This is the improbable story of two very different German cruisers. The sleek and powerful Admiral Hipper was the much-heralded prototype of one of the most formidable ship classes of World War II. In contrast, the Pinguin, a converted merchantman, was armed with only 5.9 inch guns and operated by a predominately reservist crew. Contrary to all expectations, the ...
In 1844 the USS Yorktown sailed from New York, as part of the U.S. Navy's newly established African Squadron, to interdict slave ships leaving the African coast. Aboard the sloop of war, Master's Mate John C. Lawrence, an educated New Yorker in his early twenties, kept a private journal describing what happened during the extraordinary two-year voyage and his reactions ...