And women were around the globe were dramatically affected not the only ones: given that men were far by these changes as they too sought ways to more prevalent on all types of ships, they, survive. too, were preyed upon which often affected Cheryl Fury women back in England. During the Grand Bay, New Brunswick seventeenth century, there was a marked increase of the English seamen captured and held for ransom by Barbary pirates. The Christopher M. Bell. Churchill and Sea absence and uncertain return of the family Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press: breadwinner was financially and personally www.oup.com. 2013. x+429 pp, devastating to wives and children. In a illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. UK fascinating chapter, the author demonstrates £25, US $34.95, cloth; ISBN 987-0-19- how women worked within the boundaries 0969357-3. 68 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Even though the Second World War ended The narrative covers, among other almost seventy years ago, Winston episodes, a series of set pieces familiar to Churchill continues to bulk Colossus- like readers of earlier works about Churchill’s in collective awareness of the conflict. His involvement in key decisions: the attack on significant roles in shaping policy during the Dardanelles in 1915, his role as the First World War and the twenties alone chancellor of the exchequer in the 1920s made had him an important political leader. articulating his government’s rolling “Ten His actions and pronouncements throughout Year Rule” which limited capital spending his singular lifetime have also provided on defence on the grounds that war was fodder for retrospective controversy. There unlikely for the next decade, the Norwegian is a vast literature about this forceful Campaign of 1940, the attacks on French personality. Despite the crowded nature of warships later that year, and the despatch of this field, Dr. Christopher Bell of Dalhousie Prince of Wales and Repulse to the Far East University has found an important aspect of late in 1941 as a deterrent to further military Churchill’s role which has not previously actions by Japan. Bell makes extensive use received specific examination. In his own of archival documents. The value of his words, Churchill and Sea Power “aims to study is that it sets decisions in their reach a balanced verdict on Churchill’s contemporary context. Churchill was record as a naval strategist and the most always a dominating force and, as influential custodian of Britain’s sea power documented in David Reynolds’s In during the modern era” (4). The author also Command of History (2009), subsequently points out that Winston Churchill’s succeeded in influencing the historical relationship with the Royal Navy was record and the way his roles would be unique because it was far more lengthy and remembered. By citing contemporary closer than that of any other politician. This records, Bell demonstrates that, despite his relationship was, of course, marked by towering personality, many of Churchill’s Churchill’s forceful personality and actions must be understood as having been energetic interest in how policies were collective ones. He argues that influential being carried out–and in both wars, his writers, including insiders like Maurice interest in operational decisions. This Hankey, have occasionally overstated rewarding book is about more than Churchill’s role. Over his political career Churchill as a strategist and yields Churchill had responsibility for several important insights into how policy was ministries whose interests he addressed with made in Whitehall. characteristic dynamism. Despite the Churchill’s performance right from sayings and sentiments for which he has the time he became first lord of the admiralty become famous, he was pragmatic and in October 1911 was marked by restless unsentimental. Bell deals with how energy, close interest in many aspects of the Churchill’s roles as Secretary of State for Royal Navy and a determination to impose his War and Air (1919-21) and as Chancellor of views. Admiral “Jacky” Fisher, brought from the Exchequer (1924-1929) have to be seen retirement in 1914 by Churchill to be first sea as those of an influential senior member of lord, was similarly brilliant, forceful and government grappling with post-war absolutely sure that he was right. He and adjustments and making decisions that Churchill were bound to clash but it’s telling would alter the relative importance of the that Fisher, long used to winning arguments, Royal Navy among the fighting services. wrote that “he (Churchill) out-argues me” (p. Inevitably, Churchill was not 16). unfailingly prescient. His consistently Book Reviews 69 unrealistic misreading of Japan’s during the Second World War, Churchill capabilities and intentions is but one was convinced that the bombing offensive example. As late as March 1939, he merited priority in resource allocation. His dismissed the possibility of an attack on statement “The only thing that really Singapore as a “vain menace” (154). It is frightened me during the war was the U- sobering to see how a generation earlier, he boat peril” appeared on page 529 in Their (like others) could not accept Fisher’s pre- Finest Hour in 1949 and has become an oft- war prediction that, if war came, Germany quoted cliché. Bell shows that, in reality, would not adhere to international law and Churchill’s interest in the Battle of the sink British merchant ships, writing “I do Atlantic waxed and waned while the prime not think that this would ever be done by a minister was always determined not to civilized power.” The Great War would, of weaken the bomber offensive. Logistics course, shatter many pre-war articles of and infrastructure were not his strong suits. faith, but it is also arresting that as early as The author sketches in the main 1913 Churchill would demonstrate both the bureaucratic episodes which determined ruthlessness and graphic images which why land-based aircraft were not allocated would become his trademarks: “if there to the defence of shipping. It was apparent were a nation vile enough to adopt at the time that the numbers involved were systematically such methods it would be small. The Royal Navy was also not justified and indeed necessary to employ the allocated resources in other areas. Bell’s extreme resources of science against them” verdict is robust: “ By the end of 1941… it by spreading pestilence, poisoning the water was equally clear that the navy alone could supplies of enemy cities and assassinating not exert decisive pressure against even a individuals. (42) The book’s penultimate second-tier power like Italy. Churchill chapter covers Churchill’s twilight period as concluded that the navy should only be prime minister between 1951 and 1955, maintained at the lowest level necessary to when the Royal Navy fought a bureaucratic fulfil its essential defensive functions, and battle to retain its heavy carriers. that national resources should be channeled Two take-aways stand out in this as far as possible towards the other services, rewarding study. The first is the tendency and particularly the air force to enhance of naval historians to focus on operational Britain’s offensive power. As prime aspects of the Battle of the Atlantic rather minister during the Second World War, than its overall strategic direction. How Churchill did not just neglect the both sides made decisions about resource foundations of Britain’s sea power: he priorities and marshalled resources have willingly sacrificed the nation’s maritime received insufficient attention. The trade- interests in the pursuit of victory over Nazi offs in allocating long-range aircraft for the Germany, and in so doing hastened the Allied bombing campaigns rather than to process by which the United States replaced the defence of shipping is an aspect of Britain as the world’s greatest maritime strategic direction which is particularly well power” (10). The polemic tone of these developed in Bell’s thorough examination. sentences does not accurately reflect the This is arguably the most closely argued and nuanced and balanced nature of this study. masterful portion of the book. Bell shows Bell has written an earlier study on how Churchill, who was always drawn to British naval policy between the wars and offensive projects, had come to see naval this book is based on extensive archival power as essentially defensive because of research and use of the rich literature about its role in the Great War. As Britain’s leader the vast subject of Winston Churchill. 70 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Churchill’s influence over British naval well be additional material in other books, policy had extraordinary longevity, starting publications and locations, I know of no in 1908 when he became President of the book that combines the wealth of material Board of Trade and stretching over nearly this one does on Bismarck. half a century to 1955 when he retired as The introduction indicates Bismark Prime Minister. Churchill and Sea Power is (1939) was the sixth ship named to honour a real contribution to an understanding of Otto von Bismark, considered to be the how this gifted and forceful leader founder of the German Empire. The first of influenced naval policy at various stages in the five ships named after the chancellor his long career. Churchill and Sea Power began with a flush-decked corvette used as won the CNRS Keith Matthews Award as a training vessel, the second was a liner, SS the best new Canadian work of maritime Furst Bismarck built for the Hamburg- history published in 2012. Buttressed with America line, the third, the armoured cruiser solid scholarship this readable and engaging Furst Bismarck, while the fourth was study is a fresh and balanced examination of another liner for the Hamburg-America Winston Churchill’s impact on how two Line, SS Furst Bismarck, and the fifth, world wars were fought at sea and on intended to become SS Bismarck, another peacetime naval policy. Hamburg-America liner of 56,550 tons, had her construction halted due to the start of Jan Drent the First World War. After the treaty of Victoria, British Columbia Versailles, the liner was completed, and handed over to the British to become RMS Jack Brower. The Battleship Bismarck. Majestic. The sixth, the Battleship Bismarck London: Conway, www.anovabooks.com, was launched on 14 February 1939, the 2014. (Originally published 2005). same year as her sistership Titpitz. Anatomy of the Ship Series. 160 pp., Following German naval protocol, illustrations, plans, tables, bibliography, Bismarck was not named until she was notes. UK £16.99, paper; ISBN 978-1- launched, when a name-board was hung 84486-224-5. over her side as she was christened. Beyond that, the introduction outlines the This first soft-cover version follows the ships of the Kaiserliche Marine. When same layout and design as its earlier Germany signed the Armistice on 11 hardcover version published in 2005 and November 1918 it was required to have 74 reprinted in 2006 and 2009. It follows the of its ships interned in neutral ports. On 19 usual format of the Anatomy books which is November 1918, the German fleet sailed for divided as follows; introduction, which the Firth of Forth and eventually to Scapa contains sections on the ship’s history, the Flow where, while still interned, the entire wreck, and then the design and fleet, except one was scuttled on 21 June specifications followed by a notes section; 1919 to prevent the fleet falling into British continuing with a short, but excellent hands. The introduction is then taken up photographic section, and then the with lengthy discussions about the extremely comprehensive drawings; and development of replacements for older ending with a section on sources, and lastly, battleships, while complying with the a bibliography. The cover indicates that the Treaty of Versailles. On 16 March 1935 Anatomy of the Ship Series books are “The Hitler unilaterally chose to ignore the ultimate references to the world’s greatest restrictions placed on Germany by the ships from the inside out.” While there may Treaty of Versailles and declared German Book Reviews 71 sovereignty in defence matters. This meant fire control, G: ground tackle, H: fittings, J: the new ships were no longer bound by the aircraft, K: ship’s boats. 10,000-ton limit. The use of the soft covers addresses The historical section is thorough one of my peeves with the hard-cover but brief, due to the Bismarck’s short life versions of the Anatomy series where items from awarding her building to Blohm and such as lines, profiles, etc., were printed Voss on 16 November 1935, to her across gutters, rendering them effectively destruction by the British on 27 May 1941. useless. In this soft-cover version, the plan There is also a detailed report on view and starboard profile are reproduced the battle that destroyed her. The wreck of on the inside of the front fold-out cover, Bismarck was eventually discovered by Dr. while the lines and body plans are inside of Robert Ballard on 8 June 1989, and is well the rear fold-out cover, presenting them in a recorded elsewhere. There is a very far more useful manner, with no gutters. complete section on the design and This is an extremely well specifications of the ship including details researched and presented history of what of the final design for Bismarck (1936) was a formidable ship where I am certain where her official displacement is listed as that Brower’s research in the Bundesarchiv being 35,000 tons, while her actual Kriegsmarine was aided significantly displacement under battle load was 50,405 considering the German penchant for record tonnes. This is followed by nine pages of keeping. tables and specifications included in the Highly recommended to model final design broken out into the following builders and historians. categories; hull structure, protection, Roger Cole machinery, armament, fire control, aircraft Scarborough, Ontario and equipment and lastly, boats. The photographic section contains six pages of photographs, the first taken Bernard D. Cole. Asian Maritime while Bismarck was in Grimstadfjord on 21 Strategies: Navigating Troubled Waters. May 1941, taken from Prinz Eugen it shows Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, almost a full starboard view of Bismarck www.nip.org, 2013. xiv+304 pp., notes, painted in Baltic Sea camouflage. Note: The bibliography, index. US $34.95, UK outside back cover has a profile illustration £22.49, cloth; ISBN 978-1-59114-162-4. of Bismarck wearing this camouflage, along (eBook available) with her paint specifications. This is followed by seven superb on-board close- Bernard D. Cole’s latest contribution to ups taken in the August-September 1940 scholarship should grace the desk of any time-frame, followed by photos of the battle serious student of international relations in scene, ending with a photo of the nine what the author broadly refers to as the Swordfish of the 825 Squadron, along with Indo-Pacific region. His The Great Wall at two Fulmars of 800Z flight, awaiting attack Sea has served for years as a highly orders on the flight deck of the carrier HMS respected source on the history and modern Victorious. emergence of China’s People’s Liberation Pages 30 to 159 are taken up with Army Navy (PLAN). Cole, a retired Navy the series of superb drawings of the ship. captain and long-time professor at These are broken out as follows; A. general Washington’s National War College, speaks arrangements. B: hull structure, C: with authority once again in Asian Maritime superstructure, D: rigging, E: armament, F: Strategies. 72 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord This work looks at the vast region contiguous waters as the West Sea, known and its maritime nations from the North to most nations historically as the South Pacific to the Indian Ocean, and even China Sea. Russia and Japan contest beyond to the Persian Gulf/Arabian Gulf. ownership of the same islands (Kuriles to Vital to any understanding of international the Russians and Northern Territories to the relations is a solid grasp of geography, and Japanese); China and Japan claim the Cole does not disappoint. He describes both uninhabited Diaoyu or Senkaku islands the geographic advantages and between them; and so on. disadvantages the maritime nations of Asia The current work takes a broad contend with, such as access to the open sea approach to the topic, focusing on how and passage through strategic “choke maritime power has influenced the course of points”; the Malacca, Taiwan, and other history and contemporary affairs in Asia straits come in for particular attention. from the fifteenth century voyages of Cole’s observation that “China relies on the Chinese Admiral Zheng He to the present. SLOCs [sea lines of communication] for The first chapters admirably introduce the more than 60 percent of its imported oil, subject by detailing the evolution of thought while Japan relies entirely on imports” (p. that sprang from the works of geopolitical 34) drives home the importance of the sea to analysts Halford Mackinder and Nicholas the national security and economic Spykman and naval strategists Alfred prosperity of these and other Asian nations. Thayer Mahan, Julian S. Corbett, and Hence, differences over maritime concerns Theophile Aube. Cole relates how their frequently take center stage in the Indo- ideas helped shape America’s overwhelming Pacific region. naval victory over Japan in the Second It is no surprise then, that the World War. United Nations Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Well-grounded by the introductory which entered into force in 1994 and which material, Cole’s text then intersperses 162 nations (not including the United coverage of maritime conflict and States) have signed, has not settled many cooperation in North, Southeast, and South significant maritime issues. Media attention Asia with individual treatments of the many has focused on China’s especially partisan Indo-Pacific nations and their navies. The interpretation of access to its offshore, 200- author devotes considerable attention to the mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) by rise of the Indian Navy. foreign warships, merchantmen, and fishing Appropriately, the author provides vessels. Cole, however, makes the point a comprehensive analysis of the United that India and a number of other nations States. He traces the evolution of American also dispute various provisions of the treaty. maritime strategy from the birth of the The United States Congress has repeatedly republic through the Second World War, the refused to ratify the document. Cold War, and the twenty-first century with In similar fashion, he relates how the current focus on leveraging historical animosities are often reflected in multinational support. Cole aptly observes the names assigned to the seas and islands that “since the late 1940s, successive bordering Asia; Tokyo, for example, refers generations of national leaders in to the water to its west as the Sea of Japan Washington have pursued policies based on while South Korea calls the same body of a U.S. role as guarantor of world peace” (p. water the East Sea; to reinforce its claims in 57). The main pillar of that policy in Asia the Spratly Island chain of Southeast Asia, has been the U.S. Navy, which despite the Philippines recently began referring to recent budgetary cutbacks remains a vital Book Reviews 73 factor in the region’s stability. ashore. Maritime power in the form not Lest we forget, Cole reminds us only of carrier strikes but amphibious that Japan, with the world’s third most assaults (Inchon comes to mind); naval powerful economy and its Japan Maritime bombardment; air, surface, and submarine Self Defense Force (JMSDF), is an ally of patrols; and logistic reinforcement and the United States and a major “force sustainment significantly influenced the multiplier” in the calculus of naval power in course of those conflicts. A case can also be Northeast Asia. He observes that the made for the benefits U.S. maritime power JMSDF operates with highly trained sailors brought to resolution of the Taiwan Strait and the most advanced ships, aircraft, and crises of 1954-1955, 1958, and 1995-1996. weapons and is “capable of twenty-first Cole also questions the continued century warfare.” In stark contrast, the relevance of U.S. treaties with Japan, South author found only three attack submarines Korea, the Philippines, and Australia and seven cruisers, destroyers, or frigates of because “these agreements arose out of the “weak” Russian Pacific Fleet operable Cold War concerns about Soviet-sponsored as of August 2012. Given events in Crimea international communism” (p. 58). One as this review is being written, however, might argue that, before and after the Cole’s contention that “Russia in the second demise of the Soviet Union and global decade of the twenty-first century is . . . no communist ideology, the treaties have longer either an empire or a world power” served to bolster America’s commitment to (p. 80) may have been premature. defend allies against threats from various Many observers in the United other bad actors. States are voicing concern that China’s These points aside, Bernard Cole feverish economic growth, diplomatic clout, has written a comprehensive, well- and military build-up will soon outpace that documented, and impressively argued work of the United States and undercut America’s highlighting the importance of maritime influence in Asia. Some analysts foresee power in the Indo-Pacific region, which the PLAN as determined to challenge the may hold the keys to future global peace U.S. Navy’s supremacy, not only along the and prosperity. Asian littoral, but in the broad Pacific Edward J. Marolda Ocean. Hence, it is refreshing when Cole Dumfries, Virginia concludes that “there is little in China’s decades-old program of naval modernization that would support an Gary Collins. The Gale of 1929. St. John’s, offensive maritime strategy” (p. 101). NL: Flanker Press, www.flankerpress.com, Nonetheless, China’s aggressive behaviour 2013. xvi+268 pp., appendix, sources, in its various island sovereignty disputes index. CDN $19.95, paper; ISBN 978-1- with all of its maritime neighbours gives 77117-309-4. pause for reflection. This reviewer also found it curious The choice of title offers a clue to the that Cole contends, in almost a throw-away author’s approach to the history of the storm line, that “the wars in Korea and Vietnam and tsunami that engulfed the coast of lacked almost any maritime aspect” (p. 35) Newfoundland in November 1929. The when he earlier alluded to the emphasis in story of the great storm and its aftermath is the writings of Mahan, Corbett, and J.C. woven mostly from oral histories, from the Wylie on control and denial to the enemy of memories of people who lived along the the sea and the projection of naval power rugged coasts and in the little ships that 74 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord were caught in the great gale. With some Smallwood, the first premier of narration on the wider history of the event Newfoundland in 1949, makes a cameo for context, the stories of eleven schooners appearance to promote his political are carried along by the author’s imagined platform. Interspersed with the stories of conversations among the participants. In the storm, the author explains the process the preface, the author sets the story among involved in catching and preserving the cod, the great human journeys of literature and like sun drying and salting. imagination, with those of Gulliver and The reader who manages to Odysseus. Then, he modestly leaves it to the overcome the slight obstacle of language reader to decide whether his method of and navigate the local dialect of the presenting history works: whether the conversations will be rewarded with a vivid recreated dialogues of the people involved and dramatic picture of conditions on the succeed as a way of creating interest and little ships and in the ports along the coast. immediacy in the mind of the reader. The Each story is full of human drama. Many voices of the actors are in the dialect of people have amazing adventures, like a Newfoundland using the set of words and rescue at sea of the survivors of the sinking expressions peculiar to that place. schooner Northern Light by a giant liner, Collins begins his story in the first the RMS Baltic, or the crew of the Neptune seaport in the new world, St. John’s, as the II, weak and exhausted and sick after the schooners depart for the outports where storm, being blown by wind and current their homes were. He touches on the long across the ocean to the Scilly Islands off the history of the colony and paints a vivid coast of Britain. Then there is the safe image of the port of Saint John’s, recreating return of crew members to Newtown and the motion and noise of wind and weather, Princhard’s Island after being rescued from and conjuring up the sounds, stinks and a lifeboat. The author also describes the aromas of the little seaport as it goes about peoples’ struggle for survival in outports its business. The introduction describes the devastated by the tsunami that occurred cargoes carried, each with its uses and almost contemporaneously with the storm. method of handling, like salt, molasses and Throughout their adventures, crew members fish and most of all—the cod fish. He emerge as family members and friends describes the all-important process of belonging to tightly-knit communities. selling the cod to buy the commodities upon The author’s technique somehow which the people depend in their far-flung imparts an amazing amount of colour and coastal villages and small towns or outports, detail to scenes and events. With nothing to the north of St. John’s. more than words, the author succeeds in Each of book’s eleven chapters is entertaining and instructing, while telling named after an individual vessel: from the the story of an event little known in the rest 50-ton Water Sprite to the 126-ton, three- of Canada. masted Neptune II. Among the accounts of This is a wonderful book, and in events involving the vessels are descriptions many respects, quite captivating. It not only of the storm in the outports and its impact puts the stories of the ships and the people on the people waiting for their loved ones who sail them into human terms, it also and breadwinners out in the ships. When teaches a great deal about life and society in not in the grip of the storm, the people the remote communities during the early discuss events in the outside world, like the twentieth century while focusing on the Great Crash and, at one point, a young technical detail required to operate a politician named Joey Smallwood. schooner. The lone appendix gives a list of Book Reviews 75 the names of the schooners caught in the some reflection to consider how much gale with their captains and the port from society—Britain’s and Canada’s—has which they hailed. changed over the past fifty or sixty years in The book does need a map and a terms of received wisdom, homogeneity and glossary of terms, specifically of archaic shared history and myths. What was a Newfoundland nautical terms. simple given in this reviewer’s youth, for Nevertheless, it works, and any effort example, is truly a foreign country for required to puzzle out the dialect and today’s youngsters and their families. It can unknown terms will be rewarded. Perhaps be conceded then that the National Maritime the reader will have the extremely satisfying Museum’s initiative has the real merit of experience of learning a little about their need rather than a simple marketing ploy to own linguistic history, as did this reviewer. get nautical historians and enthusiasts to The author applies the word “fousty” to buy yet another book with “Nelson” in the some sails that tore in the storm, a word that title. my mother (a Scot) used occasionally to The book is edited by Quintin indicate that a thing was rotten. Colville and James Davey and they have The next edition will no doubt clear persuaded the ”great and the good” of the up problems with dates, continuity and nautical scholar community to contribute digressions. Despite a few problems, The chapters or articles on various aspect of the Gale of 1929 is a rewarding read. Anyone subject from the period of the Glorious interested in the history, language and Revolution of 1688 to the end of the society of the east coast should purchase Napoleonic Wars (1815). It addresses, this book. therefore, the early days of Britain’s emerging naval dominance in the late years Kathy Crewdson and Ian Dew of the seventeenth century to the time in Thunder Bay, Ontario which it was established as the unchallenged and pre-eminent naval power Quinton Colville and James Davey (eds.). in the early years of the nineteenth century. Nelson, Navy & Nation. The Royal Navy Both Colville and Davey are curators at the and the British People 1688-1815. National Maritime Museum and both were Greenwich: Conway Books and The directly involved in the production of the National Maritime Museum, “Nelson, Navy and Nation” gallery. www.conwaypublishing.com, 2013. 246 The contributors are some of the pp., illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. giants in the field, including a short UK £ 20.00, hardback; ISBN: introduction by N.A.M. Rodger, and 9781844862078 chapters from Andrew Lambert, Roger Knight and Brian Lavery. Rodger’s This handsome volume is a companion introduction, while short, is insightful and piece to the establishment of an eponymous an excellent overview of subject. He asserts gallery at Britain’s National Maritime that the role of the navy in British history Museum that brings together “Nelson, navy and its influence on the British character and nation.” The gallery is intended as a and identity is enormous. Interestingly, the long term display of artifacts illustrating the professionalism that the navy required of its identified themes for an early twenty-first officers and admirals had a subversive century audience for whom “Nelson is as effect on societal norms with regard to likely to be followed by Mandela as leadership and the notion of “gentleman.” preceded by Horatio” (6). It is indeed worth There was no role for aristocrats in the 76 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord navy, unless such were prepared to undergo an article on “Life Afloat”; Lambert an the apprenticeship and training that all naval article on “Nelson and Naval Warfare”; and officers had to successfully accomplish in Roland Pietsch on “The Experiences of order to do their job. Not many were. The War.” These, and the other eight articles, amateur tradition of military leadership are worth dipping into as the mood strikes simply did not work, and so there was never as there is no need to read them in order. the purchase of commission element in the The book is wonderfully illustrated production of naval officers. Hence the with paintings, photographs, artefacts, and navy was open to talent and drive, and was ship models. While a goodly percentage of not restricted to society’s natural leaders. If the paintings, for example, are very well a naval officer then one was by definition a known and commonly seen in many other gentleman no matter one’s actual publications (e.g. the book cover), there is antecedents. In this way, the navy had a enough that is new to spark one’s interest. similar influence on British society as did The photos of the artefacts, which are in the the Protestant revolution triggered by Henry gallery, are well done and pertinent to the VIII, which led to an indigenous leadership article in question and will be new to most. in the church without reference to the As might be anticipated this is not a ”natural” and “inherited” dominance of scholarly work per se, with the articles Rome. This latter influence had a based entirely on secondary sources. These significant role to play with the Glorious are described in a set of brief notes at the Revolution of 1688 with which the story back of the book, as well as suggestions for opens. further reading. Another critical theme identified by Is this book worth acquiring? My Rodger, and touched on elsewhere in the answer is the ever helpful: “It depends”. book, was the financing of the navy through On the one hand, the book is derivative, and Parliament. The need to secure consent of designed to accompany a new gallery in the the taxed to pay for the navy and the large British National Maritime Museum. If you bureaucracy and dockyard infrastructure have not seen the gallery, or are not likely that was required to run and administer the to, and if you have a reasonable navy, were crucial factors in the accumulation of volumes on the period, development of British democracy and then perhaps there is little here of use. government. Few think on these matters However, on the other hand, the merits of and the navy’s role in fostering such the book are considerable. It is attractively developments is essentially unknown to the illustrated, the contributors are top drawer public. Perhaps this is the source of the nautical historians, and the focus on the tongue-in-cheek observation that naval social side of naval history a likely useful officers, with their inherent sense of good addition to personal libraries over weighted order and discipline, should be running the with operational and more traditional world. accounts. I recommend it accordingly. The individual essays that comprise Ian Yeates, the book are not a chronological history of Regina, Saskatchewan the navy between the two bookend dates; rather they are thematic in nature. Nor do they cover battles, tactics or strategy in any Mark H. Danley and Patrick J. Speelman kind of comprehensive way; rather they (eds.). The Seven Years’ War: Global Views. focus more on the social history Vol. 80, History of Warfare. Leiden: Brill, perspective. Colville, for example, provides www.brill.com/hw, 2013. lvii + 586 pp., Book Reviews 77 illustrations, maps, figures, notes, Seven Years’ War. I was particularly bibliography, index. US $250.00, hardback; impressed by G. J. Bryant’s two brilliant ISBN 978-9004218789. surveys of the British East India Company’s role in the war (aided by the Royal Navy), This collection of eighteen essays appears Johannes Burckhardt’s sophisticated just in time for the 250th anniversary of the analysis of the religious dimensions of the Treaties of Paris and Hubertusburg which Austro-Prussian conflict, Virginia Akson’s ended the Seven Years’ War. It has explanation of Turkish neutrality in the war, coverage of exceptional breadth: ten Gunmar Aselius’s penetrating study of the chapters deal with the war in Europe, three Swedish part in the anti-Prussian coalition, with the war in North America, three with James F. Searing’s very original the hostilities in Asia and the western presentation of the social dimension of the Pacific, and one apiece with the conflicts in British conquest of the French trading posts Africa and in the West Indies. (The fighting in Africa, and Patrick Speelman’s perceptive in South America is given only two survey of the war in Portugal. sentences in an essay on the Spanish- Nowhere else is there such a wide Portuguese war.) It thus complements ranging introduction to what is generally nicely a wonderful collection of eleven regarded as the first worldwide war. essays dealing with the French-British- It is unfortunate that such an Amerindian conflict in North America and informative and stimulating book is priced its consequences, Phillip Buckner and John outside the range of all but major library G. Reid (eds.). Revisiting 1759: The collections. Given its cost it is surprising Conquest of Canada in Historical that there are only four pages of illustrations Perspective (Toronto, Buffalo, and London: (all black and white) and six maps. The University of Toronto Press, 2012). One bibliography and index, however, are fairly author, the accomplished Matthew Ward, good. Anyone interested in the Seven contributed a chapter to each book. The Years’ War who does not have a rich uncle Buckner-Reid volume is tightly focused and or access to a well stocked university library consistent in both approach (essays aimed at should rush to an interlibrary borrowing a scholarly audience) and quality (uniformly service to obtain a copy. excellent). The Seven Years’ War: Global Views is quite diffuse in subject matter and Jonathan R. Dull varies between surveys for a general Hamden, Connecticut audience and very detailed essays designed for specialists. A few of its chapters are George C. Daughan. Shining Sea. David well researched but not very conclusive or Porter and the Epic voyage of the U.S.S. are confusingly translated from German. In Essex during the War of 1812. New York: spite of its unevenness, however, this on Basic Books, www.basicbooks.com, 2013. balance is a very valuable book. 376 pp., illustrations, notes, bibliography, There are several fine chapters by index. US $28.99, CAN $32.00, hardcover; established authors on familiar topics such ISBN 978-0-46501962-5. as Ward’s on Amerindians, Richard Harding’s on the war in the Caribbean, John Shining Sea provides a wealth of Oliphant’s on the Cherokee war, and information about Captain David Porter, Nicholas Tracy’s on the Manila campaign. one of the most fascinating figures in the What were to me the most exciting were the early United States sailing navy. George chapters on less familiar aspects of the Daughan opens strongly to “hook” the 78 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord reader. By means of rhetorical devices, he fast-paced book. Porter was the first produces an impact that keeps the reader’s lieutenant under Bainbridge on the ill-fated attention and exposes the temperament voyage of Philadelphia to Tripoli during the strengths, flaws and underlying psychology Barbary States War of the early 1800s. of his characters through their actions, Although he was a pupil of the sometimes usually within the context of trying brutal Preble and Bainbridge, “Porter had situations. Daughan includes a great deal of high standards and was a disciplinarian, historical and technical maritime demanding attention to duty from everyone, background information to set the scene for and strict obedience. At the same time he the events chronicled. Finally, he employs a was fair… Porter believed in leading by the clear narrative style that places his readers force of his personality, rather than by in highly varied scenes, an example of good terror, and he encouraged his [subordinates] creative non-fiction writing. to do the same” (p. 24). Porter’s David Porter, Jr., was the son of imprisonment by the Tripolitans after the Revolutionary War naval veteran, David foundering of Philadelphia was a sobering Porter. The elder Porter sailed in the 32-gun experience that fostered a fierce, frigate Raleigh under Captain John Barry. unwavering determination to fight to the He and his brother Samuel were death in battle, an idea that served his career incarcerated as prisoners of war on board well—up to his next and last defeat. the infamous British hulk Jersey off As the War of 1812 commenced, Brooklyn, New York. His son, David Porter was ordered to be part of a task force Porter, in turn, was the father of David under Bainbridge’s command to harass Dixon Porter, a prominent Civil War hero. British shipping in the South Atlantic. The James Glasgow Farragut became a foster planned rendezvous did not take place member of David Junior’s household when because Bainbridge, in command of USS he was nine years old. While being raised Constitution, had engaged and defeated in their home, Farragut changed his name to HMS Java off the coast of Brazil near St. David Glasgow Farragut. As a pre- Salvador. Porter, now alone in the South adolescent midshipman, he served beside Atlantic, talked himself into the idea that Porter during the captain’s exploits in the “wreaking havoc on Britain’s whaling fleet Pacific. Farragut was the first American to [in the Pacific] would significantly impact attain the rank of admiral in the United her economy [and] the British were not States Navy and David Dixon Porter was expecting the Essex in the Pacific” (84). the second to earn that distinction. Certainly Porter sailed Essex, without specific orders, the Porters were an extraordinary naval to “double Cape Horn” thus becoming a family. The people with whom Porter one-vessel American naval presence in a served or mentored read like a “who’s who” vast ocean vividly described by Daughan. of naval history. They include Captains Porter had great success capturing many Thomas Truxtun, John Rodgers, Edward unsuspecting whalers using deception and Preble, William Bainbridge, Stephen many clever ploys. British whalers of the Decatur, Jr., and acolytes Charles Stewart day went to sea armed with cannon. and John Downes. Therefore, Porter was able to turn some of Porter, as captain of the frigate USS the vessels into auxiliary warships and thus Essex, was the first American to defeat a manufactured his own small fleet of quasi- British warship during the War of 1812— warships. HMS Alert. The story of this event serves Essex and her companions reigned as a first chapter “teaser” for Daughan’s freely over the eastern and central South Book Reviews 79 Pacific. Daughan, meanwhile, chronicles flawed by a short temper, a narcissistic the arcane political upheavals that were streak, bad judgement upon occasion, and taking place during this time on the west an abundance of hubris beyond the confines coast of South America. In one strange of common sense. His being mesmerized episode, Porter got involved in a tribal civil by the pursuit of military glory war on the island of Nuku Hiva, part of the overwhelmed these conflicting personality Marquesa chain. After the captain traits. determined that the disputations had been Porter’s seventeen-month cruise in resolved, he unilaterally annexed the island the USS Essex during the War of 1812 as part of the United States. One of Porter’s arguably resulted in the most remarkable favourites on Essex was marine Lieutenant group of American naval long-term John Gamble. At one point, Gamble was engagements in the age of sail. Daughan’s put in command of a prize vessel, earning book recounts these actions from the the distinction of the only American marine American point of view. John Rieske’s officer in history to be appointed a navy recent publication Hunting the Essex: A ship’s captain. When Porter decided to Journal of the voyage of HMS Phoebe resume his naval patrol of the South Pacific, 1813-1814 by Midshipman Allen Gardiner he appointed Gamble as a quasi-United provides a primary source account of the States chargé d’affaires along with a events off Valparaiso from the British handful of lightly armed men on Nuku standpoint, a thought-provoking contrast. Hiva. The annexation proved to be a cruel In summary, Shining Sea is an outstanding delusion and disastrous for those men left biography, a fascinating read and worth behind. owning in one’s library. While Porter easily took his prizes Louis Arthur Norton in the Pacific, the British Admiralty learnt West Simsbury, Connecticut of his exploits and sent several warships to capture the brash American. Rather than trying to avoid capture by returning to the Tex Geddes. Hebridean Sharker. Edinburgh: safety of the United States and “cashing in” Birlinn Limited, www.birlinn.co.uk, 2012. his many prizes and cache of whale oil, 170 pp., illustrations. UK £9.99, paper; Porter sought further glory by winning a ISBN 978-1-78027-034-0. decisive one-on-one naval battle with a formidable British frigate. Essex took This fascinating book describes how a small refuge and resupply in the neutral Chilean shark fishery operated in the perilous waters port of Valparaiso while Porter awaited an around the Isle of Skye on the west coast of old acquaintance and naval rival, James Scotland during the post-war austerity of the Hillyar, commanding HMS Phoebe and a 1950s. First published by Birlinn in 1960 as consort vessel, HMS Cherub. Porter and a “classic tale of the thrilling hunt for Hillyar feinted and dueled in and around the basking sharks,” this welcome reissue in its harbour for many weeks. Porter hoped to original dramatic cover follows closely on find an advantage in weather, vessel speed, another successful Birlinn reprint, Gavin seamanship and tactics. When a pitched Maxwell’s Harpoon at a Venture, also battle finally ensued, superbly described by reviewed in this issue of The Northern the author, Essex was lost and Porter was Mariner. defeated. Courageous, a motivator, an The author, Joseph “Tex” Geddes, imaginative naval tactician, and a was born at Peterhead, in Aberdeenshire, in resourceful leader, Porter’s character was October 1919. According to his own 80 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord account, though there is no corroboration lives at sea as well as in port. This ranged for this, his father took him to Canada when from crewing the local lifeboat, ring-net he was two years old after a trivial fishing and lobstering to deer-stalking and altercation with the local police. Following salmon poaching. He also describes how his expulsion from school at the early age of his expertise as a knife thrower and bayonet twelve “for being unmanageable,” Geddes fencer entertained the local children! tried his hand at many occupations. These Although the author heaps praise on his included being a professional boxer and a fellow fishermen for the frequent risks they rum-runner in Newfoundland which is took to kill sharks, some modern readers where, he claimed, he acquired the name may feel uneasy about the descriptions of Tex. the deliberate slaughter of wildlife for sport On the outbreak of the Second and commercial gain. World War, Geddes joined the Seaforth This book shows clearly that Tex Highlanders, and in 1942 he served in the Geddes was a talented and well-disciplined Special Forces alongside the naturalist writer. His detailed recollection of his own Gavin Maxwell. They would have made an and others’ lives during this post-war period interesting pair at the training camp in has resulted in a book where every chapter Arisaig, where they both were instructors: is packed with action and scattered with Maxwell, an officer and aristocrat who anecdote. Coupled with his well-observed aspired to be an author and painter, and descriptions of sky, sea, mountains and Geddes, a sergeant who specialized in wildlife in the Scottish Highlands, his amphibious warfare and explosive interpretation of the events that he lived demolition. On demobilization, Geddes through has created a record that will be of became a shark fisherman on the west coast interest to readers of natural, social and of Scotland, first as Maxwell’s harpooner maritime history. and then as crew on the 1946-built Spindrift Hebridean Sharker is distinguished and, later, as owner of his own boat, the from others on the delicate subject of the Traveller. conservation of wildlife and the promotion This book focuses on the everyday of nature. Although it is possible that some life of fishermen in the area of the Minch readers will be attracted to the book by its between the Inner and Outer Hebrides, connections to Gavin Maxwell, they will which was where Geddes and his crew find Geddes’ account of a long-past Scottish stalked the massive basking sharks. industry interesting on its own merits. It is Measuring up to thirty feet in length and both a sympathetic adventure story and a weighing as much as seven tons, these huge stimulating record of a seagoing life and by fish swam and fed on the surface and were the final chapter, readers will understand killed solely for their livers, a valuable why Tex Geddes’ colourful character gave source of oil for the food-processing him a near heroic stature on the west coast industry. The author recounts how he spent of Scotland. much time and a lot of ingenuity in adapting Finally settling on the remote a whaling harpoon to shoot the sharks, Island of Soay near Skye, with his wife whereas Maxwell fished with a powerful Jeanne and son Duncan, Geddes eventually but cumbersome ex-Army gun that, coupled became the laird. He died in 1998 when with his financial naivety, led to the ultimate returning home from a bagpiping failure of his business. competition in the Outer Hebrides. While Geddes also relates in some detail there are no doubt many advantages in the ups and downs of the fishermen’s daily Birlinn’s reprinted classics, the one that Book Reviews 81 would appeal to most book buyers is that slaughter of the U.S. aircrews; moments of while an original hardback copy of terrible indecision by the force commander Hebridean Sharker in reasonably good Admiral Nagumo; the tide of battle being condition can cost up to £300 in a turned in an uncoordinated but secondhand bookshop, this paperback overwhelming five-minute dive bomber edition can be on their shelves for under a attack; and, at the back of it all, the idea that tenner. Nimitz was able to orchestrate the victory due to the work of US codebreakers. But it Michael Clark was still said “they had no right to win.” London, England After six months of running riot (Admiral Yamamoto’s own words) in the Western Thomas C. Hone (ed.). The Battle of Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the seas Midway. The Naval Institute Guide to the between the Dutch East Indies and U.S. Navy’s Greatest Victory. Annapolis, Australia, the Japanese banzai charge was MD: Naval Institute Press, www.nip.org, halted in conclusive fashion (though it had 2013. 360 pp., illustrations, maps, been blunted in the Battle of the Coral Sea a appendices, notes, bibliography, index. month earlier). This is why Midway was US $38.95, cloth; ISBN 978-1-61251- described as USN’s greatest victory of the 126-9. Second World War, and probably of all time. Readers will be familiar with the events Initially, it is difficult to understand which occurred off Midway Atoll 6 June Hone’s thesis, as he has not provided an 1942 which led to the sinking of four of the introduction, although there is a scene- six Japanese (IJN) naval aircraft carriers setting introduction by Lt. Cmdr. Thomas that carried out the 7 December 1941 attack Cutler. So what is it that makes this book on Pearl Harbor, President F.D. Roosevelt’s stand out from all the rest that have “day that will live in infamy.” Some appeared about Midway? The most obvious readers may also be aware of the pinprick point is that this is an edited work by strikes carried out by the USN’s carriers, the Thomas Hone and in reviewing this type of only capital ships available to the work, it is important to concentrate on the commander-in-chief (C-in-C) Pacific, editor’s choice of authors, the particular Admiral Chester Nimitz, after the parts of their material that he has selected destruction of the battle fleet. These attacks and how he has organized its presentation. and Lt. Col. Doolittle’s raid on 18 April But it is also important to remember the 1942 provoked the IJN’s Naval General subtitle of this book, The Naval Institute’s Staff and their Combined Fleet C-in-C to Guide to the USN’s Greatest Victory. deal with their opponent in a decisive battle Hone has organized this work in by seizing the Midway outpost standing at eight roughly chronological parts: Midway the end of the Hawaiian Island chain. Anthology, Approach to Midway, The Probably more than any other naval Battle, The End of the Battle, The Official action in American history, this was the Report of the Battle, The Commanders, battle that had everything—the all- Codebreaking, and Assessments of the conquering IJN navy and its Kido Butai Battle. Each of these parts contains a (carrier striking force) flushed with six number of chapters, fifty in total, ranging months of victories tempting the battered from one to seventeen pages in length. U.S. Navy to total defeat; a David and There are excerpts from various books, Goliath battle; the initial air attacks seeing a magazines and other publications, official 82 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord documents, retrospectives by some of the excerpts from the Naval Institute Press’s participants, and, in one instance, a review own Proceedings. How much of Hone’s of a book by one of the revisionist authors choice of articles was due to stipulations by (but not a selection from the book itself). the publishers and their desire to elevate Each part begins with an introductory page Midway to the same status as Trafalgar is an or so by the editor, and each chapter has a open question. For example, the brief note about the author at the end. There contribution of Parshall and Tully is their are also three appendices, photos, maps and 2001 article on “Identifying Kaga” rather a helpful chronology (useful as the battle than their best-known work, Shattered crossed and re-crossed the International Sword–The Unknown Story of the Battle of Dateline and Japanese and U.S. times also Midway (2005), which was published by differ). So far so good. Potomac Books. How well has the editor succeeded The selections fail to resolve in his choice of authors and their articles? several outstanding issues. There is Marc With so many works to choose from, this Mitscher and Stanhope Ring’s performance probably presented the editor with some as captain and commander, air group (CAG) difficulty, but he has managed to include of USS Hornet, respectively, during the something from almost every author who battle. There are some hints about this, but has written about the battle, though there are less than in Peter C. Smith’s Midway: one or two notable exceptions. These Dauntless Victory. Fresh Perspectives on authors’ works range from the 1955 American’s Seminal Navy Victory of WW2 translation of Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake (2007), of which the highly critical review Okumiya’s Midway–The Battle that by Ronald Russell is featured in Chapter 52. Doomed Japan to a number of very recent Also, what was the reason for sidelining works including Craig Symonds’ 2012 Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher after Midway contribution. and the Guadalcanal campaign later in the Surprisingly there is no place for an year? To find out, readers would need to excerpt from Volume 4 of Samuel Eliot delve further into John Lundstrom’s Morison’s 15-volume History of the USN biography of Fletcher in Black Shoe Carrier Operations in WWII or the Bates Report of Admiral (2006). 1948 prepared by a committee set up by the To some extent, the final Part VIII then-president of the Naval War College (no of the book, Assessments of the Battle, less than Admiral Raymond Spruance, one introduces some highly fanciful ideas about of the victors of Midway) or Walter Lord’s the importance of the battle, again possibly Midway – Incredible Victory. If, however, at the publisher’s prompting. In Chapter 48, the omission of these early works was to Midway: the Decisive Battle? Geoffrey Till avoid the mistakes they contained, the raises the point that had the USN lost at earlier chapters of Hone’s selection does Midway (after the earlier drawn battle in the tend to rely heavily on Fuchida’s work, Coral Sea), FDR would have been forced to which has now been largely discredited by re-think the “Germany First” strategy the work of Jonathan Parshall and Anthony agreed with Churchill and the chiefs of staff Tully. Another criticism is that although the and devote more resources to the Pacific, as authors chosen are some of the most was being demanded by his chief of naval respected authorities on the recent operations (CNO), Admiral King. This is reassessments of the battle, the pieces certainly a point that deserves further selected by Hone are often not from their consideration. best known works. Many of them are This book is not a single-author Book Reviews 83 volume with a particular theme, though it is Johnson-Allen definitely writes a useful scene-setter containing short from a British perspective and leaves no selections from most of the individual doubt about this, but he does not attempt to works produced over a long period. As justify the war or the issues behind the such, it will appeal to readers seeking an actual conflict. Instead, the book provides overview. It is not a thorough covering of insights into a field that not has been the the battle or even one aspect of it. Readers subject of any substantial historical research looking for that will need to turn to the up to now: the contribution of the British recent works of some of the authors. It will, merchant navy to the British military however, prompt readers with more detailed campaigns during the Falklands War. knowledge of the battle to look at these Based on an extensive array of other works with a fresh insight. diaries written by crew members from the merchant vessels involved, recollections John Francis provided to the author by merchant Greenwich, England mariners, and some archival sources, Johnson-Allen tells the stories of the John Johnson-Allen. They Couldn’t Have individual ships involved. Often arranging Done It Without Us. The Merchant Navy in various first-hand accounts into the coherent the Falklands War. Rendlesham, Surrey, story of an individual ship, the book UK: Seafarer Books, www.seafarer.com, definitely allows the reader to understand 2011. xvii+252 pp., illustrations, map, the situation on board the respective vessels notes, bibliography, index. UK £9.95, paper; and the merchant mariners’ thoughts and ISBN 978-1-906266-23-3. behaviour as part of a naval operation. This strength, however, also seems to be the On 2 April 1982, Argentine forces occupied book’s weakness; keeping it on a the Falkland Islands—known in Argentina as descriptive, sometimes emotional, level as las Islas Malvinas—and started an armed far as the history of individual vessels is conflict with the United Kingdom that lasted concerned, instead of combining these for 74 days and ended with the Argentinean individual stories into a larger, analytical surrender on 14 June 1982. There is a rich history of the role of the merchant marine historiography on the conflict that is known in during the Falklands War. By organizing English as the Falklands War and in Spanish the book by ship instead of chronologically, as la Guerra de las Malvinas or Guerra del the material occasionally become repetitive Atlántico Sur. British and Argentinian as ship after ship sails to the Falkland historians, in particular, have shed light on Islands. This makes it feel like an edited nearly every detail of the conflict, of course collection of autobiographic source not always without a national bias or the materials and personal experiences with expression of more or less strongly-held comments that can and should be used for a opinions. One wonders whether Johnson- more analytically-oriented research Allen’s book simply offers another British approach in the future. take on the subject, 30 years after the actual While the book deals exclusively conflict, or if it is an attempt to take advantage with the role of the British merchant navy in of a time when tensions between the two the context of the Falklands War, its nations seem to have intensified again, partly relevance for historical research seems by no due to rich oil deposits assumed to lie under means limited to an analytical understanding the continental shelf of these remote islands in of this particular conflict. Whenever any the South-Atlantic? kind of military operation takes place in a 84 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord theatre of war far away from one of the Owen Matthews. Glorious Misadventures: belligerent nations, supply logistics play a Nicolai Rezanov and the Dream of a major role in the context of the conflict and Russian America. New York, NY: merchant navies were often the backbone of Bloomsbury Publishing, www.bloomsbury these logistics. From the German Hapag .com, 2013. 320 pages; illustrations, maps, providing coal supplies for the Russian appendices, notes, bibliography. UK £20.00; Imperial Navy en route to Tsushima to the US $28.00, hardback; ISBN 978-1-62040- convoys of the Second World War, and 239-9. Maersk Ltd. transporting supplies for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Born in 1764, Nicolai Rezanov was a minor merchant navies have been involved in Russian aristocrat in the time of Catherine nearly all major military conflicts of the the Great and the Tsars, Paul and Alexander twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I. Like others of his class, he competed for Johnson-Allen provides a honours and preferment at the court of St. fascinating look into such an operation by Petersburg. But he was also a man of showcasing not only the factual history of the vision and ambition for himself and for his British long-distance supply operations country and sought his fortune at the far during the Falklands War, but also the frontiers of the Empire. He was primarily difficulties that arose between the navy and in search of wealth, which he achieved, the merchant marine. Their attempts at largely by marrying the daughter of Grigory cooperation were often hampered by Shelikov, a millionaire explorer and fur different operating protocols, different trader. Wealth, however, was not enough; technical standards and the very different Rezanov wanted fame as well as fortune. cultures of navy sailors and merchant His ambition was to extend the Tsars’ mariners. dominions from Alaska to Northern This book is a welcome addition to California as well as to open relations with the bookshelf of any maritime/naval historian the “hermit kingdom” of Japan. He dreamt whether interested in this particular conflict of a North Pacific dominated by Russia with or the wider context of navy-merchant trade routes stretching from Siberia, Alaska marine cooperation. An index, maps, and California to Hawaii, China and Japan, photographs and the bibliography provide taking as his model the British East India useful information for further research, Company. although it needs to be mentioned that the In this book, Rezanov’s story is bibliography is mostly limited to the told by Owen Matthews, a British journalist literature on the Falklands War and provides whose mother was Russian. In the summer only a little information on the wider field of of 1986, when he was sixteen, Owen visited the history of merchant navies operating in an aunt in Moscow and was taken to see the support of military activities. Anybody hit musical Junona i Avos. By then, the interested in the conflict or the sovereignty of Cold War was warming up enough to allow the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas will the production of a Russian rock opera with appreciate the story of how determined Western-style music based on a hero who British mariners were in securing the islands was a Tsarist aristocrat. This was the young as a British Overseas Territory. British student’s first encounter with Nikolai Rezanov and his romance with Ingo Heidbrink Conception de Arguella, the teen-age Norfolk, Virginia daughter of the Spanish governor of the outpost of San Francisco. In the nineteenth Book Reviews 85 century, their romance was well known in officials was through one of the Dutch America through stories by Bret Harte, and traders and from him to a Japanese the novelist Gertrude Atherton, but in Russia, interpreter. Suffice it to say that after months Rezanov and his romance had largely been of negotiations, the Japanese firmly rejected forgotten until Junona i Avos achieved all proposals but generously resupplied the unexpected success. The title is Russian ships and sent them on their way. incomprehensible unless you know that it is After leaving Rezanov in the name of two ships. Kamchatka, Krusenstern took the ships back Owen Matthews went on to become to the Baltic and arrived to much acclaim and a distinguished journalist and the author of rewards for himself and his crews. Rezanov, the acclaimed 2008 book Stalin’s Children. determined to justify himself, went back to In due course, he set out to show that Nicolai Alaska, finding the outpost of Sitka at war Rezanov’s life ought to be remembered for with the local natives. Eventually, he sailed more than the San Francisco episode. In so south in the company ship Juno, arriving at doing, he has followed Rezanov’s journeys San Francisco in March 1806 starving and from the luxury and intrigues of the court of suffering from scurvy. The Spanish nursed St. Petersburg to Irkutsk on Lake Baikal, Rezanov and his crew back to health, with headquarters for his father-in-law, and on to Rezanov, by now a widower, proposing to Okhotsk, the departure point for ships trading the young Conception, usually called to Alaska, where the Russian America Conchita. In May he left, promising to return Company held a tenuous toehold. The and marry her but he never made it. distances are enormous and travel took Exhausted and ill, he died in Krasnoyarsk on months, even years. Eventually, Rezanov the Yenesei River on 8 March 1807. returned to St. Petersburg with a scheme to The achievements of Krusenstern open up diplomatic relations and trade with (or Kruzenshtern) were acknowledged by the Japan, which was resolutely avoiding all Soviets, who named the great, four-masted contact with foreigners, except for one small barque Kruzenshtern for him. Matthews Dutch trading post which had been there plainly feels that Rezanov deserves to be since the early seventeenth century. recognized for his vision and determination, With Imperial backing, Rezanov not just as a tragic lover and has written this organized an expedition with two ships laden detailed but fascinating account. with expensive presents for the Shogun of C. Douglas Maginley Japan. The Nadezhda and Neva were Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia commanded by the naval captain Krusenstern, with Rezanov as the Tsar’s representative and ambassador. Since it was Gavin Maxwell. Harpoon at a Venture. also going to be a scientific expedition, a Dr. Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, Langsdorf went along as a naturalist. The www.birlinn.co.uk, 2013. (Originally trouble was that both Rezanov and published in 1952). 326 pp., illustrations, Krusenstern considered themselves in charge maps, appendices. UK £9.99, paper; ISBN of the project. This was a recipe for disaster 978-1-78027-180-4. and Rezanov’s autocratic ways soon alienated the naval officers who made no The impact of industrial fishing in Europe secret of their dislike. He, consequently, had increased throughout the twentieth century a miserable time throughout the long voyage. and, by the outbreak of the Second World Worse was to come. At Nagasaki, the only War in 1939, employment on a steam- way of communicating with the Japanese powered herring drifter offered British 86 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord fishermen a high level of financial security. laboratory to recover the oil of basking Offshore fishing dominated the coastal sharks. regions of Scotland, as it was here each These giant fish, weighing up to summer that basking sharks—the second seven tons and measuring five to eleven largest fish in the world—cruised for food. metres, were easily injured by marine craft It was also here that author Gavin Maxwell as they swam and fed on the surface. They began his enduring love affair with the west were, however, greatly sought commercially coast of Scotland. for their huge livers which contained oils Born in southern Scotland in 1914, that were previously used for industrial Maxwell came from a wealthy family and purposes. Maxwell graphically describes was educated at a succession of schools the drama of a shark-hunt off Canna in the before obtaining a degree in Estate summer of 1947, when some 250 sharks Management at Oxford. In 1939, he were killed, including 83 recorded in a enlisted in the Army’s Special Operations single day. In fact, the fishing industry went Executive as a small weapons instructor and through a relatively prosperous period in the promised himself that he would buy an fifties. island if he survived the war. After The post-war decline of herring demobilization in 1946, he was as good as shoals in Europe and a growing domestic his word and borrowed money to buy Soay, market for white fish encouraged an influx a small, sparsely inhabited island in the of ever larger steam drifters into Scottish shadow of the Isle of Skye. For three years waters. Maxwell was convinced this would he tried in vain to make a living as a portrait lead to a dwindling of herring fisheries and painter. spent much of his time learning about the Harpoon at a Venture was habits of the basking shark. He acquired a Maxwell’s first published book and it has second boat which he armed with obsolete recently been reissued some sixty years army weapons, built harpoons of his own after its first publication, but it is still just as design and constantly developed new relevant today. It describes his attempt to catching techniques. He also complained develop an industrial shark fishing business about the difficulty of taking photographs on Soay and is packed with action and with cumbersome cameras in poor lighting, anecdote. He has also illustrated it with his yet this reissued book contains the wealth of own drawings that complement his acute informative pictures that Maxwell would observations of sky, sea and the Hebridean have originally wanted. Islands as well as the west coast wildlife, Gavin Maxwell died in 1969 and he ranging from gannets, puffins, Manx is now probably best remembered for his shearwaters and fulmars to dolphins, seals otter books, Ring of Bright Water (1960) and whales. and The Otter’s Tale (1962), which many A lack of private enterprise in the adult readers still feel were unfairly post-war Highlands encouraged the British classified as children’s books. He also government to establish new local wrote a critically acclaimed book about the businesses but Maxwell blamed the marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq, People of the inaccessibility of the Western Isles for Reeds (1957), as well as The Rocks Remain missing out on these opportunities. (1968). The popularity of the film of Ring Gambling on an expectation of a rising of Bright Water, loosely based on his book, market for fish oil, he founded his own spawned a series of feel-good nature commercial fishing business on Soay and movies. built a small fishmeal plant and rudimentary This book includes several Book Reviews 87 fascinating appendices by contemporary imprint of Pen & Sword Books, and edited natural and zoological experts on the by Vincent McInerney, Rolling Home is an anatomy and biology of the basking shark. abridged and edited version of the original Hopefully, its reissue will reignite the 1931 English issue. In keeping with the controversial subject of hunting these spirit of the series, that is, to bring vividly to magnificent sea-creatures to harvest their life sailors’ experiences since the early prized livers. Sixty years on, the book modern period of seafaring for new makes interesting but uncomfortable generations of readers, this welcome reading and buyers will draw their own addition reveals the colourful tales of conclusions about how far we have or have William Morris Barnes (1850-1934) from not travelled since Maxwell wrote it. his early days shipping out of St. John’s, Although it was not until 1994 that Newfoundland to his harrowing exploits at basking sharks could no longer be hunted sea during the First World War. While it and they achieved protected status only in wants for more substantive editorial 1998, the outlook is not all gloom. An analysis, this work delivers a collection of official survey in 2012 recorded 73 basking enjoyable and insightful anecdotes from a sharks shoaling off the island of Coll, and true salty dog during a transformative 50 others were seen around Hyskier near period of seafaring. Maxwell’s former base at Canna. A recent Barnes’s remarkable life stories are project to tag the basking sharks that gather shared through twelve comfortably-sized, in Scottish waters is to be extended and the engagingly-written chapters, each one a timely reissue of this book should be a pleasing combination of fast-paced action, reminder to all that we must never return to sincerity of expression, quick wit, and the practices of six decades ago. below-decks perspective. Born into a ship- Harpoon at a Venture raised many owning St. John’s family, Barnes went to serious issues of nature conservancy when it sea as a boy before being apprenticed to a first appeared and, on balance, the Liverpool firm making runs in the triangular publishers should be congratulated for trade between those two ports and presenting this relatively inexpensive book Pernambuco, Brazil. As he gradually to a new generation of readers who climbed the ranks from mate to captain, fortunately seem to believe more in Barnes felt most at home on voyages that conservation than exploitation. It is a book traversed the Atlantic. Following marriage that should find a niche on the shelves of and a brief stint as a shopkeeper for a St. any reader who is concerned about the John’s grocery, he returned to sea, making future welfare of our planet. the jump to steam-powered vessels. Hardly feeling his age, he volunteered for the navy Michael Clark at the age of sixty-four at the outbreak of London, England the First World War and served on several Vincent McInerney (ed.). Rolling Home: vessels that were either mined or torpedoed. William Morris Barnes. Barnsley, South The reader is presented with an Yorks.: Seaforth Publishing, www.seaforth extraordinary life, bursting with spectacular publishing.com, 2013. xii+196 pp., map, incidents yet also featuring stories about the notes. UK £13.99, cloth; ISBN 978-1- more familiar personal need for routine and 84832-165-6. relationships. From being arrested for stealing a mandarin’s idol and spending a The tenth volume in the splendid Seafarers’ night in an Aracajuan jail, to being set adrift Voices series published by Seaforth, an in the North Atlantic for three days in 88 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord February after his ship was torpedoed by a cartoonist for publications such as The German U-boat and being pronounced dead World and the New Yorker from the 1920s to and prepared for burial at sea, these extreme the 1950s. His most famous character, examples of a sailor’s lot are tempered by “Mopey Dick,” along with his sidekick descriptions of regular shipboard behaviour “The Duke,” was a street person offering and a desire for companionship. The final commentary on the life of the city and the episode in Barnes’s life comes as a retiree in country during this tumultuous period of the a home for aged sailors on the north shore nation’s history. Barnes was initially of Staten Island, as he encounters a New approached by the cartoonist’s wife, Hilda, York couple, Denys and Hilda Wortman, who made a practice of observing, listening who persuade him to share his personal and recording the language and tales of stories. New Yorkers as she sat on a Manhattan park Serious researchers, despite being bench. Barnes was every bit an outcast to a entertained and enthralled, will wish that the landlubber as a hobo on the streets of New publishers had considered the book’s rich York City was to society’s elite. The timing resource potential. Based on one person’s is also peculiar, for the highly anticipated oral testimony about a lifetime of events, John Barrymore-led motion picture Moby such an account must, of course, be viewed Dick premiered in New York City in August with the usual degree of caution and of 1930, the same year the American edition skepticism, for memory is selective and of Barnes’s tales appeared. Though that vulnerable to modification over time. edition credited Hilda with her editorial Memoirs, like any other primary document, contributions, the English edition did not. must be explored for validity and accuracy. More needs to be said about this influence McInerney, a former editor for the BBC, and how it relates to the stories told. At the playwright and broadcaster of seafaring very least, there are wonderful stories stories, does an admirable job of preserving whose value to researchers could be the rollicking narrative but offers little in significantly enriched through the non- the way of objective commentary. Though intrusive explanatory endnote, lending he provides a fairly informative introduction much-needed context and correction. An and states that “exaggeration is never far index would also be essential. away” (p. 2), it would be helpful to The above criticism should not occasionally know just how far away it is. detract from readers’ enjoyment of this This account first appeared during volume, for it provides them with stories an age of high nostalgia for the sailing ship they will take great delight in reading. and it is very much a creation of the Rolling Home makes a fine addition to this particular pressures and sensibilities of important series, whose affordability, Depression-era America. Harking back to a portability and animated writing style time when life seemed simpler, hence the makes this history accessible to broad subtitle of the original publication: When audiences. It will be of particular interest to Ships were Ships and Not Tin Pots, such those seeking adventure and a good yarn products marketed romanticism. McInerney and may even hook others into delving is sensitive to this only to the point of deeper into the study of seafaring. mentioning Barnes’s relationship with the Michael F. Dove Wortmans and the latter’s creation of a St. Thomas, Ontario cartoon character based on Barnes. Additional context is sorely needed. Denys Wortman was a renowned New York Book Reviews 89 Elaine Murphy. Ireland and the War at Sea, The monograph is divided into two 1641-1653. Woodbridge, SFK and sections: the first details naval activity in Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, www.boydell Irish waters chronologically, while the andbrewer.com, 2012. viii+253 pp., second engages in thematic analysis of how glossary, appendices, notes, bibliography, Irish and English forces waged small-scale index. US $90.00, cloth; ISBN 978-0- naval war in the waters surrounding Ireland. 86193-318-1. Murphy argues that early confederate strategy did not extend to capturing key In the monograph, Ireland and the War at ports, and neither the royalist nor the Sea, 1641-1653, Elaine Murphy examines parliamentary forces could seize any naval activity in Irish waters between 1641 advantage from this. This set the tone for and 1653. This period encompassed Irish later maritime activity, which centred on involvement in the civil wars that ended confederate employment of privateers to with parliament’s victory and the creation of disrupt parliamentary shipping, while the English republic (later the Protectorate royalist forces utilized any procurable under Cromwell). In order for Parliament resources to support their enclaves in to put down the rebellion led by the Ireland. Meagre assets frequently restricted Catholic confederacy and subdue those Irish confederate and royalist naval efforts, and royalists supporting the Stuart monarchy, this can be demonstrated with the royalist the parliamentary navy needed to maintain squadron under Prince Rupert. Although unrestricted access to Ireland; something sailing a strong force of seven frigates to they struggled to achieve as events in Ireland to join local privateers during the England often prevented the allocation of winter of 1649, insufficient funds and a necessary resources. Naval historians have shortage of sailors prevented Rupert from made this point, yet the particulars of what employing local numerical superiority to occurred in the waters around Ireland have exploit a parliamentary gap in coverage. not been studied in detail for the entirety of The next spring, Parliament deployed force the civil wars. It is Murphy’s goal to sufficient to trap the royalist squadron in explore and explain naval conflict around Kinsale Harbour, yet insufficient to attack Ireland and tie the narrative to wider the port and destroy them. Nevertheless, political considerations. the parliamentary navy did its best to secure Murphy faced the difficult task of Ireland by establishing defensive patrols, piecing together confederate and royalist convoying supplies, and supporting sieges warship activity from English primary at important ports. Even when sufficient sources, as few originating from Ireland force could be made available to provide survive, if they ever existed at all. Ireland with strong naval support, however, Nevertheless, the principal source materials it was still not enough to eliminate have been combed for all references to privateering completely. For instance, by parliamentary naval activity against the summer of 1651, Murphy points out that confederate and royalist forces operating in the increase in merchant shipping travelling Irish waters. Especially relevant are the to Ireland in support of Cromwell’s invasion High Court of Admiralty papers dealing forces far exceeded the navy’s ability to with reprisals. Court witnesses, through protect them, although enemy (primarily their depositions, often provided important royalist) privateers at this stage could not information and detail on war at sea in Irish inflict enough damage to compromise waters beyond testimony relevant to their parliamentary effectiveness. particular case. This book will be useful for 90 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord scholars interested in examining small-scale While 148 pages of the book are naval activity during the “Age of Sail,” devoted to text, the 70 pages following especially commerce raiding and trade consist of six appendices that identify and protection. Naval activity around Ireland catalogue all references found within the usually consisted of routine patrolling and source material to ships and vessels convoying, punctuated with the capturing of employed by the belligerents, as well as prizes or battling for control of an important surviving information on the prizes they port. This contrasts with the more familiar, captured. Such basic compilations are large-scale battles fought during other informative, useful, and the result of conflicts that have frequently provided the painstaking research and compilation, but foundation for naval historical knowledge. they also suggest that the monograph has Murphy contributes to our understanding of not evolved too far past its apparent origins what occurred at sea on a daily basis during as a doctoral dissertation. the civil wars, and is to be commended William R. Miles further for squeezing as much information Fredericton, New Brunswick as possible from difficult source material. Unfortunately, this material is too frequently not connected to the broad context of war at Charles Nordhoff (Vincent McInerney, ed.). sea or civil war and rebellion in a consistent Man-of-War Life. Barnsley, Yorks.: Seaforth or concentrated fashion. The discussion is Publishing, www.seaforthpublishing.com, directed at readers with detailed knowledge 2013. xi+191 pp., notes. UK £13.99, cloth; of the civil wars who might be less familiar ISBN 978-1-84832-164-9. with warfare at sea. Only vague mention is made within the introduction as to exactly Man-of-War Life is the first of Charles what the confederate rebellion was and only Nordhoff’s books about his various sea passing mention is made of royalist activity experiences that include The Merchant in Ireland. These themes have to wait until Service, Whaling and Fishing, and Stories of the main body of the text to be identified the Island World. First published in 1855 by properly and, even here, crucial turning- Dodd, Mead & Company, Man-of-War Life points for Ireland in the conflict are not has gone through a number of editions, the discussed to the level required fully to second, in 1883 with a new preface. Vincent comprehend their importance within McInerney decided an abridged version of broader contexts. An important example: in the original 766 pages might make the well- 1643, the confederates and royalists in told story about life on a sailing warship of Ireland entered into a cessation of arms with that era more accessible. This reviewer the parliamentarians, permitting royalist downloaded a copy of the original edition as reinforcements to be sent to England. The a PDF from the Internet to compare random Cessation is never explained clearly by abridged sections with the Nordhoff first Murphy, although it is argued to have publication. The editor did an excellent job changed the tenor of conflict in the Irish Sea of retaining the book’s integrity while because it gave royalists and confederates pruning the flowery language popular at the time to regroup and muster fresh resources. time into an easily-read 191 pages. The monograph could have benefited from The book is a boy’s detailed view deeper discussions on such events, as well of naval life in the first third of the as on processes such as commerce raiding nineteenth century and the workings of an and trade protection outside the narrow American sailing warship. Nordhoff window of the mid-seventeenth century. describes the routine, discipline, and Book Reviews 91 training exercises that characterized the his mates returning from liberty as follows: navy of the day, also noting its evolution “black eyes and contused faces, many still into a humane society. The author offers intoxicated, and nearly all,… Looking as if insight into the mind of an articulate young they had been boarding in the market, man who volunteered to go to sea at the sleeping on benches” (p. 152). lowest level of naval rank, clearly Nordhoff did leave the reader with describing his fears, trials, and triumphs. a positive philosophy. “Sailors are rough One also learns about the rampant illnesses, fellows, and have their full share of physical challenges, and unexpected weaknesses, but, whether careless and light- hardships that accompanied the life of an hearted, or sometimes positively wicked, no American sailor on the 74-gun ship-of-the- man has a warmer or more easily touched line Columbus. Also included, if covered heart. Tough plain spoken as he is, there is somewhat scantily, is a sailor’s eye view of no tenderer heart than Jack’s [Nordhoff’s Columbus’s mission to open American Far sobriquet for sailors]. No kinder nurse in East diplomacy and trade protection under sickness, no less selfish companion in the Commodore James Biddle. everyday pursuits of life, no more open- Nordhoff’s many prejudices handed and free-hearted giver to the poor included anti-Semitism as well as anti- and needy than he of the bronzed cheek and Chinese, Korean, Chilean, Mexican, and tarry frock” (p. 178). Hawaiian bigotries. The only nationality A sailor’s life created a touching that he appeared to respect was the camaraderie between one another and their Japanese. This narrow-mindedness likely vessel. “I regarded the old craft, the scene reflected shipboard xenophobic culture. of many, to me eventful, passages in my Nordhoff did show some unusually mature life, with a feeling of affection which I had perceptions for a young seaman, as can be never before experienced. I was not alone. seen the series of quotations that follow. Old Tars and young lads were all walking He noted that although being in the about, taking their leaves of the various navy gave him the opportunity to visit and familiar objects and places about the decks. explore foreign cultures, being part of the Here was a powder boy, holding up to the naval brotherhood limited his horizon to the light, for the last time, his bright priming quasi-legitimate waterfront businesses that wires. There, a greybeard seaman was catered to seamen. “The Sailor sees nothing brushing dust off his cutlass, and placing it really worth seeing. Seaports, devoted carefully in the overhead rack… Others entirely to the shipping matters, contain fidgeting about decks, evidently feeling little of real interest to the traveler… And if themselves sadly out of place, and half- one tears himself loose from the restraints wishing the Columbus was yet off the and influences of the ship, and undertakes Horn” (p. 191). to explore the country? He finds that he has Nordhoff, and his editor/abridger not the powers of observation, nor the McInerney, present an illuminating view of knowledge of other places with which to shipboard life during the last days of the compare that which he is now witnessing, American Navy under sail. The abridged powers indispensible to those who really version is well done. McInerney expresses would study other countries and people” (p. Nordhoff’s work in more contemporary 157). language and usages. It is, therefore, very Few of Nordhoff’s comrades cared accessible and likely to be noticed and read about anything besides drink and women by naval and maritime historians. The while on shore. He described one group of abridged book might have been more 92 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord valuable had it retained more of the roles in Pattee’s book, for he seeks to revise original’s chapter headings and summaries, the dominant Great War serving as a quasi-index document where battleship/submarine duality to explore a one might look to quote from the primary fuller and richer perspective on the war’s source. Still, this is an enjoyable read that maritime conflict. At War in Distant Waters offers a unique perspective on the seafaring convincingly argues that the British, history of the time. although focusing the majority of its surface fleet in the North Sea, keenly recognized the Louis Arthur Norton vulnerability of trade and commerce West Simsbury, Connecticut throughout its far-flung empire. As such, the Britain enticed the members of the Phillip G. Pattee. At War in Distant Waters: Commonwealth and their allies into an British Colonial Defense in the Great War. economy-of-force campaign against Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, German commerce raiders and battle www.nip.org, 2013. xi+272pp., cruisers prowling the international shipping illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, lanes. index. US $59.95, cloth; ISBN 978-1- Rather than fashioning a revisionist 61251-184-8. history of Britain’s naval war during the First World War, Pattee instead outlines a Two types of ships dominate the common British grand strategy that sought to perception of the Great War at sea: the awe- leverage every element of national power— inspiring dreadnought, bristling with huge diplomatic, rhetorical, military, and guns and covered in armour, responsible for economic—to counter the threat of the naval arms race that many point to as a commerce raiding from the Germany navy. proximate cause of the war; and the Starting in the decade prior to the war’s unterseeboot, or U-boats, the German outbreak, Britain expanded its underground submarines that plied the North Atlantic cable and wireless networks so that in future sinking ships and spreading terror. The two conflicts they could rapidly identify ship types, so markedly distinct and troubled locations and surge war ships to uniquely associated with specific meet German threats while diverting cargo belligerents, have framed the historic vessels from area of known German raiding. dialogue concerning the maritime To further ensure the security of their dimensions of the First World War. It helps commerce, any strategy executed by the that historians and strategists alike can link British navy in colonial waters had to each ship with a naval strategist, the counter two German capabilities: dreadnoughts clearly designed for Mahanian Germany’s own cable and wireless contests between fleets, and the u-boat, the networks and the battle cruisers and other embodiment of a wider Corbettian conflict ad hoc commerce raiders mobilized to over commerce and shipping lanes. attack British trade. If the British defeated A glance at Phillip G. Pattee’s new these, the German threat to Britain’s over- work, At War in Distant Waters, indicates the-water trade would collapse. that it branches out from the traditional The book builds over several narratives. The Australian battle cruiser, chapters to the rapid British and HMAS Australia, graces the front cover, the Commonwealth victory in the sea lanes. By photograph taken during its June 1913 sea mid-1915, British and Commonwealth trials. Cruisers, wireless stations, and battle cruisers had either isolated or sunk British imperial partners play prominent most German surface raiders while Book Reviews 93 capturing or destroying all significant cable economy-of-force strategy, briskly covering and wireless stations. This swift move to the operations themselves. Pattee situates secure imperial trade carried strategic his work within the historiography, avoiding ramifications beyond the colonial regions. knocking down straw-men or tilting at The German navy, Pattee contends, sought windmills. He effectively drives home a to avoid a climactic battle in the North Sea central point: the British earnestly sought a early in the war, hoping that success with Mahanian engagement and mastery of the commerce raiding would siphon British sea, but realized that they would have to combat power from the North Sea. Once listen to the whisperings of Corbett in their British and German forces reached parity, ear to get there. German strike groups could break the Andrew J. Forney British blockade, with follow-on operations West Point, New York taking place in the channel or against the home islands. Pattee ably demonstrates how Britain’s early success against surface commerce raiding became a crucial John Rieske (ed.). Hunting the Essex: A component of the strategic equation in the Journal of the voyage of HMS Phoebe North Sea. Thus, Jutland, while a tactical 1813-1814 by Midshipman Allen Gardiner. defeat and an operational draw for the Barnsley, Yorks.: Seaforth Publishing, British, served as a clear British strategic www.seaforthpublishing.co.uk, 2013. 151 victory. Unable to either harass trade or pp., illustrations, notes, appendix, break the North Sea blockade, the Germans bibliography. US $29.95, hardback; ISBN found themselves forced to turn to 978-1-84832-174-8. submarine warfare. This decision to counter British strength with an asymmetric Winning a war (or a naval battle) often capability threatened the naval balance of allows the victor’s perspective of the action power in the Atlantic…but not before to become the historical view. Obviously, drawing the United States into the war in antagonists may differ with regard to the 1917. event’s details. Hunting the Essex is a The strength of At War in Distant British midshipman’s journal-account of an Waters lies in its ability to link naval affairs Anglo-American naval mêlée in the Pacific with national grand strategy. Beyond the during the War of 1812. History records admiralty, the British found success using that the British clearly prevailed, yet the diplomacy to close neutral ports to American who lost the encounter, Captain commerce raiders and enforce international David Porter, published his version of the law to seize ships infringing upon neutrals’ episode, Journal of a Cruise to the Pacific responsibilities. At the same time, British Ocean by Captain David Porter in the propaganda fomented righteous rage against United States Frigate Essex, in the years German mining of international waters, 1812, 1813, and 1814 (Philadelphia, PA: laying the rhetorical groundwork for future Bradford and Inskip, 1815) in two volumes; anti-German fury during the U-boat revised by Wiley and Halsted (New York, campaigns after 1916. Those looking for 1822). Porter’s work, arguably self-serving, either an in-depth analysis of the naval has largely furnished the American view of operations in colonial waters or a scathing the events of this episode. Until this critique of prior books on the subject will publication of Midshipman Allen Gardiner’s find neither here. The majority of the text account, Captain James Hillyar’s British examines the formulation of the colonial chronicle of the defeat of the frigate USS 94 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Essex off Valparaiso has largely gathered and Cherub hunted Essex. Combined, dust in official Admiralty files. Phoebe and Cherub would likely defeat the As the journal’s author narrates, lone American warship. with the declaration of the War of 1812, On 3 February 1814, Porter sailed HMS Phoebe (46 guns) and the into the harbour of Valparaiso, Chile, for merchantman Isaac Todd sailed from provisions and minor repairs aware that the England for Oregon with Admiralty orders British squadron would almost certainly to take possession of Fort Astoria, an find him there. This being a neutral port, American fur trading post. Stopping at Rio Porter was safe from attack and should be de Janeiro to replenish supplies, the British able to sneak back out to sea when an commander of the Brazilian station, Rear opportunity arose. Indeed, Phoebe, Admiral Manley Dixon, altered the original commanded by Captain James Hillyar, orders. The small sloops of war Racoon (18 glided into Valparaiso on 8 February, guns) and Cherub (26 guns) were to assist followed shortly by Cherub. The enemy Phoebe in her protection duties. Dixon had ships stayed close by at anchor for seven learned that Captain David Porter’s weeks carefully eyeing each other and American warship USS Essex (46 guns) playing maritime cat and mouse games. On was seizing British whaling ships in the 28 March, Porter decided to make a run to Pacific. The aggressive Porter might international waters past the British ships. challenge the British attempt to capture Fort Under close-reefed topsails and topgallants, Astoria. Essex sailed from Valparaiso. A sudden Porter had risen rapidly through the violent gust damaged the main-topmast ranks in the fledgling American Navy from hurling it and several crewmen into the sea. a midshipman in 1798 to captain by 1811. The American frigate was now crippled and Promotion came after earning the respect of at the mercy of the weather—and the the naval command for his heroism and British. Hillyar would not let the courage under fire during the Quasi War opportunity pass and Phoebe and Cherub with France and the Barbary States War. quickly set sail. Porter’s primary mission at the onset of the The battle between the three War of 1812 was to interdict British warships began in late afternoon. Phoebe warships and marine commerce in the raked Essex’s stern, while Cherub fired at Atlantic. Without specific orders, Porter the starboard bow of the virtually helpless sailed around Cape Horn and began to Essex. Essex had suffered heavy damage to disrupt the British Pacific whaling fleet. her rigging and many casualties among her His successful capture of twelve whalers crew. Porter fought back with his short- and burning of three others was the result of range carronades, but the Essex’s long guns British surprise at encountering an were even more effective, forcing both American warship in the Pacific. British ships to disengage and repair Badly damaged during a violent damage. In desperation, Porter ordered storm after leaving the Atlantic Brazilian grappling irons thrown outboard to fasten port, the Isaac Todd’s guns, supplies, and his vessel to Phoebe, but Porter’s attempt to many of its crew were transferred to board the British ship was unsuccessful. Racoon. The small warship would be Fires broke out on Essex forcing her better able to navigate the treacherous crewmen to abandon their guns to battle the shifting sand bars at the entrance to the flames. In panic, several men deserted in Columbia River. Raccoon now sailed for the only intact boat. Of the 255 men on Oregon to capture Fort Astoria as Phoebe board the Essex at the start of the battle, 58 Book Reviews 95 were killed, 66 wounded, 31 were missing bibliography, index. US $18.95, UK and presumed drowned. Some 24 men £12.99, CDN $19.95, paper; ISBN 978-1- reached the safety of shore, bruised and 84908-623-3. battered. By contrast, the Phoebe lost four killed and seven wounded and Cherub, one The basic underpinning of Mark Stille’s killed and three wounded. Two and a half book is a comparison of U.S. and Japanese hours after the first shots were fired, Porter destroyer class ships in the war for the struck his colours. Midshipman Gardiner Pacific. He examines first the technical was given command of the battered prize design elements of the ships, then training ship Essex. As prisoners of war, Porter and and doctrine, and finally their operations in his surviving crewmen were ultimately the Central and Northern Solomon Islands paroled, arriving in New York on 6 July group. In a series of actions, the two 1814. destroyer fleets were engaged during Gardiner’s graphic version of the extremely high tempo operations designed actions of February 1814 presents Hillyar to maintain control of the seas and by and his naval battle tactics as heroic and extension the islands and their garrisons that brilliant. He places Porter in a far lesser depended on supply by sea for survival. light. One’s vantage points in the fog of The idea for the book is sound. war can obscure details of events and a After all, these ships were designed for hard-fought victory can be intoxicating to a similar duties and missions. Comparable in young midshipman. Still, this journal is a terms of size and complement, it is natural first-person account of a rare and significant to look at the encounters of these ships in War of 1812 Pacific battle. On another the Solomons actions to see the strengths level, Gardiner rambles on about shipboard and weaknesses of the destroyer forces in life, his disdain for bull fighting, the both navies. To do this, the author provides economic potential of Chile, and South in a series of short chapters a brief treatment American society of the time. He writes a of the key issues in ship design and lyrical description of the Andes at Sunset, technical specifications, crew training and yet displays a bit of annoying class composition, the strategic situation in which snobbery. combat took place, followed up with the In summary, Hunting the Essex is a ships’ experience in a series of battles, and a primary source document focused upon the statistical analysis. The book also includes War of 1812 in the Pacific and in particular a chronology of events and a short an episode involving the naval service of conclusion. David Porter. It offers a different insight Good as is the conception, the final into the events of the Phoebe and Cherub product lacks depth. At a total of 80 pages verses Essex battle, thus putting Porter’s that includes the bibliography and index, better-known account into a fresh and lavishly illustrated with both perspective. photographs and art, it puts a lot of emphasis on image over substance. The Louis Arthur Norton extremely short discussion of each of the West Simsbury, Connecticut important issues addressed is probably the greatest liability. In the first chapter on Mark Stille. USN Destroyer vs IJN “Design and Development,” for example, Destroyer: Pacific 1943. Oxford: Osprey the author examines both American and Publishing, 2012. www.ospreypublishing Japanese design principles and several areas .com, 2012. 80 pp., illustrations, of doctrine, but does so in only two pages of 96 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord text for the United States Navy (USN) and submarine variant. less than half page for the Imperial Japanese The author does include a valuable Navy. Yet , there were ten different designs discussion of gunnery radar used in the U.S. of U.S. destroyer in the early stages of the ships, and important in the battles around war and seven Japanese, based solely on the the Solomons. This provides a rare glimpse ships described by the author. Moreover into a valuable piece of kit usually ignored these designs evolved over time, under a by scholars. But the author really needed to variety of constraints. To be fair, the author go deeper. How well integrated was the use does provide some technical breakdown on of radar in the gunnery drill of U.S. a class by class basis later in the book. This destroyers and was it truly effective? Did is a handy reference and thus helps mitigate commanding officers grasp its value? There the brief discussion of design. Perhaps a are numerous examples of Admirals better integration of the technical data into ignoring it during the battles off the text would have made for a more Guadalcanal, and this is not addressed effective presentation. directly. The battle narratives only partly The discussion of doctrine focuses fill this gap. on night operations, and on the gun vs For scholars who need a quick torpedo schools of thought. This is useful, outline of events, the chronologically but there is no substantive treatment of anti- organized battle narratives and clear maps submarine and anti-aircraft doctrine, even are a good starting point. These accounts though these roles helped shape the design take up a little more than a quarter of the of the vessels. book, and are interesting to read. In every While the discussion of torpedo case, however, they are brief, bare bones and gun design is fascinating, it is extremely treatments. Fuller analysis of the battles brief and provides no greater understanding could have fleshed out much that is missing of issues like torpedo design flaws and the in the earlier sections on design, doctrine, optics of the fire control instruments for and training. accuracy in gunnery, let alone the gunnery A direct comparison of similar ship doctrine practiced by the fleet in preparation designs and their utilization in key for operations. How did the optics in the operations that pitted the American and gunnery sights function? What types of Japanese warships against each other had shells were carried by the fleets? Were the the potential greatly to sharpen our munitions effective or did they have understanding of destroyer operations. As it problems? What was the torpedo doctrine? is, the book is a nice coffee table volume. The gaps in the discussion of torpedoes is There are some good pieces of information particularly perplexing. The single page of for reference purposes certainly, but its text on the U.S. torpedoes says little about value over all is limited for scholars. Great mechanical problems with the Mark XV for the general population with an interest in steam torpedo. Most scholars focus on the the subject matter, but a good scholarly submarine version of the torpedo, the Mark comparison is still needed. XIV, and its problems and forget that the Rob Dienesch destroyer version suffered from the same Windsor, Ontario faults. The author’s short statement that these problems were fixed by mid-1943 gives no insight into how the problems were overcome, and appears simply to equate the improvements to those carried out for the Book Reviews 97 Donald Stoker, Kenneth J. Hagan and of emergency campaigns undertaken with Michael T. McMaster (eds.). Strategy in the an imperfect knowledge of previous events, American War of Independence. A global of the intentions of the enemy, and of the approach. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, realities of war on the ground. All actions Taylor & Francis Group, took place against a background of www.routledge.com, 2011. xviii+244 pp., impending financial crisis, a consideration tables, notes, appendices bibliography, which served to make planners abandon any index. US $49.95, paper; ISBN 978-0-415- idea of long term planning or goals. On the 69568-8. one hand, a French or Spanish “strategy” in the conflict of 1775-83 was largely absent When scholars come to write the (as James Pritchard and Thomas E.Chávez historiography of our times, they will surely demonstrate in their respective reflect on the widespread use of the term contributions); in Madrid, planners could and concept “strategy.” Indeed, beyond hardly see beyond the re-conquest of academic studies, the word is now Gibraltar and Minorca; in Versailles, war extremely widely used in politics, the aims were shaped by the rivalries between media, and in universities. In many cases, it court factions, the ever-deepening financial is now deployed without its old partners, deficit, and the sense that the rebellion tactical methods, and operational constituted a unique chance to get one over considerations. In this way, it has come to the old enemy on the other side of La serve as a justification for action and as a Manche. Even in Britain, strategy could be template for an intended or hoped-for largely ascribed to the decisive intervention outcome, rather than in its more concrete of George III, which served to overcome the and old-fashioned sense, as a realistic and Tory-Whig political divide and the latter’s achievable final aim which conformed to sympathy for many of the goals of the the tactical and operational realities on the transatlantic rebels. In America itself, ground and corresponded with the allegiances were bitterly divided: not only economic, social, and political conditions of was there a strong loyalist body in the the countries involved. As Eric J. Grove southern states (see Ricardo A. Herrera’s notes in his thoughtful introduction to this paper), but the indigenous Indian volume, the origins of America offer a clear communities were also generally more lesson to its present-day leaders: “in any era sympathetic to the cause of Hanoverian the pacification of a hostile, unwelcoming Britain than to that of the rebellious country can be more difficult than it colonies. The American War of promises to be at first sight.” Independence was also a civil war. The difficulty in applying concepts Contingency, rather than intention, such as “strategy” and “strategic ambitions” was the defining characteristic of this without registering them in more mundane conflict. Farce, rather than strategy, logistical, political, and economic contexts characterized the French and Spanish is a particularly acute one when studying declarations of war in 1778 and 1779 the American War of Independence. In the respectively. On the other hand, the final first place, it has been observed by N.A.M. outcome—the independence of the former Rodger that the modern concept of strategy colonies—was the declared intention of was almost entirely alien to the political and George Washington and his followers from military leaders of this period. As the 1776. Washington famously formulated a contributions to this volume demonstrate, Fabian strategy following the reverses in the the conflict might best be viewed as a series early stages of the war; it was subsequently 98 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord adopted by Nathanael Greene but not, thought about intervention but ultimately curiously, by Benjamin Lincoln. At this chose not to become involved (see the point, a pedant might wonder whether the essays by Victor Enthoven and Leos term “a Fabian strategy” is not oxymoronic, Müller). Donald Stoker and Michael W. on the basis that avoiding battle and hoping Jones provide a very scholarly and detailed that the enemy trips up can hardly be chapter based around a narrative of events, described as a strategy: Rome avoided in which the genius of Washington emerges defeat in the Second Punic War by as the main determinant of the war. Naval appointing Fabius Maximus, but the conflict strategy is examined in chapters by Kenneth was won by the rather more direct actions of J. Hagan and Professor Reeve: again, it Scipio Africanus; the American War of seems worth wondering if John Paul Jones Independence was largely decided by really was driven by a concept of strategy, Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis’ an idea which may have been beyond the over-ambitious campaigns in North emotional and intellectual horizons of an Carolina in 1780 and 1781. Greene clearly honest privateer and self-aggrandising recognized that had the British commander lobbyist such as he. fortified and defended the series of positions All of the essays are interesting, situated along the rivers of South Carolina, scholarly and engaging. The editors have then the Patriot position in this region performed an excellent job in avoiding the would have been very precarious. Like repetition or duplication of material. The Napoleon’s favourite generals, he was volume will be of great use to lecturers lucky. Cornwallis allowed himself to be teaching third-year undergraduate and seduced by the dream of being Scipio postgraduate courses; the engaged general Africanus, of chasing the confederates from reader will find much of interest in it. North Virginia, a plan which was in large Perhaps the only criticism that can be made part based upon the attractiveness of would be that some idea of what “strategy” rallying “the numerous loyalists” of the might have meant to Washington or Greene state by demonstrating “the superiority of would have made an interesting chapter: an our arms.” In this sense American exploration of their understanding of history independence was brought about by History and war might have been illuminating. itself, by the classical education which It hardly needs to be said that the conditioned the plans and dreams of the outcome of the American War of leading actors. Independence was one of the pivotal events This collection of learned papers of history and the war involved nearly all of brings together eight essays showcasing a the leading European powers of the day; on variety of perspectives. Jeremy Black and the other side, the forces deployed on the John Reeve take issue with Paul Kennedy’s ground were often very small in number, the classic argument about British failure in the terrain over which they fought was conflict being due to London’s inability to apparently very poor—in much of North enlist a European ally in the war. The and South Carolina the land appears to have principal losers were the Native Americans, been deserted, if not an actual desert. The who were abandoned by British negotiators colonial armies carried portable windmills in Paris in 1782. As Karim M. Tiro notes in with them, which they disassembled and re- his fascinating study, at the end of the assembled whenever circumstances fighting the indigenous tribes could foresee allowed. Greene’s decision to build boats the future course of events. The Dutch on “four wheels …to be moved with little fared only slightly better, while Russia more difficulty than a loaded wagon” was a Book Reviews 99 stroke of genius that helped to save his Tangredi’s latest book, Anti-Access army in the Chase to the Dan River. In this Warfare: Countering A2/AD Strategies, is sense the central protagonist in the another such effort. For the most part, American War of Independence was not Tangredi succeeds in giving an informative strategy, or the future first president, examination of past and modern Greene, or George III. The decisive factor “warfighting strategies focused on was the terrain itself — the hills around preventing an opponent from operating Boundbrook, New Jersey, from which a military forces near, into, or with in a wary Washington spied on the Redcoats; the contested region” (1). While not sand bars at the entrance to Cape Fear necessarily ground-breaking in its scope and River, and the shallow lakes on which content, the book effectively leverages hybrid warships tentatively sailed (they history to elicit strategic insights into the appeared normal vessels above the potential wars of tomorrow and how to fight waterline, “but were like flat-bottomed them. scows below”); the plains of North Carolina Known today as anti-access and trodden by desperate men “as ragged as area denial, or A2/AD, this term describes wolves”; the malarial swamps around the “primary strategic challenges” to Charleston; the complex of forts on the American security objectives (p. 1). Using Hudson River; the harbours around historical and contemporary cases, Tangredi Chesapeake Bay— which was to have such argues that confronting any A2/AD strategy a profound outcome on the result of the war. will require more than just military Perhaps more than any other war, this operations. In the future, access challenges conflict was one in which the environment will require a full government approach that shaped all stages of the fighting, which took employs all national instruments of power place in a land of vast expanse, with sparse to execute a coherent “counter anti-access” civilian populations and tiny armies. In this campaign. The author contends that any use sense, the central protagonist in the War of of the military instrument will have to rely Independence was America itself, its on maritime capabilities when countering a mountains and prairies, rivers, swamps and potential adversary’s A2/AD operations. To lakes. that end, Tangredi’s book is a constructive, open-source contribution to the larger Philip Williams discussion of countering access challenges. Southsea (Hants.), England Tangredi organizes his book logically with theoretical concepts and Sam J. Tangredi. Anti-Access Warfare: examples. He begins with an introduction Countering A2/AD Strategies. Annapolis, that uses the Battle of Thermopylae and MD: Naval Institute Press, www.nip.org, Desert Storm to establish “five fundamental 2013. x+306 pp., tables, notes, bibliography, elements” of “anti-access and area denial index. US $47.95, UK £29.60, cloth; ISBN strategies across history” (p. 13). Similar to 978-1-61251-186-3. Alfred Thayer Mahan and Sir Julian Corbett a century ago, Tangredi creates a framework As many in the United States seek to to analyze and assess his theory. To distance themselves from the protracted, paraphrase the author, he asserts that the unsatisfying wars of the last thirteen years, fundamental elements of anti-access warfare defense analysts and commentators have are firstly the perception that the attacking taken on the difficult task of considering force is strategically superior; secondly, future wars and strategies to win them. Sam geography has the most influence on time 100 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord and aids in the attrition of the enemy; counter-access campaigns could be thirdly, the maritime domain is the successful. He also notes that there is still predominant conflict space; fourthly, much uncertainty in how any of these new information and intelligence are as critical wars might end, especially against as operational deception is deceptive; and America’s greatest potential foe in the lastly, outside events can have an impact on People’s Republic of China. With that in the outcome of the A2/AD contest. mind, he suggests that the best way for the Tangredi’s framework becomes much of the U.S. to solve the anti-access problem is to organizational scheme for the remainder of keep the potential adversary “blind” to any the book. maritime and joint capabilities entering the The main body of the book region, thus eliminating the wall before it includes a modern concept of anti-access can be put up. Indeed, this is an intriguing followed by an overarching strategy of how recommendation, but here, Tangredi might to defeat an “Anti-access Campaign.” He have also echoed his earlier call for a then describes three historical cases where “whole of government” approach in order to the anti-access sides achieved victory and avoid any misunderstanding of the book’s three examples of where they failed. For central purpose—explaining why all the the victories, Tangredi considers the English tools of national power must be used in a defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the counter anti-access campaign. Ottoman defense of the Turkish Straits in Given his reliance on open-source the First World War, and Britain’s victory materials, mainly coming from defense over Germany in the Battle of Britain and think-tanks and official Department of Operation Sea Lion in 1941. The three anti- Defense publications, Tangredi’s treatment access defeats are Germany’s loss of of anti-access and area denial is at times “Fortress Europe” in 1944-45, Imperial unwieldy and disjointed. Missing from his Japan’s loss to the Allies in the Pacific in sources are the writings of Milan Vego, 1945, and Argentina’s failure to retain the Proceedings articles written by the current Falkland Islands in 1983. His last four Chief of Naval Operations (Admiral chapters explore present-day anti-access Jonathan Greenert) and the open-release cases facing the United States in the twenty- brochures provided by the AirSeaBattle first century. Specifically, he examines Office in the Department of Defense. As a challenges presented by China in East Asia, result, there are lapses in style and some Iran in Southwest Asia, Russia in central over-reliance on doctrinal jargon, however, Eurasia and North Korea in Northeast Asia. Anti-Access Warfare is a must-read for Perhaps the most appealing aspect anyone interested in understanding the of Tangredi’s analysis is the fact that he prospect of A2/AD warfare in the maritime examines each potential anti-access case domain. from conflict initiation through the various Jon Scott Logel possibilities for war termination, something Portsmouth, Rhode Island not normally done in the current open- source literature covering anti-access. He asks the rhetorical, yet uncomfortable, question of what happens after the anti- access power fails to keep the countering power out—“Now what?” (p. 250). Acknowledging that gaining access is often an interim goal, Tangredi postulates how Book Reviews 101 Martin Thornton. Churchill, Borden and impressed by Churchill’s arguments for a Anglo-Canadian Naval Relations, 1911-14. Canadian contribution to bolster the Royal New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, Navy, a policy that had the added benefit, www.palgrave.com, 2013. xix+187 pp., from Borden’s perspective, of upsetting the illustrations, appendices, notes, plans of his predecessor, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, bibliography, index. US $95.00, hardback; to develop an autonomous Canadian navy. ISBN 978-1-137-30086-7. Churchill, on the other hand, was grateful for Borden’s efforts and was willing to take Canadian naval policy has seldom generated political risks on his behalf. The most much interest in Great Britain, with the obvious challenge faced by the First Lord notable exception of the Naval Aid Bill was to make the case that Britain faced a introduced to the Canadian House of genuine naval emergency without creating a Commons by Robert Borden’s Conservative panic in Britain or suggesting that his own government in the autumn of 1912. This preparations had been inadequate. legislation was intended to provide for the Thornton’s efforts to provide a mid- construction, in British shipyards, of three Atlantic perspective on this episode achieve new dreadnought battleships for Britain’s mixed results. The book’s strength is its Royal Navy. The naval arms race with treatment of the Canadian side of the story, Germany was placing considerable strain on and in particular, the author’s skillful British finances at this time, and the dissection of the highly-charged debates possibility that Canada might alleviate some over naval policy in the Canadian of the burden was warmly welcomed by the Parliament. Borden’s case for the British Admiralty, and especially the young contribution of ships to the British navy and first lord, Winston S. Churchill. Behind the a more centralized imperial defence policy scenes, the up-and-coming British cabinet ran into strong opposition from many minister worked closely with the more quarters, including French Canadians and senior Dominion prime minister, supplying nationalists, who preferred the development him with information and documents to of a distinctly Canadian naval service that persuade Canadians that Britain urgently would remain under Ottawa’s control. needed their aid. Borden’s Naval Aid Bill Despite the best efforts of both Borden and was highly controversial, however, and was Churchill, many remained skeptical of the ultimately rejected by the Canadian Senate, idea that Britain faced a naval emergency. where the Liberal Party commanded a Moreover, Churchill’s attempts to support majority. Borden were not always successful. Many These events have typically been Canadians were offended by the first lord’s treated either as a colourful episode in observations that the Canadian shipbuilding Canadian political history or as a minor industry was not up to the task of building distraction in the development of pre-war dreadnoughts, and that the vessels could be British naval policy. This volume is the first built more economically in British attempt to give equal weight to events on shipyards. both sides of the Atlantic, an approach that The book pays far less attention to allows the author to explore the close the British side of the story, and provides collaboration that developed between only the most superficial treatment of Borden and Churchill. The two politicians British naval policy. The bibliography, for corresponded regularly during this period example, contains just a single file from the and a strong degree of mutual trust appears Admiralty records in Britain’s National to have developed. Borden was clearly Archives. This is a serious shortcoming. 102 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Thornton is seemingly unaware of the considerable discomfort as well. The first complexity of Admiralty policy in the years lord promptly enlisted Borden’s aid, but the before the outbreak of war, and Canadian prime minister’s role in the consequently fails to understand Churchill’s resolution of this crisis receives no attention motives. The first lord’s commitment to here. Nor does the author explore how obtaining Canadian dreadnoughts was not, Borden’s failure to deliver Canadian as Thornton implies, motivated simply by dreadnoughts forced the British to reshape the need to keep up with Germany. In the their naval policy on the eve of the First summer of 1912, the British Cabinet made a World War. momentous decision to compete against This book fails to deliver both Germany and its ally, Austria-Hungary. everything the title promises, but the Churchill was not unduly alarmed by the Canadian subject matter is generally well naval balance in the North Sea: the handled. Whether it represents good value “emergency” he faced was Britain’s for money is another matter. The text, declining margins in the Mediterranean Sea, excluding appendices, runs to only 136 which could only be met if the dominions pages, which hardly seems to justify the were able and willing to put dreadnoughts at publisher’s hefty price tag. Britain’s disposal. Similarly, Thornton is Christopher M. Bell unable to place Churchill’s Canadian Halifax, Nova Scotia policies in the context of his evolving views on imperial naval defence, and therefore, cannot explain important developments like Geoffrey Till. Asia’s Naval Expansion: an the proposal to assign the Canadian Arms Race in the Making? London: dreadnoughts to a mobile “Imperial International Institute for Strategic Studies Squadron.” (IISS), www.iiss.org, 2012. 251 pp., It should also be noted that the illustrations, maps, tables, appendix, notes, book has little to say about Anglo-Canadian index. AU $28.44, paper; ISBN 978-0-415- naval relations after the Senate’s rejection of 69638-8. Borden’s Naval Aid Bill in May 1913. This is unfortunate, since the fate of the Geoffrey Till examines the naval Canadian dreadnoughts continued to be an situation in the Asia-Pacific region between important issue for Churchill, especially 2000 and 2012 to answer the question: does during the British Cabinet crisis over the the expansion that is occurring now 1914 naval estimates. Thornton mistakenly constitute an arms race? The work presents suggests that Churchill felt he might need to an analysis of four of the largest resign over the failure of the Canadian participants: China, India, Japan and the government to supply three new United States, to determine whether an dreadnoughts. It is true that Churchill came action-reaction dynamic is present. While close to resigning in January 1914, but for referring occasionally to the other naval different reasons. The British Cabinet powers in the region, he seeks further to threatened to cancel the construction of new determine whether likely future events British battleships, which would have made “might this have the de-stabilizing a mockery of Churchill’s public claims that consequences often associated with an arms Britain required urgent aid from the race?” (p. 12) dominions to bolster its strength in capital The author’s explanation of ships. This would have been humiliating for geopolitics, strategy, doctrine, and Churchill, and would have caused Borden procurement is highly generalized and Book Reviews 103 presupposes a detailed knowledge of arms race underway, the author’s yardstick weapon systems and events. The intended is the British-German naval arms race audience includes planning staffs and war leading up to the First World War. In the colleges, according to the back cover. The discussion of procurement and work is divided into chapters headed: modernization, the author looks for Introduction; Naval modernization, Action- evidence of an arms race via “action- reaction dynamics and their drivers; Sea reaction dynamics and their drivers.” control; Traditional missions; Non- Technology is a major factor, now including traditional missions; Conclusions. directed-beam weapons and ballistic and The introduction gets off to a shaky cruise missiles. The author alludes several start in the first line with the assertion, “The times to the interplay between possible strength of the navies of the Asia-Pacific theatres of combat in addition to war at sea: region has increased in an unprecedented land, space and now the cyber sphere. This fashion in the first decade of the twentieth discussion becomes concrete dealing with century” (p. 11). While probably a typo, the interplay between the services: army, since the author certainly means the twenty- navy, air force, and in America’s case, the first century, this does not inspire Marine Corps and Coast Guard. confidence in the fast-moving account of In the chapter on sea control, there complex information that follows. is a discussion of emerging concepts like There is a discussion of Chinese Anti-access/Access denial strategy and the interpretations of Mahan’s theories. Then effect that rapidly proliferating technology the author introduces the major might have on each nation’s quest for sea complicating factor of the current sea control. The analysis of doctrine descends trading system that involves a high degree into linguistic complexity based on of economic interdependence between acronym-studded terminology: “Semi- nations that are also competitors, like China official and official American interest in vis-à-vis Japan, the U.S.A., and developing an alternate ‘Off-shore Control’ increasingly, India. He also introduces the and anti SLOC strategy” (p. 73). The complexity of the threats in terms of concepts and doctrine expressed use the proliferating political sources and the mind- language the U.S. military, for example, boggling pace of technical change. Under “air-sea battle” and “warfighting,” as well the sub-heading, Problems of analysis, he as Eastern renditions of concepts such as includes the vexing problem of “words” “an informationalised local war.” The used to describe the “public discourse” of discussion becomes more obscure for each navy’s publications. There is an Chinese planning, with terms such as obvious gap here in that sources cited are “China’s alleged ‘Strings of Pearls’ concept almost exclusively English-language, for an extension of their areas of concern” including newspapers and journals like and “Confucian notions of the ‘Harmonious Straits Times and Jane’s Defence Weekly, Ocean” (p. 74). and translations of the official publications In the chapter on traditional of each country. The author points out that missions, there is a section entitled Gun- primary sources are non-existent, and boat diplomacy, referring to the visits of secondary sources very fragmentary, in the Indian and Chinese naval vessels. This is case of China. He infers the likely course curious since the situation today is a of future events from behaviour as reported remnant of pre-1949 Asia, when there really in the media. were gunboats, not only at sea, but far into To determine whether there is an the interior on the rivers. Non-traditional 104 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord missions include sections on expeditionary academic work, it is presented as one, but operations and disaster relief. without the hallmarks of a scholarly, The author’s prediction for future balanced work. It relies on a severely events is equivocal, but leans toward a restricted set of sources, which are almost cooperative and inter-dependent exclusively English-language. The lack of a relationship. The time-scale of procurement bibliography or consolidated list of sources in China is comparatively lengthy. With the is more than an inconvenience, since the events surrounding North Korea and the notes that contain the information on Diaoyu/Senkaku dispute, Till asks whether sources are fragmentary and often refer to policy moves in Japan to regularize the earlier notes. The lack of a list of acronyms military increase the likelihood of a restricts the audience to specialists and destructive arms race to replace the balance academics who have a command of the in the current situation. terminology and subject matter. The The exclusion of Russia in a author’s point of view is illustrated most discussion of Asian naval expansion is clearly in the reverential tone he reserves problematic. Expelled from mainland China for the U.S. Marine Corps. He asserts: “The in1949 and, thereafter, allied with countries U.S. Marine Corps continues to set the gold of the “First Island Chain,” notably the standard.” In this he shows himself, as he Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan, Russia is an does throughout, to be standing very close Asian naval power by virtue of its to the U.S. position. geography and history. While an example IISS has produced (at least) two of the author’s American-centric stance, it supporting videos, an eight-minute Q and A likely reflects restricted access as well as with the author and a longer lecture with the the intractable problem of words. Another identical title to this work on youtube. is his reliance on the work of Yoshihara and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBSu51 Holmes as “authoritative,” whereas they HkSA8. claim only that it is intended to help the Kathy Crewdson and Ian Dew U.S. Navy manage the situation. Thunder Bay, Ontario Accompanying the text, there are a few simple graphic representations which are valuable for comparison. Maps are Glyn Williams. Naturalists at Sea: basic but purport to show quickly the region Scientific Travellers from Dampier to with sea lanes; East China Sea, and Darwin. New Haven, CT: Yale University “Chinese island chains.” Tables transmit Press, www.yalebooks.com 2013. xv+309 information quickly and succinctly but the pp., illustrations, map, bibliography, index. only photograph is on the cover. It is a US $38.00, cloth; ISBN 978-0-300-18073- dramatic shot of a massive U.S. aircraft 2. carrier, a few hundred metres away and headed straight at the camera at high speed. In his introductory chapter, Williams Does the book work? Once the discusses the early years of the practice of author’s point-of-view and method are natural history at sea, and how this understood, it does, offering a snapshot of gradually evolved from collecting species the situation as of 2012. As a monograph in for medicinal or commercial purposes, to the Adelphi Series published for IISS, it is collecting for research and classification. the author’s view reflecting the institutes's He places the turning point at which the values, of a rapidly-moving situation. interest became purely academic in the last Although the author never claims it to be an decades of the seventeenth century. The Book Reviews 105 following ten chapters are written portraits Chapter eight is devoted to the of sea-going naturalists and their work, ‘experimental gentlemen’ who accompanied from the end of the seventeenth century Cook on his third voyage, and thereafter until the 1830s. William Dampier is the George Vancouver. They are surgeon first, an English buccaneer with a scholarly William Anderson, and David Nelson, a inclination, who published books on his gardener from Kew, and botanist Archibald circumnavigation of the world and a voyage Menzies. The naturalists who sailed with to Australia, both including illustrated the French Count de la Pérouse to the reports on natural history. Dampier was not Pacific, whose undertaking disappeared schooled in this field, but was a keen there, and those with his countryman, Bruny observer who described rather than d’Entrecasteaux, who went looking for La classified what he saw. His collections and Pérouse, are discussed in the following observations included plants, fruit and chapter. With La Perouse went, among animals, as well as aspects of ethnography others, the gardener Jean-Nicolas and anthropology; Dampier was the first Collingnon, the surgeons Claude-Nicolas European to collect plants in Australia. The Rollin and Simon-Pierre Lavaux, and second portrait is of Georg Wilhelm Steller, botanist Joseph-Hughes de Lamartinière. a young German mineralogist and botanist, D’Entrecasteau’s search for La Pérouse who joined Vitus Bering in 1741 on his last commenced in 1791 and he was joined by voyage from Kamchatka to Alaska. There, the botanists J-J Houton de Labillardière, L- Steller was allowed a very brief visit on the A Deschamps and Claude Riche. The next shore; unfortunately, Bering did not let him naturalist is the Spaniard Antonio Pineda, take on board specimens he had gathered. who was seconded by the French-born Steller’s accounts of the voyage were botanist Luis Née and the Czech-born Tadeo published long after his death, as is often Haenke. They sailed to the Pacific in also the case with later naturalists. Next is Spanish service under Italian-born Philibert de Commerson, a Frenchman with Alejandro Malaspina, whose expedition was a passion for collecting plants. He took part modelled on the voyages of Cook and La in the first French circumnavigation of the Pérouse. The ninth chapter deals with the world, under Louis-Antoine de Bougainville circumnavigation of Australia by the from 1766-1769, leaving the ship at English lieutenant Matthew Flinders, from Mauritius. His publication on life on Tahiti 1801-1803, and the voyage along much of overshadowed his research on plants, fish, the coast of that continent during the same shells and other objects. Commerson is years, by the French hydrographer Nicolas followed by the work of the English and Baudin. Botanist Robert Brown sailed with Swedish botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Flinders, as did gardener Peter Good. Solander during their voyage with James Baudin, himself also a naturalist, was joined Cook, from 1768-1771. They need no by zoologists François Péron and René further introduction to the readers of this Maugé, and gardener Anselm Riedlé; the journal. Next Williams discusses Johann latter two died early-on during the voyage. Reinhold Forster, who was born in Danzig Flinders’ voyage concentrated on natural and joined Cook on his second voyage, in history, while the French emphasis was on search of the supposed great southern zoology and anthropology. The last chapter continent. Forster botanized, and collected in Naturalists at Sea is devoted to Charles plants, fish, birds, shells, and ethnographic Darwin’s voyage in the Beagle, who will artefacts in New Zealand and the Pacific need no further introduction. islands and observed their inhabitants. I have listed the names and 106 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord nationalities of most of the naturalists, who Dutch service who visited the Moluccas in often were also the ships’ surgeon, to show the 1820s (Andreas Weber, Hybrid what a large field Williams has covered, and Ambitions, Leiden, 2012), and of Karl what an international company it was. The August Möbius, the German zoologist who voyages in which they took part have been sailed to Mauritius and the Seychelles in the written up, but mostly by others and not 1870s (Ulrich van der Heyden, et al., Die from the point of view of the naturalists Reize des Deutschen Forchers Karl August themselves. With the exception of Cook’s Mobius, Wiesbaden, 2012). first voyage (primarily to observe the transit Glyn Williams is an eminent of Venus), none of the others was purely for historian of the discovery of the Pacific. science, but for commerce, discovery, or His Naturalists at Sea is a well-written, hydrography. As a result, the naturalists’ scholarly book on an aspect of natural tasks and their collecting were not always history that has not been highlighted in this understood or respected by the various way before. It is handsome and well- commanders and their crews. This often led illustrated, with 39 colour plates and a map to opposition, intrigues and conflicts that of the Pacific Ocean; one or more maps per added to the hardships of cramped living chapter with the routes of the discussed conditions while trying to preserve collected voyages would have been helpful. plants, etc. Despite these drawbacks, most W.F.J. Mörzer Bruyns of the research eventually led to valuable Bussum, The Netherlands scientific publications. Williams places his naturalists and their accomplishments in the broader Capt. Robert B. Workman, Jr., USCG (Ret.). context of the expeditions in which they Float Planes and Flying Boats. The U.S. participated, and also in the development of Coast Guard and Early Naval Aviation. natural history in their times, whereby the Annapolis, MD; US Naval Institute Press, work of Carl Linnaeus is often the red www.usni.org, 2012. xx+322 pp., thread. Naturalists at Sea is, therefore, not illustrations, maps, tables, appendices, just a series of biographical articles, as the notes, index,. US $41.95, cloth; ISBN 978- title might suggest, but an overview of 1-61251-107-8. natural history as practised from ships, between the end of the seventeenth and the The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) is America’s first half of the nineteenth century. smallest armed service yet one of its oldest. Williams has managed to find a balance Frequently overlooked by naval aviation between the accomplishments of the lesser- historians and enthusiasts, the USCG’s known expeditions and those of the Banks- aviation branch has been a part of the Cook and La Pérouse voyages, which often USCG since its present incarnation in 1915. overshadow similar achievements. As the Float Plans and Flying Boats, by Robert B. author notes in his introduction, some forty Workman Jr., a retired USCG officer, tells years ago no comprehensive study on the the story of the early days of USCG history of the discovery of the Pacific was aviation and as well, early U.S. Navy available, and the bibliography of (USN) and U.S Marine Corps (USMC) Naturalists at Sea shows how much has aviation as well. since been achieved. Fortunately, this And what a story Workman tells! process continues. Even as Williams was Some background is necessary to writing, books appeared on the work of understand the challenges the USCG faced Caspar Reinwardt, the German naturalist in in developing an effective aviation branch. Book Reviews 107 The USCG was formed on 28 January 1915 weaknesses. by the merging of two prior organizations: Later, Stone was detached to the the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (formed in USN, where he was instrumental in 1790) and the U.S. Life-Saving Service. developing the first effective aircraft carrier Although America had an earlier naval catapults and other aircraft carrier flight service, that had been disbanded and the deck equipment. When he returned to the present USN was not formed until 1794. USCG, Stone served as executive officer Throughout, the USN has had budgetary aboard a USCG Cutter. Internal politics priorities in both manpower and equipment played a role here: the senior USCG officers and the USCG and its predecessor had been ship-trained and did not organizations have been in second place for understand the potential and uses of aircraft. manpower and equipment. Moreover, in They were, therefore, wary of Stone’s wartime, the USCG automatically becomes interest in aviation. After that, Stone part of the USN; in peacetime, the USCG continued to work on developing the reassumes its separate identity. When USCG’s aviation branch. He died suddenly America entered the First World War on 2 of a heart attack in 1936 while inspecting a April 1917, the USCG had a mere two years new aircraft for the USCG. By that time, and two months to sort out the difficulties aviation had become an integral and attendant in creating a new organization out essential element of the USCG, including of two earlier ones when it was merged with land-based aircraft, float planes, and flying the USN. boats. All were seen as vital to performance From the beginning, USCG of the USCG’s mission—thanks in no small aviation has been closely associated with part to Elmer F. Stone. Stone’s place in the aviation branches of the USN and naval aviation history is secure and he well USMC. Symbolically, the pilots of all three deserves his place in the Naval Aviation services wear identical pilot’s wings and Hall of Honor in Pensacola, Florida. part of USCG aircrew training has taken Workman relates Stone’s life and career in place at USN facilities. detail and the reader comes away with a full A key player in USCG aviation appreciation of Elmer Stone’s many development is Elmer F. Stone, Naval accomplishments. Aviator #38 and the USCG’s first pilot. That, however, is not all to Stone is an often-overlooked figure in naval Workman’s book. Workman consulted and aviation history—undoubtedly because of reprinted many documents from USCG his USCG status—but it is remarkable archives and has illustrated the book with HOW important Stone is to naval aviation. many rare photographs. The inclusion of During the First World War, Stone helped these items adds immensely to the narrative the USN develop its aviation branch by and often puts the reader almost back in testing aircraft and equipment. In 1919, he time to when the document or photograph was the pilot of the NC-4 flying boat, the was created. Workman concentrates on the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean. early USCG aviation efforts but does not Stone was offered a USN commission with exclude USN or USMC developments as a promotion but turned that down—he well. Unusually, he frequently interrupts returned to the USCG and continued the narrative flow with descriptions of early working to develop an effective USCG USCG aircraft accompanied by photographs aviation branch. He often tested USCG of the aircraft described when available. aircraft and was not hesitant about (Some early USCG aircraft were only identifying the aircraft’s strengths and evaluated and no photographs of them were 108 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord found.) This was probably a wise choice on that most of the contributors to this Workman’s part—this type of information is admirable collection of papers belong to a usually placed in an appendix, which the generation that had little or no experience of casual reader is likely to overlook or even naval affairs before the 1970s, and it is most ignore. Therefore, at the cost of interesting for a sailor who served between interrupting narrative flow, the reader 1950 and 1973 (before many of those considers the various USCG aircraft of the contributing to this collection had begun 1920s and 1930s. The appendices include a their naval careers) to find how an entirely timeline of American military naval new generation of sailors and scholars sees operations from 1775 (the outbreak of the the background to present naval realities. American Revolution) to 1938; a Those of us who, until the 1960s, description of the technology resulting from trained regularly with British and Australian the NC-4’s 1919 transatlantic flight; and a as well as Canadian sailors can claim some list of acronyms used in the book. The understanding of Commonwealth co- format of the chapter notes by page makes it operation, and this reviewer has perhaps easy for the reader to find the relevant more than average familiarity with the footnote and accompanying citation or subject. (Sent to Canada as a “war guest” in information. The cover has a clear photo of 1940, he returned to England as a “guest of the famous NC-4. the Admiralty” on board a Woolworth Mission interoperability is a key Carrier in 1943, having promised to join the phrase in the modern military world. RNVR if he reached the appropriate age Workman’s book highlights that this before the end of the Second World War, concept is not new; in fact, three separate came back to Canada in 1947, and in 1950 forewords open the book—one each by honoured his promise by joining the RCN.) USN, USMC, and USMC officers. Despite my subsequent service as a naval Workman’s book is a well-written, officer and official historian, which thoroughly researched work which deserves included training with RN and RAN a place on the shelves of the naval aviation contemporaries, and demanded extensive enthusiast. It is highly recommended. professional and academic connections with the RN, this book, the sixth King-Hall Robert L. Shoop conference of 2010, suggests that Colorado Springs, Colorado Commonwealth co-operation is a concept in constant transition, one that can, with Kathryn Young and Rhett Mitchell (eds.). advantage, be re-examined on a regular The Commonwealth Navies: 100 Years of basis by every new generation of sailors. Cooperation. Canberra, AUS: Sea Power Admiral Sir George King-Hall, commander- Centre, www.navy.gov.au, 2012. xviii+245 in-chief on the Australian Station from pp., tables, notes. Conference Proceedings, 1911-1913, after whom this series of paper; ISBN 978-0-642-29768-6. conferences is named, was the last of his kind. Subsequently, a rear-admiral The concept of Commonwealth Co- commanding His Majesty’s Australian fleet, operation has had a long and uneven King-Hall set the tone in the Antipodes for existence. Those of us who served in the Commonwealth cooperation in the twentieth Canadian navy in the middle part of the century. That being said, there is a tendency twentieth century had mixed views on the to overlook the fact that, in spite of the subject, possibly less positive than those sometimes shaky ground on which it rested, who have more recent service. It is notable the increased need was something that Book Reviews 109 policy makers in the Admiralty anticipated Zealandia, Africa, Hibernia, Brittania and when, in the last forty years of the Hindustan. At least one of these vessels, nineteenth century, European developments Dominion, was under the command of a led to the reduction of a British naval Canadian in the Royal Navy, Charles presence on distant stations. In the Kingsmill, who would become the first Australian case, this involved the gradual chief of naval staff of the RCN. This may build-up of local forces already in existence. have been little more than lip service, but it There was much less to build on elsewhere suggests a policy—evident in Colonial in the Empire. Conferences between 1906 and 1914—of Sea militias and provincial marines encouraging naval contributions by a wider had supplemented the RN in distant waters group of British imperial possessions. to an ever increasing extent in the Members of the naval hierarchy may have eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and hoped to give imperial naval defence the sailors who were engaged in such activities family flavour that often characterized naval on the fringes of empire sometimes entered operations in the eighteenth and nineteenth the Royal Navy: others joined directly as centuries. The First World War interrupted cadets. John Hampden Burnham’s the process, but the Admiralty succeeded, if Canadians in the Imperial Naval and not exactly in the form expected, and not Military Service Abroad, published in 1891, nearly to the extent hoped, in establishing recorded a growing number of such men an Empire Commonwealth naval family from British North America. Even after the after the war. This might be an interesting two world wars there were Canadians who line of enquiry for a student able to consult chose to serve in British rather than records in the British National Archives. Canadian armed forces. (One of them, According to the memoir of Commander James Clouston, who had Commander L.B. “Jogi” Jenson (Tin Hats, joined the RN in 1918, was killed while Oilskins and Seaboots), who first joined the directing evacuation from the beaches of RCN in 1938, the then-Lieutenant- Dunkirk in 1940.) There is a similar pattern Commander E. Rollo Mainguy, a future of Australians serving in the RN. Rear- chief of naval staff, asked him “why do you Admiral James Goldrick, who has had wish to join the navy?” Answer: “My uncle extensive and distinguished service in both is a captain in the Royal Navy and has had a the RN and the RAN, informs me that “the very interesting life. I do not want to stay in first Australian-born person to become a Calgary and see the grain elevators every naval officer (Norfolk King, the illegitimate day. I love the water and I want to see the son of Philip Gidley King RN) was born in world.” Fast forward to 1950. Captain January 1789—less than a year after (ultimately Vice-Admiral) Kenneth Dyer European settlement, and the first to asked this reviewer (then a cadet in the become an admiral. Phillip Parker King, University Naval Training Division) why he (Philip Gidley King’s legitimate son) was wanted to join the navy. The answer, born in 1791!” The Great War of 1914- among rather a lot of things, included the 1918 changed the picture, but not the idea. fact that a cousin, then a paymaster in the In 1904-6 a new class of pre-dreadnought Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, had exerted battleships, the King Edward VII class some influence on this hopeful candidate. It named after the lead ship, had turned out that the cousin in question had commissioned with the names of British been Admiral Dyer’s classmate at imperial possessions: Dominion for Canada, Pangbourne Nautical College. These are Commonwealth for Australia, New Zealand/ not, of course, typical experiences, but they 110 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord are not isolated, and they do suggest that as well as Dominion naval presence on the navies of the Empire Commonwealth, at all Pacific. Hardly mentioned in this sorts of levels, are, in fact, a widespread and collection, but perhaps to be taken into diverse family. Admiral Goldrick leads off account, is that NATO reflects a similar the collection with a concise and useful situation in the North Atlantic. discussion of the British legacy to naval Comparisons of dominion naval activities forces that sprang out of Commonwealth over the past hundred years provide a cooperation, and the difficulties of adapting texture that is all too rare, and put the post- the British model to local needs. Canadians Second World War situation in a much who went on sub-lieutenants courses with better context than a limited discussion of the Royal Navy in the months and years the post-war period would have permitted. after publication of the so-called Mainguy Nevertheless, it is clear from the papers in Report in the 1950s will recall the disdain this collection that there is also room for with which some of our RN instructors some modern Corbett or Mahan to take regarded this example of Canadian self- advantage of all the scholarship being expression. Some senior RCN officers had devoted to international naval cooperation a similar outlook; they disliked having to of the present day, for a comprehensive and wear “Canada” flashes on their uniforms. multi-dimensional account of modern At the same time, evidence provided to strategic realities. Until that happens, this members of the Mainguy Commission collection serves a most useful purpose. revealed that lower deck personnel had no W.A.B. Douglas time for officers who seemed to have Ottawa, Ontario adopted English accents and aped British manners. As events would prove, and as Admiral Goldrick has documented, co- operation went deeper than that. “A similarity in outlook in how navies should be employed has resulted, …as demonstrated in both world wars and many other conflicts, in producing navies that were much more effective in military terms than such small services have had any right to be.” Understandably, the contributors to this conference were for the most part Australian, and although the Australian emphasis was really unavoidable, participants from New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and the United States put the discussion into a wonderfully wide framework. The dreadful term AUSCANNZUKUS, which appears in the final essay in this book, written by two U.S. Navy Strategic planners and an Australian strategic planner, proclaims that the relationship has grown into an entente cordiale, and that it embraces the American