This is a unique study of the officer diplomats of the "Old Navy" that covers 500 cases over an 85-year period, ending with Commodore Robert W. Schufeldt and the negotiation of America's first treaty with Korea.
“The unbelievable career of the bravest and most effective warship America ever built, excitingly recorded.” -- Life
“An action-packed drama of living men in a ship with a soul.” -- San Francisco Examiner
“After reading Commander Stafford’s lovingly detailed saga ...
Great technological advances were made in almost every area of maritime military activity between 1793 and 1914. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Napoleonic wars marked the zenith of fighting sail and wooden hulls. By the dawn of the twentieth century, heavily armed iron-hulled warships, powered by oil-fired burners and driven by screw propellers, pointed to the shape ...