A History of Sea Power. By Professors W. O. Stevens and Allan Westcott. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co. 1937. $6.00.
Reviewed by Lieutenant Neil K. Dietrich, U. S. Navy
“Sea Power—What Is It?” was once used as the motif of the general program of Navy Day activities in connection with the dissemination of information concerning our naval establishment and its relation to national policies and development, and the elaboration of this theme did a great deal to make the people of the United States realize what sea power is and its importance to our country. Bases— merchant marine—armed forces are all elements of the sea power in which we are vitally interested today, but what of sea power in the past? Are these elements of sea power new or have they affected other nations before us? When? Where? How?
The answers to these rhetorical questions are of interest to every student of history and to everyone concerned with naval affairs, and A History of Sea Power (1937) by Professor William O. Stevens, formerly Professor in the U. S. Naval Academy, and Professor Allan Westcott, now Professor in the U. S. Naval Academy, gives these answers clearly, comprehensively, and interestingly. The first edition of this book was prepared in 1919 to fill a long felt need at the U. S. Naval Academy—the need for a brief work covering the evolution and influence of sea power from the beginning to the present time. The authors were experienced instructors in naval history and prepared a volume so exactly suited to its purpose that for seventeen years it remained a standard textbook in the Department of English and History at the Naval Academy, studied by all classes of midshipmen since 1920 and used as a reference by the Naval War College on many points. Sea power has always been a vital force in the rise and fall of nations and in the evolution of civilization, and the authors kept clear this larger, related point of view in recounting the story of the sea. The tendency of our modern era of mechanical development is to forget the value of history, but the general survey presented in the first Stevens-Westcott work stressed those general naval principles, those unchanging truths of warfare, which have been demonstrated from Salamis to Jutland.
But this is 1937 and to replace the first edition comes now a revised History of Sea Power by the same authors. The scope of the new book is that of the old, but in the revision the first four chapters have been re-written and condensed and the chapters on the World War have been corrected and expanded in the light of more recent knowledge. The chapter on the Battle Jutland has been entirely re-written and a chapter added on naval developments since the World War, touching briefly upon the various attempts to limit naval armaments to and including 1936. The term “sea power” is quite properly used in its widest interpretation, and given his breadth of meaning its history becomes not merely a record of naval warfare but an account of the rise and decline of the great maritime nations. Besides this close contact with commercial and political history, the new edition keeps constantly in mind other guiding interests which belong more strictly to the naval field, stressing particularly (1) evolution of ships and weapons; (2) changes in the principles of tactics and strategy; (3) qualities of leadership. We particularly like the statement (in words of one syllable) in the opening chapter of certain fundamental principles which every student of history and every would-be officer must know and understand before attempting to study any form of warfare.
The diagrams in the new edition are substantially those of the old, but a few new ones have been added, notably the operations at Actium, a sketch of Bushnell’s Turtle, and several new diagrams relating to the Dogger Bank action and Jutland. The diagrams as a whole are eminently satisfactory for use in a volume so necessarily condensed, but that of Tsushima (page 299) is drawn to much too small a scale and we must confess to a guilty sense of satisfaction when we found that an old friend of our midshipman days, the Battle of the First of June (page 190), is still shown with the cardinal points of the compass reversed from their conventional positions. Why this cartographical whimsicality we do not know; perhaps it’s one of the points of naval warfare we have never mastered! The Nelsonic period is ably covered and Nelson’s victories clearly and logically explained.
There are 109 pages allotted to the World War and in this small field the authors have done a splendid piece of work. Differences of opinion and errors in detail may be found but the section is fundamentally sound. Jutland will always be the source of many arguments proceeding from varied source material and different concepts of warfare, but this description is adequate for its purpose. The sketch on page 353 does not show the correct position of Hood and his Third Battle Cruiser Squadron at 1400 on May 31, nor can we find any authority whatsoever to substantiate the statement that “At the first message from the Galatea . . . Hood’s Third Battle Cruiser Squadron was despatched ahead to cut off a possible retreat of the Germans toward the Skagerrak.” Neither Frost, Frothingham, nor the “Battle of Jutland —Official Despatches” shows any such orders to Hood, and the last named shows positively that Jellicoe did not break radio silence until 1526. Also (page 357) Beatty brought the Second Battle Cruiser Squadron (not “Division”) into column astern of him at 1534 and the phrase “assuming a line of bearing on the enemy” is not clear. But these are captious criticisms. Scheer’s famous Gefechtskehrtwendung is correctly described, his return to the action is well presented, the entire battle is divided into logical phases, the night action is well covered, and the reasons for each fleet’s being at sea are correctly summarized. Finally, and of outstanding importance, is the presentation of Jellicoe’s memorandum of October 30, 1914, and an excellent analysis of the policy therein stated by Jellicoe and approved by the Admiralty.
The revised History of Sea Power is an excellent textbook for undergraduate study, a valuable outline reference for naval historians, and a work of importance to all Americans at this time when the leadership, maritime policy, and well-being of this country are so vitally concerned with our naval strength.
Navy Wings. By Lieutenant Harold Blaine Miller, U. S. Navy. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., Inc. 1937. xv+324 pp. $3.00.
Reviewed by Commander A. C. McFall, U. S. Navy “Preparing a history of naval aviation is a difficult task for few early records were kept.” So remarks the author in his introduction, but he has done a difficult task well.
Dealing in the main with the beginning of naval flying from the first flights until the recognition of naval aviation by the creation of the Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy Wings graphically portrays the early struggles, heartbreaking setbacks, tireless energy, and the supreme courage, vision, and confidence of the pioneer fliers.
The relationship of the first seaplane flight made by Glenn Curtiss, January 26, 1911, from the quiet waters of Spanish Bight, with naval aviation is shown in its true importance since “there could be little question, now, but that, given time and money, the airplane could be made to go to sea with the Fleet.” Eugene Ely had just eight days before he made his famous landing on the Pennsylvania, which was hailed as the greatest feat in aviation, surpassing even Bleriot’s channel crossing, but from which even the wildest visionary could not foresee the growth of our present-day carrier divisions.
In 1912, at Annapolis, the first catapult shot was made from Santee Dock, ending in a crash, but the same catapult, much improved, made a successful launching at the Washington Navy Yard two months later. It was not until two years later that a catapult was mounted on the North Carolina and launchings made with the ship steaming ahead. Naval aviation could now go to sea with the fleet, since planes could be catapulted, to return to land alongside the mother ship. It was a far cry, however, from this first crude model to the present installations on ships of the fleet. At this time, the end of 1915, the Navy had a grand total of seventeen aircraft.
The development of flying boats, their operation during the World War, and the first successful transatlantic crossing are all vividly described, as are kite balloons and other lighter-than-air craft.
One of the most interesting features of the book is the commentary at the conclusion of each chapter. Altogether, it is a compilation which will be received enthusiastically by all those interested in Navy Wings.