REVIEWS From such an extensive repertory, Mr. Townley and the Press Gang have chosen well. The ode-like "Tobacco Is Like Love" can only elicit a smile and a laugh. Didbin's " Saturday Night At Sea" is rendered simply and expressively. High-brow and low-brow lustiness are given equal time with the inclusion of " Norfolk Girls" and "Running Down To Cuba.'' This listener especially enjoyed the arrangement of the popular "The Titanic,'' its thick choral part-singing contrasted with solo violin and banjo lines. The gospel-inspired "Roseanna" and "See You When The Sun Go Down ," net-hauling chanteys sung by black watermen in the Bay's menhaden fishing industry are quite unique and their inclusion in this collection is welcome although these are the only two selections where one senses the performers are not entirely at home with the musical genre. Care has been taken in everything from diction to intonation in this well produced and well recorded album. The Mariners' Museum (which commissioned the album) has successfully captured on disc an important historical record of the music of the Chesapeake Bay . DA YID ERLANGER
Mr. Erlanger is a composer and producer who lives in New York. For Honor and Country: The Diary of Bruno de Hezeta , translated and annotated by Herbert K. Beals (Oregon Hist. Soc., Portland, 1985, 167pp, illus ., $19.95hb). Once afloat upon the vast Pacific Ocean, Spanish voyagers were relatively secure in their enjoyment of it and felt little need to extend their knowledge of the west coast of North America. Before the late nineteenth century, Spain mounted but a few voyages of exploration and these had negligible results. In fact, it was only the news that the Russians were sailing down the coast that renewed Spanish interest. In the summer of 1774 an expedition was sent north under Juan Perez. A second voyage , under Hezeta , was made with three ships in 1775. Hezeta sailed as far north as Vancouver Island. On their return , they skirted the Strait of Juan de Fuca and sighted the mouth of the Columbia River. Although prevented by fog from entering San Francisco Bay , Hezeta attempted to explore it with an overland expedition from Monterey at the conclusion of his voyage. Failure to publicize their discoveries and to follow them with settlements cost the Spanish a more significant influence SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
in North America. Due to the Spanish desire for secrecy, and the unexpected publication of the diary of the ship's second officer, Francisco Mourelle, in 1781 , only portions of Hezeta's diary have been translated before. Hezeta has remained relatively unknown among coastal explorers, but his journal shows him to have been a forceful and determined officer. (He later commanded the Manila galleon, and then served as lieutenant general during the Napoleonic wars.) On the Oregon Coast his name is perpetuated in Heceta Head and Heceta Bank. Beals, who made two trips under sail along the coast of Washington to see it as Hezeta had , has done a masterful job of translation . He includes Hezeta's navigation tables and a series of charts showing the track of the ships both as described in the diary and as plotted in the tables . Students of Pacific Northwest exploration will find this book of great value, the annotation alone being of conHERBERT E . y ATES siderable interest.
Mr . Yates is a resident of Oregon . Flags at Sea , Timothy Wilson (Her Majesty's Stationary Office , Norwich, Eng., for the National Maritime Mus., Greenwich, Eng ., 1986, 127pp , illus, £7 .95pb) . This is a brief but fascinating study of the flags used in the last five centuries by the navies and merchant ships of Great Britain and other nations with whom her maritime affairs have been closely linked. These include especially the United States, France, the Netherlands and Spain . After describing the various flags , ensigns, jacks and pennants of these countries, Wilson discusses the various methods of signalling at sea that were developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as the various codes that preceeded the International Code. There follow chapters on flag making and the collection of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich . Well illustrated in black and white, there are also twelve pages of color prints . A detailed bibliography rounds out this informative book which should be in the library of every knowledgeable sea historian . JAMES FORSYTHE
Major Forsythe is Hon. Secretary of the World Ship Trust in England. Philadelphia on the River, Philip Chadwick Foster Smith (Univ . of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia , 1986, l 76pp, illus, $29.00hb). Philadelphia on the River is a study of three centuries of economic develop-
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