resourcefu l spinner of authentic sea lore and legend , whose pages are stre wn with beguiling incident and the chaUenge of seafaring-in a story illuminated with drawings that capture Solomon ' s wo nder at the way of a ship in the sea. PS Lighthouses and Keepers: The US Lighthouse Service and Its Legacy , by Dennis L. Noble (Naval In stitute Press, Annapolis MD, 1997, 272pp, illus, notes, gloss , biblio , index, ISBN 1-55750-6388; $34.95hc) This book is unique among the many that exist about lighthouses. In addition to the hi stories of some of the major lighthou ses, the material on construction methods and the technical information on signal apparatus is of considerable interest. Al so covered in some detail are the lives of keepers of lighthouses as they performed their lonely and often dangerous duties. The chapter on the "Black Fleet," the lighthouse and buoy tenders that serviced aids to navigation , covers the development of tenders from sailing ships to steam propulsion to modern diesel electric vessels and includes some of the adventures of these multipurpose vessels. I found the chapter on lightships, a subject rarely covered , particularly timely. Those lightships that did not succumb to sinking by storms o r collisions usuaily led long and inte resting lives. The lights hip fleet is covered from the early days of sail to their eventual replacement with Texas-type offshore steel towers or large nav igationa l buoys. For someone who has more than a casual interest in this subject, this book is a must. D AVIDE. P ERKINS
Ranald MacDonald: Pacific Rim Adventurer , by Jo Ann Roe (Washington University Press, Pullman WA , 1997 , 256pp, illus, biblio, index, ISBN 0-87422146-3; $35hc, $ 18.95pb) In the earl y 1800s Japan was closed to nearl y a ll Westerners. Even shipwrecked Japanese sailors who had had contact with Western culture were refu sed repatriation to Japan. It was into thi s unfriendly climate thatRanald MacDonald, 24, feigned shipwreck and allowed himself to be taken pri soner in Japan in 1848 to satisfy the curiosity he had harbored since childhood about thi s country. Roe discusses in depth the origins and extent of Japanese isolation at the time of MacDonald ' s landing, his SEA HISTORY 85, SUMMER 1998
extended stay in captivity and his influence, as Japan's first teacher of English , in laying the fo undation for later negotiations between Japan and Commodore Matthew Perry. Upon hi s release, MacDonald headed back to sea, trying hi s fortune in Australi a's gold rush. MacDonald him self is nearly absent from the narrative at thi s point, as Roe describes the gold-feverstruck Australian continent and the conditions in the fi elds. The story then follows MacDonald back to hi s fami ly in the Pac ific Northwest and hi s explorations in what is now Canada. MacDonald 's legacy in Japan , however, dominates this book, as it returns again and again to the achievements of "MacDonald's interpreters," the Japanese students he taught English during hi s captivity. SHELLEY R EID
Battleships of the Bismarck Class: Bismarck and Tirpitz: Culmination and Finale of German Battleship Construction, by Gerhard Koop and KlausPeter Schmolke, trans . by Geoffrey Brooks (Naval Institute Press, Annapoli s MD, 1998 , 159pp, illus, bibli o, index, ISBN 1-55750-049-5 ; $39.95 hc) Planned as the first in a series of reference works , "Ship Classes of the German Navy ," this book examines the design, construction and pe1formance of the Bismarck-class battleship. Over 180 photographs, numerous plan drawings and diagrams laye red on the concise text make a dense, inform ati ve work . SR The Great South Sea: English Voyages and Encounters 1570-1750, by Glyndwr William s (Yale University Press, New Haven CT & London UK, 1997, 300pp, illus, bilio, index , ISBN 0300-07244-9; $37.50hc) In this informative volume Glyndwr Williams examines the developing picture of the South Sea region in the English imagination. He covers the journeys of Sir Francis Drake, Martin Frobisher and their successors, making a useful compendium of English voyages of exploration in the South Sea as the Pacific was opened to the Western world. The narrative focuses on the voyagers' contribution s to English knowl edge about the Pacific. In the period covered in his work, before Cook's great voyages in the later 1700s, English voyaging was based primaril y on raiding Spanish trade routes,
rather than exploration for its own sake. While the reports of Eng li sh ex plorers' journeys added to the contemporary understanding of the Pacific region, navigational errors, incomplete documentation and sometimes fanciful editing combined to make a sometimes muddy picture of the territory beyond Cape Horn and the Strait of Magellan. Williams ' s work is thoroughly researched and supported by contemporary maps, each drawn as new travel reports expanded PS the pictu re of the Pacific. The Age of the System, 1715-1815. The History of English Sea Ordnance, 1523-1875, Vol. II , by Adrian B. Caruana (Jean Boudriot Publications, Rotherfie ld UK , 1997 , 500pp , illu s, biblio , index , ISB N 0-948864-22-6; $120hc) Caruana ' s li vely writing style combined with a wealth of British hi story and backgro und informati on have managed to make a lengthy reference work a fascinating read. This is the second volume of a series of three books on the hi story of English sea ordnance. SR Merchants & Empire: Trading in Colonial New York , by Cathy Matson (Johns Hopkins University Press, Balti more MD & London UK, 1998 , 458pp, illu s, appen , notes, index , ISBN 0- 80 185602-7; $45 hc) In thi s well-written schol arl y work, Matson takes up the sometimes- neglected group she designates as " middling merchants"-not the few who made or increased vast fortunes in early commerce, but the majority of wholesalers who traded on a much small er scale. Starting with the region's ori gins as the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam , Merchants & Empire exam ines their role in New York ' s coloni al period. SR The 50-Gun Ship, by Rif Winfield (Navallnstitute Press , Annapoli s MD, 1997, 128pp, appen, biblio, notes, index, I SBN 1-86176-025-6; $49.95 hc) Thi s account of the British 50-gun ships, from the Chatham Shipshape series, traces their development and history and examines in depth their construction, costs and contributions to the success of the Royal Navy. Supported by a wealth of valuable illu strations and tables, thi s work is hampered, howeve r, by a crowded and awkward page layo ut. SR
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