REVIEWS Old & Rare M aritime Books at reasonable prices Send for free catalogs
ten pound island book co. 3 Center St Gloucester, MA 01930. (508) 283-5299
We are also eager to purchase old books of all kinds, especially maritime. Please call or write. Captain 's Clock of solid oak, cherry and mahogany. 3-year guar. on quartz movement. $45, ship'g incl. Also: Oldfashioned handmade dolls. Photos on request. Keeler & Olson Clocks 125 Hill St. , PO Box 6, Whitinsville MA 01588 Tel : 508-234-5081 "Bellico's broadly in¡ formed study is the most comprehensive to date. .. " - N. Westbrook, Dir., Fort Ticonderoga Museum "Highly recommended . . . " -Robert Cembrola, Curator, Naval War College Museum ".. .a grand worlc. 11 -Peter Stanford, Ed., Sea History Magazine
400 pages, 150 illustrati ons, $20 pb, $45 he., shipping : $3, NYS res: add tax. Purple Mountain Press, P.O. Box E3, Fleischmanns, NY 12430 1-800-325-2665
L.J. HARRI Nautical Booksellers Offering outstanding selection, service, and nautical expertise. Visit our Boston store, or order your nautical charts and books by phone.
(617) 248-0996 120 LEWIS WHARF BOSTON, MA 02110
44
find this book difficult to believe. Yet century seafarers left legitimate ships the plight of international seafarers is for pirate ships to protest their treatment very real and is indirectly affecting ev- by bad owners and captains. The pirate ships were organized on egalitarian prinerybody at sea. After the war, the established tradi- ciples and demonstrated some of the tional maritime nations ran ships where social justice that had been denied them the crews were treated in a decent man- on lawful ships. Somehow I don ' t think this is the ner. That is largely still the case on the ships of these nations. But there are answer in the late 20th century. MICHAEL MOORE many owners, mostly operating under flags of convenience, who have little or Adapted from the Summer 1992 issue of no regard for their crews and look upon The Seafarer, the magazine of the Marine Society, Lambeth Road, London UK. a ship in economic terms only. Although we might not have experienced them, most of us have heard about The Magnificent Mitsc h e r , by these horror ships and the conditions on Theodore Taylor (Naval Institute Press, them. Here, Paul Chapman, founder and Annapolis MD, 1st ed. 1954, reissued former director of the Center for Seafar- 1991, 364pp, illus, bib, index; $26.95hb) As a whole, the US admirals who ers' Rights, a division of the Seamen's Church Institute in New York, spells fought the 1941-45 naval war in the them out in a story which will shock and Pacific were a rather taciturn lot. But none was more reticent than Admiral astonish seafarers. There have always been some Asian Marc A. Mitscher, commander of Task seafarers but now the world ' s seafarers Force 58 and the premier carrier leader are predominantly Asian. Some of the of World War II. Even to his closest larger ships they sail in are deliberately subordinates the diminutive, wizened multi-national, making it less likely that pioneer naval aviator was often an crews will be able to organize a protest. enigma. A man of few words with an Unions are discouraged and in some almost psychic styleofleadership, "Pete" cases effectively banned. Mitscher let his deeds do his talking. Earning his wings in 1916, he parThis is not just vague talk and rumor. Paul Chapman presents a vast number of ticipated in most of the key developcases. Some of the worst occur on cruise ments in naval aviation, including the ships where the contrast between the 1919 NC flight across the Atlantic, and conditions enjoyed by the passengers the evolving role of aircraft carriers. In and endured by the crew are most marked. 1942 he commanded the carrier Hornet There are no contracts, food and accom- (CV-8) for the Doolittle raid against modation are disgraceful, corruption is Japan and in the Battle of Midway. widespread, bribery is an accepted way From early 1944 the fast carriers of the US oflife and the wages are incredibly low, Pacific Fleet matured under Mitscher's not just by our standards but by any tutelage into perhaps the single most efstandards. Anybody who complains, fective weapon of the war. causes any sort of trouble or joins a First published in 1954 and long out union will never again work at sea. of print, Theodore Taylor's classic biThe author says that "the threat of ography has been reissued by the Naval being abruptly terminated hangs over the Institute Press with a new introduction heads of seafarers like storm clouds." by Jeffrey G. Barlow. Before his unThere are no methods of appeal against timely death in 1947, Mitscher burned bad reports, so many seafarers suffer in his personal papers, so Taylor had to rely on a relatively narrow selection of silence. Paul Chapman proposes seven re- the available official documents and, forms to change matters, including more important, recollections by unions, permanent contracts, two on/ Mitscher' s nearest associates. The retwo off, regulated overtime, worker par- sult is a warm , anecdotal, personal porticipation in decisions and an end to trait which helps immensely in taking "phantom owners." He admits that "his- the measure of this unique man. Undertory shows that those in positions of standably, the biography lacks the inpower do not yield their power volun- terpretation which would follow from a tarily," so changes can only be brought comwrehensive analysis of the events. about by seafarers themselves. Change That remains for future historians to in the foreseeable future seems unlikely . accomplish. He suggests that in the early 18thJOHN B. LUNDSTROM SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992