REVIEWS NORTHEAST LIGHTS: LightTo California by Sea; A Maritime History of the California Gold Rush , by JamesP. Delgado(UniversityofSouth Carolina Press, Columbia SC, 1990, 237p, illus, biblio, index, $25.95) This compact, well researched volume tells the story of people and goods flooding into California by sea during the Gold Rush of 1848-56. Delgado, mari time historian of the National Park Service in Washington DC, moves sure-footedly through thi s exciting era. He rightly points out that due to the maritime nature of the Gold Rush, "California was never actually a frontier in the true sense of the word." The buying power of California gold and the daily stream of vessels from Europe and the East Coast coming in the Golden Gate meant that the news and fashions of the world were current in San Francisco--by water transport- soon after they were current in Paris, London , and New York. San Francisco was , thus , from the first, a world-involved city, and this well wrought work tells you why, in fascinating factual detai I. The author and William N. Still,Jr. ,editoroftheStudies of Maritime History publi shed by the University of South Carolina Press, are to be congratulated on adding another important volume to this invaluable series. PS
Clyde River Steamers, 1872-1922, by Andrew McQueen (Spa Books Ltd, PO Box 47, Stevenage, Herts SG2 SUH, England, 1990, 139p, illus , ÂŁ12.95hb) This book, first publi shed in 1923 under a slightly different title , has been amended in order to define the 50 years in question precisely. It contains the original text and illustrations complete and unabridged, going back to the Clyde steamers of the early 1870s. Th is was very much a new fleet, since many of the fast ships of the 1860s had been sold en masse as blockade runners in the American Civ il War. The author reviews in detail the history of each individual ship with many contemporary illustrations, covering the fine fleet of paddle steamers on the Clyde in the days when more value was attached to the speed races, the skipper' s object being to get his boat there first, whether full or empty, the passengers being merely a sideline! The book recalls vividly the great days of the paddle steamers, with pictures of many famous ships, up to the coming of the screw-driven and later turbine ships, which appeared in the early 1900s. In 1922, there were still 28 passenger steamSEA HISTORY 56, WINTER 1990
Major Forsythe is Chairman ofthe World Ship Trust and President of the No1folk Wherry Trust, in England.
houses and Lightships, Rhode Island to Cape May, NJ, by Robert G. Bachand. A look into the colorful history of the 133 light stations that operated between Rhode Island and o' Cape May, NJ. 422 ~? pages, 153 b&w photographs, 30 charts and illustrations. Hard cover. $19.95
The Captains Watson and the Empire Line, by David P. H. Watson (Deepwa-
SHIPWRECKS OF NEW JERSEY, by Gary Gentile.
ers at work, despite the coming of rail links and automobiles. This book gives a fine cross-section of the latter days of steam on the Firth and is recommended to all interested in the Clyde (virtually the birthplace of the steamship), in the heyday of its fleet of fine paddleboats and later steamers. JAMES FORSYTHE
ter Publishing Co., Ridgefield CT, rev. ed . 1990, 170p , illus, appendixes, $15.95pb) In May 1843 John T. Watson, then 14, was apprenticed to go to sea aboard the small local bark Elizabeth, in the North Atlantic trade between Scotland and Nova Scotia. By age 26 he had achieved master's status, thus founding a family dynasty that endured at sea while there were ships to sail- to sai l, not steam!from 1843 to 1904, when John's son David gave up the sea. In an extraordinary act of research, David Watson, who recently retired from the practice of maritime law in New York, has reconstructed the lives of John and his son David, and the incidents of their sailing, from the small wooden ships that John set out in to the great steel barks of the latter days. This finely detailed narrative was first printed in 1977, and circu lated for study among a wide co llegial circle from Massachusetts's Andy Nesdall to Gordeon Champman in Australia, to expand and verify the story. Our author has brought to life a remarkable seafaring fami ly. He notes: "Throughout these pages we have encountered again and again the losses of sh ips at sea." But neither John Watson, 45 years at sea, nor David Watson, at sea 40 years, ever lost a ship through sinking or grounding. Training, seamanship, and careful navigation had something to do with this proud record, together perhaps with "that extra allotment of good luck which the laws of chance reserve for those who have tru ly earned it." The saga of the Indian Empire , knocked down and dismasted on passage from Australia to Peru in 1895, is told in masterly detail , with an extensive portfolio of photographs recordings the terrible damage the ship suffered, underlining what the men had to go through to
ISBN 0-9616399-3-8
Gives history and exact location (LORAN) of many of New Jersey's shipwrecks. 168 pages, 42 photos. Paperback. $14.95 ISBN 0 -9616399-2-X $2. 00 shipping one book; .SO eachfor each additional. Ct res, add 896 sales tax.
Sea Sports Pu[J[ications PO Box 647, Belden Station Nonvalk, CT 06852-064 7 (203) 866-5376
FREE BOOK CATALOG: Shipwrecks, pirates, voyages, sunken treasure p least write to:
BOOKS of ADVENTURE/ SH 120 Howard St. , Suite B-754 San Francisco, California 94105
J. Tuttle Maritime Books 1806 Laurel Crest
Madison, WI 53705
Catalog upon request of out-of-print books on the sea, 11hlp and the saUor.
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