BOOK REVIEWS

David Childs. Invading America: The cleverly written synthesis. Childs has an English Assault on the New World, 1497- excellent grasp of the material, and an 1630. Barnsley, S. Yorks.: Pen & Sword impressive command of the primary Books Limited, www.pen-and-sword.co.uk, sources. While his focus may be too broad 2012. xi + 306 pp., illustrations, maps, for specialist readers, Childs should be appendices, notes, bibliography, index. UK commended for attempting to blaze a new £25.00, cloth; ISBN 978-1-84832-145-8. trail into this well-trodden territory. Childs’ declared timeframe is the Historians since Hakluyt have remarked on “long sixteenth century,” from John Cabot England’s slowness in establishing New to John Winthrop. The information on World colonies, especially in comparison Cabot is sketchy in the extreme, however, with her rival, Spain. David Childs seeks to and the author focuses almost exclusively explain the widespread failure of early on the period between Frobisher’s first English colonies by viewing them as voyage in 1576 and the Jamestown beachheads in an extended amphibious massacre of 1622. A literature review campaign. Childs identifies the factors identifies the intellectual underpinnings for crucial for successful amphibious New World voyages, ranging from John operations, which, when absent, doomed Donne to the King James Bible. The failure would-be settlers from Baffin Island to the of the Roanoke colony on the windswept Carolinas. These factors included proper reconnaissance and intelligence, sufficient Carolina Outer Banks is used to illustrate forces and supplies, realistic objectives, the importance of proper reconnaissance effective naval forces and joint command, and site selection. Chapters on period and timely resupply. Childs uses the vessels and navigation show that impressive examples of the Frobisher voyages, feats of seamanship aside, early English Roanoke, Jamestown, New England, and voyages were hamstrung by poor planning Newfoundland to demonstrate the and provisioning. Photos and numerous importance of these elements in the fortunes references to reconstructed vessels show of a colony. The work is organized that the author has done considerable thematically rather than chronologically. legwork, but these photos are often of poor While this allows the author to focus on a quality, and one is left wondering how particular topic, the result is a something of accurate these reconstructions really are. a juggling act, where events and Childs is right to emphasize the cramped personalities in different colonies are confines of these vessels, but how much mentioned in quick succession. A more worse were these conditions than those effective way to organize the work might experienced ashore? More information on have been to devote a specific chapter to the background, experiences, and values of each colony, identifying the factors inherent these Tudor and Jacobean soldiers, sailors, in its success or failure. Despite this and settlers would also be useful. Gilbert, criticism, Invading America is a detailed, Raleigh, and Lane all served in Ireland, The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord, XXIII No. 1, (January 2013), 55-98 56 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord while John Smith fought as a mercenary on writers on the subject, Childs attributes the the Continent. Some mention is made of eventual success of the English New World these Irish events, such as Raleigh’s colonies to superior demographics and massacre of the garrison of Smerwick in technology. 1580, but these are isolated examples. The Invading America is a well written English experience in Ireland was summary of the early English voyages to formative, and provided a blueprint on how North America. It is rich with detail and to subdue a restive, alien population. Ivor anecdote, but marred by unwieldy Noël Hume and others have examined how organization and mediocre images. Elizabethan fortifications in Ireland formed Discussing each of the five colonies in turn, a model for similar structures in the New chronologically, might have produced a World. Childs does not consider this more cohesive work. There are no citations evidence, nor does he turn to archaeology in in the text, but the bibliography is his brief discussion of Amerindian forts and serviceable. The appendices form a handy settlements. reference, especially the chronology of Childs primarily blames greed and “Significant English Voyages to the New unrealistic expectations for the failure of World.” This volume could form a useful early English colonies. Investors expected classroom text, and will also appeal to those quick returns on their outlay, which forced interested in visiting historic sites and the settlers to fruitlessly mine for gold, or vessels. delayed resupply voyages while their John Ratcliffe commanders sought richer pickings through Ottawa, Ontario piracy. While these factors were certainly evident at Roanoke and Jamestown, they are Peter Dutton, Robert Ross and Oystein less applicable to the New England and Tunsjo (eds). Twenty-First Century Newfoundland experiences. Since these Seapower: cooperation and conflict at sea. latter colonies do not readily fit into Childs Abingdon, UK: Routledge, Taylor Francis explanatory paradigm, he devotes Group, Cass Series, ,www.routledge.com considerably less space to them, and focuses 2012. xii + 325 pp., notes, index. US $135, almost exclusively on the mid-Atlantic hardback; ISBN 978-0-415-69812-2. colonies. The author also identifies problems with joint land-sea command as The last thirty or so years have seen a one of the major factors influencing the growth in the number, size and success or failure of a colony. Tudor and sophistication of maritime forces; initially Jacobean expeditions usually featured two coastguards to manage surveillance and commanders: one in charge of soldiers and enforcement responsibilities in newly colonists, and an admiral to oversee naval designated exclusive economic zones under matters. Childs shows that the two rarely the United Nations Convention on the Law saw eye-to-eye, as the strident of the Sea 1982 (LOSC), but also navies. condemnation of Sir Richard Grenville in Why these navies are modernizing and Ralph Lane’s correspondence shows. growing, how they might be used by their Happy exceptions included John Smith and governments, and how they will interact Christopher Newport, and the effective with, and impact upon other navies, is collaboration between Sir George Somers currently engaging many defence and naval and Sir Thomas Dale after the Sea Venture analysts. was wrecked in 1609. In line with most In the Indo-Pacific region there are Book Reviews 57 some concerns that a naval arms race is book. underway, generally stated as either a Part 2 examines each of the four reaction to a Chinese naval modernization (re-) emerging navies, why they are and building program, or to unresolved expanding, how they are doing so, etc. maritime boundary claims arising from the Each chapter is succinct and, together, they LOSC. Notwithstanding the plethora of provide a good overview and snapshot of studies and reports on the subject, the jury the navies examined. Of course, these remains out over whether there is such a navies are not emerging into a vacuum, so race. There is also a complementary range Part 3 examines the existing security of studies examining how navies cooperate architecture and role of navies: for example, at sea, not least to overcome any possibility how navies are used to maintain the current of conflict between them due to strategic global trading system; the role of NATO as miscalculation. It is also natural (and a longstanding military alliance and how nothing new) for navies to cooperate at sea, navies are used within it; the impact of as the sea is inherently dangerous, while Chinese naval developments; and how many naval activities actually cannot be many navies are cooperating to counter done by one navy alone. piracy. Thus, we get good coverage of the This leads to the book under utility of navies at both the high and low review, which consists of the proceedings of ends of activity. an international conference; albeit the This leads to Part 4, which is conference theme, location and date it was concerned with managing contemporary held are unstated. The book examines the maritime security, and comprises four “emerging” navies of India, China, Japan papers which examine maritime law issues and (an oft-forgotten) Russia in the context which effect maritime boundaries and of how, where and why navies operate; how freedom of navigation, the growing they may be constrained by international “rivalry” between China and the United law; and their relationship with other navies States in the Pacific Ocean, and how navies and international organizations. The book is might cooperate in the future, while structured in four parts examining why land encouraging maritime capacity building. powers go to sea, the aforementioned This latter theme is important, as navies emerging navies, a new maritime strategy have worked together for centuries, for the twenty-first century, and how to collaboration often not visible to those on manage contemporary maritime security. land. To introduce some context for There are some very interesting current naval expansion, Part 1 contains papers in the book (some of which have three papers. The first paper provides a appeared elsewhere), but overall the book historical context by examining how smaller lacks coherence as the papers/topics just do navies in Europe fit within the international not fit well together; this appears to be the relations framework of the time. The natural outcome of publishing conference second paper examines the importance and proceedings. Some of the Chinese-authored impact of geography on navies and concepts papers, which purport to be “academic,” of sea power; this is a frequently neglected are, unfortunately, just emphatic topic and I found it very useful. The third restatements of Chinese government policy; paper is also historical and examines but they do serve another use, their conflict at sea within the context of dogmatic nature demonstrates why it can be Mahanian thinking. These three papers so difficult dealing with China in form the background for the rest of the international fora. 58 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord These days, all books seem to have rejection of Thomas Malthus’ essay on minor proofreading issues, but population growth, in particular the third disappointingly, this book falls into a edition in which the United States served as category of its own, as it does not appear to an example of problematic population have been “edited” at all. It is riddled with growth, serves as a springboard for the errors in both the text and its references, discussion of family reproduction and there are sentences that do not make sense, freedom. Eustace strikes a conflict between and there is no consistency in terms and Malthus’s concerns and Benjamin abbreviations within chapters, let alone Franklin’s earlier call for Americans to across chapters. With the high price marry and reproduce in order to build the Routledge charges for its limited print-run future United States population that would books, both the authors and the readers are develop the land still covered in wilderness. entitled to expect far more quality control Americans, such as Baltimore publisher than is delivered here. Hezekiah Niles, chafed against Malthus’ work, casting it as British hypocrisy and the Andrew Forbes desire to see the new America fail. With the Queanbeyan, New South Wales building of tensions between the United States and Britain, pro-war advocates, such Nicole Eustace. 1812. War and the Passions as Niles, used their call for family formation of Patriotism. Philadelphia, PA: University and reproduction to generate emotional of Pennsylvania Press, www.upenn.edu, support for the declaration of war. Eustace 2012. xxvii + 315 pp., illustrations, notes, depicts the nation’s men going to war based index. US $34.95, cloth; ISBN 978-0-8122- on a passionate patriotic pretext to protect 4431-1. the right to love and propagate; that is, on inflamed emotion rather than the restricted Nicole Eustace has written a cultural history rational reasons of sailor’s rights and free of the life and rhythm of the patriotic zeal trade. These rational themes were read by experienced by the American population the anti-Malthusians and war supporters as between the eve of the War of 1812 and the threats to the sanctity of American marriage years immediately following the peace. In and the right to have children. her view, patriotism was rooted in a highly Chapter two uses Hull’s defeat at romanticized understanding of passionate Detroit to demonstrate the role emotional love, family formation and reproduction. ardour played out in the retelling of the She demonstrates how the advocates of war events surrounding the “national disaster.” and their supporters used notions of love, It is both a defence of Hull’s decision to female virtue, the sanctity of marriage and surrender and a powerful negative critique family, and the need to have many children of his failure to fight. Eustace holds that the to rouse men to take up arms and convince popular portrayal of Hull as being overly the remaining civilians that the events of the emotional in the face of the enemy, unable war (even when less than favourable) would to motivate his troops and a coward for not lead to a safe, prosperous and fighting determined the guilty verdict at his geographically expanded United States. court martial. This version overcame the Oddly enough, those who rejected the war rational explanation that Hull was unsure of (and rejected the place of passion) used the the reliability of his troops to fight and same emotional powder to ignite support duped by Brock’s ploy of exaggerated troop among their followers. numbers and the threat of an Indian-led In the first chapter, American massacre. The war promoters turned the Book Reviews 59 failure of Detroit around, creating a continues the passion, family and Phoenix- rising-from-the-ashes moment as reproduction theme in this chapter, another the youthful nation, driven by ardour, could louder message pushes through, the absolute reclaim its manliness by beating the British. hatred and prejudice towards native Indians The Battle of Lake Erie is the event found in the early republic. that facilitates Eustace’s discussion in A burned-out President’s mansion chapter 3. As the victor, Oliver H. Perry with a slave market opposite is the image symbolized the good, true American male at that leads the reader into the fifth chapter. war, showered with an outpouring of love Here Eustace compares the white American and adoration by a grateful nation. The slave owners’ vision of marriage and family battle was depicted by politicians and the with their disregard for the unions and press as a struggle to defeat British families of those they held in bondage. oppression through the press gang, seen as Slaves who volunteered to serve in the an attack on American families and American forces presented the nation with a reproduction. “Conjugal love” was dilemma; accept their service and they portrayed as the “bedrock of freedom” would be eligible for the same family rights (p.115). The absence of any extended that white Americans were fighting for. The discussion of the naval war in the Atlantic fear of slave revolt, pervasive in the south in relation to her perspective is surprising; during the War of 1812, is interpreted as so is the missed point that Perry had five coming largely from the sheer numbers of children during the eight years he was slaves living next to the slave owners, married (1811-1818). This chapter offers an making it ultimately a battle of population extended view of the contemporary poetic growth between the two groups. This and fictional representations of family and chapter introduces the idea of a racist reproduction. passionate patriotism, where Black The fourth chapter deals with the Americans were excluded from the coupled events of Tecumseh’s death and the culturally-valued notions of family British loss at Moraviantown. The formation and reproduction. American victory at Moraviantown gave The conclusion swirls around the them potential control over the western Battle of New Orleans and the fabricated reaches of Upper Canada and more security story that the British had boasted the in their own western territories. For capture of New Orleans would lead to Eustace though, the significance of the “beauty and booty” (p.213). Jackson’s battle was the death of the Shawnee Chief, victory at New Orleans is seen as a symbol Tecumseh, a man both despised and feared of the ultimate reason for war; protection of by American expansionists. Using captivity females from being ravaged by the horrid stories (from the 1600s to the early British, thus saving them for the honourable nineteenth century), Eustace shows the clear marriage to and impregnation by the distinction between American feelings for patriotic American male. Jackson’s defeat the nobility and correctness of their own of the Creek Indians in 1814 and the follow- family formation and the complete up Seminole Wars represent the subsequent contempt in which they held any Indian seizing of Indian lands to the west (a return family. In a sense, the death of Tecumseh to the theme of chapter four) which marks the beginning of Americans out- followed in the decades after the War of populating the aboriginals who lived on the 1812. Here again, Eustace uses land the United States would seize in the contemporary representations of the war to years after the war. While Eustace conclude that it was a war, “…over the 60 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord meaning and validity of American claims to compared with Civil War mobilization, champion liberty in an expansionist age” destruction and human losses. This position (p.214). The stirring of passionate patriotic helps her to elevate the cultural perspective emotion to protect the American family, she explores to more significance than the encourage reproduction and expanded the martial perspective of the historiography of country was the motivational device the War of 1812. At the end, she states that employed to inspire support for the war. little developed in “American military Eustace spends little energy on history” until the Civil War. This seems to battles or officers, only to the extent that ignore the outcomes of the battles of they serve as a spark for contemporary Queenston Heights, Chippawa, and Lundy’s commentary on the American war effort, Lane, which surely had some influence on which often had little to do with accuracy or the decision to establish a better standing insight into the martial elements of the army, or of the American frigate victories in events and the true abilities of the key 1812-1813, and the effect of the British players. The book reveals the political use blockade in influencing the American of events to advance personal agendas, Government to create a larger navy after the twisting facts to suit the tellers’ ulterior war. While the fighting is deemed minor, goals. A fine example was the letter to the Eustace does grant that the expansion to the Secretary of War by Colonel Lewis Cass, in west between 1815 and 1865 was due to the which he criticizes General Hull’s cultural impact of the war; a reinforced call performance at Detroit. Cass used long to expand, both in family size and territory. excerpts from the journal of Robert Lucas, Eustace’s sources, from without mentioning the fact, giving Cass’s contemporary poems, songs, imagery and audience the notion he was present that day fiction to “factual accounts” are numerous, when, in fact, he was not. The problem and she adeptly interprets them to support with Eustace spending so little time her position. The endnotes are a treasure describing military and naval events is that chest for any researcher of the era. They are they are often unclear and errors creep in to extensive, with many bordering on mini her summaries. In the description of the essays. The fifth endnote for the preface campaign at New Orleans, she has discusses the importance of examining the “Jackson’s troops” on the 8 January waiting culture of war promotion in the age of “patiently for the invading British regulars democratically-started wars (p.238). The to exit their boats and begin the tough seventh note of the preface is a full page scramble up the banks…” before firing on and quarter, placing her view of the “early them (p.211). The assault was overland, no American public sphere” in the larger boats were involved in the attack on historiography. Both of these “notes,” as Jackson’s main line of defence; boats were well as others, could be in the main text used to land a force across the river which grounding or expanding her argument. To then marched a distance to attack his flank not make use of her endnotes is to miss position. Her description negates the fact significant elements of the author’s case. the Americans launched an attack on the The recent sources on the actual military British as soon as they arrived at the and naval fighting of the war are severely plantations south of the city on 23 limited (only nine general books on the war December. and four journal articles), though that is At both the outset and end of the clearly not her focus. If the reader is book, Eustace makes it clear that she sees interested in the military and naval contest, the War of 1812 as a minor affair when this book is not for them. It is a book to be Book Reviews 61 read if one wants to explore an Newton argued the earth was oblate understanding of the cultural creation of (flattened), while Descartes believed the patriotism in the early American Republic, world was prolate (elongated). This with the War of 1812 as the backdrop. Newtonian-Cartesian debate was not only important to accurate maritime navigation; Thomas Malcomson it also held the potential to shift the imperial Toronto, Ontario power base within Europe and the New World colonies. Resolving the dispute was Larrie D. Ferreiro. Measure of the Earth: of national importance. At a time when The Enlightenment Expedition that Britain and France were bitter rivals, the Reshaped our World. New York, NY: Basic nation that correctly determined the earth’s Books, www.perseusbooksgroup, 2011. shape could claim superiority in the field of xix+353 pp., illustrations, maps, notes, mathematics and science. In an attempt to index. US $28.00, cloth; ISBN 978-0-465- win the debate and bring recognition and 01723-2. E-book ISBN 978-0-465-02345- fame to France, Ministre de la Marine, Jean- 5. Frédéric Phélypeaux, Comte de Maurepas recruited Bouguer, Godin and a handful of Maritime historians familiar with Larrie D. others to take measurements of the earth’s Ferreiro’s first book, Ships and Science: surface at the equator. The expedition The Birth of Naval Architecture in the required cooperation from Spain. Once the Scientific Revolution, 1600 –1800 (MIT mission arrived in Colombia, they were Press, 2006), will likely find themselves joined by two Spanish military officers, disappointed in his latest monograph, Jorge Juan y Santacilla and Antonio de Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Ulloa, and began their journey to northern Expedition that Reshaped our World. While Peru (present-day Ecuador). the publishers suggest the narrative is about Initially, Bouguer, Godin, and the impact of the joint French and Spanish Maurepas expected the expedition to last geodesic mission to measure the distance of three to four years. In the end, the geodesic a degree of latitude on maritime navigation, mission spent a decade abroad, with some in reality, the book is less about the impact members staying as many as four decades of the scientific expedition on maritime and others never returning to Europe. The navigation than it is about the scientists who expedition took so long, the mission was participated in the mission. Ferreiro virtually forgotten; written off when a later attempts to elevate lesser-known competing mission to the Arctic returned enlightenment scientists such as Pierre earlier with definitive proof of Newton’s Bouguer, Louis Godin, and Jorge Juan y theory of a flattened earth. Ferreiro Santacilla to greater prominence in the demonstrates the intellect and steadfast historical narrative. He casts Bouguer in leadership of Bouguer in bringing the the lead role, much as he did in Ships and mission to a successful close, despite being Science. Drawing on the records of the constantly plagued by internal geodesic mission and the private writings of disagreements, financial crisis, bouts of the mission’s members, Ferreiro claims inclement weather and poor atmospheric Bouguer was both the brains for and the visibility, legal issues and interruptions of salvation of the oft-troubled enterprise. war. But a successful mission was not In the early eighteenth century, necessarily cause for joy and celebration. Isaac Newton and René Descartes engaged Many of the geodesic mission’s members in a dialogue about the shape of the earth. returned to a very different world of 62 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord unhappy endings. existing maps, redefine knowledge of Contesting Mary Terrall’s existing landmasses, and aid navigation on Maupertuis-centered The Man Who the open sea. Flattened the Earth (2006), Ferreiro returns Minor problems include the lack of Bouguer, Godin and their assistants from a bibliography and the editorial decision to the land of the forgotten (both figuratively bury the “Notes on Language” and “Units and literally, as Ferreiro describes it) to their of Measure and Currency” sections at the proper places in history and in the world of back of the book. Both sections would be Enlightenment science. Ferreiro’s research better served at the beginning of the is impeccable; drawing on 13 different monologue before readers come across archives in four countries on two continents these items in the text. Nevertheless, and several maritime histories such as Jan Measure of the Earth will undoubtedly Glete’s Navies and Nations and John appear on many undergraduate reading lists Elliot’s Empires of the Atlantic World. His for introductory courses on the history of attention to detail makes for a compelling science and technology. account of the mission’s trials and James Risk tribulations and he successfully achieves his Columbia, South Carolina goal of returning fame and glory to Pierre Bouguer. Ferreiro also avoids a problem that plagued his Ships and Science–the Myra C. Glenn. Jack Tar’s Story: The inclusion of numerous and cumbersome Autobiographies and Memoirs of Sailors in mathematical formulas and scientific Antebellum America. New York, NY: equations. In the absence of these, Measure Cambridge University Press, of the Earth is a captivating, engaging, and www.cambridge.org, 2010. xi +194 pp., enjoyable read that is sure to delight both appendix, index. US $85.00, cloth; ISBN historians of science and general audiences. 978-0-521-19368-9.) Despite the glowing prose, Ferreiro’s narrative is not without problems. The Age of Revolution (1750-1850) The major fault is that Measure of the Earth unleashed powerful forces that reshaped our does not engage a broader historical understanding of basic individual rights and question. While Ferreiro acknowledges the liberties, and historians have been trying to mission’s importance to maritime understand the meaning of those changes navigation and solving the debate on the and how we remember them ever since. earth’s shape, his references to the historical Elmira College historian, Myra C. Glenn, significance of the expedition are only author of Campaigns against Corporal passing ones. He fails to reference and Punishment: Prisoners, Sailors, Women and engage the other works on the subject of the Children in Antebellum America (1984), earth’s size, such as Ken Alder’s The explores the contested meanings of Measure of All Things (2003) or Nicholas manhood and nationalism during the early Nicastro’s Circumference (2008). Measure American republic. of the Earth simply tells the story of the By using traditional institutional geodesic mission to the equator without a sources—ships’ logs, crew lists, and deeper discussion of what the mission really impressment records—and a bevy of meant to cartography, navigation, and the literary sources, Glenn is able to document imperialistic plans of Europe’s major the stories that sailors told and how they powers. Knowing the precise length of a remembered and interpreted the events they degree of latitude could potentially alter experienced. Book Reviews 63 Focusing on antebellum American experiences in captivity or combat, they seamen between 1815 and 1860 who gained important insights and recounted subsequently published their memoirs and these new attitudes about manhood, tyranny autobiographies, this book examines the and patriotism. Sailors’ willingness to themes, rhetorical strategies and tropes that describe their experiences also helped shape sailors articulated to convey their the views of antebellum Americans about exhilarating stories. For the sailors, these their own struggle for liberty against Great stories represented the adventures of their Britain. Yet despite the exciting and exotic lives, yet for landsmen readers, these allure of the sea, many sailors also found narratives reminded them that sailors that maritime discipline bordered on cruelty. embodied the backbone of American Floggings and the cat-o’-nine-tails economic growth and development. threatened sailors’ liberty and independence Sailors, in effect, were responsible for and even smacked of slavery, revealing how making the United States a major economic harsh maritime discipline jeopardized their power, even though they seemed far manhood as well as the welfare of the removed from the process since their long nation. Jack Tar’s resulting stories absences at sea seemingly gave them little embodied a strident nationalism that collective voice. strongly resonated with land-bound These maritime accounts— Americans, especially those opposed to straddling different literary genres— cruelty and slavery. represented coming-of-age tales, moral Glenn’s study does not use sailor reform works, stories of war, rogue narratives simply to describe the life of accounts, captivity narratives, exposés of mariners during the Age of Sail. Instead, it cruelty and injustice at sea, and even focuses on how mariner authors religious conversion narratives. Jack Tar’s remembered and interpreted various events Story uses sailor autobiographies and and experiences—it is both a history and a memoirs to investigate the many, often memory of antebellum sailor narratives. By conflicting, meanings of manhood and delving into the question of memory, Glenn nationalism during the early American makes major contributions to the field of republic. Glenn’s introduction reminds us maritime history. She systematically why these antebellum sailors’ narratives investigates the veracity of sailor narratives should be remembered—their lives were by cross-referencing them to the myriad of woven into the very fabric of the country. extant institutional records. Such a time- The book’s five chapters develop these consuming task has revealed that several themes. self-narratives purportedly written by sailors Antebellum American sailors truly were actually rousing fictional accounts. believed that the United States was on the And while Glenn does not explain or precipice of greatness and their literary analyze why authors fabricated such stories, exercises offered their version of this she maintains that authors present multiple journey. They had resisted British agendas in their narratives. They offer impressment and incarceration as prisoners graphic stories of danger and adventure of war during the War of 1812. They had about exotic places grounded in fact. fought the Barbary pirates, Caribbean This book straddles different fields privateers, and British warships. Moreover, of scholarship and suggests how their they had witnessed the Haitian Revolution concerns intersect or resonate with each and the Latin American wars of other: the history of print culture, the study independence. Throughout their of autobiographical writing, and the 64 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord historiography of seafaring life and of understanding how/why a navy is the way it masculinity in antebellum America. Glenn is, which enables more nuanced assessments maintains that sailors’ narratives resemble and judgements over the real naval an archaeological site with multiple capabilities possessed by a state. conflicted meanings. Yet archaeological With the states of the Asia-Pacific sites also serve as time capsules of a region becoming the driver of the global specific place and time. The sample of economy, predominantly through seaborne antebellum sailors’ narratives that Glenn trade; and with Southeast Asia connecting uses to form the basis of her study provides the Indian and Pacific Oceans while also but one view of this group at only one point experiencing its own considerable economic in time. While handsomely produced and a growth, an understanding of these navies is fine study—in fact, one of the best that we both timely and useful. The authors of this have on antebellum sailors—there still book, both retired senior Australian naval remains considerable work to be done on officers and former directors of what is now how and why working-class sailors crafted the Sea Power Centre - Australia, the think stories of their lives at sea. Future studies tank of the Royal Australian Navy, are will undoubtedly be built on the foundation eminently suited for the task they have set of Glenn’s outstanding book. themselves. One obvious initial point is that Gene Allen Smith these navies are “young,” all bar one of the Fort Worth, Texas nine navies examined having colonial origins now generally superseded by their James Goldrick and Jack McCaffrie. Navies own indigenous interests and requirements. of South-East Asia. A comparative study. Many of the states have a history of battling Abingdon, Oxford: Routledge, Taylor and land-based insurgencies and/or needing to Francis Group, www.routledge.com, 2013. focus on internal security rather than xvi + 302 pp., tables, notes, bibliography, maritime issues. Notwithstanding they are index. US $135, hardback: ISBN 978-0- developing states, their prolonged economic 415-80942-9. growth has enabled a slow development of naval forces of varying capabilities Researching other navies is far more reflecting the funding available to invest in difficult than it sounds, as there are differing navies, as well as increasing maritime levels of transparency over what type of interests generated through sovereign rights information a state might make available, to oceanic resources under the United and whether this information is in English. Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea The standard sources that provide an annual 1982. technical snapshot of the organization, size Each navy has its own chapter, and capabilities of navies include Jane’s where the authors outline the origins of the Fighting Ships, and more broadly, the naval forces, usually colonial, what was Military Balance, published by the bequeathed to them at independence, and International Institute for Strategic Studies, the slow modernization of these forces. The to name but a few. By their nature, way some of these states achieved their however, these publications do not contain independence determined whether good more detailed information that might relations were maintained with their former provide a history of each navy. Why is a colonial power and whether continuing history of each navy important? Because it support was provided; sometimes it was and provides a context and framework for sometimes not. Book Reviews 65 To varying degrees, each of the the necessary skills exist, can be imported navies, except that of Singapore, has faced or can be maintained. This is demonstrated similar problems. The first has been a bias by the slow development of shipbuilding in government funding towards armies industries in some countries, and associated rather than navies, and in some cases, this problems with cost overruns and poor has been very difficult to overcome. A workmanship. greater problem has been the vagaries in Importantly, it should also be noted funding allocated to military forces in that the difficulties faced by these new general, and to navies in particular. Navies navies are not unique to them and are also are costly to operate and require prolonged faced, to a lesser degree, by older and more and consistent funding, not only to “build” a powerful navies. navy, but also the supporting infrastructure As the navies examined in this behind it. Long-term planning and funding book are so disparate in their origins, are crucial for navies, but often funding allocations, capabilities and roles, governments arbitrarily reduce funding there is little utility in trying to compare allocations. This is, of course, the right of them in detail; instead, the authors wisely any government, but the concern is that consider the broad trends that have been governments do not understand the long- discussed earlier in this review. A key issue term consequences of such decisions. for other states and their navies is what Reduced funding leads to a these Southeast Asian navies can situation where navies may be forced to operationally achieve now and what they focus on one-for-one replacement of very might be able to do in the future, not least old ships rather than an effective because this affects the types of cooperation modernization and growth program. Often there might be between regional and warships might be bought that were not external navies. In general, the Southeast necessarily what the navy wanted, either Asian navies have capabilities for brown reflecting the funding available, or more and green water operations and are likely, what friendly governments might sell projected over the next ten years to migrate cheaply or gift to the recipient state. For the to green and a limited blue-water capability affected navy, this might mean an (for the Singaporean navy). unbalanced fleet that can not undertake the The book has extensive endnotes, a tasks expected of it by its government. solid bibliography and an index (often a More critically, it leaves the navy with a rarity these days). My only criticism is a complex mix of warships assembled over lack of maps for each state, which would time from a variety of different suppliers, have indicated where the various naval without standardized training or logistics bases were located. This book is highly support, the impact of which is an recommended. unnecessary increase in the cost of running Andrew Forbes the fleet. Queanbeyan, New South Wales Of course, the affected navies might also have aspirations that far exceed the ability or desire of the government to fund, and critically, the technological capacity of industry to sustain them. While naval capability requirements can be used to create domestic defence industries to support them, there are no guarantees that 66 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Robert M. Grogans (ed.). To Auckland by repetitive and some times superfluous text.” the Ganges - the Journal of a Sea Voyage to In addition, Grogans has divided the text New Zealand in 1863. Dunbeath, Scotland; into thematic paragraphs, whereas Whittles Publishing, www.whittlespub previously they had only marked each day’s lishing.com, 2012. xvii+138 pp., new entry. This, however, raises the illustrations, map, appendices, bibliography. question of how far an editor should go in UK £16.99, paper; ISBN 978-1-84995-056- altering an original document. Although the 5. paragraphing is very useful, the change in tense from present to past and the In the mid-nineteenth century, emigrants simplification of vocabulary might not from Europe seeking a new life in appeal to readers with an interest in Australasia faced a perilous 15,000 mile literature or maritime history, who might passage by sailing ship. Depending on the prefer the original newspaper columns to vagaries of wind and weather, the voyage the “ironed out” version. could take four months or more, and the Grogans’ key contribution to the letters and diaries of the passengers and book is his inclusion of many detailed crew recorded the daily risks they endnotes identifying the people mentioned encountered to their health and welfare. in the text and explaining contemporary Robert M. Grogans has written events and places that might not be familiar numerous articles on such diverse subjects to twenty-first century readership. He has as nautical life, astronomy, transport, British also included, as appendices, the Ganges’ railways, and Scottish social, sporting and passenger list, a nautical glossary, and a industrial history. For this book, he has note on ships’ masts and rigging. These last adapted an original diary written in 1863 by two are particularly useful to the reader David Buchanan, a journalist and editor of because, as the voyage progressed, several prominent Scottish newspapers. Buchanan became more knowledgeable Buchanan had opted for a new life in New about the way the ship was run and he Zealand in the hope of improving his health frequently described the operation of the and the fortunes of his family and, drawing sails and rigging. on his ample journalistic skills, he wrote an Buchanan’s account is different engrossing diary of the voyage. from those of other nineteenth century Published in early 1864 by voyages bound for Botany Bay, Norfolk Buchanan’s former newspaper, the Island and Van Dieman’s Land (Brooke traditional and intellectual Glasgow Daily 2005), and from the well-known voyages of Herald, the 13 instalments appeared twice- the Black Ball Line’s legendary American- weekly under the heading Life in an built three-mast ships in the heady gold rush Emigrant Ship by D.B. late of Glasgow. days of the 1850s (Fraser 1999). Most of Buchanan’s background was similar to that those were written by shipmasters (Holmes of his affluent readers and, not unnaturally, 1965), crewmen (Hichborn 1860) or his lively and intelligent account of the migrants (Lewis 1949). Buchanan, however, voyage of the Ganges, with 260 emigrants offered the rare perspective of a aboard, was written in the style to which his professional journalist and revealed his educated readers were accustomed. intimate understanding of the life of people In making Buchanan’s account on board an emigrant passenger ship. more accessible to modern readers, Grogans While other letters and diaries from has edited the original “wordy and laboured the 1860s reveal passengers’ hopes for the sentences” to “unclutter [Buchanan’s] future and grief over the burial of spouses Book Reviews 67 and children at sea, we now know that most illustrations, colour plates, appendix, index. passages to New Zealand gradually became UK £13.99, US $22.95, CDN $25.95, paper; less eventful, even tedious. Following ISBN 978-1-84908-345-4. numerous suggestions from colonial Immigration Agents, new sanitary and Jon Guttman. Osprey Aircraft of the Aces hygiene routines dramatically improved #104: Naval Aces of World War 1 Part 2. life-saving procedures, and advances in Botley, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, Inc., navigation lowered the risk of death in www.ospreypublishing.com, 2012. 80 pp., adults and older children, making it no illustrations, colour plates, appendix, index. higher at sea than on land (Haines 2006). UK £13.99, US $22.95, CDN $25.95, Only one to two per cent of immigrants to paper; ISBN 978-1-84908-664-6. Australasia and New Zealand failed to arrive at their destination and, inevitably, When First World War air combat the more mundane narratives from fair- is mentioned, the image of brightly coloured weather ships, written by immigrants with biplanes over the skies of France comes to little interest in procedures on board, have mind. Less well-known is the aerial conflict taken second place to those with an between the naval air arms of Imperial emphasis on illness, bereavement and Germany, Great Britain, and other nations. disaster. This neglected aspect of First World War Readers who have a taste for aviation produced its share of aces; in these adventure will be especially interested in two volumes of the Osprey Aircraft of the the Ganges’ arrival in New Zealand. Aces series, author Jon Guttman relates the Buchanan and his fellow passengers stepped stories of those naval pilots who each shot into the unrest of the Maori Wars, which down five or more enemy aircraft. were closely reported in British newspapers To understand First World War such as the Glasgow Herald. It makes naval air warfare, two contrasts and one dramatic reading and is coupled with an comparison must be made between naval air interesting description of early Auckland. warfare in the First World War and its The eight-year-old Ganges, which had counterparts on the Western Front, as well given a good account of herself during the as with naval air warfare in later conflicts. 111-day voyage from Gravesend to First, the scale of naval air combat in the Auckland, visited New Zealand again in First War was often much smaller than the February 1865 with 472 immigrants. classic air war of the Western Front. Only David Buchanan and Robert M. along the Belgian coast did substantial naval Grogans have provided us with an air combat occur. Great Britain’s Royal interesting and valuable record of the Naval Air Service (RNAS) produced 89 experience of migration in this portrait of aces of whom the top ace was Raymond everyday life on board an emigrant ship Collishaw of British Columbia, Canada. during the age of sail. His RNAS total was 40 aerial victories, to which another 20 victories were added after Michael Clark the creation of the Royal Air Force (RAF). London, England An additional 47 RNAS pilots became aces in RAF units. The top-scoring German Jon Guttman. Osprey Aircraft of the Aces naval ace was Theo Osterkamp, with 32 #97: Naval Aces of World War 1 Part 1. aerial victories, while the Imperial German Botley, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, Inc., Navy produced twenty aces. (There is a www.ospreypublishing.com, 2011. 80 pp., discrepancy in this total: other accounts add 68 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord an extra pilot that Guttman does not pilots of Imperial Germany, Austria- include.) Hungary, Imperial Russia, Italy, Greece, and The aerial victory totals among the United States. Only the RNAS and other nations reflect the lesser scale of aerial Imperial Germany produced a substantial combat on other fronts: the Austro- number of aces. These volumes are in the Hungarian Navy produced only two aces, by-now standard Osprey Aircraft of the Gottfried von Banfield (nine confirmed Aces format: a vivid colour drawing on the victories) and Friedrich Lang (five cover, a narrative of the ace pilots—a brief victories). Their chief adversary, the Royal biography of their lives both before and Italian Navy, produced only two bona fide after the First World War, and a detailed aces: Orazio Pierozzi (seven aerial narrative of their military careers including victories) and Federico Martinengo (five their air-to-air victories. The text is heavily aerial victories). An additional Italian naval illustrated with photographs; an excellent pilot, Umberto Calvello, was included in the selection of colour plates—generally side list of Royal Italian Naval aces although the views of various aces’ aircraft, but also records show he had only four aerial some top views; appendices containing the victories. Add to this very brief list the lists of naval aces by total victories; and Imperial Russian naval aces, Alexander indices which aid in locating topics and the Seversky (six aerial victories) and Mikhail stories of the naval aces. The colour plates Safonov (five aerial victories), plus the lone give modelers a wide variety of topics for U.S. Navy ace, David Ingalls (six aerial potential projects: Volume One contains victories) and the sole Greek naval ace, plates of RNAS Nieuports, Sopwith Pups, Aristeides Moraitinis (nine aerial victories). Triplanes, Camels, and a Sopwith Baby When compared with the Western Front seaplane—certainly an unusual subject. aces, or even the aces of the RNAS and Volume Two contains equally diverse German Navy, the much lower aerial illustrations of German seaplanes, Fokker victory totals indicate how infrequently fighters and Albatros fighters, Austro- aerial combat occurred on other fronts. Hungarian flying boats and a landplane, Another contrast between naval air Italian and Imperial Russian flying boats, as warfare in the First World War and well as the aircraft used by U.S. Navy pilots subsequent wars: many of the aces achieved and the sole Greek naval ace. Such detailed all or part of their scores in flying boats. plates add interest to the narratives. Finally, the structure of the First Guttman’s books illuminate a little- World War naval air arms resembled that of known portion of First World War aviation post-Second World War naval air arms. The history. With the exception of Raymond air arms of Great Britain, the United States, Collishaw and perhaps one or two other and the Soviet Union were part of the naval aces, the naval aces of the Great War have structure—unlike the Second World War taken a deep back seat to their colleagues in German Luftwaffe, which controlled other air services. Thus, the need for a virtually all air assets, the Italian Navy, study of First World War naval aces is which had only a small naval air arm, and evident and has been well fulfilled by these the interwar Fleet Air Arm of Great Britain, works. The novice to this subject will find which was part of the RAF but assigned to these books to be a valuable introduction, the Royal Navy. while the expert will consider them an Guttman’s Volume One is devoted excellent resource. to the ace pilots of the RNAS, while Volume The First World War happened Two relates the stories of the naval ace nearly a century ago, but its survivors were Book Reviews 69 with us until quite recently. Among the and artists, they address an array of topics naval aces, Theo Osterkamp of Germany including art history, iconography, ship died in 1971; Alexander Seversky of Russia construction, cartography, and architecture. in 1974. Raymond Collishaw, the top RNAS Though the topics are diverse, they search ace, passed away in 1976, while David for commonality in nautical imagery. The Ingalls, the sole First War U.S. Navy ace, editors, Nicole Hegener and Lars Scholl, departed in 1985. Gottfried von Banfield of highlight significant patterns by arranging Austria-Hungary died in 1986, and Henry the book into four chapters: “The Ship in Allington, the last survivor of the RNAS Cartography, Seals and Vedute,” “The Ship (although not a pilot) died at the as Metaphor for Church, Court and State magnificent age of 113 on 13 July 2009. Domination,” “The Ship in Book They are all gone now, but Guttman’s books Illumination and Treasury Art,” and “The will keep their collective memory fresh. Ship in Painting and Photography.” The Naval Aces of World War 1, Parts 1 and 2 editors might have grouped the articles in are recommended. any number of arbitrary ways; for instance, chronologically or geographically. Instead, Robert L. Shoop rather than cater to the historian with a Colorado Springs, Colorado conventional chronology or to the artist with a critique, this book focuses on the Nicole Hegener and Lars U. Scholl (Hrsg). representation of the ship itself. Their Vom Anker zum Krähennest/From the editorial design shows a depth of anchor to the Crow’s Nest. Naval Imagery consideration for the book’s theme, keeping from the Renaissance to the Age of nautical imagery as the main focus. Photography. (German Maritime Studies, In their foreward, Hegener and vol. 17) Bremen: Hauschild Verlag, Scholl mention that they hope to appeal to www.dsm.museum, 2011. 214 pp., art historians, architects, cartographers, and illustrations, notes, index. English and political scientists. Indeed, they are able to German chapters. Euro €36.00, hardback; catch the attention of an even wider ISBN 978-3-89757-508-0. academic audience, particularly that of nautical archaeologists. Where nautical Vom Anker Zum Krähennest/From the archaeology may reveal much about the Anchor to the Crow’s Nest is an eclectic, material remains of particular sites, its bilingual collection of articles bound by techniques are limited to identifying and central themes in nautical art. With varying analyzing materials on hand. Several artistic, historical, and political contributors explore nautical imagery in the perspectives, the contributing authors same way an archaeologist might explore a follow the ship through thousands of years shipwreck—identifying and interpreting of imagery. As this compilation developed ship typology, construction, and rigging— out of a session for the Annual Meeting of but the authors do so without any physical the Renaissance Society of America, it took ship remains. For instance, Jan Pieper’s on a multidisciplinary and multicultural article interprets the painted image of a character, drawing from worldwide sources Mediterranean carrack to date the Berlin and incorporating articles in German and Panel on which it appears. It illustrates just English. one of many methodological techniques The uniqueness of this volume which archaeologists might take away from stems from its well-rounded contributors. this volume. Articles by Jutta Kappel and With the critical perspectives of historians Piero Falchetta generate methodologies for 70 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord using art to analyze naval typologies, as flaw of the book is that it features a short well. index of persons but lacks a comprehensive While this book appeals to index. The omission makes it difficult to academic readers, it has the potential to navigate the text on a research basis and excite anyone interested in nautical art or nearly impossible to connect relevant history. Its layout and beautiful illustrations concepts from the chapters at a glance. lend themselves to a coffee-table appeal. Textual pages do not include chapter The text is casual and generally free of headings, an oversight which further hinders jargon; although, some of the discussions on the research process. ship typology can be, at times, too technical Vom Anker Zum Krähennest/From for the casual enthusiast of art or history. the Anchor to the Crow’s Nest, though a The illustrations are well-placed in the text, compilation, is a seamless body of nautical appropriate, and are not so overwhelming literature. Its editors deserve praise for with that hint of romantic kitsch often staying true to a multicultural, present in casual nautical literature. The multidisciplinary vision, which keeps the authors draw from celebrated paintings, ship at its core. In the same vein as the manuscripts, black and white photographs, ship, which connected the world of old, and photographs of Schatzkunst (art Hegener, Scholl, and their contributors treasure) artifacts. Citations for many of connect nautical motifs from the ancient these images include website addresses, world to the present. where the curious reader is able to access Kelsey McGuire the images with ease. While the Pensacola, Florida illustrations and their citations are good quality, the captions might be improved with additional explanation. Stephen Howarth. To Shining Sea. A The multiculturalism of the book History of the United States Navy 1775- enhances its eclecticism, but there are a few 1998. Norman, OK: University of drawbacks to this type of publication. First, Oklahoma Press, www.oupress.com, 1999. monolingual readers will be disappointed if xv+630 pp., illustrations, maps, notes, they hope to find each article rendered in bibliography, index. US $32.95, paper; both English and German. There are five ISBN 978-0-8061-3026-2. (Originally English-language contributions, six in reviewed in hard cover, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1992.) German, and one German translation of an Italian essay. Each of the articles is The normal reaction when picking up a one- dependent upon the linguistic comfort and volume history of an institution or proficiency of its author, not necessarily a organization as huge as the United States geographic region or historical topic. Navy (USN) is skepticism. The USN traces Secondly, many of the bibliographies draw its history all the way back to 1775 and the from sources in several different languages. American Revolution and its operational Extensive as they are, they would be of little history spans the globe. Still, Stephen use to a researcher who is not bi- or Howarth took on the challenge and trilingual. That said, the deliberate choice produced an admirable work in the process. to publish bilingually is a further reflection A lifetime member of the United States of the editors’ careful consideration. The Naval Institute and a fellow of both the discussions of this book remain open to the Royal Historical Society and the Royal international community because of their Geographical Society, Howarth is a gifted editorial style. Perhaps the biggest editorial writer with a solid publication record Book Reviews 71 including works on naval history, business a short but vicious battle. The arrest was history and biographical studies like Lord ostensibly an effort to find and return Nelson, co-authored with David Howarth. deserters. The simple term for this is This skill and background served him well impressment and as the Chesapeake limped in To Shining Sea. back into port, it became a major goad to To his credit the author admitted war in 1812. Howarth’s description of that this was not meant to be complete or events is quite different. He emphasized definitive history of the USN. With the that three of the men on the Chesapeake body of literature to date already large were known British deserters who sailed enough for its own library, such a history is despite a British request for their return via not viable. Howarth’s strength is that he diplomatic channels. Aware of the approached the subject to produce not Chesapeake’s departure, the Leopard detailed nuts-and-bolts study, but a series of followed and, after being refused panoramas of critical aspects of the permission to board, opened fire and then American naval experience. Presented took the men. The vicious fight chronologically, his book comprises eleven remembered in U.S. history was, in fact, parts loosely combined into two “books.” totally one-sided, as the Chesapeake was The first book starts in 1775 and takes the unfit for service when she sailed. reader through to the rise of steam power Politically, this event had a huge impact on and steel warship construction in 1881. The American-British relations as the second part takes up the story in 1881 and repercussions had far reaching implications leads the reader into the late-1990s. The (pp.89-92). 630 pages, divided into 25 chapters, present Similar examples of the unique the reader with a fascinating series of windows created by the text can be found in windows into the American Navy. virtually every section. While some of the Writing in 1991, Howarth achieved information is vitally critical to our not just a history of the United States Navy, understanding of events internationally, like but a history of America in the process. the role of President Theodore Roosevelt in Since the navy reflected and still reflects the negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese American society, this book is a fascinating War, the battles of the Second World War, examination of America from the sea. Vietnam and the Cold War, others are just Economic issues, political and social fascinating for other reasons. Although told changes, technological innovation, and to in the prologue not to expect a disconnected some extent, even contemporary popular series of naval adventure stories, the reader, opinion are reflected in and merged with ironically, finds both. For example, the American naval history. Some of the account of then-ensign, later President information found within the pages is George H.W. Bush and his experience of absolutely unique. The account of the being rescued by a U.S. submarine after Chesapeake affair presented by Howarth is ditching during operations. Something an excellent example of the value, of the Bush shared with over 500 other airmen text. The usual interpretation of the during the Second World War, this Chesapeake affair, as presented in most experience adds nothing to the great tableau histories, revolves around the USS of naval history beyond the human Chesapeake, a 36-gun frigate en route to the component. Nevertheless, such anecdotes Mediterranean in the summer of 1807, that help To Shining Sea find a fascinating was intercepted and boarded by a 50-gun balance that produces a lively and fourth-rate British ship, HMS Leopard, after interesting text that captures the reader’s 72 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord attention as only good sea tales do. They War, but which also involved other world are, in fact, an interconnected series of naval powers. The fact that few of the adventure stories, well told and fascinating. world powers could afford another The question remains as to how debilitating naval race after their exertions valuable this book is for scholars, students during the First World War is often and lovers of history twenty years after its disregarded in the well-meaning desire of original publication. Those who simply governments to limit weapons of war, or at love a good sea tale or have a passion for least those of their rivals. naval history will appreciate it. The treaty not only limited the Compressing a vast stretch of naval history construction of capital ships (i.e. those over into a small package, Howarth managed to 10,000 tonnes displacement, based on a distill a very readable book that can still be new, standard “Washington” basis) in the enjoyed. As a general text for well known 5:5:3:1.75:1.75 ratio for the undergraduate courses or a starting point for principal signatories (U.S.A., U.K., Japan, further study, it is excellent. The France, Italy), it also had a major influence, organization, the inclusion of political, during the ten-year period it applied, to the economic and other issues and the design of those ships and also the design of consistency in the use of sources and the ships it did not control. These latter materials makes this a good general text would require a failed conference at Geneva although much new material has since in 1927, and another in London in 1930, to become available. Any scholar deeply come to some form of agreed limitation, if immersed in the history of the U.S. Navy only to try and control all the ingenious may find it a bit dated and too broad in approaches that were being adopted by the nature, but it still can be read for the sheer signatories to cope with or evade its pleasure of it and is highly recommended provisions. This is the theme of this book. for those seeking great stories from the sea. John Jordan, previously a teacher of European languages, initially began Robert Dienesch writing about the Soviet Navy in the late Windsor, Ontario 1970s-80s, but then turned his attention to the French Navy. Since 2005, he has also John Jordan. Warships After Washington: taken over the editorship of Warship annual. The Development of the Five Major He therefore, has an ideal background to Fleets, 1922-1930. Barnsley, S. Yorks: look at this topic. He deals with it in eleven Seaforth Publishing, www.seaforthpublish chapters, starting with an overview of the ing.com, 2011. xiv+338 pp., illustrations, situation of each of the major naval powers maps, tables, appendices, bibliography, immediately after the First World War and notes, index. UK £30.00, cloth; ISBN the particular projects and programmes they 978-1-84832-117-5. had under consideration prior to the treaty, before looking at the details of the treaty The Washington Naval Treaty is well itself. He then considers each of the various known as a major landmark in twentieth categories of warships, from battleships century naval history and more generally, as down to destroyers, before examining the the first successful arms limitation treaty. two subsequent conferences in Geneva and Certainly, it prevented a repeat of what is London. On the way, he reviews each of usually seen as the Anglo-German naval the ship types, and how they were rivalry of the 1906-1914 period, post- developed by the signatories in their own Dreadnought to the start of the First World ways (but often in response to perceived Book Reviews 73 developments by the others). These conversion table to aid comparison between included the “Treaty Cruisers” (the new metric and imperial figures. 10,000 tonne, 8-inch gun type), aircraft Overall, this is an extremely well- carriers in all their many forms and written and interesting account of an aspect submarines. There was also the special of the Treaty that has, until now, been less class of super-large non-flotilla destroyers well-explored than the Treaty itself. A known as Esploratori, Contre-torpilleurs number of other reviewers have also and Condottieri, that were a particular commented favourably, so it should be a feature of the fast-growing rivalry between “must” for any reader of naval works. France and Italy in the Mediterranean, Perhaps a sequel covering the years from constrained as they were by their 1.75:1.75 1930 to 1939 covering further capital ship ratio. Jordan’s account of the developments, particularly anti-aircraft and development of each type, with its anti-submarine armament and the conflicting demands of speed, protection, divergence in aircraft carrier types between guns and range is clearly and concisely the U.K., U.S.A. and Japan, should be given written. It is well illustrated by ship plans serious consideration? and sections and a series of tables which John Francis makes a comparison between the various Greenwich, England types in the category and the various navies easy to understand. In addition, there are numerous photographs (mostly from the Mark Lardas. Bonhomme Richard vs Leo Van Ginderen and the Fukui Shiguo Serapis, Flamborough Head 1779. Oxford, collections and from Robert Dumas, with UK: Osprey Publishing, www.osprey whom Jordan collaborated on his books on publishing.com, 2012. 80 pp. illustrations, French battleships of the period). Jordan bibliography, index. UK ₤12.99, US $18.95, also manages to explain various technical CDN $19.95, paper; ISBN 978-1-84908- issues, such as protection by armour, 785-5. waterline bulges and positioning of machinery and fuel storage in clear and Lardas’ entry into the Osprey Duel series concise terms that are a boon for the non- between the converted East Indiaman, technical reader, who is often beset by a Bonhomme Richard, and her famous mass of technical data. He does not shy captain, John Paul Jones, and the HMS away from discussing the problems that Serapis and her captain, Richard Pearson, is some navies, notably Italy and Japan, a nice introduction to the history and tactics experienced in trying to cram too much into of an eighteenth-century naval engagement. minimum-sized hulls, often producing top- This book is not for the scholar looking for heavy ships or ones that exceeded their new information or insight into the battle or tonnage limits. It is in reviewing these ship the combatants, and will be more at home in developments that Jordan writes with a middle-school library than as a research special authority. tool for scholars or professionals. That is There are two very useful not to say the book is without merit: Lardas appendices giving full details of both the compiles a topic of great interest to Washington and London Treaties, together maritime historians in a short, easily-read with a bibliography (although this is rather volume with beautiful colour illustrations short), eight pages of end-notes, and a three- and photographs. Overall, the book makes page index (although this is mainly of ship for an enjoyable introduction into an aspect names). There is also a very useful of maritime and naval history. 74 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord While certainly not an authority on the primary audience for this work. Lardas, the events at Flamborough Head, Lardas however, covers this narrow, albeit rich, does provide a good introduction to naval subject with solid writing for the length of tactics, shipboard life, weapons, and the the book, and illustrates it with a generous alliance between the French and Americans number of colourful images to engage a during the American Revolution. Given the younger or less scholarly audience than length of the book (only 80 pages), he most works on Jones. obviously only scratches the surface of a Lardas’ writing is enjoyable, very important topic, but despite the limited engaging, and saturated with his obvious size, he includes an admirable amount of interest and enjoyment of the subject. His information; artillery, small arms, and engineering and model-making background technical specifications of the ships, is evident throughout, for example, rigging, ship layout, nautical terms, naval enhancing his discussion of the impact of life and rank structure are all presented. various types of cannon shot on the vessels While Lardas gives the British and and rigging. While it is difficult to American navies relatively equal press, the condense such a pivotal naval engagement book appears to have a decidedly American as that between the Bonhomme Richard and leaning. Perhaps it is because the victors Serapis, Lardas does a fine job without write the history, but many authors seem to omitting any obvious details about the pay an undue amount of attention to John engagement, what led up to it, or the results Paul Jones. In truth, there is much more to of the engagement for each side. the victory than the tenacity (or insanity) of Allen Wilson John Paul Jones. On the day of the Pensacola, Florida engagement, he was in control of a larger number of vessels and crew. Unequally equipped, Jones should have won the Mark Lardas. CSS Alabama vs USS engagement; it is only noteworthy because Kearsarge, Cherbourg, 1864. Oxford, UK: he did it while much more poorly Osprey Publishing, www.ospreypublish provisioned than the British. Lardas ing.com, 2011. 80 pp., illustrations, maps, convincingly attributes the victory to the chronology, bibliography, index. UK £ larger number of American marine snipers 12.99, US $17.95, CDN $18.95, paper; in the rigging of the Bonhomme Richard ISBN 978-1-84908-492-5. firing down into the British. The British navy was obviously better equipped in a The title of this well-written book only hints new, purpose-built naval vessel operated by at its contents. It certainly focuses on the experienced sailors. The Americans, in battle between two famous Civil War naval their cobbled-together French Indiaman, vessels, but it also addresses the background manned by merchant sailors and former of the architectural evolution that led to British sailors, had greater numbers that day these vessels in their respective fleets, their and used superior tactics to defeat the armament, men, tactics and analysis of their British. confrontation. It is a difficult task to try to explain The Civil War produced a great an event such as a naval battle without many changes in naval warfare. New adequate background information on how technology involved marine steam power, such an event fits into the longue durée. It maritime iron construction techniques and is an especially daunting task trying to percussion fuses. The increased use of engage young readers, which seems to be diagonal riders (or braces) created truss Book Reviews 75 reinforcements on seagoing ships, enabling 4.2-inch Parrott rifles plus old fashioned but the vessels to become longer and, in some reliable 32-pounder long guns and short- cases, more svelte. For example, Lardas range carronades. Few massive naval guns notes that the length-to-breadth ratio went were breech loaded because they could from USS Constitution’s 3.9:1 in 1812 to rupture causing a disastrous ship fire. The Alabama’s 6.7:1 and Florida’s 7:1. Union shot itself, besides shells being heavier naval architects used more iron to (133-lb. and 68-lb. shot, 42-lb. shells), now strengthen infrastructure once access to live had timed fuses or were made to explode on oak for ship’s knees and compass timbers contact causing greater damage. Instead of was restricted because this extremely hard battering a ship’s hull with successive, wood grew in the southern coastal states. poorly aimed broadsides, gunnery accuracy The vessels now were able to carry much improved and hits at a vessel’s points of larger guns, but in return, they required vulnerability were more common. stronger decks and bulwarks. Hulls were Battle tactics also changed. Short- sometimes armoured with old railroad track, range broadsides and boarding became heavy chain or occasionally, bales of cotton. routine, since battles were fought over Steel was difficult to produce and iron longer ship-to-ship distances than in proved brittle when struck by a cannon ball. previous conflicts. Steam-powered engines On the other hand, ship’s carpenters could made the wind far less of a factor in a easily repair superstructure punctures on vessel’s maneuverability. Perhaps the planked wooden hulls. biggest changes were not in the number of The most important technological guns brought to bear, the weight of iron advance was the incorporation of heavy hurled at an opponent or the rate of fire, but steam engines resting below the waterline increased accuracy and decisive hits that for protection from enemy gunnery. Since would cripple an enemy. Warships were these engines burned large quantities of now sophisticated floating weapons that coal, compromises were necessary to allow could be pitted against each other. space for crew quarters, ship’s stores, The author includes mini- weapons, munitions and fuel bunkers. At biographies of Confederate Captain Raphael first, side-wheelers were preferred because Semmes and Union Captain John Winslow. of their superior maneuverability, but they Semmes, commander of the raider were vulnerable to broadside attacks and Alabama, was a rogue, but arguably, one of not very good in heavy seas. Therefore, the truly heroic figures of the Confederate screw propeller propulsion developed in Navy. Winslow, captain of Kearsarge, was sophistication and became common. thought by the naval hierarchy to be a failed Oceangoing vessels were forced to use sails naval officer, but rocketed to fame as a to husband their fuel stock. A dependable result of his triumph over the colourful coal supply was indispensible, and coaling Semmes and his Alabama. There are also stations, the province of many foreign passing references to Commanders nations, increased both antagonists need for Napoleon Collins and James Thornton, plus diplomacy. Semmes’s first lieutenant, John McIntosh Cannon technology also evolved Kell. during the Civil War. Weapons of various The heart of the book is a relatively calibres fired heavy projectiles through detailed narrative of the duel between smooth bore and rifled tubes. There were 7- Alabama and Kearsarge in the 1864 battle and 8-inch Blakeley and 11-inch Dahlgren off Cherbourg on the coast of France, but muzzle-loading smooth bore cannon and also includes the fights between Alabama 76 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord and USS Hatteras and CSS Florida against illustrations, tables, notes, index. US USS Wachusett. The book ends with a $124.95, cloth; ISBN 978-1-4094-1849-8. chapter titled “Statistics and Analysis,” a critical examination of the actions and some This is the latest first-rate offering in the of the chief characters in these dramas. Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies Lardas’ book is one of what Osprey Series yielded through the combined Publishing calls its “duel series.” It is a expertise of the Defence Studies good, quick, informative 80-page read. Department of King’s College, London, and Many more in-depth books have been the Joint Services Command and Staff written about the classic battle between the College in the U.K. Defence Academy. The Confederate raider CSS Alabama and its well-conceived collection of essays edited rival USS Kearsarge. The most well- by Don Leggett, Research Associate in the known and thorough are those by Alabama’s History of Science and Technology at the former captain, Raphael Semmes, The University of Kent, and Richard Dunn, Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter Curator of the History of Navigation at the (1864) and his Memoirs of Service Afloat National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, During the War between the States (1869), underlines the primacy of the ship within but contain an obvious bias concerning the the context of the social, political and history of the events surrounding Alabama’s cultural history of the maritime world. defeat. The most recent in-depth books of Principally concerned with the years 1800 note are William Marvel’s The Alabama to 1918, which historians would consider and the Kearsarge: The Sailor’s Civil War well within the period generally referred to (1996) and Stephen Fox’s moving Wolf of as “the long nineteenth century,” this the Deep (2007). Another classic is The volume examines the complexity of actors Alabama-Kearsarge battle: A study in and considerations that drove multiple re- original sources, by William M. Robinson inventions of the ship during an enormously (1924), but there have been similar recent transformative era. books by James Gindlesperger (2003), Although recent scholarship in Frederick Milnes Edge (2012), and a new maritime studies has increasingly biography of Captain John Winslow by John appreciated the ship as more than simply a Morris Elliott (2012). In spite of the means of oceanic transport, the editors of volume of historiography covering this this volume point to the prevailing tendency event, Lardas’ CSS Alabama vs USS of historians to become fixated on one of Kearsarge offers a tightly written and nicely three models of technological change when illustrated synopsis of one famous battle and attempting to explain the major several other similar clashes between naval developments relating to ships in their raiders of the Civil War. appearance, design, capability, use and consequence. The “heroic inventor” theory, Louis Arthur Norton that places a single great man at the centre West Simsbury, Connecticut of path-breaking innovation, is far too simplistic an explanation for change as it traditionally undervalues the contributions Don Leggett and Richard Dunn. Re- of others including scientists, theorists and inventing the Ship: Science, Technology and employers. The evolutionary model, which the Maritime World, 1800-1918. Farnham, describes technological change occurring Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited, along a progressive track, fails to consider www.ashgate.com, 2012. xiv+224 pp., the range of influences that were absolutely Book Reviews 77 integral to decision-making. Technological Victorian warship, the floating laboratory or determinism, the theory that technology in the Royal Navy’s Fleet submarine, were and of itself is the key factor in major dockyard workers, naval officers, sailors historical change, largely dismisses the idea and scientists. Richard Biddle investigates of human agency and the capacity for a the increasingly dangerous work society to interact and shape the ways in environment of the naval dockyard and the which technology is used. Together, the ten Admiralty’s response to health concerns essays presented here address the among labourers as new warship designs weaknesses of these models and necessitated changes in the tools, machines convincingly argue that a deeper and materials required. Biddle ably understanding of the ship’s many re- demonstrates that a higher frequency of inventions must consider the settings, serious injury and sickness led to the spaces and contexts in which technological introduction of preventative measures and changes to ships originated and were shaped labour regulations, thereby modifying the and adapted. relationships between all parties involved in A wide range of actors, each the work of the dockyard. Richard Dunn’s effecting change, becomes visible through particularly well-crafted essay describes these pages. Crosbie Smith’s superbly- how the adoption of scientific instruments researched contribution on the Royal Mail aboard ship, such as the magnetic compass Steam Packet Company uncovers new and the mechanical depth sounder, also forms of power and authority in the world required a negotiation of interests, in this of ocean steam navigation. Individuals, case between engineers, naval officials and such as naval architect and natural crews. His work is complemented by that philosopher John Scott Russell, and marine of Anne-Flore Laloë, who finds that as an superintendent Captain Edward Chappell, as instrument and as a “space of science” in a well as groups that included the company’s period of large-scale scientific exploration, Court of Directors, the Royal Navy’s master the ship required specific modifications, shipwrights, private shipbuilders and marine both physically, to accommodate the engine builders, and City of London apparatus necessary for conducting science merchants and bankers, played active roles at sea, and socially, to reflect the new living in the complex decision-making process and working environment shared between behind the task of supplying the company scientists and ships’ crews. In providing with the largest fleet of steamers among what is perhaps the most effective essay in overseas mail companies at the time. Oliver melding the collection’s core themes, Don Carpenter skillfully connects the private and Leggett explores the multiple shifts that public networks of trust, incorporating local took place in the context of reshaping the Methodists and several dozen shareholders, Victorian navy. He points to the social and which developed and guided the storied cultural process that guided the Admiralty’s tramp shipping company, Robinson Line of gradual adoption of changes to matériel, a Boats, from a small-scale firm in the 1870s process that reflected the differing attitudes to one of the most trusted and dependable towards the naval warship held by such steamship entities by 1914. groups as engineers, naval officers, Jointly involved with the architects, politicians, sailors and scientists. builders, financiers, and owners in the As a whole, the contributors to this multifarious process of re-inventing the ship volume offer a hugely enriching “behind the in its numerous manifestations, be it the scenes” perspective on the re-invention of steam packet, the tramp steamer, the mid- the ship in the long nineteenth century. The 78 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord approaches, questions and findings evolution of the compass, both of which generated by these authors afford historians transformed navigation. The ancient art of of science, technology and the sea a much finding and following the pole star has fuller understanding of the intersection of progressed to the modern science of Global science and technology during this Positioning Systems which permits the collaborative period of transition from wood navigator on the bridge to know where his and sail to steam and iron. vessel is to within a few centimeters. The author, however, credits this development Michael F. Dove with rendering all seas the same. St. Thomas, Ontario Concentrating primarily on the African continent, Mack has reassessed the John Mack. The Sea. A Cultural History. world of salt water, the influence of ships as London: Reaktion Books, www.reaktion societies and the role of so-called “sea books.co.uk, 2011. 272 pp. illustrations, gypsies.” He argues from a maritime rather references, bibliography, index. UK £19.95, than a terrestrial perspective, that during the US $35.00, cloth; ISBN 978-1-86189-809- Phoenician era, between 3000 and 2000 BC, 8. the westward movement of maritime trade was as much by chance as by design. As Robert Louis Stevenson described the sea as evidence, he cites trading missions to the our approach and bulwark, and maritime Red Sea in about 1500 BC by the ancient historians have long accepted that the oceans Egyptians, whose commercial success in the were integral to the development of the Indian Ocean depended more on the ability modern world. This thoughtful book to communicate through similar languages explores the multitude of ways in which than conquering winds and currents. In humans have interacted with the sea and why addition, he points out that between 1400 AD it has both united and divided us. and 1700 AD, trade routes tended to follow John Mack was formerly Keeper of the same approximate line from the the British Museum’s Department of Mediterranean westward through Europe. Ethnography (Museum of Mankind), which Others have described how, five he joined in 1976, before becoming Senior thousand years ago, Mesopotamians Keeper of the British Museum as a whole. exchanged their oil and dates for copper and He is an internationally-recognized authority ivory from the Indus Valley. Although these on the arts and cultures of Africa and, since communities were linked by land, sheltered 2004, has been Professor of World Art coastal sea routes were chosen as an easier Studies at the University of East Anglia. He environment for trade to develop (Stopford has published extensively, including 2009). Portugal traded with the Madagascar, Island of the Ancestors (1986), northernmost kingdoms of Senegal from Museum of the Mind: Art and Memory in 1448 and Prince Henry the Navigator, a man World Cultures (2003) and The Art of Small firmly rooted in medieval times, exploited Things (2007). the Atlantic winds to import strong timber Mack has studied how our innate frames from Madeira. This enabled inquisitiveness has driven us to challenge Lisboners to construct two-storey houses and and engage with the sea in a variety of change the city’s traditional profile for ever cultural and temporal contexts. His focus (Russell 2001). In the early modern age, ranges from the earliest recorded commercial Genoa transformed itself three times: from links between sea and land to the city state to tumultuous maritime republic, development of iron shipping and the then to important European financial centre, Book Reviews 79 and finally, back to a maritime nation (Kirk Edward J. Marolda. Ready Seapower: A 2005). Easy access by sea encouraged the History of the U.S. Seventh Fleet. development of English colonies in the New Washington DC: Naval History & Heritage World between 1800 and 1900, long before Command, www.history.navy.mil, 2012. their commercial benefit was evident xvi+195 pp., illustrations, maps, (Mancall 2007). chronology, appendix, bibliography, index. It is Mack’s contention that, if we US $37.00 (within the USA), $51.80 are to understand the sea, we have to know (International), paper; ISBN 978-0-945274- more about the people who inhabited it and 67-4. therefore, the accounts of mariners are highly Robert J. Schneller, Jr. Anchor of Resolve: A significant. Although this field is not well History of the U.S. Naval Forces Central documented, Mack has traveled extensively Command/Fifth Fleet. Washington DC: along the African coast where he has Naval Historical Center, www.history. uncovered some forgotten archival histories. navy.mil, 2012. xiii+136 pp., illustrations, In this respect, his research succeeds maps, chronology, acronym glossary, spectacularly in illustrating how the history bibliography, index. US $21.00, paper; of any one sea or ocean quickly becomes the ISBN 978-0-945274-55-1. history of others. Of particular interest is his analysis of the ancient vessel at Sutton Hoo, There is much to like about these two books following a similar discovery recently on whose similarities of subject and design Scotland’s Ardnamurchan peninsula. suggest a brief comparison may be useful. In Equally inspired is the author’s choice of terms of content, the basic structure of each illustration for an appraisal of Hokusai’s book is similar, beginning with a chronology 1830 iconic woodblock seascape “Under the of the respective Fifth and Seventh Fleets of Wave off Kanagawa,” which depicts Japan as the United States Navy (USN). This a great wave in a tranquil sea. provides a useful guide to events shaping the To chart the evolution of human standing up and respective operational contact with the sea, the book draws on a histories of events. The U.S. Fifth Fleet range of maritime cultures to reconfigure refers to the service personnel and ships social, symbolic and economic constructions. charged with providing security within the Mack believes that pre-industrial Indian Ocean region. The Seventh Fleet is engagement with the sea was hampered assigned to the Asia-Pacific region. Both rather than encouraged by developments in monitor vast ocean spaces shared by many cartography; that is to say, complacency. maritime countries with a multitude of Representing an anthropologist’s intellectual national interests where any maritime forces exploration, the book reveals the fascinating are otherwise mere specks on a chart. variety of ways in which saltwater people Many countries have naval forces have “inhabited” the oceans and compares capable to some extent of operating beyond them with their activities further inland. This their own 12-nautical mile (nm) territorial is a stimulating and scholarly work, rich in seas, and within the 200-nm Exclusive original ideas, and is a major contribution to Economic Zones (EEZ), yet no other country contemporary historiography. No serious can match the range and naval capabilities student of maritime or economic history can that are currently available to the United afford to overlook this book. States Navy. Therefore, it is appropriate that these two naval histories have been made Michael Clark available and accessible to a wide audience. London, England As taught in modern schools and universities, 80 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord history is often about “issues” rather than in both books. simply laying out the known facts about Although this is a review of printed events. These two books clearly tell a story versions, both books are available as free, rather than trying to discuss specific issues. downloadable, online (PDF) texts from the This may well be how many American same publisher. Unfortunately, the online servicemen and women would tell the stories versions suffer greatly from poor quality themselves, no doubt with embellishments! photographs and illustrations. While this The twentieth century was really the may be a deliberate ploy to get potential most significant in terms of the development purchasers to buy the actual book, it must be of American sea power, and reading about said that the images are much clearer in the the operations involving the Fifth and printed copies. In this age of digital Seventh Fleets reminds us that much of this photography and availability of inexpensive power really stemmed from the Second enhancement software, image quality, World War and the various security issues especially for the casual reader, could be that arose in its aftermath. This legacy of improved for the downloadable version. On American naval activity, from the Seventh the subject of imagery, there is also a Fleet’s Second World War and Cold War difference in quality between the two printed skirmishes in the South China Seas, to later versions that suggest improvements are Middle Eastern oil-wars and more recent ongoing. Each book depicts an American counter-terrorism operations involving the Carrier (the USS Abraham Lincoln CVN 72 Fifth Fleet continues to this day, despite on Schneller, the USS George Washington suggestions from some quarters that it is in CVN 73 on Marolda) charging towards the decline. Both books are uncritical histories photographer in very similar dramatic poses, of these two great American fleets, why they but the image of the George Washington is were created, their purpose since being much clearer, which is a credit to the created, and roles they and their crews have publisher (Naval History & Heritage played in carrying out their assigned duties Command). and deployments. The wide range of roles These two publications from the US each has played, from conflict at sea and Naval History and Heritage Command supporting amphibious forces, to providing appear to be aimed at the light- humanitarian aid are presented in detail with reading/coffee-table set, and naval enthusiast accompanying photo imagery. markets. Both books are histories that do not For this type of publication, the aim to make ground breaking arguments photographs are (or should be) key to within academia but do outline clearly the securing prospective reader interest and both who, why and wherefore of the U.S. Navy books achieve this nicely. Some images are Fifth and Seventh Fleets. Nicely illustrated well known, such as the surrender by the with maps and plenty of photographs, these Japanese Imperial Forces (Marolda, p.12) on editions achieve their goal of striking a board the battleship USS Missouri (BB 63). balance between being informative and Other images may not be as familiar, such as entertaining— a balance that should appeal an accompanying photo (p.13) of American to many readers whose interest in naval servicemen instructing a Japanese Army affairs derives from either experience or officer in 1945, or a United States Marine simply a curiosity in maritime naval assisting a Somali woman at a medical clinic operations. in Mogadishu in 1993 (Schneller, p.52). These photographs (and many others) Timothy A. Martin enliven the perhaps drier historical narrative Williamstown, Victoria, Australia Book Reviews 81 Mark Nicholls and Penry Williams. Sir him as a “serial seducer” (p.27). His Walter Raleigh in Life & Legend. London: romantic reputation is dominated by his Continuum Books, www.continuum liaison with Bess Throckmorton which books.com, 2011. xviii+378 pp., resulted in her pregnancy and their secret illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, marriage. Despite the ensuing royal wrath index. US $34.95, cloth; ISBN 978-1-4411- and scandal, the authors claim that Bess was 1209-5. no naive damsel: “Here was no maid, weeping her way to marriage with a hesitant Sir Walter Raleigh continues to fascinate us lover, grimly determined to ‘do the right almost four hundred years after his thing’” (p.75). Raleigh and Bess execution. This is evidenced by a steady Throckmorton were a Tudor “power stream of new works about this ill-fated couple,” looking to make a romantic and Renaissance Man. Mark Nicholls and political merger. Bess must have been a Penry Williams feel that previous offerings formidable woman: her fall from grace as have not fully explored Raleigh’s public life one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting was as part of the tumultuous ebb and flow of only the beginning of her troubles as spouse court politics. The authors also believe that to the perpetual adventurer. other biographies do not always put enough Nicholls and Williams demonstrate weight on Raleigh’s writings as a means of the importance of war to Raleigh’s career, understanding him. Thus, they try to ferret time and again. His rise takes place against out the real Raleigh amid contemporary a backdrop of war on land and sea and he opinion and his posthumous reputation. was a keen participant in both. Raleigh As a younger son with very limited sailed on, and invested in, privateering prospects, Raleigh needed to make his own voyages like many gentlemen at court. way in the world. He was blessed with Such ventures often crossed the line into charm and talents which he tried to hone to piracy and Raleigh was not immune from perfection. He sought his fortune in the accusations of wrongdoing at sea. He also snake pit that was the Tudor-Stuart court sought glory on the battlefield, and Ireland, where the risks and rewards included wealth in particular, “was an opportunity state” and glory, or conversely, disgrace, poverty (p.18). It was also a graveyard of and death. Raleigh visited the heights and reputations, as another of the Queen’s depths during his career. favourite, the Earl of Essex, would discover. Despite the legend that he rose to On the whole, Raleigh prospered prominence quickly after placing his cloak from Elizabeth’s armed conflicts. War did, over a puddle for Queen Elizabeth to pass, however, interfere with his efforts to the reality is different. He remained on the colonize the New World. Raleigh’s role in periphery of the court for some time before the preparation and defense of England becoming a royal favourite in the 1580s. against the Spanish Armada in 1588 may Nor was Raleigh just another pretty face: have been the death knell for the fledgling Elizabeth I valued his wit and passion for settlement. Unable to reprovision the learning, although she never rewarded him colony with men and supplies because all with a seat on her Privy Council. She efforts were directed at protecting England, doubted his discretion in state affairs. the mother country seemingly abandoned Like most aspects of his life, the first settlers. The uncertain, but Raleigh’s marriage was mercurial. While presumably tragic fate of the Lost Colonists some Hollywood films portray him as a is a blemish on Raleigh’s reputation and womanizer, contemporaries did not paint will remain part of his legend. 82 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord The authors try to deal with the enigmatic figure who paid the ultimate price complex matter of Raleigh’s religious for his ambitions at court. beliefs even though they readily admit the Cheryl Fury matter will never be settled definitively. We Grand Bay-Westfield, New Brunswick know that Raleigh was accused of atheism – a shocking and radical assertion for this era. Much had to do with the company he kept Ryan Noppen. Austro-Hungarian with controversial scholars; as an inquisitive Battleships 1914-18. Botley, Oxford: and argumentative courtier, he was Osprey Publishing, www.ospreypublish vulnerable to such slanders. The authors ing.com, New Vanguard Series No. 193, discuss Raleigh’s The History of the World 2012. 48 pp., illustrations, photographs, as evidence of his belief in a providential bibliography, index. UK £9.99, US $17.95, God. They conclude that Raleigh’s belief CDN $18.95, paper; ISBN 978-1-84908- system was a “mixture of the deist, the 688-2. naturally sceptical, and (less certainly) the fundamentally devout” (p.96). It is not well-known that the long-dissolved While Raleigh’s considerable Austro-Hungarian (A-H) Empire had a navy charisma facilitated his rise at Elizabeth’s based in the Adriatic Sea. Indeed, this was court, King James I was immune to his a force of some importance, as it possessed magnetism. Moreover, he was tainted by 16 battleships in five different classes along charges of treason from which he could with all other ships, combat and support. In never free himself As a former privateer, Austro-Hungarian Battleships 1914-18, soldier and naval captain, he was a liability Ryan Noppen tells the story of these as the King sought peace with Spain. James forgotten battleships and their service might have granted Raleigh mercy if he had histories. been able to fill the indigent king’s coffers To understand the stories of the A- with gold from the New World. King James H battleships, it is necessary to understand I caged this courtier and eventually ordered the Austro-Hungarian Empire, often his execution. referred to as the Dual Monarchy. Austria One of the strengths of this and Hungary were separate nations, joined biography is that the authors examine together by a common monarch who held contemporary opinions of Raleigh as well as the titles “Kaiser” (Emperor) of Austria and his posthumous reputation. His image as “König” (King) of Hungary. Both Austria Protestant popular hero began immediately and Hungary had their own governments after his death. Even though it is unlikely and jointly funded an Imperial army and an he can be credited with being the first to Imperial navy. As well, both nations bring tobacco and potatoes to England, his possessed parts of the Dalmatian coastline. transatlantic appeal is also a longstanding While Austria had a fair amount of one. The authors do not whitewash overseas trade in the Mediterranean, Raleigh’s considerable failings but rather Hungary did not. As a result, the Hungarian embrace them as readily as his attributes. government reluctantly funded the A-H This book is also noteworthy for its Imperial Navy and, in many years, refused examination of Raleigh as one of several to provide funding for naval ships at all. fascinating personalities at the English Moreover, Italy formed an alliance with court. Overall, Nicholls and Williams have Austro-Hungary and Imperial Germany in produced an incredibly readable biography 1882, thereby removing a major potential which analyzes several aspects of this threat to the Dual Monarchy. It was only in Book Reviews 83 the 1890s that the Austro-Hungarian Empire handed over to the victorious Allies in 1918. began to fund, design, and build battleships They did not last long, however; all were together with other naval vessels. Due to scrapped or sunk as target ships by the mid- the budgetary constraints imposed on the 1920s. Navy, A-H battleships of all classes tended Noppen’s account of these long- to be smaller and less heavily armed than forgotten men of war follows the standard their contemporaries in Britain, France, Osprey New Vanguard format: a brief but Imperial Germany, or Italy. Also affecting comprehensive narrative; colour drawings A-H shipbuilding was the need to spread the of the various A-H battleship classes, many ship construction between shipyards in the valuable photographs, a useful and Austrian coastline and Hungarian coastline. comprehensive bibliography, and an index. (The need to spread out government Noppen tells the complete story of the A-H contracting is a fact of life that persists even ships very well. It is all here: the political to this day.) Finally, the A-H battleships issues that constrained the size and offered cramped living spaces for the crew, armament of the battleships, their technical substandard food, and little or no combat data, and the service lives of the various action. The result was poor morale and a ships. Nor does he neglect the human aspect mutiny aboard several A-H ships in of these ships. One noteworthy photograph February 1918—a striking parallel to the shows A-H sailors on deck being totally Imperial German Navy’s mutiny in late bored with their inactivity. Portraits of October 1918. several commanders of the A-H battleships The five classes of A-H Imperial add a human dimension to the text. Indeed, Navy battleships built between 1893 and their last commander, Admiral Horthy, 1915 were: Monarch class (3 ships); survived to become Regent of Hungary and Habsburg class (3 ships); Erzherzog Karl lead his country throughout the Second class (3 ships); Radetzky class (3 ships); and World War. the Tegethoff class (4 ships.) All were This book is useful on several designed by Generalschiffbauinginieur levels. The ship modeler will find new Siegfried Popper. None of these battleships topics and colour schemes in it. The novice saw ship-to-ship combat in the First World to the field will find Noppen’s work a useful War, although they were active in offshore introduction to the subject and the bombardment, a role they performed bibliography a guide to further study. The superbly. Naval staff, knowing their ships expert can use it as a handy brief reference were not up to fighting the British, French, work. Noppen’s work is a long-overdue and Italian, or much later, American fleets, used worthy tribute to long-forgotten sailors and their capital ships cautiously. The force warships. It is recommended. constituted a “fleet in being,” forcing the Robert L. Shoop Allies to keep some ships on alert for them, Colorado Springs, Colorado which could have been used more profitably in other sectors. In fact, the performance of the A-H battleships in offshore bombardment soon after Italy entered the war was so effective that the Italian fleet did not sail into the upper Adriatic until late in the First World War. Two A-H battleships were lost to Italian torpedo boats but the remainder were 84 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Roger Sarty. War in the St. Lawrence. The of military and naval incompetence and Forgotten U-Boat Battles on Canada’s indifference. The increasing and skilful use Shores. Toronto, ON: Allen Lane, of Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft allowed www.penguin.ca, 2012. xxviii+355 pp., the navy to defend the St. Lawrence with a illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, very few resources—“a half dozen Bangor index. CDN $34.00, cloth; ISBN 978-0- minesweepers, a half dozen trawlers (only in 670-06787-9. 1943 and 1944), and a maximum of two dozen Fairmile motor launches” (p.293). This latest offering by Roger Sarty Conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is part of the History of Canada series put allowed submarines to hide below warmer together by Margaret MacMillan and Robert surface water in a cold water layer to avoid Bothwell. One colleague, observing that detection by asdic. Using direction finding there had been no less than three bearings and high-grade Ultra intelligence, monographs as well as two official histories offensive air patrols forced submarines to covering this topic, quipped that it was dive repeatedly and disrupted their tactics. hardly forgotten. And yet when I brought the We learn about the determined and book home, several family members who the brave—German submariners, the read avidly were surprised to learn that commanders of small naval vessels, ordinary German submarines had been so close to seamen, merchant seamen, and the pilots Canadian territory during the Second World who made such a difference in Canadian and War. Apparently, they had not delved into Newfoundland defences. Sarty handles the the first-rate, well-written, detailed two- palpable undercurrent of tension between the volume official history which sits on my small permanent force members of the navy book shelf. Perhaps other large, dark books and reservists with adeptness, but the official on that shelf had lived up to the worn-out histories accomplished the same. What does truism that historians write for limited War in the St. Lawrence add to our audiences, utilizing a specialized vocabulary knowledge? and expert approach that render their topics There are differences in unattractive or incomprehensible to lay interpretation, emphasis, and detail from the people. Whatever the reason, something recent official history of the Royal Canadian about War in the St. Lawrence sparked their Navy which focuses on naval operational interest. matters. For example, in the aftermath of U Sarty breathes new life into this 518’s successful attack on Rose Castle and well-studied topic. His narrative flows PLM 27 off Wabana, Newfoundland, the beautifully and, like a good mystery novel, official history describes how Captain R.E.S. draws the reader from one page to the next. Bidwell defended the commanding officer of He sprinkles this story with amusing Drumheller from censure, arguing he had anecdotes and entertaining details, without done his best, yet concluding that detracting from an authoritative and very Drumheller’s rush to the sinking vessels complex account. What are the key themes? rather than sweeping the approaches to cut The war in the St. Lawrence River was a off the submarine’s escape reflected a lack of small part of the Battle of the Atlantic and experience, organization, and planning. most of the Canadian war effort went Sarty’s version reveals that the garrison elsewhere. The government of W.L. managing the coastal battery’s searchlights Mackenzie King managed a public relations neglected to sweep at irregular intervals and campaign which combined with successful made it possible for the commander officer defence efforts to offset an initial appearance of U 518 to elude the lights which swept at Book Reviews 85 predictable ten minute intervals. The official which places this war in the strategic history of the Royal Canadian Air Force historical perspective of the St. Lawrence mentions an attack by U 69 on the Rose River over the centuries, but the two Castle prior to this attack and also how U solitudes are still with us. 518 went on to land a spy, Werner Janowski, Sarty rightly pays tribute to Alec in Quebec, but because the air force played Douglas, Michael Whitby, and the large team no direct role in the action at Wabana, there of people who contributed to the official is no mention of it. Readers need to read histories of the Royal Canadian Air Force both these accounts to get the full story. and the Royal Canadian Navy, laying the Steve Neary’s The Enemy on our Doorstep groundwork for this and other volumes. highlights how much the attacks off Wabana Thus, Sarty drew upon decades of his own affected Newfoundlanders. Writing fifty and other people’s research. Post-war years after these events, Neary was still cutbacks to naval history research prevented haunted by how the enemy had penetrated Canadians from learning the full truth about defences and hoped that one day the full this battle on their doorstep. Some of the story would be told. Now, twenty years later, story was classified and unavailable to Sarty and others have done so. historians before the 1980s and Sarty’s As Sarty notes, the towns of arguments about declassification, resources, Channel and Port aux Basque and others in and the ability to tell the full story remain Newfoundland never forgot the loss of the relevant. What impresses me the most about Caribou, the North Sydney-to-Port aux his book is how Canadians during the Basque ferry which was sunk by U-69. A Second World War used ingenuity and few second Caribou ferry serving on this run resources to achieve a relatively large effect, from 1986 until 2010 carried a memorial flag but it saddens me that it took so very long for with a maple leaf in flames after 1999. A these histories to come to fruition and that strange image—Newfoundland did not join seventy years later we have limited insight Canada until 1949. If, however, such into the unique French Canadian perspective symbolic reminders of losses help build on these events. national identity, Canadians do not yet know Buy this book. It adds some new much about their history. Local and national details relevant to experts in the field and it identities are built from a myriad of half- may attract a larger audience, including remembered truths, legends, and lies; family members and friends. historians set the record straight and ideally, Isabel Campbell build common ground among people with Ottawa, Ontario diverse backgrounds, cultures, and languages. For French Canadians as for Newfoundlanders, memory and identity Albrecht Sauer. Zeit auf See/Time at Sea. remain distinct. Tellingly, Sarty’s Chronometers and their Creators: Three bibliography does not list a single work in Centuries of Cutting Edge Chronometers. French, although there’s not much to list on Bremerhaven: Exhibition Catalogue, the topic. The Canadian Department of Deutsches Schiffahrtmuseum and Ocean Veterans’ Affairs has translated a short book Verlag, www.dsm.museum, 2012. 136 pp., and the long-awaited French translation of illustrations, German and English text. the official history has helped, along with the €19.90, paper; ISBN 978-3-86927-009-8. Military History Gateway and government web-sites. Fortunately, Le Musée naval de This exquisitely illustrated short catalogue Québec has an impressive permanent exhibit features German and English text, 86 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord essentially as captions, for its many photos. As a publication of the German The work focuses upon the evolution of maritime museum, this work is largely chronometers and their creators with centered upon German contributions to the emphasis upon the German contribution to development and advances in the these complex and elegant instruments. The chronographs. The photograph captions term in the subtitle Three Centuries of that make up the prose are short, tightly Cutting Edge Chronometers “Cutting written, and informative; the quality of the Edge” has a double meaning. A significant photography and the paper upon which they portion of the book is devoted to the are printed is outstanding. Sauer’s small but sophisticated tools used to create these excellent book would appeal to a limited marvels at the hands of skilled European audience, those interested in the history of watchmakers. The bilingual legends start chronometers. Dava Sobel’s best selling by briefly outlining the early measurements Longitude covers this topic in greater detail of the earth, the efforts of physical scientists and has better prose, but Sauer’s work is a such as Tobias Mayer, Johannes Kepler, complement to Longitude containing many Isaac Newton, and Christiian Huygens. The facts about German contributions to the theme then switches to the need for a science of horology in general and chronometer to establish longitude at sea chronometers in particular. and the competition for a monetary prize. Louis Arthur Norton Ultimately, John Harrison won the contest West Simsbury, Connecticut but others, such as John Arnold and Ferdinand Berthoud, made subsequent substantial contributions. Gene Allen Smith and Sylvia L. Hilton Sauer also briefly addresses the (eds). Nexus of Empire: Negotiating Loyalty development of “timeballs,” huge balls set and Identity in the Revolutionary on towers adjacent to waterfronts that Borderlands, 1760s–1820s. Gainesville, FL: dropped at very precise times, enabling a University Press of Florida, www. upf.com, ship’s captain to calibrate his chronometer. 2010. 375 pp., illustrations, maps, tables, (This likely was the maritime origin of the notes, index. US $69.95, cloth; ISBN 978- similar annual Times Square New Year’s 0-8130-3399-0. Eve event.) At sea, vessels would often hail each other to compare calculated positions Tangled in the internecine power struggles and the accuracy of their chronometers. of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth- Once the cost of these devices became century Atlantic world was the reasonable, it was not unusual for ships to heterogeneous North American territory carry two and sometimes as many as four bordering the Gulf of Mexico. In Nexus of chronometers, to make sure that they could Empire: Negotiating Loyalty and Identity in calculate their position correctly. Toward the Revolutionary Borderlands, 1760-1820s, the end of the nineteenth century, mariners editors Gene Smith and Sylvia Hilton tie gained confidence in their mechanical together 14 monographs about the Gulf devices and prices tumbled. After the Coast region during America’s early period Second World War, inexpensive quartz of formation. By weaving the thread of timers replaced the mechanical clocks, loyalty through the chapters, Smith and followed by radio signals and finally, very Hilton present an interesting link to a accurate and easy to use GPS systems. In disparate region consisting of numerous recent years space-based technology has stakeholders. made mechanical chronometers obsolete. Extensive historiography exists Book Reviews 87 regarding the development of America’s individuals determine their allegiance. In original thirteen colonies; less study has the first chapter, “Loyalty and Patriotism on been devoted to the diverse ethnic groups North American Frontiers: Being and who staked claims along the nation’s Becoming Spanish in the Mississippi Valley, southern perimeter. Prior to joining the 1776-1803,” Hilton explores Spanish Union, the states of Florida, Alabama, loyalty oaths. In an effort to deter American Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas flew encroachment, Spain offered liberty in numerous flags representative of shifting exchange for loyalty. Those liberties dominions. The governments of Spain, included freedom of religious worship and France, Britain and, after the 1803 expanded rights to anyone willing to settle Louisiana Purchase, the United States, all in Spanish West Florida. Arguing that laid claim to the Gulf Coast. Before the historians have dismissed those loyalty arrival of European settlers, Native oaths as perfunctory, Hilton asserts that they Americans, most notably the were part of Spain’s larger plan to maintain Mississippians, occupied the land. East its empire in the New World. What Coast tribes, including the Creeks, sought components ensure loyalty? Does loyalty refuge from encroaching settlers in the Gulf stem from the government down to its Coast frontier. These borderlands also people or does it emerge out of personal offered sanctuary to free blacks and escaped interests such as agency, family, land, and slaves. Home to ancient peoples, refugees, wealth? Spain offered citizenship to settlers and opportunists, the Gulf Coast everyone who settled in Spanish West was a cacophony of cultures. Florida, yet loyalty remained elusive Divided into four sections — because residents developed no shared Changing Flags and Political Uncertainty, history, religion, language, or culture. Dilemmas Among Native Americans and In chapter six, “Dehahuit: An Free Blacks, Building Fortunes through Indian Diplomat on the Louisiana-Texas Family Connections, and Local Community Frontier, 1804-1815,” F. Todd Smith delves and Personal Ambition in Government and into attempts by Dehahuit, chief of the Military Service — Smith and Hilton’s Kadohadacho Indians, to form peaceful Nexus of Empire examines how different alliances with their white neighbours, the sets of people adapted to the changing Spanish, and then, with the Americans. environment along America’s Gulf Coast. Negotiations and compromise by the Each monograph focuses either on a single indigenous peoples along the Texas and character or on a small group of people who Louisiana borders demonstrate the difficulty lived in the borderlands during the sixty- faced by a native group trying to maintain year period beginning from just before the their ancestral lands amid the shifting onset of the American Revolution until the powers’ quest for hegemony. Adams Onis Treaty transferred West Florida While Meriwether Lewis and to the United States (1760-1820). William Clark explored the northern part of Exploring how the inhabitants negotiated America, William Dunbar surveyed the Red their way through the perpetually shifting River area of southern Louisiana. Andrew political climate enlightens the reader to the McMichael’s chapter, “William Dunbar, complexities faced by those who tried to William Claiborne, and Daniel Clark: maintain their footing in a constantly Intersections of Loyalty and National shifting world. Identity on the Florida Frontier,” appraises Both Smith and Hilton question the the intentions of Thomas Jefferson to extend ways a nation secures loyalty and how the boundaries of this newly acquired land 88 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord well before he fathomed its expanse. historical attention to the Navy’s William Dunbar, with ties to both the contribution to Allied operations in the Spanish and American governments, was European theater. Stern identifies several the ideal choice for the inspection. Dunbar themes in the introduction, including an was a landholder and thus, a stakeholder in emphasis on the Navy’s decidedly “non- stability. His reconnaissance not only neutral” operations in 1941 prior to the encompassed flora and fauna, it reported on December attack on Pearl Harbor and how Spanish fortifications along the American the Americans could, and should, have frontier. learned from the Royal Navy’s greater Historians are the contributors to experience in anti-submarine warfare the book. Each author documents his or her (ASW). Stern returns to these themes at monograph with solid primary and points throughout the book, though he does secondary evidence. Researchers will find not develop them thoroughly. the book thorough with an extensive index. The work begins by tracing the The editors’ conclusion unites the transformation of the Patrol Force into the monographs by discussing the nuances of Atlantic Fleet under Admiral Ernest King. each chapter and how each one underscores The Atlantic Fleet grew rapidly throughout national fealty. The stories of settlement 1940 and 1941, though not fast enough in along the Gulf Coast borderlands accentuate the eyes of its commander, due to the even the struggle for position amid the complex more rapid increase in operational Atlantic world. The selected essays responsibilities. Neutrality patrols and demonstrate how individuals dealt with growing escort duties stretched King’s their own issues of loyalty during a time of resources to the limit. Throughout this great change. Underlying the frequently period, the United States gradually extended explored history of United States’ expansion increasingly more aid to Great Britain, to its natural borders is the micro-history of culminating in the Lend-Lease Act of March diverse people caught in the changing tides 1941. Stern notes that one of the results of of political domination. this act was that American shipyards were opened up to repair damaged British Cynthia Catellier warships. Gulf Breeze, Florida After the United States entered the war, a series of poor decisions by American Robert C. Stern. The U.S. Navy and the War commanders, combined with inadequate in Europe. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute convoy escorts, brought about a massive Press, www.nip.org, 2012. xiv+306 pp., rise in sinkings of cargo ships and tankers illustrations, maps, appendices, notes, by German submarines off the American bibliography, index. US $55.95, cloth; coast. In particular, Stern notes that King ISBN 978-1-59114-896-8. and his subordinate commanders failed to institute coastal convoys to protect The U.S. Navy’s most well-known merchant shipping. He rejects, however, the contribution to Allied victory in the Second argument that King did so because of deep- World War is the war in the Pacific. The seated animosity towards the British in famous fast-carrier task forces and general, and the Royal Navy in particular. amphibious landings from Guadalcanal to As operations in the Atlantic Okinawa are emblematic of the Navy’s continued, the U.S. Navy sent a series of wartime role. Robert Stern’s The U.S. Navy heavy warships to Britain for temporary and the War in Europe seeks to redirect service with the British Home Fleet. The Book Reviews 89 American vessels were used to free up book will do nicely. British warships for other tasks, such as Corbin Williamson operations in the Mediterranean or Columbus, Ohio maintenance work. Stern describes the operations and experiences of these American ships on loan, including the well- Craig L. Symonds. The Battle of Midway. known episode involving convoy PQ-17 to New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Russia in July 1942 and raids by American 452 pp., illustrations, maps, appendices, carrier aircraft on German coastal shipping bibliography, index. US $27.95, cloth; off Norway in 1944. ISBN 978-0-19-539793-2. A significant portion of the In the newest addition to the Pivotal narrative is devoted to operations in the Moments in American History series, Mediterranean, where the allied navies renowned nineteenth-century naval supported amphibious assaults in North historian, Craig Symonds, turns his Africa, Sicily, and Italy. Stern highlights attention to the most famous battle of the the naval action off Casablanca in Pacific War. The Battle of Midway is a November 1942, as well as smaller synthetic work, making use of the most engagements that took place in the recent scholarship as well as multiple Mediterranean. As part of these amphibious archival sources, particularly the Nimitz operations, sometimes for weeks at a time, Library at the United States Naval American warships provided fire support, Academy. Symonds argues that older for allied ground forces in the midst of accounts that emphasized the role of luck strong German air opposition. and chance in the American victory were American warships also supported inaccurate. He asserts, rather, that the the June 1944 landings in Normandy, decisions made by those involved in the though Stern does not give significant battle were decisive in determining the attention to the U.S. Navy’s salvage efforts outcome. Symonds successfully develops in French ports such as Cherbourg. While this argument throughout the book by amphibious training efforts in England are highlighting these individual influences on barely acknowledged, the amphibious the course of events. landing in southern France in August 1944 The work begins with two short is covered extensively. Final chapters chapters on the opposing commanders-in- examine the Navy’s role in crossing the chief, Nimitz and Yamamoto, who are Rhine River and the final months of the respectively described as reserved and a Battle of the Atlantic. “gambler” (p.36). Symonds then addresses This book is based on skillful use the state of each navy in 1941, emphasizing of primary and secondary sources, the influence of culture and history on especially unpublished action reports and technological and doctrinal developments war diaries kept on American warships. within each fleet. The Japanese experience Those familiar with the naval side of the in China combined with an offensive- European theater will find little new minded military to produce powerful attack material, though Stern synthesizes previous planes with limited defensive capabilities. works effectively. Numerous photographs American naval officers were reluctant to illustrate the text and are spread throughout accept Japanese technical superiority, the work. For readers in search of a well- especially in torpedoes, which significantly written, if at times detailed, narrative of the delayed efforts to correct problems with U.S. Navy in Europe during the war, Stern’s 90 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord American torpedoes. While both navies He lucidly describes the options available to suffered from internal divisions, Symonds Nagumo, Fletcher, and Spruance at each sees those of the Imperial Japanese Navy decision point in the course of events. The (IJN) as more pronounced. The treaty experience of the carrier Hornet’s air group, faction of the IJN called for adherence to the “flight to nowhere,” receives particular the Washington treaty system, in opposition attention, with the conclusion that Stanhope to the expansionist fleet faction. The United Ride’s leadership style left much to be States Navy (USN) worked throughout the desired. Symonds demonstrates the interwar period to integrate naval aviation significant influence of combat experience and naval aviators into its tactics and plans. on the performance of each of the three While broadly successful as an American air groups. The reader is brought organization, the USN could not avoid into the confusion surrounding several of tension and friction between “brown shoe” the American air attacks, in particular the naval aviators and “black shoe” surface pivotal dive-bombing attack by Wade warfare officers. McClusky. Symonds highlights the Symonds concisely details early movements and experiences of aircraft on carrier raids by both navies, including the both sides more than the shipboard Indian Ocean raid by the IJN and the experience of being attacked. He does not Doolittle raid by the USN. He highlights cover the effect of exploding bombs and the Australian influence on American naval torpedoes on a carrier’s hull to the extent deployments, as Prime Minister John Curtin that other authors have, though this is a pressed Washington for carriers to defend minor quibble. the sea lines of communication from the At the end of the second day of West Coast and Hawaii to the South Pacific. fighting, Admiral Spruance had searchlights A chapter on American code-breaking turned on to help American dive bombers efforts illustrates the tension within the find their carriers in the gathering dark, naval intelligence service. Symonds setting the pattern for the better known use provides an informative primer on the of searchlights at the Battle of the Japanese encryption process, clearly Philippine Sea. Symonds ends with an demonstrating the challenge facing Second epilogue describing the later careers of the World War code breakers of all major participants, concluding that Fletcher nationalities. These introductory chapters was never given due credit and Mitscher are invaluable for placing the battle in a was never sufficiently challenged. Six broader context, though with the inevitable appendices provide technical information on result that the battle does not start until page ships and aircraft, a detailed order of battle 176. for each side, an essay on the contribution In contrast to historians who of American intelligence, and an extended emphasize the flawed nature of the Japanese discussion of the performance of the plan, Symonds argues that Yamamoto’s Hornet’s air group. A short bibliographic dispersion of the Japanese fleet for the essay rounds out this well-written, well- Midway operation was designed to prevent researched narrative. The Battle of Midway a single, massed fleet from so intimidating provides an excellent treatment for survey the Americans that they would not respond classes, specialists, and the general reader. to the offensive. Symonds’ account of the Corbin Williamson battle itself is riveting as he traces the Columbus, Ohio experience of individual air groups, squadrons, and warships across the Pacific. Book Reviews 91 Bruce Taylor. The End of Glory: War and imagination of the British public and laid Peace in HMS Hood, 1916-1941. the foundations for the subsequent, almost Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, mythical, symbol the ship became. www.nip.org, 2012. x+246 pp., In 2005, historian Bruce Taylor illustrations, roll of honour, bibliography, published a definitive work, The index. US $37.95, cloth; ISBN 978-1- Battlecruiser HMS Hood. It is a 59114-235-5. comprehensive and technically detailed biography of the iconic ship. Profusely Over 25 years, the battlecruiser HMS Hood illustrated, it is the product of broad and became the highly visible symbol of British meticulous research and an essential seapower and the “Pride” of the Royal Navy reference work for any serious naval library. (RN), known as the “mighty Hood.” On 24 Recognizing that there is a wider audience May 1941, when the Hood blew up and beyond the naval afficionados and those quickly sank under the gunfire of the (such as this reviewer) with a family German battleship Bismarck, with the loss connection to the ship, Taylor has produced of all but three of the ship’s company of the current book. It is a much abridged and 1418 officers and men, the British nation condensed version of the 2005 work but in a went into a state of shock and national smaller format. The author states that some morale plummeted. new material has been included but this Hood was conceived during the material is not immediately obvious–and, in First World War at a time when the any case, would be irrelevant to anyone who battlecruiser was regarded as the elite of the has not read the 2005 book. Fleet; an offensive weapons system without The book is logically organized and equal. Events at the Battle of Jutland in generally follows the chronology of the May 1916, however, exposed serious flaws battlecruiser’s career. The opening chapter in the design of British battlecruisers. gives a brief but thorough description of the Many of the lessons learned from this origin of the design and how that design experience were applied to the design of progressed from paper to steel. There is Hood. Unfortunately, in one critical aspect, little technical detail but that is in keeping the design perpetuated earlier weaknesses–it with the purpose of a book for the general lacked an effective layer of armour plating reader. The main body of the book gives an over the main deck. This made it overview of the activities of the ship, and its vulnerable to the plunging trajectory of company, over the years of active service. shells fired at long range by an adversary. Extensive use of personal recollections and In the end, this would be the fatal flaw. memoirs–some published, some not, from The keel for Ship No. 460 was laid both officers and men–give an added at the John Brown shipyard in Clydebank, dimension to the overall narrative. Among Scotland on 1 September 1916. The John those often quoted is the late Commander L. Brown yard would later build both the B. “Yogi” Jenson, RCN, who served in Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth for Hood as a young Canadian Midshipman for the Cunard Line. Ship No. 460 five months. Fortuitously, he left the ship in commissioned as HMS Hood on 29 March April 1941. After naval service, Jenson 1920. It was the largest, most powerful and became a well-known author and illustrator most expensive warship in the world. It in Nova Scotia. His observations were also possessed a powerfully elegant visual recorded in the mandatory Midshipman’s appearance and published photographs of Journal and give a different perspective of HMS Hood at sea at speed captured the life in the ship. 92 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord One full chapter deals with the The 2012 Seaforth World Naval Review is mutiny at Invergordon in the fall of 1931. the third in what is, no doubt, intended to be Although Hood’s sailors were willing and a fixture on the contemporary naval active participants in the mutiny— publications scene. It is not a direct precipitated by a unilateral imposition by competitor with the hoary Jane’s Fighting the Government, and a compliant Ships, which is unquestionably such a Admiralty, of a drastic reduction in the pay fixture, and has been so for well over a of RN sailors—there was none of the near century. The World Naval Review is total breakdown of discipline that occurred perhaps best considered a complementary in some other ships. Nevertheless, in the publication that can help anyone, aftermath, some ten of Hood’s men were professional or lay, understand the key arrested and eventually discharged from the issues and developments in the naval world RN. The author does a good job of in an easy-to-read-and-absorb package. It encapsulating what happened in the ship has the considerable merit of brevity. during that tense period. Conrad Waters, the editor, wrote The final chapters deal with Hood the introduction, as well as the regional at war and the impact the transition from reviews. Others have written sections that peacetime conditions had on the ship and its provide additional analysis of specific company. The author clearly shows how navies, or technical matters. The book is the years of deferred and delayed organized into four sections: an overview, modernization refits by a parsimonious world fleet reviews (by region), significant Government greatly impaired the ability of ships (designs), and technical issues (in this the ship to fight in modern naval warfare. edition, sonar and naval air). All this is That, ultimately, Hood was no match for presented in a compact 192 pages, richly Bismarck provides the tragic proof. The illustrated with photographs and diagrams. author quotes a former First Sea Lord, The introduction provides a quick Admiral Lord Chatfield; “The Hood was overview of some major themes explored in destroyed because she had to fight a ship 22 greater depth elsewhere in the book. In years more modern than herself...[i]t was particular, Waters notes that the financial the direct responsibility of those who pressure on all Western navies is having a opposed the rebuilding of the British Battle deleterious effect on capabilities and Fleet until 1937...” (p.138). capacities that may well be harbinger of a This is an excellent, easy to read real loss of influence. Suffering particularly and well-illustrated overview of the life and dramatically is the Royal Navy, which is but times of a legendary ship. For those who do a shadow of its former self. No longer even not wish to delve into extensive detail, this the pre-eminent European navy, the Royal would be a good choice to learn something Navy is struggling to retain relevance in the of a legend. face of savage budget cuts that is dropping it into the third rank. While the Royal Michael Young Navy’s woes are perhaps an extreme, much Nepean, Ontario the same issue affects all the European navies and even, albeit on a very different Conrad Waters (ed.). Seaforth World scale, the U. S. Navy (USN). This fact Naval Review 2012. Barnsley, S. Yorks: underlines the relative decline in world www.seaforthpublishing.com, 2011. 192 affairs of the West and is a fact that has real pp., illustrations, tables, notes, index. UK geo-political effects. Waters has the ability £30.00, cloth; ISBN 978-1-84832-120-5. to compact a great deal of analysis into a Book Reviews 93 small space. depth three “significant ships” that have He makes two useful observations some wider importance than ordinary here. The first is that naval strength is vessels that comprise the bulk of warships directly linked to economic strength. An currently operated or being built. The first obvious point, perhaps, but with the loss of looks at British-built offshore patrol vessels, economic power comes a diminishment in the second, the new USN assault ship, and naval and military capacity. The financial third, the Swedish Visby class stealth difficulties of the entire Western world, with corvettes. This latter tale is interesting as an massive debt and intractable deficits, have illustration of the lead time required from implacable implications. Financial order to delivery—a staggering 12 to 19 incompetence and malfeasance have years (1995–2014). This is entirely consequences. Alas. The second is that occasioned by the stealth design, which shipbuilding programmes nearly uniformly drove the entire programme. Nonetheless, it across the Western world, again particularly is an astonishing gestation period, to put it British and American, are plagued by cost mildly. The three programmes covered in overruns and indifferent quality. Waters this part are interesting and well worth the asks the pertinent question regarding the detailed examination. The modular capacity of either nation to reform a construction techniques of the British patrol bloated, inefficient, ineffective and vessels are innovative; the evolutionary bureaucratic procurement structure. No improvements in the final ship of the Wasp answer is offered. This is an obvious Class of LHDs (Landing Helicopter Deck) question the answer to which might trouble illustrates what can be achieved over the life Canadians, with the Department of National of a programme; and, of course, the stealthy Defence clearly floundering in this whole Visby class of corvettes represents world- arena with a long list of botched leading technology. procurement initiatives, naval and The final section examines otherwise. developments in sonar and naval air. A The second section is split into four useful review of both areas over the past parts that examine, at a high level, fleet number of decades situates the discussion developments in the world’s four main for the current era. Anti-submarine Warfare areas: the Americas; Asia and the Pacific; (ASW) seems, wrongly, redolent of the past Indian Ocean and Africa; and, Europe and I am sure some might think it ancient (including Russia). After each section is an history and of limited relevance at present. in-depth analysis of the circumstances The number of countries investing in affecting a single country. Australia is submarines, however, suggests that it would positively reviewed, which shows what can be prudent to retain leading edge ASW be done. There is an overview on the Royal capabilities, although future ASW Navy that explores the effects of the operations are very different from those Strategic Defence and Security Review illustrated in the movie Das Boot. Drones, (SDSR) on its capabilities and future. The sensors and the processing capacities of SDSR was triggered by Britain’s dire modern computers are changing the whole financial situation and its world role and world of sonar. The section on naval air military posture is being adjusted to suit concentrates on current programmes and the Britain’s straitened circumstances. This is ups and downs of various projects around well done and makes for a sobering the world. The USN is in its own class, analysis. with the rest of the world having difficulties The third section examines in some of various kinds in securing effective 94 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord aircraft able to operate off flight decks of all launched as a vital strand in cooperation dimensions. The topic of drones presages a with Britain in addition to assessments by new world indeed. American and British agencies. Author The World Naval Review possesses Timothy Wilford works in the electronics significant strengths. It provides a high industry and has an ongoing interest in level examination of basic fleet composition history, having returned to university to earn across the world. More significantly, it a doctorate in this area. His PhD research provides a critical essay on all major navies, was a starting point for this new study. their strengths, weaknesses and challenges, Wilford has done a prodigious amount of new developments and an assessment as to research in archives in Canada, the U.S. and operational effectiveness. In this regard, the Britain and his text is supported by book offers a contrast with the gold extensive endnotes. standard provided by Jane’s. The The opening chapter of Canada’s comprehensive coverage of the latter, in Road to the Pacific War—one of the book’s particular, the reams of technical detail best— sketches in the status of the various (weapons, machinery, sensors, etc), the line Pacific powers between the two world wars. drawings and schematics provide a While the Statute of Westminster in 1931 completely different product. One might gave the dominions authority to conduct acquire a copy of Jane’s on occasion– their own foreign relations, assessments and perhaps every five or ten years. I would policies decided in London dominated recommend acquiring the much more Canadian deliberations. Canada had only compact World Naval Review annually, as it four diplomatic missions abroad, but the provides analysis, context and is well legation in Tokyo, fortuitously established written, illustrated and relevant. in 1928, became a source of information for Ottawa on Japan’s expansionist moves into Ian Yeates China starting in the early 1930s. From Regina, Saskatchewan 1935 onward, the Roosevelt administration, in part influenced by concerns about Timothy Wilford. Canada’s Road to the potential Japanese actions in the eastern Pacific War: Intelligence Strategy and the Pacific, created new bilateral links with Far East Crisis. Vancouver, BC: University Canada. The Canadian legation in of British Columbia Press, www.ubc Washington began passing on American press.ca, 2011. 312 pp., illustrations; assessments of the situation in the Far East. chronology; bibliography; index; endnotes. The geopolitical reality which governed the CDN $ 85.00 cloth, $ 34.95 paper; ISBN government’s actions was expressed in 1935 978-0-7748-2123-0. by Lester B. Pearson, while representing Canada at the League of Nations: “Canada’s This study looks at what information was position becomes impossible if Great available to Canada’s government and how Britain and the United States drift apart on developments were being assessed in the any major [Far Eastern] issue…Canada is a period prior to Japan’s attacks on several British Dominion. She is also an American targets in the Far East and Hawaii on 7/8 State. She cannot permit herself to be put in December 1941. Canada was, in fact, a position where she has to choose between receiving information from its own these two destinies. Either choice would be diplomats in Tokyo, Washington and fateful to her unity; indeed to her very London and through a nascent national existence as a State” (p.22). intelligence capability which had been The bulk of the book traces Book Reviews 95 developments starting in 1940. Each probably written by External Affairs chapter is both introduced and summarized assistant under-secretary, Hugh methodically. The narrative is largely a Keenleyside, days after the German summary of archival documents which offensive, speculated on the impact it would produces a synthesis of information have on the United States. He considered available in Ottawa. The text includes only that the “whole future of the British, the general context which triggered these Canadian and allied cause” depended on encapsulated documents. A useful American policy (p.73). chronology of events at the back of the Britain and Canada were haunted book helps to establish the developments by apprehension that the Commonwealth behind the archival sources. Readers, and Empire would somehow be provoked however, need an overall knowledge of how into a war with Japan while the United the international situation was developing to States remained neutral. At the same time, a be able to appreciate the significance of the determination to avoid incidents led Ottawa individual assessments. and Washington to reject some British Having said this, the document initiatives. In early 1941, when Britain tried summaries provide a fascinating look at to get the Americans to intercept Japanese contemporary views. The names of several merchant ships believed to be carrying of the first generation of Canada’s foreign contraband cargoes to Germany, service officers—a sort of Pantheon of these Washington, wishing to avoid confrontation capable officials (Oscar Skelton, Norman with Japan, demurred. Prime Minister Robertson, Lester Pearson, Hugh Mackenzie King also held Canada’s Keenleyside, and Hume Wrong) who were External Affairs portfolio; his trademark in place as Canada’s status grew—crop up caution influenced his decision not to act on as the authors of assessments and reports. interceptions at sea. The USSR was The summaries provide a sense of providing Germany with strategic raw immediacy; thus, when Germany invaded materials and, as part of the British effort to the USSR in June 1941, the Japanese press enforce the blockade against the Reich, soon predicted that the Russia would be Canada was first asked in March 1940 to defeated within weeks (p.68); an assessment intercept and inspect the cargo of a Soviet from London only one month after the ship bound across the North Pacific for attack predicted that the invasion would Germany. In 1941, Canada was again asked reach Moscow within three weeks (p.69). to intercept another Soviet freighter and By the end of July, a prescient External Japanese vessels, all voyaging to Germany Affairs report correctly assessed that it was with suspected contraband. It appears that, “a vital Canadian and Allied interest to keep in one case, two corvettes had actually been Russia in the war against Germany” (p.74). positioned off California to intercept a The author underlines that Canada gained Soviet freighter but were then called off. increased importance after metropolitan Mackenzie King closed off this series of France was knocked out of the war in June refusals with a characteristic gesture, telling 1940, becoming Britain’s “Senior Ally.” London that ships diverted by the RN in the Nonetheless, growing cooperation with the Pacific could be diverted to Canadian west officially-still-neutral United States was coast ports (pp.25, 78-80). creating a new North American relationship. The requirements of war would It’s interesting that the importance to the transform Canada on several planes. Jack United States to the outcome of the war was Granatstein has aptly written that by late clearly understood. An assessment, 1944 “the nation’s quantum jump in 96 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord influence and power had been incredible.” original formats, and the analyses of traffic (A Man of Influence (1981), p.196). By and patterns with Britain and subsequently 1941, the challenges of war were already a with the United States, would become forcing house for Canada’s industrial Canada’s entrée into a tight circle of shared capacity. They had also provided the signals intelligence which was continued impetus for creating what would become a after the war. This information gathering sophisticated national intelligence gathering and sharing remains an important link and analysis capability. In the interwar between the governments of the period, the Royal Navy’s radio intercept “Anglosphere” to this day. network had monitored traffic worldwide. Wilford devotes a chapter near the RCN intercept stations in Esquimalt and end of the book to a useful survey of Ottawa had been part of this network, intelligence available to the Allies in the passing traffic to Britain for analysis. As a weeks before the Japanese simultaneously part of this arrangement, the Royal Navy attacked in the Far East and Hawaii. While had provided the officer in charge of this includes a review of the still-murky Canadian Naval Intelligence in Ottawa. information about hard evidence of When war came in 1939, the Royal Navy foreknowledge of the raid on Pearl Harbor, also activated a worldwide organization for it is particularly interesting to learn about controlling the flow of shipping in which what information the Allies were the officer in Ottawa’s role was to control a exchanging from November onwards about network of shipping-movement reporting possible moves against Malaya and the stations in ports throughout North America, Philippines. including the United States. Timothy The archival photos in Canada’s Wilfords’s documents show how this Road to the Pacific War are outstanding. organization expanded when war came and Many have not been published before and almost immediately established “Direction they are pertinent and vivid. This Finding” stations to determine the direction workmanlike book illuminates the from which signals transmitted from ships information received in Ottawa about the at sea were coming. The Canadian Army deteriorating situation in the Pacific also established its own signals intercept between 1939 and 1941. Wilford’s detailed system. Foreign commercial and summaries prove useful background government traffic was generally sent in information on several aspects of the initial various codes and within a short time phase of Canada’s burgeoning war effort Canada was working on breaking these. By and growing independent ability to evaluate June 1941, an “Examination Unit”—run by information and formulate policy. The the National Research Council under an documents discussed also show how the interdepartmental supervisory committee— pressures of wartime cooperation were was working on deciphering German, Vichy transforming not only the relationships French and Japanese traffic. This between Canada and the United States but Examination Unit was the precursor to also those between Washington and today’s Communications Security London. Establishment Canada (CSEC). The fact Jan Drent that Ottawa turned to Washington for help Victoria, British Columbia in May 1941 to establish this code-breaking unit is a fascinating aspect of the growing Canada-U.S. relationship. The exchange of intercepted messages, in both broken and Book Reviews 97 Alan D Zimm. Attack on Pearl Harbor– known for being “careless with the truth.” Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions. With this information, Zimm has carried out Oxford, UK: Casemate Publishing, a bottom-up analysis of the attack in the www.casematepublishing.co.uk, 2011. first eight chapters covering the strategic 480 pages, illustrations, maps, and operational setting, the targets (and it is appendices, notes, bibliography, index. clear that these were the Pacific Fleet’s US $32.95, cloth; ISBN 978-1-6120- battleships and not the aircraft carriers), the 0010-7. weapons and the weapon-target pairings, the war games, planning, training, rehearsals, “Surely not another book about Pearl briefings, etc. followed by the execution of Harbor?” was the phrase that immediately the attack. He goes on to assess the attack, sprang to mind on seeing this book. The the battle damage and the folklore, such as attack, President Roosevelt’s “a date that the tardy 14-Point Message, that Japanese will live in infamy” when the Imperial aviators were experienced super pilots, Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on attempts to block the Channel, the Third the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, is Strike Controversy and the midget well known to many people. Few events in submarine attack, among others. He the history of the United States have concludes with a reassessment of the main generated as much controversy. That participants, a summary and conclusions. people still argue about this attack shows He also indulges in a series of well- the depth of feeling that has grown up about informed “what-ifs.” Zimm’s analysis it. But why do we need another book and, ranges from the contradictions in Japanese although 2011 marked the 70th anniversary strategic thinking at one level down to the of the attack, why now? comparative fuse settings of American and This book is not another piece of Japanese general purpose bombs and its revisionist literature, other examples of effect on damage to various types of which have appeared with increasing warships. frequency of late. Given this author’s Among his conclusions is the fact reputation as a former naval officer and that the attack was far from a “brilliantly specialist in operations research and conceived tactical masterpiece,” rather it computer simulations, who then moved on was poorly planned in many respects with a to the Aviation Systems & Advanced lack of fighter cover for the key torpedo Concepts Group at Johns Hopkins bombers, lack of flak suppression, a poor University, there was every reason to expect mix of weapons and planes for the targets, a different approach to the one adopted by difficult crossing attack paths and a lack of naval historians. These authors, starting flexibility with the plan. It was also poorly with Morison, Lord and Prange and running controlled by Fuchida, who used flares through the revisionists and conspiracy rather than radio (and made a mess of them theories of Toland Stinnett, Gannon, as well), and who did not control the attack Slackman and company, have tended to on USS Nevada in the Channel. It was look at American command failures and the (with some exceptions) poorly executed recollections of various survivors. with many torpedoes and the specially- What Alan Zimm has done is to use adapted armour-piercing bombs being Japanese information, and not the wasted while many other bombs were duds. uncorroborated thoughts of Mitsuo Fuchida, The list of changes in conventional wisdom the leader of the attack, who is now well in Zimm’s analysis could go on. There was 98 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord no plan for a third strike, but even if there was very much a personal gamble. No had been, it would not have added to the wonder Vice-Admiral Nagumo gratefully Japanese goal of sinking or crippling at least retired with a loss of only 29 aircraft and 55 four battleships, if not more. Yet the attack aviators. What Zimm has done is to draw did cripple the battle line, so why was it not out of the planning and tactical failures, the seen as a success? Apart from the aircraft strategic errors in Yamamoto’s scheme for carriers not being in harbour, Zimm points the defeat of the U.S. The puzzle that out that it forced the U.S. into a “long war remains is how somebody who knew that strategy” which was exactly what the country so well could misjudge his Japanese could not hope to win and for opponent so badly. Or was it all just a which they did not have a plan. massive gamble in his eyes? As might be expected with such a John Francis detailed analysis, the chapters are well Greenwich, England supported by 20 charts and diagrams (some rather small for clarity); 28 archival photographs, many of which are not the usual views but which specifically illustrate points in the analysis; five appendices, including Zimm’s own version of a perfect attack; a 10-page bibliography including not just books and articles but TV programmes and websites; 28 pages of very detailed end notes containing full references to all points; and a 10-page index. Clearly this is not a Pearl Harbor primer for somebody wishing to learn about the attack. Rather, it is a thorough analysis of many aspects of the attack, completely overturning much of the established wisdom. At the end of it there remain the images of the attack and its outcome. The battle line was crippled, American public opinion was enraged (though the public were not given the full picture) and America entered the war. But Zimm also shows that much of the attack’s success was due to Admiral Kimmel’s decision to relax the state of readiness of the ships that weekend and Lieutenant General Short’s decision to line aircraft up close together to avoid the chance of sabotage following a war warning that was issued, but not to maintain the radar and air patrol searches. As Zimm points out, Admiral Yamamoto, supposedly the aviation admiral, had been prepared to lose up to half of his fleet carriers in what