BOOK REVIEWS

Michael Duffy, Stephen Fisher, Basil Green- exposition on "The Principles of Shiphand- hill, David J. Starkey, Joyce Youings (eds.). ling" or Alan Stimson on the "History of The New Maritime History of Devon, Volume Navigation, " while bearing on the maritime I: From Early Times to the Late Eighteenth history of Devon, revealed little about Century. London: Conway Maritime Press Devon per se. Some essays - Peter Pope's and Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1993. on "Excavations at Ferryland" and E.A.G. 256 pp., illustrations, maps, figures, tables, Clark's on "Three Exeter Pioneers in the index. £35, cloth; ISBN 0-85177-611-6. Italian Trade" are two examples - contribute little to the overall theme. Yet, as one This is a massive and scholarly work, one delves deeper into the book, the many inspired by the original Maritime History of specialized articles begin to work their Devon, written nearly a century ago by cumulative effect. For instance, what first Michael Oppenheim though not published drew me to the book was Devon's role in until 1968, while at the same time attempt• the Newfoundland fisheries and trade. At ing (as the title makes clear) to bring first, I was disappointed that David Starkey's Oppenheim's subject up to date. By and essay on this theme was so derivative, draw• large, it is a successful venture, though the ing heavily from Keith Matthews' unpub• book does manage to annoy the reader in a lished 1968 Oxford D.Phil, thesis; there number of ways as well. The book is also a really is very little that would justify defining deceptive work, for its large format, glossy his essay as "new history." On the other paper, and profuse illustrations are more hand, the collective effect of the essays, not characteristic of a coffee-table work than a only by Starkey but also by Wendy Childs, scholarly tome. Yet make no mistake - this Todd Gray, H.A.S.Fisher and others, force• is a book of great substance, not simply fully brings home the degree to which the because the small font and double-columned Newfoundland fishery and trade afforded pages compresses a lot of information Devonshire capitalists with another oppor• between its covers but also because the tunity to enhance their wealth. Thus, Starkey book is rich in ideas and information, reminds us that one of the Newfoundland conveniently summarizing the research of fishery's great appeals was the way even "a more than two dozen scholars. modest investment could secure entry into For me, the book began slowly; early the industry," (p. 168) while Fisher reveals essays by Alan Carr on "The Environmental how frequently the movement of fish to Background," by A.J. Southward and G.T. southern European markets included not Boalch on "The Marine Resources of only Newfoundland cod but also local pil• Devon's Coastal Waters," or even by Sean chard and herring. To what extent, then, was McGrail ("From the Ice Age to Early Devon's success in the Newfoundland trade Medieval Times") failed to capture the enhanced by the degree to which that trade imagination or make clear their relevance to could be integrated into patterns of invest• later chapters. A few, like Peter Allington's ment, commerce, credit, marketing, etc.

63 64 The Northern Mariner

established by other commodities? would have been more useful had it ap• Similarly, John Appleby's essay on peared earlier in the book. Indeed, Fisher's Devon privateering to 1688 is primarily note #6, which cross-references to Starkey's anecdotal; without the kind of documenta• article "below"when in fact Starkey's article tion that supports Starkey's treatment of the appeared earlier in the volume, indicates same phenomenon after 1688, he cannot that the Fisher essay had originally been make a completely persuasive case. Apple• intended to appear earlier. As well, the by's suggestion (p. 90) that investments in editors have made no attempt to provide the piracy and privateering were a springboard volume with the unifying touch that would for later trans-Atlantic colonial enterprises bring the essays together. There is an intro• is unsupported by examples. Appleby later ductory essay, but none to conclude the concludes that few ventures were profitable volume, and no attempt was made to link and concedes that the documentation is the essays with introductory comments, simply too weak for a truly thorough analy• where common themes could be identified sis of privateering in this period. Neverthe• and traced. All this suggests that the volume less, together, the articles by Appleby and could have used some additional editorial Starkey not only contribute to insight into polishing before its publication. the maritime history of one county but also Undoubtedly the book's greatest appeal manage to transcend the purely local focus will be for those who seek a better under• of the volume, providing an excellent over• standing of the maritime dimension to the view of privateering in the Age of Sail. history of Devon. Yet those who wish to Michael Duffy's study of "Devon and learn more about North Atlantic maritime Naval Strategy... 1689-1815leads off a fasci• history in the centuries prior to 1789 will nating series of essays that reveal how the ignore this book at their peril; the three emerging pattern of Anglo-French naval dozen essays in this volume cover a myriad activity off the mouth of the English Chan• of themes, including commerce, shipping, nel led to the decision to develop naval shipbuilding, seafaring labour, the relation facilities at Plymouth. Subsequent essays by between land and sea, the effect of war, the Jonathan Coad, N.A.M.Rodger, A.J. Marsh nature of smuggling, to name but a few. If and Roger Morriss explore the economic the conclusions are not always new, the and social impact of that dockyard on the context may be, and certainly the synthesis community and environs of Plymouth. of so much information in one convenient Together they reveal that the massive invest• volume is well worth the price. ment by successive British governments in the dockyard facilities at Plymouth was not Olaf Uwe Janzen an unmixed blessing. Rodger emphasizes, Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Marsh demonstrates, that Devon "remained self-sufficient in spirit, indepen• Lewis R. Fischer and Walter Minchinton dent of the Navy as of all central govern• (eds.). Research In Maritime History No. 3: ment and unbeholden to it. Even Plymouth People of the Northern Seas. St. John's, NF: long had poor relations, and poor communi• International Maritime History Association, cations, with the naval town around the 1992.xv + 204pp.,maps, figures, tables. US dock..."(p. 215) $15, paper; ISBN 0-9695885-2-6. Some essays seem out of sequence. H.A.S. Fisher's chapter on "Devon's Mari• The eleven papers offered here were pres• time Trade and Shipping 1680-1780,"which ented at the sixth conference of the Associ• follows the several essays on the naval ation for the History of the Northern Seas, dimension of Devon's maritime history, held in Finland in 1992.1 was not present, Book Reviews 65 so I missed the aroma, which may have been Bosher has been writing so extensively for everything. Like the well-accoutered cadets many years, and Brière and Turgeon have on a modern tall ship, which earlier had been accomplishing much more recently. been a Portuguese salt cod schooner on the Many of his French fishing families, dis• Grand Banks, I cannot smell the stink of placed by British hegemony after 1713 on fish or see the unpainted planking, the the southwest coast of Newfoundland, relo• frayed rope and the rusting metal fastenings. cated on Isle Royale, and some of the docu• Everything now is shipshape, well painted ments he used are available at the Fortress and polished, and the crew keen, satisfied Louisbourg research centre. He could have and young. Yet, compared to the creative consulted Donald Chard's Ph.D. thesis for talent gathered at a succession of highly illegal New England trade to Louisbourg, as successful international conferences spon• it long ago superseded Clark's Acadia on sored by the Shipping History Project at this matter. Memorial University of Newfoundland in Brace's work, by contrast, is entirely the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, this confer• drawn from published sources. This gives ence produced an exceedingly uneven and, her conclusion that, long before the mid- except in a few instances, a largely unin• nineteenth century, "Russians and Aleuts for spired, under-researched and very narrowly all practical purposes had formed a single focused set of papers. society,"(p. 45) little weight and leaves me The northern seas constitute the only full of scepticism. Does Aleut oral tradition unifying theme, as the papers vary from confirm her view? Minchinton's survey of the British coast• Kaukiainen's study of Finnish sailors guard since 1817 to Brace's study of Aleut matches those undertaken elsewhere to communities after Russian contact in the demonstrate that both seamen's pay and early eighteenth century, through Janzen's working conditions sharply deteriorated in study of a handful of French fishermen the nineteenth century, just as they resident before 1755 in the south west of improved for masters. Declining real wages Newfoundland, Kaukiainen's work on the and longer contracts led to high levels of grim conditions of Finnish sailors, and desertion. We are, unfortunately, not told Hinkkanen's Finnish missions for seamen in where the desertions occurred. If in North Hull and London in the 1880s. The business America, immigration rather than working and economic side is represented by Lay- conditions might have been the primary ton's delineation of a merchant from North reason why such men deserted in such Sweden who weathered the post-war (1815- numbers at the outset of the voyage. 19) depression with apparent ease, Warner's The force of Hinkkanen's account of note on a British spy in Russia in the 1720s, itinerant Finnish seamen in England is to Munro's analysis of 4,000promissory notes show that no matter how many decades sep• protested in St. Petersburg in 1773, Will• arated them, they still thought of Finland as iams' and Hutchings' examination of the home. Yet such sentiments might not take incidence of iron sailing vessels from 1838 to concrete form by sending part of their wages 1857, and Fischer and Nordvik's inquiry into to their families. As history, this is pretty Norwegian shipbroking, 1869-1914.The vol• thin. ume ends with a powerful critique by Holm Layton gives us no reason to care about of Hastrap's Den nordiske verden (1992). Abraham Stenholm (d. 1821), the north Janzen's is a carefully researched recon• Swedish merchant. His enthusiasm at dis• struction from documents surviving in Paris, covering a lengthy inventory of Stenholm's at Kew, as well as in certain departmental estate at the time of his demise is curious, in archives. It is a small-scale piece of the sort view of the ready availability of such docu- 66 The Northern Mariner merits. Were they rare for Lulea? There are these, since the company is paying for much micro-studies which act as useful correctives, of the research. or which chart new courses of research. As Warner's is an amusing little piece on a this does neither, it deserves oblivion. literate English spy in Russia on the lookout It is curious to learn that as common an for Jacobites in the 1720s, who penned an instrument of exchange as a promissory note account of the creation of the Russian fleet had no legal basis in Russia before 1729. under Tsar Peter I. It reads like a chunk of Anciently established in the Mediterranean the introduction he is preparing for his new and Atlantic trading worlds, it flourished edition of Deane's work for the Navy wherever commerce was conducted and Records Society. It was the only article that where the courts could be resorted to for could be read at the beach, without thought redress. Much of the civil law related to or note-taking. debt collection, and the promissory note was Minchinton's study of the coastguard the principal legal security for repayment, a seems to signal his withdrawal from serious role later taken by bond and mortgages. If scholarly enterprise. This seriously under- the promissory had not existed earlier in researched piece reads rather like a pamph• Russia, it could not have been needed, as let designed to provide new recruits with a some other device performed the same role. brief institutional history, than a conference About this we learn nothing from Munro. paper designed to interest even a friendly Nevertheless he mined his source diligently audience. Like so many pieces in this vol• and puts the problem in a suitable historical ume, it is a minor piece on a minor point, context. If his analysis proved interesting, his when entire oceans beckon. conclusions are utterly forgettable. The extended review of a two-volume Williams and Hutchings, in a well-com• collection of essays on the Nordic world posed piece, remind us that the iron sailing intended to define Nordic-ness, is dismissed ship came to dominate all United Kingdom by Holm for its ill-considered, wrong-headed tonnage under sail from 1873 onwards. exaltation of a pan-Nordic identity. This Within the Empire, at least in the two Holm damns - and he provides adequate decades covered by this study, it seems to reasons - as not only bad scholarship but have been a peculiarly British phenomenon, offensive chauvinism. In the face of such a as no British North American-built vessels powerful critique, the editors should have are noted. It builds upon earlier work by allowed space for a rejoinder. Palmer, Harley and MacGregor. Shipbroking — vessel chartering, arrang• Julian Gwyn ing the purchase and sale of vessels and Ottawa, Ontario acting as a customs' broker to facilitate port entrances and clearances - is the topic of James C. Boyajian. Portuguese Trade in Asia Fischer and Nordvik, now engaged with under the Habsburgs, 1580-1640. Baltimore, others in writing a history of Astrup Fearn- MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. ley. There is a stimulating account of the xx + 356 pp., maps, tables, appendices, rise of the firm from 1869 to 1914, when notes, glossary, bibliography, index. US their business was largely with Norwegians, $48.95,cloth; ISBN 0-8018-4405-3. before the Great War gave them the chance to cut into British markets. They find such This book is a study of the most successful studies of British shipbrokers, which usually phase of Portuguese commercial relations focus on a single firm, to be less than satis• with Asia and transforms our understanding factory. They fail to tell us why their study of the nature of Portuguese presence in, and of Astrup Fearnley will be different from impact on, Asia. It also revises many cur- Book Reviews 67 rently held views on what the Portuguese a proportion of total trade as other elements made of their great voyages of discovery and took over. Initially caused by the growing their monopoly of the Cape route between liquidity problems of the Crown, in a variety Europe and Asia. The current historio• of ways a large proportion of the trade graphy tends to emphasise the political and passed into the hands of private investors military character of the Portuguese royal from the fidalgos and titled nobility and enterprise and looks upon it as constituting from the wealthy and influential merchant for most of the sixteenth century a regime of groups of Portugal and Spain. This process plunder, the extraction of tribute and the was accelerated under Spanish occupation as privileged trade of the Crown and its aristo• the Portuguese Crown was further reduced cratic dependents under the Portuguese flag. in its ability to invest in Asian trade. The author here directs attention to the The study concentrates on the period movement of goods, capital and shipping, 1580 to 1640, divisible into two phases - the entrepreneurs involved and the nature of 1580 to 1640 which saw the height of Portu• the commercial rewards that were enjoyed. guese trade in Asia and 1620 to 1640 which It thus breaks free of a conceptual mould saw a decline under the impact of Dutch that has characterised the historiography of and English assault on the Portuguese the Portuguese in Asia and looks upon the overseas empire. At its height, the author's whole enterprise as predominantly a com• estimate of the value of Portuguese trade mercial one, based on contemporary within Asia and between Asia and Europe is methods of trade in Europe and Asia. considerably more than is allowed for in To do this effectively, he has taken the much of the current historiography. He period 1580 to 1640 as his time-span, when values this trade at 4.3 million cruzados as Portuguese naval dominance of the Indian opposed to a valuation of between 1.8 mil• Ocean had begun to decline and was suc• lion and 2.8 million cruzados in the current cessfully challenged by the Dutch and the literature. He justifies this valuation on the English. Yet he constantly goes back to the basis of a variety of contemporary evidence middle decade of the sixteenth century to - sales returns, customs in Europe and Asia, discuss the origins of the features that he is value of concessionary fees paid for specific describing and to argue for a natural evol• voyages and correspondence between mer• ution of Portuguese commercial practices chants and agents. both in Europe and in the Asian maritime A great part of this estimated value was world. This process of the evolution and private investment by merchants of the expansion of total Portuguese commerce in Iberian peninsula and those settled in the and from Asia is discussed in its several Estado. There was an increasingly large stages, with a great deal of quantitative data, share of it invested in goods sent from Asia carefully culled from a variety of official and to Europe in the carreiras, as the Crown private sources: customs and revenue decreased its share due to cash flow prob• records in Asia and Europe, sales returns, lems. Within Asia there was a growing net• cargo manifests, private and family papers of work of trade from the middle decades of leading merchant families. the sixteenth century. This trade was carried The book's main strength is in its pres• out from Portuguese forts and settlements in entation of Portuguese trade in its totality - maritime Asia but soon extended to several Crown trade, concessionary trade, privileged other ports outside the Estado. A major trade and private trade. By 1580, all these strength of this work is in the account of elements were in place. The Crown con• this trade, the entrepreneurs involved, the ducted its monopoly trade through the car- ports and trade routes that it embraced. The reiras da India but this was becoming less as author makes a major contribution to our 68 The Northern Mariner

knowledge of Portuguese trade in Asia cion. While this argument is acceptable in through this detailed analysis of private the limited time-frame of the first four sector trading. The most profitable routes decades of the seventeenth century that he are all charted here. The trade from Goa via has selected, it does not seem valid to com• Malacca and Manila to Macao seems to pare a newly established Dutch Company have been far and away the most profitable. trade in raw figures with a Portuguese Then there were the routes from Goa west• enterprise that has been in operation for ward to the Persian Gulf, southwards and over a century. As it happens the rewards of eastwards to Malabar and Bengal. There Dutch investment in force and the acquisi• were routes from Goa and Cochin to Coro- tion of monopoly of specific commodities mandel and Burma. The Portuguese appear were flowing in the decades after 1640 and, to have tapped every major trade network in on a long-term view, Dutch policies seem operation in the Indian Ocean and South justifiable. Having said this, it must be China Seas. admitted that the author's criticism of the A major characteristic of Portuguese proportion of Dutch spending on instru• trade as it developed was the break from ments of coercion is a valid one and is excessive dependence on pepper and spices vindicated when one looks at the situation in to a greater variety in imports from Asia the eighteenth century. into Europe. The author has shown from An important contribution of the book statistical evidence that the Portuguese is its insight into Portuguese merchant entered the trade in cotton and silk, indigo families and their operations in Asia. There and diamonds and exploited the markets is a great deal of information on investors in long before and in much greater volume trade in Europe and on family connections than the Companies did, at least till the first in Asia. Of particular significance is the four decades of the seventeenth century. In information on the important roles played this way, the author argues that the joint- by New Christian merchant families and stock Companies, far from pioneering and their networks. Through these networks innovative in respect of Asian trade, were Portuguese merchants linked Asian trade merely following in the footsteps of the not only with the Atlantic but also, import• Portuguese. By an intensive comparative antly, with South America and West Africa. study of the trade of the three parties - the In an extended maritime world, the mer• Portuguese and the two joint-stock English chants operated through family linkages, and Dutch, the author establishes the super• brokers, employed agents and correspon• iority of the Portuguese in respect of their dents, in much the same way as Asian extensive networks, market familiarity, merchants did at that time. In this way, entrepreneurship and profitability. Portuguese settlers fitted into the scene and, Basing himself on this evidence, the when they operated outside the territory of author goes on to develop an argument that the Estado, they became part of the cosmo• joint-stock trading monopolies were not a politan mercantile world of maritime Asia. superior form of commercial organization to The evidence presented here of a large prosecute eastern trade, as was felt at that Portuguese investment in Asian trade has time, and has been subsequently asserted in interesting implications for our present the literature. He says that a multiplicity of knowledge of trends in Asian trade. What trades operating in competition did better in effect did this increasing Portuguese partici• Asian trade and questions the wisdom of the pation have on Asian trade, its total volume, Dutch in constituting a monopoly organ• its regional flows and the share of various ization and investing a large part of their existing participants? Was this Portuguese capital in assembling instruments of coer• participation at the expense of any contem- Book Reviews 69

porary traders? It does not appear that conflict in the years 1620-42. Here he re• there was a diminution in the scale of activ• iterates what is generally accepted, that the ity of any sector of Asian merchants. Was close relationship between the English there then an expansion in the total volume crown and merchants in chartered trading of trade? If so, we may have to push back companies was of central importance to the time-span when Asian trade is believed both parties; but he agrees with Valerie to have begun a process of expansion to the Pearl, against Robert Ashton, in arguing sixteenth century. Further, with such an that the relationship was not seriously extensive trade being carried out, it would strained or broken until the revolution of be interesting to know how they contacted December 1641 /January 1642 in the City of the producing markets to ensure constant London. On English trade from the 1620s to supply. There is ample evidence in the 1653 and its leading merchants, Brenner's records of the Companies on the develop• research reveals points of great interest, ment of relationships with Asian merchants. especially on the American "new merchants" It is to be wished that similar evidence could whose group development followed a novel be uncovered on the nature of Portuguese- course, since Atlantic commerce was largely Asian commercial relationships. handled by small-scale merchants who had All in all, the book makes an important often started out as shipmasters or shop• contribution to our literature on maritime keepers. These men, he observes, were history. "poles apart from the Levant-East India Company merchants who formed the core of S. Arasaratnam the City company merchant establishment" Armidale, Australia (p. 159). It was the new merchants, along with domestic tradesmen, who made com• Robert Brenner. Merchants and Revolution: mon cause with the opponents of King Commercial Change, Political Conflict, and Charles just before the outbreak of the civil London's Overseas Traders, 1550-1653. war. Brenner relates how between 1648 and Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1653, the new group was able to seize their 1993. xx + 734 pp., tables, maps, index. US advantage and press for an aggressively pro- $59.50,cloth; ISBN 0-691-05594-7. commercial foreign policy that would increase their profits. The naval campaigns There has been a fashion recently in early of Blake and Penn re-opened English trade modern political history for volumes of routes, which had suffered badly from royal• inordinate length, and Robert Brenner's ist privateers and their European allies; study, at 734 pages, would have been humiliated Portugal and laid the basis for improved and clarified by judicious pruning. future English trade to the Portuguese The core of the book is based on his doc• colonies; and ensured safe access for English toral dissertation (Princeton, 1970) on the merchants to the lucrative regions of south• merchant community in civil war London, ern Europe and the Mediterranean. Royalist and from the footnotes (regrettably there is revolts in the colonies were put down, a no bibliography) it seems clear that his policy of total exclusion of the Dutch was reading has not kept up with much import• implemented, and Atlantic trade was firmly ant new work. After an over-simplified organised in the interests of the new mer• account of the developments in English chants as against those of the great majority commerce in the century before the civil of colonial planters. This is illuminating and war, which over-emphasises and pre-dates perceptive, but unfortunately, on the politi• the importance of imports and re-exports, cal as distinct from the commercial side, and Brenner turns to the emergence of political especially on the attitudes of those mer- 70 The Northern Mariner

chants who served in parliament, Brenner is what he repeatedly calls "the parliamentary much less reliable. Many of the political classes".He does not explain what he means positions and groupings he describes, par• by the latter expression, nor how such a ticularly for the 1620s, are shaky and uncon• model explains a civil war which broke out vincing. The forthcoming volumes of the above all as a conflict within the landed History of Parliament 1604-60 with its classes, with both the House of Lords and detailed individual biographies will present the House of Commons deeply fractured. a different picture of men such as Sir Since this is a very assertive and broad- Christopher Clitherow of the East India and ranging book, the reader is entitled to ask Eastland trades. on what basis of evidence it has been The last section of the book is an erected. Not only is there no bibliography; extended "Postscript" of some eighty pages, far more serious, there is no list of manu• which attempts to survey how the previous script or printed primary sources. Some chapters contribute to broader interpreta• parts, such as the descriptions of merchant tions of the political conflicts of Stuart groupings and the patterns of London trade England. He argues for a fundamentally in the 1640s and 1650s, seem convincing and socio-economic explanation, "in structural well researched, others appear merely to problems emerging as a consequence of the synthesise secondary material, some of it old long-term transformation of English society and unreliable. Readers of this journal are in a capitalist direction," (p. 649) "those fortunate that their interest in commercial processes whereby neo-feudal lords became and maritime matters will coincide with commercially responsive capitalist landlords. " those areas where Professor Brenner most (p. 651) History here seems to become frequently is on strong ground and writes merely grist for the sociologist's mill, and with most verve and expertise. both medievalists and early modernists may well find English society impossible to Pauline Croft recognise in his cloudy and chronologically London, England imprecise descriptions. Moreover Brenner's anti-revisionist arguments suffer badly from Jacob M. Price. Perry of London: A Family the fact that Conrad Russell's two recent and A Firm on the Seaborne Frontier, 1615- major works appeared when the book was in 1753. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University press, and although he regards his postscript Press, 1992. xiv + 191 pp., figures, tables, as "an initial attempt to take their results appendices, selected bibliography, notes, into account," (p. 647) it seems clear that he index. US $30, cloth; ISBN 0-674-66306-3. has not absorbed their thrust. Lengthy footnotes wrestle with major points raised Perry of London is the story of two Micajah by historians such as Russell and John Perry s : a grandfather who rose from obscur• Morrill, whereas in the main text, his own ity to build a family fortune in the tobacco discussion of parliamentary matters proceeds trade at the end of the seventeenth century; on a basis of uncritically accepted and nar• and a grandson who entered politics and row reading which often ignores recent destroyed the firm a mere half-century later. scholarship, particularly the work of Micajah I was endlessly attentive to detail, Anthony Fletcher and Kevin Sharpe. Nor happy to make money in stages, and assidu• has Brenner made any attempt to re- ous at obtaining political favours for his conceptualise, for lurking beneath his new planter-correspondents in Virginia. Between socio-economic explanation there seems to the 1660s and the 1690s, he rose from his be the familiar old conflict between two apprenticeship with a London haberdasher monoliths, "the patriarchal monarchy" and to become far and away the largest tobacco Book Reviews 71 importer in the land. Micajah III, by com• One sometimes feels as if Price is trying to parison, had little patience with the time- stretch a long article into a short book- consuming demands of daily business, pre• length manuscript. In general, however, the ferring the front stage of parliament to the book is instructive and interesting in its back-room politics of patronage. By 1745,he effort to explain how business and politics had mismanaged the family business to the intertwined on England's early modern sea• point where he had to hand it over to his borne frontier. creditors. The grandfather's flexible policies of diversification and constant attention to Daniel Vickers his suppliers' petty, personal interests were St. John's, Newfoundland ones that worked in the colonial trades of the early modern period. The grandson's Dilys Horwich & Paul Rees (comp. & ed.); rigid insistence on specializing in the con• researched by Gordon Read. Ships and Sea• signment branch of the tobacco trade, leav• farers of 19th Century Liverpool: A Selection ing more time for his political interests, of Facsimile Documents from Merseyside doomed the family to bankruptcy. Maritime Museum. Liverpool: Merseyside The tale of the Perrys is an interesting Maritime Museum, 1992. £5.95 + £1 p&p; one, and Jacob Price, a master of business order from: Stock Controller, NMGM history, tells it with his customary sensitivity Enterprises Ltd., P.O. Box 33, 127 Dale to the merchant mind. The family's career Street, Liverpool L69 3LA, England. unfolds within the context of the maritime economy that Price has studied for decades, It is an excellent thing for an institution and in evaluating the factors behind their possessing an archive as rich as that of rise and fall, he tries to place equal weight Merseyside Maritime Museum to encourage on both the individual peculiarities of his greater awareness of its holdings; even more two protagonists and the broader economic so when the target audience is a young forces against which they both had to generation of researchers. This pack, con• struggle. Thus, Micajah I's ascent is ex• sisting of facsimile reproductions of seven• plained in terms of his success in exploiting teen nineteenth-century documents, is in• the high prices and high risks that attended tended for the classroom. It could be used the tobacco trade during the war years of at every level from early high-school grades 1689-1713.Conversely, Micajah Ill's failures to undergraduate. It might double, too, as a are understood within the general softening souvenir of a visit to this once-great port. of tobacco markets after 1725 and the diffi• Canadian visitors should be warned, how• culty of profiting in the risky consignment ever: there is not one document which deals business in an era of falling prices - especi• directly with Liverpool's extensive maritime ally given the rising competition from mer• connections with this country. Regrettable as chants based in Glasgow. Blending his that is the collection includes interesting understanding of macro-economic forces items and it is well worth acquiring. with his close character reading of the Liverpool shipbuilding is represented in merchants involved and the style of business the builder's agreement and specifications they espoused, Price has produced a study for the American Civil War blockade runner that persuades while refraining from easy Banshee. A page from the Illustrated London generalization. News, dated February 1865, documents the The book is not without flaws. Price launch of no less than five steamers in one spends too much time on the Perry family's day from Jones Quiggin's yards. This was ancestors and descendants, a story that con• the period when shipbuilding still flourished tributes little to the subject of the study. on the east bank of the Mersey. It was to be 72 The Northern Mariner squeezed out from the docks and from is amply brought out. A late nineteenth highly populated areas in the city. An auc• century Crew Agreement, valuable in a tion catalogue for the machinery and stock general sense for details of manning and of H.M. Lawrence's Sandon works in 1863 labour, is rather less well chosen. Owing to shows the Mersey Docks and Harbour a peculiarity of the West African voyage the Board taking a direct hand in breaking up a entire crew is signed on at a shilling a shipyard. Laird's yards, illustrated as they month. Some explanation might have been looked in 1856, are evidence of the growing provided rather than risk a generation of importance of shipbuilding on the opposite Liverpool school-children growing up in the bank of the Mersey. This year the closure of belief that their ancestors sailed for such Cammel Lairds at Birkenhead brought an derisory rewards. end to Liverpool's long involvement in In general, however, the attempt to shipbuilding. explain and provide context is limited. The nineteenth-century port was busy "Some Thoughts for Teachers" are kept with tonnage and its docks often congested brief, and the short description of contents with shipping. Illustrations of the ships and imparts little towards a wider understanding. cargoes come from the painter, Samuel The idea may be to encourage self-dis• Walters (sadly, not reproduced in colour); covery, in which case the absence of a bibli• from the Mersey Docks and Harbour ography is a significant omission. Poor Board's fine collection of late nineteenth- proof-reading too spoils the overall effect. century photographs; and from an earlier Mis-spellings like "registery" simply should engraving showing seamen (black and white) not have passed into print. This said, the off-loading cotton. The wider nexus of trade pack is a welcome extension of the Mus• and commerce is represented in pages from eum's educational activities, and a boon to the fascinating journal of William Oates those who belief that the best way to teach dated 1853-4. He was employed as a ship• maritime history is through the ample pri• ping master at Calabar. A document con• mary records of shipping and seafaring. cerning average adjustment on the damaged cargo of the Brazilian, wrecked on a Boston- Valerie Burton Liverpool run in 1881, is a reminder of the St. John's, Newfoundland hazards of trade. For an earlier period, 1830, a Customs Bill of Entry affords a Douglas L. Stein. American Maritime Docu• profile of the port's shipping and cargoes in ments 1776-1860, Illustrated and Described. two weeks of May (and here is to be found Mystic, CT: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1992. mention of Canadian vessels). The passen• 158 pp., photo-reproductions, appendix, ger trade is represented in a Cunard bro• bibliography. US $20,paper; ISBN 0-913372- chure of 1900 which uses the letters of 62-5. satisfied customers to tout for more trade. The collection also reflects the ordinary Douglas Stein, Curator of Manuscripts at people who made the port. The emphasis on Mystic Seaport Museum, has produced a youth, evident in the choice of two pieces beautifully illustrated volume of American from the Liverpool Seaman's Orphanage, an maritime documents from the era when the apprentice seaman's indenture and a letter young republic attained maritime supremacy. from a young seaman in Port Stanley to his The book contains explanations and black- mother, suggests an attempt to catch the and-white photographs of more than one imagination of a young audience. That hundred and ten documents, arranged al• seafaring was, for most, an experience of phabetically from "Abstract Log" to "Whale• youth, involving adventure and often danger, men's Shipping Paper." Oldest is the Book Reviews 73

"Articles of Agreement" between owners and pointed out that sort of linkage and analysis. sailors of the privateer Revenge for a cruise His wonderful photographs, however, help against the British in 1778. Most recent is a readers make those connections. By looking "Sea Letter" printed in French, Spanish, at the categories of information on each English, and Dutch, and signed by President document, researchers with a variety of Lincoln in 1863. The United States govern• interests will recognize the utility of mari• ment issued Sea Letters to merchant ships time documents to many history projects. as a form of passport. Sea Letters estab• For example: "Passenger Lists" include lished proof of the vessel's nationality, and passengers' occupations. Stein's photograph advised foreign powers that she was under from 1828 reveals passengers aboard the the protection of the American government. Chelsea listed as "Gentlemen." A scholar Many researchers and collectors of interested in social levelling in antebellum maritime memorabilia are not familiar with America might chart the decline of the term Sea Letters, Bottomry Bonds, Enrolment "Gentleman" as an occupation from 1800 to Certificates, or a host of other early nine• 1860 to examine the erosion of deference in teenth-century shipping papers. Stein ex• an increasingly democratic society. This plains each, contextualizing them within the could make "Passenger Lists "useful to many history of the US Customs Service, the historians - not just maritime historians. agency from which most originated. Res• Douglas Stein should be proud of this earchers will be able to familiarize them• book. It introduces a neglected historical selves quickly with the language and content source to a wide public. Like the best of the of many common maritime documents. vessels whose history it explains, the volume Stein's book is as aesthetically pleasing is sound in structure and pleasing to the eye. as it is informative. Substantial care was American Maritime Documents will long en• taken to photograph the documents in their dure as the standard reference work piloting entirety. We see their ragged edges, creases, students of American history through the and water stains, and almost feel the three- shoals of maritime archives. dimensionality of raised notarial seals. The lovely engravings of vessels, sailors, Ameri• W. Jeffrey Bolster can eagles, and other nautical emblems Barrington, New Hampshire adorning many documents are real treats. The care with which representative docu• Lars U. Scholl. Der Industriemaler Otto ments were selected, and the high quality of Bollhagen 1861-1924. Herford, Germany: the photography, makes this volume a valu• Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, 1992.120 pp., able addition to any personal library. photographs, plates (colour; b&w). DM If the book has any shortcoming it is 49,80,cloth; ISBN 3-7822-0543-X. that the author does not suggest as fully as he could how scholars might use each of In this extremely well-produced volume, these documents. For example, "Articles of Lars Scholl presents the reader with a fasci• Agreement" and "Crew Lists" contain statis• nating view of the life and work of a marine tically significant information for researchers artist and his oeuvre. interested in seafaring labour: the seaman's It is an oeuvre which for long has been age, place of birth, race, station aboard ship, under-rated, possibly because it was not and pay, among others. That data can be considered to be art, but only commercial manipulated to reveal aspects of seafaring art. For nearly twenty years, Bollhagen was sociology, especially when the "Articles"and responsible for the interior design of the "Crew List" for the same vessel are exam• North German Lloyd's passenger steamers. ined simultaneously. Stein could have In his studios were created innumerable 74 The Northern Mariner

paintings showing the richly decorated chant fleet during World War II have rec• dining rooms, salons and cabins of the ently been published. Director Lauritz floating palaces. Pettersen, Bergen Maritime Museum, writes In his later years Bollhagen concen• about the fleet which came under German trated on bird's-eye view presentations and control. Pettersen's colleague, Associate detailed illustrations of the interior of indus• Professor Atle Thowsen, takes care of the trial establishments such as shipyards and fleet that escaped the invaders and took part steel and chemical industries - a rich field in the allied war effort. for a man of his abilities, for he was much Thowsen's book covers the period from sought after by German industrialists. the outbreak of the war to the New Year This is a volume one can peruse again 1943, when the so-called Hogmanay-Treaty and again with great pleasure. There is came into force. (The period 1943-45 will be always something new to be discovered. The taken care of by Bjorn Basberg in Volume splendid reproductions of Bollhagen's paint• II.) This treaty was the last in a series of ings are ever so much better in evoking agreements which placed the entire free images of the past than photographs of that Norwegian fleet at the disposal of the Allies. period. They certainly give one a feel and These vessels, numbering more than a understanding for the time, not that long thousand, were of major importance, both to ago, when people still believed in uncon• the Norwegian government in exile, who trolled progress, without any consideration needed the fleet's currency earnings, and to for pollution and other side effects of indus• the Allies, who desperately wanted more trial development. Scholl and his publisher transport capacity. Thowsen describes the are to be commended for rescuing Boll• process in which these vessels were requisi• hagen and his work from the past. tioned and put under government control through Nortraship (the Norwegian Trade Niels W. Jannasch and Shipping Mission), and how they grad• Tantallon, Nova Scotia ually had to take their turn in the ongoing war. Nortraship: Profitt og Patriotisme illumi• Atle Thowsen. Handelsflâten i Krig 1939- nates the many conflicts within the organisa• tion itself as well as the continuous tug of 1945. I: Nortraship: Profitt og Patriotisme war between the Norwegians, the British [The Norwegian Merchant Fleet at War 1939- and the Americans on the use of the vessels 1945. I: Nortraship — Profit and Patriotism]. as well as on the level of freight rates. Oslo: Grendahl Dreyers Forlag A/S, 1992. Thowsen's book is packed with details and 494 pp., maps, photographs, tables, figures, gives the reader a very good insight in notes, bibliography, index. 388 Nkr, cloth; Nortraship's birth and first years. This first ISBN 82-504-1895-6. volume of the Norwegian merchant fleet at war is a milestone in Norwegian maritime Lauritz Pettersen. Handelsflâten i Krig 1939- research, with its rich use of sources, its well 1945. V: Hjemmeflâten: Mellom venn og structured chapters and reader-friendly fiende [The Norwegian Merchant Fleet at War layout. It is a good example of how it is 1939-1945. V: The Home Fleet - Between possible to keep a high scientific standard, Friend and Enemy]. Oslo: Grendahl Dreyers and at the same time cater to the general Forlag A/S, 1992. 400 pp., maps, photo• audience. I have only one critical comment: graphs, tables, figures, notes, bibliography, In his concluding chapter Thowsen claims index. 388 Nkr, cloth; ISBN 82-504-1895-6. that the focus of his book has primarily been on the economic aspect of Norwegian ship• The first two volumes in a scheduled work ping during the first war years (p. 432). Yet, of five books covering the Norwegian mer• Book Reviews 75 except for a reference to a rough calculation One wonders, then, why these books are on Nortraship's operating profits, there is no published in Norwegian only. This unique information on economic performance. work deserves an international audience. Questions on whether or not Norwegian Regretfully, the five volumes will largely be ship owners made profit in the analysed read only by Scandinavians. period are never answered. This will un• doubtedly be greatly missed by a number of Anders Martin Fon readers. Bergen, Norway Pettersen writes about the "home-fleet," i.e.,those vessels which came under control S.C.Heal. The Maple Leaf Afloat, Volume I: of the invaders and were employed in occu• West Coast Maritime Memories. Vancouver: pied Norway throughout the war. When the Cordillera Publishing Company, 1992. 181 battle of Norway ended in the summer of pp.,photographs, tables, map. $17.95.paper; 1940, more than 800 vessels larger than 100 ISBN 1-895590-02-7. grt were at the disposal of the Germans, most of them small ships in local trade. Here is a book that contains a rather loosely These made up 15 per cent of the total connected and greatly varied group of short Norwegian merchant fleet. Since Pettersen accounts of different aspects of marine makes reference to about 280 individual related history. In the introduction the Norwegian vessels in his book, one could author mentions the criteria of handiness, easily think that this is merely a list of ships readability, and accuracy that he has tried to and their fate. Not so, for Hjemmeflâten: incorporate in this volume. Let us see how Mellom venn og fiende covers a broad spec• it measures up to them. trum of topics concerning shipping in The book is handy both in size and occupied Norway: ship owners, seamen, because it is divided into short accounts. shipyards, new buildings, economic results However, there is no logical order, topical (which for some shipping companies were or chronological, to the way the topics are quite good), insurance and sailing routes. A presented. In fact, the collection is a real wealth of information is in the book, and it salad. The book also lacks an index, so keeps the same high standard as Thowsen's. details cannot be readily found. However, what would have increased the As for readability, the inclusion of value of the book even more, is information anecdotes from the author's experiences give on what kind of trades these vessels were it a folksy style. However, in some of the employed in. Since Pettersen claims that the accounts much digressive material must be "home-fleet" played an insignificant role in waded through to reach the material sug• Norway's foreign trade during the war, (p. gested by the title of the account. In fact, in 332) it would have been of interest to get some accounts the lead-up seems longer more insight into what they actually carried than the story. The title tends to mislead the in their local trade. reader into expecting the book to be about With the exception of archives belonging Canadian ships. In fact, accounts cover to the Seamen's Union in Norway, both deep-sea freighters, some of which visited Pettersen and Thowsen have had access to, Canada and some which did not, foreign and made optimal use of, all relevant fishing ships, ships of the Nelsonian period, sources to present a wide and fascinating ships of the Royal Navy, fish farms, and picture of their topic. Together with the British shipping lines. In some cases the three volumes still to be released on the accounts have very tenuous connections with Norwegian merchant fleet in World War II, Canada, tending to leave the reader wonder• they fill an open hole in maritime history. ing why they were included at all. 76 The Northern Mariner

The book contains much accurate Pol Chantraine. The Last Cod-Fish: Life and material interspersed with numerous inac• Death of the Newfoundland Way of Life. St. curacies. In the introduction Norman Hack• John's: Jesperson Press, 1993.156pp., map. ing is credited with writing a column in the $14.99,paper; ISBN 0-921692-45-5. wrong newspaper. Later, Island Tug & Barge Limited is said to have been started Rarement verra-t-on un ouvrage autant d'ac• by Harold El worthy with one tugboat. In tualité dans le secteur des pêches canadi• fact it was started by three partners with two ennes. En effet, lors d'une récente Confér• tugboats. The tugboat Sudbury II is ence de presse à Halifax (le 6 juillet 1993) described as "turbo-electric" when she was les scientifiques du gouvernement fédéral diesel-electric. The account of Georgia confirmaient l'inévitable. En fermant im• Shipping Limited, of which the author was médiatement la pêche à la morue à Terre- one of the owners, wanders all over in its Neuve et dans le golfe Saint-Laurent, on introduction. When it finally gets down to pourrait espérer un recouvrement raison• the topic, the author makes several mistakes nable des stocks de morue vers l'an 2000.La in relating the history of its first tugboat, the fermeture complète de cette pêche signifier• Ocean Comet. In the account of the wreck of ait pratiquement 140 000 pertes d'emploi the collier Miami, the writer attempts to dans l'Atlantique selon les derniers estimés correct the writings of another author with (Emission Bonjour Dimanche, Radio Cana• facts that are themselves erroneous. The da, le 11 juillet 1993). La situation s'appa• Miami sailed from Oyster Harbour, which is renterait étrangement à celle de l'Ouest now Ladysmith Harbour, not Boat Harbour. canadien lors de la dépression des années The chapter entitled "Kelly's Folly" is amus• 1930. Mais comment en sommes-nous arri• ing, but it is hearsay rather than accurate vés là? C'est ce à quoi tente de répondre history. The self-dumping log barges were Chantraine. Bien que l'ouvrage soit divisé en first constructed in the mid-1950s, not in the dix-huit chapitres, on en retient trois 1940s. These errors undermine the concept grandes démarches; i) démontrer l'impact de of "factual chapters" claimed in the introduc• la crise de la morue sur le mode de vie tion, and leave the reader uneasy about the traditionnel des communautés de pêche accuracy of the rest of the material. côtière de Terre-Neuve, ii) dénoncer le The highlight of The Maple Leaf Afloat, manque de vision du gouvernement fédéral Volume I is the extensive collection of good et de par ce fait, iii) sa faible position quality photographs. The chapter headings diplomatique internationale dans la question give some ideas of where specific photos can de la surpêche. be found, but an index would make them Ceci dit, il est important de souligner much more accessible. que la démarche de Chantraine ressemble After reading the book, one is left with davantage à un long reportage qu'à une the impression that its contents are a tapes• recherche académique. Il s'efforce surtout try of the writer's memories and interests de relater ses propres expériences journalist• connected with the marine world, woven in iques sur la question des pêches, en les such a way that it envelops photos that he confrontant aux nombreux rapports et poli• has collected. In creating the manuscript, tiques préconisées par les experts en pêche however, he has wandered outside the main du fédéral. Autant les chercheurs universi• topic suggested by his title and he has failed taires déploreront l'absence de références et to meet his stated criteria. la structure parfois déficiente du contenu, autant les non-initiés bénéficieront de l'ap• Robert L. Spearing proche vulgarisée de l'auteur. Il a sans con• Victoria, British Columbia tredit réussi à cerner l'essentiel du problème Book Reviews 77 et à démystifier une question fort complexe. Cet ouvrage est donc la première On peut cependant signaler quelques grande vulgarisation d'une quantité incroy• redondances d'un chapitre à l'autre, surtout able de rapports et d'articles de tout acabit, lorsque l'auteur fait référence à l'évolution commentant et prévoyant la catastrophe des équipements et techniques de pêche écologique que nous vivons. Il y a fort à utilisées à compter des années 1920. Il a parier que les prochaines années nous toutefois bien résumé l'évolution des pêches réservent un bon nombre de publications sur terre-neuviennes avant cette période. D'une la question. Elles seront possiblement plus façon simplifiée peut-être, mais qui reflète éclairées, bénéficiant d'un certain recul néanmoins l'essentiel des éléments qui ont toujours si important en histoire. façonné et formé les grandes valeurs socio- économiques des communautés côtières de Nicolas Landry Terre-Neuve et du Labrador. Ces villages Shippagan, New Brunswick qui, selon l'auteur, sont devenus de simples laboratoires sociologiques dans lesquels les Gottfried Hilgerdenaar. Seemann will ich bureaucrates conduisent des expériences de werden...Erlebnisse auf Fischdampfern und relance économique. La crise actuelle n'est Frachtschiffen 1946-1962. Bremen: Edition guère plus qu'une répétition plus grave de Temmen, 1991.127 pp.,photographs, gloss• crises semblables survenues dans le passé ary. 22 DM, paper; ISBN 3-926958-70-7. mais desquelles nous n'avons retenu que peu de choses. Des premières études alarmistes This unpretentious book describes sixteen des années 1920 jusqu'au grand rapport years at sea. It is well illustrated by the Kirby du début des années 1980, transpire la author's own photographs, mostly of every• nécessité d'agir rapidement. Mais le fédéral day scenes in the working lives of merchant n'aura jamais le courage politique de passer seamen. The result is a straightforward story résolument à l'action. of seafaring in the immediate post-war per• L'une des grandes erreurs fondament• iod. It is a slice of social history of the work• ales fut de croire que la zone des 200 milles ing conditions that vanished when automa• allait ramener les pêches miraculeuses. Mal• tion, small crews, rapid harbour turn• heureusement l'accroissement phénoménal arounds, and better accommodation stan• des capacités de pêche canadiennes fit que dards transformed life in merchant ships. l'on devint aussi pilleur que les pays que l'on Gottfried Hilgerdenaar decided as a avait chassés! Les Européens en vinrent aux teenager to go to sea. The war intervened, mêmes conclusions: les Canadiens exploi• and he served as a submarine radio opera• taient outrageusement les stocks et en plus, tor. When peace came the only seagoing refusaient de partager leurs données scienti• positions available were on fishing vessels. fiques sur le sujet. Ceci dit, le Canada Getting a berth proved difficult but event• perdait toute crédibilité sur la scène interna• ually Hilgerdenaar learned how to bribe an tionale, dans ses démarches alarmistes pour official at the hiring hall and he was off to faire cesser la surpêche aux confins de la sea in a trawler owned by a Bremen compa• zone de 200 milles. ny. He spent five hard years as a deck-hand Dans sa croisade pour la sauvegarde de fishing off Iceland and in the Barents Sea. la morue, Chantraine ne s'attirera guère la Most voyages were three weeks long. The sympathie des protecteurs du phoque. Selon author's descriptions of working conditions lui, le problème de la morue est qu'elle n'a in these coal-burning trawlers, his compan• pas la physionomie sympathique du petit ions, visits home in the tough postwar era, phoque blanc recouvert de sang et achevé à forays ashore in Iceland and heavy weather coups de bâton sur la banquise. are the best-written part of the book. 78 The Northern Mariner

Although more modern trawlers began Always interested in everything around him, joining the German fishing fleet Hilgerden- Hilgerdenaar recorded details of radio aar decided that deep sea freighters would beacons in the eastern Baltic at a time when prove less arduous and more interesting. He the Soviets were not publishing navigational sailed in a small Bremen freighter trading information. His observations were used in from the Baltic to Spain and then in a new German Notice to Mariners. 11,000-ton heavy-lift freighter which took By 1962 Hilgerdenaar was married and him out to India and to Boston. a father. Although tempted by the offer of Hilgerdenaar's next ships traded to the command of a new ship he decided at age Levant and to Portugal and Spain. He in• thirty seven to end his seagoing days. His cludes a picture of the Texas Bar in Lisbon, narrative ends as he finds employment with with which many mariners will be familiar, a firm providing tank cleaning and other depicting the famous lifeboat, complete with services to ships in Bremerhaven. bar orchestra. There are also descriptions of This is not a book rich in analysis. Its loading in small primitive ports. By then he value lies in its unassuming descriptions of had been at sea as a deck-hand for nine everyday details. It is particularly interesting years. He therefore decided to attend a because it tells about experiences both as a navigation school in order to sit for a mate's deck-hand and as an officer. Such books by ticket. After voyages as the only mate in a ordinary mariners are rare. Before the Box small coaster, Hilgerdenaar spent the next Boats by Captain A. Kinghorn, the story of seven years in modern diesel coasters in the a Blue Star line Captain who first went to Baltic and North Seas. He was in a ship sea in 1949, is perhaps an English-language trading to London as Chief Officer and des• equivalent. Seemann will ich werden should cribes his impressions of England thirty be of interest to those looking for the "feel" years ago. London was a favourite port for of life at sea and in harbour only a few German sailors but he was bemused by the years ago when cargo handling and ships archaic labour practices of the British steve• were still labour-intensive. dores. He got along well with the London dockers but he found it frustrating to be told Jan Drent that he and his crew were not even per• Victoria, British Columbia mitted to clean their ship's holds during a paralysing dock strike. If a gang of steve• Gunnar Thompson. American Discovery: The dores was one short at the start of the Real Story. Seattle, WA: Misty Isles Press, working day the dockers simply played 1992. xx + 395 pp., maps, illustrations, fig• cards. One of Hilgerdenaar's social history ures, tables, references, bibliography, index. gems is a photograph of the stevedores US $17.95,paper; ISBN 0-9621990-4-4. during one of their tea breaks - a ritual he found irksome because it was rigidly American Discovery is described as an intro• enforced. Tea was brewed on the galley duction to the achievements of pre-Colum• stove by a docker specially detailed off for bian voyagers. In fact, it is the author's this task who spun out the time indeed. interpretation of the cultural origins of the An engaging feature of this book is the American people. As a paperback it will un• shift in the author's perspective as his res• doubtedly reach a wide field of readers, for ponsibilities increased. The chapters on his he presents his interpretation, from remote years as a deck officer tell of coping with antiquity to the present era, in simple terms heavy weather, icing in the Baltic, natural for the benefit of easy reading and a better disasters, and the impact of modern radio understanding of a great heritage. aids such as decca and radar on navigation. Thompson's saga commences 300,000 Book Reviews 79

years ago with early inhabitants using wrong when he claims that Queen Hapshet- pebble-stone tools, the arrival of Pacific sut's "Land of the Setting Sun" is America. voyagers and the land and sea crossings of She referred to Punt, an Egyptian mining the Bering Strait by Australoid and Mongol• colony in southeast Africa where the coast• oid hunters and fishermen from northeast line turns southwest into the setting sun. Asia. Thompson maintains that prehistoric Her successor, Rameses III, also referred to landings on America's vast open coastlines Punt when he described it as the "Land of were frequent, and he asserts that the Atlan• the Inverted Waters," underneath Africa. tic Ocean was no obstacle to the resourceful Thompson's statement (after Jairazbhoy) mariners of the first great civilizations of the that this refers to America is but one of Mediterranean and Middle East. According many false assumptions based on untested to Thompson, Asiatics, Polynesians, Indo- information. Similarly, the sacred homeland Sumerians, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Minoans, of the Pharaohs was the Land of Punt, not Iberians, Greeks, Romans, Africans, Norse• the Sudan, and Manetho of Sebennytos was men, Britons and other migrants all contrib• an Egyptian priest of the Ptolemy I dynasty, uted to the peopling of America. Moreover, 305-283 BC, well known as the author of the he believes that they brought with them the Egyptian King List and not a Pharaoh of the cultures and skills to create the advanced 3rd Millennium BC; Ophir is ancient civilizations of Central and South America - Hebrew for Africa, and King Solomon's mining, building, agriculture and weaving mines were in the Land of Punt, not South techniques, architecture, stone monoliths, America. Nor is there any record in ancient engravings, inscriptions, artifacts, symbols history of a chieftain or tribal leader in West and relics of all kinds, religion, languages, Africa with either the status or capability of and ancient burial customs, all of which mounting a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean Thompson identifies with the distinct cul• to Mexico. Besides, such a voyage is improb• tures of the Old World. He presents a mass able given the direction of the prevailing of evidence to support his interpretation. winds between West Africa and Mexico. For instance, citing the 6000 BC red-ochre Another ridiculous fallacy is the state• burials along the northeast coast of ment that a clumsy reed boat sailed from America, he associates these with similar Egypt to the Ganges in less than a month. burials of the same period in Norway, and In later years, the fastest Roman ships took concludes that America and Scandinavia six weeks to sail half the distance - from the share a common heritage. The book is well Red Sea to southwest India. The reed boat illustrated and supported by an impressive was for short-haul work in sheltered waters, list of sources and references, all dedicated never for regular trans-oceanic travel. We to his thesis, that the native peoples of know that Heyerdahl's first ocean crossing America owed their evolution and develop• failed, and that the Ra II just got across to ment to the influence of the world-wide Barbados minus its bow and stern post and diffusion of cultures. main steering oar, with the underwater hull Unfortunately, much of the evidence in intact but awash and unfit to continue. Thompson's pocket history is slender and These and other misconceptions and the criteria which allow one to draw reliable misinterpretations detract from the value of conclusions is not present. Inaccuracies and the book as an authoritative account of mis-statements in the text and the elemen• America's cultural history, and the story is tary errors in the chapter on ancient Egypt yet to be told in full. are unacceptable in a serious historical work, with the result that the book will not Edmund Layland stand close analysis. For instance, he is quite Cape Town, South Africa 80 The Northern Mariner

Anthony Grafton. New Worlds, Ancient Florentine Goro Dati are explored to reveal Texts: The Power of Tradition and the Shock the filters that recovered ancient learning of Discovery. Cambridge, MA: Belknap provided for practical people interpreting Press of Harvard University Press, 1992. xii new sights. The famous debate between + 282 pp., illustrations, notes, bibliography, Bartolemé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de index. US $29.95,cloth; ISBN 0-674-61875-0. Sepûlveda could only be premised upon reconciling new-found Amerindians with the This impressive book has entirely overcome world of ancient texts. Jesuit José de Acosta the potential restrictions of the mandate to was almost unique in responding bluntly to its author. Anthony Grafton, an accomp• the realities of sailing into the tropics: "What lished scholar of early modern European could I do then but laugh at Aristotle's intellectual history, was asked to write a Meteorology and his philosophy?...where volume and organize an exhibit that cel• everything, by his rules, should have been ebrated the New York Public Library's rare scorched by the heat, I and my companions book collection on the occasion of the five- were cold."(p. 1) hundredth anniversary of Columbus' first Grafton traces a sixteenth century "loss voyage. The challenging assignment was to of coherence" in the study of human history, "trace the transforming effects of the voy• as American ethnohistory by writers includ• ages of exploration upon European scholar• ing Bernardino de Sahagûn and Garcilaso ship, learning, and culture from 1450 to de la Vega added to a story that was becom• 1700." (vii) Grafton has expertly used the ing a compendium of paradoxes and accu• wondrous collection of fifteenth and six• mulating contradictions, illustrated well in teenth century books in the NYPL to write Sebastian Munster's Cosmographia universal• an elegant and sophisticated challenge to the is (Basel, 1550). Grafton keeps the Refor• conventional wisdom that Europe's thinkers mation, the other great loss of coherence in virtually ignored the new worlds when revol• this period, a little too far in the back• utionizing their approach to knowledge. ground. Giordano Bruno was burned in 1600 The importance of the "bound world" of for pantheism rather than for suggesting a ancient learning was being rediscovered and separate creation of Amerindians, and fero• disseminated by critical new translations by cious religious sectarianism only aggravated fifteenth-century humanists and the printing growing intellectual difficulties. Grafton is of these texts. The Bible, Tacitus, and Hero• the scholar best able to offer a sequel on dotus provided accessible mental templates the origins of the new learning of the seven• with which to observe new peoples and teenth century which would weigh the con• places. The Geography of Claudius Ptolemy, tribution of the discovery of new worlds the great second-century Greco-Egyptian against those of internal European intellec• astronomer and geographer, was not trans• tual and social dynamics. lated into Latin until the early fifteenth Grafton credits Francis Bacon with a century and was printed only seventeen precursor's place in the subsequent trans• years before Columbus sailed for America. formations to new learning, and uses the Grafton indicates that Ptolemy did much innovative University of Leiden most effec• more than inspire some new geographical tively to illustrate the new empiricism. errors. He provided a model of geographical Books increasingly shared space with cabi• description that was uncluttered by ideology nets of curiosities in the studies of Ole and flexible enough to accommodate the Worm in Copenhagen, Hans Sloane in Lon• impending flood of new facts. don, Elias Ashmole in Oxford, or Atha- Works of several mariners, including nasius Kircher in Rome. Columbus and Vespucci, and merchants like This thought-provoking and beautifully- Book Reviews 81 printed book may be an unusual venture for deepwater sailing ships to the year 1700 those of us who read maritime history, but follows to show the evolutionary changes Grafton is an excellent guide on a profitable which took place. This is somewhat heavy voyage. reading for readers without at least some previous knowledge of rigging and naviga• Ian K. Steele tion terminology; a number of seafaring London, Ontario terms are not fully explained. However, this shortfall is partially corrected by the inclu• Roger Morris. Atlantic Seafaring: Ten Cen• sion of a glossary and several carefully turies of Exploration and Trade in the North labelled diagrams illustrating rigging details. Atlantic. Camden, ME: International Marine Morris recognizes that he has omitted Publishing, 1992.184 pp., figures, drawings, many important voyages and mariners, but maps, glossary, notes, index. US $34.95, with reason. He did not wish to drag readers cloth; ISBN 0-87742-337-7. through a long series of "abbreviated acc• ounts." Atlantic Seafaring is concerned with Atlantic Seafaring displays the combined the sailing vessels that have plied the Atlan• talents of both a gifted maritime artist and tic, and is not intended to present a com• the highly readable text of an educator. The plete history of exploration and the various author "sets out [in one volume] to illustrate transatlantic trades. Further, Morris wisely some of the sailing ships which were states that there are many gaps in our pres• engaged in exploration, settlement and trade ent knowledge concerning both the earliest across the North Atlantic, and relate a few ships and their largely unrecorded voyages. of the events in which they were involved" Following his introduction and the chap• (p. 6) - no mean feat given the timespan ter on early deepwater sailing ships, a suc• covered and the numerous passages made! cession of travellers and their vessels are The author's experience as a professional traced beginning with the Norse. Subdiv• sailor adds another dimension to his qualifi• ided into twenty-two miniature chapters, cations to produce a work of this nature. Atlantic Seafaring outlines topics ranging The volume follows a format adopted by from "The Bristol merchants" to "The timber Morris for an earlier publication - Pacific droghers." Morris not only examines the Sail: Four Centuries of Western Ships in the various craft employed, but also places them Pacific (Camden, Maine, 1987). In fact, the in their historical context and reveals how books are almost identical in both layout they were sailed under varying seasonal wea• and the use of illustrative material. Having ther conditions and oceanic currents. Rea• arrived at a winning format in Pacific Sail, sons for many of the voyages are offered the author and publisher evidently elected to and knowledgeable speculation concerning employ the same layout for the latest endea• routes taken is provided. vour. Lavishly illustrated with slightly over Beyond the inclusion of carefully 150 drawings (including details), hull plans researched and executed vessel illustrations, and diagrams, and maps — over fifty in full this reviewer appreciated the fact that Mor• colour - the publication is both a delight to ris clearly shows that, in all probability, the eye and a well researched visual record there were a number of earlier voyages to of the vessels that traversed the Atlantic. the New World prior to the expeditions of Atlantic Seafaring opens with a sim• Columbus and the Cabots, and quite poss• plified explanation of the prevailing winds ibly before the Norse. In all too many vol• and currents of the North Atlantic which so umes, the general public is only exposed to influenced the routes west and the return the verified voyages of discovery. It is ref• voyages to Europe. An abbreviated lesson in reshing to see an author of a popular publi- 82 The Northern Mariner cation citing problems surrounding the lack Singer's book is a comprehensive listing of conclusive historical evidence and at least of over 2,100 ships wrecked in Florida giving some passing mention of the likes of waters since the sixteenth century. The John Lloyd and Gaspar Corte-Real. shipwrecks are arranged chronologically While the book's numerous sub-divi• within each of seven geographical areas into sions do tend to make the whole somewhat which Singer divides the state; the two disconnected, it does accomplish its intended exceptions to this approach are Civil War purpose. Except for a few minor historical and World War II wrecks, which he lists for errors in the text and in at least one illustra• the entire state in separate chapters. With tion (the painting of the Marco Polo on page the assistance of an appendix succinctly 171 does not show that ship's proper stern listing the military losses, these could prob• decoration and several of the signal flags are ably have been included in each of the area incorrect), this publication contains an sections, thereby maintaining the much- abundance of useful information. It is a appreciated uniformity of the other chapters. worthwhile addition to contemporary marine There are also individual chapters on literature offering pictorial glimpses of the "Unknown locations" and "Unidentified sailing craft that challenged an unforgiving Wreck Sites." ocean. Both Atlantic Seafaring and Pacific Thumbnail histories and technical des• Sail merit addition to your library. criptions, averaging nine per page for 242 pages and ranging in length from one line to Robert S. Elliot about twenty lines, easily provide the most Saint John, New Brunswick complete reference available to date on Flo• rida's shipwrecks. The bibliography, with Steven D. Singer. Shipwrecks of Florida: A over a hundred primary and secondary Comprehensive Listing. Sarasota, FL: Pine• sources, including books by "old school" apple Press, 1992. 368 pp., illustrations, professors along with publications of activist photographs, maps, appendices, bibliogra• archaeologists like Marx and Mathewson. By phy, index. $29.95,cloth; ISBN 1-56164-006- numbering these sources and utilizing the 9. Distributed in Canada by Nimbus Publish• numbers in the "sources" after each ship• ing, Halifax, NS. wreck listing, Singer simplifies his footnoting method beautifully. Kevin M. McCarthy. Thirty Florida Ship• Including a chapter of "Shipwreck Nar• wrecks. Sarasota, FL: Pineapple Press, 1992. ratives" seems out of place; these six stories, 128 pp., maps, illustrations, index. $19.95, averaging four pages each, were taken paper; ISBN 1-56164-007-7. Distributed in mostly from previously published primary Canada by Nimbus Publishing, Halifax, NS. sources, perhaps to avoid criticism for other• wise providing only the briefest of vignettes Florida is the spawning ground of media- for each of Florida's shipwrecks. This book hyped shipwreck tales and pirate treasures can certainly stand tall on its own merits as in American waters. It has provided fodder a reference text without this attempt to for sensational accounts of maritime inci• make it something it is not. For instance, dents published scores of books and maga• the heavily-illustrated Appendices contain a zines, as this reviewer can attest after fifteen wealth of well-researched and tightly-written trips to Florida since 1974. However, these information. Sections on Research, Search two books, unlike most of the fluff that has & Salvage, Wreck Identification, and Arti• appeared in print on Florida shipwrecks, fact Conservation (Metal) enthusiastically represent a more enlightened, responsible share facts about magnetometers, sidescan approach to the topic. sonar, underwater metal detectors, under- Book Reviews 83

water video systems, dredges, airlifts, and time an opportunity to preach the "take only identification of cannon, anchors, rigging, pictures, leave only bubbles" policy of mar• wood, sheathing, fastenings, china, coins, ine conservation which would have been and more. In an appendix entitled "Rights to more à propos in Singer's book. Wrecks," Singer realistically outlines the To each tale, the talented marine artist confronting sides of archaeologists/govern• William Trotter has contributed a full-page ment and sport divers/salvors before des• colour painting, depicting a dramatic scene cribing existing legislation and detailing from the incident. A map pin-points the information on archaeological research location of each story, and a list of refer• permits and exploration and salvage con• ences appears after each of the thirty tales tracts for the State of Florida. (the book has no final bibliography), while This black-and-white book contains a black-and-white remarque highlighting a thirty-five archival ship's photographs, sev• portion of the accompanying colour painting eral drawings and reproductions of paint• concludes each chapter. ings, a mere handful of underwater photo• What McCarthy's book lacks in histori• graphs (a surprising scarcity in view of the cal research (when compared with Singer's) author's well-known proclivity for scuba is easily counterbalanced by the well-written diving), numerous maps, artifact recovery prose of each story; McCarthy's entertaining photos, and even a few tacky pictures of tales comprise a book that can be read with Dan Berg, the self-glorifying, author-with- joy and ease from cover to cover. Singer's artifact-from-each-shipwreck type, which terse, technical facts, hitting the reader with should have been omitted, given that Sing• machine-gun rapidity, are characteristic of er's impressive list of acknowledgements the reference book that it intends to be. projects a strong connection with authority. Both publications have their value and their Nevertheless, the book is a valuable, aca• place, and both share the detailed, dramatic demic piece of research on Florida's ship• artwork of William Trotter on their covers, wrecks, so it is easy to overlook the occa• a fitting similarity for two worthy books on sional minor lapse into pretension. the shipwrecks of Florida. Where Shipwrecks of Florida: A Compre• hensive Listing is a necessity on the refer• Chris Kohl ence shelf, Thirty Florida Shipwrecks is an Chatham, Ontario oversize, colourful book that is ideal for the coffee table. Kevin McCarthy, a scuba-diving Gary Brannon. The Last Voyage of the Ton• English teacher, selected thirty shipwrecks quin: An Ill-Fated Expedition to the Pacific from the thousands available in Florida's Northwest. Waterloo: Escart Press, 1992 history, researched their circumstances and [Faculty of Environmental Studies, Univer• wrote detailed and entertaining stories, each sity of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L two to three pages in length. The stories 3G1]. 97 pp., figures, maps, illustrations, cover a wide chronological range, from the bibliography, chronology, index. $13.95, story of young Fontaneda, who wrecked in paper; ISBN 0-9692383-7-1. 1545 and was held captive by Indians for seventeen years, to the story of the 327-foot The Tonquin story is one of the classic sea Coast Guard cutter Bibb, which was sunk off dramas of the nineteenth century. Having Key Largo in 1987 to provide an artificial found riches in the eastern land fur trade, reef and dive-site. A foreword by Dr. Roger John Jacob Astor found little but tragedy Smith, a Florida State Underwater Archae• and lost dreams when he sent the Tonquin ologist, legitimizes the raison d'être for such on its ill-fated expedition to the Pacific a history book while providing at the same Northwest in 1810-11 to establish a land 84 The Northern Mariner

base for the enormously lucrative maritime natives up the coast. An overland expedition, sea otter trade. Though retold many times roughly following Lewis and Clark's route, over the last 170 years, the Tonquin saga will was expected to link up with the Tonquin at be discovered by a new set of readers in this the new fort. slim book by Gary Brannon. With large Some would argue, myself included, that print, ample spacing, a dozen or so illustra• Astor's primary error was in his choice of tions, and an equal number of maps, the captain, Jonathan Thorn, a decorated US book does not pretend to be scholarly or Navy lieutenant. However, Brannon's is not definitive. Rather, it is intended for those an analytical work and he places no blame. who have neither the time nor desire to Thorn was a despot. He stranded crew and read more detailed accounts such as Gabriel partners on the desolate Falkland Islands, Franchere's Journal of a Voyage on the forcing them to row in horror after their Northwest Coast of North America During the departing ship. He flogged, beat and keel• Years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814 (Toronto, hauled the crew. Upon arrival at the Colum• 1969) which W. Kaye Lamb edited for the bia River during a gale on 23 March, 1811, Champlain Society, or scholarly treatments Thorn ordered that passage be found imme• such as James Ronda's Astoria & Empire diately through the treacherous sands at the (Lincoln, 1990), or James R. Gibson's Otter river's bar. Eight died making the attempt, Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods at a few hours' saving. This was only a small (Montreal, 1992). And yet, if it succeeds in glimpse of the tragedy to come. introducing neophytes to our maritime After the fort was built, Tonquin left on heritage and encouraging them to explore 1 June, 1811 to trade for furs up the coast. the Tonquin tale further in texts, then the By mid-July two ships at the north end of book will fulfil its apparent mandate. Vancouver Island had heard "flyingreports" While Astor had a stranglehold on the that the Tonquin had been destroyed in a land-based fur trade of America, he turned native attack. The sole survivor, a half-breed to the sea, like many other Eastern mer• interpreter, reported that Thorn had slapped chants, drawn by stories of Pacific sea otter a chief when he would not agree to Thorn's pelts selling for $30 per pelt in China. A prices. The natives, probably numbering voyage for sea otter pelts, returning with several hundred, swarmed the ship and silk, tea and porcelain from China, could eventually killed all but one of the crew. return $150,000profit on a $50,000invest• That mortally wounded crew member set ment in less than two years. The trade fire to the ship's magazine killing dozens of originated with Spanish and British explorers natives and destroying the ship. Soon after of the 1790s, but by 1805 was dominated by Astor's expedition to the west collapsed and Americans. In 1810, Astor assembled a Fort Astoria was handed over to the British. partnership of Scottish-Canadian, French- The expedition's story was soon in print. Canadian and American fur traders includ• Astor had engaged several clerks, including ing David Stuart, Alexander McKay, Duncan Alexander Ross, Ross Cox, and Gabriel McDougall, Donald Mackenzie and Wilson Franchere, to write accounts of the expedi• Price Hunt. Together they planned to estab• tion. As well, Astor commissioned lish a fort in the Pacific northwest as a toe• Washington Irving, the top writer of his hold for the western expansion of Astor's time, to tell the Tonquin saga and immortal• fur empire. The Tonquin was supposed to ize Astor in Astoria. Since then the story has play the pivotal part in that expansion. been retold many times including a dozen or Carrying fifty-four crew and artisans, the so fictionalized accounts, including a Holly• ship departed New York on 6 September, wood movie. Like all good stories, it should 1810 to establish the fort and trade with the be retold many times for many audiences. Book Reviews 85

Brannon's version is not an Irving classic or with her Justice Thomas Cochran, Solicitor an academic account like Lamb's or Gib• General Robert Gray and Sheriff Alexander son's. Nor is it meant to be. Himself a Macdonell, not to mention a number of less• geographer, Brannon's strength is in illustra• er lights. In an instant, a significant portion tion, not historic analysis; thus, for so short of Upper Canada's legal expertise had been a text, there are many maps and figures. lost. Yet there was no official action, no Yet, in the end, much has been left out, as board of inquiry. Only now, two centuries is to be expected in this format. While he later, is a legal brief presented on the mat• captures the bare essence of the story, ter by Brendan O'Brien. Brannon does not analyze the cause or O'Brien is both speculative and argu• consequences of the tragedy. That he leaves mentative, probing everywhere for clues, to more academic tomes. seeking someone to blame for the tragedy. It has all the elements of a mystery, and Thomas F. Beasley indeed, that is exactly what Roy McMurtry Vancouver, British Columbia and Peter Oliver promise in the foreword. This, however, has all the mystery of a Brendan O'Brien. Speedy Justice: The Tragic prosecutor's case: before the main argu• Last Voyage of His Majesty's Vessel Speedy. ments are made, everyone in the court Toronto: University of Toronto Press for the knows who is on trial, for McMurtry and Osgoode Society, 1992.xl + 167pp.,illustra• Oliver tip the plot: "the villain turns out to tions, maps, appendix, notes, index. $35, be the governor, Lieutenant-General Peter cloth; ISBN 0-8020-2910-8. Hunter." (p. x) Apart from his unpalatable character, Hunter is specifically charged with In January 1992 the Toronto Star offered failing to authorize necessary repairs, and over half a page to the question, "Did forcing the Speedy to sail over the better Ontario 'triangle' sink the Speedy?" The Star judgment of her captain, Thomas Paxton. profiled the work of Ed Burtt and the HMS To support his case, O'Brien culls evi• Speedy Heritage Foundation on a specific dence from a wide range of surviving papers shipwreck site somewhere in the "Sophias- as well as some elements of the oral tradi• burg Triangle" off Presqu'ile Point. What tion surrounding the case which passed into does this have to do with Brendan O'Brien's the written record around mid-century. Un• Speedy Justice? Absolutely nothing. Which is fortunately when we come down to the spec• perhaps as good a recommendation as any ific charges there are no smoking guns. The for this volume. Unlike Burtt's fantasies, surviving discussion of repairs dates from O'Brien should be taken seriously. three to four years before her loss (p. 79). The facts of the Speedy case are rela• The experience of the Provincial Marine tively simple. In the fall of 1804, the Speedy with other vessels in this era suggests to was assigned to transport an Ojibwa, Oge- O'Brien that the Speedy was probably near tonicut, to Newcastle (a community on the the end of her natural life span (p. 94). tip of Presqu'ile Point, south of Brighton, While no legal expert, this does strike me as Ontario - not to be confused with other rather circumstantial. communities and points of the same name). The more serious accusation is that He was to be tried for the murder of a Hunter irresponsibly ordered the Speedy to white man. A storm blew up and Speedy sail over the more considered remonstra- disappeared. But the full story has never tions of her captain. O'Brien calls this "inex• been that simple. O'Brien and the Osgoode cusable" conduct, "interfering needlessly" Society were drawn to the tale because, in with Paxton's operation of the vessel, all addition to Ogetonicut, Speedy took down because of a perceived need for "speedy 86 The Northern Mariner justice" in the Ogetonicut case. However, on as second lieutenant, yet his previous while Hunter may not have been a sympath• naval experience had been that of quarter• etic character, neither is there sufficient master aboard the Ramillies. O'Brien should evidence presented here to hang him. re-read Douglas on the association of rank The evidence comes from three sources, between the Royal Navy and the Provincial two of which are very weak: a merchant's Marine officers during the War of 1812. letter hinting that people "blamed" Hunter Besides, would Paxton have had his repairs for the loss, and a reminiscence in 1868 of a authorized any faster by naval officers in conversation published for the first time in Halifax or London? 1904. The strongest source, reproduced in Why did the Speedy sink? First, she was the Appendix, is a petition by Paxton's son near the end of her natural lifespan without twenty-three years later, stating that his a major overhaul. Moreover, she was prob• father had protested that the Speedy wasn't ably sailing very light, with so many passen• seaworthy, and asking for land (pp. 137-8). gers aboard. Add to this the likelihood that Yet Thomas Paxton Jr. was only six or seven she didn't have a centre-board or drop-keel, at the time of his father's death. He does and must have been very shallow draft to not indicate he was an eyewitness to the service the unimproved ports on Lake argument, nor was he a disinterested party, Ontario. Stir in a night and a day of Octo• though this is not to suggest that what ber gale out of the northeast, and her loss Paxton Jr. has to say should not be given becomes less mysterious. Where is she likely serious consideration. to be found? Pieces associated with the Several times, O'Brien laments that Speedy were found on the south shore near Paxton wasn't in command of his own ship. Oak Orchard in the days following the Instead, here was a naval officer forced to storm. O'Brien does a good job demolishing obey the orders of army officials with no the "logic" and wishful thinking of C.H.J. competence in matters relating to ship Snider, local historians, and Ed Burtt in operations. Such a conclusion suggests a suggesting that the Speedy might be found fundamental misconception of the role of inshore near Presqu'ile Point. the Provincial Marine in the affairs of While the volume does little to advance Upper Canada. True, some of the officers our understanding of the early marine his• had naval backgrounds, and its role in the tory of Upper Canada or of the Provincial American Revolution and the War of 1812 Marine in particular, O'Brien does wrestle encourage the view that the Provincial with a larger set of issues. He probes the Marine was a naval force. Indeed the best spirit of early white-indian relations, espec• work on the marine, Alec Douglas' article ially as they related to matters of legal juris• "The Anatomy of Naval Incompetence" diction. He is fascinated by the personal focused on just that role: wartime. But in nature of government in this era, and he peacetime the Provincial Marine was a argues for the general mismanagement of transport service, and an army transport the Provincial Marine by shore personnel. service at that, moving troops, gear, weap• O'Brien therefore makes a major contribu• ons, and Indian presents between frontier tion to the study of frontier justice and posts. When she went down, Speedy had white-indian relations in Upper Canada. For only a crew of six: captain, mate, boatswain this reason, Speedy Justice is a worthy addi• and three seamen - scarcely a good gun tion to the oeuvre of the Osgoode Society. crew. Though much is made of Paxton's naval background, no evidence is presented Walter Lewis about his rank. Another officer in the Prov• Acton, Ontario incial Marine, James Richardson Sr.,signed Book Reviews 87

Katherine Plummer. The Shogun 's Reluctant translator. He was followed by others who Ambassadors: Japanese Sea Drifters in the brought back news of Mexico, Alaska, the North Pacific. 3rd ed., rev. ; Portland: Oregon Sandwich Islands, and other distant places. Historical Society Press, 1991.xxi+ 283pp., Using both English and Japanese maps, illustrations, tables, appendices, notes, sources, Plummer tells the stories of several sources, index. US $19.95,paper; ISBN 0- Japanese drifters. The book is carefully 87595-235-6. produced, and the appendices offer a list of Japanese drifters between 1617 and 1854, Katherine Plummer tells the stories of Jap• and a description of some of the Japanese anese sailors and fishermen who were cast memorials to drifters. adrift on the Pacific Ocean. In the highly Plummer attempts briefly to give her unstable weather conditions off the coasts of stories a larger historical significance, argu• Japan, many small craft were caught in the ing that the drifters became the tools of winds blowing towards the middle of the either western or Japanese governments, Pacific, or in the northerly winds which took providing information about distant coun• them to the South China Sea and the tries at a time when information was scarce. Philippines. Some of these unfortunate She also argues that the drifters left an mariners were then assisted across the enduring legacy, helping to dispel myths Pacific by the north equatorial current, or by about the "fearsome barbarians" livingacross the Kuroshio, the current which sweeps the ocean (p. 227). This argument is hardly northeast from Japan towards Alaska. convincing, especially if one accepts Plum• Among Plummer's drifters we meet mer's statement that governments sup• Dembei, who landed in Siberia in the late pressed or controlled very tightly the infor• 1690s and visited the Russian court of Peter mation brought back by the drifters. The the Great. In the 1780s Kodayu, "the schol• growth of contact between Japan and the arly drifter, "brought back extensive informa• West is another story, involving other influ• tion about Russia. Another drifter to Rus• ences and other people. The drifters remain sian shores in the 1790s joined a Russian of interest, not for any lasting effects of expedition and may have been the first their voyages, but for the glimpses they Japanese to sail around the world. In 1815 afford into the meeting of ordinary folk Captain Jukichi, after drifting for over a from very different cultures. year, arrived on the coast of California. According to Plummer, Jukichi was the first Eric W. Sager Japanese sailor whose arrival in North Victoria, British Columbia America was documented, although she believes that he was preceded by others who G.P.V. Akrigg and Helen B. Akrigg. H.M.S. left no records. She cites apparent linguistic Virago in the Pacific 1851-1855: To the similarities between Japanese and some Queen Charlottes and Beyond. Victoria, BC: North American Indian languages as evi• Sono Nis Press, 1992,212 pp., illustrations, dence of prehistoric contact and borrowing, maps, index. $21.95, cloth; ISBN 1-55039- though the reader should remain sceptical of 030-9. this kind of "evidence," since similarities often exist in the absence of contact. "Rich in varied scenes, incidents and quota• In the 1840s a Japanese teenager named tions, (this book) is a continual pleasure to Manjiro was rescued by American whalers, read." So wrote C.V. Wedgwood (Daily spent several years in the United States, and Telegraph) describing Professor Akrigg's returned to Japan, where he taught English first book on an entirely different subject and served occasionally as navigator and and era (Jacobean Pageant: The Court of 88 The Northern Mariner

King James I). Nevertheless, these words supplement the text. Several of these illus• apply equally well to the Akrigg's newest trations, together with the short, pithy char• work, written thirty years later. The Akriggs acter sketches, capture the essence of vari• are probably best known for their books on ous individuals and events. This book, which British Columbia place names and their deservedly earned for its authors an "Hon• British Columbia Chronicle (two volumes), ourable Mention" in the book category of widely respected as probably the most reli• the Canadian Nautical Research Society's able, readable and entertaining history of 1993 Keith Matthews Awards, admirably Canada's west coast for the period from evokes the era when the Royal Navy was 1778 to 1871. counted upon to police the seas and keep The present volume is their first venture small countries safe from mutineers, pirates on a purely nautical theme. Admiral P.W. and other nautical desperadoes. Brock has remarked that HMS Virago was a "literary warship, "as several of her officers W.H. Wolferstan contributed to the Illustrated London News, Victoria, British Columbia The Mariner's Mirror and The Nautical Magazine. This book is based on these James P. Delgado. Dauntless St. Roch: The accounts, supplemented by private journals Mounties ' Arctic Schooner. Victoria: Horsdal and reminiscences. & Schubart, 1992. x + 53 pp, map, photo• Virago was a ten-year-old wooden graphs, figures, appendices, glossary, index. paddle wheel steam sloop when she sailed $10.95,paper; ISBN 0-920663-15-X. for the Pacific Station in 1851. In her first year out she dealt with mutineers and This is a modest little book, only fifty-three pirates in Chile, spied on the French pages in length, but it tells an extraordinary throughout the South Seas, and engaged in story of Arctic voyages, of great risks taken, mock battles with other ships of the Royal of incredible endurance in a very small ship Navy. In her second year, a visit to Pitcairn and of the men who manned her. The Island was accompanied by romance, sad• RCMP schooner St. Roch became a legend ness and amazement at the civilized tran• in the high Arctic under the command of quillity which relative isolation had brought Henry Larsen. He is still remembered with the children of the famed Bounty mutineers. great respect, admiration and affection in Northern Mariner readers will probably the Inuit communities across the eastern be most interested in those portions of the and western Canadian Arctic and the ship book which cover northern seas. Several has never been forgotten. place names on the west coast of Canada St. Roch had serviced RCMP posts and remind us of Virago's short but eventful four Inuit settlements in the western Arctic since months in 1853 and two months in 1854. 1928, but it is for her epic voyages through The intervening fourteen months found the the Northwest Passage from west to east sloop in California, Mexico (turned smug• between 1940 and 1942, and the return gler, paying higher than the official Mexican voyage in 1944, that the ship - only a hun• rate for cargoes of silver), Darien (rescuing dred feet in length and with a 150 horse• Americans attempting to survey a canal power engine — is remembered. Delgado route through near impassable jungles and includes a section on the long distance mountain ranges), and Kamchatka (taking sledge patrols by dog team, when the ship part in an ill-fated Anglo-French attack on was frozen in for the winter. It would have Petropavlovsk). been interesting to have had some excerpts Excellent maps, sketches and other from Larsen's laconic reports on such illustrations (many previously unpublished) patrols; thus, "l.OOOmiles on return to the Book Reviews 89 ship. Expenses nil!" After returning to St. Autumn Lecture to the Society for Nautical Roch from one such long sledge patrol in Research, and a further essay by Jeremy 1942,Constable Chartrand, a crew member, Black stemming from work associated with died of a heart attack. Sergeant Larsen, his recent War for America: The Fight for Constable Hunt and the Inuit Equalla Independence 1775-1783. sledged four hundred miles to contact a In recent years, a more critical approach Catholic priest so that he could come to the to British naval history has emerged as an ship in the spring to conduct the funeral alternative to the traditional, triumphalist service. The total length of that patrol from interpretation. The essays in this volume February to May was 1,140 miles. Chart- extend this approach by marking out the rand's grave was marked by a fifteen-foot tortuous path by which Britain groped and rock cairn at Pasley Bay which remains to struggled first towards gaining and then this day. The book also emphasizes the fact endeavouring to maintain naval supremacy, - and rightly so - that for many years, St. by examining the obstacles along that path, Roch was the only presence in the Arctic of and by considering just what that supremacy Canadian sovereignty. Our claim was well could achieve in practice. served by a very small ship and a crew of Davies shows that the creation of a eight Mounties. great battlefleet led merely to the problem James Delgado is to be congratulated of deciding what to do with it. Both his and on an excellent book on St. Roch and on the Black's two essays show that mobilization of accompanying photographs and illustrations. the battlefleet in peacetime could have im• This should be required reading in our high portant diplomatic effects in the right cir• schools, for it is an exceptional but regret• cumstances, though this game of bluff could tably little known piece of Canadian history. also miscarry spectacularly if the govern• It is hoped that St. Roch can continue to be ment mistook its appreciation of the respect• preserved at the Maritime Museum in Van• ive balance of forces. Mobilization would, couver as a Canadian heritage. Superin• however, be less effective without a clear tendent Henry Larsen's death in Vancouver strategic plan of how to use this naval power in 1964 in his 65th year was a great loss to if the bluff was called. Davies shows how the Canada and his friends in the Arctic. later Stuarts struggled to arrive at a strategic plan to confront first the Dutch, then the Tom Irvine French. The Dutch Wars provided planners Nepean, Ontario with their best ever opportunity to embark on a so-called "Blue Water" strategy, devoid Michael Duffy (ed.). Parameters of British of heavy military commitment to a continen• Naval Power 1650-1850. Exeter: University tal war, but Davies provides a timely caution of Exeter Press, 1993. vi + 144 pp., tables, against regarding "Blue Water" as any clear- notes. £11.95,paper; ISBN 0-85989-385-5. cut strategic solution. It was not a single option, and its implementation was unsuc• This volume in the Exeter Maritime Studies cessful because planners were constantly series brings together papers relating to a torn between the various "Blue Water" common theme presented by David Davies, options — either a concentrated attack on Jeremy Black and Roger Morriss at the the Dutch battlefleet, or an assault on Dutch Dartington maritime history conferences commerce, or amphibious landings on the organized by the Centre for Maritime His• Dutch coast. torical Studies of Exeter University, as well Davies also argues persuasively that as Nicholas Rodger's 1991 Harte Lecture at Charles II and his brother James were Exeter University, Michael Duffy's 1990 concerned at the threat from the rapidly 90 The Northern Mariner expanding French naval power and that they actions after 1692 to commerce raiding, planned thoroughly and seriously the stra• while keeping their fleet available as a tegic deployment of the Royal Navy in the potential threat, English strategy had to event of a French war. It was this plan that change as well. This led to changes in the formed the basis for the arrangements made fleet's composition. The number of smaller by the new Williamite regime when that war cruisers was increased and the fleet became finally came in 1689, though this rapidly more dispersed to meet the Navy's many revealed logistical obstacles to its operation responsibilities. One policy that England that are discussed in Duffy's essay. developed before the French was the estab• Black's first contribution to the volume lishment of overseas naval bases. Careening, emphasizes a major constraint on the free supply, victualling and hospital facilities were use of Britain's naval power by its strategic established at these bases, enabling the Navy directors: the fact that Britain lacked a large to maintain a year-round presence on per• army, which tied the Royal Navy down as a manent stations, as opposed to the French substitute for the many roles that land practice of sending out squadrons from forces would otherwise have performed. Europe for short periods each year. Chief among these roles was defence against Overseas support bases thus consider• invasion. The threat of invasion enabled ably extended the parameters of British France in particular to deprive Britain of the naval power, albeit at great expense in ships, strategic initiative by paralysing British men and money, which tied down resources, operations until a substantial naval defence limited alternative strategic deployments, could be established and by tying down and exposed the small squadrons on these powerful British squadrons to guard against stations to the risk of being overwhelmed by an attack that might never come. any larger force sent out from France. The The lack of a large army also required French, by contrast, chose to concentrate the Royal Navy to substitute for land forces rather than to scatter their naval resources. in other ways: to provide some of the co• British policy was torn between the conflict• operation in military operations on the ing demands of the need to disperse the continent expected by Britain's European Royal Navy to exercise command of the allies, particularly in the Mediterranean, and seas, protect British trade and destroy to provide manpower, artillery and haulage French trade and colonial resources, and the on land, as well as transport by sea, in need to maintain that command by being support of the army's colonial expeditions. able to concentrate sufficient force to defeat These roles absorbed resources that could any challenge to it mounted by France. Only not then be deployed to advantage in the in the middle of the eighteenth century did purely maritime struggle — the defeat of a strategy that rationalized this widespread enemy battlefleets, the defence of trade, and deployment by making the most economical the destruction of enemy maritime com• use of the resources available emerge. The merce. Its many responsibilities frequently new strategy was that of maintaining a left the Navy hard pressed, no matter how powerful "Western Squadron" in the Bay of large its numerical superiority over rival Biscay and in the Channel Approaches, navies — and that superiority was, at times, which could guard against invasion of the small or non-existent. British Isles, protect incoming and outgoing The later Stuarts had expected that a British trade and intercept that of the French war would assume the same shape French, and prevent the French from send• as the Dutch, with hard-fought, concentrated ing forces overseas to defend their colonies battlefleet actions. When, however, the from attack or to attack those of Britain, all French switched their policy away from fleet at the same time. Book Reviews 91

Davies shows that some of the advan• government finances, and hence its ability to tages of such a strategy had been seen as wage war, were more dependent on its early as 1668. The problems in the way of colonial commerce. This situation obliged implementing that strategy were, however, the French to send out their navy to defend enormous. These are detailed, together with that trade and empire, which exposed it to their eventual laborious resolution, in Duf• defeat and enabled Britain to fight effective• fy's essay. Primarily, it was achieved by ly using its own strengths at sea and over• expanding operational capabilities through seas rather than against France's strength on developing an entirely new support system the Continent - provided Britain could shut from a new domestic naval base begun in off France's ability to despatch that strength 1690 at Plymouth and, in general, it would overseas. In 1759,that task was triumphantly seem that British naval administrators were achieved by the Western Squadron, which much more impressed with the need for an simultaneously defended Britain from adequate supporting infrastructure to main• invasion and protected British attacks on the tain their ships at sea than were their rivals. French empire in Canada and the West A major factor extending the parameters of Indies against interruption from France. British naval power was, therefore, the dry- The second development is described by dock capacity of British dockyards, which Black in his first and at the end of his sec• facilitated the major overhaul of warships, ond contribution to this volume, where he and, with twenty-three dry docks in 1793-96 points to the effect of the altered diplomatic as against eight in French and eight in situation. Black stresses the importance of Spanish yards, the Royal Navy could turn diplomacy in freeing the Royal Navy from round more ships at a faster rate than its some of its overload of commitments. For rivals. This was a capacity of which the example, following the lead provocatively Western Squadron had particular need, given by Daniel Baugh, who has asserted seeking to operate as it did in the area most that Britain's lack of continental commit• exposed to the elements of all those that the ments enabled it to outlast France, Spain Navy attempted to hold. and Holland in the American War of Inde• Duffy demonstrates how the Western pendence, Black argues that the Franco- Squadron system was developed by trial and Austrian alliance of 1756 in fact stabilized error, though its evolution was accelerated the political situation in western Europe by the mid-eighteenth-century threat of until the early 1740s, hence allowing Britain invasion and, as he and Black show, the to limit the extent of its continental commit• particular need, in the later stages of the ments. The Royal Navy was one of the main War of the Austrian Succession, to defend beneficiaries of this limitation. British colonial successes in order to use Even in this much improved situation, them at the negotiating table so as to count• however, naval resources were still extreme• erbalance French military success in the ly stretched. Although naval administrators Low Countries. That the policy should have were perpetually worried about warship been so spectacularly successful in the building, the greatest problem was not middle of the eighteenth century, however, number of ships available; rather, it was the was the result of two developments that shortage of manpower to meet all the tasks deserve greater recognition. that the Royal Navy was being called upon The first was the rapid growth of the to perform. Manpower constraints consti• French empire and its wealth in the first tuted a further parameter of British naval half of the eighteenth century. France now power, and is considered in this volume by had far more to lose in a maritime war than Rodger and also in part by Morriss. Rodger in the wars between 1689 and 1713, and its argues that the heart of the problem was a 92 The Northern Mariner

basic shortage of men with particular vital The issue, however, was not just one of skills, which took at least two years of sea• recruitment but also of retention, for the going experience to acquire. Rodger points Royal Navy lost men by desertion and out that this élite group of petty officers and sickness. It was a drain but its impact can be able seamen who could work the sails aloft exaggerated: as Rodger has demonstrated, constituted only a fifth of a ship of the line's the desertion rate in the Seven Years' War company. Yet without them the ship could was contained at a replaceable seven per not be sailed. This important point serves to cent per annum. The other major problem highlight an often unappreciated factor of the manpower retention problem was behind British success in its two most suc• sickness, and this is considered by Duffy in cessful naval wars of this period, the Seven relation to the Western Squadron. The Years' War and the Napoleonic War; by capacity of sickness to devastate crews, to catching so much French shipping at sea by the extent that they might no longer be able an unexpected attack before the declaration to work their ships safely, was a problem of war (1755-6) or by a surprise declaration that beset all navies. The crowded, badly of war (1803), the Royal Navy was able to ventilated, constantly damp living conditions inflict an initial crippling blow on its French on warships were virulent breeding grounds counterpart by capturing large numbers of of disease among men weakened by constant these skilled and indispensable French petty hard labour and poor nutrition. Perhaps officers and able seamen. because the British were the most depend• While the Royal Navy did its utmost to ent for national survival on keeping their deprive its opponents of this necessary ships at sea, they seem to have made greater commodity, Rodger also shows how the efforts than their maritime rivals at coming mid-eighteenth century Navy sought to to grips with this problem, particularly in the secure it for itself by the personal relation• second half of the eighteenth century. ship established between captains, respon• The War of American Independence in• sible for recruiting their own crews, and creased the demands made upon the Royal seamen who knew and trusted them. Recent Navy by tying it down in support of the research, in which Rodger has been promi• army in a continental war. It had never been nent, has re-evaluated the qualitative differ• comfortable with this role in Europe, and ences between service in the Navy and in Black's second contribution to this volume the merchant marine and has overthrown shows that it fared no better in North previous assumptions by showing a balance America. Perhaps the Navy might have of advantages by no means unfavourable to achieved more had it been larger and the Navy. Here Rodger demonstrates how, equipped with the right ships, but Lord in these circumstances, personal relation• North's attempts to maintain political unity ships that encouraged volunteering could at home by keeping costs down to what he play an important part in naval recruitment, felt would be an acceptable level proved to either by professional acquaintance to secure be a false economy, both in impeding the the ables or by local connection to secure Navy's performance in the purely North the landsmen and ordinary seamen necess• American stage of the war and also by ary to haul on ropes and to man the guns. delaying for too long the far more extensive The Admiralty's replacement of this per• mobilization required when France prepared sonal system of recruitment by increasing to intervene in the struggle - which resulted use of the Impress Service in the later in the Navy having to contest the early years eighteenth century broke that bond and of the conflict with France and Spain at a heightened problems of recruitment, reten• disadvantage. tion and relations on board ship. This episode is probably as good an Book Reviews 93 illustration as could be found of another ing to meet them within a limited budget, major parameter of British naval power - yet willing to experiment when the funds financial constraint. Recent studies of the and the right technology appeared to be French navy have shown how this was an available. Morriss sees Cockburn rather as all-pervasive limitation on French naval exemplifying the solid professionalism that power. In wartime, British governments and had been at the heart of British naval ad• public alike were generally far more ready ministration (far more than at that of to direct resources to their navy than their French administration), and that enabled the French counterparts. However, a navy was Royal Navy to survive financial constraints, an expensive instrument and, in peacetime, to tackle pragmatically and to overcome the there was an irresistible temptation for many strategic, technological and logistical harassed ministers, looking to reduce the problems which it encountered on the way burden of unpopular taxes, to cut naval to establishing naval supremacy. expenditure to the bone. Black shows how A valuable introduction by Duffy draws Pitt's willingness to invest in rebuilding the the various strands in the essays together fleet enabled him to use its rapid mobiliz• and provides an overview of the subject as a ation to capitalize on France's inability to whole. The volume provides a model of how make a similar extra financial effort and so such a collection of essays should be organ• achieve major diplomatic successes in 1787 ized and can be read with pleasure and and 1790. Equally indicative of the financial profit both by students of the period and by parameters of naval power, Pitt withdrew modern naval strategists. from confrontation with Russia in 1791 when he saw that Parliament was unwilling G. Edward Reed to finance the necessary naval armament. Ottawa, Ontario The total defeat of Napoleonic France by 1815, however, led successive post-war Charles Dana Gibson with E. Kay Gibson. governments to ignore naval advice in order Marine Transportation in War: The U.S. to reap the resultant peace dividend. The Army Experience, 1775-1860. Camden, ME: national horror at the immense tax burden Ensign Press, 1992. 183 pp., illustrations, that had been needed to finance victory over maps, appendices, vessel index, general Napoleon lasted into the middle of the index.US $27(+ $3.50postage/handling; $5 century, so that, yet again, the Royal Navy outside USA), cloth; ISBN 0-9608996-2. was stretched to the limits both to fulfil the demands made upon it to support the im• This is the first volume of what is projected mediate needs of British diplomacy and to to become a three-volume series, "The maintain and to develop the fleet and its Army's Navy,"which will examine the am• infrastructure for any future major war. phibious components of the United States In the final contribution to this volume, Army. Between its covers, Charles Dana Morriss shows that it was this financial Gibson presents material relating to the constraint, rather than any rooted aversion Revolutionary War, the period leading up to to new technology, that held back the Royal the Mexican War in the 1840s and from Navy's exploration and adoption of steam there to the beginning of the Civil War. power. Morriss' re-examination of the per• The first chapter is typical of what son who is frequently cited as the archetypi• follows. The author first summarizes for us cal reactionary naval officer and administra• the origins of George Washington's conti• tor of the period, Sir George Cockburn, nental navy,the first eight warships commis• shows a man conscious of the practical sioned by the Americans. These were all needs of maintaining seapower and struggl• operated under military jurisdiction. Each 94 The Northern Mariner vessel is then described in detail. In the represented with over thirty-five titles. subsequent chapters, Gibson summarizes the Readers will find Napoleon's Sea Sol• events of each time period; specific informa• diers an interesting synopsis of the reforms tion about individual vessels is presented in of the navy and the marines after the French the appendices. Revolution. Beginning with the reorganiz• Some imaginative formatting has been ation of the marines in 1782, author René used in the packaging of this book. Curious• Chartrand traces the transition from the ly, it is presented in manuscript-like, double- Corps royal des canonniers-matelots to the spaced fashion with large portions of blank formation of the Marine Artillery Demi page. Throughout the book there are only Brigades in 1795 and to their reorganization four illustrations and one map, and some again in 1803-4 as the Corps impérial de segments of the text are very brief. The l'Artillerie de la Marine. He also discusses section dealing with the War of 1812, for the naval reforms of 1791 and of 1800-1801, example, is only two pages long and omits the creation of the Boulogne Flotilla, and any detailed reference to Commodore the formation of the Equipage des matelots Chauncey's use of army boats at Sackett's de la Garde impériale. He is particularly Harbor or ordnance from military-controlled attentive to the naval and marine manning gunboats at New York. problems that came after Trafalgar and the While the subject matter would make a Third Coalition War. Chartrand argues that passable journal article, it hardly seems Napoleon did not abandon the navy after its sufficient to justify the price of this book. great naval defeat to march his marines off The effect, then, is to cast some doubt on to land war. Instead, he points to the growth the value of the rest of the series. of the fleet from 1806 to 1813 and quotes Napoleon's remarks at St. Helena that he Robert Malcomson had never found his Nelson. St. Catharines, Ontario Napoleon's Sea Soldiers refers to, but does not feature, naval and marine oper• René Chartrand. Napoleon's Sea Soldiers; ations. Considering its size, it is quite inter• Men at Arms series, No. 227. London: esting as a study of the human component Osprey Publishing, 1990.48pp..illustrations. of the fleet. It is profusely illustrated, con• £6.50,paper; ISBN 0-85045-998-2. taining tables and excellent colour drawings describing uniforms. Some readers may find Is there anyone who has browsed the trade this miniaturist description of the details of books of military museums who has not dress interruptive, but the bibliography been drawn to Osprey's Men at Arms series opens up a larger body of other literature. books? Probably not. The colourfully uni• This is a welcome and unusual addition formed soldiers of different eras and nations to the Men at Arms series, focusing needed stand out on glossy covers and invite inspec• attention on the neglected sailors and mar• tion of the beautifully illustrated little ines who went to sea in this era. It is also pamphlets. Though the series is frequently the first volume in the series devoted exclus• described as being aimed at the miniature ively to a naval and marine subject. One can hobbyist market, it is not unusual to spot only hope that it will encourage Osprey to Osprey volumes in the offices of academe. live up to its name by venturing out to sea There are now well over two hundred titles more frequently to greet the seamen and sea in the series, and it continues to grow. soldiers of other nations and eras. Ancient, medieval, and twentieth century warfare is well covered, but not with the Richard H. Warner depth of the Napoleonic period, which is Fredericksburg, Virginia Book Reviews 95

William S. Dudley. The Naval War of 1812: of the War of 1812 the reader of the Docu• A Documentary History. Volume 11: 1813. mentary History must do some laborious Washington: Naval Historical Center, 1992. cross-referencing and use a good bibliogra• xlv + 779 pp., maps, illustrations, tables, phy, of which none are so far as I can see index. US $43, cloth; ISBN 0-945274-06-8. listed in the volume. The documents here published rest entirely on their own not The United States Navy's Naval Historical inconsiderable merit, and although in many Center is a wonderful resource for histor• cases they cast new light on the War of ians. It is the sort of place where you can 1812, they must be read in conjunction with immerse yourself in the documents, and what has appeared in both the published absorb the atmosphere, of the American primary and the secondary literature. It is naval past. It is where you can meet other true that a select list of recent journal scholars working in the field, and where articles, and some indispensable other official historians can both commiserate with sources, provide useful leads in this respect, each other (official historians have a lot to but many titles are missing. commiserate about) and flaunt their respect• I have some quibbles, therefore, with ive achievements. the methodology. The short headnotes The Center has some fine achievements preceding each section of documents are of its own to its credit, including a series of well written and provide context, but not in publications documenting the birth and early adequate detail. Let me take some examples history of the US Navy. Dr. William J. from the section on the Northern Lakes Morgan edited the first set of these publica• Theatre. To say for example that Roger tions, Naval Documents of the American Hale Sheaffe "provided a weak excuse for Revolution (nine volumes thus far, and more his defense of the town [York]" (p. 464) to come). William S. Dudley, who succeeded demands further discussion. It contradicts Morgan as Senior Historian, has now edited the judgement reached in the Dictionary of two of three projected volumes on the War Canadian Biography. To say that the Ameri• of 1812. cans seized or destroyed valuable stores and Dudley has emulated his predecessor supplies in York (p. 448) contradicts Isaac with exceptionally handsome books, with Chauncey's own statement (p. 450) that "The superb illustrations, attractive typeface and enemy [i.e.,the British] set fire to some of with careful attention to the accuracy of the his principal Stores, containing large quan• documents reproduced. He and his team tities of naval and military stores..."As CP. have produced a research tool that will save Stacey documented in a well-known article an enormous time and effort, and that on the Battle of Lake Erie, it was this des• complements other documentary collections truction of the York depot (in which the in existence. magazine blew up, killing Zebulon Pike) But what about such collections? And that deprived Commander Robert Heriot what of the secondary literature in the field? Barclay of naval stores later that year. Nowhere in this volume will the researcher There is no good evidence that Long find a coherent guide to such sources. There Point was "theBritish depot for stores,"and is no mention, for example, of the certainly none that on 30 July Barclay went Champlain Society's four volumes of Select there to "ready the sails and armament for British Documents of the Canadian War of his new ship Detroit, "(p. 544) The statement 1812, edited by William Wood and pub• does not square with other circumstantial lished between 1920 and 1928. Some of the evidence, even though Ernest Cruikshank same documents appear in both series. In argued without documentation, in his article order to find a way into the historiography on the contest for command of Lake Erie, 96 The Northern Mariner

that the ships did go in for supplies. We and the light cruiser SMS Breslau (renamed know that Barclay used Queen Charlotte's Midi Hi). Here German ships under the spare sails for Detroit, but it is more likely Turkish flag forced their way through the that he implemented that solution to his Dardanelles in 1914 and exerted enormous problem in Amherstburg, not Long Point. strategic pressure on Russia by carrying out And although it is true to say that Barclay operations in the Black Sea. Books on the was desperately short of trained seamen, it subject in English and German appeared as is wrong to say (p. 550) that the soldiers in early as 1916. Nekrasov seems familiar with his vessels "knew nothing of sailing. "Most of none of them. Still, he does draw upon them were Newfoundland fishermen in the Russian-language sources in an effort to Royal Newfoundland Regiment, sent there broaden the picture. precisely for that reason. It is ironic, finally, At the beginning of World War I Rus• that Michael Palmer, who was in the sia's Black Sea Fleet consisted of five older research team for this volume, has produced ships of the line, two cruisers, thirteen a fine revisionist study challenging the tradi• torpedo-boat destroyers, four torpedo-boats tional laudatory view, one that is certainly and four older submarines. The Turks had not challenged in these pages, of Perry's virtually nothing with which to oppose them. tactics at the battle of Put-in-Bay. Enter Goeben and Breslau. In November As a source of documentary material 1915, the second of Russia's new battleships this is a magnificent effort, and I commend Imperatrica Ekaterina joined the Fleet. In it to all historians of the War of 1812. As a clearly marked historical phases, which "documentary history" I have to say it is Nekrasov fails to clarify, Russia attacked suspect. Use it with caution, complement it coal ports and merchant shipping in 1914, with other sources, and be prepared to and undertook a major offensive in 1915 challenge its implications. against East Anatolia; it turned to mine- offensives in 1916 beginning in the Bosphor- W. A. B.Douglas us in July that year in order to block the Ottawa, Ontario Goeben and Breslau prior to Rumania's joining the Allies on 27 August, and oper• George Nekrasov. North of Gallipoli: The ated in 1917 against maritime supply lines Black Sea Fleet at War 1914-1917. Boulder: along the Turkish coast. Though the Revol• East European Monographs, 1992. vi + 225 ution of 1917 crippled the Russian navy, the pp., maps, figures, photographs. US $28, Black Sea Fleet remained relatively free of hardcover; ISBN 0-88033-240-9.Distributed the revolutionary movement until June 1917. by Columbia University Press. Behind this outline lie crucial naval and political questions that invite serious explo• This idiosyncratic mix of history and penny ration. philosophy attempts to clarify, according to Nekrasov, however, seems more inter• the author's epilogue, "the story of the Black ested in exploiting his topic as a cautionary Sea Fleet in World War I, as I see it."(p. tale for demonstrating outdated defence 145) It is a muddled and awkward account. sentiments. Pithy sayings and homiletic That is unfortunate, for the story is really asides mark his narrative struggle through worth telling well despite the acknowledged the years 1914-17.Thus, nations who do not difficulties of tracking down sources. keep an eye on maritime defence (hence the The general reader will be more famil• Russian example) become "affected by that iar with the German side of the conflict in dreaded peacetime disease: stagnation." (p. the exploits of the German battlecruiser 4) He strikes out at current politicians, SMS Goeben (renamed Sultan Yavuz Salem) whom he regards as dreamers out of touch Book Reviews 97 with reality, and niggles at "professional active in researching the naval history of Naval historians" who should "Get Crack• World War II — although the publisher ing!" (p. 145) on his neglected topic. He chose to omit the German umlaut from then treats us to a summary of his previous• Hummelchen's name! ly stated "lessons of history" followed by The main text is divided into seven reflections on his "lesser lessons." To the distinct parts, beginning with 19 August, former belong such insights as "predicting 1939 and ending with an entry for 30 Nov• threats is not an exact science," "war is a ember, 1945. The information is presented struggle between opposing minds and wills," in a year-by-year format. There are essen• "where there is a will there is usually a way," tially three types of entries: outlining the and "one must never underestimate the events of a single day, full operations, or by power of gossip." (pp. 140-2). Key among theatre within a definite time period. On the "lesser lessons" is that "effective leader• those occasions when one event is connected ship should release the talents of the subor• with another which happened earlier or dinate commanders and men." (p. 143) later, the text directs the reader to the It is a shame this odd little piece of appropriate entry. The main text is heavily hack-work was ever published without rigor• supported by seven indexes which greatly ous revision. Still, it does leave us something facilitate the search for any specific individ• to ponder: "Superficially looking at these ual, force, or ship mentioned. Readers will lessons results only in people repeating past benefit immensely from the preface, which mistakes and blunders with greater accu• outlines the various international sources racy, "(p. 147) Well, bless my soul. utilized in the creation of this work. The authors have also very wisely incorporated a Michael L. Hadley detailed two-page combined glossary and list Victoria, British Columbia of abbreviations at the front of this volume. For the most part, the entries are accu• Jurgen Rohwer and Gerhard Hummelchen; rate, brief, and crisp. Nevertheless, a few do trans. Derek Masters. Chronology of the War require a second reading for complete at Sea 1939-1945: The Naval History of clarity. Readers who want to use this book World War Two. Annapolis, MD: Naval to uncover warship trivia will be somewhat Institute Press, 1992. xiv + 432 pp., indices, disappointed because the authors have del• abbreviations, glossary. Cdn. $67.50, US iberately ignored details such as warship $49.95 jcloth; ISBN 1-55750-105-X.Canadian launching, completions or commissionings, distributor, Vanwell Publishing, St. Cathar• as well as the dates of name changes or ines, Ont. even transfers from one navy to another. For example, readers will only know that the This work was first published in two vol• HMS Uganda was turned over to the Cana• umes in 1972-74 and quickly established dian Navy between 12 June and 16 July, itself as one of the major reference sources 1945. Even the date that the German for the naval history of World War II. How• pocket-battleship Deutschland was renamed ever, like so many of its contemporaries, its Liitzow is not indicated. The authors have first edition no longer reflects our current also, perhaps wisely, decided to steer clear knowledge of this titanic struggle. The of offering opinions on the war's few rem• authors and their publisher felt that it was aining controversies. For example, they state imperative to issue an up-date which would that the Hood was sunk in an engagement incorporate the results of the past two with the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, without decades of research on this period. Both of assigning any credit to either ship. Perhaps its collaborators are well known and very the major drawback of this edition is the 98 The Northern Mariner

complete lack of any illustrations, photo• heritage..."(p. 6) This small warship was too graphs, maps, or tables. This makes the slow, too small and too lightly armed for its work slightly more tedious to read, but is most noteworthy responsibility, shepherding consistent with a work designed to be mid-Atlantic convoys, usually manned by skimmed, or used as a quick reference. amateurs to the naval warfare profession, or Apart from these minor criticisms, this at best ex-merchant seamen. But then, in its new edition is a far superior guide to the heyday of 1940 to mid-1943, there were far naval history of World War II. Readers will too few other or better ships - sloops and certainly benefit from the major change in destroyers, even after the US Navy'sentry in this edition, the incorporation of details 1941 - for the struggle against the U-Boats illustrating the impact of "Ultra" and and sommergibili. Without these 123 Cana• "Purple" on the operations of the Allies. dian-built ships, and their 143 British and Strangely, it appears that this source of French-built contemporaries (four were built intelligence was exploited far more success• in France, and taken over by the Germans!), fully against Germany than Japan in some the Atlantic supply line would have been ways. Even with the aid of "Purple" inter• severed, and even more merchantmen sunk cepts some US submarines were simply not than the losses already recorded. able to attack Japanese warships and mer• Corvettes of the Royal Canadian Navy chantmen successfully. Nevertheless, it is book contains an astutely reasoned eighty- clear that without the information gleamed page evaluation of the corvette's place in the from this source, the war would have lasted battle. Milner's initial text is a carefully much longer. Overall, readers will profit researched examination of the RCN's pur• immensely from consulting this edition and poses in selecting this class as its emergency it must be considered a classic reference anti-U-boat vessel, while it considered the source on the naval history of World War II. advisability of proceeding with the larger twin-engined frigates, and secretly yearned Peter K.H. Mispelkamp for the true naval spirit embodied in the Pointe Claire, Quebec large, and complicated, Tribal Class destroy• ers. He makes many valuable points: the Marc Milner and Ken Macpherson. Cor• lack of ice-free shipyards on the East coast vettes of the Royal Canadian Navy 1939-1945. for building or even repairs; the lack of St. Catharines, Ont.: Vanwell Publishing, suitable secondary armament, of even gyro 1993. 174 pp., photographs, fold-out draw• compasses and thus gyro-stabilised Asdic ings, maps, appendices, index. $35, cloth; sets; the shortages of trained officers and ISBN 0-920277-83-7. crews. Some points are new, certainly to this reviewer, such as why so many corvettes John McKay and John Harland. Anatomy of looked so care-worn so often: the reason was that Canadian yards had little ability the Ship: The Flower Class Corvette Agassiz. and no time to "pickle" the new steel hull London & St. Catharines, Ont.: Conway plating and thus remove the mill scale left Maritime Press and Vanwell Publishing Ltd., by the manufacturing process, with the 1993.160 pp., photographs, figures, sources. result that paint sloughed off later. And the $44.95,cloth; ISBN 1-55068-084-6. fact that the new-construction Bangor 'sweepers got gyros and retractible Asdic The Flower Class corvette of World War II domes due to their planned employment has come to be the most significant repre• while the corvettes had to wait. The RCN sentative of the history of the Battle of the paid an unrecognised penalty for their ill- Atlantic, and is, as Marc Milner phrases it, equipped ships, for the RN assigned them to "...intimatelyconnected with Canada's naval Book Reviews 99 the slow convoys, which forced them to 1860-1960 (Boudriot, 1992). The drawings, spend more time in the air gap and more to various but constant scales, illustrate both time getting through the U-boat lines, than the original short foc's Te corvette and Agas• those escorting the faster convoys. siz as modified with her extended foc's'le. The second part of this book consists of These drawings range from full profile and photos, many of them new ones, of every plan views and sheer lines in various aspects RCN-manned corvette, including the twelve to detailed sketches of the inner workings of Castle Class ships, with a very brief sum• depth charges, the fire bucket rack, an mary of its building, modernization (eight engine room air pump, and even cross-sec• were not given the extended foc's'le) and tions of stringers and shell plate fastenings fate. This part, and the two appendices and the cap at the top of the jackstay! With listing the pendant numbers and the oper• some magnification, one could build an ational status of each ship throughout the actual corvette from these drawings. They war, are largely taken from Macpherson and are certainly all that one would need in Bishop's The Ships of Canada's Naval making any model, or part model, such as Forces, 1910-1985 (Vanwell, 1986). But the 4" gun or an anchor windlass! A few Milner's review of the corvette programme, minor errors in the text - the Hedgehog development and use, and a host of still- threw an oval pattern, not a figure-of-eight, evocative photographs make this a valuable for instance - detract not at all. The draw• reference. Some of the photos are worth the ings, in larger scale, are available from price alone — a brand new Cobourg en route McKay at Box 752, Fort Langley, BC, VOX to sea; Shediac on the West Coast as a 1J0. It is a unique, expensive, specialty book, surprisingly handsome short foc's'le; the but fascinating. startling variety in the way hull numbers were painted on. The book also provides an F.M.McKee easier-than-expected solution to the problem Markdale, Ontario of distinguishing the later Increased Endu• rance corvettes from their earlier sisters - John B. Dwyer. Scouts and Raiders: The by their lack of engineroom cowl ventilators, Navy's Special Warfare Commandos. West- due to forced draft enginerooms. As CNRS port, CT: Praeger, 1993. xiv + 189 pp., member Louis Audette, himself an ex-cor• figures, maps, photographs, glossary, select vette CO., says in the foreword, "...few bibliography, index. US $49.95,cloth; ISBN books will stir more memories." 0-275-94409-3. In Anatomy of the Ship: The Flower Class Corvette Agassiz, Dr. John Harland's A number of elite units were created during text and selection of many close-up photos World War II, and this slim volume relates (not all of them of useful clarity) and John the story of one of these. The Scouts and McKay's 500-odd meticulous drawings is Raiders (S&R) were a small group of obviously designed for the detailed model officers and men in the US Navy who volun• maker and corvette aficionado. The brief teered to learn and practice the hazardous thirteen pages of explanatory paragraphs tasks associated with finding appropriate provide a brief discussion of the class and its beaches for amphibious landings, and guid• equipment as represented specifically by ing assault troops into the right beach. HMCS Agassiz, its derivation from the These tasks have always called for special Smith's Dock and Norwegian whalecatchers individuals, capable of independent oper• (described in equally minute detail in Har• ations under difficult conditions. It will come land's previous book Catchers and Corvettes: as no surprise, therefore, to learn that this The Steam Whalecatcher in Peace and War, book is filled with tales of derring-do. 100 The Northern Mariner

The book briefly relates the origins and base for the numerous anecdotes recounted, initial training of this group, and then details and the description of individual exploits. their involvement in the war in ten succeed• This element of the book is its best element. ing chapters. These chapters are broken The author also makes some effort to down into campaigns grouped by chronology weave these individual actions into the vast or geography, as appropriate. As amphibious fabric of World War II. He has relied on operations were a hallmark of US oper• some of the broader accounts published by ations throughout the war, the list of oper• individuals involved in amphibious oper• ations where S&R units were involved ations, as well as the official USN histories covers most, but not quite all, of the US compiled by Morison. This endeavour is not amphibious operations in the war. In as successful as the depiction of individual Europe the landings in North Africa, Sicily, events, resulting in a somewhat uneven Salerno, Anzio, Elba, southern France and book. This aspect of the book is also marred Normandy are covered, as well as some by some minor errors. These detract from small actions in the Adriatic. In the Pacific, the effort to place S&R exploits in context, S&R actions were not as pervasive, missing as well as perhaps suggesting the depth of Tarawa and the Marshalls, as well as Gua• the author's research, with respect to the dalcanal, but thereafter employed in most of wider canvas of the war, was somewhat shal• the operations during the campaign along low. For example, readers might be startled the coast of New Guinea leading back to the to learn that the Isle of Wight lies south of Philippines, as well as the central Pacific Plymouth (p. 67) and that the day Rome fell thrust leading from Kwajalein through the is the same one that Allied forces landed at Marianas to Okinawa. The usual activities of Normandy (p. 61; in fact, it was two days S&R units were pre-landing reconnaissance before D-Day). of proposed landing beaches using 36-foot For those interested in small units and scout boats, rubber boats, kayaks or fol- their activities during the war, this book fills boats. On the actual day of the landings a useful niche. The firm focus on individuals S&R units would lay just off the beach and and careful attention to personal histories indicate the proper landing sites to the and anecdotes make this book interesting to assault boats using infrared lights or other read. On the other hand, those looking for devices. During the actual landings the S&R an analysis of how such units fit into the units were occasionally embarked in larger overall war effort would probably do better craft, and sometimes equipped with heavier to look elsewhere. weapons such as rockets which allowed them to provide direct support to the early waves Doug McLean of landing craft. Victoria, British Columbia In addition to the many assault landings that S&R units assisted with, there were a Charles W. Koburger, Jr. Naval Warfare in number of other actions which saw their the Eastern Mediterranean 1940-1945. West- involvement. The most usual variety was in port, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1993. xvi + support of guerilla operations. This ranged 169 pp., maps, tables, photographs, appen• from supporting Tito's troops in the Adriatic dices, glossary, annotated bibliography, to operating alongside Chinese guerillas index. US $49.95,cloth; ISBN 0-275-94465-4. deep inside China. The author conducted numerous inter• This study puts together the many threads in views with S&R veterans, as well as refer• the five years of warfare in and around the ring extensively to the unpublished memoirs Mediterranean. It does not add to our of this group. This research provides a solid knowledge of the history of this period, but Book Reviews 101 it does add to our understanding of it. The operations, and so forth, generally of a more author, an American specifically addressing intimate nature. At the same time, presum• an American audience, seeks to recast the ably, American public attention slipped away somewhat chaotic events of a chaotic period to the Pacific to focus on their own great into a more coherent tale set down in a open ocean efforts, thus weakening what balanced manner in one place. public interest there then was in the narrow His avowed purpose is to alert Ameri• seas. cans to the differences between warfare on This book will appeal to anyone inter• the open ocean, with which Americans are ested in naval operations whether pro• familiar, and on the narrow seas with which, fessional or amateur. In illuminating signifi• he suggests, they are not. In his view the cant events in the Mediterranean part of wars of the next decade will take place on World War II, it is both informative and the narrow seas, and Americans should entertaining. There is no sign of bias, and understand the difference. errors are few and minor. The book is He analyses the positions of each con• clearly and briskly written. tender as their fortunes vary over time in terms of the constraints upon their actions Gordon Stead in three categories: geography, weapons and Vancouver, British Columbia morale. For Koburger's target audience this approach may well be most effective and it Edward J. Sheehy. The U.S. Navy, the Medi• will help the rest of us, but for readers in terranean, and the Cold War, 1945-1947. the British tradition accustomed to the use Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992. xi + of naval power in both the open ocean and 191 pp.,map, photographs, notes, bibliogra• the narrow seas, there are times when it phy, index. US $45, cloth; ISBN 0-313- comes close to belabouring the obvious. It is 27615-3. hardly conceivable that the heirs of Hawke and Nelson would not be aware of the uses As American carriers and assault ships form and hazards of the geographic context. up in the Adriatic, it is useful to reflect Koburger's intent is to address this kind of upon the circumstances under which the gap in his own country's vision, and he has United States Navy first established a per• forged a useful tool for this purpose. manent presence in the Mediterranean In the Mediterranean the switch from basin. Having contributed in strength to the methods suitable for open ocean warfare to North African and Italian campaigns, the those appropriate to the narrow seas American fleets left for other seas even occurred with the collapse of Italy and the before World War II ended. Washington neutralization of its battle fleet. The removal apparently was content reverting to its of this constraint left the Mediterranean traditional acceptance of British regional Fleet with no one to fight and what dominance, dispatching warships only in remained of it was called away to other times of crisis. Within months of the end of theatres or not replaced when damaged. the war in Europe, however, the US Navy Thus the fleet actions of the "great Malta had returned. This book describes the pro• convoys," for example, gave way to the cess by which, over the course of late-1945 "piratical brawls" of the light Coastal Forces to 1947,the Americans came to be re-estab• particularly in the Aegean and the Adriatic lished in the Mediterranean, culminating in seas. Similar adjustments were made in the creation of the now-famous 6th Fleet. other components of the strategic mix, There is ample scope here to reinterpret shore- vs. ship-based air support, mines and the move not as a departure, but as a con• minesweeping, the greater use of commando tinuation of the traditional American policy. 102 The Northern Mariner

The post-war Mediterranean was fertile the Soviets. In a similar vein, the Americans' territory for application of a "crisis-oriented" response to what was the trickiest of the (p. 107) naval-diplomatic response, ringed as crises facing them - the Soviet threat to it was with opportunities to influence events Turkey - comes across as perhaps the most by "showingthe flag":Greek elections over• deftly handled, exemplifying a theme of shadowed by communist-inspired civil war; "remind but not provoke."(p. 110) Soviet threats to Turkey and control of the The text is not long (113 pages, as Dardanelles; the future of the Palestine compared to seventy-six for the detailed Mandate; rising nationalism in Egypt and notes, extensive bibliography and thorough across North Africa; even the necessity to index), but it highlights the danger of ex• bolster the confidence of Western Allies in panding a subject beyond its proper scope. French Algeria, southern France, and Italy. Important themes and opportunities for However, the author adheres to the conven• analysis become diluted in detail. The final tional interpretation, ascribing the American (six-page) concluding chapter provides a return and buildup as "a logical program of good summary, some aspects of which could naval visits to counter the perceived Soviet have been better integrated in the main text. danger to Mediterranean countries." (p. 108) With its wealth of detail, the volume is a This is certainly true in the first two situ• useful primary reference for studies of naval ations listed above, but not necessarily so in diplomacy. I was left wanting more. the others, as was appreciated even then. In fact, there is little new here. The Richard H. Gimblett volume appears to have been intended as Blackburn Hamlet, Ontario (and certainly has the makings of) a text• book case study of the application of sea Yogi Kaufman and Paul Still well; photogra• power as a tool of foreign policy. Sheehy phy by Steve and Yogi Kaufman. Sharks of makes occasional reference to the works on Steel. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, that subject by Booth, Cable, and others, but 1992. xxii + 152 pp., photographs. Cdn unfortunately this is not a stand-alone vol• $54.95,US $39.95,cloth; ISBN 1-55750-451- ume, and must be read in conjunction with 2. Canadian distributor, Vanwell Publishing, the standard texts. It is not for want of St. Catharines, Ont. material. Examples abound where timely showing of the flag appears to have been a Sharks of Steel is the companion volume to stabilizing influence, but the author does not the Discovery Channel four-part documen• exploit the opportunities for analysis, defer• tary on submarines, but stands on its own as ring to the Navy's own rationale that "[it] a richly illustrated coffee-table book. had difficulty quantifying the effects of these Although claiming to tell the story of the tours." (p. 103) The details of major battle• submarine, in fact, the focus is primarily ship and carrier cruises are all here — the upon the American experience with only ports of call, airpower demonstrations, and passing reference to the German U-boats of summaries of contemporary local reactions, the two world wars and the contemporary as well as of Washington and Moscow - but Russian 7)>/?/joo«-class submarine. The gap the impact of ongoing at-sea operations is between the chapters on the World War II left unexplored. and the present-day is bridged only by a Two themes of interest do emerge. The brief tribute to Admiral Hyman G. Rickov- close relationship between Secretaries of the er, the father of the nuclear navy. Thus, the Navy Forrestal and of State Byrnes discloses book really treats two stages in the evolution a sophistication in the application of naval of the submarine rather than the full story. power not normally related to confronting The text was written by Yogi Kaufman, Book Reviews 103 a retired US Navy admiral and former Within the limitations of the US-centred submariner, and Paul Stillwell, a naval coverage, Sharks of Steel is highly readable historian. Like the mini-series, the book is and superbly illustrated. divided into four parts: the manning of World War II submarines, wartime oper• Robert Fisher ations in the Pacific, the 688 or Los Angeles- Ottawa, Ontario class nuclear attack submarine, and the nuclear missile submarine. Stillwell and Allan Du Toit. South Africa's Fighting Ships Kaufman have created a hypothetical boat to Past and Present. Rivonia, South Africa: represent each of the three types and then Ashanti, 1992[Ashanti Publishing (Pty) Ltd, take the reader along on a typical patrol, PO Box 5091, Rivonia 2128, South Africa]. devoting considerable attention to the daily xxvii+ 360pp.,photographs, tables, general routine of the ordinary submariner, as well and ship-name indices. US $29 (+ postage), as to the duties of the captain and officers. cloth; ISBN 1-874800-50-2. This technique effectively depicts life at sea, but is less convincing in the manning chap• Because of the depreciation of the Rand ter which explores the motivations of those against the dollar, this extremely well-organ• who volunteered for submarine duty. ized and handsomely produced volume is a The photographs are the real strength real bargain for the North American war• of Sharks of Steels. Kaufman and his son ship enthusiast. It gives full particulars, shot the modern submarines, ensuring a photographs and operational history of every close relationship between the text and the unit which served in the South African Navy illustrations. In addition to spectacular from 1922 on. photographs of submarines at sea, their The expression "South African Navy" cameras take the reader inside the living first came into use in 1951, the force earlier compartments, and operational and machin• having been known as "South African Naval ery spaces of US attack and missile submar• Service" (1922-1939), "Seaward Defence ines. Crew training, maintenance, and the Force" (1939-1942), and "South African loading and storing of missiles and torped• Naval Forces" (1942-1951). As in Canada, oes are also featured. Some photographs of the onset of World War II found South a massive Russian Typhoon, the world's Africa woefully unprepared for a war at sea, largest submarine, are included but unfortu• her fleet consisting of a couple of Mersey nately none of her interior, even though the class trawlers, the survey vessel Protea, and, co-author toured one and was allowed to on order from England, the monitor Erebus. take some pictures. Full captions do justice The gap was filled by requisitioning a few to the photography. trawlers and some fifty whalers, to form The mix of photographs and art that what was essentially a "Whaler Navy." illustrate the World War II chapters have As in the RN and RCN, catchers were been drawn primarily from the US Naval fitted for sweeping acoustic and magnetic Historical Center, Navy Combat Art Collec• mines, with a generator house on the tion, and National Archives. The selection foredeck, and a Kango hammer rigged at presented is limited by an almost exclusive the bow. There was no room for a proper reliance upon early colour photographs; LL-reel, the bights of cable being there is only one black-and-white photo in manhandled in and outboard and stowed the volume. However, these rare colour fore-and-aft. After the raider Atlantis laid shots and the art do succeed in conveying a contact mines off Cape Aghulas in 1940, sense of the primitive and cramped condi• some whalers were fitted for Oropesa tions of wartime submarine life. minesweeping, a task for which they were 104 The Northern Mariner singularly ill-fitted. Apart from lacking space However, a perusal of the main section of for handling floats and multiplanes, the the book, showing the national fleets, soon whale-winch was much less adaptable to reveals that far more old warships and sub• minesweeping activity than that found in marines have been deleted than new ones trawlers. However, by substituting wire-reels added. The Russian and western navies have for the winch's warping heads, the job was been reduced in size but also, on the aver• managed somehow. age, modernised, and there are fewer classes Later in the war, the SANF acquired of ship in service. This is also becoming the three frigates, one of which, Natal, distin• case with the Canadian surface fleet as the guished itself on its way to workup at Tob• Halifax class frigates replace older types, but ermory by sinking a U-boat four hours after not our submarine force which must still leaving the builder's yard! There was no make do with obsolete "O" class boats. large scale wartime shipbuilding in South The US Navy is still incomparably pow• Africa, but a great deal of repair work was erful: really major cuts are yet to come. In carried on, and some of the smaller yards, Russia, the new carrier Admiral Kuznetsov such as Louw & Halvorsen in Cape Town, has been conducting trials with fixed-wing turned out HDMLs as well as building aircraft; the other two Northern Fleet car• MFVs for the Royal Navy.Besides manning riers are reduced to helicopters only, while the ships of the SANF, a great many South the two Pacific Fleet ships are out of ser• Africans served in the wartime Royal Navy. vice, one permanently. There are problems The postwar build up of the SANF was with the disposal of old nuclear submarines. fraught with problems, mainly of a political However, anyone who visited the cruiser nature. In the immediate postwar years they Marshal Ustinov and the destroyer Admiral re-equipped by acquiring ex-RN vessels, but Kharlamov during their visit to Halifax this from 1964 on, Britain became unwilling to summer could not fail to be impressed by supply them with modern warships. Four these formidable and well-kept warships. It corvettes were ordered in Portugal but these is clear that Russia, in spite of economic were seized by the government following a problems, intends to keep up a navy. coup d'état in 1974. Then a pair of sloops of France continues the very long-drawn- the D'Estienne D'Orves class were ordered out construction of the nuclear powered in France. These had actually been commis• carrier Charles de Gaulle, which was com• sioned by their crews when the French menced in 1989 but probably won't be in government embargoed the sale. service until 1998. Post cold-war situations All in all, this book is highly recom• may well call for different types of naval mended. vessel. The Italian navy is building the third of a very economical and versatile type of John Harland Landing Ship (Dock), with a full flight deck, Kelowna, British Columbia which would be very suitable for United Nations operations. The United Kingdom is Richard Sharpe (ed.). Jane's Fighting Ships considering a larger similar vessel. Other 1993-94. Coulsden, Surrey, England: Jane's navies are continuing the trends noted last Information Group Ltd., 1993.875pp.,pho• year. British Leander and American Knox tographs, glossary, indexes. £145, cloth; class frigates are being passed on to minor ISBN 0-7106-1065-3. navies in all parts of the world, replacing much older ships. It is interesting to find This year's Jane's does not, at first, seem that a number of ex-USN World War II very different from last year's edition, destroyers are still in service in countries (reviewed in TNM/LMN September 1992). like Turkey, Greece, Brazil and Taiwan. Book Reviews 105

These are nearly fifty years old - a great inside look at the challenges and dangers tribute to their builders. facing naval test pilots in the 1990s."It is The editor makes his usual comprehen• written by a military correspondent for the sive survey of the naval situation, region by Washington Post who had previously pro• region. He discusses the need for expertise vided a similar pop history of life aboard the in the command and control of joint oper• USS John F. Kennedy. ations, especially international ones, and he Wilson begins by sketching an anecdotal touches on social issues such as women and history of the evolution of test flying in the homosexuals in the services. This is the USN from its origins in 1911 up to the section on which the press likes to pounce, establishment of the Experimental Test especially when "dire warnings "are included, Flight Center at Patuxent "Pax"River, Mary• but this time there is not much that is really land in 1942. The actual story of the devel• controversial. We are again reminded that opment of the base itself is extremely inter• industrial nations that trade by sea need esting, calling to mind the frenzied develop• competent navies. All this is true, of course, ment of hundreds of similar air fields in though it is sometimes hard to sell to gov• Canada at the same time, replete with ernments intent on retrenchment. gamblers and ladies of leisure among the There is a new section on the ranks and cast of characters. It soon became obvious insignia of the world's navies, and the flag that not only were acceptance and experi• section now includes Croatia and Slovenia, mental testing required but the need to train as well as the white flag with a blue lower pilots to do so systematically was critical to border, (actually the old Soviet ensign with the whole endeavour. This began in 1945 red star and hammer and sickle removed) some two years after a similar system had that is the flag of the Russian/Ukrainian been developed in the United Kingdom at Black Sea Fleet. The rest of the Russian the Empire Test Pilots School, a fact to Navy now flies the blue St. Andrew's cross which the author does not refer. of the old Tsarist Navy and, in port, the old The bulk of the book is concerned with Tsarist jack, which is rather like a British the personalities and experiences of a class Union Jack with the colours reversed. of thirty-four military and civilian aviators, Since the book was published, several including one Canadian, as they progress nations have announced even more drastic through the US Navy test pilot class at cuts. These will be reflected in next year's Patuxent "Pax" River, Maryland in 1991, edition. Jane's continues to be up-to-date, including the type of flying that they did, the detailed and full of informed comment; the applications for their training and their most comprehensive reference book on the subsequent careers. The anecdotal style navies of the world. employed provides a breezy insight into this obviously high stress environment and the Douglas Maginley ambitious, competitive and motivated people Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia who inhabit it. Moving somewhat beyond the realm of George C. Wilson. Flying the Edge: The the actual training of the test pilots, Wilson Making of Navy Test Pilots. Annapolis, MD: also ventures into a description of the grave Naval Institute Press, 1992.271 pp., photo• risks such flying involves, the tragedies graphs, index. Cdn. $29.95, US $22, cloth; which occur and the shortcomings of Pax ISBN 1-55750-925-5. Canadian distributor, River's emergency response operation in the Vanwell Publishing, St. Catharines, Ont. face of crashes into Chesapeake Bay. Beyond that, he indulges in a critical evalu• This book is billed as "...avery personal ation of the US Navy decision to adopt and 106 The Northern Mariner adapt the British Aerospace Hawk as a tion, the most valuable part - covers his shipboard trainer against the advice of its combat career in the Vietnam War. Bet• test pilots and an opinionated review of the ween May 1965 and July 1966, Foster flew controversial 1991 Tail Hook convention an incredible 163 attack missions, a total whose antics are still washing over the Navy. made remarkable not only by the fact that The Hawk story is typical of controversial his carrier was on station for less than seven weapons systems procurement experiences months of that period but also because the and tangential to the central purpose of the author had previously flown seventy-five book. The excursion into Tail Hook is missions in the Korean War (of which, completely out of place in a book about unhappily, little is said). Far from presenting training test pilots, though of significant a dreary chronicle describing mission after importance in its own right. mission, Foster takes us inside the inner It is difficult not to recommend this workings of an attack squadron - in this book because it does provide many insights case VA-163, the famous "Saints." The into the process of developing test pilots and reader gains valuable insights about the of testing contemporary aircraft. It sheds a reliable A4E Skyhawk (or "Tinker Toy" to critical but not unique spotlight on the its pilots), the anatomy of a strike, life in the dynamics of weapons procurement and the ready room, the strain from flying seemingly interface between the industry and its mili• endless missions and the negative impact tary customers. The focus is not sharp, that the restrictive rules of engagement however, and the reader can tire of the imposed by the Pentagon and White House reconstructed conversations and the some• had on morale. Foster commanded VA-163 what clean cut approach to it all. from December 1965 and his comments on this assignment, particularly the challenge of Christopher J. Terry handling one pilot not performing up to Ottawa, Ontario snuff, are illustrative of the heavy responsi• bilities that come with that position. Wynn F. Foster. Captain Hook: A Pilot's Captain Hook would be good value if it Tragedy and Triumph in the Vietnam War. ended there but what follows is a wonderful Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1992. tale of courage and determination. In July xiii + 242pp.,photographs, appendix, index. 1965, Foster was wheeling into a bomb run Cdn $36.50,US $26.95,cloth; ISBN 1-55750- over North Vietnam when AAA ripped 256-0. Canadian distributor, Vanwell Pub• through his cockpit, severing his right arm lishing, St. Catharines, Ontario. above the elbow. Squeezing the wound with his left hand to stem the flow of blood, the Captain Hook is two stories. The first con• dazed pilot coaxed his damaged Skyhawk cerns the author's career as a navy attack out of enemy air space before ejecting over pilot in the air war over Vietnam; the sec• a destroyer positioned off the coast. Seven• ond describes the loss of an arm in combat teen excruciating minutes after being hit, and, once recovery from that horrible wound Foster was plucked from the ocean by the was complete, his fight to remain in the US ship's whaler. Navy. In combination the two make an The aviator recovered from his wound enjoyable and informative book. but does not mince words about the some• Although Foster's wound and struggle times inept and de-humanizing medical to stay on the active list seems to attract the treatment he received upon his return to the most attention in reviews and in the publish• United States. Mainly due to his own efforts, er's promotional material, the vast majority Foster learned to adapt to the loss of his of the book - and, in this reviewer's estima- right arm and was eventually fitted with a Book Reviews 107 prosthesis. He then faced an uphill battle to ations as Alcohol Stove Operation, Man remain on the active list. Foster knew that Overboard Recovery, VHF Channels for US he could not fly again but thought himself Radio Users, and so on. The appendices in• well-qualified to perform other duties. clude checklists of various sorts, practice Others in the medical and personnel questions and answers, glossary and short branches were not so sure but, with the bibliography. support of several officers in influential A pleasing, uncluttered page layout and positions, he surmounted numerous bureau• clear, uncomplicated prose render this cratic hurdles to win his case. Foster soon manual highly readable and instructive. The found himself back off Vietnam as oper• essentials are here from the opening section ations officer in a carrier, and was eventually titled Getting Acquainted (topside orienta• promoted to captain, hence the obvious tion, clothing and personal gear, safety moniker "Captain Hook." equipment, starting, stopping, etc.) to Sec• This book is recommended to anyone tion V, Problem Solving/Trouble Shooting interested in naval air or who just wants a (dragging anchor, running aground, engine good read. failure, etc.). This is an American manual and uses Michael Whitby American references. In the matter of safety Almonte, Ontario there are differences in requirements between the American and Canadian Coast Harry Munns and Hal Sutphen (eds.). Cruis• Guards. Thus, horseshoe liferings(p. 11) are ing Fundamentals. Camden, ME: Interna• acceptable in the United States but not in tional Marine Publishing and American Sail• Canada, where the solid lifering is required. ing Association, 1992. i + 127 pp., photo• (The Canadian authorities argue that the graphs, illustrations, appendices, bibliogra• solid ring can be thrown more effectively.) phy, index. US $17.95,paper; ISBN 0-87742- According to Cruising Fundamentals vessels 334-2. less than forty feet are not specifically required to cany a whistle, horn or bell. Not Cruising Fundamentals is a manual for the so in Canada, where a horn is required and novice sailor intent on becoming a compet• twelve distress flares, of which six at least ent coastal cruising sailor in vessels thirty to must be nighttime visible. Apparently in the fifty feet in length. The basics of the subject United States, this requirement is reduced of sailing are covered in the American Sail• to three daylight (smoke) and three night• ing Association (ASA) publication, Sailing time (light) visual distress signals. Fundamentals. The material in Cruising Fun• Harry Munns, a founder of the Ameri• damentals will prepare the student for ASA can Sailing Association, has trained hun• Certification. dreds of sailing instructors. This fact alone The manual is divided into five sections, should be sufficient recommendation for each containing sailing knowledge and skills. Cruising Fundamentals. Sailing knowledge discusses theoretical mat• ters; sailing skills deal with the elements of Geoffrey H. Farmer sailing which must be performed and prac• St. John's, Newfoundland tised. Each section is illustrated with clear black and white photographs and diagrams. Section summaries and conclusions are high• lighted, including review questions for Sec• tions I to III. Highlighted marginal boxes detail step procedures for such diverse oper•