REVIEWS
It Didn't Happen
On My Watch by George Murphy, retired United States Lines Chief Engineer and Port Engint:t:r. 50 % autob iographical; 50% sea stories; 100% entertaining. Written from the unique down under perspective of the engine roorn. Spans over 40 years United States Lines history from WWII and its glory years to its slow decent into bankruptcy. Includes 11ia11 y fascinating, heroic and humorous sea stories and photos. "Any person who served in the merchant marine or military will relate to It Didn 't Happen On My Watch. This book tells it like it is! Sometimes serious, sometimes sad, but mostly humorous. Recommended reading for all veterans." George Searle, National President Merchant Marine Veterans Hard cover, 360pp, photos $26.00 incl: s/h. NC res. add $1.38 ORDER VISA/MC:
1-800-941-0020
Or send check/mo to : Triangle Publishing, PO Box 1223, Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526.
SEA CHESTS Museum quality, handmade/ painted, customized, personalized choice of image I lettering, size, style & colors. Info packet, $2.00 refundable.
Ould Colony Artisans 60 Arnold Ave., Edgewood RI 02905-3814 Tel: 800-414-7906 V ISA / MC
The cure for cabin fever: Our current catalog featuring vintage photography, moderately-priced paintings and prints, contemporary scrimshaw, nautical artifacts, and out-of-print books. See our catalog in color on our Web site at http://www.rnarineantiques.com.
For a b&w copy, please send $5 (refundable with purchase) to:
A. Jacobson Marine Antiques P.O. Box 2155, South Hamilton, MA 01982. Tel. {978) 468-6151
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and refused the cargo, but after a long stay in port it was disposed of. Proceeding back to Australia they put into Newcastle where the vessel was sold at auction, the owners having gone bankrupt. Two of the six sailors kept journals on the voyage, and they had a talent for writing. It seems remarkable that these diaries survived all the years since and became available to Captain Thomsen, who is , at 91 , the last living member of the crew. He has interspersed long passages from them with his own recollections. The result is a waim and often funny tale of human relations at sea-and adventures ashore in one of the last American square riggers. Included is an abbreviated autobiography of the author from his troubled early yeai¡s to his later cai¡eer at sea in the Alaskan trade and long service in the Coast Guard. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and recommend it to anyone with an interest in the old sailing ships. It is not only a good read, but it seems safe to say that it will be the last book of its kind. ANDREW J. NESDALL Waban, Massachusetts The British Battle-Fleet: Its Inception and Growth throughout the Centuries, by Fred T. Jane (Conway Maritime Press, orig 1912, repr 1997, 406pp, illus , index , ISBN 0-85177-723-6 ; $29.95hc) Available in the US from Brassey ' s Inc. , PO Box 960, Herndon VA20172; 1800775-2518. The name Fred T. Jane is a by-word among naval buffs. A journalist by trade, Jane achieved immortality by compiling the first systematic catalogue of current warships at the end of the last century-a work universally known under its short title, Jane' s Fighting Ships. Few who peruse Jane's may know his lively, readable opus on Britain' s Royal Navy. This history, published in 1912 on the eve of World War I, focused on the ships of the battle fleet. Four years later, the battle fleets of the Anglo-German naval arms race met in their one great encounter, at Jutland. Jane offers no penetrating insights, and, perhaps understandably, he did not foresee the day when the worldwide dominance of England and the very fact of empire would be washed away by the surging tides of nationalism. But his work, marinated in the unconscious but deeply held assumptions of an era now quite removed from ours, makes fascinating reading. Marvelously
evocative photographs convey the story through the changes from sail to steam, and spirited paintings by W. L. Wyllie, reproduced in color, depict the changing shape of the ships from the time of King Alfred (849-99) through to the dreadnoughts that fought the Kaiser' s Hoch See Flotte at Jutland , carrying the day once again for England, though at heavy cost in ships and men . Jane died just before Jutland, at age 50. We ' re fortunate he furni shed this highly readable magnum opus of his lifelong concern a few years earlier. PS The Perfect Storm, by SebastianJunger (W.W. Norton & Co. , New York NY & London UK, 1997, 225pp, ISBN 0-39304016-X; $23 .95hc) Sebastian J unger is not the first writer to attempt to penetrate the highly insular community of commercial fi shermen. Most writers come away with a handful of anecdotes or a collection of stories that are clearly the result of the fisherman ' s legendary fl air for embellishment. But Junger' s approach is different, simultaneously subtle and complex. It is the story of one exceptionally violent storm in late October 1991 , " the storm of the century ," as meteorologists dubbed it, which he centers around the loss of one particular fi shing vessel. In his analysis of thi s simple tragedy the author incorporates the numerous factors that brought the fishing boat into the heart of thi s storm , where the worst fears of the men aboard the F/V Andrea Gail were to be reali zed. The author 's research is extensive and thorough: there is a detailed analysis of the meteorological forces that created thi s exceptional storn1 , descriptions of the boat, her equipment and the tasks involved in maintaining and operating a fishin g boat. We are introduced to the strategies of fishing and we see intimate portraits of the people involved, whom he captures well . There ' s a woman like Ethel Shatford behind the bar in every fishing town, yet she is distinctly individual, as are Bobby Shatford, Murph , Billy Tyne and the others aboard the Andrea Gail. We get to know and like these people and to understand the v icissitudes and challenges of the fi s herman 's life and the motives that lemd them to pursue their living on the watter and to risk their lives time and ag<ain , including this one last time. The result is a picture, both broad SEA HISTORY 84, SPRING 1998