From Whaler to Clipper Ship: Henry Gillespie, Down East Captain

By Michael Jay Mjelde

• Henry Gillespie was a Maine native. His parents owned and ran boarding houses, hotels and saloons. Henry chose another path. In 1874 he became a sailor, signing aboard a whaler at age eighteen.
  

  From Whaler to Clipper Ship: Henry Gillespie, Down East Captain, by Michael Jay Mjelde, tells what happened next. The book, a biography of Gillespie’s life, also follows the history of the United States merchant marine over half a century, from 1874 through 1921, when Gillespie finally retired.

  A period of great change at sea, Gillespie took part in that change. In 1874, when Gillespie signed as an able-bodied seaman aboard whaler Wave, most of the American merchant fleet was made up of sailing ships. In 1921, when he retired as captain of the 12,000-deadweight-ton tanker SS Swiftsure, most of the windjammers had retired and steamships ruled.

  Mjelde follows Gillespie’s transition from a raw beginner to a respected merchant ship’s captain. Gillespie lied about his experience to be rated able-bodied on Wave. He was derated, ridiculed and humiliated in front of his shipmates, and deserted at Barbados. Despite this bad start, he stuck with the sea. Shipping on other sailing vessels (although never another whaler) he gained experience, eventually becoming a ship’s officer.

  He became a “bully” officer and later captain, one who ran his ship through brutality. Because of his competence, the ships’ owners who hired him overlooked this. His brutality led to a court action which could have beached him. Following marriage he reformed. His wife, who frequently sailed with him, smoothed off his rough edges, and he became an exemplary officer, mostly sailing out of San Francisco.

  While he eventually made the transition from sail to steam, the pinnacle of his career was in sailing ships. He gained command of medium clipper Glory of the Seas in 1906. This was a legendary vessel. Launched in 1869, it was the last ship designed by famed marine architect Donald McKay. About to become a barge, it was restored following the San Francisco earthquake to bring lumber to rebuild the city.

  From Whaler to Clipper Ship is a wonderful window on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and not just at sea. It captures America during its Gilded Age and transformation into a world power. It shows San Francisco at its raucous peak and tells a fascinating story of an iron man commanding wooden ships.

  
  

• College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2023
• 7” x 10”, hardcover, 456 pages
• Images, glossary, notes, bibliography, index. $80.00
• ISBN: 9781648431128

Reviewed by: Mark Lardas, League City, Texas

U.S. Battleships 1939-45

By Ingo Bauernfeind

• Despite my having over a dozen books on battleships I was pleased to add this one to my library. Although the author’s first language is German, the text is entirely in English and is generally well-written. The author served in various departments at the USS Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor, so he has first-hand knowledge of what he writes about here. As a naval historian he has written a number of books, both in English and German. The foreword was written by Daniel A. Martinez, a historian at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, which speaks to the author’s credentials.
  

  The book is printed on high quality glossy stock, is hard cover with no dust jacket. It contains no fewer than 222 black-and-white photographs, 140 color photographs, 20 profile and plan views of these ships, and has 17 sketches. Most of the photographs are small, sometimes four on one page, but the overall quality is excellent.

  The book recounts the general history of battleships, from pre-dreadnoughts to dreadnoughts to superdreadnoughts to World War II vessels and then continues to the modernized Iowa-class ships. Each ship in each class has a brief history, a profile view, and a table of specifications. For each U.S. Navy battleship the following sections are listed: propulsion, armament, electronics, and protection.

  One very interesting chapter was written by the lead diver of a team who explored the sunken battleship Arizona in Pearl Harbor and who took the many color photographs included in the book. 

  No book is without flaws, however, and several small niggling errors and incomplete captions provided minor distractions. The word ‘cancellation’ is spelled with only one “l”, which, although somewhat correct, is generally to be avoided in both American and British writings. The word skeg is spelled “skew” at one point. The caption of a photograph of New Jersey says it is at anchor, but the slight bow wave and the two naval bow anchors securely stowed in their hawse pipes says different. Perhaps the author mistook the paravane chain hanging from the bow as an anchor chain. Certain captions could have been more complete to add interest. For example, one photograph of New Jersey shows the aft superstructure, but no mention is given of what is actually happening there: an inclining experiment is taking place as evidenced by the transverse deck tracks and weights used to determine the center of gravity of the ship. Another photograph is of the “Truman Line”, a cafeteria-style counter in the crew’s galley. No mention is made of the two personalities seen in the line with their trays: Mrs. Bess Truman and President Harry Truman himself. Last, an aerial photograph of New Jerseymoored at Camden, New Jersey, could have mentioned that across the Delaware River may be seen the Independence Seaport with the Spanish-American War protected cruiser Olympia, the submarine Becuna, and the sailing ship Moshulu. 

  Despite these minor irritants, this book is a “keeper” and comes highly recommended.

  
  

• Havertown, Pennsylvania & Barnsley: Casemate Publishers, 2024
• 8” x 10-1/4”, hardcover, 240 pages
• Photographs, drawings, tables, bibliography, index. $49.95
• ISBN: 9781636242569

Reviewed by: Robert N. Steinbrunn, Phelps, Wisconsin

Fighting in the Dark: Naval Combat at Night: 1904-1944

Edited by Vincent P. O’Hara and Trent Hone

• Nighttime is the right time for a naval battle; at least during the twentieth century. Eighty percent of the surface actions were fought at night then. Before that, during the age of fighting sail, only ten percent of battles occurred at night.
  

  Fighting in the Dark: Naval Combat at Night: 1904-1944, edited by Vincent P. O’Hara and Trent Hone explores the reason for that change. It looks at nighttime naval actions fought over a forty-year period. It contains seven essays by eight noted naval historians. Each examines the naval night-fighting doctrine of different navies in different conflicts: the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, and World War II. These examine the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Russo-Japanese War and between 1922 and 1942, the German Kaiserliche Marine during World War I, the Royal Navy between 1916 and 1939 and in 1943-44, and the United States Navy from 1942 through 1944.

  The Japanese were the first to focus on night actions, using night attacks in the Russo-Japanese War. They were less effective than they believed. Readers leave that chapter thinking the successes Japan had were largely due to Russian errors. Similarly, Imperial Germany trained hard for night torpedo attacks, but used flawed doctrine, rendering them ineffective.

  These essays show Japan, the United States, and especially Britain, developed effective night-fighting doctrine. Japan and Britain learned from night-battle miscarriages in prior wars―the Russo-Japanese for Japan and World War I for Britain―which were applied in the early phases of World War II. Italy, by contrast, entered World War II unprepared for nighttime actions, and paid heavily.

  The United States Navy mastered nighttime combat during World War II. Along with the Royal Navy, it relied on technology to leap ahead of its foes. Radar and especially the Combat Information Center (developed independently and concurrently by both) stripped away the  cover of darkness and made both navies deadly at night. Japan, which previously owned the nighttime seas, was eclipsed and never realized why.

  Each chapter offers different lessons and insights. Some universal lessons appear in all chapters. Battle at night is hard. Control is difficult. Results are universally overestimated. Situational awareness is the key to success. The side that maintains it best is the side that usually wins.

  For those interested in naval history, Fighting in the Dark is a gem. It is readable, giving readers insight and understanding of the issues involved in night actions.

  
  

• Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2023
• 6” x 9”, hardcover, 320 pages
• Illustrations, maps, tables, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95
• ISBN: 9781682477809

Reviewed by: Mark Lardas, League City, Texas

Kaffenkähne, eine vergangene Binnenschiffsform: was moderne Methoden und alte Quellen ermöglichen

and 

Pommersche Segelkähne: dreimastig auf Haff und Bodden

By Michael Sohn

• The article by Tim Morrison in NRJ 66: 3-4 about the sailing canaller reminded me of the fact that the watercraft of the rivers, lakes and canals of this world are hopelessly underrepresented in magazines such as the NRJ, while their diversity is infinitely greater than that of seagoing ships. But perhaps that is precisely the problem.

  I would therefore like to draw the reader's attention to these two books as a successful example of the analysis of a small section of the wide world of inland vessels. It concerns a group of vessels, many of which were towed on the canals in a similar way to the sailing canaller (though on a smaller scale) but were sailed on the Oder Lagoon and even on the Baltic Sea.

  It must be said in advance that the territorial situation of this area has changed fundamentally compared to that before World War II. A large part of it now belongs to Poland, and it must be credited to the Poles that they maintain the German traditions as much as their own.

  The author’s profession is design manager at Alstom, the second largest railway technology company in the world. He sells his books through his own publishing house Sohn-Art (www.sohn-art.de). And although the first book is a little older, both are still available. The fact that the texts are in German should not put anyone off, because the many detailed illustrations alone are very informative. And nowadays, if necessary, you can even make the passages that seem particularly interesting speak with the help of a cell phone photo and Google Translate.

   

  In the first book, the author has staked out his field a little more and also discusses the many types of craft on the upper reaches of the Vistula, Oder, Elbe and Danube rivers. Not least, however, he presents his working method, which consists of processing a large number of very different contemporary sources into the beautiful computer-generated illustrations and plans that make up the main part of the two books. But conventional illustrations and, above all, photos are not neglected either.

   

  The second book, on the other hand, discusses the few types of craft that were native to the lower reaches of the Oder river and the Oder Lagoon. Today it is hard to imagine how and why inland boatmen ventured out onto the lagoon and across the Baltic Sea to the island of Rügen with a flat-bottomed vessel originally from a river basin.

   

  As an example of the many types of vessel, I will try to describe a type called Mollenkahn of about 1910 in a few words. The hull is 130 feet. long, 15 feet wide (L/B = 8.6) and about 9 feet deep. It is flat-bottomed with an angular chine, box-shaped over almost its entire length and covered by a single, long hatch. Only the ends are rounded and the stern has a balance rudder. The ship has four (!) leeboards and three masts, all of which carry spritsails and are not only of different heights but also have irregular spacing. For someone who is used to the regularity of the American fore-and-after, all of this seems almost as exotic as the Nile felucca.

   

  Finally, I would like to say that I find the style of presentation and the mix of text and illustrations a little awkward. But that is my personal opinion, which is perhaps old-fashioned, and it does not detract from the general high quality of the work. I do however have one real criticism: the lack of an index in both books, which would certainly have been very useful given the amount of information. This is a shortcoming that is usually found in French publications, while I have to praise most American publications in this respect.

  
  

• Kaffenkähne (Book 1)
  
• Henningsdorf: Sohn Art, 2013
• 8-1/2” x 11-3/4”, hardcover, 141 pages
• Illustrations, plans, maps, notes, bibliography. 17.75€ + shipping
• ISBN: 9783000416590

• Pommersche (Book 2)
  
• Henningsdorf: Sohn Art, 2022
• 8-1/2” x 11-3/4”, hardcover, 303 pages
• Illustrations, plans, maps, notes, bibliography. 34.40€ + shipping
• ISBN: 9783000711695

Reviewed by: Ulrich Gerritzen, Röllbach, Germany

A Crisis of Loyalties: The Destruction and Abandonment of the Gosport Navy Yard

By Stephen Chapin Kinnaman 

• The partial destruction and abandonment of the Gosport Navy Yard by the United States Navy on April 20-21, 1861, represented the loss of arguably the country's best navy yard and ten million dollars’ worth of public property. A Crisis of Loyalties examines the actions of March and April 1861 leading up to this event and attempts to explain what happened and who was responsible. At the end of this very thorough and detailed accounting, readers may be left with just as many questions as answers.

  There can be no doubt that the commander at Gosport, Captain Charles Stewart McCauley faced significant challenges in the spring of 1861. The Pensacola Navy Yard had been seized by southern forces in January, proving that Gosport would certainly be a target if Virginia seceded from the Union. Uncertainty surrounding Virginia’s secession and the resignation of the majority of the yard’s officers, most of whom were from Virginia or had family ties in the region, placed McCauley in an unenviable position. Adding to the uncertainty was a newly inaugurated presidential administration still trying to get on its feet, including Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. Both ships and manpower were in short supply, making it difficult to send personnel or aid to Gosport. 

  Throughout the early days of April, officers and staff at the Navy Yard and Navy Department tried to discern the correct course of action. Any attempts to remove ships or property or attempts to reinforce the yard to any significant extent might arouse the suspicions of Virginia’s secessionists. An increase in defensive posture might also cause concern among the residents of Portsmouth and Norfolk. The timeline of events accelerated with the secession of Virginia and the Virginia militia’s seizure of Fort Norfolk and its vast stores of gunpowder the following day. Navy officials feared that attempts to seize Gosport were imminent.

  The author examines the ruminations and actions of all involved, from McCauley and Welles to Captain Hiram Paulding, who made the decision to abandon the yard, and many other officers and officials involved along the way. He assesses the information available to them, as well as what they didn’t or couldn’t have known. He asks a lot of what-if questions. Though stopping short of blaming anyone, he seems to hold McCauley and Welles most responsible for the actions at Gosport. He also believes that the loss of the yard was only significant for what happened in the aftermath, the Confederate conversion of the USS Merrimack into the ironclad CSS Virginia. He argues that had this not occurred, the loss of Gosport might have been a footnote in the history of the war. Some may not agree with that argument because the loss of Gosport resulted in much more gain for the Confederacy than just that single vessel.

  Crisis of Loyalties is an excellent addition to the field of Civil War naval history. The book is well-researched and well-written. The author uses a trove of primary sources, reputable secondary sources, museum collections, and several useful online sources. The book is very readable, in part because on average the chapters are about ten pages long, making it easy to read a chapter or two, put the book down, and return to it later without stopping mid-chapter. The author’s evaluation of people and events is thorough and detailed. The author answers most of his own questions, while leaving the door open to new questions or further interpretation. This is a unique look at a pivotal event in the first year of the Civil War.

• Wilmington, Delaware: Vernon Press 2024
• 6” x 9”, softcover, xxvii + 290 pages
• Illustrations, maps, appendices, note, bibliography, index. $58.00
• ISBN: 9781648899065

Reviewed by: Andrew Duppstadt, North Carolina Historic Sites

Workboats for the World: The Robert Allan Story

By Robert G. Allan With Peter A. Robson 

• This marvelous new book presents the history, evolution, and prodigious productivity of the Vancouver firm of Robert Alan Ltd (RAL), widely recognized as the world's foremost designer of tugs. Over the last two decades, the name Robert Allan has become synonymous with tug design, but the path was not direct, nor even particularly pre-ordained. This book does an outstanding job of charting the evolution of RAL, and illustrating by turns, the role of talent, hard work, perseverance, opportunity, team-building and even, occasionally, luck in forging an international success story.

  There are many different and intertwined stories in the almost 600 pages of this beautifully produced volume: the story of resolute and committed emigration, the story of dogged determination in establishing and sustaining an independent design house through trying times; the story of design evolution and innovation; and the story of recruiting, developing, and retaining the talent to continue to be at the forefront of the industry providing workboats for the world.

  The RAL story is, for its first eighty-eight years from 1928 to 2006, a dynastic story. Through three generations of Robert Allans (grandfather, father and son, carefully distinguished as Robert, Bob, and Rob) the firm has grown and expanded in ways that might never have been foreseen by its founder. The first Robert Allan graduated as a naval architect from the University of Glasgow in 1907, working at Fairfields, Cammell Laird, and Yarrows before immigrating to Canada in 1919, working first at Coughlin's Shipyard before joining Wallace Shipyards in North Vancouver (from 1921 known as Burrard Drydock Company Ltd.) with a commission to design Princess Louise for the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company. In 1927 he struck out on his own, establishing a design partnership named Allan & Stackhouse, then independently as Robert Allan in 1928. The initial years were very lean.

  Bob Allan (the son) studied naval architecture as an engineering student at the University of British Columbia from 1934-36 but had to withdraw from the program due to serious illness. Fortunately, he had been well tutored by his father (including developing considerable ship-modelling skills in his teens) and obtained work in Burrard Drydock Company during the war, including serving as project manager for the conversion of the passenger-cargo ship HMCS Prince Rupert into an armed merchant cruiser. The end of the war saw a formal teaming of father and son in the home basement office, developing construction drawings for a series of colliers for France as part of war-recovery efforts.

  Rob Allan (the grandson) duly followed in his father's and grandfather's footsteps when, after a couple of years at the University of British Columbia, he entered his grandfather's alma mater, the University of Glasgow, to study for a naval architecture degree. This was followed by a couple of years in England working for Burness, Corlett & Partners, the leading tug design consultants of the day. In the light of subsequent developments in Robert Allan Ltd., this was indeed a fortuitous experience. He returned to Canada in 1973 to join the family business, succeeding to the leadership of the firm following the tragically early loss of both parents to cancer.

  Today the name Robert Allan Ltd. is almost synonymous with tugs, but as this history makes clear, that journey was neither direct nor self-evident. The path of growth of the company business was more a case of being in the right place at the right time, prepared with the skills and spirit of innovation to respond to emerging market demands for specialized vessels. The various chapters chart the wide menu of designs produced, from fishing vessels, to coastal patrol vessels, mission boats, ferries, workboats of every variety, research vessels, flreboats and, of course, tugs.

  Early on, the company's small craft credentials were established by yacht work and the reconstruction of the British Columbia seiner fleet in the years from 1942 to 1944. Already imbued with the urge to innovate, RAL designed their first steel fishing vessel in 1958, and developed a line of beach seiners, fast, shallow-draft vessels designed to access the limited short-term fishery openings.

  The growth of the tug business and expertise was driven by the demand for escort tugs following the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989, but also enabled by RAL's embrace of computer-aided design (CAD) in 1985 and azimuthing drives for tugs in the late 1980s. It is impossible to do justice to the variety of tug designs that RAL have produced to serve a wide spectrum of missions, but a third of the book elaborates that story very well, supported by a wonderful collection of photographs and plentiful drawings (mostly inboard/

  outboard profiles and plan views). There is one sole body plan showing the hull lines of RAL's signature RA star escort tug; it would have been of interest to see more lines plans included, but even with that minor quibble, the book is exceptionally well-illustrated.

  Throughout the book the clear story that emerges is of success built on a firm philosophical foundation of design serving the requirement. This has extended to significant effort in influencing the regulatory rules governing design requirements. Among all his other accomplishments and accolades, Rob Allan considers his effective efforts to harmonize regulations for the design and construction of tugboats to be one of his most significant career accomplishments.

  Finally, there is a substantial people story here. The collective RAL success is evident in chapters twenty-three and twenty-five, with the generous acknowledgement of individual contributions, and acknowledgment from within of the inspiring and enabling

  work environment that made it possible. With Rob's retirement signaling the end of the naval architectural dynasty, it is a particularly fitting segue that the company has transitioned to employee-ownership.

  In sum, this is a beautifully produced and well-written book that will appeal very much to all who admire tugs and desire to learn more of the process that shapes them.

  
  

• Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing Co., 2022
• 9-1/4” x 12-1/4”, hardcover, xvii + 590 pages
• Photographs, drawings, index. $99.95
• ISBN: 9781550179873

Reviewed by: Mark Clavell, Seattle, Washington

Midway-Class Aircraft Carriers 1945 - 92

By Mark Stille

• The Midway-class carriers arrived just a bit too late to participate in the closing stages of World War II in the Pacific, not being commissioned until September of 1945. Enthusiasts of alternate history possibilities have imagined them, loaded down with F8F Bearcats and F4U-4 Corsairs to fend off the expected hordes of kamikazes that would have come from the Japanese home islands in the event of a conventional invasion in 1946.

  Fortunately, that event never happened, and the Midways entered a fleet engaged in peacetime conversion, becoming the newest, biggest, and baddest carriers out there, with huge 130-plane air groups (at least until the advent of larger jet aircraft brought those numbers back down). Franklin D. Roosevelt in fact, conducted the first jet aircraft trials aboard an American aircraft carrier.

  Three ships, Midway, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Coral Sea were actually completed of the six planned vessels, with the remainder being canceled at the end of the war. All three remained with the active fleet after the war, serving long into the Cold War and Vietnam eras, and later, through major modifications and ever-changing air groups. Both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Coral Sea were eventually scrapped, but Midwaydecommissioned in 1992, and remains as a museum ship to this day in San Diego. Interestingly, the book notes that she is the largest museum ship in the world.

  Stille’s book starts with a general introduction to the class. The remainder is arranged in two main parts, an overview of the design and eventual modernization, and individual histories of the ships themselves, followed by a final analysis and conclusions. The book speaks heavily on configuration, weapon and equipment changes, along with the changing political landscape that influenced such developments.

  Stille does not shy away from places where the Navy “got it wrong” with this class when it came to modifications, citing engineering miscalculations along the way. The Midways certainly were in no way perfect, but Stille describes well how they filled the transition role between the old Essexes and the following Forrestal-class supercarriers. His final conclusion describes them as a successful class, with ample modernization and expansion capabilities which made them useful combat-capable carriers for many years after their initial launching, despite their design limitations, and the difficulties of keeping up with ever-changing military technology.

  The book is illustrated with many overall shots of the ships, but not a whole lot of close-up detail. I would have liked to have seen some shots of the interior of the hangar deck, but as seems to be the case with many books of this subject, there are none. It seems to be geared more for the naval historian than the ship modeler, as most of the photographs are small, and black-and-white. There are also some nice color profiles, showing the ships in different configurations as time progressed, and a color photograph or two sprinkled in here and there.

  At 47 pages in a soft-cover volume, it is not a long read. There are no exciting fire-and-steam combat stories, but it is an enjoyable and interesting look at the United States Navy carrier fleet in transition from steam to nuclear power. If you are a fan of the Midways, this book certainly belongs in your library. Recommended for the naval historian.

  
  

• Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2024
• 7-1/4” x 9-3/4”, softcover, 48 pages
• Illustrations, tables, bibliography, index. $20.00
• ISBN: 9781472860484

Reviewed by: Rick Cotton, Katy, Texas

Admiral VAT Smith: The Extraordinary Life of the Father of Australia's Fleet Air Arm

By Graeme Lunn

• At first look, to designate Trumper Smith’s life as extraordinary might seem like a bit of hyperbole; but it is not. Smith saw combat off Norway, in the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Solomon Islands and off Thailand, Malaya, Korea, and Vietnam. During World War II he survived the sinking of three ships and won an unprecedented number of awards. Along the way he demonstrated leadership of the highest order, all without fanfare. It is a wonder we Americans have not heard much of him until Graeme Lunn wrote this book.

  Admiral Sir Victor Alfred Trumper Smith, AC KBE CB DSC MiD RAN, was active in both the Australian Navy and the British Royal Navy for forty-nine years. In that time, he rose from cadet through wartime service afloat culminating his career with five years as chairman of the Australian Chiefs of Staff Committee. Along the way he battled the Germans, the Vichy French, the Italians, and the Japanese. He waged combat in airplanes and from ships. He was shot down and rescued twice and survived the sinking of three different ships. It may well be that his combat biography is unmatched by any other navy person anywhere in the world.

  Graduated in December 1930 from the Royal Australian Naval College at the age of seventeen, when he retired he was the head of all the Australian armed forces. As the subtitle of this book has it, “…an extraordinary life indeed.”

  Of particular note are his experiences while flying in a Swordfish against the German battleship Scharnhorst off Norway. Later, in the Solomon Islands, embarked in HMAS Canberra, in a hot surface action known as the Battle of Savo Island, Canberra was sunk and VAT once again became a battle survivor. Few descriptions of the Battle of Savo Island are as descriptive as this one. For an un-prejudiced non-American view of the battle this part of Admiral VAT Smith is highly recommended.

  The description of his time in HMAS Tracker, a 14,000 ton escort carrier employed battling German U-boats in the North Atlantic war is of itself worth the read, but especially riveting is the story of the battle between Tracker’s aircraft and a surfaced German U-boat. The book describes Tracker in detail, detail which makes the twenty-first-century reader marvel: a wooden flight deck 442 long and 80 feet wide, a single shaft producing a maximum speed of 17 knots, nine wires, two elevators, one catapult, an embarked capacity of twenty aircraft, and a crew of 646 officers and men.

  There is much more, including time in the Mediterranean, which including another swim when the carrier Ark Royal went down, and a period ashore in Normandy just after the landings where VAT was involved in maintaining liaison between air and naval forces; once again in the thick of the action.

  Not described above, but in the book, are his time in Task force 95 in the Yellow Sea off Korea, efforts in Vietnam, and his time as Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee. That one man did so much for such an extended period is indeed extraordinary.

  The book is quite well done and replete with appropriate photography. It is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in history and especially anyone interested in leadership, leadership of the first order as demonstrated in the person of Trumper Smith.

  
  

• Kent Town, South Australia: Avonmore Books, 2024
• Distributed in the United States by Casemate Books
• 7-1/4” x 10-1/4”, hardcover, 248 pages
• Illustrations, maps, notes, sources, index. $48.95
• ISBN: 9780645700480

Reviewed by: Vice-Admiral Robert F. Dunn, USN (Retired), Alexandria, Virginia

The Last Days of the Schooner America: A Lost Icon of the Annapolis Warship Factory

By David Gendell

• Any serious yachtsman and many model ship and boat builders are familiar with the story of the schooner America. She was created in 1851 by fabled marine designer George Steers and Manhattan shipbuilder William H. Brown for industrialist John Cox Stevens and his partners, members of the New York Yacht Club. Her design was influenced by Steers’ experience designing fast and hardy pilot boats, but she also carried in her genes the raked masts and long, low lines of the legendary Baltimore clippers.

  Schooner America represented something new in racing yacht design. Built not just for speed, she was made strong to cross the perilous North Atlantic and go head-to-head against England’s best racing yachts.

  Without paper drawings, America’s final form emerged from Steers’s hull model and constant presence, from Stevens’s regular input, and from Brown’s considerable expertise. Launched on May 3, 1851, she was described by the New York Daily Tribune as “beautifully modeled.” The New York Herald said her cabin was “fitted up quite handsomely” as befitted her well-heeled owners.

  In mid-June, she set sail for England, the first yacht in history to cross the ocean specifically for competition. She was a radical, unproven schooner challenging the very cream of the British racing fleet, and her innovative design inspired both hopes and doubts. On August 22, 1851, in a 53-mile race, she bested the best fourteen of England’s racing yachts, her triumph a blend of sound design and construction, advanced sailmaking, clever rigging, and flawless seamanship.

  Like most racing yachts, America was not built for longevity. After a racing season or two, most were converted, scrapped, or left to rot, pushed aside by newer, faster designs. But schooner America broke that mold as well, surviving, more or less, for more than ninety years.

  David Gendell’s new book, The Last Days of the Schooner America, chronicles the yacht’s long life and her sad end at the Annapolis Yacht Yard, a short row across Spa Creek from the United States Naval Academy. Preserved by the Navy as a potential training ship, America floated for decades and finally sank at the Academy’s pier. In the summer of 1940, the Annapolis Yacht Yard became the custodian of her remains, with the goal of restoring her – eventually.

  World War II intervened, and the Annapolis Yacht Yard retooled to produce wooden warships -- submarine-chasers, Vosper motor torpedo boats (MTBs), and American Navy patrol torpedo (PT) boats. By war’s end, the yard had become one of the Eastern seaboard’s most experienced and capable wooden ship builders.

  As the yacht yard shifted to warships, Gendell’s narrative shifts to a detailed and fascinating account of the daily life of a busy wartime boatbuilder. Without detailed plans, the yard’s designers and builders experimented, reverse-engineered, developed production methods, and overcame wartime shortages of materials and labor. Woven through this account is the story of America’s remains – mostly high hopes and neglect. Not even the support of President Franklin Roosevelt could move the Navy to divert men and materials from wartime production to restore the schooner.

  In the end, little more than America’s keel remained salvageable. That she survived “in any form, into the 1940s was, itself, remarkable,” Gendell writes. “America was built for the moment,” for the 1851 racing season. She lives on only in salvaged bits and bobs in museums, yacht clubs, and private hands, and in the timeless legend of her triumph.

  Author David Gendell is a sailor and racer, a former boating magazine editor, and a frequent speaker on sailing and history. He is also an excellent storyteller. Reading The Last Days of the Schooner America should please anyone with an interest in shipbuilding and in this iconic racing yacht.

  
  

• Lange: Lyons Press, 2024
• 6-1/4” x 9-1/4”, Hardcover, xvi + 347 pages
• Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95
• ISBN: 9781493084449

Reviewed by: David Sakrison, Ripon, Wisconsin

Project Mayflower: Building and Sailing a Seventeenth-Century Replica

By Richard A. Stone

• Stone considers the conception, construction, and subsequent history of the Mayflower II replica in the context of its time and particularly in the context of the Anglo-American world of the mid- to late twentieth century, especially the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. While the author does pay sufficient attention to the vessel itself for his purposes, there is more emphasis on the people involved in the project, their personalities and agendas—and the conflicts between those.

  For Nautical Research Guild members, it is worth pointing out that, for those interested in a more technical focus on the design choices made by Mayflower II’s designer and builder, and in the history of our attempt to learn how seventeenth-century ships were designed, which is an important story in ship history and the history of technology, this is not that book. Stone does mention the initial-stability problem apparent upon launching the vessel, but does not then delve into the design choices behind that, and why they were made, and what subsequent investigations and discoveries have taught us about that. This replica, and the first set of Jamestown replicas, were part of a renewed interest in colonial North American history widespread at the time, to which Stone alludes but, again, that is not a focus of his book.

  The book was inspired by the author’s learning of the role that the project’s prime mover, Warwick Charlton, had played in its conception and realization. Charlton, and his partner, John Lowe, were to some extent sidelined at, and after, the point at which the replica successfully made it to the United States in 1957, and Stone takes up the task of relating how they managed to realize the project despite significant odds. Those odds included the challenges facing the Anglo-American relationship at the time, as well as those facing a financially-strapped United Kingdom, all of which were suddenly exacerbated and strained by the Suez Crisis and the formation of the European Economic Community—which excluded the United Kingdom. For this reviewer, the most interesting thread in the book is that which ties these world-events to the fate and role of Mayflower II, which became both a diplomatic asset and liability, as Stone explains. As it was published this year, the book does treat the major restoration of the replica completed in 2019, and points out that the replica had, since its launch and restoration, become a historic vessel in its own right, as acknowledged by its designation in the National Register of Historic Places.

  Stone is a veteran journalist who is personally involved with the Mayflower II. His book is pitched to a general readership, with no maritime technical knowledge. Its most obvious audience would be those with an existing interest in the replica, which has long been a cultural institution in New England, and those interested in the development of “heritage” for public consumption, with its uneasy relationship between commerce, education, and politics.

  
  

• Lanham: Lyons Press, 2024
• 6-1/4” x 9-1/4”, hardcover, xv + 267 pages
• Photographs, notes, bibliography, index. $32.95
• ISBN: 9781493084364

Reviewed by: Phillip Reid, North Carolina