Confederate Saboteurs: Building the Hunley and Other Secret Weapons of the Civil War

Mark K. Ragan

The Confederacy often relied on efforts to use technological innovation to counteract gross disparities in manpower and resources. Much of this was the work of the Singer Secret Service Corps, a small skilled team of inventors and investors led by Edgar Collins Singer, set up in early 1863 at Port Lavaca, Texas.

Singer had developed a spring loaded detonator for mines (then known as torpedoes) for use both on land and in the water. His group operated across the Confederacy as their services were needed. Their successes included sinking Union vessels (nine were sunk, including five ironclads) but often the mere presence, or even rumor, of Singer torpedoes tended to inhibit Union operations in Southern waters.

In late 1863, Singer agents used land torpedoes to derailed eight Union supply trains in Tennessee, but repairs usually were effected very quickly, so these efforts were little more than a nuisance. Singer Secret Service Corps boat and bridge burning operations were more effective, seriously disrupting transportation along the Mississippi.

The Singer group also worked on designs for submarines and torpedo boats, most famously the submarine CSS Hunley. Ragan, the Hunley project’s historian, thoroughly covers its design, construction, trials, and ultimate demise after sinking Housatonic at Charleston. He also documents the group’s work on a massive steam-powered ironclad torpedo boat at Buffalo Bayou, near Houston, at the end of the Civil War.

Ragan and other researchers have done excellent work in uncovering sources for the Singer group’s activities despite the destruction of so many records (for obvious reasons) late in the war. Surviving Confederate Secret Service documentation is fragmentary, but the author largely succeeds in reconstructing a coherent exposition of this numerically tiny organization’s critical role in defending the South’s ports and waterways. Confederate Saboteurs is a skillfully crafted study that is an important addition to the naval histories of the Civil War.

Reviewed by William Kingsman, University of North Carolina

Site Formation Processes of Submerged Shipwrecks

Edited by Matthew E. Keith

Site Formation Processes of Submerged Shipwrecks is a timely contribution to maritime archaeology scholarship and fieldwork practices. The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 2001 guidelines for best practices in the field strongly advocates for in situ site preservation and monitoring as the first management option. The editor, Matthew Keith, has compiled a highly informative and practical combination of current case studies that illustrate the many oceanographic and anthropogenic variables influencing the preservation of a shipwrecks in diverse underwater environments. These range from dynamic beaches and surf zones to more intact deep water sites. Experienced and expert professional practitioners of maritime archaeology qualify and quantify the impacts of factors impacting the integrity and stability of sites including wave action and sand scouring, hull corrosion, bacterial erosion, impacts of trawl nets, offshore developments like oil drilling operations, infrastructure associated with salvage operations such as cranes and winches, shipbreaking and stranding. The case studies include shipwreck categories that are equally diverse geographically and chronologically: Roman vessels in the Aegean and Black Sea, eighteenth-century warships in England, nineteenth-century China traders in Australia, and World War II shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico.

While the case studies bring attention to the plethora of phenomena impacting shipwrecks mostly already known to experienced maritime archaeologists, the more substantive contribution of this volume are the discussions about methods and efforts on trial to measure, interpret and predict how, and at what rate, these processes take place. These discussions showcase a new kit of conceptual tools and frameworks that aid stewards and caretakers of this submerged maritime heritage in their mandates. For employees in state and federal historic preservation offices, or in commercial and consultation archaeology positions, there is a renewed recognition of the important need for pro-active management studies and decisions. It is essential not only to understand the immediate and long term impacts of development, but also to provide substantiating data sets to address regulatory compliance recommendations. For example, while it is clear that bottom trawling impacts shipwreck sites, understanding the effects requires documentation of both the extent and intensity of trawling activity spatially and temporarily, and to follow up with repeated site monitoring. In the biological impact assessment, identifying wood tunneling bacteria in wood is the first step, but extending this study to an analysis of which sections or faces of timbers have been covered or uncovered by sediment would add significantly to the overall site assessment. In this respect the case studies vary in content. Some contributions focus on simply identifying and explaining the impacts on shipwrecks, others are more expansive on the applications of interpretive methodologies.

The authentic quality of the volume and credentials of the experienced contributing field archaeologists are especially evident in the challenges presented in the call to action to monitor site formation processes. This may include the necessity to include specialists in an archaeological team—such as a geo-archaeologist or geologist to competently detail and interpret sedimentary and fluvial processes. It may be economically unfeasible to return to a site to gather data over time necessary to produce a timeline of change, or for port developers to argue that past dredging has already erased any archaeological record, thus negating the need for further inspection.

This is a truly valuable contribution to underwater archaeology scholars, academics teaching submerged maritime historic preservation courses, and new professionals entering the field of compliance archaeology in coastal areas.

Reviewed by Lynn B. Harris, East Carolina University

A Confederate Biography: The Cruise of the CSS Shenadoah

Dwight Sturtevant Hughes

Over the past decade no fewer than ten books have been written about the Confederate cruiser CSS Shenandoah. These volumes include the published memoirs of 1st Lieutenant William C. Whittle, a biography of the ship’s commander, James Iredell Waddell that focuses almost exclusively on his time aboard Shenandoah, two studies that focus on the ship’s layover in Australia while repairing and refueling, and a handful of more general works relating the story of this most fascinating of Confederate vessels. Perhaps only CSS Alabama has gained more attention from writers and scholars, and quite possibly only because the raider was first, sailing earlier than Shenandoah. Alabama’s captain, Raphael Semmes, was also quite the self-promoter, writing of the ship’s exploits immediately following its destruction by USS Kearsarge in June 1864. Being the only Confederate ship to circumnavigate the globe, Shenandoah is worthy of such attention. However, this reviewer was skeptical when presented with yet another study of this admittedly famous ship. At what point is saturation reached?

Coming in at slightly more than 200 pages, A Confederate Biography offers a well-written, thoroughly documented, and mostly lively account of Shenandoah’s service. Based almost exclusively upon the vast amount of primary sources available, mainly the officers’ diaries and memoirs, as well as the ship’s log, the author picks and chooses his quotes to fit every purpose and make the book come alive. He is also very well-versed in the secondary literature not only on Shenandoah, but on the Union and Confederate navies in general. While this book does not exactly break any new interpretive ground, it tells the story as well as, if not better than, most of the previous works. The pacing of the book is excellent, with most chapters being only ten pages long, allowing readers to digest the book in small chunks if they wish.

The author is at his best when relaying human interest stories. He does a wonderful job of bringing each officer’s or petty officer’s personality to the forefront, displaying their strengths, weaknesses, likenesses, and differences. The reader feels as if they know each one by the end of the book. Accounts of the time spent in Australia and on remote Pacific islands are also very well written. Stories of the capture and destruction of each prize are action-packed, keeping the reader engaged throughout. The book includes two very helpful diagrams of the ship and a map of its cruise, as well as a section of photographs, all of which add to the reader’s understanding.

While there is little to criticize about this book, a couple of things should be mentioned. The pace of the book slows considerably when the author is covering periods of relative inactivity. Portions of Shenandoah’s cruise were very lackluster, particularly days and weeks that stretched on with no action, and nothing to report save for occasional bad weather. The reader can very much perceive the lag in these portions of the book. Second, the author consistently remarks on the disposition of the ship’s sails throughout the entire book. A reader with solid knowledge of period sailing vessels may find this kind of detail interesting, but the general reader will find this information superfluous.

These minor shortcomings aside, A Confederate Biography stacks up well against the aforementioned number of volumes about CSS Shenandoah and its crew. Paired with Angus Curry’s The Officers of the CSS Shenandoah (University Press of Florida, 2006) any reader would learn just about all they care to know about the ship and its famous cruise. This reviewer doubts that there is anything left to write about the subject; saturation has been reached.

Reviewed by Andrew Duppstadt, North Carolina State Historic Sites

Matthew Fontaine Maury, Father of Oceanography: A Biography, 1806-1873

John Grady

Matthew Fontaine Maury is very much an oddity in the pantheon of the United States’s naval heroes. Whereas virtually all such heroes achieved their status as a consequence of their bravery in action, Maury is revered for his scientific accomplishments. In addition, though Maury most certainly actively participated in war, such efforts were reviled during his lifetime and for many years after his death. Finally, while many of his peers who fought for the Confederacy received their due acknowledgement for their services from the nation as a whole quite quickly after the Civil War ended, Maury steadfastly adhered to the Confederate States of America, even in defeat, hindering honoring his accomplishments.

This new biography, by John Grady, is a remarkably thorough narrative of his background and life, and is the first new assessment in some thirty years. He comprehensively covers the vicissitudes of his family’s experiences after the Revolution, Maury’s hardscrabble upbringing, and his early naval life.

Maury’s seagoing career was halted by injury, and he moved on to undertake the work for which he is most famous: navigation and oceanography. His research, conducted over many years, in determining wind patterns and charting them to make them useful to mariners was revolutionary and contributed mightily to the advance of the American merchant marine in the years before the Civil War.

When war came, Maury, without hesitation, opted to serve the Confederacy. His most notable contributions to its cause were working with others to secure orders for ships in Europe and perfecting electrically-detonated mines (then often called torpedoes). This latter work, especially when he applied it for defense against attack on land, generated considerable opprobrium, since it was considered an underhand tactic.

After the Confederacy’s defeat, Maury essentially exiled himself, largely because he was very uncertain he would be granted amnesty if he returned to the United States. He involved himself in schemes to resettle disaffected southerners in Mexico in conjunction with the French ambitions (that ultimately failed disastrously) to establish Emperor Maximilian there. He finally returned to the United States in 1868 to a new career in academia.

The depth of Grady’s research is amply demonstrated by the very comprehensive bibliography. This effort pays off in his exhaustive detailing of the events of Maury’s life. This detail, however, seems to this reviewer to mask Grady’s limited analysis of his material; he does not go beyond the bald statements of fact to explore Maury’s motivations and assess his impact more completely. Nevertheless, this biography is a major contribution to the study of this remarkable naval officer.

Reviewed by William Emerson, San Diego, California

Patroons & Periaguas: Enslaved Watermen and Watercraft of the Lowcountry

Lynn B. Harris

Small watercraft, especially logboats, make wonderful subjects for models (Irwin Schuster’s recent presentations in the Nautical Research Journal illustrate this well). They are simple to build, their size allows for construction at a large scale, and, above all, they are readily identifiable within their cultures.

Dr. Harris’s new book is a splendid illustration of the interconnection between material culture—in the form of working watercraft in South Carolina—and the societies that generate it. It is a fascinating combination of archaeological reportage, watercraft documentation, traditional historical documentary research, and iconographic presentation woven together to reveal a totally absorbing account of the complexities of South Carolina’s lowcountry society in the era of slavery.

A remarkable feature of this book is the author’s ability to go beyond the traditional historical approach by including a substantial body of very personal narratives from the enslaved watermen of the period. This lends her story a powerful immediacy that is utterly compelling and engaging, and is unusual.

Overall, this is a most impressive work. It is occasionally obvious that Dr. Harris’s grasp of the nuances of nautical terminology (or perhaps that of her editor) is a little less than complete (for example, the stern sheets noted on page 97 have nothing to do with sails), but this is a minor point when compared to her achievement.

Reviewed by George Mason, Raleigh, North Carolina

Discovering the North-West Passage: The Four-Year Arctic Odyssey of H.M.S. Investigator and the McClure Expedition

Glenn M. Stein

During the first half of the nineteenth century the Royal Navy dispatched a series of significant expeditions to explore the Arctic, both from a purely scientific perspective and, more importantly, in an effort to find a North-West passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, thus bypassing the lengthy and often perilous voyage around Cape Horn. The most well-known of these, by far, was that led by Sir John Franklin, which departed England in May 1845 and was last encountered two months later.

The expedition was presumed lost when no further word was received for two years (the ships had become trapped in ice and the crews attempted to march overland to return), the British government launched a series of efforts to locate and rescue it. After an overland expedition failed, the Royal Navy sent two groups to u8ndertajke the search, one from the Atlantic end of the presumed passage and the other from the Pacific. The latter, led by Commander Robert McClure (a veteran of Arctic exploration) is the subject of Glenn M. Stein’s excellent book.

The McClure Expedition is noteworthy, not for locating the Franklin Expedition survivors (it did not) but for the extent of the surviving documentation pertaining to its efforts, the existence of a remarkable collection of images by Lieutenant Samuel Cresswell of its activities, and the drive of Commander McClure that resulted in he and his men succeeding in traversing the Arctic from the Pacific to the Atlantic in the course of a monumental four-year journey, in large part on foot after their ship, HMS Investigator, became trapped in the ice.

Stein fully exploits the trove of material relating to this expedition to present a gripping story of ordinary men accomplishing extraordinary things. His book is a tale of high adventure, but it also is fully documented to the highest academic standards. Perhaps the author’s greatest accomplishment is that he demonstrates conclusively that careful attention to scholarly apparatus need not be any impediment to producing an exciting and absorbing adventure story.

Reviewed by Kevin O’Mara, San Francisco, California

The Battle for Britain: Interservice Rivalry between the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, 1909-1940

Anthony J. Cumming

The creation of the Royal Air Force on April 1, 1918 was largely a wartime expedient intended to unify the sometimes competing aviation interests of the Royal Navy and the British Army in the cause of defeating Germany at a critical juncture during World War I. Its subsequent evolution during the inter-war period never adequately resolved the tensions between the Air Force’s doctrinal commitment to the supremacy of independent aerial operations and the Navy’s requirement for an air arm integrated within the fleet in order to fulfil its operational requirements.

On the basis of his own in-depth research and much recent published work, Anthony Cumming paints a very different picture of Britain’s wartime successes and failures up to the end of 1940. His perspectives on the campaign in Norway, the evacuation from Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, and the collapse of German plans for a cross-Channel invasion are markedly at odds with conventional wisdom on these topics.

At the heart of Cumming’s thesis is his analysis of the efficacy of the combatants’ air power doctrines, especially as they pertain to naval operations. He contends (and the evidence he presents supports him) that air power—as deployed by the Royal Air Force, the Luftwaffe, and the Regia Aeronautica—was largely ineffective against warships, even in narrow waters. Off Norway and in the Mediterranean, where the Royal Navy operated with minimal air cover, its losses to air attack were very small. Even at Dunkirk, where large numbers of vessels were lost to air attack, the vast majority were non-combatants, unarmed and too slow to take effective evasive action. By way of contrast, he points out that, even at the time, it was obvious that, while the Air Force’s bombers were largely ineffective in sinking German invasion craft, the Royal Navy’s light forces (cruisers, destroyers, and motor torpedo boats) wrought havoc against them, even inside the French ports, and it was this success, rather than the outcome of the Battle of Britain, that ended the invasion threat.

Cumming also emphasizes the doctrinal corollary of successful air power integrated with the fleet. Although German stukas at this time generally were failures for anti-shipping operations, the Royal Navy’s dive bombers successfully sank the cruiser Königsberg in the defended Norwegian port of Bergen. Seven months later, twenty-one naval torpedo bombers launched from the carrier Illustrious sank three Italian battleships inside the Regia Marina’s principal base at Taranto. The contrast could not be starker.

The Battle for Britain challenges conventional wisdom and asks us to re-examine long-held beliefs about air power in a different way. It is a very important contribution to the history of World War II.

Reviewed by Steven Fitzgerald, Wilmington, Delaware

Home Squadron: The U.S. Navy on the North Atlantic Station

James C. Rentfrow

Historians have long dated the rise of the modern United States Navy to the twenty-five years between the 1883 Naval Appropriations Bill that was the genesis of the New Steel Navy and the 1907-1909 cruise of the Great White Fleet. This period witnessed a total transformation of the materiel of the Navy from wooden steam-powered cruising ships with full sail rigs to armored steel battleships and cruisers wholly dependent on their engines for mobility.

These technical changes were so profound that, to a very great extent, historians have concentrated most of their efforts on researching, analyzing, and describing them as explaining the transition of the United States Navy from a third-rate force to a fleet of the first rank. In Home Squadron, however, Commander Rentfrow makes the case for a far more important transformation within the Navy that occurred simultaneously. The Old Navy was a force whose missions were coast defense, showing the flag around the world, and commerce raiding in wartime. The materiel of the New Navy could fulfil those missions, but creating a world-class force required developing a new operational doctrine of concentrated fleet operations that could contend with the battlefleets of the European powers.

Rentfrow identifies the great changes in the operational perspectives of the North Atlantic (or Home) Squadron in the years just prior to the Spanish-American War as the foundation for those of the modern fleet. Even though the equipment of the squadron reflected the Navy’s transition from wooden vessels to steel warships, it was not until the late 1880s that even ad hoc concentrations of its units occurred for training and exercises. Then, between 1895 and 1897, the Home Squadron became essentially a permanently unified combat force that developed the foundational operational concepts that underlay American successes in 1898, admittedly against a less well-organized opponent.

Stephen B. Luce and John G. Walker were the two intellectual luminaries who, more than most, drove this change. Rentfrow’s analysis of the intellectual currents of the time form an essential component of his argument.

It is surprising that Home Squadron should represent such a transformation of the historiography of the modern United States Navy. Nevertheless, Rentfrow’s book accomplishes this feat. It illuminates the importance of coherent doctrine for military prowess and, as such, is a welcome antidote to the seduction of technological brilliance.

Reviewed by Michael O’Brien, Tampa, Florida

Shipwrecked In Paradise: Cleopatra’s Barge in Hawai’i

Paul F. Johnston

Cleopatra’s Barge was one of the more historically significant ships in American maritime history. Built in 1816, it was the first private seagoing yacht built in North America. In its day, it attracted the type of crowds associated with celebrities when it docked.

Shipwrecked In Paradise: Cleopatra’s Barge in Hawai’i, by Paul F. Johnston, tells both the story of the ship and of its recovery by marine archaeologists.

The ship was built for George Crowninshield, Jr., an eccentric Salem, Massachusetts shipping magnate who made a fortune privateering in the War of 1812. He spent some of the money gained during that war to build the then-last word in yachts. He spent a fortune building and outfitting Cleopatra’s Barge, a hermaphrodite brig intended for trans-Atlantic voyaging. He planned many visits to Europe, but died after the first, a trip to the Mediterranean (where he failed to find an Italian princess to wed).

The heir, his brother, sold the ship to King Liholiho of Hawai’i for 8000 piculs (one million pounds) of sandalwood. It remained the Royal Hawaiian Yacht until 1824, when it wrecked in Hanalei Bay in Kaua’i Island (Liholiho was away on a trip to England). The partially-salvaged wreck eventually settled in the bay’s bottom. Paul Johnston, the curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian Institution, was fascinated by this story. Given an opportunity to examine Cleopatra’s Barge, he took it.

The first section of the book describes Johnston’s adventures excavating the ship. It provides an inside look at marine archeology. He includes descriptions of the dives, and the less expected (or desired) aspects. Johnston’s description of his quest to obtain excavation permits is amusing reading, but rivalled the travails of Odysseus.

He then explores the history of the ship itself, telling of its original and subsequent owners, the society in which the ship existed, and the ship’s travels. Johnston provides an entertaining and informative tale. For those interested in maritime history of the early 1800s, this chapter makes the book worth reading.

The next section examines Cleopatra’s Barge’s structure and equipment. It describes the ship’s appearance, including comparing Johnston’s findings to previous assumptions about the ship. Johnston discusses the materials used to build Cleopatra’s Barge, and develops a probable interior arrangement of the ship. It also covers shipbuilding techniques contemporary to Cleopatra’s Barge’s construction.

This is followed with a chapter about what was found during the excavation, both modern and nineteenth century. Part of the challenge in an archaeological study is determining what belongs with the wreck studied, and what just drifted into the site. The contemporaneous artifacts aboard the wreck reveal much about life at that time.

Shipwrecked in Paradise reads like a cross between a travelogue, a history book, and marine archaeology report.  It covers its topic with a thorough completeness, yet is entertaining as well. The illustrations are both attractive and informative. Those interested in ships of the period will find this a worthwhile acquisition. The general reader with find it an entertaining read.

Reviewed by Mark N. Lardas, League City, Texas

Lion in the Bay: The British Invasion of the Chesapeake, 1813-1814

Stanley L. Quick with Chipp Reid

Lion in the Bay is the story of the British campaigns in the Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812. In fact and fiction, dozens of authors, in numerous books and articles of varying depth and quality, have turned their pens to the raids of 1813 and 1814. Published posthumously, Stanley L. Quick’s Lion in the Bay, edited and completed for publication by Chipp Reid, deserves a spot at the top of the list of those publications. Built on a thorough examination of primary sources, the volume captures the desperation of the struggles at the level of the individuals involved. From leading civilian administrators, admirals, and captains to militiamen, sailors, and slaves, action frequently leaps from the pages.

Writing of a time when supposedly civilized men often settled their differences with pistol or blade on the dueling grounds, the author captures the internal bickering common to American and British alike. Quick also notes the dangers of command from afar (a relatively short distance before telegraph, telephone, and computer), especially in regards to the American defense of the Bay and the British decisions to focus efforts therein. Coupled with inexperience in the art of war, political decisions guaranteed that Commodore Joshua Barney’s zealous attempt to delay and defeat elements of the Royal Navy would founder. As to the British assaults, they gained little for their war effort other than provisions for the fleet, loot for the officers, and graves for too many loyal sons of the Crown.

One of the most interesting aspects of Lion in the Bay is its coverage of British dealings with escaped slaves in the region. As a source of information alone, succoring escaped slaves proved its worth time after time. Eventually, British commanders organized some 250 former slaves into the Colonial Marine Regiment. Distrusted at first, the men of the regiment soon proved their value as scouts and hard fighters. Unfortunately, the eventual fate of the regiment is not covered.

That missing bit of information is indicative of the one weakness of the volume: it was completed by hands other than those of the man who researched, planned, and organized the book. This should take nothing away from Chipp Reid, an excellent author in his own right (Intrepid Sailors: The Legacy of Preble's Boys and the Tripoli Campaign); however, the book ends rather abruptly with the final skirmish and sailing of the last British ships. The conclusions that Stanley Quick may have reached are lost to eternity. On the other hand, Quick’s research and original writing has been preserved, much in digital form, by the Maryland State Archives for those interested in the unedited version.

This book is highly recommended to those interested in the War of 1812. Its “side story,” captured in the prefatory pages, is as fascinating as the chapters within. Certainly, it is a most fitting memorial to Stanley L. Quick.

Reviewed by Wade G. Dudley, East Carolina University