Lest We Forget - ‘Amphibious Historian’
By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Although in his 50s when war came to America in December 1941, Dr. Samuel Eliot Morison was determined to play a role. A professor at Harvard at the time, he joined many of his students in volunteering for duty in the Navy. When turned down because of his age, he decided to try a different tack.
In a letter to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, Morison proposed that he be given a commission in the Navy and the freedom to move about in the various theaters of operation by sailing “on naval vessels of all types, in various combat areas” to observe firsthand “how things are done in this war.” Based on that experience and much documentary research, he proposed to write a history of the Navy’s role in the war “from the inside.” Morison offered as his credentials “my historical and practical maritime training, and my ability to present maritime subjects in a readable manner.” An experienced sailor, Professor Morison had earlier sailed the same routes taken by Christopher Columbus while researching his two-volume biography, Admiral of the Ocean Sea , which appeared in January 1942 to much acclaim (and later netted a Pulitzer Prize).
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