already made a war zo ne of the Eastern Caribbean. St. Eustatius had no t bee n unaffec ted, and when , o n 3 February 178 l , the British fl eet came to stop its commerce with the co lo ni es, the is land surrende red w ith on ly token res is ta nce. The be hav ior of the two Briti s h commande rs, Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney and Major-General Sir John Vaughan , was atrocio us, and muc h condemned at the time. One hundred fifty merchantme n in the harbor were sei zed and shops and store houses we re taken over by the mi litary- no stone was left unturned in the seiz ure of money and goods from companies and individuals. Residents were thrown out of their homes without reso urces and treated bruta ll y; me rchants a nd others we re deported. Rodney m ade it clear that hi s inte nti ons were to " bring the Nest of Vi ll a in s to cond ig n Punishm e nt : they deserv e scourging and they sha ll be scourged." Hurst de lves into th e hi sto ry of Rodney and Va ughn to see just what led them to these brutaliti es, and in doing so sheds a fasc inating li ght on hum a n greed in a troubl ed era. PS
small e r yet mo re powe rful and e lectronicengine contro ls are becoming common. In the whee lhouse, new e lectronic dev ices fo r nav igati o n and communi cati ons sprout all over. ButOPA 90 , the Oil Po llu tion Ac t of 1990, and its re percuss ions now dri ve the o rth American tug boat scene. It requires, amo ng other things , that tugs be ab le to contro l o r stop errant tanke rs under stri1igen t wea th e r co ndit io ns. Many believed that ex isting tugscouldn ' t sati sfy these requirements, and so tug operators, unable to prove othe rwise, re luctantl y ordered new tugs equipped with exoti c and ex pens ive new drives. Crews loved the new boats. They were fun to drive and they could do things no " normal " tug could do (like move s ideways). Suddenly, it became the no rm to have one-if yo u didn ' t have time to build , charter o ne. The tug- bu il d in g frenzy was o n, and it stil l is. Gaston writes clean prose, fi ll ed w ith facts, and the book 's 100 photos, man y in co lor, and diagrams sho w the wide range of tugboat types aro und the wo rld and ho w they wo rk. HUGH W A RE
Tugs Today: Modern Vessels and Towing Techniques, by M. J. Gaston (Patrick Stephens Limited , Somerset, England , 1996, 200pp , illus, index , ISB N 1-85260-52 1-9; $29 .95hc) A va i!abl e from Motorbooks Inte rnational, PO Box I , Osceo la WI 54020; 1-800-826-6600 A surpri sing numbe r of landlubbe rs are intri g ued by tugboats, as are most of us who venture on the seas, work near them , or s impl y love salt water. Tugs are toug h, jaunty, honest and powerful. But what is the tugboat wo rld all about? T he a uthor offe rs us good answers in thi s, hi s second survey of the tugboat world. T he first, publi shed o nl y fiv e years ago , is now obsolete beca use towing industry technol ogy is c hang ing fast. Change used to come s low ly in the tugboat world--coa l and steam e ng ines re luctantly gave way to fuel oi l and diese ls, mani la ropes we re re placed by sy ntheti c lines, murmurs into a radio eliminated whi stl e sig nals and sw ings by the di spatche r's office fo r orders. Changes happen faste r now. Sy nthe ti c lines are being replaced by newer synthe tics, some te n times as strong as steel , pound for pound. Today 's dock ing lines are surpri singly s li m; c rews on some freig hte rs wo nde r why the " messenger" line they just pulled up from a tug is not fo ll owed by a bu lky hawse r. Eng in es are
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts Night Boat on the Potomac: A History of the Norfolk and Washington Steamboat Compan y , by Harry Jones and Timothy Jones (The Steamship Hi storica l Society of America, Inc. , Provide nce RI , 1996, I 17pp, il lus, appe n, index , ISBN 0-91 3423-08-4; $38 hc) Much of the exci te ment and romance of my grow ing up years was deri ved from trips aboard the large white steamers of the Norfolk a nd Washington Steamboat Company. But even though I knew the steamboats intimate ly from the fre ight deck to the pilot ho use-the minusc ule stateroom s w ith the arom a of Ivo ry soap, the c hambe r pots unde r the lower be rth , the e legant furni shing in the sa loons a nd din in g hall s, the de lic iou s foo d and the friend liness of the captain and c rew- I had little or no know ledge abo ut the hi story of these magnifice nt boats. No t so for the late Harry Jones, who spe nt a li fet ime amass ing the materi al for thi s book . With hi s g randson Timoth y, he presents a re marka bl e a nd com pre he nsive hi story of the steamboat era alo ng the Potom ac, beg inning with the Washington, the first steamboat to operate on the ,..ive r. Built in ew York in 18 13 by Charles Brownne, who had also bui lt Clermont, the steamer Washington
SEA HISTORY 8 1, SPR ING /SU MMER 1997
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