IEWS Against the Tide: The Fate of the New England Fisherman, by Richard Adams Carey (Houghton Mifflin Company, New York NY, 1999, 38lpp, biblio, ISBN 0395-76530-7; $23hc) Nature's bounty made it so simple: cod could be had merely by dropping a basket over the side of a boat, according to Milan's envoy to London, writing in 1497 of] ohn Cabot's explorations of North America. The lobster that littered the ocean's floors off New England was more desired by colonials as fertilizer and starvation food until market demands grew in post-Revolution New York and Boston. So on the eve of 2000, why are various New England fisheries in such dire straits? And why has finding a solution to the decline of this industry been so elusive? While not offering up any quick fixes, Richard Adams Carey skillfully offers the reader a crash course in the rise, fall, and current state of these trades. He frames the issues enabling the reader to more intelligently discuss the headlines and judge the actions of elected officials who are daily making decisions that impact not only those who go to sea for their livelihoods but also those who stay ashore and benefit from the efforts of the former. At the same time, he puts a face on the New England fisheries-that of Carl Johnston, Dan Howes, Mike Russo, Brian Gibbons. It is probably all too intellectually convenient to blame the independent commercial fisherman and his advanced technology for diligently working his way out of a job; their greed and short-sightedness producing a labor sector much akin to the family farm: quaint American icon but an anachronism with no place in the 21st century. Carey exposes a heftier knot. Enamored with the sea as a child, Carey spent a year on the waters off Cape Cod observing and working with a lobsterman, a quahogger, a dragger crewman and a long-line fisherman in an effort to learn what he could about the New England fisherman. The result is the story of a dangerous trade competing to stay afloat against the swirl oflocal, state, federal and international policy making; economic uncertainty; evolving technologies; natural history; seaside gentrification; meteorological trends; and the involvement of scientists, bureaucrats, and enforcement officers.
SEA HISTORY 91, WINTER 1999-2000
States Carey: "Not all fish stories are unhappy ones, though it may be warranted that all fish stories now are difficult." Humankind has complicated what nature's bounty had once made simple. But, as Carey and others have pointed out, ultimately it's the story of "men's lives." Carey adeptly weaves many strands into a compelling, lucid story line, which should be required reading for the policymaker and concerned citizen. PETER SORENSEN Mystic, Connecticut Seapower and Naval Warfare, 16501830, by Richard Harding (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD , 1999, 356pp, illus, appen, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 155750-888-7; $45hc; ISBN 1-55750-8895; $24.95pb) This scholarly effort covers a vast changing political, economic and naval environment over a period during which the whole European governmental mindset was in a state of flux. Most monarchies h ad realized survival required a strong army, but the realization that a strong navy with professional officers was also key came sporadically and usually only after a disaster. Professor Harding has tackled a huge subject with the somewhat parochial attitude that only the English had "what it took" to prevail in this period of flux. Significant defeats at sea are glossed over, but the lessons learned are not. In actuality, the internal political turmoil in different countries seems to be his topic of choice. Perhaps Harding's lack of seagoing knowledge is partly to blame for this shift in focus . His time frame, 1650 to 1830, is unbalanced in that a great deal more emphasis is placed on the period leading up to the late 1700s and, in this reviewer's opinion, the era of Britain's struggle with Napoleo n receives short shrift, as do the notable single-ship frigate battles of the "Anglo-American War" (1812-15). His writing style creates ambiguity in some of the points he is making, while a distracting grammatical structure, typographical errors and ineffective editing add to the reader's difficulties. Harding has produced little that is new or revelatory regarding the development of the major ships of the line in European or American naval history. When a subject comes up that he might have covered, he
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