CLASSIFIED ADS Peter Wi ll iams/Museum Services. N ew England's premier resource for rhe resrorarion of maririme paintings. 30 Ipswich Sr. , Bosron MA 02215. By appo inrrnem: 617-536-4092 Art Prints. NYC Fireboars 16 x 20", $ 18 each. Also available for comm issioned work. Cal l Sreve Whire 718-3 17-5025, E-mail: fdnyarrisr@aol.com Marine Paintings by Robert W. Young. 411 Elliorr Sr. , Beverly MA 01915-2353. Free brochure. Websire: hrrp: //shop.rownon line.com/ marinepaimings. Tel: 978-922-7469 , E-mail: RY192l @aol.com Model Restoration/ Construction, Caprain No rm an Sm irh, Grear Island Model Shipyard, 106 Lombos Hole Road, H arpswell , ME 04079, 207-833-6670, E- mail: dysm irh@gwi.ncr Ship Model Broker will help you sell, buy, repair or commission a model. On rhe Imerner, www.Fiddlers GreenModelShips.com or wrire, Fiddlers Green Model, 245 Prospecr Ave, Suire 19B, Hackensack, ), 07601. C-ill 201-342-1220 Bob's Silver Heart and precious kisses on rhe Web: handsonmysilverhearr.4all. cc E-mail: Disrefano93@ao l.com Steamboat Prints by Currier & Ives. Twenry scenes. Dormann 's Gifrs, 330 Alby Sr. , PO 473, Alron IL, 62002. 618-462-2654 or 800 8994438 . Websire: www. dorm anns.com, E-mail: dorm anns@dormanns.com "My Navy Too", book by retirees CDR Berh Coye, VADM Marmaduke Bayne, Capr. Jim Bush and company. T rue-ro-life polirical, hisrorical memoirs-raising compelling, timely issues. 415pp. Cedar Hollow Press, PO Box23,Ashland, OR, 97520. ppd.$16.25 Tel: 541-482-6833 Website: www.mynavyroo.com
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REVIEWS assa ults, fought off aircraft attacks, and one actually got credit for sinking a submarine. PC 1264, the subj ect of Black Company, was classified as a "sub chase r, " bur it was nor one of the Splinter Fleer vessels. Ir was a 173-foor steel-hulled patrol craft. Built on New York C ity's Harlem River, USS PC 1264 was the platform for one of the Navy's first projects on its long an d at rimes hesitant effort ro end more than 50 years of racial segregation.Fram its commissio ning in April 1944, its crew was co mposed of black sailors, ro whom all gen eral service ratings h ad finally been opened in June 1942. Initially, eight white p etty officers we re assigned ro provide lead ership, bur th ey were transferred as soon as their black counterparts acquired the requisite experien ce and confiden ce. In the wardroom, all rhe officers were white until May 1945, when a black officer, E nsign (later Vice Admiral) Samuel Gravely, joined th e ship . While the wardroom was thus integrated, the enlisted crew rem ai ned segregated , with white sailors ineligible ro serve on board. Originally published in 1972, when the Navy was undergo ing an o th er period of intense interracial strife compounded by the Vietnamese entanglement, the book portrays in telling derail rhe challenges faced nearly 30 years earlier by the ship and h er crew. Operational demands were usually far less difficult rhan the social barriers and intellectual misconceptions w ith w hich the crew had to deal. The author was the ship's commanding officer from th e precommissioning stage until a few months before she was decommissioned in February 1946. H e portrays w ith clarity, humor and sen sitivity the superb job by all hands in facing, overcom ing o r evading racial barriers as well as their ski ll in operating a naval vessel in a wa rtime environment. CAPT. HAROLD SUTPHEN Ki lmarno ck, Virginia Ship of Miracles: 14,0 0 0 L ives and O ne Miraculous Voyage, by Bi ll Gilbert (Triumph Books, C hi cago IL, 2000 , 2 05pp, illus, biblio , ind ex, ISBN 1-57243-366-3; $22 .9 5hc) There are several asto nishing as pects ro this story about the crew of SS Meredith Victory, a US merchant ship taken into military service in 1950 durin g the Korean War. T h e first is rh ar rhe crew saved- in one incredibl e voyage-14,00 0 Korean
refugees fleeing Chin ese and Nort h Korean troops. T he second is rhar the story h as nor previously been ra id in a book. What h appe ned berween Hungnam and Koje-Do is ill um inated with news rep orts, photographs a nd first-hand acco unts. The ship's captai n, Leonard LaRue, described the journey's beginning in Hungnam Harbor at Ch ristmast ime 1950: "Korean refugees thronged the docks. With them was everything they co uld wheel, carry, or drag. Beside them , like frightened chicks, were their children." Ship ofMiracles goes on ro describ e an inspiring story that ended on 26 December 1950 at Koje-Do, afte r reco rd ed histo ry's largest sea rescue. Miraculo usly, all of the people from that mass of stri cken hum anity survived-plus five babies born during rhe transit! This is the sto ry of rhe provocative co ntrasts berween war's h orrors and the astonishing acts of humani ty they precipitate. Ir's abo ut co urageo usly doin g th e ri ght thing wh en lives depend on yo ur action. RADMJOSEPH CALLO, USNR (RET) Kansas C ity, Missouri A Fine Tops'l Breeze, by William H. Whi re (Ti ller Publishing, Sr. Michaels MD , 2001 , 288pp, illus, ISB 1-888671-40-8; 14.95pb) A Fine Tops '! Breeze is a rwo-for-one deal. T his red-blooded sea adve nture, by a trustee of the National Maritime Historical Society, delivers a salty yarn plus some history abou r a yo ung Am erica seeki ng a meas ure of m aritime maturity after its Revolutionary War infa n cy. T h e setting is the War of 18 12 as the US begins to rake a few firm steps towards its far distant global preeminence. T h e central character, in a bit of a rwis r fo r the genre, is a member of the lower deck, and his ship, th e General Washington, is a privateer. Th is is the second volume in rhe aurhor's War of 18 12 trilogy. The first, A Press of Canvas, ap peared in 2000 and the third, The Evening Gun, is due this fall. And altho ugh the book's perspective is un equi vocall y Am erican , it doesn ' t hesitate to illuminate som e of the shortcomings of the US Navy of the rime. For example, the British capture ofUSS Chesapeake in singleship co mbat-an h isro ricallyaccurare event - reveals a serious lapse of judgm ent o n rhe part of Chesapeake's captain, J am es Lawrence, rhe officer who verbalized the US Navy's "Do n ' r Give Up rhe Ship" barrl ecry. SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 200 I