BOOK REVIEWS

John Asmussen and Eric Leon. German Photographs are another matter Naval Camouflage, Vol. 1, 1939-1941. altogether, and, although used heavily and Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, to great effect in the volume, these are also www.nip.org, 2012. 192 pp., illustrations, problematic. Colour, tint and lighting all appendix, bibliography, index. US $74.95, have an effect on the images and the cloth; ISBN 978-1-59114-333-8. developing process could change the look as well. Occasionally, negatives were flipped, The use of camouflage on ships in naval so what would appear as the ship’s port side combat dates back to the ancients and has was actually a mirror image of her starboard been employed ever since. Likely, the most side. Readers must bear these things in familiar images to readers are those of ships mind when evaluating this multi-year-long dating from the two world wars. The project. German Navy was no exception, and, in the The reader is then introduced to the Second World War, used a myriad of use of camouflage in the Kriegsmarine, schemes and styles that appear to have been something the authors claim was new to the continually changing. Volume 1 of German German Navy as Germany “did not use Naval Camouflage is the first camouflage on their surface ships in the comprehensive work to outline the First World War” (p.7) and so started from Kriegsmarine’s camouflage practices for the scratch during the Norwegian Campaign. English-reading world. Although this reviewer would argue that the An informative and helpful German Imperial Navy did employ introduction lays out the topic and describes camouflage: Emden’s fourth funnel, along the research effort that went into the book. with the way several other armed merchant Locating sources for the work was difficult cruisers were disguised, are perfect and written primary sources were even examples of concealment and mimicry harder to come by. Many of the camouflage. Nevertheless, the main battle Kriegsmarine’s records were destroyed fleet was, indeed, new to camouflage. during the Allied bombing campaign, Surprisingly, and tragically, the making official records quite scarce. Kriegsmarine had to relearn the importance Luckily for this particular project, two of aerial recognition schemes on ships editions of the Allgemeinen (something the Imperial Navy had done) Baubestimmungen (General Building after 22 February 1940, when the Luftwaffe Regulations) Nr. 31 ranging from sank two German destroyers on a mine- November 1941 to July 1944 and used by laying sortie thinking they were enemy the Kriegsmarinewerft (Naval Shipyard), vessels. From then on, prompt action was Wilhelmshaven, survived and were a great taken to ensure that ships were easily help (p.8). Caution should be used though, identifiable when in range of enemy as paint quality varied greatly. What was aircraft. actually achieved was often quite different from the camouflage standard. The introduction also provides a The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord, XXIII No. 2, (April 2013), 165-211 166 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord quick overview of the types of camouflage to light is the heraldry the German ships employed by the Kriegsmarine; carried in peacetime and the regalia that was concealment, disguise, disruptive, and part of the ships. Many had named turrets, mimicry, and provides some excellent for example, Admiral Scheer carried a examples of each. Interested readers are Skagerrak shield on its bow and its turrets likely to be familiar with the “Baltic were named “Friedrich der Grosse” and Stripes,” false bow waves, and darkened “Seydlitz.” Battle honours were also bow and stern to make the ship appear carried on several German ships—Admiral shorter, but there are some striking Graf Spee’s “Coronel” on the ship’s photographs that show Tirpitz during its turmmast is a fine example, while the light fitting out painted to appear as part of the cruiser Königsberg had plates with the port facilities and another of Admiral Graf honours “Sansibar,” “Rufiji,” “Oesel,” and Spee disguised as a British battlecruiser “North Sea” on the stern superstructure with a false B turret behind the forward overlooking the aft battery. battery, both excellent examples of All of this can be simply summed concealment and disguise respectively. up by stating that Asmussen’s and Leon’s While the introduction to the work work is one of exceptionally high quality. is good, readers will really be impressed by Well researched and literally heavy with the main effort, the sections on each of the illustrative plates, along with many full- Kriegsmarine’s major surface units with page photographs, the work will be an numerous plates showing how the ships excellent addition to the libraries of naval appeared during the phases of their enthusiasts. Modellers and naval artists too, operations. Top and waterline plates of would find this book an excellent resource, ships during various periods including the indeed the work should and will become the Spithead review, the international patrol new staple on the topic. during the Spanish Civil War, work-up, Christopher Kretzschmar training in the Baltic Sea, and of course, Upper Hampstead, New Brunswick combat operations, are all provided and with excellent detail. All of the major surface units are covered, right down to Siegfried Breyer and Miroslaw Skwiot. destroyers. Smaller craft were not included, German Capital Ships of the Second World unfortunately, as S-boats have been well War: The Ultimate Photograph Album. covered elsewhere but mainly, as the Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, authors admit, due to lack of sources. www.nip.org, 2012. 432 pp., illustrations, The book also dispels some appendix, US $76.82, cloth; ISBN 978-1- common myths. Bismarck, for example, did 59114-325-3. not have red turret tops during her sea trials in the Baltic. This assumption likely came After the German Imperial Navy was from the fact that her consort, Prinz Eugen, scuttled in in 1919, Germany’s did have them (p.31). The latest research ability to build a new navy was limited by also shows that Bismarck’s final look was restrictions in composition of the fleet and almost entirely grey, with even the aerial areas in which to operate. In the 1920s, the recognition markings painted over in grey. political climate in Germany changed and Interestingly, A and D turrets retained a the navy began to build a strong fleet. In square darker shade of grey on top while B the mid-1930s, Adolf Hitler disposed of the and C turrets were entirely pale (p.37). disarmament treaties and ordered bigger Another aspect that the book brings ships. The battleships with their powerful Book Reviews 167 image symbolized Hitler’s defiance of the money it took to build this vessel that was Treaty of Versailles and the might and glory never delivered. of the newly rearmed Germany. The most The book is basically a pictorial appealing of these was the Bismarck and history of battleships, leaving the story there is a lot of Bismarck to see; builder’s somewhat thin, uncritical, and mostly plans, photographs taken on different descriptive. Moreover, given the book’s occasions such as during construction, at lack of colour photographs, it does not fulfil festive activities like the launch, the fitting the expectation one has from the subtitle out, and its first sea trials in the Baltic. Ultimate Photograph Album. Then came the war at sea, where, during In 1989, American oceanographer operations from Norway, Bismarck sank the Robert Ballard discovered the wreck of the battle cruiser HMS Hood on 24 May 1941 Bismarck and reignited interest in the story in the Denmark Strait. Only three men out of the former battleship. Unfortunately, the of a crew of 1,418 survived. The Royal book contains no photographs or any other Navy’s hunt for the Bismarck ended three kind of image of the Bismark resting on the days later, on 27 May 1941, when Bismarck bottom of the sea. The quality of the album was destroyed. Over 2,000 German sailors might have improved had it been reviewed lost their lives, while just over 100 survived. by an editor. It is as if every available There are photographs of Bismarck’s last picture has been used, some are out of battle as well as of the action against Hood. focus, others have no distinctive features, The history of the Tirpitz, of the similar pictures recur, etc. Ultimately, Bismarck-class, is totally different from that however, the Ultimate Photograph Album is of its sister ship. Tirpitz’s contribution to a nice read. the German war effort was to serve as a Jacob Bart Hak threat rather than actually to create havoc Leiden, The Netherlands among Allied convoys. During one operation, the battleship fired its guns against Spitsbergen, and that was it. But Craig Cabell, Graham A. Thomas, Allan Tirpitz was still a force to be reckoned with. Richards. : The Hunt for the The Allies, particularly the British, had their World’s Most Notorious Pirate. Barnsley, S. hands full getting rid of the battleship. Yorks: Pen & Sword, www.pen-and- They finally succeeded on 12 November sword.co.uk, 2012. x+178 pp., illustrations, 1944, when the RAF bombed it. The bibliography, appendices, notes, index. UK photographs of Tirpitz being hit and keeling £19.99, US $34.99, cloth; ISBN 978 1 over are fascinating. 84415 959 8. In his preface, Siegfried Breyer states that the Second World War Pirates are popular historical figures demonstrated the battleship had been providing movies, cartoons, festivals and superseded by the aircraft carrier. But that amusement parks with salacious enjoyment. was not the case in Germany. By the time it Entertainment aside, the study of is a became clear to Britain, the U.S. and Japan legitimate discipline of maritime history. In that aircraft carriers could decide naval the course of war, governments issued battles, Germany’s aircraft carrier Graf letters of marque to — sailors who Zeppelin only sailed the seas on the drawing exercised a justifiable form of piracy against board. It is not quite clear why the authors their nation’s enemies. When the Treaty of consider the Graf Zeppelin a capital ship. Utrecht (1713) put an end to European Perhaps they are referring to the amount of hostilities, privateers and their crews found 168 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord themselves without official government a book written in 1724 entitled A General sanction to legitimize their activities. Many History of the Robberies and Murders of the of these displaced privateers turned to Most Notorious Pirates. Authored by a piracy. Though pirates have existed for Charles Johnson, A General centuries, the Atlantic World’s golden age of History has also been attributed to the pen piracy occurred during a small window of of Daniel Defoe. Cabell et al compare the time in the early 1700s. enduring stories about Blackbeard with Piracy interfered with burgeoning eighteenth-century sources and modern trade between the colonial powers, research. Robert E. Lee’s Blackbeard the therefore, governments sought to eradicate Pirate–A Reappraisal of His Life and Times the menace. In 1717, King George I issued (1974) and Angus Konstam’s Blackbeard– a Royal Proclamation pardoning any pirates America’s Most Notorious Pirate (2006) are who would promise to stop their pillaging. the two most frequently quoted secondary While some pirates accepted the royal sources in Blackbeard. The authors use pardon, many pirates continued their illegal Colonial State Papers, particularly those of activity. Blackbeard, also known as Edward Virginia’s governor, Alexander Spotswood, Teach, was in both categories. the man who organized the expedition to A dearth of first-hand accounts defeat the pirate. Combining folklore and written by sailors themselves leaves written records, the authors consider the maritime scholars with numerous research veracity of the Blackbeard legends. They challenges. Most common sailors were appraise how other authors have treated illiterate and, for obvious reasons, pirates these episodes, what the historical records did not keep written records of their say, and bring in historical context to help plunder. Recorded testimonies including the reader see how they analyzed the event. shipwreck narratives and legal and A good example of the authors’ insurance documents were recorded by style in examining the lore of Blackbeard is survivors who did not wish to have piratical in Chapter Six, Flagship which recounts accusations cast upon them. Newspaper Blackbeard’s capture of the French slave accounts of piracy were often embellished ship La Concorde in 1717. The authors and sensationalized. explain how Blackbeard and his crew In Blackbeard: The Hunt for the converted the large ship, which once carried World’s Most Notorious Pirate, authors a human cargo of over 450 souls, into a Craig Cabell, Graham A. Thomas, and Allan first-class pirate vessel. Refitted and Richards address some of those research renamed, Queen Anne’s Revenge became challenges and attempt to sort through some Blackbeard’s flagship. After of the folklore about the pirate known as knowledgeably describing how the pirates Blackbeard. Beginning with a few added sails, removed internal bulkheads and questions such as: Was Blackbeard as armed the ship by cutting gun-ports into the vicious as his legend portrays him? Why did hull, the authors then present archaeological Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood evidence regarding the multinational origin organize an expedition to find and kill of the numerous cannons found on the Blackbeard? And why is it that Blackbeard’s recently excavated Queen Anne’s Revenge. name persists as one of the most infamous They also examine why Blackbeard gave pirates of all? The answers found in the displaced captain and crew of La Blackbeard are geared towards a Concorde another, albeit inferior, vessel in contemporary, lay audience. which to return home. The chapter ends The authors launch their probe with with a final question—did Blackbeard Book Reviews 169 release these men to humiliate the captain Cavell’s purpose was to test and crew of the slaver? Michael Lewis’ assertion, expressed in A The authors use a few distracting Social History of the Navy, 1793-1815 and overreaching phrases such as “most (1960) that, as the historians agree” or “we shall never know.” progressed, birth and social position became Perhaps because they wish to appeal to a less of a qualification for a naval officer. non-maritime, non-historic audience, there She divided her data into two segments, is a tendency to oversimplify some of the junior officers and boys selected before context, for example, they suggest that 1800, and those after, and found that for the pirates would have been less battle earlier entrants, connections within the hardened than sailors on the Navy were more important than war ships (p.51). Since many of gentlemanly or noble birth (she Blackbeard’s cohorts were veterans of the differentiates between the two) while, for European wars who continued their own those entering after 1800, birth was a more mercenary ventures, they would have been important factor. Cavell also sees two other just as experienced as contemporaneous issues at play. The Admiralty attempted to British naval crews. exert greater influence over the selection of By dissecting some of Blackbeard’s junior officers, especially through an order known exploits using old and new evidence; in council of 1794, at the expense of the the authors present an interesting patronage powers of individual captains to perspective of how the legend of take on midshipmen and boys, and the Blackbeard persisted and grew so that he is Admiralty preferred that its officer entrants one of the most famous and notorious of an be gentlemen. At the same time, Cavell infamous lot. notes, the concept of a gentleman was changing. By the early nineteenth century, Cynthia Catellier it became less a matter of birth only, and Gulf Breeze, Florida more concerned with a sense of responsibility, deportment and manner. S.A. Cavell. Midshipmen and Quarterdeck This book goes beyond a dry Boys in the British Navy, 1771-1831. recitation of statistics. The author uses Woodbridge, Surrey: Boydell Press, 2012. individual cases, as presented in memoirs or x+245 p., illustrations, appendices, contemporary accounts, to further her bibliography, index. US $99.00, hardback; narrative. For example, in examining ISBN 978-1-84383-719-0. motivations for joining the Navy as an officer entrant, she points to Alexander Ball, Beginning with her doctoral dissertation at who later earned fame as one of Nelson’s the University of Exeter in England, the “Band of Brothers,” as someone who joined author sampled the records of 1,953 Royal to seek adventure after reading Robinson Navy junior officers (which she defined as Crusoe. midshipmen, masters’ mates and, after 1804, Midshipman Abraham Crawford sub-lieutenants) and 1,994 quarterdeck boys saw his fellow junior officers in different (defined as officers’ servants who were groups, with those who served in officer entrants and entitled to walk the already clearly gentlemen and somewhat of quarterdeck) from the years 1771-1831. an élite: These men were selected from 231 ships’ Those who had served chiefly in muster books preserved in ADM 36 and 37 ships of the line ... were well skilled in slang at the U.K. National Archives. and even their ordinary conversation was 170 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord garnished ... with a superabundance of oaths discusses at some length. Twenty-year-old and obscenity. The collection from sloops Midshipman Thomas Leonard of HMS of war and gun brigs might be known by an Saturn failed to report the firing of the absence of good breeding, and a certain evening gun to his first lieutenant, William slouching vulgarity ... while those from the Shield. Shield ordered him to the masthead, -school differed widely from both ... a fairly common punishment for boys, avoiding as much as they could an intimacy likened to being forced to stand in the with the others, and forming ... a society corner at school. When Leonard protested apart.” (p.118) that this was beneath the dignity of an Perhaps most interesting of all are officer and gentleman, Shield had him her two chapters on crime and punishment; hauled aloft, injuring him in the process. again, one dealing with the eighteenth When this became known throughout century and one with the nineteenth. She Portsmouth, Edward Moore, a midshipman divides nearly two hundred crimes by junior in HMS , became involved in a plan officers, identified from court martial to write letters of support for Leonard. records in ADM 12/21-27, into four time Moore was court martialed on charges of periods: 1760-1780, 1781-1800, 1801-1815 sedition and forming a mutinous and 1816-1831. Although running the combination. Although the charges were whole gamut of possible crimes from fraud “partially proved,” he was given the very through buggery to murder, insubordination light sentence of a month in prison and a and dominate. Desertion rates reprimand, surprising in that this was an decreased throughout each of the periods, implicit threat to authority and to the naval disappearing entirely after the end of the chain of command. It also drew attention to wars in 1815. This demonstrates to Cavell the changing perception of midshipmen as that the “young gentlemen” increasingly junior officers and aspiring gentlemen regarded this entry into the service as a (pp.105-112). route to a commission and a professional While this book does a great career. service in furthering our understanding of She discusses the insubordination officer entrants at perhaps the apogee of the and mutiny charges in detail. Many of Royal Navy’s history and reputation, it is these, she suggests, were opposition to not without some questions. Of the nearly officers who did not treat the “young four thousand men sampled, Cavell was gentlemen” as gentlemen or as aspiring only able to trace the social background of officers, but who punished them as if they 32 percent of the junior officers and 18 were simple seamen. In one prominent case percent of the quarterdeck boys. While in 1791, Captain George Vancouver had these may be enough for a valid sample, as sixteen-year-old Midshipman Thomas Pitt, with many historical statistical studies of later Lord Camelford, flogged over a gun in officers, we are left wondering if it is truly the cabin for disobedience, before all his random, or is influenced by the larger officers. For subsequent disobedience, he amount of data available for a proportion of was dismissed from the ship. Such public the midshipman population. We always punishment of an heir to a peerage and a know more about the famous and infamous, cousin of the prime minister turned out to and do they colour the sample as a whole? be an unwise application of naval authority. Although the style of the book Vancouver made prominent enemies. shows its development from a dissertation, 1791 also saw the “Midshipmen’s it is clearly written and a pleasure to read. Mutiny” at Portsmouth, which Cavell also The only illustrations, four plates Book Reviews 171 reproduced from the National Maritime stagecoach services. Since it carried more Museum (three of them from George passengers, it was cheaper, and within a few Cruikshank’s series “The Progress of a years, more people cruised ’s six- Midshipman”), appear dropped in as thousand-mile coastline and visited its 230 something of an afterthought, and harbours and anchorages than had hitherto reproduced in muddy tones. Much more been possible. pleasing is the rather thoughtful “Portrait of The author, Andrew Clark, is a Midshipman” in colour by Sir Archer Ayrshire born and bred and has held a Martin Shee appearing on the cover. season ticket for the Clyde ferries from the A problem arises with the early 1960s. He has been the Financial important graph on p. 98, dealing with Times’ award-winning music critic since junior officers’ crimes divided by type and 1981, as well as president and editor of the date, which is reproduced in distressing journal of the Clyde River Steamer Club shades of gray and so small as to be from which positions he has recently unreadable without a magnifying glass. The retired. The Club was founded by three work is complemented by a full young steamer enthusiasts in 1932 to foster bibliography and a really useful index. interest in the Clyde River fleet. At the In spite of the considerable price time, it boasted 130 members and although for a thin volume, this book is a necessity that number is now around 550, its on the shelves not only of institutions and membership is gradually declining. Clark is individuals studying the development of also the author of the much-praised book A navies and of officer development, but also, World Apart: The Story of Hebridean because of the methodology used, on the Shipping (2010). shelves wherever social history of any The detailed text of Pleasures of period is studied. the Firth is complemented by some 460 Owen Cooke illustrations from Graham Lappin’s North Gower, Ontario collection of rare photographs of Clyde passenger steamers and ferry termini, many of which have never before been published. Andrew Clark. Pleasures of the Firth. Two Ranging from nineteenth-century steamers Hundred Years of the Clyde Steamers 1812- cruising off the West of Scotland to the 2012. Catrine, Scotland; Stenlake present-day point-to-point ferries, they Publishing Ltd., www.stenlake.co.uk, 2012. include the 1912-built Queen Alexandra, the 314 pp., photographs, maps, appendices, only Clyde steamer to ram and sink a U- bibliography, fleet list and index. UK £40, boat during the First World War, and cloth; ISBN 9781840335859. MacBrayne’s unique three-funneled Saint Columba, which looks like a miniature of Transport history is often closely linked to Cunard’s Queen Mary. social history. Two hundred years ago, an impetuous Scottish entrepreneur, Henry Turbine power was fundamental to Bell, harnessed the latest technology, the the Clyde’s ferry entrepreneurs, one of the steam engine, to enable people to travel most successful of whom was David further, faster and in greater comfort than Hutcheson. He held the year-round mail ever before. ’s first commercial contract to Inveraray and his Iona was one steamship, the revolutionary Comet, took to of the most popular steamers, not only the waters of the Clyde in 1812. It proved because it was faster but also because of its to be reliable and soon replaced the parallel luxurious velvet-cushioned saloons. His 172 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord distant cousin from Australia, Robert taking short day-trips declined in the 1950s Hutcheson Bowman, recalled visiting the when the introduction of paid holidays gave great man himself at his house in Oban. On families the time and money to venture parting, Mr. Hutcheson gave Robert his further for longer in sunnier climes. visiting card on which he had written “Pass Fortunately, the future of the last seagoing bearer – all routes D.H.,” something which on the Clyde, the 1947-built must have saved Robert a fortune (Hendra Waverley, has been secured by a generous 2012). donation from a Largs-based euro-lottery As the local resorts prospered, a winner. popular summer pastime for ferry This entertaining book is enthusiasts was to take the highest number sympathetically written and beautifully of steamers from any of the estuary’s 120 presented, and it contains many reminders piers during a single day. In 1913, the of a long-gone age of maritime transport. It record stood at 22 when 40 steamers were is also a formidable tribute to the evolution plying the Clyde but, by the 1930s, the of the Clyde’s estuary passenger ships from number of piers had declined to 53. The humble origins to inshore greyhounds and, turning point came in 1955, when only 32 for this alone, it deserves a prominent place piers remained. The record fell to a mere 15 on the shelves of anyone who has an interest in 1963 but the achievement was greater in transport history or coastal shipping, or because the steamer fleet now numbered who simply enjoys learning about ships. only 18. Sadly, that record could not be Unusually for a nautical book, the author equalled today. also includes detailed maps and notes on The author’s fascination with contemporary engines. maritime history and his scholarly attention It is regrettable that no shipyard on to detail make this a remarkable book. He the Clyde builds merchant vessels any more pays tribute to the lesser-known role of and that today’s ferries are primarily Clyde steamers 150 years ago during the designed to transport vehicles and goods American Civil War, when profit and from point to point rather than passengers. patriotism came together and many ships Yet this book is a fitting memento of the were adapted to run the U.S. naval Glaswegian tradition of cruising “doon the blockade. Existing literature on this era watter.” MacBrayne’s place in Clyde includes The Ingenious Mr Bell (Osborne steamer history has been commemorated 2001), The Steamboat Revolution thus by an anonymous nineteenth-century (Sherwood 2007), The Victorian Summer of author: the Clyde Steamers (Paterson 2001), Clyde The earth belongs unto the Lord Built (Graham 2006) and, previously And all that it contains, reviewed in this journal, The Kingdom of Except the Western Islands, MacBrayne (Robins 2006). And they are David MacBrayne’s. Another theme the author explores Michael Clark is the birth and growth of large-scale London, England tourism. Clark acknowledges the importance of the steamboat because its timetabled services and reliability made the “weekend” possible for working people and diverted coach traffic from the roads. Conversely, the number of passengers Book Reviews 173 Ray Costello. Black Salt. Seafarers of problem that confronts all those doing Africa Descent on British Ships. Liverpool, research on the race of British sailors before UK: Liverpool University, www.liverpool- the middle of the nineteenth century. unipress.co.uk, 2012. xxiii+248 pp., The story of Captain John Perkins illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. UK is very interesting. Perkins, born in Jamaica £65.00, cloth; ISBN 978-1-84631-818-4. to a white father and black mother in the mid-1700s, became what Costello declares Black Salt. Seafarers of Africa Descent on as “probably the first” Royal Navy captain British Ships is a sweeping project in a of African descent (pp.97-99). Admirals small volume. The task Costello sets Rodney and Duckworth both seem to have himself is to reveal the, as of yet barely played the role of patron for Perkins, explored, even ignored history of men of providing him with local commissions African descent serving on British ships leading up to his opportunity to command (merchant and naval). His book is also the 32-gun frigate Tartar in 1804. He meant to educate the British public about appears to have served his career (and lived) this history and to promote further research entirely in the . into the topic. As Costello moves into the late- The time frame of this work nineteenth century and through the First and stretches from the sixteenth through to the Second World Wars, the book begins to end of the twentieth centuries, which is build, becoming more powerful while based summarized in a four-page timeline, on a thicker layer of evidence. At the end of following the introduction. This is an the age of sail, Black sailors had certainly ambitious undertaking which produces the obtained professional skill and importance most significant problem with the work. aboard ship equal to any non-Black sailor, While the author is able to indicate the though full equality was not yet presence of Black people (he notes ‘men’) experienced. There were examples of ship in Britain during the ninth century, he has masters of African descent and men of his first evidence of their involvement in colour owning and operating their own life afloat in 1547 with the story of a Black merchant vessels. The transition to the age diver working on the wreck of the Mary of steam seemed to unsettle this position, Rose. This is followed by subsequent creating new class lines aboard ship through chapters on Britain’s slave trade and the use the technical innovations demanding of slaves and free Black men aboard slave professional operators and unskilled labour ships and merchant ships as sailors. A to stoke the engines. Black seamen were chapter on men of African descent in the given the latter positions. Since owners of British Navy ends with the statement that, at merchant shipping lines held the idea that the conclusion of the Napoleonic era, Black people from tropical climates could better sailors were common aboard naval vessels, serve in the excruciatingly hot boiler rooms, and while not totally accepted by all, had more African men were taken on. This largely blended into the crews through their angered the white sailors as their use of the English language and being opportunities for work began to disappear. Christians. These four chapters are based The International Seafarer’s Union did not on stories of individual sailors, as told under seem to support all sailors equally. their own hand or by others. Few and often Service in the two world wars is brief, these stories are used to their addressed in separate chapters. During the maximum effect and extent. The absence of First World War, Black sailors served afloat more extensive documentary evidence is the in the Merchant and Royal Navy earning 174 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord heroic honours and professional acclaim. book alone make it a recommended reading During the Second World War, Costello for anyone interested the lives of sailors states that Black sailors were not recruited ashore and their experience afloat. for the Royal Navy; indeed a March 1940 The images in the book are helpful, memorandum barred them from such though the most interesting are the four service (pp.186-187). Their service to photographs which depict sailors of African Britain came aboard Merchant Navy descent. More of these photographs could vessels, where, as before, their seamanship have been added to the second half of the and bravery were not lacking. The interwar book. The other images, largely drawings, years, however, were a period of economic are fairly familiar. The index is usable, the struggle for sailors of African descent and bibliography is good, but the endnotes and their families. references are not always consistently Two critical elements laid bare by formatted. For example, TNA, PRO are Costello are the amount of persistent used interchangeably for the British prejudice against sailors of African descent National Archives (p.225) which the reader and his examination of Black sailors’ lives is told is now called the Public Record ashore, especially in Liverpool. Throughout Office (p.viii). These minor annoyances the book Costello makes perfectly clear the aside, Costello certainly accomplishes the amount of prejudice, discrimination and goal of opening up the study of Black violence pitched against the Black seamen seamen in British merchant and naval ships. (and their families). Examples include the More work is to be done, but the start is free Black sailor on a slave ship losing his here, with this book. freedom at journey’s end, Admiral Young’s Thomas Malcomson 1777 order to limit the number of Black Toronto, Ontario sailors aboard ship, through to the beatings of lone Black seamen in the streets of Liverpool, not to mention the limits to James Seay Dean. Tropics Bound: promotion in the navy prior to 1960. The Elizabeth’s Seadogs on the . inclusion of a discussion on eugenics and Stroud, Glos: The History Press, racism at the turn of the twentieth century www.thehisorypress.co.uk, 2010. 224 pp. and its role in shaping attitudes towards illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. US Black seamen is both interesting and $26.66, hardback; ISBN 978-0-7524-5096-4. important. The extended chapter entitled ‘Blighty’ is the first place where Costello According to Dean, many American and lays out life ashore for Black seafarers. British popular historical accounts present, Using information pertaining to Greenwich and even argue, that early British efforts at pensioners, Black street hawkers and colonization were focused along the east performers with ties to the sea, verse and coast of North America, namely Jamestown census data for Liverpool, he starts to open (1607) and Plymouth (1620), thus marking a narrow window into their lived the nascent beginnings of British trade and experience. The chapters focusing on the colonization in the New World. He twentieth century spend more time ashore suggests, however, that from approximately with men and their families, but it is the one 1520 to 1620, there was a serious attempt entitled ‘Sailortown Under Attack’ that by English seamen and explorers, supported leaves the reader with a clear sense of the by numerous investors, to not only raid and bleak racial relationships in Britain during pillage Spanish shipping and the ports that the interwar years. These two aspects of the ringed their far-flung colonies in the Book Reviews 175 and South and Latin and the displeased investors waiting for America, but to also establish a trading and them back in England. colonial foothold in the Spanish strongholds Though this work is exciting and a in these lands. This 100-year span seems to good supplement to understanding the have been glossed over by a number of maritime history of this period, it not historians who relied on sources who were exactly a fast read, as the text can be too not personally involved in the adventures, detailed in places, making it ponderous, or misadventures. Dean sets out to while following the multiple voyages made construct a valid maritime history as seen by the same men, or different ones with the through the eyes of sailors who lived and same names can be confusing. Dean goes died on the gun decks of all-too-often to great lengths to emphasize or imply that decrepit and leaky vessels. In doing so, he many of the narratives used in constructing hopes to illuminate early English voyages to this work came from ordinary deck hands or the deadly tropical Americas and to bring to seamen who toiled high aloft, and often light a narrative full of rich history, thrilling suffered at the hands of the enemy, their adventures, cruel hardships, and a tropical own officers and the weather. Instead, the paradise, lost but then regained. accounts that make up the narratives The text’s 12 chapters provide a actually come from a variety of sources; the chronological history of the efforts by sea captains themselves, their officers and various English seadogs, brigands, other sailors, such as pursers and desperate seamen and behind-the-scenes adventurers, who chose to voyage to the players (including investors and the English tropics. Some of the sources, in fact, did Crown) to oversee the return of their fair not sail the high seas at all, but remained at share of any profits gained. A concise and home expecting a rich return on their clear timeline of events from year to year investments. Their suffering was financial, and voyage to voyage precedes the story. when ships were lost at sea or came back This timeline is a necessary component of with empty holds. the book, helpfully clarifying the dates of James Seay Dean is a professor of the multiple voyages carried out by the maritime history, among other academic same persons or by their relatives with the subjects, at the University of Wisconsin- same names. Parkside, Kenosha, and has published The chapters themselves are numerous journal articles dealing with enlightening as they describe in great detail, maritime history and nautical literature. He the challenges faced by the intrepid sailors is also the author of at least two other books as they made ready for the voyages ahead, concerning maritime history. He is an avid the trials and arguments that often erupted hands-on sailor who worked as a crewman, between investors, the Crown, and the men first mate, navigator, sailing master and who risked their lives before and after the captain on a variety of sailing vessels while mast. There is also a view from the gun sailing the and deck where ordinary seamen fought for , and continues to be a portions of the rich hauls but all too often practicing sailor on the Chesapeake Bay. died from diseases. Famous English sailors His academic background, coupled with such as Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh deck-plank knowledge of ships and the sea don perhaps a more sinister persona as a gives authority and legitimacy to Tropics result of doing what was necessary, even to Bound. the detriment of their own men and peers, to The book is interesting and succeed or even survive the voyage home informative in terms of the machinations 176 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord constructed by English seamen voyaging happened over the course of the through the tropical New World and the war. All of the great campaigns and characters behind the scenes a century major battles are included, but so before colonies such as Jamestown gained too, are the smaller operations, their notoriety. It is a good read and a must amphibious landings, convoys, for those maritime specialists seeking to sieges, skirmishes, and sinkings. No supplement their library and further their other work has attempted such an knowledge of intrusions into the Spanish ambitious view of the war at sea. New World by other European interlopers. Certain to become a definitive The non-specialist would greatly benefit by reference work of World War II, the having a glossary of specific maritime book is suitable not only for terms, however, along with an expanded historians and serious naval illustration section depicting vessel types. enthusiasts, but also for general Despite these minor issues, this is a good readers seeking a sweeping visual book for those trying to understand the explanation of what happened in a influence of English trading efforts in the naval war that extended from the New World before Jamestown, and one coldest arctic seas to the tropical worth reading. beaches of the Pacific. Wayne Abrahamson As blurbs go, this is actually a Pensacola, Florida pretty accurate description of this book. It is hard not to gush over it: the graphics are wonderful, and text is concise yet lively. Marcus Faulkner. War at Sea: A Naval Atlas This is a visually stunning book and a very 1939-1945. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute valuable reference item for scholars and Press, www.nip.org, 2012. 275 pp., arm-chair admirals alike. Maritime illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. US historians should sit up and take note, for $89.95; ISBN 978-1-59114-560-8. this sort of publication is erudite yet accessible, the very thing to excite the next Is it fair game to compare a book against its generation’s interest. publisher’s hyperbole? Naval Institute The reader should realize that while Press produced an unusually breathless Naval Institute Press is the American blurb for the appropriately-titled War at publisher, it was first printed in the U.K. by Sea, A Naval Atlas, 1939-1945: Seaforth Publications and is, in fact, a very Never before in the vast British production, giving a much greater literature of World War II has there emphasis to Mediterranean operations than been a naval atlas such as this to many North Americans would expect. The show graphically the complexities very first plate, “British Sea Power,” makes of the war at sea that spread across this clear, yet it is also one of the most every ocean during that global important because it details the relationship conflict. This beautifully produced of Royal Navy bases to global sea lanes of book by the British naval historian, communication, although it might have Marcus Faulkner, provides a unique mentioned the more recent loss of the base cartographic presentation of the sea at Queenstown (Cobh) in the Irish Free war. It offers more than 150 full- State in 1938. color maps and charts to help The front matter is particularly readers visualize exactly what enlightening. Faulkner’s preface covers Book Reviews 177 some very important points regarding maps, writer/cartographer interface. Indeed, there explaining the use of colour and the sources were a number of misspellings or other used (usually Admiralty) and their gaffs that will annoy the fussy, but this has shortcomings. So too, Andrew Lambert’s become a common problem as publishers concise essay on naval elements of the increasingly abrogate their editorial Second World War lays out a powerful responsibility. But even the graphics show argument for sea power, which, as he some inconsistencies. A number of these advocates it, united the Allies while appeared on p.vii, the general key to the separating the Axis powers. Moving into map plates and thus a crucial feature, among Faulkner’s text, generally found on the map which was the term “gun battery battery,” plates themselves, it is necessarily brief but which might be better labelled “gun nonetheless complete; for a first-time author emplacement.” Other troublesome icons he writes with unusual confidence and were the use of the 1965 Maple Leaf flag to ability. represent Canadian forces; to be consistent The cartographer bears special it really should have been the Canadian Red credit in a work like this. Peter Wilkinson Ensign in use in the 1940s. Some icons, is highly experienced, and that shows in his such as “torpedo attack” and “firing crisp, clean style, marvelously free of commenced” were redundant, since that gimmickry. Largely uncluttered with information is provided in text on the maps. extraneous material and enhanced with So too, it isn’t clear why the sunken cargo delicate colours, the maps are sure to vessel icons are different on p.13 and p.15. withstand the test of time. The use of Why not stick to one design? There were warship silhouettes added a nice level of also a number of missed opportunities for detail sure to please many. If this volume important maps, such as a Plan Orange map, required anything, it was an essay by or given the author’s interests, a global map Wilkinson laying out how he designed the of signals intelligence facilities that maps, which really are stunning. Many will included American facilities at Hawaii and undoubtedly be pleased with the operational Manila to complement the British and maps, which have the usual sort of lines German signals intelligence plates (pp.136- showing the movement of different units. 137). Statistics were always presented in Cartographically they were not the most tables while bar graphs, pie charts, and so interesting; for example the mini-map on would have added another dimension. (p.20) that portrays the sinking of HMS Hopefully, a second edition will someday Glorious in 1940 really is just a bunch of iron out these minor problems. squiggles that don’t convey much In sum, this is a wonderful book information. On the other hand, the that will please academics and the reading introductory plates for each section, public alike. The map plates are truly uncluttered global maps that lay out where beautiful, the text is informative yet does the action was, were tremendously useful. not overwhelm, and even the price is In general, this reviewer was happiest when reasonable. Maritime historians could use the maps addressed abstract ideas rather more atlases like this, covering both naval than specific actions. The very last plate, and civilian dimensions of humanity’s “Capital Ship Losses, 1939-1945,” was interaction with the sea. especially thought-inspiring. Joshua M. Smith Yet this work is not without issues. King’s Point, New York For all the praise due this volume, there are problems, most of them at the 178 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Catherine Marie Gilbert. Yorke Island and and the approaches to English Bay and the Uncertain War. Defending Canada's Burrard Inlet off Vancouver, the remote western coast during WWII. Campbell location of Yorke Island nearby Kelsey Bay River, BC: Ptarmigan Press, and distant Campbell River was selected to www.ptarmiganpress.com, 2012. 83 pp., dominate the choke-point of Johnstone illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. Strait in the north passage. Yorke Island, an CDN $25.00, paper; ISBN 978-0-919537- inaccessible, wooded, wind-swept 93-4. (Ordered from www.catherinegilbert outcropping of rock barely 55 hectares in .ca, plus $10 shipping BC residents, $15 size, became home to a major military shipping rest of Canada.) installation which housed significant numbers of army, navy and air force After 1936, in response to growing concerns personnel for the duration of the Second about aggressive Japanese actions in China World War. and possible ambitions in the Pacific that Catherine Gilbert, a local historical might bring conflict to the shores of British enthusiast trained in journalism and fine Columbia, the Canadian government and arts, tells the stories of this isolated fortress, military accorded Canada's west coast high the men who served there and the local priority in rearmament and the preparation residents who came into contact with them, of coastal defences. Roger Sarty, in his in a visually stunning book that incorporates 1985 PhD dissertation "Silent Sentry: A a readable narrative as well as contemporary Military and Political History of Canadian and historic photographs from the site. The Coast Defence, 1860-1945" and other research foundation is the large number of related journal articles and occasional oral interviews conducted among those papers since, has described the historical involved and original materials drawn from background, motivations and technical repositories such as the Museum at aspects behind bolstering and building Campbell River and private collections of bulwarks against maritime attacks and raids. individuals. At its best, the book provides a Geography mattered. A network of large remarkable social history of the young and guns, fortifications and warning stations old soldiers who lived on "the rock," either was decided upon to control access points temporarily or for longer periods of time. from the ocean into the inner, sheltered The hardships, monotony and tribulations waters between Vancouver Island and the associated with lack of facilities and Lower Mainland, where the commercial loneliness are plainly described. Access to ports of Vancouver and New Westminster the outside world consisted of a religious handled substantial shipping. These mission boat skippered by a reverend, defences were intended to ward off surface himself a veteran of the First World War, the raiders—naval or auxiliary warships regular naval and army supply boats that engaged in commerce warfare and hit-and- brought water and other essentials, home- run attacks on shore targets, counter any made rafts outfitted for nearby excursions, submarine and long-range aircraft patrols occasional civilian visitors sheltering from and reassure the Americans that sea lines of adverse weather or coming to see the communication between San Francisco Bay, resident military doctor for medical help, Puget Sound and Alaska were safe and the friendly and enemy signals monitored secure. In addition to fortified sites near the on special equipment and the always naval base at Esquimalt and Victoria, welcome steamer that meant final return to Steveston on the mouth of the Fraser River civilization at the end of tour. The defences Book Reviews 179 on Yorke Island fulfilled a military purpose, the most memorable buildings, such as a and a military routine was followed. The beautiful wood floor gymnasium used for centerpieces were the 4.7-inch, later dances and social events, have been lost to upgraded to 6-inch, artillery guns emplaced fires set by illegal campers. BC Parks, in concrete, augmented by protected under whose authority the island now searchlights, light and medium anti-aircraft resides, has designated Yorke Island as a guns and hardened ammunition bunkers. protected area awaiting a management plan Most other buildings constructed on the and potential development as a park island during the occupation consisted of catering to day tourists. A fund-raising wood, brick and similar common materials. campaign is underway to finance a seasonal Relatively expensive, inflexible and dock and interpretative signage, to provide manpower-hungry fixed fortifications like better accessibility and bring out the site's those on Yorke Island became progressively historical significance. In the meantime, a obsolete in favour of greater provision of four-minute YouTube video titled "Yorke patrol aircraft for sea denial and strike Island and the Uncertain War by Catherine functions at selected airfields and a new air Gilbert," produced by Shaw TV North base at Comox. Still, the examination Island, shows the level of local media duties performed by requisitioned fishing interest given to the book and the wartime boats put into naval service, in conjunction story. with the big guns, and the late war signals The beautiful design and lay-out of intelligence work, a facet deserving greater the book deserve special mention, especially attention than given, were equally essential. the bright, glossy photographs in colour and Small details on the military and naval sides monotone. Ptarmigan Press, associated are sometimes erroneous. HMCS Comox, with commercial printer Kask Graphics in for example, was not a converted Campbell River, has been publishing books minesweeper as described in the text, but of regional interest since 1980, including a instead a purpose-built coal-burning very popular series focused on west coast minesweeper of Admiralty Basset class seafood cooking. Due to changing design modified for Canadian conditions, economics in the printing business and the launched at Burrard Dry Dock in North increasingly endangered species known as Vancouver (among the first warships built paper product, owner Ann Kask has found a on the west coast). The social and heritage new niche in the growing field of self- preservation dimensions of the book are publishing and commissioned books demonstrably stronger than the military incorporating good graphic design and history. That focus, however, is not copyediting, for which Ptarmigan has an surprising given that the ready audience is established reputation. Yorke Island and the undoubtedly mostly local and would not Uncertain War demonstrates how a small know the difference. publisher of maritime-themed books has As documented in Gilbert's book, adapted to the ever changing Canadian structures from the war occupation still publishing market and continues to produce stand on York Island, weathering the books of high quality by design and elements, time and Mother Nature. The site authorship. passed into private hands, when many of the Chris Madsen moveable buildings were transferred to Toronto, Ontario other locations, and then back to crown ownership during the Cold War. Some of 180 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Timothy S. Good (ed.). American September 1812 issue, Niles promised to Privateers in the . The Vessels count only those enemy prizes that safely and Their Prizes Recorded in Niles Weekly reached an allied or American port or were Register. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, otherwise “conclusively” accounted for, www.mcfarlandpub.com, 2012. vii+209 whether destroyed, ransomed or released as pp., appendices, notes, bibliography, index. cartels for sending paroled prisoners home. US $75.00, paper; ISBN 978-0-7864-6695- Prizes that failed to arrive or were taken but 5. E-Book ISBN 978-0-7864-8826-1. later recaptured by the enemy would not be listed. The Weekly Register’s final prize list, This is one of the most useful books I have published on 12 August 1815, includes over received in a long time and an example of 80 vessels in addition to the 1550 prizes how newspaper sources can be turned to previously identified up to 7 January 1815. even greater use for a much wider public. Allowing for duplicates and the inevitable Having spent many years tracking omissions, Niles estimated that not less than activity throughout the War of 1812, I found 1,750 were taken with a further 750 The Weekly Register, published in recaptured, for a total of 2500 vessels Baltimore, the most consistently accurate (p.173). The difficulties inherent in early- record of privateer captures during the war. nineteenth-century communications were Established in 1811 by publisher compounded by war as British vessels and editor Hezekiah Niles, The Weekly gradually blockaded the entire eastern coast Register offered him a platform for his of the . Niles’ ability to gather moderate political beliefs and his shipping intelligence from Maine to commitment to honest reporting with a Georgia and from to Norway during national or international focus. At a time three years of war is a feat in itself. when newspapers were known for being Even though The Weekly Register is fiercely partisan, Niles’ Register presented now available on-line, one must still search its readers with a fair and balanced each issue to find scattered information on perspective which made it one of the most prizes. Timothy Good has taken all of popular newspapers in the United States for 25 years. Unlike so many of his fellow Niles’ lists from hundreds of papers, and put journalists, the Quaker-born Niles reported them together sequentially in one handy national and international news even- paperback book. While this in itself is a handedly, and in full. When the U.S. justification for the $75 price, Good has also declared war against Great Britain in June arranged the long list of captures by 1812, Niles strongly supported the use of privateer, listing the type of vessel, number privateers (privately armed and operated of guns, home port and number of captures vessels of war) as opposed to the few U.S. for each one. The privateers are listed Navy vessels in service in 1812. Since alphabetically and their captures Baltimore was one of the first ports to chronologically according to the date they commission privateers and sent out more appear in The Weekly Register. This makes than any other American city, Niles was it even easier to track the efforts of one ideally placed to record their activities. His privateer versus another or the prizes taken great gift to his contemporary readers, as by privateers from one location. An well as to modern researchers, was his extensive index offers further assistance. determination to present as thorough a According to the international law record as possible of every American of prize, during war, all private armed privateer capture during the War of 1812. vessels cruising against the enemy had to Beginning with the first 136 prizes in the 5 carry letters of marque or commissions from Book Reviews 181 the government entitling them to do so. Alan G. Jamieson. Lords of the Sea: A Capturing a ship without a commission History of the Barbary Corsairs. London: turned a privateer into a pirate and a legal Reaktion Books, www.reaktion prize into a hanging offence. But while all books.co.uk, 2012. 272 pp., illustrations, privateers carried letters of marque, not maps, chronology, notes, bibliography, every ship with a letter of marque was a index. UK £25.00, US $39.00; cloth; ISBN privateer. Some were primarily trading 978-1-86189-907-1. vessels which carried a commission along with a cargo in case a likely prize sailed by, Allen Jamieson gives his readers a history but lacked the larger crew and armament of lesson about the many nations, contiguous a privateer dedicated solely to prizemaking. to the Mediterranean Sea, which fought In a third section of the book listing non- maritime battles with each other for privateer captures, Good makes this centuries over control of territory and distinction, identifying 62 prizes taken by wealth. A constant denominator was a clash letter-of-marque vessels as well as captures of religions, Muslim nations engaged in war by Customs House vessels (1), revenue with Christian nations and vice-versa. cutters (5), gun boats (9) and naval vessels Occasionally, Christians attacked fellow- (175). Christians, members of obscure sects and Good, who works for the U.S. they, along with small Jewish populations, National Parks Service, has written several became expendable pawns in the conflict. books on Abraham Lincoln, but this is the Both sides, Muslim and Christian, first to address privateers. He has demonized those with differing beliefs or organized, indexed and published only what customs—cultural and tribal biases that Niles printed. He does not analyse the historically defined early religious doctrine. entries or edit the obvious typos. Nor does The Barbary Wars involved the he point out the repetitions where the same maritime nations of England, France, Spain, prize appears in two separate issues, for , Denmark, , the example no.122, the Venus Netherlands, and several city-states of the captured by the privateer Teazer and carried Italian peninsula clashed against the into Portland as noted in the initial Mamluks of Egypt and the vast Ottoman September 5 prize list and appears again as Empire centered in what we now call no. 178 in the September 26 issue. This is Turkey and modern-day , , both the book’s strength and weakness. , and . The struggle between Good has faithfully repeated Niles’ errors Christians and Muslims varied in intensity along with his lists, but at least he does not over many centuries. appear to have added any of his own. For The Muslims dominated from the anyone, even a privateer fanatic like me, seventh to eleventh century, but the this is a wonderful research tool and Christians gained the upper hand thereafter deserves a place on the bookshelves of to the fifteenth century when they enlisted anyone interested in American privateers Italian forces from Genoa, Pisa and Venice. during the War of 1812. Once I had to drive The sixteenth century saw the bitterest 100 miles each way to use the closest conflicts when the naval vanguard of the volumes of Niles’ Weekly Register. Thanks to Timothy Good, Niles’ privateers are now Ottoman Turks gained power and controlled within arm’s reach. much of the eastern and North African Mediterranean coast. Faye Kert Their struggles were known in the Ottawa, Ontario west as the Barbary Corsair Wars. The name 182 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Barbary was the anglicization of Berber, tribal families transported to the New World inhabitants of the coast west of during the eighteenth and nineteenth the Nile Valley, and corsairs roughly means centuries. A reader is stuck by the fact that “sea raiders.” Corsairs specifically targeted wars based upon religious tenants do not Christian vessels and their coastal enclaves necessarily breed morality. clustered along the northern Mediterranean. The participants in these wars were Many castle-like watch towers survive to some of the great Muslim leaders of history this day in European coastal communities, including , Suleiman the purpose of which was to serve as the Magnificent, Zymen Danseker, Oruç lookout posts for corsair raiders. This was a Reis, and Yusuf Reis. The list of Christians predatory manifestation of an “eternal war” contain the various King Charles’s of between Islam and Christendom— England, Spain and France, the King malevolence, mayhem, murder and bondage Henrys of England, Knights of Malta, to promote two disparate concepts of God. Rhodes and Jerusalem and the Doria family Corsairs were often viewed as of Genoa—to name but a few. Andrea pirates, but technically, they were Doria became a legendary sixteenth century privateers. Pirates operate outside all admiral during this time and, a few international law, preying upon vessels from centuries later, a figure in American naval any nation for booty. The corsairs, by history. The Andrea (Andrew) Doria was contrast, were permitted by Muslim rulers one of the original warships of America’s to use privately owned ships to seize cargo, small , captained by crews and vessels as prizes. The resulting Nicholas Biddle and first officered by plunder was disposed of according to a set Joshua Barney; both men were naval heroes of legal rules. As Jamieson notes, “the of the Revolutionary War. struggle between Islam and Christianity was The Barbary corsairs changed held to be never-ending, interrupted only by direction in the early seventeenth century truces, . . .Barbary corsairs could sail out when the Ottoman central government against the Christians whenever they suffered internal political crises allowing wished.” (p.13) the regencies of Algiers, Morocco, Tunis Extorting of nations, capturing and Tripoli to become semi-autonomous vessels, stealing cargo, ransoming wealthy states. Meanwhile, the Christian powers of passengers and the homicides related to Spain and Portugal were in economic these practices were despicable enough, but decline and England, France and the the Barbary corsairs turned many of their Netherlands were not strong enough to Christian captives into slaves. The author effectively stand up to the Mediterranean suggests that between 1500 and 1800 AD Muslim nations. At the beginning of the the corsairs captured and enslaved nineteenth century, the Americans approximately 1.25 million Christians while reluctantly filled this vacuum, largely on a their Muslim brethren, the Crimean Tartars quest for manumission. fighting on land, took another three million, The first declared war in American mostly Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, history was the ending in Hungarians, and Austrians as slaves. 1803 and the second ending in 1815. Although this is a staggering number, the Presidents and James slave-taking operation of several Christian Madison were in office and valiant naval nations from the fifteenth century through icons , John Rodgers, the nineteenth century took in excess of 11 , , Samuel million black slaves. Many of these were Barron and Charles Morris saw service Book Reviews 183 during these engagements. Ironically black (N.B. Membership in the Navy Records slaves were used to hew some Georgian live Society, currently £40.00, includes the oak to build the hulls of the first ships of the annual publications of the society.) nascent , many of which were used to free white slaves in North The 120-year-old Navy Records Society Africa. (NRS) was established to publish The early twentieth century demise manuscripts primarily concerning the of the brought an end to history of the Royal Navy. Many titles are the last vestige of the Barbary communities. somewhat esoteric, such as Papers Relating Appropriately, the author concludes Lords to the First Dutch War, Piracy in the of the Sea with an analysis of these modern Levant 1827-1828, Naval Courts Martial descendants of the corsairs. The present- 1793-1815, and probably of interest to a day pirates who are flourishing in the South somewhat restricted coterie of academic China Sea, the Straits of Magellan and historians. More useful was a 1994 especially in the Muslim nation of Somalia “Occasional Paper” offering a complete list differ from the Barbary corsairs because of The Commissioned Sea Officers of the their predation is economic rather than Royal Navy, 1600-1815. More recent religion-based. Slavery continues, but on a volumes of considerably wider interest comparatively minor scale. include: The Battle of the Atlantic and Jamieson’s book is generally Signals Intelligence: U-Boat Tracking comprehensive in its research, tightly Papers, 1941-1947 (2002); Naval written and scholarly with a vast amount of Intelligence From Germany - The Reports information packed into its 220 pages. It is of the British Naval Attachés in Berlin, well organized, but the author’s writing 1906-1914 (2007). This current volume style can overwhelm a reader with a falls in the latter category which would tsunami of historical data. The book appeal to a quite extensive readership. appears to present many puddles of facts Many NRS volumes, like this, are that too infrequently flow and then merge essentially a publication of letters into a cohesive narrative reservoir. exchanged, reports of proceedings, minutes Therefore, Lords of the Sea is a valuable of meetings, Admiralty directives and other secondary source for those who are correspondence, without much in the way of interested in learning more about the history commentary, interpretation or assessment. of Barbary corsairs, but it is a work where Not everyone’s choice of reading. The main quenching one’s intellectual thirst comes impression of this volume, however, the with a fair amount of effort. first of at least three to come, is the immediacy of the documents themselves. Louis Arthur Norton Soon one is immersed in events as they West Simsbury, Connecticut happened, not armchair quarterbacking with much later access to enemy and other files. Ben Jones. The Fleet Air Arm In The Jones, with no more than an occasional one- Second World War; Volume 1, 1939-1941. or two-page introduction and sparse Norway, the Mediterranean and the footnotes identifying the actual names of the Bismark. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. for the writers or reporting authorities (ship’s Navy Records Society, www.navyrecords captains, Fleet Air Arm (FAA) squadron .org.uk, 2012. xxix+583 pp., diagrams, C.O.s, department heads), lets the letters glossary, sources, index. UK £30:00 + £5:00 and reports speak for themselves. It proves p & p., cloth; ISBN978-1-4094-5257-7. fascinating. In the early pre-war days, the 184 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord lack of any form of suitable aircraft was offset by others within days of successful pretty horrifying. The Royal Air Force only actions – No. 38: “From Vice-Admiral gave up control of the FAA in 1937, and it Commanding Orkneys and Shetlands to did not begin to administer itself until the Secretary of the Admiralty : Sinking of spring of 1939, a mere six months before Konigsberg at Bergen, 10 April, 1940. ... war’s outbreak. By then, the RAF was This was, I think, the first occasion on operating Hurricanes, and the Spitfire was which Skuas have been used in action for soon in front line service. The FAA the real purpose for which they were meanwhile had Fairey Battles, Albacores designed.” This report is followed by the and Swordfish, the latter used for every squadron C.O.’s report (800 and 803 purpose, from reconnaissance to dive Squadrons, Hatson), a copy of the bombing to torpedo attacks (at about 120 operation order issued prior to the attack, knots.) and a summary of the pilots’ reports on The book opens with a March 1939 return. For instance: “Damage to own assessment by the Admiralty, addressed to aircraft: Two aircraft were hit, each by one the C-in-C Home Fleet, as to their estimate shell of pom-pom calibre, causing holes in of FAA requirements in the event of war— the main planes. Both aircraft had no already pretty clearly anticipated. There difficulty in returning.” And “Casualties: was only one new fleet carrier, Ark Royal, One aircraft failed to return ... He took this while the first of the modern armoured deck section into a cloud, whereupon the other carriers, Illustrious and Victorious, only two aircraft lost touch. Red Leader was not became available in 1940. Four more were seen again, but another aircraft reported of First World War vintage, several seeing a splash into the sea about this converted from battle cruisers, 23 years old. time.” (pp.93-95). Immediacy for sure, and Too soon there was the battle for Norway to typical of report after report all through the cope with, too far afield for any fighter tale, off Norway, in the wider Atlantic and support by the RAF. Not only did the FAA in the Mediterranean. At sea and on have a problem with its older carriers, the occasion land-based, especially in the Navy even had to borrow maintenance Mediterranean. Scattered throughout are personnel from the RAF as there had not plans for storage, maintenance and been enough time—or funding—to train up operational bases at home, in Egypt and at sufficient for even their modest Singapore and Ceylon. Knowing the requirements. This was offset by the FAA outcome as we do, it is interesting to see loaning observers to Coastal Command, how the Admiralty and commanders at the who had little experience operating over the time were planning for two and three years sea (and soon writing to ask for them back.) ahead, both hopefully and with much The first few lines in a letter from Churchill concern. as first lord of the Admiralty to the first sea There is considerable lord in January 1940 set an all-too-frequent correspondence back and forth regarding tone: “I have been increasingly disquieted carriers being used to ferry Hurricanes to about the demand which the Fleet Air Arm Malta, crated and flying, with a somewhat involves upon British war-making resources surprising understanding of the priorities of ... I had not conceived how enormous was the Admiral commanding in the Med. (Sir the charge involved... It [is] impossible for Andrew Cunningham), although he carrier-borne aircraft to compete with shore- complained that wasn’t what his ships were based...” (p.71) needed for. Hurricanes couldn’t be struck Such worrisome comments are down as they had no folding wings, Book Reviews 185 necessitating much moving around by hand the stories, living from day to day with to permit the carrier’s own planes to pilots, carrier captains, local admirals and operate, and the Blenheim bombers needed their masters at the Admiralty, the Air as guides for the Hurricanes to reach Malta Ministry and war production departments. had problems finding the fleet without A very much recommended volume. needed homing devices or IFF. The FAA’s Fraser McKee own aircraft were all too often in the same Toronto, Ontario situation. Such detail is both illuminating and educational! The history is divided into three Jonathan Kinghorn. The Atlantic Transport sections, and runs consecutively within each Line, 1881-1931. A History with Details on section, although reports and All Ships. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & correspondence regarding any one operation Company, Inc., www.mcfarlandpub.com, are grouped. I. The Fleet Air Arm and the 2012. vi+308pp., photographs, appendices, Royal Navy (early preparations and notes, bibliography and index. UK £15.95, problems); II. Norway and Taranto; and III. paper; ISBN 978-0-7864-6142-4. Cape Matapan and the Bismark. Within these sections there are inserted many In 1881, Bernard Baker of Baltimore reports and communications on general established the Atlantic Transport Line, an problems, worries and demands of the time. American-owned but British-operated The loss of Ark Royal after torpedoing was steamship company, to run a passenger assessed by distant London as due, in part, service across the North Atlantic between to problems with damage control. Another New York and London. With a transit time FAA-related operation covered extensively of less than ten days each way, the line is the passage of Convoy HG-76 from became famous for shipping expensive Gibraltar to the U.K. in December 1941, livestock and carrying only first-class when the first auxiliary carrier, HMS passengers. Audacity was lost, but contributed to the The author, Jonathan Kinghorn, is a sinking of four U-boats by Capt. Johnny former senior curator for English Heritage, Walker’s 36th Escort Group. One of where he was responsible for collections at Audacity’s Martlets landed with bits of a more than fifty historic sites in Great Fokker Wolf it had shot down stuck to its Britain. He now lives in Massachusetts and frame due to “taking avoiding action works as a writer and editor. Kinghorn’s somewhat too late.” research for this book has been remarkably The glossary and index are thorough, relying largely on the papers of excellent and vital, for such often-technical his Scottish-born great-grandfather who was discussions. My only quibble would be the the superintendent engineer for the Atlantic lack of any maps whatsoever. The writers Transport Line (ATL) and responsible for had access to Admiralty charts, and we the mechanical operation of the entire fleet. readers could have stood a few at least. Until the 1950s, passenger ships Also, the one frontispiece photo of the were the only way for the general public to venerable Swordfish could have been cross water between the continents. The usefully replaced by a few of the lesser recent centenary of the loss of Titanic has known Skua, Albacore and Fulmar to give a renewed public awareness of the history of feel of the opposition to the Messerschmidt transatlantic liners and the larger-than-life 109’s. Minor points, and like reading War individuals who owned them. The golden and Peace, one soon becomes immersed in age of passenger shipping was born in the 186 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord 1890s when the ships evolved into big, fast, transatlantic passenger companies that comfortable vessels designed to transport received threats from the German the wealthy in luxury across the Atlantic at community in New York. Although strong speeds of up to 30 knots. Even in the efforts were made to revive the American economic downturn that followed the First mercantile marine after the war, the ATL World War, these liners were still in never really recovered commercially. The demand, but for carrying the mail and the International Mercantile Marine group growing number of emigrants from Europe decided to restructure its fleet and the ATL to the United States. finally disappeared in 1935. However, its Before long, American-controlled holding company, ATL West Virginia, lived transatlantic passenger lines seriously on within the IMM group which assigned to rivalled those of Great Britain. The main it the former Red Star Liner Belgenland catalyst of growth was the American banker under United States registry. Renamed J.P. Morgan, a discerning and frequent Columbia, it became for a time the largest traveller, who had almost single-handedly vessel flying the Stars and Stripes. built the largest private banking house in Jonathan Kinghorn’s book will be America. In 1900, Morgan brought together warmly welcomed by maritime enthusiasts a group of bankers with the aim of as well as general readers of Atlantic restricting or even eliminating competition history. He sympathetically describes daily in the North Atlantic shipping market life on board the Atlantic Transport Line through a trust. In 1902, he purchased the vessels and recounts the history of every for £10 million, which led ship owned by the line, as well as giving to the formation of the ill-conceived biographies of key figures associated with International Mercantile Marine group the company. There is also a (IMM). Bernard Baker was retained by comprehensive bibliography with separate IMM to run the Atlantic Transport Line as a notes and an index. The skillful manner in reliable service between London and New which the author unfolds the story would be York. a worthy template for other maritime This book examines one of the historians. All these elements contribute most significant periods in merchant towards forming one of the most complete shipping history. Between 1833 and 1914, accounts of the history of North American almost every aspect of ship design changed maritime trade. and a network of reliable passenger liner The author’s research has shown services in the Atlantic was rapidly that the Atlantic Transport Line was no rich developed. Initially, competition amongst man’s plaything. Morgan made sure that the shipping companies was fierce, focused on ships earned their keep. It is only fitting, the speed with which they could carry mail, therefore, that the last word goes to Morgan livestock and passengers. The North himself. In an example, the author quotes Atlantic, in particular, became a showplace his business acumen. When asked whether for the development of shipping technology. he thought a typical longshoreman was paid In spite of the Atlantic Transport Line’s enough, Morgan replied, “if that’s all he can modest size, it was highly successful and, in get, I should say it’s enough.” It seems 1902, became part of Morgan’s floating from this book that Morgan applied the empire. same rule to shipping investors. During the First World War, the Michael Clark Atlantic Transport Line was one of London, England Book Reviews 187 Richard P. Klobuchar. The USS Ward. An combined with Klobuchar’s initial and Operational History of the Ship that Fired heavy-handed recital of the extreme lengths the First American Shot of World War II. to which he went to ensure a complete tale, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. Inc., the result is an extremely detailed popular www.mcfarlandpub.com, 2012. (Originally history. On the positive side, this approach published 2006). xi+268 pp., illustrations, allows both the casual and professional maps, tables, appendices, roster of student of history a resource that is personnel, bibliography, index. US $25.00, extremely easy to access, for Ward’s paper; ISBN 978-0-7864-6429-6. chronology is painstakingly laid out and is very well documented in the index. The In his book, Klobuchar presents the full detailed nature of this operational history operational history of the USS Ward (DD- illustrates the potentially prohibitive amount 139/APD-16) from construction in 1918 as of effort a historian must invest in a project an anti-submarine destroyer, to its sinking in order to be able to say in good by the USS O’Brien in the aftermath of a conscience, “Job’s a good ‘un!” On the Japanese kamikaze attack on 7 December negative side, Klobuchar’s approach tends 1944. Converted to an attack transport in to remind the reader of his personal January 1943, the Ward holds the distinction priorities in writing the book. of firing the first American shot of the From a technical perspective, The Second World War during the Japanese USS Ward is a joy to read. Klobuchar uses attack on Pearl Harbor. This was a fact long the photographs, maps, and diagrams that debated but finally confirmed when, on 28 accompany every significant aspect of the August 2002, the midget submarine Ward’s ship’s history most effectively. His tables, crew claimed to have sunk, was finally chapter notes, bibliography, index, assorted found. This cemented the destroyer’s hotly appendices and the full ship’s roster (tracing debated past and reconfirmed its status as a Ward’s crew during its entire career) are ship of war. above this reviewer’s reproach, and set an Klobuchar’s preface clearly excellent example for writers in the field. delineates the book’s structure—a pleasant Klobuchar’s presentation of his research is surprise for the researcher. Chapters one detailed and relevant to both the historical and two form the first part of The USS events he discusses, and his readers. A civil Ward, describing the record-breaking speed engineer by training and a specialist in Pearl of its construction, under the supervision of Harbor, the author applies a professional Master Shipfitter J.T. Moroney, and the attention to detail throughout the book. ship’s abbreviated service in the First World The epilogue contains a tale of War. The second part, chapters three considerable interest: historians through nine, discuss in great detail Ward’s occasionally forget that the events we study reactivation and reassignment as a destroyer have a cascade effect upon succeeding in 1941 through 1942. Ward’s “final events, and Klobuchar’s discussion of the career” as a destroyer-transport, as hunt for, and the discovery of, the midget Klobuchar refers to it, is discussed in the sub the Ward’s crewmen claimed to have third part of his book, chapters ten through sunk in 1941 is a valuable reminder. The fifteen. The last chapter of the book is sub was finally found in 2002, on the third devoted to the post-war intrigues involving dive of the Hawaii Undersea Research Lab the Ward. One gets the impression that the (HURL)’s deep sea research vehicle, Pisces entire operational history is written as a V, at 1,200 feet below sea level. preface to this final chapter, and when Commanders Chuck Holloway and Rachel 188 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Shackelford of Pisces V joyfully reported 1869. Halifax, NS: Formac Publishing, their discovery, and Terry Kerby, Operations www.formac.ca, 2012. 272 pp., illustrations, Director and Chief Pilot of Pisces IV maps, appendices, notes, bibliography, declared: “After 61 years the men of the index. CDN $29.95, cloth; ISBN 978-1- Ward are finally vindicated.” In 2003, a 4595-0080-8. eBook also available. television station sent a crew down to the midget sub (again in submersibles operated This book, by Halifax meteorologist Jerry by HURL), this time accompanied by Lockett, combines scientific history with former Ward crewman Will Lehner. graphic descriptions of catastrophic events Klobuchar underscores the emotional and a warning of what may happen in the impact this dive had on Lehner: for decades, future. It is in two parts. The first is the historians and society at large had doubted history of the first tentative efforts to Ward’s involvement during the attacks at understand how storms form and how to Pearl Harbor, and finally, with his own eyes, forecast them, while the second describes in Lehner was able to see the four-inch shell detail the “Saxby Gale” of 1869 that did hole in the midget sub’s conning tower. enormous damage through the eastern “[The discovery of the midget sub] brings a United States and the areas around the Bay closure to something that was hanging over of Fundy. In fact, it had much in common Ward’s crew for our entire lives. We will with the recent Hurricane Sandy which must never again be doubted when we describe have hit just after the book had gone to what we did,” said Lehner. While the print. The final chapter: “Why Saxby still rediscovery of the first Japanese vessel sunk matters,” is a third theme and well worth by an American ship in the Second World heeding. War now stands as a memorial to the efforts It was Benjamin Franklin who first of the Ward’s crew, Klobuchar points out noticed, in 1743, that storms move across that as of 2005, the fifth midget sub (I-16) the earth’s surface but not necessarily in the used in the Japanese infiltration of Pearl direction the wind is blowing at the Harbor is still missing, leaving a chapter of observer’s location. Then, in the first half the full story of the attack on Pearl Harbor of the nineteenth century, a number of unfinished. This quiet yet poignant researchers figured out different aspects of observation serves to remind historians of the puzzle. In America, William Redfield their duty to the memory of those who died discovered that winds in a hurricane rotate in battle, whether widely publicised or around its centre, while James Espy quietly set aside, to find and record, in deduced that latent heat is the source of effect to resolve, unanswered questions of energy in a hurricane, but each totally the past. Klobuchar’s operational history of denied the validity of the other’s theories! the USS Ward solves a mystery left Then William Morse’s telegraph allowed unanswered for six decades and allows us to reports to be sent to a central point; in the close another chapter in the history of the USA, this was the Smithsonian Institution Second World War. in Washington. The first weather maps were A.L. Adomeit posted there in 1850, but ceased with the London, Ontario Civil War as the telegraph system was needed for military purposes. Jerry Lockett. The Discovery of Weather: In 1854, Admiral Robert FitzRoy Stephen Saxby, the tumultuous birth of (who had commanded the Beagle on weather forecasting, and Saxby’s Gale of Darwin’s famous voyage) became head of Book Reviews 189 the British Board of Trade’s Meteorological author has studied the remarkably complete Department. He started to gather data by accounts that have been preserved in telegraph from a network of stations in the newspaper archives from papers published British Isles, but it was 1861 before he in most towns in those days as well as in issued the first storm warnings to mariners government records. The Saxby Gale’s and published forecasts in the Times. effects were very much like those of 2012’s Unfortunately, he suffered from depression Hurricane Sandy. Enormous amounts of and committed suicide in 1865 whereupon rainfall caused floods in all the northeastern the Board of Trade halted weather forecasts. American states. Rivers swelled, houses It would be some time before they were were swept away, railways and roads were reinstituted on both sides of the Atlantic. washed out and many people lost their lives. And then there was Saxby. On the coast, dozens of ships were driven Stephen Saxby was a schoolteacher who ashore. Similar events took place when the was hired by the British Admiralty to storm crossed into New Brunswick, but instruct junior officers and engineers at the there an additional effect occurred. It was Chatham naval base. He was, by all precisely the day of the perigean spring accounts, a good teacher, but when his tides, when the moon and sun act together interest turned to the formation of storms to cause the greatest tides and they and weather forecasting, he came up with a increased even more as the moon was at its theory that was totally erroneous. He perigee—the closest it comes to the earth— believed that the declination of the moon, and to this was added the storm surge north or south of the equator, influenced the caused by the winds on the eastern side of formation of storms and hurricanes. At first the hurricane blowing straight up the Bay of his ideas received favourable comment. Fundy. The result was a high tide that They sounded scientific and more likely overtopped the Acadian dykes all around the than atmospheric disturbance by meteorites perimeters of the Minas Basin and or astrology, both of which had their Chignecto Bay. There was NO record of advocates. His theory might have been such an occurrence since the dykes were wrong, but Saxby was fortunate; he seemed built about 200 years previously. The to have got it right on two occasions. In railway connecting Nova Scotia to the rest October 1861, he predicted a storm would of Canada was washed away as were the hit the British Isles on November 1 and one telegraph lines and all roads leading across did. Fitzroy had failed to forecast it. But the Chignecto Isthmus. his chief claim to fame would come eight In his last chapter, Lockett years later. In 1868, one year in advance, describes the progress we have made in he predicted a violent storm would occur on forecasting events like these but warns that the following 5 to 7 October. Now he did the dykes, long ago rebuilt, offer no defence not say just where in the world this would against a storm on the scale of Saxby’s. We occur but when a hurricane swept though also continue to build structures on flood New England and New Brunswick on 5 plains and hope for the best. Personally, I October 1879, he was credited, at least in like to live on a hill. the Maritime Provinces, with extraordinary abilities and the event became known as C. Douglas Maginley “The Saxby Gale.” Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia Part Two of the book describes the Saxby Gale or hurricane in detail. The 190 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Ron Macdonald. Great British Shipwrecks: help the reader quickly gather all available A Personal Adventure. Dunbeath, Scotland: information on the site from one section of Whittles Publishing, www.whittlespublish the book. ing.uk, 2012. 176 pp., illustrations, UK Macdonald acknowledges the £18.99, paper; ISBN 978-184995-077-0. assistance of several outside contributors to the production of his book including past Shipwreck enthusiasts as well as the casual and present dive partners who have observer of maritime history will appreciate accompanied him over the several years of the laborious process that resulted in Ron his research, and shared their underwater Macdonald’s Great Shipwrecks: A Personal photographs with him. This process was Adventure which details 37 shipwrecks especially useful to Macdonald’s major around the United Kingdom. For each collaborator, who has never visited the wreck, Macdonald provides the ship’s shipwrecks. The author worked very historical background, how the ship came to closely with Rob Ward, of Illusion dwell on the seafloor, and its current Illustrations, who created the drawings of condition and exact location. Photos of the the current condition of the ships as they ships during their time in service and rest on the ocean floor. Macdonald images taken by divers at the wreck sites provided Ward with pictures of the ships accompanied the information provided, but before they met their fate and images from the drawings of ships in their current the dives on the shipwreck sites. Thanks to positions provided the greatest addition to Ward’s unique representations of the current the writing. condition of the ships readers can to grasp Macdonald focused on shipwrecks the position of the ships and their level of primarily from the First and Second World deterioration. Macdonald’s extensive Wars, but he did incorporate ships that familiarity with diving on these sites wrecked due to incidents of weather and permitted him to verify the accuracy of other accidents. He includes shipwreck these depictions. sites that vary in difficulty and depth, such The book draws upon the as the German escort ship, the F 2, which author’s 30 years of shipwreck diving settled 16 metres beneath the surface, and experience. While Macdonald has focused the White Star Liner Justica, which lies at on U.K. dive sites for the book, he has also 70 metres. The book encompasses both dived on numerous international shipwrecks popular dive sites that an avid shipwreck and has a breadth of knowledge in the field. diver might experience as well as more Early on in his career, he noticed a lack of obscure locations that hold intriguing stories detailed shipwreck information available to about the ships’ demise. divers, and his book seeks to fill that void. The author has arranged the In addition to his most recent publication, collection of shipwrecks by geographical Macdonald has also produced several other area, which will allow the reader to shipwreck dive manuals. The diving understand the events that took place in a community has recognized Macdonald’s specific region. For example, there were 74 authority in this area of study, and has German ships scuttled in Scapa Flow by the invited him to speak at several international English after the First World War, and that conferences over the course of his career. the dangerous waters of the Sound of Mull The author’s interaction with his serve as a resting place for many unlucky peers, his collaboration with Ward, and his ships that failed to avoid the rocky years of experience lend authority to the coastline. Images of each of the shipwrecks book. He has limited the credibility of the Book Reviews 191 text, however, by not including American naval anti-sabotage teams. bibliographic information on the historical Seizing Oran intact was important to the background presented for each ship. This overall plan of this major amphibious lack of detail will hinder potential readers operation. The Vichy French defenders from tracking the sources he used which replied with ferocious fire, inflicting give the wreck sites their meaning. On the casualties of over 90 percent and sinking other hand, the photographs and both ships. They then scuttled 23 other information on current condition and vessels to block the harbour, requiring a location of the wrecks clearly come from major salvage operation before Oran could his personal experience. become a major Allied supply point, by the This book is directed to readers time fighting further east in Tunisia. The who are either shipwreck diving enthusiasts commander of this audacious but little- or have a casual interest in the subject area. celebrated operation was a Royal Navy While the author’s lack of citations limits captain born in Prince Edward Island (PEI). the book’s academic usefulness, his images, Frederic Peters was one of the few officers organization of information and first-hand to survive the assault, only to die tragically experience will appeal to a popular in an airplane crash less than a week later. audience. Macdonald’s survey of British Columbia writer Sam McBride tells shipwrecks in the United Kingdom has the story of the man who subsequently revealed what lies beneath the surface. received the Victoria Cross in The Bravest With this publication, and others Canadian, illustrated with photographs like it, the author has created a new resource from the Peters family and atractively in the field of shipwreck diving. Thirty produced in a soft cover format. years ago, Macdonald and his fellow divers Overall, the landings in two French struggled to find accurate information to North African colonies controlled by the lead them to dive site locations. Not only Vichy government—the first major Anglo- has Macdonald provided that information, American operation, and at the time, the but he has also accompanied it with details largest amphibious operation attempted— that tell the stories of the ships’ remains. were a noteworthy success. The French had Martha Tye fought fiercely against two unsuccessful Pensacola, Florida attempts by British warships carrying American troops to seize the ports of Sam McBride. The Bravest Canadian. Fritz Algiers and Oran undamaged. The French Peters, VC. The Making of a Hero in Two in North Africa became allies once the World Wars. Vancouver, BC: Granville Allies were ashore. Although there were Island Publishing, www.granvilleisland several additional awards for gallantry publishing.com, 2012, 197 pp., illustrations, (p.116), the story of the raids in Oran and bibliography, notes, index, CDN $24.95, Algiers received minimal official notice. paper; ISBN 978-1-926991-10-8. Admiral Andrew Cunningham, the Allied naval commander, subsequently A daring predawn raid to secure the harbour acknowledged the bravery of those involved of Oran during Operation Torch in in the failed raids, but wrote that, as the November 1942 was a costly failure. Two French were now cooperating fully, he had Royal Navy escorts were to force the booms not issued a communique about the Oran blocking the entrance and land close to 400 operation and that “for the time being I American soldiers plus British and think silence is the best policy” (p.115). 192 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord In addition to the VC, Frederic the British army, served as Premier and Peters (nicknamed “Fritz” by his family at hosted the Fathers of Confederation in an early age) received the U.S. 1864. Such details about the Peters clan Distinguished Service Cross, the highest offer an interesting snapshot of how recognition awarded to non-Americans. prominent east coast families had The Bravest Canadian recounts how a connections on both sides of the Atlantic delegation of American officers and loyalist roots. Fritz’s own father, a accompanied by a brass band journeyed to lawyer and former provincial Premier, Nelson, in the B.C. interior, to present the decided to seek out new opportunities in DSC to Captain Peters’ mother, Bertha, British Columbia and took the family west personally, in February 1944. Inexplicably, to establish a legal firm with a lawyer Peters’ VC had arrived in the mail a few friend. Fritz arrived in Victoria at eight months earlier without even a covering years old and attended a small private letter (p.125), a sad story, particularly as school. Family connections counted even Bertha Peters had lost two sons killed in out on the west coast: an army-officer France in the Great War. By contrast, the cousin of Peters’ father was the District VC won by Canadian naval aviator Robert Officer Commanding, British Columbia, Hampton Gray, who served in the Royal and young Fritz visited the small naval Navy in 1945, was awarded to his parents station in Esquimalt and warships in the by the governor general. harbour. The family home was a new Author Sam McBride, whose bungalow in Oak Bay designed by Francis maternal grandmother was the sister of Rattenbury. At eleven, Fritz was sent to Frederic Peters, has annotated 28 family school in England with a younger brother letters—mostly by Fritz—and also drawn and his sister. Nearby relatives provided a on family lore. In addition, he has made family presence. The next year, he was sent good use of archival material and scoured to a naval cramming school and at age published sources for mentions of his fifteen, joined the Royal Navy as a cadet. ancestor. For example, Peters commanded After completing his officer Station 17, a Special Operations Executive training afloat and ashore, Peters served on training school for agents and industrial the China Station as the first lieutenant of a demolitions in a stately home in destroyer. He resigned in 1913, apparently Hertfordshire for several months starting in hoping to find a better-paying job and mid-1940. His staff included Kim Philby returned to BC to become third officer of and Guy Burgess, already Soviet agents but one of the Canadian Pacific steamers on the not yet notorious. Kim Philby left a interior lakes. In the summer of 1914, he sympathetic description of Peters in his returned to England and to destroyers. autobiography, My Silent War (1968) which Receiving the Distinguished Service Cross Mc Bride quotes. for his actions when his ship was hit during Fritz Peters was born in the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, Charlottetown in 1889 into a strongly Peters spent the entire Great War in Anglophile family whose members who had destroyers in the North Sea, eventually played prominent roles in both Nova Scotia commanding four and also winning the and PEI colonial society. On his father’s Distinguished Service Cross. He was on the side, he was descended from Sir Samuel first naval staff course shortly after the war, Cunard of Nova Scotia while his mother’s and was then appointed to a seagoing staff father, a PEI-born former career officer in as a lieutenant-commander. He resigned a Book Reviews 193 second time in June 1920. The author has A welcome aspect of this book is been unable to discover much about Peters’ that the 28 letters by Peters and his relatives activities between the wars. He definitely around which the narrative is based, mostly returned to Canada in 1919 to organize the from the First World War, are presented in funeral of his father, who had died in Prince full. Describing himself as a poor Rupert, and may have been involved in correspondent, he wrote to his father in business in BC after leaving the Navy. A 1916: “Letter writing is a pastime I do not life-long bachelor, Peters was active on much indulge in” (p.31) and to his mother cocoa plantations on the Gold Coast for the same year: “I hate this letter-writing most of the interwar period, having been business” (p.35). Although not inclined to helped by a former naval colleague who had reveal much about his feelings of even talk joined the Colonial Service there. None of about his experiences, Peters’ comments his letters from this period have survived, about the tedium of patrols at sea in all but McBride believes he returned to weathers are glimpses of how wearing the England every few years where he was in war years in the uncomfortable, small contact with old naval colleagues and would destroyers of the time were. There are no then go back out to . accounts of his rescue of either the crew of In 1939, Fritz Peters returned to a U-boat decoy or “Q” ship or of a transport active service as a commander. Now in his or of the Dogger Bank action. When on early fifties, he rather unusually held several leave, he does not describe an escape to the appointments over the next two years. He bright lights in London but rather makes commanded two groups of anti-submarine dour comments about how women have trawlers during the first autumn, winter and replaced the farm labourers where he is spring of the war, receiving a second visiting relatives and the blustery weather. Distinguished Service Cross when his group Peters was obviously dogged by worries was credited with sinking two U-boats and about money and wrote that he would be was part of the operations at Narvik in May unable to remain in the naval service after 1940. In June, he began his stint as the war because of the modest pay. Two of commandant of Station 17 where he rubbed his younger brothers were killed in France, shoulders with Burgess and Philby who one quite early in April 1915, and the would later describe him as having second as an officer in June 1916. Several “faraway naval eyes and a gentle smile of of the letters concern these tragedies. His great charm” (p.80). Within months, writings reflect the contemporary British however, Peters found the lack of direction value system described by Modris Eksteins from London impossible and asked to be in Rites of Spring: The Great War and the relieved. After a few months in two Birth of the Modern Age (1989): writing to different staff positions, he was given his father in 1916 he cites his credo: “But command in August 1941 as an acting above all, a love of Empire, intense captain of the anti-aircraft ship HMS patriotism, a proper degree of respect for Tynwald, a former passenger ferry which one’s personal honour, a nice modesty, and had just been converted for this new role. of course, religion.” (p.32) He tried to Tynwald was employed giving convoys— console his mother for the loss of her son, mostly around the British Isles—anti- Gerald, in 1916 as follows: “Well, Mother, aircraft protection. Just twelve months later what words of comfort can I offer? For you Captain Peters joined the planning team for it is the hardest part. It is the price of Operation TORCH. Empire. I pray God I fall in the same manner with my face to the enemy.” (p.39) 194 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord To his sister at the same time, he wrote: “He Rob Mundle. Bligh, Master Mariner. has died for the Empire and with his face to Barnsley, South Yorks.: www.pen-and- the enemy and the Gods are not so kind to sword.co.uk, 2012. 240 pp., glossary, all men…T A death in action—surely if we bibliography, further reading, index. UK are judged for the vast eternity by its brief £19.99, US $39.95, cloth; ISBN 978-1- mortal span—must be something.” (p.41) 78159-047-8. Fritz Peters emerges from this Given the manner in which William Bligh is biography as fitting the cliché of a man commonly held to be a symbol of the worst animated by action not given to self- excesses of the Royal Navy's officer corps reflection. Sam McBride has done his best during the golden age of sail, the story of to provide a rounded picture by piecing Bligh's incredible navigation skills and his together evidence from several sources to voyage to safety following the Bounty supplement the 28 letters. The understated mutiny have remained almost a trade secret letters are fascinating in themselves because among historians. This is beginning to of how they reflect contemporary values. change, however, as books like Bligh: The Peters clan is interesting because its Master Mariner provide a real opportunity story is about a Canadian social group with for authors and historians to build on the family links on both sides of the Atlantic in established myth, and to perhaps, to some the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. extent, overcome the established Bligh myth Fritz Peters’ final acts of daring have and pave the way to the public acceptance remained obscure because the audacious of a much more balanced, and more raid he led was, militarily, a terrible failure. importantly, nuanced evaluation of Bligh as Its story did not fit the triumphalist a man, as a naval officer, and of the events contemporary narrative of a great Anglo- of his career. American success capped by winning the Bligh: Master Mariner is a French in North Africa for the Allied side. systematic evaluation and narrative of Tantalizingly, aspects of Peters’ life will Bligh's career as a naval officer, not from likely remain unknown, but McBride has the social point of view, as are many done his best to illuminate its biographies, but rather of Bligh as a adventuresome trajectory. Frederic navigator and seaman. Mundle divides the Thornton Peters, who joined the Royal book into three broad phases of Bligh's Navy before Canada had its own navy, career, as master, commander and captain. remains an enigma perhaps best captured by The first section examines Bligh's career the American war correspondent who was prior to the fateful Bounty voyage, the with him at Oran: “The mist, like rain, second examines the Bounty mutiny, and darkness and secrecy, followed him. And Bligh's navigational feats in the escape, and he would have one or the other, or all three, the third section his later career. Each with him to the very last.” (p.93) section is further divided into chapters based on chronology and geography. The Jan Drent greatest focus is placed on Bligh's Victoria, British Columbia navigational feat following the Bounty mutiny, but does include shorter examinations of Bligh's experiences in the Baltic and in New South Wales. It must be said that Bligh: Master Mariner is designed in an aesthetically pleasing way. Mundle, together with Pen & Book Reviews 195 Sword, have done a wonderful job, Robert W. Passfield. Phip’s Amphibious providing a beautiful cover and layout that Assault on Canada –1690. Ottawa, ON: is accessible to both the professional self-published, available at www.amazon historian, and the interested lay-reader. It is .com, 2011. xviii+160 pp., maps, notes, both well and beautifully written, with prose bibliography, index. CDN $12.95, paper; that will certainly occupy the attention of a ISBN 978-1-463-7900-4. reader. Mundle crafts a narrative with the authority of someone who is an experienced The attack that the Massachusetts Bay sailor, who knows the danger of the sea, the Colony launched against Quebec in 1690 constantly shifting social balance of a crew, has been immortalized in one of the famous as well as having a good grounding in the “Heritage Minutes” shown on Canadian both the established historical narratives, television. Aside from that one moment, and the available primary sources. He however, little is widely known about shows a deft hand in the way that he General William Phips' attempt to seize combines a strong narrative prose, quotes Quebec. Phips' Amphibious Assault on from original sources, lists of details and Canada was developed from research done, explanations, and the occasional minor and manuscripts written while Passfield was Socratic exchange without any of the a public historian for the Parks Canada transitions feeling forced. Agency. It sheds a new and important light Mundle's experience as a journalist on an episode that is a fascinating example and sailor, rather than a historian, is evident of both the increasingly global military in every section and chapter. He conflicts between England and France, but acknowledges in the author's note that also highlights the strongly decentralized Bligh: Master Mariner is a story of “an nature of England's relationship with its extraordinary life spent at sea on colonies. The author is clearly aware of the magnificent ships,” even if the details do current trends in academic history, and uses feel somewhat like the kind of detailed the Preface and Acknowledgements to scene-setting found in Tom Clancy novels. clearly define expectations for the work, In addition, the narrative is slightly too stating that the work was not intended to be sensationalist for my taste. There is a sense an all-encompassing and balanced narrative from the text that Mundle's drive to of Phips' attack on Canada and Quebec, or champion Bligh, and his enthusiasm for to be a social history of the experiences of Bligh's admittedly incredible technical the men who actually undertook the voyage accomplishments as a navigator, have themselves. Rather, it is a straightforward spurred him to hammer home the historical analysis of the events from the difficulties that were overcome. As a result, perspective of the Puritan elites of the more knowledgeable readers may feel at Massachusetts Bay Colony, written for the times like the proverbial choir. greater public as well as academics. Overall, I recommend this book for The work is divided into three those who are unfamiliar with the story of chapters; the first discussing the origins and William Bligh previous to and following the preparations for the expedition, the second mutiny on HMAV Bounty, and especially the “Attack and Aftermath,” and the third for those readers of maritime history who providing an analysis of sovereignty and the are interested in the ships, sailing and Massachusetts Bay Colony's de facto navigation above all. independence from England during the Sam McLean period 1688-1692. Passfield's historical London, England narrative contained in the first two chapters 196 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord is well written, and provides good insight would be an asset for many students at both into the organization of the expedition undergraduate and graduate levels. against Quebec, focusing on the people who Sam McLean organized, commanded, and financed the London, England expedition. Based on excellent primary source research including journals, Passfield is able to provide a narrative of the events Cdr. Edward C. Raymer, USN (Ret.). from the point of view of the Massachusetts Descent into Darkness. Pearl Harbor, Colony. In an interesting point, he notes 1941: A Navy Diver’s Memoir. Annapolis, that Frontenac not only announced that he MD: Naval Institute Press, www.usni.org, would be reply to Phips' demand for 2012. xiii+214 pp., illustrations. US $18.95, surrender from the mouth his cannons, but paper; ISBN 978-1-59114-724-4. also denounced William III as a usurper. (Originally published 1996). The first two chapters are somewhat short, and it is clear that from the quality of the Edward Raymer joined the United States research and the complexity of the events Navy in 1939 and trained as a diver in that Passfield could have expanded what is May1941. Hours after the infamous attack a very tightly written narrative. of 7 December 1941, Raymer and a small The third chapter, entitled “Where team of salvage divers found themselves on Sovereignty Lay” is the highlight of the a PBY Catalina droning towards Pearl work, and is an in-depth examination of the Harbor. They went into action the very next relationship between England and the day, trying to locate trapped survivors. Massachusetts Bay Colony, particularly the Raymer spent eight months attempting to legal basis for Massachusetts Sovereignty salvage the stricken battleships Arizona, and the colony’s ability to undertake California, Nevada, Oklahoma, Utah, and independent military operations. In this West Virginia. The divers worked in case, Passfield does go beyond the strict incredibly difficult conditions, in zero points of view of the Massachusetts elites to visibility deep inside wrecks, surrounded by include the reactions of the English bodies. Raymer’s unit overcame these monarch, William III. Extending the tight challenges, devising new techniques as they focus of the previous two chapters, the third went. Thanks to their efforts, four of these presents a discussion of the development of capital ships were eventually refloated. the English State, and the expansion of the Raymer volunteered for service in the South English nation overseas. Particularly Pacific and survived the Battle of interesting is the discussion of Guadalcanal, returned to Pearl Harbor in Massachusetts' Palatine powers, which 1943, and was posted to the Experimental raises questions about the continued use of Diving Unit in Washington, DC. These are essentially medieval concepts of the State, Raymer’s wartime memoirs, recalled fifty and the development of an early-modern years later. The author has the direct, gritty English state. style of an enlisted man, a chief petty With a few reservations, this is an officer. He doesn’t pull any punches, excellently researched, and well-written whether discussing the sensation of being work. In addition to being must-have surrounded by unseen bodies within a reading for those who are interested in wreck, assessing the character of officers, or Phips' attack on Quebec, this is a book that explaining the mechanics of prostitution in should be made available to students wartime Honolulu. This is a voice from the through university libraries. Clearly, it lower deck in the finest tradition. Raymer Book Reviews 197 is at his best when recounting the character Those desiring more technical details will and speech of his fellow divers, and one likely continue to rely on Robert Davis’s gets a sense of the intense camaraderie classic Deep Diving and Submarine which developed. By turns chilling and Operations, or even Edward Ellsberg’s On outrageous, this is a gem of a book sure to the Bottom. delight recreational and professional divers As much as this is a story of diving, alike, students of naval history, and any who it is also a story of young men. Anecdotes appreciate a good yarn. of barrack life and “liberty” in various ports Raymer grabs the reader’s attention fill almost as many pages as memories of from the outset, describing a truly hair-raising dives. nightmarish dive into the interior of USS Like sailors everywhere, Raymer Arizona in January 1942. Searching for and his mates were preoccupied with unexploded ordnance in the machine shop, securing liquor and female companionship, the skeletal fingers of drifting corpses in equally short supply in wartime Hawaii. reminded him of “oriental wind chimes” as The divers’ first efforts in the former they brushed against his brass helmet. category ended in disaster. The homemade Raymer nearly drowned when his lifeline still in the rafters of their dive locker became entangled, and was only saved by exploded, drenching their commanding the quick action of his crew. Occurrences officer. Luckily, while diving on Nevada such as these became almost commonplace they uncovered a cache of medical grade for the divers, who undertook salvage, ethyl alcohol in the sickbay. This windfall demolition, and ordnance recovery work, as provided their entree into island society, well as rescues and body recoveries. They enabling the men to arrange luaus with the extracted a safe from Utah, and made areas local waitresses. Raymer is fairly explicit watertight on the other battleships prior to when discussing the organization and refloating. Their survey of Arizona operation of the red-light district in confirmed it was beyond repair. One is Honolulu, and recounts with relish other continually impressed not only by energy encounters the divers enjoyed. Often and nerve of the divers, but by their bordering on the lewd, these asides might ingenuity. In 1941 there was little precedent offend readers with delicate sensibilities. for salvage on this scale. Ernest Cox raised One must respect the author, however, for much of the German from offering an authentic picture of what it is Scapa Flow, but these lacked the battle like to be a young serviceman. A strong damage inflicted on the American vessels. bond developed between the divers, who Closer to home, the Navy salvaged the spent both their work and leisure hours submarines S-51 and Squalus during the together. This is evident in Raymer’s interwar years, but Raymer was either affectionate character sketches of his men, unaware of these operations or chose not to but the divide between enlisted men and mention them. Raymer and his team were officers is illustrated by his generally forced to learn on the job. They developed unfavourable assessments of the latter. new safety procedures for working within Despite the subtitle, this book is not wrecks, an improved cutting torch, and entirely focused on Pearl Harbor. became early underwater welders. The Concerned that the war would end before he author worked almost exclusively with the heard a shot fired in anger, Raymer venerable Mark V hardhat rig, and perhaps volunteered for the South Pacific in August, assumed his readers were already well 1942. He arrived on Guadalcanal when the versed in its operation and characteristics. outcome of the battle remained uncertain. 198 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Japanese destroyers sank his ship, the observers to call the action the “birth” of salvage vessel USS Seminole, in a daylight America’s maritime fleet. Chipp Reid dives action and machine-gunned the survivors. into this well-covered expanse with Intrepid Plucked from the water, Raymer then Sailors, a fast-paced narrative account of piloted a landing craft for two months, the campaign. Focusing primarily on the surviving nightly shelling from the “Tokyo officers of the Mediterranean Fleet (most Express.” Malaria eventually invalided the noticeably Preble, Isaac Hull, Richard author to “Sidney,” Australia, before he Somers, Charles Stewart and Stephen returned to the United States in late 1942. Decatur, of course), Reid argues that the Raymer briefly discusses some of his later relationship that Preble engendered with his work at Pearl Harbor, but the memoir subordinate officers allowed them to concludes in 1943 and no mention is made flourish in their own ways. Ultimately, each of his time at the Experimental Diving Unit, of the primary players exited the campaign or subsequent postwar career. While the showered with glory, lauded in the young author is somewhat reticent about his own United States as national heroes. background and personal life, one does get a The work opens with a perfunctory good impression of his character. Raymer account of the early republic’s floundering comes across as the quintessential naval development program of the 1790s. hardboiled petty officer with the heart of Underappreciated at best, the navy only gold, willing to do anything for his men. stayed afloat into the nineteenth century due The tasks performed by his diving unit were to its officers. Reid contends that the first truly astonishing, hidden both by the line of naval officers evinced a mélange of darkness in which they worked, and by discipline and egalitarianism, imparting a larger national security requirements. sense of purpose and duty to the following Originally published in 1996, this reissue by generation. No one embodied this better the Naval Institute Press will hopefully than Preble, a stern disciplinarian with fits bring this remarkable story to the wider of blinding temper, who managed to mentor audience it so richly deserves. and develop his young charges (or “cubs,” as he called them) during the Mediterranean John Ratcliffe campaign. Reid shows how Preble Ottawa, Ontario empowered his junior officers to make tactical decisions and provided ample Chipp Reid. Intrepid Sailors: The Legacy of opportunities for his adventurous Preble’s Boys and the Tripoli Campaign. subordinates to win plaudits for their valour. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, The narrative tracks the fleet’s actions from www.nip.org, 2012. xii+295 pp., before Preble’s arrival up to his departure illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, from the theater, recounting each of the index. US $39.95, UK £26.50, cloth; ISBN campaign’s significant moments: the 978-1-61251-117-7. grounding of the Philadelphia; the ship’s destruction by Decatur; the battles Historians have spilled more ink writing before Tripoli; the city’s bombardment; and about Commodore Edward Preble’s 1803- the premature explosion of the Intrepid and 1804 campaign against Tripoli than possibly the martyrdom of Somers. Reid skillfully any other event in American naval history. peppers his retelling with direct quotations The heroes of the early United States Navy from the logbooks of participating ships, all played a role in Tripoli’s blockade and even discussing alcohol- and honour-fueled bombardment, allowing some later misadventures that occurred in several Book Reviews 199 foreign ports. The book jaunts along at a text to determine if a mentioned individual brisk pace, allowing the reader to finish it in is being introduced for the first time. The a few sittings. work repeatedly points out the common Reid’s journalistic training serves grade-school origins of Decatur, Somers, him well as he recreates the various and Stewart, yet the chapter that focuses on episodes of combat for the book. His battle the early days of each officer lacks scenes evince almost forensic investigation, footnotes in some significant parts. Present- rife with rich details about weaponry, the day scholars will find difficulty in readily intricacies of boarding enemy vessels, and using Intrepid Sailors as a jumping-off point the minutiae of covering fire and towing for future research. . Reid transcendent description of As Intrepid Sailor’s subtitle makes Decatur’s destruction of the Philadelphia clear, Reid hopes to discuss “legacies.” and seizing of two Tripolitan gunboats While making clear Preble’s important role rivals most other accounts. The narrative in the foundation of the U.S. Navy, the work revels in the minute-to-minute recounting of does approach hagiography at times, both in cutlass blows and pistol shots. Reid, like terms of the commodore and his energetic many before him, is enamoured with youngest captain. Not intended explicitly Decatur, and the young captain shines for a scholarly audience, the book does not clearly as the work’s main protagonist. grapple with larger historical themes or While others before him have made Decatur cultural issues. It is refreshing to read a into a symbolic hero, Reid relies on his new work about the Tripoli Campaign that journalistic background to avoid sweeping does not unnecessarily devolve into present- conjectures, instead letting the young day comparisons to current American wars captain’s bombast and actions speak for or the symbolic impact of Preble’s naval themselves. The death of Somers and the conflict to the early republic. That being following dénouement of the campaign fall said, Intrepid Sailors’ narrative issues and like a pall upon the work, showing a grave confusing chronology might make the work side to the conflict that entailed the loss of difficult to access for those previously friends and, for Decatur, his brother. Reid unaware of the conflict. Patient readers, continues to personalize the narrative with though, will enjoy combat scenes that can interspersed accounts of Philadelphia’s only be defined as “swashbuckling.” unlucky prisoners, held in Tripoli by the Andrew J. Forney city’s pasha for the entirety of the conflict. West Point, New York That said, Intrepid Sailors presents some issues. Uneven at times, the narrative occasionally gets lost in the various cross- Shannon Ryan. A History of Newfoundland Mediterranean travels of the fleet. Reid in the North Atlantic to 1818. St. John's, wants to convey the logistical hurdles the NL: Flanker Press, www.flankerpress.com, fleet faced prior to the actions before Tripoli 2012. xv+256 pp., maps, tables, select alongside the political intrigues of the early- bibliography, index. CDN $19.95, paper; nineteenth-century Mediterranean. Instead, ISBN 978-1-77117-016-1. the narrative gets bogged down in various foreign ports and a laundry list of American Shannon Ryan is well known to specialists naval officers, some recognizable, some not. in nineteenth-century Newfoundland Reid also reintroduces characters at the history. His books on the saltfish trade and beginning of each chapter, leaving the the seal fishery during that century are reader at times thumbing back through the essential reading to academics seeking a 200 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord better understanding of Newfoundland’s the post-Napoleonic British Empire had traditional fisheries economy. I therefore become irreversible. welcomed the appearance of A History of So what are the problems? One is Newfoundland ... to 1818, for with this factual accuracy. There are a number of book, Ryan turns his attention to an earlier details outside Ryan’s area of expertise era while setting out to satisfy a more which are simply wrong–the English navy general readership (p.xii). It, therefore, in the sixteenth century was not the “Royal promised to be of utility to students in my Navy” (p.22), George Washington did not introductory Newfoundland history courses. defeat Burgoyne at Saratoga, (p.139) the Ryan’s goal of writing an hiatus between the outbreak of hostilities accessible history of Early Modern between England and France in 1754 and Newfoundland is a commendable one, for the formal declaration of war was not a too often, published academic research is delay occasioned by France “for financial conceptually challenging for general reasons” (p.131). Other errors are less readers, forcing them to fall back on surveys forgivable for a Newfoundland historian, that, while readable, are years out of date. such as characterizing Humphrey Gilbert’s Yet such a goal also carries with it a brief stop-over at St. John’s in 1583 as the weighty responsibility–to ensure that the “first attempt at colonization” in targeted market of the general reader is Newfoundland (p.23) or making the claim provided with a text that is not only that Newfoundland’s West Coast between readable but is also accurate in its facts 1713 and 1763 was “reserved for the even as it makes full use of the rich French” (p.107). outpouring of material published in recent Some are not factual errors so decades. That output has profoundly much as they are interpretive revised our understanding of the history of misconceptions. These suggest that Ryan Newfoundland and Labrador in particular, may not have a full grasp of the ways in and of Atlantic history generally. In this which recent work by historians, regard, A History Newfoundland ... to 1818 archaeologists, anthropologists, geographers, becomes a disappointment, for Ryan’s text and other specializations has profoundly re- reflects too little sensitivity or awareness of shaped how we understand Early Modern the recent literature. Newfoundland. Thus, we now know better The book begins, promisingly, with than to insist that English fishermen chose a sensible arrangement: an introduction in to cure cod into saltfish because “salt was which Ryan explains his approach, followed scarce and expensive,” (p.13) while it is a by five chronological chapters which carry serious over-simplification to continue to readers from “Origins of Fishery and claim that London merchants resented Settlement to 1660” to the period from 1660 Dutch sack ships in the 1630s and 1640s, to 1713 (characterized as one of “chaos”), (p.46) to describe Louisbourg as a “fort” the period from 1713 to 1763 (characterized and as a “major gateway up the St. as one of “reprieve”) and then two chapters Lawrence,” (p.123) or to conclude that on the periods from 1763 to 1793 and 1793 “England’s colonization attempts in to 1818. Ryan correctly sees this Newfoundland had not led to stable concluding year as the point when settlements (p.227). On this last point, we Newfoundland’s “Early Modern” history have known for some time that settlement at was drawing to a close, and its transition Ferryland succeeded from its inception and from what had primarily been a migratory the same conclusion appears increasingly to and seasonal fishing society into a colony of be the case with Cuper’s Cove. And while Book Reviews 201 some sources do share Ryan’s position English actions towards the Irish during the (p.194) that “the main impetus for a local conquest of (p.23), yet vilifies government ... came from resident French behaviour in Newfoundland with merchants in the 1820s,” not all scholars such words as “ethnic cleansing” three agree, and a more responsible approach times on p.77 and “murders” (p.78) when would alert readers to the complexity of the describing French activities during the transitional process from fishery to colony. 1696-97 winter war, while adding The principal reason for such parenthetically that the expulsion of the historical inaccuracies appears to be a Acadians sixty years later was probably combination of two things—Ryan’s justified (p.77). And what are we to make dependence on a professional lifetime’s of the conclusion (p.117) that the dangers of accumulation of undergraduate lectures, childbirth in the eighteenth century are (p.xiii) and an over-reliance on dated probably “exaggerated” because “it was a secondary sources. Using one’s old lectures natural function and women were strong as the core of an historical survey is not from much physical work.”? necessarily a bad thing, but in this instance, In short, Ryan’s book exposes its there are too many indications that they readers to far too many hoary were not revised sufficiently in response to misconceptions, factual inaccuracies, and the massive flood of revisionist literature in cultural stereotypes and prejudices to be recent decades. True, Ryan assures his recommended. readers that he has relied on a number of Olaf U. Janzen sources, but this brings us to the second Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador problem—the use of dated sources appears to outweigh the use of recent ones. Most conspicuous is Ryan’s heavy reliance on A Judith Samuel. The ‘City of Ottawa’: The History of Newfoundland and Labrador Story of a Sailing Ship. Rhyl, Wales: Penlan from the English Colonial and Foreign Publishing, www.penlanpublishing.com, Records by D.W. Prowse, published in 2012. vii+137, illustrations, bibliography, 1895. It is used simply much too index. UK £10.00, paper; ISBN 978-0- persistently as a credible source both of 9574939-0-2. factual information and interpretation. The result can sometimes be bizarre reasoning, The City of Ottawa was a wooden merchant as when Ryan dismisses N.A.M. Rodger’s sailing ship built in 1860 by Jean-Elie sensible caveats about the Newfoundland Gingras in Quebec City. An average ship, fishery’s actual effectiveness as a “nursery the City of Ottawa did not belong to any for seamen” (pp.156, 167). Instead, Ryan major merchant sailing lines, such as the insists that Rodger is wrong because Daniel White Star Line, nor was it a well-known Prowse claimed otherwise. In so doing, ship like the Cutty Sark. The importance of Ryan ignores the distinction which must be the City of Ottawa, however, is made made between claims or perceptions of the abundantly clear by the author as its fishery as a training ground for seamen remains, which can be found in the Rhyl available for naval service (Prowse) and the Harbour in Wales, are perhaps the last of its more pertinent question of whether the kind and have yet to be studied extensively. Newfoundland fishery actually managed to The author of this small book is deliver on that claim (Rodger). Judith Samuel, a Welsh coastal artist who Ryan’s biases are both conspicuous received a grant from the Arts Council of and disturbing—he is quite dismissive of Wales in 2011 to paint the marooned carcass 202 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord of the City of Ottawa. Wishing to abundance of side notes offer additional accurately paint what the ship may have details on specific key players of the City of originally looked like prior to its Ottawa’s life, as well as more general notes deterioration, Samuel did extensive and on merchant sailing. It is perhaps here detailed research, the result of which is this where Samuel would have benefited from a self-published paperback book recounting professional editor or a different layout. the ship’s life from its conception in Quebec While the information provided by these City to its final resting place in Rhyl various “notes on…” is interesting and Harbour. From the beginning of the would be useful to anyone doing research introduction to the very last sentence of the on merchant sailing, some are several pages conclusion, Samuel’s emotional attachment long and most could have been integrated for this project and for the remnants of the into the main body of text, facilitating the City of Ottawa is evident. The book makes general flow of the book. In some cases, a convincing argument for safe-guarding the the notes were unnecessary as the remnants of the ship. It is also a great information they contained was repeated in companion to her art exhibit and a good a later paragraph or chapter. starting point for research on merchant The book, it must also be shipping. remembered, is the result of research for an Sailing for 36 years and remaining art exhibition. Some of Samuel’s colourful in use for another ten, the City of Ottawa’s paintings are included in the book with long and full life and its numerous voyages “The City of Ottawa at Greenwich” serving around the world comprise the first six as the cover image. Since no photographs chapters of the book. From port to port, of the crew were found, the inspiration for cargos are listed, crashes and repairs are the portraits is from local Rhyl seafarers underlined, and incidents among the crew giving the resulting images a slightly are reported. In these chapters Samuel modern twist. These portraits are well done successfully recreates the ship’s logbook. as are the various takes of the artist on the While this can be somewhat dry reading, a ship. There are photographs of the houses human touch to the ship’s story is added of some of the ship’s captains, masters and with the inclusion of various details mates’ as they stand now plus many pictures concerning the crew’s personal life: of the remains in Rhyl Harbour. weddings, births, desertions and, most On the whole, The ‘City of frequently, deaths. Ottawa’: The Story of a Sailing Ship is an Using the City of Ottawa as a interesting book offering a general view of primary example, the following four merchant sailing in the second half of the chapters cover a variety of topics relating to nineteenth century with the City of Ottawa merchant shipping, including the crew, the as a prime example. The extensive masters and mates system, crimes, bibliography also offers good avenues for misdemeanours and punishment, illness and further readings on the subject of merchant accident. The final chapter serves as a shipping and can be used as a starting point conclusion which proposes further avenues for more general research. Best of all, it is a of research. Unfortunately for the reader, great companion to Judith Samuel’s art these final five chapters do not cover as exhibition on the City of Ottawa. extensively some of the questions which were raised during the first half of the book. Isabelle Jeaurond Throughout the book, an Ottawa, Ontario Book Reviews 203 Hermann Sandmann. Lebenserinnerungen education at a nautical college in Hamburg eines alten Seefahrers. Bremerhaven: at the same time as steamers were coming Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum and into use, putting pressure on sailing vessels. Oceanum Verlag, www.dsm.museum, In 1845, Sandmann got married and 2011. 168 pp., illustrations, maps, notes, € obtained his first command as a captain. 17,90, hard cover; ISBN 978-3-86927-133- The following years he travelled to 0. America, South Africa, Asia, Mediterranean, Black Sea and the Sea of This is the memoir of Captain Hermann Azov. He was caught with his ship in the Sandmann (1818-1900) encompassing a life port of Odessa in 1854 when the Crimean at sea in the nineteenth century. Born in the War broke out, pitting France and Britain city of Papenburg on the river Ems in the against Russia. As a neutral German vessel, German state of Lower Saxony, Sandmann Sandmann’s ship was stopped by the was twelve years old when his parents died. Russian authorities and ordered to remain A year later he went to sea leaving his four moored in the river Danube, until its release brothers and five sisters. He spent the next a month later. Sandmann tells his story 38 years of his life on board ship, sailing the vividly. seas and oceans and ending his long career Steamships were among the many as a captain. He first published his memoir innovations sparked by the Industrial in 1896 but it was revised and republished Revolution and from the 1860s on, these in 2011. new vessels with their new kind of crew In 1818, Europe was still conquered shipping and Sandmann’s recovering from the Napoleonic Wars. beloved world of sail started to decline. In Gradually, the Industrial Revolution found a his lifetime, Hermann Sandmann witnessed foothold on the Continent and as the a wide array of major changes. He reveals a nineteenth century progressed, the German colourful world, from a personal perspective states became an economic super power. —food, desertion, pay, people, life on board The idea of a unified Germany evolved, ship, clothes, family, education, foreign leading to an unsuccessful revolution in ports, weather, and so on. During his 38 1848. Finally, after the Franco-Prussian war years at sea, Hermann Sandmann came of (1870-1871), Chancellor Otto von Bismarck age, rose in the ranks from an unpaid boy to proclaimed a united Germany in 1871 in the an oficer in command. This is not just about palace of Versailles in Paris. life at sea, it is also an autobiography. During his first years at sea, young In 1896 Sandmann had his book Hermann Sandmann sailed to The printed and distributed among his family. In Netherlands, Baltic ports, Archangelsk in 1982 and 1986 two reprints appeared. The Northern Russia, the Mediterranean, 2011 edition is a major overhaul from the southern France and the port of Triest in the earlier editions, the story is in a new print, kingdom Illyria, in present-day . letters from his wife were added and an Although Sandmann received no pay for his epilogue, the highlights of Papenburger first voyage, he eventually started to earn shipping. The illustrations are added value some money. On a trip that took him to to the book. Sailors like to tell stories, and and South East Asia he was so did Hermann Sandmann. With a broad washed overboard in heavy seas but vision and an open mind, he produced a managed to get back on board again. As a recommendable histoire personelle. matter of course, Sandmann learned a lot by Jacob Bart Hak experience, but he also received a formal Leiden, the Netherlands 204 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord Gary Staff. Battle on the Seven Seas: tension and the action. The richness is German Cruiser Battles 1914-1918. enhanced by including accounts by both Barnsley, S. Yorks.: Pen & Sword Maritime, officers and men from the lower decks as www.pen-and-sword.co.uk, 2011. 232 pp., well. illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, Although not intended as an index. UK £19.99, cloth; ISBN 978-1- academic book, there are many useful and 84884-182-6. even a few surprising conclusions per chapter regarding particular actions that When the Kaiserliche Marine, the Imperial should not be overlooked. For example, German Navy, is mentioned, the images that Staff heavily criticizes the myth of the come to mind are U-boats, the High Seas German battlecruisers’ death-ride into the Fleet, and those flash moments of interest teeth of the Grand Fleet at Jutland. like Graf von Spee’s Kreuzergeschwader, Although Admiral Scheer did order and perhaps, the SMS Emden and her Hipper’s scouting group to cover his third fellow raiders. Like the war itself, the naval “battle-turn,” Staff writes that the order was action of the First World War was also a immediately amended when Scheer realized global conflict and it was the latter of those what this would mean for Hipper’s ships images of the Imperial Navy, her cruisers (p.170). With regard to Graf von Spee’s that brought the conflict to all the world’s Kreuzergeschwader, Staff highlights the oceans. This fact and their story is the focus importance of the German victory at of Gary Staff’s Battle on the Seven Seas. Coronel, breaking British naval dominance The first thing to note is Staff’s and giving Spee free reign for a time. statement that he never intended the book to Although Germany was defeated at the be an academic work but rather, a narrative Falklands just over a month later, Staff of events by those who lived them by using mentions the often-overlooked fact that the primary works they left behind. In that despite the great advantage the British had, regard, and considering the length of the it took both British battlecruisers no less book, the number of sources used is quite than five hours to sink two armoured commendable. Not only does he refer to the cruisers, and Gneisenau in fact kept firing key sources, German and British official until her magazines were emptied (p.71). histories, but there is a sizeable list of The one chapter that this reviewer memoirs from survivors such as the first found lacking, however, was about the officer of SMS Gneisenau, and SMS famous cruisers, Emden and Koenigsberg, Leipzig’s torpedo officer, along with in the Indian Ocean. Although Emden had a archival documents. The weight of successful, albeit short, career as a documents is on the German side but given commerce raider, Staff brushes over this. the nature of the topic, this does not detract He completely ignores the mayhem caused from it. by the raider in the Bay of Bengal and The strength of the book is the fact instead, chooses to focus on the actions at that Staff has not only presented what, to Penang and the final battle at the Cocos many readers, would have been inaccessible Keeling Islands. Naval history is not all sources, but integrated them into his text. about battles, and although they make for He achieves his goal of leaving the narrative good narratives, Emden’s commerce raid is to those who lived through the events by as exciting a story as her final battle. The quoting extensively from the sources. The second half of the chapter is Königsberg’s story is not just an after-action report; it story and here again Staff focuses on the allows the reader to follow first-hand the Battle of in the summer of 1915 Book Reviews 205 when British monitors sank the cruiser in its ISBN 978-0-86492-667-8. (Published in the Rufiji hiding place. There is more to tell UK by Seaforth Publishing) here as well, as anyone familiar with the cruiser would know. Overall, this particular It is a truism that a man’s greatest strengths chapter left me feeling as if two truncated are often also his most singular weaknesses, stories had been meshed into one with the and this certainly applies to Anthony only connection being the Indian Ocean. Lockwood. Bold, daring, inventive and On the other hand, the author’s innovative, he lacked the discipline to see inclusion of the lesser-known German his ideas through to completion and perhaps cruiser actions, especially those in the Baltic the perspective to realise when they were Sea and in Turkish waters, was a welcome unrealistic. Lockwood was a colourful addition. Many interested readers are figure who had made a career in the Royal familiar with the 1914 escape of the Navy before establishing himself in New Goeben and Breslau to the Bosporus, but Brunswick. In June 1823, he rode around their later raids are much less well known, Fredericton on horseback proclaiming his as are the German naval actions that drove desire to overthrow the government, of the Russian Imperial Navy out of the Baltic which he was himself a prominent member. Islands. It was also gratifying to see Predictably, he was pulled from his horse, references to Russian sources that are often arrested and declared insane. He spent the excluded from short popular works. rest of his life (almost three decades) under There are numerous maps with an the shadow of madness. adequate amount of detail that compliment Lockwood’s recurring problem was the text and narrative nicely. Nearly 50 that his actual efforts and achievements period photographs, some quite uncommon, never matched up to his designs. This was have also been included that will certainly definitely true of his career in the Royal not leave the reader disappointed. Navy. His surveys of the sea lanes around Overall, Battle on the Seven Seas Guernsey seem to have been, at best, patchy does a lot in its just-over-200 pages. All and inconsistent. It has often been said that criticisms standing, there is wealth of good British hydrography was relatively narrative material here, which was, after all, unsuccessful for much of the eighteenth the author’s main purpose. The book is a century. Lockwood’s scrapes suggest why quick and entertaining read, certainly this was so, although even by the standards something for anyone who is seeking a of the time, his work and attitude seem to good naval narrative—a recommended have been regarded as inconsistent and addition to the maritime bookshelf. lacking. Similarly, the authors find it rather difficult to say exactly what he did with his Christopher Kretzschmar time (some seven years) as master attendant Upper Hampstead, New Brunswick of the naval yard in Bridgetown, Barbados. His charts of the seas of Nova Scotia also seem to have been irregular or incomplete Peter Thomas and Nicholas Tracy. Master (p.84); little can be said about them, but & Madman. The Surprising Rise and sadly, they do not figure among the Disastrous Fall of the Hon. Anthony illustrations chosen for this book. Lockwood, RN. Fredericton, NB: Goose Lockwood was inventive in his reference to Lane Editions, www.gooselane.com, 2012. his service record, sometimes shamelessly xvi + 276 pp., illustrations, references, so. While he was quick to make friends, he bibliography, index. CDN $35.00, cloth; rather easily provoked considerable 206 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord personal antipathy, sometimes with serious In fairness, the second half of the study consequences for his career. His political proceeds at a much faster pace, with the text antennae were clearly not the most honed or being noticeably more discursive and intuitive: he was apparently unable to analytical in tone. understand that his fulsome praise of the As with other cases of insanity, the robust inventiveness of American fishermen question might be what Lockwood’s descent might not be too well received in the ports into madness tells us about not only the man of New Brunswick. himself but also the world in which he The central tension in this book is lived. On the one hand, it is argued that the whether Lockwood can be admired as a constraints of the land-locked, hierarchical hero or dismissed as a dreamer. During his and ossified society of New Brunswick time in New Brunswick, he proposed a wide drove Lockwood over the brink. This range of schemes which were aimed at interpretation relies on the notion that he improving this vast territory, with the canal was a seadog by nature and up-bringing and project his favourite (and most ambitious) therefore, a man whose outlook was idea. His domestic arrangements during his intensively meritocratic. On the other hand, time in the West Indies were scandalous, the authors note that Lockwood benefited although apparently no more so than those from the patronage of the great and the of a good number of his peers in Barbados, good: in the Royal Navy, Alexander where the institution of slavery, the Cochrane himself advanced Lockwood’s probability of death and the sense of being career. He seems to have been well on the far from home, created a culture of road to wealth and status when his illness licentiousness. Idealism and prejudice sat set in. In the final pages it is meaningfully side-by-side in his character. The same suggested that Lockwood’s “derangement of figure who constantly evoked the need to the mind” may well have been the result of reform the land and improve the masses and tertiary syphilis. who enthusiastically arranged for Phillip Williams communities of Welsh and Scottish settlers Southsea, England to be ferried over to New Brunswick, was also given to referring to the poor immigrants as “rubbish” and to the Nicholas Tracy. A Two-Edged Sword. The indigenous Indian population in even more Navy as an Instrument of Canadian Foreign terribly dismissive terms. Policy. Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen’s The truism about strengths and University Press, www.mqup.mcgill.ca, weaknesses might also be applied to this 2012. xx+476 pp., illustrations, appendices, book. Its greatest asset is surely the notes, bibliography, index. CDN $49.95, archival spadework of its two authors, who cloth; ISBN 978-0-77354-051-4. have trawled through thousands of documents in libraries and record offices in Serious students of naval policy and Canada and the UK in order to unearth maritime strategy will be drawn to this book dozens of references to their subject. The both by the author and the title. Nicholas weakness of the study is that these efforts Tracy is well known in nautical historical have been reproduced almost in their circles, having published prolifically on the entirely. The inclusion of a great deal of personalities, battles, tactics and strategies unnecessary or superfluous information, of warfare under sail. He has also written particularly in narrative form, made parts of extensively on the role of navies with the first half of this book very slow reading. respect to control and interdiction of trade, Book Reviews 207 and since 1975, has been a frequent important, even in national sovereignty commentator on Canadian naval policy. issues, became clear during the “Turbot This most recent publication will appeal to War” with Spain; Tracy credits the close naval historians and practitioners alike, as a relationship between the RCN and the USN detailed assessment of the particularities of as well as the Royal Navy with forestalling Canada’s naval input to foreign policy. It any cohesive EU naval response to will also intrigue, as an account of the Canada’s vigorous fisheries policing pitfalls of naval influence on policy actions. The conclusion is that close formulation, as implied by the title. military-to-military relationships improve The two-edged sword of the title relationships at the government to refers to the challenge of maritime power government level. Tracy shows that while for Canada. The history of the Royal Canadian rhetoric is often nationalistic, Canadian Navy (RCN) has been a century- Canadian action is predominantly long effort to “reconcile operational unity cooperative. with political diversity.” For many, however, such close Following the evolution of operational alignment with the U.S. is maritime strategy from Bacon’s famous troubling since it promotes a situation in dictum “whoever commands the sea…” to which Canadian support on operations Sir James Cable’s “gunboat diplomacy,” becomes an expected (even assumed) Tracy highlights the “extent to which the response south of the border; RCN success flexibility of sea-power is as much a source in operations was thus achieved at the risk of weakness as of strength.” The chapters of the RCN becoming “an auxiliary covering the RCN’s evolution up to and squadron of an Imperial American fleet.” through the Second World War reveal this Two examples illustrate occasions on which as the essential conundrum: the Canadian the RCN’s response anticipated or even desire to have capable defensive naval appeared to refute government direction: the forces for domestic purposes could not be Cuban Missile Crisis, and the 2003 war on realized without continuing strategic Iraq in which the government’s decision not reliance and professional connection with to participate seemed belied by the RCN’s the Royal Navy. Later, through the Korean strong indirect support of that operation. War and Cold War, this alignment was Tracy suggests that, contrary to this transposed toward the United States Navy trend, various factors are pulling Canada (USN). back to its Atlanticist centre of strategic In dealing with subsequent gravity, and that that a renewed partnership operations of trade interdiction and with the RN in Atlantic security makes both sanctions with respect to Iraq, Yugoslavia operational and strategic sense. The implicit and Haiti, Tracy shows how the events of rationale behind this assertion is a balance the 90s led the RCN into even closer of power alternative to American cooperation with the USN. While making unilateralism. an extended argument against the specific If this is not enough to generate effectiveness of trade embargoes, he debate, Tracy reserves his harshest remarks highlights that Canada’s participation in for the military architects of our naval these operations established Canada’s strategy. He finds that while the higher- reputation, effectiveness, and practice of level, grand-strategic fostering of defence working in coalitions apart from the set- relations with allies is fundamental (and, pieces of NATO or bilateral North American one understands, effective), the detailed Defence. The degree to which this was consideration of effective and ethical 208 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord application of force (ie: including sanctions) involvement, even in operations short of has lacked studied appreciation. He quotes war. It is a challenging book, and not all Douglas Bland in suggesting that Canada’s readers will agree with the author’s military lacks a tradition of serious perspective, but I suspect he would intellectual examination … “fine doers, but welcome that debate. no thinkers” in Gellner’s words… and he For me, this was a deeply cites Michael Ignatieff in advocating the intriguing book that begs several more need to “think of ethics as our enabler and detailed readings, and it will enjoy a multiplier.” Less directly, he insinuates that privileged place in my library. It is very “institutional ambition should not be highly recommended for all those who have permitted to undermine the strategic a role in managing the civil-military direction of the unified Canadian Armed interface (not only maritime!) in Canada’s Forces …or be allowed to promote foreign affairs. insubstantial ideas of sea power.” Nigel Greenwood For all his criticism, Tracy does see Victoria, British Columbia some value in Canadian engagement with the U.S., noting the RCN’s ability to serve as a “gateway” supporting interoperability Nigel Watson. Lloyd’s Register. 250 Years between the USN and wider coalition of Service. London, UK: Lloyd’s Register. partners. He advocates that Canada www.lr.org, 2010. 395 pp., illustrations, continue to develop its navy with the grand appendices, glossary, abbreviations, strategy of “engagement and supportive bibliography, index. UK £ , cloth; ISBN- suasion.” 13 978-1-900839-02-0. Tracy has indeed shown the “largely successful means by which the Early regulation of the shipping industry Canadian Navy has participated in the arose from the need of maritime insurers to independence of Canadian policy.” The establish that the vessels they were “two-edged sword” has been amply underwriting were of sound construction. illustrated through a review of Canada’s Government, however, saw registration as a century-long search for naval competence means to restrict maritime commerce to the and purpose, which has resulted in a nation’s own vessels so that non-registered continuing reliance on its skill in managing ships could not benefit from the privileges and participating in multinational groups. and protection afforded by the flag state. He quotes Dr. Robert Sutherland in If a celebration is the recognition of reminding us that a strategic rationale for a achievement, Lloyd’s Register is fully defence programme of a wholly Canadian justified in commissioning this character “does not exist and cannot be comprehensive book to celebrate its 250 invented,” and thus “no other nation …is so years of service. The author, Nigel Watson, much dependent on the art and science of has written a book on the Bibby Line, and alliancemanship.” The Canadian Navy has he and Barbara Jones, Lloyd’s Register’s certainly played its part in this, even if from Group Information Manager, have trawled time to time it has seemed to lead policy. Lloyd’s Register’s archives and library for This book will be a great stimulus directories, unpublished reports, private to serious students of Canada’s naval history internal memos and minutes, as well as and strategy. Some may find the discussion commissioning interviews and written of sanctions belaboured, but it serves to reminiscences. make the point as to the ethical risks of Although many organizations Book Reviews 209 include the name Lloyds in their title, during the 1990s posed new technical Lloyd’s Register traces its origins to the first challenges for Lloyd’s Register. Many lives attempt at ship-classification by the Register were lost and the marine environment was Society in London in 1760. Edward Lloyd devastated, but Lloyd’s surveyors led the attracted new customers to his coffee house way in the search for an explanation. In by circulating lists of vessels which might 1998, an independent commission need insurance and before long the society concluded that each ship was probably the became known as Lloyd’s Register of victim of a massive explosion and the rules Shipping. Insurers and merchants soon for such vessels were radically revised realised that vessels classed “A1” by (Edwards 1998). Lloyd’s Register’s surveyors offered Lloyd’s Register surveyed ships for enhanced safety, reliability and security and the express purpose of enhancing safety so could earn them bigger profits. long before state authorities took a close Today, Lloyd’s Register is still interest in the same issue. Today the lives independent, impartial, non-profit- and livelihoods of others still depend on the distributing and concerned with the quality systems that Lloyd’s engineers preservation of life and property at sea, on themselves may never see, and ships, roads, land, in the air and offshore. It currently and rail tracks that they may never travel employs some 7,700 people (half of whom on, and distant production plants that they are qualified engineers) in 238 offices may never hear of. Lloyd’s Register is now worldwide. Since people are its most also a highly regarded publisher of shipping valuable asset, this book not only celebrates information. the achievements of current staff but is also Today’s massive container ships a testament to those who preceded them. and ore carriers, oil and gas tankers carry 98 Other societies set up in the nineteenth per cent of the world’s seaborne trade and century worked on similar principles to the fact that the shipping industry takes it Lloyd’s Register and there are now about for granted that vessels classed “A 1” fifty classification organizations, ranging comply with the highest standards of from large and prominent to small and construction is more relevant now than at obscure, operating world-wide. any point in history. Offshore platforms, The authors give examples of on-shore refineries, nuclear power stations, Lloyd’s Register’s early successes. In the railway networks above and below ground, 1830s for instance, Samuel Plimsoll and even food processing plants affect the campaigned to place a load line on vessels wider environment, specifically global to indicate whether they were overloaded. pollution and climate change. Other shipowners argued that no single rule The skills and experience gained could apply to different sizes of ships and, from Lloyd’s Register’s maritime origins in 1873, the Board of Trade asked the provide a solid foundation for its worldwide Committee to negotiate a voluntary diversification. Enhanced safety of life and “Lloyd’s Rule” based on research by their property at sea is secured by high technical chief surveyor. Although this saved many standards of design, manufacture, lives, the issue was not satisfactorily construction and maintenance. Its resolved until the passing of the Merchant headquarters’ library is open to the public Shipping Act in 1891 (Jones 2006). by prior appointment and contains the A century later, the disappearance records of ships from 1764, rules and of 17 large, modern, well-built and fully- regulations from 1834, lists of shipowners equipped oil tankers and bulk ore carriers from 1876, shipbuilders from 1886, 210 The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord shipbuilding returns from 1887, casualty progressed, accompanied by German returns from 1890 and wreck books from encroachment along the littoral, Wiggins 1940. discusses the American backlash to U-boat This book is a fascinating record of warfare through concerted efforts to discern Lloyd’s Register’s first 250 years and it is enemy locations and protect merchant filled with maps and illustrations that would vessels and their precious commodity—oil. appeal to readers of both maritime and As well as being a history of wartime naval industrial history. Nigel Watson and operations, Torpedoes in the Gulf is also a Barbara Jones have shown how technical local-history, as Wiggins focuses on the accomplishments, combined with honesty significance of Galveston, Texas, and the and integrity, have created worldwide trust town’s reaction to German activity just and confidence in Lloyd’s Register. The offshore. old-fashioned values of accountability, After quickly summarizing courage, open-mindedness and spirit have Galveston’s significant oil resources in encouraged its people to work for the respect to Lend-Lease with Britain, Wiggins satisfaction to be gained in pursuing the immediately discusses the triumphs of the interests of the wider world community. initial U-boats entering the Gulf as early as May 1942. U-507, commanded by Michael Clark Korvettenkapitän Harro Schacht, honoured London, England as the first U-boat to prey in the Gulf, met much success hitting mostly American Melanie Wiggins. Torpedoes in the Gulf: merchant ships such as the tankers Munger Galveston and the U-Boats, 1942-1943. T. Ball, Joseph M. Cudahy, and the Virginia College Station, TX: Texas A&M as well as the freighters Norlindo, Alcoa University Press, www.tamupress.com, Puritan, Ontario, and Torny. The latter two 2012. xiii+265 pp., illustrations, appendix, sailed under the Honduran and Norwegian notes, bibliography, index. US $19.95, flags respectively. Schacht’s last victim was paper; ISBN 978-1-60344-648-8. the Honduran freighter Amapala, where the ensuing attack brought both vessels and Throughout the history of the Second World skippers together almost mimicking Kurt War, Allied and Axis armies clashed in Jürgens and Robert Mitchum in scenes from exhaustive campaigns to effectively weaken The Enemy Below. Unlike the film version, their foe’s economic, military, or political Schacht left the Honduran crew behind with strength. Reminiscent of Imperial German a half-sunken ship. Wiggins’ descriptions submarine warfare in the First World War, of U-boat attacks on merchant vessels, such the Battle of the Atlantic waged by Admiral as Schacht’s early efforts, illustrate the lack Karl Dönitz’s Operation Paukenschlag of reserve and hesitation among U-boat brought German U-boats once more to captains in sinking ships and destroying North and South American waters. Allied fuel resources. Overall Wiggins Torpedoes in the Gulf, written by freelance details the successes and failures of about writer Melanie Wiggins, aims to provide a 16 German U-boats involved throughout the narrative of the German submarine presence entire Gulf. within the Gulf of Mexico between 1942 Responses to U-boat encroachment, and 1943 by discussing the continuous as Wiggins points out, were not completely sequence of U-boats entering American dissimilar from how U-boats were waters as well as their respective victories confronted in other areas along the eastern over Allied merchant shipping. As the war seaboard of the United States. Standard Book Reviews 211 protocol for many areas demanded constant efforts along the eastern United States “they black-outs or “dimouts” to help prevent U- turned their sights to the Gulf of Mexico… boat captains from spotting merchant and so begins our story” (p.xii). Rather than vessels silhouetted along the coastline; like discussing the historical context for the rift other areas, however, Galvestonians between the United States and Germany, or sacrificed their loss as a “considerable why Admiral Dönitz waged U-boat warfare inconvenience” (p.88). Another means of on U.S. shipping, the author simply focuses preventing U-boat attacks was the on individuals, whether U-boat captains or implementation of convoys throughout the local Galvestonians, or on U-boat victories Atlantic, yet Wiggins hints that convoys did in the Gulf. Indeed, the text is filled with not seem to maintain the same momentum anecdotes around certain events derived in the Gulf. Instead, many favoured a better from numerous newspapers, interviews, or alternative to help save ships and oil. This foreign office papers. While incorporating a was the proposed pipeline—The Big Inch— substantial number of news sources, her that would connect Texas with the greater use of secondary sources is extremely New York area, making oil shipments easier limited, suggesting a lack of understanding and safer by alleviating attacks on merchant of the current historiography regarding vessels. Second World War German U-boats and the Aside from the sheer confusion and Battle of the Atlantic. This is evident bewilderment among American intelligence throughout the book when Wiggins provides and defense centres in identifying enemy historical data followed with “the historians positions, a constant theme throughout explained” (p.144). Unfortunately, this Wiggins’ book is American suspicion of means Wiggins’ own text does not make a fifth-columnists. In a paranoid frenzy, significant addition to the historiography of many southerners immediately associated the period, other than providing details the former German Consul General of the about Galveston, Texas, and the Gulf of Gulf region, Baron Edgar von Spiegel, of Mexico. radioing ship coordinates and locations to Nevertheless, Torpedoes in the Gulf U-boats. This was unlikely due to the offers a detailed history of success and communications systems outfitted on U- defeat for German U-boats in the Gulf of boats, as was the presence of German milk Mexico, which is still a must-read for the cows providing sustenance to patrolling avid submarine enthusiast or devout U-boat boats. One interesting aspect of wartime scholar. relations appears towards the end of Christopher Pearcy Wiggins’ book; namely, the eventual West Haven, Connecticut interaction between Galvestonians and German POWs stationed at Fort Crockett which dispelled many of the Texans’ war- time perceptions of the enemy. Even though Wiggins adequately examines this time period during the Battle of the Atlantic, assessing the scholarly contributions of Torpedoes in the Gulf warrants doubt. Readers may find that the text lacks organization, most likely due to a vaguely-defined thesis statement. Wiggins states that once U-boats had exhausted their