THE GLENCANNON PRESS MARITIME BOOKS val Institute Press, 1995), who g ives the broader sto ry of the Am eri ca n m erchant marine in Wo rld War II. TOWNSEND H O RN OR Osrervill e, Massachuserrs US Battleship Operations in World War
I, by Jerry W. Jones ( aval Institute Press , Ann apolis MD, 1998, 170 pp , illus, notes, biblio , ind ex, ISBN 1-55750-4 11 -3; $32. 95hc) This is a we ll -docu mented a nd wellw rirren book co ncernin g a ge nerally overlooked peri od ofUS naval operat io n s. Aside from rhe indecisive Barde of Jutland, rhe barrle fl ee rs in World War I saw relatively li ttle action co mpared to rhe submarin es and esco rt vessels. T he United S ta res entered rh e war rath er !are in rh e action and almost totall y unprepared in terms of manpower. We had sixteen dreadnought and six pre-dreadn o ught barrles hips in co mmission at rh e rime, all bur fo ur of w hich operated in rh e wa r zo ne. Mann ed in large part by green recruits and inex perien ced reserve office rs, trained parti cularl y in gunnery by peacetim e standards rh ar emph asized ship-to-s hip co mpetiti o n rather rh an reali stic wartim e co nditions ofbad weather and confusion, rhese ships and m en learned th eir lesso ns rhe hard way in rh e No rth Arlanric and th e North Sea. T he Briti sh , ve ry glad to have them jo in the Grand Fleer, were also very qui ck to poinr our th eir d efi ciencies, which by th e end of rh e war we re largel y remedied . T he barrl e fl eer presence in British waters was rh e backup force that allowed co nvoys to operate with light esco rts, rh e mining of th e No rth Sea to co m ain German subm arin es to be successfu l, a nd th e co nstant des troyer sweeps that were so characte ri sti c of that war. H ow these operat io ns succeed ed and how US and British sa il o rs cam e together to achi eve jo int successes is an engrossing sto ry. T h e A m e ri ca n s' fir st obs t acle was Mah an , who h ad preach ed that th e fl eet should never be divided for any reaso n . T he seco nd was rhe real iza tion th at th e majority of ships were obsolete, and had bee n wh en th ey were builr. Teddy Ro osevelt's Great White Fleer of 19 07-09 came after rhe laun ching of HMS Dreadnought in 1906, th e first all-big-gun ship that, by elimin ating interm ediate cali ber g uns, h ad SEA HISTORY 89 , SUMMER 1999
more rhan twi ce rh e fire power of any other battleship . Th e ove rco ming of these difficu lties is an absorbin g story, opening a window on events that lefr our battleship navy in a signifi ca ntly better co ndition and w irh a much more reali stic view of wartime operanons. TOWNSE D H ORNOR Hand-Me-Down Ships, by Ken Reed (Available from rh e author, The Bungalow, Th e Laurels, Fleer H arga re, Spalding, Lin coln shire, E ngland PE12 6LH, 18lpp, illus, appen, index, ISBN 0-9522387-0-5 ; $22 hc) E very stud ent of Wo rld W ar II naval history knows of th e Lend-Lease Act and rh e 50 flu sh-deck destroye rs exchanged with Britain in return for bas in g rights in Newfo undland , Bermuda and the Baham as. But less we ll known are the ten Lakeclass US Coast G uard currers turned over to rh e Royal Navy in M arch 194 1. Ken Reed, a former crew member of HMS Totland (ex-USCGC Cayuga) tells this fascinating sto ry in Hand-Me-Down Ships. By painstakin g resea rch co upled w irh perso na l reminiscences he rakes rhe reader from rh e ships' hando ve r at th e Brooklyn Navy Yard and co mmiss ion in g into the British Navy rh rough rhe many adventures that fo ll owed. T he ships mad e countless co nvoy esco rts from Britain to G ibraltar, F reetown, Durban and Co lombo. At war's end , two ships had bee n lost in combat, two were scrapp ed and six we re return ed to US Coast G uard se rvice. The derails are all rh ere. In his las t chapter, Reed tells how, in 1987, survivin g crewm embers mu ste red once aga in afte r so m any years and form ed rh e Royal Navy C urrers Associat ion , an active ve terans gro up formally recognized by both th e RN and th e USCG. The author has don e us all a valuable service by documenting th e story of rhese ren brave li ttle ships and the ir li fe under two fl ags. CAPT. W INSTON G. C HURCHILL Ormond Beach, Florida The Voyage of the E ndeavour, Captain Cook and the D iscovery of the Pacific, by AJa n Frost (Paul & Co., 1998 , l 40p p, illus, index, biblio , ISBN 1-86448- 188-9 ; $ 19.95 pb) Avail able from PCS Dara Process ing, Inc., 360 W. 3 l sr Street, N ew Yo rk NY 10001 ; 212 564-3730 . Alan Frost has produced much more
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