Book Reviews

Privateering: Patriots & Profits in the War of 1812

Faye M. Kert. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015. 147 pp. Append. Notes. Index. Illus. $55.

Reviewed by Frederick C. Leiner

Privateering was a form of commercial warfare undertaken by private citizens in the Age of Sail. Merchants armed their fast ships with a few cannon, and with a license from their national government, sent them to attack the maritime trade of the enemy. They received the revenue from the sale of the ships and cargoes (the prizes) they captured. Privateering reached its apogee in the War of 1812, when, according to Faye Kert, American privateers captured about 1,900 British merchant ships. Some of the ships they captured had to be burned, others were ransomed back to their owners, and the British navy recaptured many. But hundreds made it home. If the prize was held to be valid legally, the ship and her cargo were sold at auction, potentially providing huge profits.

The privateering business was modern and capitalistic, with ownership consortiums that split costs and profits, a group contract to incentivize the crew, and even a rudimentary pension system for the wounded and widows. Remarkably, as I wrote in Naval History (“Yes, Privateers Mattered,” April 2014), despite the importance of privateers, there were no books written about them during the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

But there is one now. Privateering, as practiced in the War of 1812 both by Americans and by Britons in Canada, has a new champion; Kert is an independent Canadian historian who has written two earlier books on privateers from the Canadian maritime provinces. Now, after years immersed in ships’ logs, newspaper accounts, personal papers, court records, and all the published works on the war, her prodigious research has produced Privateering: Patriots & Profits in the War of 1812, a deceptively short book crammed with information about “the prize game.”

Writing about privateering in the War of 1812 is no easy task. There was no government official or department that directed privateers. Hundreds were commissioned during the war—Kert estimates 40 Canadian and 600 American—and they sailed from dozens of ports, bound where their owners or masters thought they could take prizes. Some achieved spectacular success, but others cruised and captured nothing, others could not get to sea, and still others were sunk or captured by the enemy. In short, it’s a messy narrative about unknown entrepreneurs, seamen, and ships.

Kert’s response to the lack of a straight narrative line is to write thematically. From the first pages, she plunges into discussions of the legal, financial, personal, and operational aspects of privateering. By writing thematically, she can pick individual merchants, sailors, and ships to showcase her discussion. Her research is so vast and exact that she seems to know every detail about her subject. For instance, she mentions that 726 people in Marblehead, Massachusetts, were involved in privateering, or that 92 American court decisions between 1789 and 1820 refer to international law.

Privateering is wide-ranging but concise, discussing everything from the perils of sea and battle to recruiting and discipline on board the ships to the rate of privateer commissioning and privateer captures over time. Interspersed are stories of the most successful privateers and the economics of the business. Kert introduces some new stories and approaches in Privateering, such as T. H. Perkins’ letter-of-marque trading ships to China, a micro-profile of the Savannah prize court, and archaeological evidence that calls into question the immense profits claimed for a privateer. Kert’s writing is clear, focused, and infused with energy and occasional humor. This is a book that historians of the War of 1812 will reference for a long time.

Despite its merits, there are some blemishes. Kert’s thematic approach obscures the effects of the chronology of the wider war on privateering, and the effect of privateering on the wider war. Moreover, she avoids answering the ultimate question: whether the losses suffered by British merchants at the hands of American privateers made a difference in the peace negotiations in 1814.

There are some interpretive problems as well. Kert refers to the privateer True Blooded Yankee seizing an Irish island for six days and burning vessels off Bowmore, Scotland, claiming no other American privateer “dared to beard the British lion in his own den,” yet she omits one of the most famous privateering incidents of the war: the declaration by the master of the Comet that the British Isles were under blockade by his ship, which he had nailed to the doors of Lloyd’s of London. Kert suggests that privateers avoided fighting “at all costs” in part because of the poor medical care wounded men received after battle, but privateers did not avoid combat at all costs, as her own narratives illustrate. Finally, she uses terms like “revenue,” “dividend,” and “profit” inexactly, which may confuse the reader about the success of privateers she analyzes.

These reservations notwithstanding, Privateering is a fine book, backed by extraordinary research, and it fills a void in War of 1812 historiography. It will be the standard account for years to come.

Hidden Warships: Finding World War II’s Abandoned, Sunk, and Preserved Warships

Nicholas A. Veronico. New York: Zenith Press, 2015. 256 pp. Biblio. Index. Append. Illus. $30.

Reviewed by Robert Neyland

In Hidden Warships, Nicholas Veronico launches an exploration of World War II’s sunken warships and those veteran ships still above water. He has written numerous books on military and civilian aircraft, World War II vessels, and even San Francisco Bay shipyards. He received the Military Writers Association Bronze Medal in 2006 for The Blue Angels: A Fly-By History (2005). Two recent books also published by Zenith Press, Hidden Warbirds: The Epic Stories of Finding, Recovering, and Rebuilding WWII’s Lost Aircraft (2013) and its sequel (2014), as well as his website, www.wreckchasing.com, reveal his passion for military history and the discovery of ship and aircraft wrecks.

Hidden Warships is amply illustrated with photographs of wrecks and ships and filled with stories from the individuals who discovered, raised, and preserved them. World War II resulted in numerous sunken wrecks spread throughout the world’s oceans. Although the sea erodes their presence, amazing discoveries continue to be made. Through the dedicated efforts of a few, some are preserved as memorials. There is a diverse group of wreck hunters, including archaeologists, historians, explorers, divers, and even the families of the men who sank with their ships. Discoveries made by prominent figures such as Bob Ballard, the National Park Service’s (NPS) Submerged Resources Center, and those of several groups and individuals are included. The commitment of those dedicated to restoring and preserving World War II ships is alluded to throughout the book, and Veronico shares with readers his passion for “wreck chasing,” whether it be to explore the wrecks or for reasons of recovery and restoration.

The wrecks described by the author mirror the global geography of the war and are discussed in chronological order of loss. Veronico introduces the mystery of the missing Japanese midget submarines used in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the current successes of the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) in locating them. He describes the sunken battleships USS Arizona (BB-39) and Utah (BB-31), as well as the ongoing efforts of the NPS underwater archaeologists’ program to preserve these Pearl Harbor wrecks as memorials while monitoring the environmental threat from seeping oil. The author notes three little-known veterans of the attack that are still above water: tugs YT-153 and YT-146, and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Taney (WHEC-37).

Meanwhile, the two notable British ships, HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales, discovered in the international waters of the South China Sea are amazing diving sites but fast losing their character due to unauthorized scrap-iron salvage. A pleasant surprise was the report on Germany’s Admiral Graf Spee and the salvage of the large bronze eagle from the wreck’s stern. U-boats come as no surprise, but only the wreck of U-550 is discussed and how its discovery has corrected the historical record. Four examples of preserved U-boats are included—U-995, U-2540, U-505, and U-534.

The author illustrates the changing tide in the Pacific with Operation Hailstone and the resulting underwater battlefield at Truk Atoll, now a world-renowned divers’ paradise with over two dozen shipwrecks, aircraft, trucks, and tanks at accessible diving depths. Another exotic wreck-diving site can be found at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the location of the only naval fleet sunk by atomic bombs. The Abele and Baker bomb tests were conducted here in July 1946 to determine the survivability of ships under this new weaponry. Veronico shares former NPS underwater archaeologist Daniel J. Lenihan’s early impressions of of the wrecks and the remarkable diving experience when his team mapped them. One survivor of the atomic blast was the German cruiser Prinz Eugen, which later capsized in a storm at Kwajalein Atoll.

Meanwhile, the discovery of the Gato-class submarine Grunion (SS-216) is a remarkable story of family devotion and an example of what can be achieved with the availability of remote sensing technology. Off Hawaii, HURL also found the wrecks of Japanese I-400–class submarines that were taken by the U.S. Navy as war prizes and sunk after testing. The author concludes the book with examples of restored vessels brought “Back from the Brink,” including the patrol torpedo boat PT-658, USS Iowa (BB-61), Liberty ships Jeremiah O’Brien and John W. Brown, and Victory ships Lane Victory and Red Oak Victory.

Hidden Warships introduces readers to a tantalizing selection of sunken vessels, including many recent discoveries. The author relies heavily on both well- and lesser-known publications such as the “gray literature” reports of governmental agencies and websites. The reliance on Internet sources might not make Hidden Warships a popular source for scholars, but in fairness to the author, it is difficult to find non-Internet source material on many of the discoveries and the preservation efforts of private entities and museums. The book will be of value to those who have an interest in World War II ships and shipwrecks, and wreck-diving and enjoy the excitement to be found in these discoveries.

Sherman in the Pacific War: 1943–45

Raymond Giuliani. Paris: Histoire & Collections, 2015. 144 pp. Illus. Maps. $54.95.

Reviewed by Steven Zaloga

Although the Sherman tank is most closely associated with the World War II campaigns in North Africa and Europe, the U.S. Army committed nearly a third of its separate tank battalions to the Pacific theater during World War II. Of course, all six Marine Corps tank battalions served there as well. This new photographic history takes a detailed look at the combat use of the M4 medium tank by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps in the Pacific theater in 1943–45. It does not cover the use of the Sherman tank in other theaters of the Asian conflict, such as British and Indian use in Burma or Chinese and Soviet use of Lend-Lease Sherman tanks in the final campaigns of 1945.

Author Raymond Guiliani is the former editor of the French military hobby magazine Steelmasters, published by Histoire & Collections (H&C) in Paris. This publisher is well known in Europe for a range of popular military history magazines including Tank & Military Vehicle, which covers historical military vehicles, and Guerre, Blindée et Materiel, which focuses on the French army of 1940. H&C also publishes a wide range of books that usually appear first in French, and then occasionally in English for the international market. Due to the specific emphasis of their magazines, the publisher’s books feature lavish illustrations and extensive photo coverage.

Sherman in the Pacific War: 1943–45 follows the usual H&C format with a focus on the illustrative content. Most of the 360 photos, many of which have never appeared in print before, are reproduced very clearly in large format. They come primarily from the collections of the U.S. National Archives, which includes material from the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Marine Corps, and Navy.

The book also includes color illustrations of the Army and Marine Corps Sherman tanks showing specific camouflage and markings for Army and Marine tank battalions in each of the campaigns. The 23 color maps are very well done, providing a clear overview of the battles in which the tanks participated. Most of the book’s 23 sections are devoted to specific campaigns such as Tarawa and Saipan, and a few cover specialized subjects such as flamethrower versions of the Sherman tank. Each chapter has a brief textual overview of the campaign. Aside from these modest summaries, most of the text comes in the form of detailed captions for the many photos.

The book is clearly aimed at military hobbyists, especially tank modelers and tank enthusiasts. As a result, the focus is on subjects that would interest them, such as tank markings, details of tank modifications, and similar specialized subject matter. There is far less attention paid to issues such as unit organization, tactics, or “lessons learned” from the campaigns. However, Sherman in the Pacific War provides the most detailed photo coverage of tank combat in the Pacific ever published and should thus appeal to readers with a general interest in the Pacific war. Military history readers more interested in tactical details of tank operations in the Pacific would be better served starting with works such as Oscar E. Gilbert’s Marine Tank Battles in the Pacific (Da Capo Press, 2001), Kenneth Estes’ Marines under Armor: The Marines Corps and the Armored Fighting Vehicle 1916–2000 (Naval Institute Press, 2000), and Gene Salecker’s Rolling Thunder Against the Rising Sun: The Combat History of U.S. Army Tank Battalions in the Pacific in WWII (Stackpole Books, 2008).

Although Sherman in the Pacific War is very well produced, it could have used the attention of an editor who was a native English speaker. While the translation is not so bad as to impede understanding the content, it makes it a bit of a chore. Hardcore tank enthusiasts will probably notice a number of discrepancies in the identification of specific subvariants in some of the Sherman tanks shown in the photos. Aside from these issues, the book provides a beautifully illustrated guide to armored warfare in the Pacific war that will fascinate anyone interested in tank history.

Counterinsurgency and the United States Marine Corps: Vol. 1, The First Counterinsurgency Era, 1899–1945

Leo J. Dougherty III. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company Inc., 2015. 412 pp. Index. Biblio. Append. Notes. Illus. $55.

Reviewed by Colonel Dick Camp, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)

In Counterinsurgency and the United States Marine Corps, Leo Dougherty has produced a well-researched and -documented study of the development of counterinsurgency doctrine by the Marine Corps during the first four decades of the 20th century. He writes in the introduction that “During the 1920s, a debate raged within the Marine Corps concerning its real mission within the defense establishment . . . and intensified as three factions emerged within the officer corps . . . as to which direction the Marine Corps should proceed to define its real wartime mission.”

One of these factions was “led by such notable Marine ‘bushwhackers’ as Brigadier Generals L. W. T. ‘Tony’ Waller and Smedley D. Butler.” This group believed the Corps should be “organized, equipped, and trained to fight guerrillas or native bandits in support of U.S. foreign policy.” A second faction thought the Marine Corps should become a second land force to fight alongside the Army. According to Dougherty, the third faction, led by Major General Commandant John A. Lejeune, was “perhaps the most significant” and “the one that emerged victorious in this doctrinal debate.” This group saw the Marine Corps as the country’s expeditionary-force-in-readiness to serve “alongside the Navy, and tasked with the seizure of advanced naval bases.”

Dougherty contends that the Corps’ evolution as an expeditionary-force-in-readiness after World War I was, in fact, a combination of Butler’s and Lejeune’s philosophies. The doctrine was forged during what he describes as the “first counterinsurgency era,” which began in 1899 with the Philippine Insurrection and continued for the next three decades as Marines deployed on expeditionary duty in Central America, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and China. The tactical and political lessons learned by Marines from these small-unit deployments were codified in a 1935 publication titled the Small Wars Operations, subsequently revised in 1940 as the Small Wars Manual. Dougherty credits the manual to a small group of officers, many of whom served in the “bush wars” of the early 20th century. He specifically attributes Brigadier General Samuel Harrington, Lieutenant Colonel Harold H. Utley, and Major Earl H. Ellis for laying the foundation of the Marine Corps’ counterinsurgency doctrine.

Dougherty contends that the Small Wars Manual was “perhaps the most significant manual ever written in the Marine Corps. . . . It gave credence to the idea that because of its ‘expeditionary nature,’ the Marine Corps was best suited to fight in the many places they were called upon [to deploy] during the first half of the 20th century.” The manual was used as a textbook up to and during World War II and served as the foundation for small-unit operations and basic operational doctrine for Marine special units such as the raider and parachute battalions. Updated and expanded, the manual still retains relevance: General James Mattis encouraged the officers of the 1st Marine Division to read it in preparation for their return to Iraq in 2004.

Dougherty has authored an excellent tour de force of the evolutionary development of the Marine Corps’ counterinsurgency doctrine in the first half of the 20th century. Extensively researched and skillfully presented, Counterinsurgency and the United States Marine Corps provides substantive historical examples to support the author’s premise that the Corps’ involvement in “small wars” in the 1920s and 1930s solidified and expanded its doctrine for its counterinsurgency strategy of the later 20th century. This book is a wonderful historic reference on the deployment of Marines “in every clime and place” during the first counterinsurgency era. As a former instructor at Marine Corps schools, this reviewer could foresee Dougherty’s study being incorporated into many curriculums.