On Our Scope

By Fred L. Schultz Editor-in-Chief
February 2001
In the interest of providing readers with insights into some of the articles in Naval History, we introduce this column. While what we do and the reasons we do it ...
PATRICK HASKETT

Bismarck: Not Ready for Action?

By Timothy P. Mulligan
February 2001
A historian and archivist for the National Archives reveals evidence that the fabled German battleship—at the time "the most feared warship in the world"—actually was ill-prepared to fight.

Better than Baseball

By Commander Peter B. Mersky, U.S. Naval Reserve (Retired)
February 2001
“The highlight of my life, ” he says, “had always been—even including baseball— flying for the Marines.”

The Real Carl Brashear

By Paul Stillwell
February 2001
The new movie Men of Honor tells the story of Master Chief Boatswain’s Mate Carl Brashear. It begins with his life as the son of a sharecropper in rural Kentucky ...

Historic Fleets

By A. D. Baker III, Editor, Combat Fleets of the World
February 2001
The USS Bridge (AF-1), the U.S. Navy’s first stores ship, was the only vessel of that type to be named in honor of a person. Horatio Bridge, as civilian chief ...

TBD Devastator: The Good and The Bad

By Norman Polmar, Author, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet
February 2001
When the United States entered World War II, the U.S. Navy’s carrier-based torpedo bomber was the Douglas TBD Devastator. Already obsolete by some standards, it was not an effective carrier ...

In Contact

February 2001
“The Log of Matthew Roving” (See D. Wallace, pp. 32-36, October 2000; M. Penilla, p. 6, December 2000 Naval History) Carl S. Davis Contrary to Mr. Penilla’s notion that ...

Naval History News

February 2001
German Battle Cruiser Discovered Nearly 57 years after she went down in the frigid waters off Norway’s North Cape, the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was discovered in late September ...

Book Reviews

Reviewed by Charles Dana Gibson, Vice Admiral E. P. Giambastiani Jr., U.S. Navy & Commander John D Alden, U.S. Navy (Retired)
February 2001
Ellet’s Brigade: The Strangest Outfit of All Chester G. Hearn. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000. 289 pp. Photos. Notes. Bib. Index. $34.95 ($31.45). Reviewed by Charles Dana Gibson ...

The Battleship Missouri Memorial

By Commander Jeffrey B. Goldman, U.S. Naval Reserve
February 2001
The Battleship Missouri (BB-63) Memorial opened at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 29 January 1999, 55 years to the day after the great vessel was launched at the New York Navy ...

Navy Yarns

By Captain Roy C. Smith III, U.S. Navy (Retired)
February 2001
After the Civil War, Commander William B. Cushing (who had destroyed the CSS Albemarle in 1864) was commanding the USS Saco on a visit to Shanghai and was being rowed ...

Salty Talk

By Commander Tyrone G. Martin, U.S. Navy (Retired)
February 2001
Our judicial system is based on two main objectives: punish a wrongdoer for his crime; and deter others from similar acts by making punishments public, either in fact or by ...