Adobe PDF File
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
BOOK REVIEWS Robert J. Allison. Stephen Decatur. American and superiors, not to mention the American press Naval Hero, 1779-1820. Amherst, and public, latched on to his successes and Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts lauded him with accolades such as "the terror of Press, www.umass.edu/empress. 2005, viii + 253 the foe." This acclaim earned him promotion to pp., illustrations, notes, index, US $34.95, cloth; the rank of captain at a younger age than any ISBN 1-55849-492-8. other officer in the service. When the War of 1812 began, there Stephen Decatur is probably the best known hero was tension among the senior officers as to who of the early days of the United States Navy. At would get the most prestigious command afloat. least ten American towns and cities are named Decatur, who had officially been a after him, as are a dozen or more counties, "commodore" since 1809, was able to get off on innumerable roads, libraries and schools. The list his own in the US frigate United States and won of books about the man is almost as long, with the second of three significant American such titles as Hellfire in Tripoli and Stephen victories over British frigates when he fought Decatur Gallant Boy: Childhoods of Famous and captured HMS Macedonian on 25 October Americans. The current title is one of three 1812; again he set himself apart by being the major works about Decatur published in the past only commander to bring a prized British frigate two years. into port. He spent the rest of the war under Decatur had very limited experience at blockade until being captured in the President sea when he joined the US Navy in 1798, which while trying to break out from New York in the author illustrates by repeating the oft-told January 1815. An inquiry absolved Decatur of story that the 19-year old midshipman penciled blame for the capture, but, as the author details, in the names of the rigging lines at their various his anxiety over the loss left him desperate to belaying points so as to be able to respond to redeem himself. He found a way to do this when orders faster. By 1812, however, Decatur was ordered to serve as second in command to ranked among the four most influential officers Bainbridge in an expedition meant to quell the in the navy. His contemporaries, John Rodgers, latest hostilities in the Mediterranean. Through William Bainbridge and Isaac Chauncey, were some conniving correspondence with the navy older than he was and had all been well- secretary, Decatur received permission to sail weathered sea dogs before beginning their with most of the squadron before Bainbridge careers, but Decatur's star had risen faster and could. The "terror of the foe" then seized the more radiantly. While serving in the opportunity to aggressively, and effectively, Mediterranean during the Tripolitan War, as the settle the issues before his superior could reach others had, he took the few opportunities that Gibraltar, earning Bainbridge's scarcely arose to distinguish himself, particularly in the disguised enmity. destruction in February 1804 of the captured US American naval officers of the period frigate Philadelphia, which Bainbridge had lost were constantly at odds with one another, at Tripoli. Vice Admiral Lord Nelson is waging bitter feuds and fighting duels. As supposed to have commented that Decatur's already shown, Decatur was no stranger to such deed was "the most bold and daring act of the controversies, the most acrid being his conflict age" but the author points out the lack of with Commodore James Barron, which dated contemporary evidence to prove this frequently- back to 1807, and in which numerous officers repeated line was ever uttered. Besides, such were implicated. Publicly, Decatur deplored the escapades as the Philadelphia raid and Decatur's practice of duelling as a means for resolving several gunboat actions would have earned a differences, but he failed to settle his long feud Royal Navy lieutenant only a paragraph or two with Barron peacefully and suffered a in Naval Chronicle, whereas Decatur's friends meaningless death, at age 41, after meeting 53 54 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Barron on the dueling grounds at Bladensburg. Malcolm Archibald. Across the Pond. Chapters Thereafter, he entered the pantheon of immortal from the Atlantic. Caithness, Scotland; Whittles American heroes, a status he still very much Publishing, www.whittlespublishing.com. 2001. enjoys. viii + 192 pp., photographs, glossary, There is much to commend in this bibliography, UK £15.95, paper; ISBN 1- treatment of Decatur's life. Robert Allison 870325-33-8. writes in a clear and engaging style, laying down the story in a straightforward chronology, Across the Pond is a rich blend of adventure, covering all the main episodes, with much detail heroism and danger about man's encounter with devoted to the Mediterranean campaigns in the Atlantic Ocean over two millennia. It ranges particular. He deals especially well with the widely over a series of detailed incidents with social contexts of Decatur's life, creating some the theme of the North Atlantic, but always in vivid images of his daily world and the people in the background lie the dangers of the ocean that it. He adds detail to aspects of Decatur's career bred the hardy mariners who manned the that other authors have missed and he does not transatlantic ships. It is astonishingly hide from pointing out the great man's flaws comprehensive: privateers and treasure seekers, now and again. There is a nice little set of sugar and slaves, airships and naval blockades illustrations in the centre of the book and good are just some of the chapter headings. sourcing of supportive evidence in the endnotes; In the late 1990s, Malcolm Archibald curiously, there is no bibliography. made his own transformation. After many years Allison is not as much at home when of being a postman in the Scottish borders, he discussing naval matters. He provides a very decided to pursue his interest in American basic rendition of Decatur's victory over the history into higher education and became a Macedonian rather than an in-depth analysis of mature student in the history department of the opposing forces and the engagement itself. Dundee University. During his research on There is not even a battle diagram of the event, Columbus, Spanish galleys, whalers and the which, arguably, was the most memorable and tobacco trade, the author found himself drawn significant incident in Decatur's professional further and further into the fascinating world of life. Decatur subsequently lied about the strength the North Atlantic. He graduated in 2001, is of the British ship to increase his financial currently a history lecturer at a Dundee College reward, but this startling contradiction with and although this is his sixth publication, it is his Decatur's legendary sense of honour and first full length book. Such changes of career are devotion to his country, the strongest example of not taken lightly, but the quality of writing in his egoism, is one area that still begs to be this book shows that his was a wise decision. His unexplored. The author should also have looked writing credentials were recently strengthened more deeply into the details of the War of 1812, when, against a record two hundred and forty which would have helped him to avoid such competing authors, he won the 2005 Dundee misconceptions as "Eleven thousand men on Book Prize with his first novel, set around the sixteen ships commanded by Sir George Prévost whaling industry in the 1860s and loosely based prepared to take control of Lake Champlain [in on his fourth-year dissertation. 1814]" (150). This book is a history of how men Still, the book is a page-turner, being from the Chesapeake, Solway and Seville, the easy to read and informative. For those readers Scouser, the Nova Scotian bluenose and the who are meeting the subject for the first time, down east Yankee transformed the Atlantic from Allison's Decatur is among the best biographies an impenetrable barrier into a route to riches and available. a highway for trade. It covers Atlantic exploration and exploitation, fighting and Robert Malcomson fishing, from the slavers and their cargo of St. Catharines, Ontario shame to luxury cruises on Cunard's steamships. The author has delved deeply into the challenges Book Reviews 55 that faced the earliest Atlantic explorers. He modestly priced and highly entertaining book cites the ancient Greeks, accustomed only to the that would appeal to the general reader interested perils of rowing along dangerous coasts, but who in maritime history. There is an interesting but passed from the welcoming rich-blue quirky glossary, but individual subjects of Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar special interest to the reader would have to be into the huge swells of the Ocean Sea. The identified through the chapter headings as, Vikings, whose seafaring vocabulary is still unfortunately, there is no index. An extensive found in modern Gaelic maritime phrases as a four-page bibliography partially compensates for linguistic DNA across forty generations, taught this. Across the Pond represents a considerable the land-based Celts how to sail into the northern academic achievement for a new author, of Atlantic. Nor does Archibald neglect perhaps the whom we shall hear more in the future, and it most accomplished sailors of all, the fifteenth- makes a valuable contribution to maritime century Portuguese navigational pioneers who history. ventured into the grey and stormy southern Atlantic to discover the western coast of Africa. Michael Clark Some of the stories of Cabot and London, UK Hudson, and the many contenders for the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic, have been told elsewhere.