BOOK REVIEWS Georg Albrecht Koefoed. Forsøg til en Dansk ence." Danish officers serving in the two foreign Søe Ord-Bog med Beskrivelse paa hver Ord og navies sent regular reports to Copenhagen of deres Benådning i det Frandske og Engelske their experiences. Comparison of the handwrit• Sprog; An Attempt to Compile a Danish Marine ing of the three documents with those in reports Dictionary with a description of every Word and of the officers in foreign service, determined Their Translation into the French and English that the author was George A. Koefoed. Languages. Søhistoriske Skrifter, Vol. XVII; Born in 1753, Koefoed entered the Danish Handels- og Søfartsmuseet på Kronborg, 1993. navy at the age of 12, then was promoted to lxiii + 301 pp., illustrations, appendices, English sub-lieutenant in 1758 before serving in the index. DKr 450, cloth; ISBN 87-7790-021-9. Danish Mediterranean squadron from 1770- 1772. He served in the British navy in 1775- Some museums have unsolved mysteries in their 1776 and in the French navy from 1778 to 1783. collections, especially older institutions where He commanded Denmark's Mediterranean items were just collected and their origins were squadron from 1800 to 1803, then became unrecorded. The Danish Maritime Museum at governor of Bornholm in 1807. According to the Helsingør had such a mystery. It consisted of fascinating introduction by A.N. Moller, Koe• three old manuscripts, a French-Danish maritime foed modelled his dictionary on M. Lescallier's dictionary, a Danish-French maritime dictionary bilingual French-English dictionary published in containing twenty-four illustrations, and a 1777. He found that 90 per cent of Koefoed's Danish maritime dictionary with descriptions of dictionary's plates were borrowed from Les- each term with translations into English and callier. Nonetheless, Koefoed adapted these to French. The three documents may have entered meet Danish needs. Thus, most of the ships the collections over sixty years ago. AH three illustrated wear the Danish ensign, and some were written in the same hand, but no one knew included are types known only in the Baltic. who the author was, what his purpose was or AH of the introductory chapters in both when he wrote the manuscripts, or who sent the Danish and English are invaluable. One section documents to the museum? of this edition of the dictionary deals with This last mystery has yet to be solved, but Danish eighteenth-century handwriting language answers have been worked out to the other (Denmark used the gothic script until 1878). questions. The royal monogram on some of the Pages 250-51 show the letter forms typical of plates suggests the manuscripts were written eighteenth and early nineteenth century Danish. between 1766 and 1808. Plate No. 1 shows the This is useful for examination of holographic royal monogram of King Christian VII on the documents from that period. Another section stern of a ship of the line launched in 1780. covers the preservation, editing, printing, scope Moreover, a scrap of paper found in the mari• and usage of the dictionary. Thus, the Danish time dictionary is dated 24 March, 1792. It word hundsvot is translated into French as ringo therefore seemed probable that the manuscript's ou ringot and into English as "a strop in the author was one of the many Danish and Swedish neck of a tackle block for the standing part of a naval officers who volunteered for service in the runner." An English index is included that refers British and French navies during the eighteenth "to the Danish head words" of the dictionary, for and nineteenth centuries to gain "war experi• example, "steering wheel" in Danish is rattet, 44 The Northern Mariner shown in French as Roue de gouvernail. More• clear, however, on how vessels were selected for over, the translation of Danish, Norwegian and inclusion in this book. The publisher refers to it Swedish nautical terms into English or French is as a "comprehensive reference work," but we are aided by the publication of the Koefoed diction• left wondering just what that means. By what ary, owing to the similarities in these languages. criteria were ships and countries included? Did The twenty-four plates include illustrations Jones visit the sites personally? What, in his of vessel types, ship construction, rigging, sails terms, is a warship? A brief summary of these and dockyard equipment such as a mast, crane considerations would have aided in understand• and a rope walk. All major items and their com• ing the book's coverage. ponents shown on the plates are numbered, and This lack of clarity about its purpose listed. Component parts are designated by letter. reduces the book's usefulness to some extent. For example, Plate No. 20 shows the cut water; Though it includes mailing addresses and tele• item 259 DC is the rabbet cut in the stem post. phone numbers, it does not provide information Thanks to the Iver Weilbach Charitable regarding open hours and seasons, admission Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. J. Marcussen who prices and directions for finding the site. Nor voluntarily edited and prepared the manuscript does it have the clear focus of other similar for printing, and the Danish Maritime Museum works, like Delgado and Clifford's Great Ameri• at Helsingør, all who are interested in eight• can Ships (reviewed here in January 1993), eenth- and nineteenth-century Nordic maritime which covers only vessels in the United States history now have an invaluable and an excep• preserved and open to the public, or Harry tionally fine aid for their research. Butkowski's Warships Associated with World War II in the Pacific, which covers surviving Dan Harris American vessels from that theatre. A brief Nepean, Ontario index listing the vessels included and their construction dates would also be of interest. J. Michael Jones. Historic Warships: A Direc• In his introduction, Jones suggests that tory of 140 Museums and Memorials Worldwide, much of the fascination that preserved vessels with Histories. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & hold for their visitors comes from the insight Company, 1993 [Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640, they can offer into the society of their time. USA], xxvi + 245 pp., illustrations, photographs, What shows up equally clearly in this book, bibliography, index. US $45 ($47 postpaid), however, is how the surviving ships are also a cloth; ISBN 0-89950-779-4. history of our historical preoccupations. One cannot help be struck, reading through these This guidebook provides vital statistics and a listings, with the preponderance of certain brief history for 144 preserved warships from classes of vessel, such as World War Il-era twenty-five countries. The chapters are organ• submarines and American battleships, and the ized by country, and ships are described alpha• relative lack of others. Some useful information betically within each chapter. Each country's could be drawn from the examples in this and naval history is given a short introduction, and other similar books to look at trends and pat• most of the ships are illustrated by a photograph. terns in ship preservation, and their relationship The information provided for each ship is to wider historical concerns. concise and useful; obvious facts such as prin• One questionable inclusion is that of US ciple dimensions, rig, tonnage and armament are Brig Niagara, listed as having been completed given as well as less-common but equally useful in May 1813. While that fact is in itself true, the information such as name changes, the ship's vessel bears only the most tenuous relationship type and class, and dates for her laying down, to the present replica, and it is pushing the point launching, commissioning and paying-off. too far to claim Niagara as a preserved vessel in In his introduction, J. Michael Jones lists the same class as, for instance, the Foudroyant, some of the reasons that warships have been launched in 1817. This book unfortunately also preserved and what kind of historical informa• persists in the sterile and irksome habit of tion and experience they can provide. He is less referring to ships as "it," instead of "she." Book Reviews 45 Overall, the volume is an interesting addi• photographs is designed for mass consumption tion to the literature on preserved historic by avid sport divers, whether they are exploring vessels, though it will not replace any of the shipwrecks on the west coast, east coast, in the standard works. Greater clarity about the criteria Great Lakes, or, for that matter, anywhere in the employed in choosing the vessels for inclusion world where shipwrecks abound. would have made it more useful. Its relatively The simple, clean line drawings of ship• high price may also work against it. wreck artifacts as they were when new are easily interpreted, while the written descriptions John Summers are equally succinct. The opening chapter out• Toronto, Ontario lines the weakening and eventual collapse of a sunken vessel, with easily understood descrip• David Leigh Stone. The Wreck Diver's Guide to tions of sedimentation and disturbance. Subse• Sailing Ship Artifacts of the 19th Century. quent chapters describe specific parts of the Vancouver: Underwater Archaeological Society vessel, from ballast, keel, frames, and planking of British Columbia, 1993 [UASBC, 1905 to anchors, masts, spars, rigging, blocks, naviga• Ogden Street, Vancouver, BC V6J 1A3; ATTN: tion and steering gear, capstan, windlass, and Carole Valkenier], viii + 94 pp., figures, photo• pumps — in short, all the structures and fittings graphs, references, index. $19.95 + postage that comprised a wooden sailing ship are delin• ($3.50 in Canada), paper; ISBN 0-9695010-1-3. eated. While simplistic to the professional archaeologist, since it avoids lofty postulations Years ago, in the unenlightened, post-World on subjects like the primary data over interpreta• War II dark ages, sport scuba divers descended tion, or the field stabilization of artifacts, this upon shipwreck remains, often identifying only guide will leave its intended audience, namely the choicest artifacts that they stole from the site sport divers, craving opportunities to apply its to sell for cash or to display in their homes as lessons.