Matthew Fontaine Maury, Father of Oceanography: A Biography, 1806-1873

John Grady

Matthew Fontaine Maury is very much an oddity in the pantheon of the United States’s naval heroes. Whereas virtually all such heroes achieved their status as a consequence of their bravery in action, Maury is revered for his scientific accomplishments. In addition, though Maury most certainly actively participated in war, such efforts were reviled during his lifetime and for many years after his death. Finally, while many of his peers who fought for the Confederacy received their due acknowledgement for their services from the nation as a whole quite quickly after the Civil War ended, Maury steadfastly adhered to the Confederate States of America, even in defeat, hindering honoring his accomplishments.

This new biography, by John Grady, is a remarkably thorough narrative of his background and life, and is the first new assessment in some thirty years. He comprehensively covers the vicissitudes of his family’s experiences after the Revolution, Maury’s hardscrabble upbringing, and his early naval life.

Maury’s seagoing career was halted by injury, and he moved on to undertake the work for which he is most famous: navigation and oceanography. His research, conducted over many years, in determining wind patterns and charting them to make them useful to mariners was revolutionary and contributed mightily to the advance of the American merchant marine in the years before the Civil War.

When war came, Maury, without hesitation, opted to serve the Confederacy. His most notable contributions to its cause were working with others to secure orders for ships in Europe and perfecting electrically-detonated mines (then often called torpedoes). This latter work, especially when he applied it for defense against attack on land, generated considerable opprobrium, since it was considered an underhand tactic.

After the Confederacy’s defeat, Maury essentially exiled himself, largely because he was very uncertain he would be granted amnesty if he returned to the United States. He involved himself in schemes to resettle disaffected southerners in Mexico in conjunction with the French ambitions (that ultimately failed disastrously) to establish Emperor Maximilian there. He finally returned to the United States in 1868 to a new career in academia.

The depth of Grady’s research is amply demonstrated by the very comprehensive bibliography. This effort pays off in his exhaustive detailing of the events of Maury’s life. This detail, however, seems to this reviewer to mask Grady’s limited analysis of his material; he does not go beyond the bald statements of fact to explore Maury’s motivations and assess his impact more completely. Nevertheless, this biography is a major contribution to the study of this remarkable naval officer.

Reviewed by William Emerson, San Diego, California

Patroons & Periaguas: Enslaved Watermen and Watercraft of the Lowcountry

Lynn B. Harris

Small watercraft, especially logboats, make wonderful subjects for models (Irwin Schuster’s recent presentations in the Nautical Research Journal illustrate this well). They are simple to build, their size allows for construction at a large scale, and, above all, they are readily identifiable within their cultures.

Dr. Harris’s new book is a splendid illustration of the interconnection between material culture—in the form of working watercraft in South Carolina—and the societies that generate it. It is a fascinating combination of archaeological reportage, watercraft documentation, traditional historical documentary research, and iconographic presentation woven together to reveal a totally absorbing account of the complexities of South Carolina’s lowcountry society in the era of slavery.

A remarkable feature of this book is the author’s ability to go beyond the traditional historical approach by including a substantial body of very personal narratives from the enslaved watermen of the period. This lends her story a powerful immediacy that is utterly compelling and engaging, and is unusual.

Overall, this is a most impressive work. It is occasionally obvious that Dr. Harris’s grasp of the nuances of nautical terminology (or perhaps that of her editor) is a little less than complete (for example, the stern sheets noted on page 97 have nothing to do with sails), but this is a minor point when compared to her achievement.

Reviewed by George Mason, Raleigh, North Carolina

Discovering the North-West Passage: The Four-Year Arctic Odyssey of H.M.S. Investigator and the McClure Expedition

Glenn M. Stein

During the first half of the nineteenth century the Royal Navy dispatched a series of significant expeditions to explore the Arctic, both from a purely scientific perspective and, more importantly, in an effort to find a North-West passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, thus bypassing the lengthy and often perilous voyage around Cape Horn. The most well-known of these, by far, was that led by Sir John Franklin, which departed England in May 1845 and was last encountered two months later.

The expedition was presumed lost when no further word was received for two years (the ships had become trapped in ice and the crews attempted to march overland to return), the British government launched a series of efforts to locate and rescue it. After an overland expedition failed, the Royal Navy sent two groups to u8ndertajke the search, one from the Atlantic end of the presumed passage and the other from the Pacific. The latter, led by Commander Robert McClure (a veteran of Arctic exploration) is the subject of Glenn M. Stein’s excellent book.

The McClure Expedition is noteworthy, not for locating the Franklin Expedition survivors (it did not) but for the extent of the surviving documentation pertaining to its efforts, the existence of a remarkable collection of images by Lieutenant Samuel Cresswell of its activities, and the drive of Commander McClure that resulted in he and his men succeeding in traversing the Arctic from the Pacific to the Atlantic in the course of a monumental four-year journey, in large part on foot after their ship, HMS Investigator, became trapped in the ice.

Stein fully exploits the trove of material relating to this expedition to present a gripping story of ordinary men accomplishing extraordinary things. His book is a tale of high adventure, but it also is fully documented to the highest academic standards. Perhaps the author’s greatest accomplishment is that he demonstrates conclusively that careful attention to scholarly apparatus need not be any impediment to producing an exciting and absorbing adventure story.

Reviewed by Kevin O’Mara, San Francisco, California

The Battle for Britain: Interservice Rivalry between the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, 1909-1940

Anthony J. Cumming

The creation of the Royal Air Force on April 1, 1918 was largely a wartime expedient intended to unify the sometimes competing aviation interests of the Royal Navy and the British Army in the cause of defeating Germany at a critical juncture during World War I. Its subsequent evolution during the inter-war period never adequately resolved the tensions between the Air Force’s doctrinal commitment to the supremacy of independent aerial operations and the Navy’s requirement for an air arm integrated within the fleet in order to fulfil its operational requirements.

On the basis of his own in-depth research and much recent published work, Anthony Cumming paints a very different picture of Britain’s wartime successes and failures up to the end of 1940. His perspectives on the campaign in Norway, the evacuation from Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, and the collapse of German plans for a cross-Channel invasion are markedly at odds with conventional wisdom on these topics.

At the heart of Cumming’s thesis is his analysis of the efficacy of the combatants’ air power doctrines, especially as they pertain to naval operations. He contends (and the evidence he presents supports him) that air power—as deployed by the Royal Air Force, the Luftwaffe, and the Regia Aeronautica—was largely ineffective against warships, even in narrow waters. Off Norway and in the Mediterranean, where the Royal Navy operated with minimal air cover, its losses to air attack were very small. Even at Dunkirk, where large numbers of vessels were lost to air attack, the vast majority were non-combatants, unarmed and too slow to take effective evasive action. By way of contrast, he points out that, even at the time, it was obvious that, while the Air Force’s bombers were largely ineffective in sinking German invasion craft, the Royal Navy’s light forces (cruisers, destroyers, and motor torpedo boats) wrought havoc against them, even inside the French ports, and it was this success, rather than the outcome of the Battle of Britain, that ended the invasion threat.

Cumming also emphasizes the doctrinal corollary of successful air power integrated with the fleet. Although German stukas at this time generally were failures for anti-shipping operations, the Royal Navy’s dive bombers successfully sank the cruiser Königsberg in the defended Norwegian port of Bergen. Seven months later, twenty-one naval torpedo bombers launched from the carrier Illustrious sank three Italian battleships inside the Regia Marina’s principal base at Taranto. The contrast could not be starker.

The Battle for Britain challenges conventional wisdom and asks us to re-examine long-held beliefs about air power in a different way. It is a very important contribution to the history of World War II.

Reviewed by Steven Fitzgerald, Wilmington, Delaware

Home Squadron: The U.S. Navy on the North Atlantic Station

James C. Rentfrow

Historians have long dated the rise of the modern United States Navy to the twenty-five years between the 1883 Naval Appropriations Bill that was the genesis of the New Steel Navy and the 1907-1909 cruise of the Great White Fleet. This period witnessed a total transformation of the materiel of the Navy from wooden steam-powered cruising ships with full sail rigs to armored steel battleships and cruisers wholly dependent on their engines for mobility.

These technical changes were so profound that, to a very great extent, historians have concentrated most of their efforts on researching, analyzing, and describing them as explaining the transition of the United States Navy from a third-rate force to a fleet of the first rank. In Home Squadron, however, Commander Rentfrow makes the case for a far more important transformation within the Navy that occurred simultaneously. The Old Navy was a force whose missions were coast defense, showing the flag around the world, and commerce raiding in wartime. The materiel of the New Navy could fulfil those missions, but creating a world-class force required developing a new operational doctrine of concentrated fleet operations that could contend with the battlefleets of the European powers.

Rentfrow identifies the great changes in the operational perspectives of the North Atlantic (or Home) Squadron in the years just prior to the Spanish-American War as the foundation for those of the modern fleet. Even though the equipment of the squadron reflected the Navy’s transition from wooden vessels to steel warships, it was not until the late 1880s that even ad hoc concentrations of its units occurred for training and exercises. Then, between 1895 and 1897, the Home Squadron became essentially a permanently unified combat force that developed the foundational operational concepts that underlay American successes in 1898, admittedly against a less well-organized opponent.

Stephen B. Luce and John G. Walker were the two intellectual luminaries who, more than most, drove this change. Rentfrow’s analysis of the intellectual currents of the time form an essential component of his argument.

It is surprising that Home Squadron should represent such a transformation of the historiography of the modern United States Navy. Nevertheless, Rentfrow’s book accomplishes this feat. It illuminates the importance of coherent doctrine for military prowess and, as such, is a welcome antidote to the seduction of technological brilliance.

Reviewed by Michael O’Brien, Tampa, Florida

Shipwrecked In Paradise: Cleopatra’s Barge in Hawai’i

Paul F. Johnston

Cleopatra’s Barge was one of the more historically significant ships in American maritime history. Built in 1816, it was the first private seagoing yacht built in North America. In its day, it attracted the type of crowds associated with celebrities when it docked.

Shipwrecked In Paradise: Cleopatra’s Barge in Hawai’i, by Paul F. Johnston, tells both the story of the ship and of its recovery by marine archaeologists.

The ship was built for George Crowninshield, Jr., an eccentric Salem, Massachusetts shipping magnate who made a fortune privateering in the War of 1812. He spent some of the money gained during that war to build the then-last word in yachts. He spent a fortune building and outfitting Cleopatra’s Barge, a hermaphrodite brig intended for trans-Atlantic voyaging. He planned many visits to Europe, but died after the first, a trip to the Mediterranean (where he failed to find an Italian princess to wed).

The heir, his brother, sold the ship to King Liholiho of Hawai’i for 8000 piculs (one million pounds) of sandalwood. It remained the Royal Hawaiian Yacht until 1824, when it wrecked in Hanalei Bay in Kaua’i Island (Liholiho was away on a trip to England). The partially-salvaged wreck eventually settled in the bay’s bottom. Paul Johnston, the curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian Institution, was fascinated by this story. Given an opportunity to examine Cleopatra’s Barge, he took it.

The first section of the book describes Johnston’s adventures excavating the ship. It provides an inside look at marine archeology. He includes descriptions of the dives, and the less expected (or desired) aspects. Johnston’s description of his quest to obtain excavation permits is amusing reading, but rivalled the travails of Odysseus.

He then explores the history of the ship itself, telling of its original and subsequent owners, the society in which the ship existed, and the ship’s travels. Johnston provides an entertaining and informative tale. For those interested in maritime history of the early 1800s, this chapter makes the book worth reading.

The next section examines Cleopatra’s Barge’s structure and equipment. It describes the ship’s appearance, including comparing Johnston’s findings to previous assumptions about the ship. Johnston discusses the materials used to build Cleopatra’s Barge, and develops a probable interior arrangement of the ship. It also covers shipbuilding techniques contemporary to Cleopatra’s Barge’s construction.

This is followed with a chapter about what was found during the excavation, both modern and nineteenth century. Part of the challenge in an archaeological study is determining what belongs with the wreck studied, and what just drifted into the site. The contemporaneous artifacts aboard the wreck reveal much about life at that time.

Shipwrecked in Paradise reads like a cross between a travelogue, a history book, and marine archaeology report.  It covers its topic with a thorough completeness, yet is entertaining as well. The illustrations are both attractive and informative. Those interested in ships of the period will find this a worthwhile acquisition. The general reader with find it an entertaining read.

Reviewed by Mark N. Lardas, League City, Texas

Lion in the Bay: The British Invasion of the Chesapeake, 1813-1814

Stanley L. Quick with Chipp Reid

Lion in the Bay is the story of the British campaigns in the Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812. In fact and fiction, dozens of authors, in numerous books and articles of varying depth and quality, have turned their pens to the raids of 1813 and 1814. Published posthumously, Stanley L. Quick’s Lion in the Bay, edited and completed for publication by Chipp Reid, deserves a spot at the top of the list of those publications. Built on a thorough examination of primary sources, the volume captures the desperation of the struggles at the level of the individuals involved. From leading civilian administrators, admirals, and captains to militiamen, sailors, and slaves, action frequently leaps from the pages.

Writing of a time when supposedly civilized men often settled their differences with pistol or blade on the dueling grounds, the author captures the internal bickering common to American and British alike. Quick also notes the dangers of command from afar (a relatively short distance before telegraph, telephone, and computer), especially in regards to the American defense of the Bay and the British decisions to focus efforts therein. Coupled with inexperience in the art of war, political decisions guaranteed that Commodore Joshua Barney’s zealous attempt to delay and defeat elements of the Royal Navy would founder. As to the British assaults, they gained little for their war effort other than provisions for the fleet, loot for the officers, and graves for too many loyal sons of the Crown.

One of the most interesting aspects of Lion in the Bay is its coverage of British dealings with escaped slaves in the region. As a source of information alone, succoring escaped slaves proved its worth time after time. Eventually, British commanders organized some 250 former slaves into the Colonial Marine Regiment. Distrusted at first, the men of the regiment soon proved their value as scouts and hard fighters. Unfortunately, the eventual fate of the regiment is not covered.

That missing bit of information is indicative of the one weakness of the volume: it was completed by hands other than those of the man who researched, planned, and organized the book. This should take nothing away from Chipp Reid, an excellent author in his own right (Intrepid Sailors: The Legacy of Preble's Boys and the Tripoli Campaign); however, the book ends rather abruptly with the final skirmish and sailing of the last British ships. The conclusions that Stanley Quick may have reached are lost to eternity. On the other hand, Quick’s research and original writing has been preserved, much in digital form, by the Maryland State Archives for those interested in the unedited version.

This book is highly recommended to those interested in the War of 1812. Its “side story,” captured in the prefatory pages, is as fascinating as the chapters within. Certainly, it is a most fitting memorial to Stanley L. Quick.

Reviewed by Wade G. Dudley, East Carolina University

Innocent on the Bounty: The Court-Martial and Pardon of Midshipman Peter Heywood, in Letters

Edited by Donald A. Maxton and Rolf E. Du Rietz

Maxton and Du Rietz’s work is an edited compilation of letters and poems corresponded between Peter Heywood, a midshipman whose first voyage took him aboard the infamous Bounty, and his sister Hester “Nessy” Heywood, who fought tirelessly to vindicate her younger brother’s conviction of mutiny.

In the introduction, the authors carefully relate the Manxmen’s common roots and association, and a summary of the mutiny and aftermath, including the account of Heywood’s actions during and after the mutiny. The crux of the conflict lay between acting lieutenant and second-in-command Fletcher Christian and the notorious William Blight. Bligh’s disrespect for the high-born Christian ultimately led to the mutiny in April 1789, where Heywood was reportedly forced below and unable to leave with Bligh and his loyal crew members. While the mutineers and Heywood took refuge at Tahiti, Bligh managed to return to England, despite the trials of a 4,000-mile voyage. Bligh, apparently never informed of Heywood and his shipmate Stewart’s intention to depart with the captain, considered Heywood as cooperating with the leader of the mutiny, Christian.

At 230 pages, the book is divided into seven parts. Following the introduction that provides the context for the rest of the book is a textual postscript accounting the initial organization of private letters and poems that form the basis of the book. These are presented in two parts, the first being the correspondence, the second the poems. These are followed by three appendices that address additional correspondence on Heywood’s status, a list of dramatis persona, and an account of Heywood’s naval career.

The argument for Heywood’s innocence is smartly supported by the incomplete collection of letters and poems exchanged between Peter Heywood and his sister Nessy. The reader might take issue with the potential bias of a collection of letters first organized by an “anonymous editor” after Nessy’s death in 1793. Heywood’s insistence of innocence and Nessy’s dogged support for her brother still prove convincing.

That said, the book remains an impressive collection of primary documents recounting the infamous mutiny and Peter and Nessy’s close relationship. It also illustrates the close-knit nature of serving as an officer in the Royal Navy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Bligh, Christian, and Heywood all hailed from the Isle of Man. Heywood was nephew to Commodore Thomas Palsey (married to Nessy and Peter’s aunt Mary Heywood)—the list of connections is quite extensive. It also harkens to the much more deliberate and intimate style of eighteenth-century correspondence and composition. Granted, a midshipman imprisoned for mutiny would have even more time on his hands to compose poetry and write letters than the average sailor, yet it is a sharp contrast to the microsecond pace of twenty-first-century communication. Well worth a read for any fan of maritime history, eighteenth-century primary documents or poetry, and, of course, anyone interested in the infamous events that inspired both a novel and an Academy Award winning movie.

Reviewed by Daniel M. Brown, University of South Carolina

The Vinyard Shipbuilding Company: Delaware’s Only Surviving Historic Shipyard

Joan W. Lofland

The Vinyard Shipbuilding Company is a remarkable survivor. The restored yard still contains the original boat shed, machine shop, woodworking building, sail loft, and railways from the 1920s, and its present owners have preserved and restored three motor yachts built there, including both the first of the type (Augusta, built in 1927) and the last (Vignette, built in 1951).

There is a considerable body of academic work relating the story of the yard.

This book, by one of its current owners, is primarily a photographic story of the yard, illustrating its history from 1896 to the present. The sheer quantity of images she has managed to assemble is astonishing, and we also can be grateful that the quality of reproduction is commensurate.

During the yards earlier years, its products were what one might expect for a small operation: ferries, tugboats, small traders, and military light craft (submarine chasers and Coast Guard patrol boats). From the late 1920s the business’s primary products were recreational watercraft (and more sub chasers during World War II). All receive due attention, though there is a notable preponderance of yacht images, probably because such craft attracted more contemporary attention.

For detailed examination of the yard’s history, readers should turn to the various more academic studies. Anyone interested in the beautiful motor yachts of the 1920-1950 era will find this book a delight.

Reviewed by David McCann, Dover, Delaware

Bibliographie zur Gesicht der Navigation in deutscher Sprache

Wolfgang Köberer

Bibliographie zur Gesicht der Navigation in deutscher Sprache is a very valuable tool for any researcher into the art of navigation, both historically and at present. The fact that it documents only German sources does not diminish its value because its coverage is so wide.

The study divides itself into two sections. The first is a detailed bibliography of books on navigation published in German up to 1800. There are about twenty-five such works (plus several that appear in multiple editions). The most intriguing fact that emerges from this list is that most of the books were of Dutch origin, a further testament to the vast influence of the Netherlands on shipping in the period.

The second section documents secondary sources published in German that discuss the whole gamut of navigation and its history in the broadest possible sense. The bibliography encompasses both books and articles published from the late nineteenth century to recent years. It is organized topically, so there are descriptions of material covering the western tradition of navigation, practices in other parts of the world, charts, and navigational instruments. In all there are close to 3,400 citations. Köberer’s Bibliographie zur Gesicht der Navigation in deutscher Sprache is far from being the most exciting of reading. Nevertheless, it will be very useful, even to non-German speakers, because of the breadth of its coverage and the detail it provides for accessing the sources.

Reviewed by Harold G. Unwin, Chicago, Illinois