REVIEWS that allow the war to be fought. McG ee presents a very detailed accountofwhat life was like, day by day, o n vo yages to Guadalcanal, Australia, New G uinea, the Marianas and the Philippines, som etimes with munitio ns and barrels of gaso line, sometimes with beer and dry goods, always at risk and sometimes under submarine or aircraft attack. Because he was regular Navy rather than a wartime reserve, after V-J day he transfers to the fleet in o rder to complete his enlistment term and is assigned to USS Fall River, a heavy cruiser that is flags hip for the Bikini atom bomb tests' Target Vessel Control Group. His account includes a good deal of detail regarding rhe lack of nucl ea r knowledge and the consequent unintentional high-risk deployment of personnel during the tests and post-test period that is not general ly appreciated. The book concludes with his Navy discharge. This is a carefully researched volume with a lot of detail on ship's routine and merchant ship operations during the Pacific War. Inserted into the text fro m time to tim e are sidebars explaining contemporary war news, details of ships, aircraft, islands visired , war campaigns and so forth. Th e overall effect is very much a "living presence" approach to a personal memoir. There are four appendices, one of which derails government sources of information for naval researchers with unusual derail and accuracy. Bluejacket Odyssey is a co mpelling story of the Navy gun crews and merchant sailors who delivered the goods char won the war. TOWNSE D H ORNOR
H.M. Bark Endeavour, Her Place in Australian History, by Ray Parkin (Melbourne U ni versity Press, Victoria,Ausualia, 467pp, illus, index, ISB 0-522-847 16-1; $ l 75 hc) Distributed in the US by Paul & Co., clo PCS Dara Processing, Inc., 360 W. 31st St. , 2 12 564-3730; FAX: 212 967-0928. Every o nce in a while a book co mes along that is quite perfect in every detailaccurate to the point of nea r-obsess ion, illustrated to brilliant perfection, comprehensively encapsulating the subj ect until no stone imaginable is left unturned. Such a book is Ray Parkin's magnum opus, HM. Bark Endeavour. With the advent of rhe museum replica vessel, and its current world voyage, interest in this book will
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deservedly be immense. Captain James Away Offshore: Nantucket Island and Cook's Endeavour is undoubtedly one of its People, 1602- 1890 , by Nathaniel Philbri ck (M ill Hill Press, Nantucket MA, the most famous ships in Britain 's mari1994, 273 pp , illus, notes, index, ISBN 0time history-an d ye t, un ti! fairly recently, few details of her were known to any bur a 9638910- 1-4; $2 9.95hc, $19.95pb) T his is an engross ing richly-illustrated select gro up of maritime histo rians. Ray Parkin spent 25 years researching and well-documented account of the prohis subject and the end result is breathtak- gress ive development ofNanrucket seafaring. An Australian seaman , Navy veteran, in g from irs origins in whaling off th e artist and author, he set about recording beaches of the island to its culm in ation in everything he could discover abom the ship. th e deepwater quest of the whale around To assist him in his quest, he had the the wo rld. T he author's latestwo rk,Abram renowned Cook scholar, Professor ]. C. Eyes was rev iewed in Sea H istory 84; we Beaglehole. Th e result of rheir collabora- would like to express our appreciation to tion is the most painstaking study of En- the Egan In stitute for their valuable co ntri deavourto date, and a quite unique account bution to seago ing heritage in publishing PS of Cook's great journey of discovery charr- th ese works. ing the east coast of New Holland (Australia) in 1770. Parkin effectively recreates the The Voyage of the Frolic: New England atmosphere and the experien ce of sailing Merchants and the Opium Trade, by with Capta in Cook aboard Endeavour. His Thomas N. Layton (Stanford Un ivers ity meticulous research provides us with an Press, Stanford CA, 1997, 227pp, illus, accurate image of the ship-how she was appen, notes, index, ISBN 0-8047-2909constructed, ri gged and eq uipped, how she 3; $24.95h c) In researching a wreck on the California sailed, how she smelled, what life wo uld coast the author found himself drawn into have been like for those on board. Throughout this book, Endeavourcomes a new understanding of America's rol e in to life, a feat no other writer has managed to the illega l export of opium to C hin a. T his achieve with such accuracy and authority. broadly-based study examines th e dynamThe book comes with a comprehensive set ics of a largely ove rlooked era in W estern of fifteen plans and drawings, all by Ray relations with Ch ina, in which American Parkin. "Perfection" is the on ly wo rd that merchants, along with th e British and othPS adequatel y describes them and for my ers, played a significant role. money, they are eas ily worth th e whole $ 175 . This work richly deserves the widest The History of the Ship: The Comprehensive Story of Seafaring from the Earpossibl e audience. NI CK M ESSINGER liest Times to the Present Day, by Ri chPortl and, E ngland ard Woodman (Conway M aritime Press, Excerpted with permission from Ta ll Ships London UK, 1997, 352pp, illus, biblio, glosInternational, Issue 10, J une-July 1998, sary, index, ISBN 1-55821-681-2; $60hc) Woodman offers a compendious, richlyPortland, England illustrated recounting of the evolution of The Admiral's Academy, by Margaret the seaborne ca rriers that have tied the Moore Booker (Mill Hill Press, antucket wo rld together and battled for contro l of MA, 1998, 80pp, illus, notes, ISBN 0- trade routes from the ea rliest recorded history onwards. A necdotal in approach, it is 96389 10-9-x; $ 14.9 5) This specialized study focuses on the much stronger in its trea tment of recent remarkable career ofAdmiral Sir Isaac Cof- steam-powered shippin g than of earl ier PS fin, who fought on th e British side in the periods. Revolution , but in later life ca me back to his roots to found th e Coffin School in Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Nantucket. T he Schoo l ran the first sai l Americas, 1500-1750, by Kris E. Lan e training ship in the United States and went (M. E. Sharpe, Armonk NY, 23 7 pp, illus, on through a variegated career to beco me appen, notes, glossary, biblio, ind ex, ISBN today the home of th e Ega n Institute of 0-7656-0256-3; $58.9 5hc, $ 19.95pb) The autho r, who views piracy "with an Maritime Studies. PETER STANFORD uneasy comb in ation of fascination and
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SEA HISTORY 86, AUTUMN 1998