Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower (1742–1814) John B
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Naval War College Review Volume 72 Article 13 Number 3 Summer 2019 2019 Champion of the Quarterdeck: Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower (1742–1814) John B. Hattendorf Ian M. Bates Follow this and additional works at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review Recommended Citation Hattendorf, John B. and Bates, Ian M. (2019) "Champion of the Quarterdeck: Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower (1742–1814)," Naval War College Review: Vol. 72 : No. 3 , Article 13. Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol72/iss3/13 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 166 HattendorfNAVAL WAR and COLLEGE Bates: Champion REVIEW of the Quarterdeck: Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower (1742–1814 document the way in which China is incorporating social media into the work of its security services, creating a socially enabled totalitarianism� Champion of the Quarterdeck: Admiral Sir Eras- mus Gower (1742–1814), by Ian M� Bates� Po- Like War is a work of journalism, mona, QLD, Austral�: Sage Old Books, 2017� 384 not social science� Readers seeking pages� $38� original research or big-data analysis Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower is, perhaps, in support of the authors’ conclusions the least known of all the British admi- will be disappointed� The book’s rals during the age of Nelson� Although source notes frequently cite blog posts little known today as a naval officer, his alongside peer-reviewed studies, with name is indeed on the map: Cape Gower no obvious distinction in how much in China, Gower Harbour in Papua New weight is given to each� Still, Singer and Guinea, Gower Island in the Solomon Brooking have done thorough research Islands, Gower Lake in Newfoundland, into the psychology and sociology of Gower Point in British Columbia, how and why messages become viral and Gower Street in Saint John’s, and what gives viral messages power, Newfoundland� A man of such note is as well as numerous interviews with undoubtedly worthy of a biographical a variety of actors in the social media study � Ian M� Bates, who retired after a space � They have assembled a compel- career with Australia’s Department of ling anecdotal narrative with short, External Territories in the public service evocative profiles and vignettes that of Papua New Guinea, has taken up the bring texture and life to their story� challenge and produced this extensively The most disappointing omission from researched study of Gower’s naval career� the book is any concrete sense of what A modest man, Erasmus Gower left can be done to counter the pernicious neither a memoir nor personal files of effects of social media� The authors correspondence, leaving Bates to ferret conclude with a call for readers to be through masses of archival material to discerning consumers of news—a call piece the story together from official that feels both pro forma and inadequate documents to verify and expand on to the threat they describe� Singer and the few printed notices of his life that Brooking have illuminated an important appeared in the contemporary Naval problem but offer little cause for hope Chronicle� Born in Wales in 1742, Gower or optimism about its resolution� joined the Royal Navy at the age of Like War enters a crowded field of books thirteen in 1756 and served until 1807, on the political impact of social media� when he retired as a vice admiral, and It is distinguished by its readability and later rose to admiral of the white on thorough research� I highly recommend the retired list� Bates has summarized it to policy makers and military officers Gower’s varied and extensive career in seeking a better understanding of the the following lines: “No other contem- information forces that are shaping porary officer approached his accumu- contemporary and future battles� lated experience or could claim to have completed two circumnavigations of DOYLE HODGES the world� Crossed the equator eighteen Published by U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons, 2019 1 NWC_Summer2019Review.indb 166 5/2/19 11:35 AM Naval War College Review, Vol. 72 [2019], No. 3, Art. 13 BOOK REVIEWS 167 times, the Atlantic twenty-four times, active-duty assignment as commodore the Pacific twice, been shipwrecked and and governor of Newfoundland� Some stranded, conveyed a first-of-its-type prominent naval officers held the post of diplomatic mission, served in the commodore-governor of Newfoundland Caribbean, East Indies, and China, between 1729 and 1825, but in most na- three times in the Mediterranean and val histories and biographies, historians Newfoundland, numerous times off the typically summarize their roles in only a French, Portuguese, and Spanish coasts� few lines� Additionally, the battle of Tra- Add to this, inclusion amongst those falgar dominates most naval history for more widely celebrated naval officers the years 1804–1806� It is beneficial to for cutting out expeditions under heavy find in this volume a detailed account of fire, being wounded in battle, receiving Erasmus Gower’s work in civil, military, the thanks of both houses of Parliament, and naval administration as well as fish- [and] sharing in the capture of more ery protection during these same years� than fifty ships” (p� 1)� Bates provides All in all, Bates’s volume on Admiral a highly detailed narrative description, Gower sheds light on the life and with extensive quotations from original career of a very interesting and documents, describing Erasmus Gower’s highly accomplished naval officer whose naval career� The volume has twenty- experiences scholars have overlooked five chapters, with five appendices, for too long� The volume makes a which include a handy section of valuable addition to the extensive short biographical sketches of people literature on the age of Nelson and a closely associated with Gower and an useful reference volume for any library annotated list of all the ships that Gower collection in that area of naval history� served in, commanded, or captured� JOHN B� HATTENDORF The book offers much detail of great interest to specialists in naval history� General readers are likely to be in- terested in the chapters on Gower’s expe- riences with Carteret’s voyage (1766–69), Tidal Wave: From Leyte Gulf to Tokyo Bay, by his subsequent shipwreck in HM sloop Thomas McKelvey Cleaver� New York: Osprey, Swift, and the two chapters that describe 2018� 320 pages� $32� the naval aspects of Earl Macartney’s Tidal Wave covers well-trodden ground, voyage to China as Britain’s ambassador looking at the final nine months of in 1792–94� During the voyage to China, World War II� With so much previously Sir Erasmus Gower commanded the written, finding a new angle is chal- flagship, the sixty-four-gun HMS Lion, lenging, and Cleaver sets up to focus which, along with two accompanying on the epic battle between the Japanese vessels, carried the embassy to and from special-attack units—the kamikaze—and China. In telling this story, Bates has the U�S� Third/Fifth Fleet� Unfortu- used Gower’s previously unpublished nately, Tidal Wave fails to deliver new manuscript journal now held at Cornell analysis� Insightful in spots, the book University Library� The final chapters wanders to earlier battles to trace the of the book discuss Gower’s final lineage of aviation squadrons and https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol72/iss3/13 2 NWC_Summer2019Review.indb 167 5/2/19 11:35 AM.