IEWS The Hundred Days, by Patrick O'Brian (W. W. Norto n & Co., New York NY, 1998, 28 l pp, ISBN 0393-04674-5; $24hc) O'Brian fa ns rejoice, nor o nl y is rhe latest-No. 19-now avai lab le, bur rhere is every indicatio n that rhere will be a twentieth, and possibl y ye t another fo llowing that. Our o ld friends Jack Aubrey, now an admi ra l, Stephen M a rurin , on ly sli ghtl y wiser to the ways of the sea, and the frigate Surprise are back and co ntrive to bring us ye t another excitin g sea saga of the Napo leo nic Wars . The Hundred Days refe rs to the time of Napoleon's escape from Elba and his efforrs at marshaling a ho rde of Muslim mercenaries to join forces w ith his own zealous troops, bottling up the British before their Russian allies can assist them. He w ill then lead his French ar mies to victory at Waterloo. In o rder to persuade the Algerian soldiers to help him , Nap oleo n has arra nged for a huge shipm ent of gold in gots to be sent to them, with the coo peration of several members of the Alge ri an roya lty, across the desert by camel and, final ly, aboard a xebek. Much of the rale is devoted to following Maturin across the desert to seek the cooperatio n of a friend ly ru ler, and we discover that O'B ri an is as much at home writin g about the desert as he is the sea; th e same attentio n to detail, wonderful characters, and ab ili ty to place the reader in the actio n all come to bear, and the resu lt is a most entertainin g read. When the xebek is mer by HMS Surprise, we find vintage O'Brian with CommodoreAub rey in complete co ntro l of his ship, his men, and the situation. And the end leaves little doubt rhar more wi ll fo ll ow! Wh ile this is certainly not rhe "salti est" of the nineteen books of rh e Au brey se ri es, it is probably one of the most ambitious for O'Brian, and deals with a tumultuous wo rld evem of which mosr of us are only dimly aware. Deciding whether a particular book of the se ries is superior to another is a trul y personal endeavor-what wo rks for o ne reader may not for another, and rhar is rhe joy of these wonderful books. Taken as a
SEA HISTORY 88, SPRING 1999
who le, they are certainly among the best sea tales and sho uld be considered in that li ght. E nj oy rhe characters, the litera1y style and the srarding accuracy, and if yo u haven ' t ye t had the pleasure, buy them all, find a quiet hideaway, and begin readi ng w ith number one. At the end , yo u will likely walk with a rolling gait while yo u think abo ut whether or not to furl th e tops'ls! WILLIAM
H . WHITE
Rumson, New Jersey British Museum Encyclop a:dia of U n derwater an d Maritime Archaeology, ed ited by Jam es P. Delgado (British Museum Press, Lo ndo n GB, 496pp, ill us, index, ISBN 0-7141-2129-0; $55hc) T his impo rtant refe rence work pro mises acco unrs of d row ned cities, ancient buried ships and more recenr wrecks such as the Titanic. Included are unresto red remains and vessels that have been rai sed pi ece by pi ece and reassembled . It is hard to chin k of any so rt of m aritime history no t to be fou nd between rhe covers of this tome. So me item s of interes t and impo rtance stand out. One, for exam pi e, is the Kyrenia, found by Michael Katzev in 1967, after he had been alerted to its existence by a G reek Cypriot diver. T his site was about o ne ki lo meter offshore from Kyren ia, Cyprus, in 30 mete rs of warer. Karzev, under rh e direction of the Univers ity of Pennsylvania, was charged with the excavatio n of the wrecked ship below its cargo of amphorae. The ship proved to be a 4th-ce ntury BC G reek merchant ship which , afte r being treated with po lye thylene glyco l, is now o n exhibit in the Kyrenia C rusader Castle, Cyp rus. Because this vessel was in such remarkabl y good condition and so much of it preserved, it at once suggested replication. Co nsequendy, under rhe direction of Katzev a replica of th e vessel has been bui lt. The replica's abiliti es under sail have changed histo rians' views of ancient ships. She can sail in more directions than simply downwind and has bee n reco rded under sail to have reached a m ax imum speed of 12 knors-a respectabl e speed for any comparab ly-sized sa iling crafr today.
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