Across the Top of the World
James P. Delgado. New York: Checkmark Books, 1999. 224 pp. Illus. Index. $35.00 ($31.50).
Reviewed by Commander Edward P. Stafford, U.S. Navy (Retired)
The first thing that struck me about this book was all the names of people who have given their names to Arctic places: Baffin, Bylot, Davis, Frobisher, Hudson, Mackenzie, and Ross. The second thing that got my attention was the lavish variety of illustrations—maps, diagrams, paintings, old and new photographs, contemporary advertisements, and book title pages. Next, I felt the tug of familiarity. All these stories have been told before, as the author readily admits. What he has attempted is “to assemble the flow of the story, from antiquity until now. . . In this regard, he has been successful.
This is a physically beautiful book. It would be unfair to label it “coffee table,” because that implies appearance without serious substance—and there is tough, concentrated substance here—yet it would, in fact, grace that location.
The substance is at once heartbreaking and uplifting. Heartbreaking with human suffering and misfortune; uplifting with human courage, determination, and ultimate triumph. The story of the three-century search for a passage through the North American continent to the markets of the Orient reads like the annals of a long war, but one waged against the impersonal, implacable natural forces of the Arctic. The “fog of war” in that long struggle consisted of a dearth of knowledge of the barren, frozen terrain, the ice-choked adjacent seas, and the ways and the nature of the indigenous inhabitants who, after all, have been surviving there for ten centuries or more.
Anyone with even a cursory familiarity with the area will wonder not that the quest for the passage took so long, but how it succeeded so quickly. The Arctic is hostile to human life—which evolved and multiplied elsewhere under radically different environmental conditions. To survive and function in the Arctic requires adapting to the very different lifestyle of the inhabitants there. This was the key element first recognized by Commander Robert E. Peary, and it led to his discovery of the North Pole in the early years of the 20th century. To challenge the Arctic in clumsy, deep-draft wooden sailing ships, wearing woolens, and eating only such food as could be brought from home, was and is a recipe for the disasters that befell so many of the searchers for the passage.
What benefits accrued as a result of the final human victory in this long and costly war? New lands were discovered, and an east-west passage through the Arctic archipelago was found—but it is unusable for practicable purposes. What then of the hundreds of brave men who starved and froze to death and left their bones along its icy beaches? A great jurist and poet of the Victorian era said it best: “. . . Something for the soul of man is won/ when courage does what fear says can’t be done.”
Marine Combat Correspondent: World War II in the Pacific
Samuel E. Stavisky. New York: Ivy Books, 1999. 328 pp. Photos. Maps. Bib. Index. $6.99. Paper.
Reviewed by Benis M. Frank
On 7 December 1941, the author was a 27-year-old Washington Post city editor. He volunteered for the Army the next day—but was, however, turned down because of his poor eyesight. He tried to enlist again, this time with the Navy, and also was turned down. He became disconsolate as other Post staffers left for military service, but the Marine Corps was to come to Stavisky’s rescue.
At the beginning of the war, more than anything else, the paucity of news coming from Wake Island led the Marine Corps to recognize the need for having on- the-scene reporters with Marines in the field. Based on this need, the Corps began recruiting professional reporters right out of newsrooms. They went through boot camp, and upon graduation would be given sergeant’s stripes and be assigned to deployed units. To see whether the program would work, ten reporters were recruited out of the newsrooms of Washington newspapers. Stavisky was one of those chosen.
At Parris Island, he encountered his drill instructor—a very tough and foul- mouthed PFC, whom he dubbed “Little Jeezus.” The DI was highly suspicious of Stavisky, and A1 Lewis and Jack Gerrity, fellow Post reporters, who were better spoken than the other recruits. The Dl wanted to know what college graduates were doing in boot camp when they could have had been commissioned—and considered them spies. Their situations would have been much worse if the DI had known that they would be promoted to sergeant upon graduation.
When the combat correspondents got out to the Pacific and reported to their assigned units, a problem arose. Their commanding officers had no idea what a combat correspondent was and how one was to be used, so correspondents were generally assigned to work details. Soon, however, when newspaper clippings of the “Joe Blow” stories they had filed arrived back in the units, the COs soon saw the morale value of these stories. It also helped if their names were in the stories.
Stavisky finally made it to Guadalcanal during the last stages of that operation, and later joined the Raiders for the landing in the Russell Islands. He then went up the Solomons chain, seeing his first real, close- up combat at Rendova and Munda on New Georgia. Before his combat tour was over, he was to go on a PT boat mission, cover an LST landing, fly a B-24 mission, and land with the 1st Marine Division on Cape Gloucester on New Britain.
Reading Marine Combat Correspondent is almost like being there in the Pacific yourself. These truly were “Joe Blow” stories. At the age of 84, Sam Stavisky retains the enthusiasm of a young Marine, and still has love of Corps. This is evident in what he has written.
The Naval Chronicle: The Contemporary Record of the Royal Navy at War
Nicholas Tracy, editor. Four volumes (fifth volume to be published in January 2000). London: Stackpole, 1999. 1524 pp. Illus. Maps. Index. $39.95 ($35.95) each.
Reviewed by Commander Tyrone G. Martin, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Beginning in 1799, and for two decades thereafter, the regular issues of The Naval Chronicle informed Britons of the successes and failures, the triumphs and tragedies of their Royal Navy in its wars with Napoleonic France and the United States. Contained within more than 20,000 pages are reprints of official reports and letters, items of naval interest from sources around the globe, and biographical sketches and comments by the editors. In this century, this compendium has been a gold mine of information and ideas for historians as well as the creators of naval historical novels, like the legendary C. S. Forester.
Editor Nicholas Tracy has sought to distill this mass of material into a “consolidated edition” amounting to about 1,800 pages. The reports of all the major engagements are present—the Glorious First of June, Aboukir, Copenhagen, and many others—together with a selection of the original illustrations of individual ship actions, and of reports relating to events outside the war itself—such as our Quasiwar with France. An original comment— both prescient and premature—relating to Captain Thomas Truxtun’s defeat of L’lnsurgente in February 1799: “The victory, at the very commencement of their Marine Power, will operate more effectually for the augmentation of the American navy than all the arguments of the most profound statesmen.”
The editor has done modern users a great service in rearranging the materials into chronological chapters, gathering together for ease of reference materials that originally appeared scattered through succeeding volumes of the Chronicle. He also has assembled two or three appendices for each of the modem volumes, each composed of papers on a particular theme that originally appeared across the two decades of publication. Among the topics thus covered are “naval strategy and tactics,” “ship design,” and “naval health.”
Though the necessary deletions of most reports of individual ship actions and raids are lamentable, the work provides readers a ready window on British attitudes during the height of the Age of Fighting Sail.
Tidewater Triumph: The Development and Worldwide Success of the Chesapeake Bay Pilot Schooner
Geoffrey Footner. Centreville, MD: Tidewater, 1998. 256 pp. Photos. Notes. Bib. Index. $39.95 ($35.95); paper.
Reviewed by Captain James A. McNitt, U.S. Naval Reserve
Geoffrey Footner’s book, Tidewater Triumph, is a triumph itself. It is a thoroughly researched, technically complete, historical review of the Chesapeake Bay pilot schooner. The history of these sleek craft starts in the mid-18th century, when farmers relied upon these agile craft to deliver grain to the mills near Baltimore. The merchants in Baltimore, in turn, employed all types of ships to transport the flour to customers along the East Coast and in the Caribbean. To minimize spoilage of the flour and other food stuffs, the merchants invested in the fastest ships of the time. Although pilot boat schooners were limited in cargo capacity, they were fast and very maneuverable with a skilled captain and crew. After the Revolutionary War, many U.S. ports began to invest in seagoing vessels to pursue trade overseas. These vessels were larger, and much slower, than the schooners used in the Chesapeake Bay. When Great Britain and France resumed fighting in 1793, the United States, having declared its neutrality, started “collecting vast profits by carrying non-military cargoes of the belligerent nations in vessels flying the American flag.”
Footner describes the chaos of the time effectively. Many of Baltimore’s merchants, including the John Smith family, invested in pilot schooners to supplement their fleets. These vessels were required to evade not only the Royal Navy and British privateers, but also France’s disorganized naval forces. Baltimore’s merchants began using the smaller pilot schooners, even though they held less cargo than other ships, to slip past the privateers. France’s need for privateering vessels produced the original demand for large pilot schooners. Chesapeake Bay shipbuilders used the design of the smaller baycraft to provide an offshore version. The ships were low-profile, shallow hull, lightly constructed pilot schooners, free of topside weight.
Although the British captured or destroyed approximately 32 Baltimore schooners on trading voyages during the War of 1812, these craft were very effective in avoiding the British blockade when properly handled. Baltimore schooners required superior skill and constant attention by the master and crew. The crew would reef or change the sails frequently. Jibs and jib-booms were taken in and secured quickly, often with green water washing over the crew. For the most part, Baltimore schooners during the war were built solidly and crewed skillfully, resulting in widespread recognition of the merits of the Chesapeake Bay-built craft.
This book provides an excellent description of the global impact of the Chesapeake Bay pilot schooner. It effectively describes technical details in the context of the events that shaped the American economy in the 18th and 19th centuries.