BOOKS & RECORDS The Great War at Sea, 1914-1918, by Richard Hough (Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York, 1983, 353pp, illus, $25). In what is easily the best book yet written on the maritime side of World War I, Hough upsets a good many received opinions, beginning with the confused and confusing notion that drifts through so much writing on the Great War (as it was known at the time), like the mist that hung over the battlefleets in combat at Jutland , that the English somehow "lost" the war at sea, or at any rate did not win it decisively. Hough maintains that the war at sea was a decisive victory, and one on which victory in the whole war depended. Hough's lively narrative cuts to the heart of a wide range of subordinate questions, such as the performance of the British battlecruisers-those high-speed , lightly armored monsters carrying the biggest available gun, of which the British lost three to the German's one at Jutland. Hough believes the ships were sound in concept and basic design, and I believe he carries his point. It is strange to find this case made in a book written over half a century after that deadly afternoon when Admiral Beatty, learning that the huge and awesome-looking Queen Mary had blown up, remarked to his flag captain Chatfield: "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today." What was wrong was not the design or handling of the ships, but inferior British technology, which permitted fatal flaws in ammunition handling and protection. This technological inferiority showed up in other areas as well, notably in the British shell which tended to break up against German armor when fired at the unexpectedly Jong ranges at which sea battles were fought. Hough writes brilliantly on such themes, and on the terrors and uncertainties of sea battle, so far removed from the drawing boards where the ships were designed or the lobbies where the political decisions to build them were taken. The British victory was built on "not losing," on maintaining the distant sea blockade which protected Britain's vulnerable overseas sea supply lines and denied seaborne imports and exports to Germany. The British commander-in-chief Jellicoe, as Churchill rightly observed in his history of the war, was the only person on either side who could have lost the war in an afternoon. This does not excuse his hyper-conservative handling of the fleet , in Hough's eyes, any more than it did in Jellicoe's subordinate Beatty's eyes at the time. Hough paints a true picture of Jellicoe's obsessive personality-kept awake at nights by fears for his own health, fearful speculations on a mythical German super-gun, SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1984
fears of his commanders taking independent action and spoiling his rigid system of command. Probably Jellicoe increased the risk of defeat by his fears, which seemed to govern his every action. On the good side, he understood the new technologies he was dealing with quite well, and he managed to produce and lead a pretty well trained and cohesive fleet. German leadership, on the other hand , was uniformly capable and resolute, and the German achievement in building the world's second best fleet in a decade was a kind of miracle. Hough believes that without the naval renaissance led by the tempestuous Admiral Jacky Fisher and the political head of the navy, Winston Churchill , the British would have been beaten by the very strong German challenge. It was a tragedy for the nation that Fisher blew up, like one of his own "splendid cats" (as the battlecruisers, with names like Lion and Princess Royal, were irreverently called) , and resigned , forcing Churchill's resignation , in the second year of the conflict. Luckily Churchill and some of the ships whose building he pushed through , survived to take the helm of first the Navy, and then the whole nation , in World War II . PS
American Sea Songs and Shanties, Long-Playing Records L26, L27 in the Series "Folk Music of the United States," from the Archive of Folk Culture, ed. Duncan Emrich (Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. , $14). Here is a classic collection of deepwater shanties and fo'c'sle songs recorded in the voices of real sailors who went to sea in the latter years of sail. Presenting 21 of the finest traditional songs collected by fieldworkers for the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress, these two excellent long-playing discs, originally issued by the Archive some years ago, are now available in a new edition with superior sound quality. Encased in an attractive album illustrated with a woodcut of singing sailormen, they faithfully preserve the haunting traditional art of the shantyman of square-rigger days. The records are accompanied by two brochures in which the words of all the songs are transcribed, with background notes on each song and a knowledgeable introduction by Duncan Emrich. The singers, all old-time sailors, give explanations in their own words of how the various shanties were used at sea, a valuable feature not found in shanty and seasong recordings by professional singers. In these, as in other Library of Congress folk recordings, is preserved the pure tradition of folksong , undistorted by
the influence of art music. "To those who may be acquainted with certain of these [shanties] through the radio or from the singing of trained vocalists," Emrich writes, "one thing is at once apparentthe slow tempo of the singing. This tempo is true to the tradition, and any faster tempo is a falsification of the shanties. The shanties were work songs, and the work was slow and arduous ; the work would have been impossible at a faster tempo." Thus, for example, the measured tread of men tramping laborously around the capstan, heaving at the capstan bars to take in chain and raise a massive anchor, determined a tempo that helps to give the capstan shanties that indefinable magic that as John Masefield wrote years ago, "stirs the blood like a drum-tap." In addition to capstan shanties, halyard and short-haul shanties are well represented in these recordings. There is one walkaway shanty, "What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor?" This is sung by Richard Maitland as it would have been sung by men walking the deck pulling the ropes bent to a makeshift baranacle-andweed-scrubbing device lowered under the ship's bottom . The voice of Dick Maitland , the great shantyman who died at Sailors' Snug Harbor on Staten Island , New York, in 1942 , can be heard on these recordings with remarkable fidelity, as anyone who heard him in life will attest. Maitland's versions of ''A-Roving," " Heave Away" and " Paddy, Get Back" are memorable listening experiences. Another highlight of the discs is the capstan shanty " Rio Grande," sung by Captain Leighton Robinson of California with a chorus of men's voices. Listening, one can easily imagine that the shanty is sounding across the water from the fo'c'sle head of a lofty outward-bounder. Captain Robinson's versions of "The Sailor's Alphabet," a fairly rare song, and " The Dead Horse" are also exceptionally good ones. Unusual solo lines for " Blow, Boys, Blow" and " Reuben Ranzo" sung by Noble B. Brown of Wisconsin and a rousing rendition of "WhenJones's Ale Was New" by John M . (Sailor Dad) Hunt of Virginia add to the interest of an album that can be highly recommended. American Sea Songs and Shanties offers a rare opportunity to hear authentic forebitters and shanties sung as they really were under sail. WILLIAM MAIN DOERFLINGER
Mr. Doerflinger, author of the classic Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman , sought out Dick Maitland and other old hands in their retirement, and helped to save these sailors' songs as they sang them. 59