IEWS The Waterman's Song: Slavery and Free- the antislave ry movement, as it had been dom in Maritime North Carolina, by since shortly before the American RevoluDavid S. Cecelski (University of North ti on, when in 1772 all slaves in Britain and Ca rolina Press, C hapel Hill NC, 2001 , Canada were freed . 288 pp, illus, notes , ISBN 0-8078-2643-X; The sto ry of how free black seamen $39.95 hc; ISBN 0-8078-4972-3; $ l 7.95 pb) built an oceani c network of information T his lively, deeply researched accouJl( and support fo r slaves seeking freedom is traces tl1ree centuries of black watermen 's too little known, but it co nstitutes the experi ence on che North Carolina coas t. invisible movement that made freedom The story ranges from the desulrimately an irresiscible force. W e need a wider oceanic perperate labor of enslaved African Am ericans digging the Dismal spective to appreciate chis epSwamp Canal, which conneC[ed ochal development, which led the fl ourishing cities of the to the outlawing of slave ry for the first time in hiscory. C hesapeake with the scruggli ng Cecelski's account, however, settlements of the reef-strewn Carolina coas t, to the freer and does provide a clearly docuSl.AVERJ AND ~EEDOM iN more open society of black pimented picrnre of the freedom lo[S and boatmen who moved MARjTiME NOJUH ~OliNA movement in No rth Carolina, goods and people along the wawith its ago nies and setbacks as DAViD S.CECE~ki terways in an Q[herwise praC[iwell as its moments of joy and cally trackless land, and the fis hing com- achievement. And tracin g ch e sto ry down muni6es in which skills, ini6a6ve and hard to the present day with its memories of past wo rk paid off for slaves working side by battles and coJl(inuing efforts to achieve side with whites. In sirnations where one full rights for African Americans, he finds person 's life often depended upon close solace and hope in the very narnre of life cooperation with a person of different race, along che waterways which he has known a kind of rough-and-rnmble equ ality since childhood. "I will always suspect, " he emerged. Co nsiderable numbers of blacks says, "that Afri can Am ericans, slave and were able to buy m eir freedom in chis more free, found cheir hopes uplifted and their open economy-and because of friends lives unbounded merely by che nearness of and fa mily they often stayed within the the sea .. .. I have never known a soul who system, working side by side with their did nor. " enslaved companions. But as the author PETER STAN FORD points om, "a waterman 's life could exist Editor at Large o nl y in a dynamic tension wich a syscem of human bondage." The Chinese Steam Navy, 1862-1945, by Cecelski shows a sure and sensiri ve to uch Richard N.]. Wright (N aval Inscirnte Press, in depiccing the experience of life within Annapolis MD, 2000, 208pp, illus, noces, me backwa ter communities, which included index, ISB 1-861 7-6 144-9; $48.95hc) "Indian refugees from che Tuscaro ra W ar, This valuable resource covers a period the mixed-race children of Indian women when C hina creaced a navy offoreign-builr and English traders, runaway slaves, and a sceamships comprising, in the auchor's smattering of castaways and deserters who words, "a surprising range of innovative clung cenaciously to their new liberty." craft, which co uld truly be said to be at the D espice the remote loneliness of the cutting edge of the technology of the Victoinland sounds, which one can feel sailing rian era. " D espite a confusing sequence of these waters today, the ideas and actual political events, the disintegration of cenpros pects of freedom filtered in from the tralized auchori ry, a discrepan cy between wider Atlantic world . Free blacks had be- technology and training, and interruptions co me a significant presence in that ocean in fundin g, there was a continuous thread wo rld by th e mid- l 700s. Cecelski traces of enterprise and ingenui ty in naval policy, how the message of freedom came th ro ugh reflected in a succession of technically addesp ite all efforts to stop ic, and how indi - vanced and interesting wa rships. vidual black leaders followed the call to sea. Perhaps the most telling part of the H e stops short of recognizing London as book is its demonstration of th e depenth e center of information and support for dence of a navy on economi c and political
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stabili ty. Long-term commitment to funding must be follo wed by support of a broad industrial base, fo r ports, dockya rds, and sources o f supply for fuel and munitions. Equally, th ere is need for continui ty, to allow fo r recruitmeJl( and education of officers and men, fo r training, and to ensure institutional control of the whole. T he C hinese N avy enj oyed only intermittent support from government over this peri od. Conditions in the C hina of the late 1800s are symbolized by the decorati ve M arble Boat at the Summer Palace at Peking, built by the Dowager Empress to celebrace her birthday and constructed with money diverted from the Sea D efense Fund. The result of mis state of affairs is vividly illustrated in the Battle of Yalu in 1894. C hina's two German-builr battleships we re the strongest vessels present, they withstood en emy gun fire impressively, and infliC[ed serious damage on the Japanese; the Japanese only narrowly prevailed . Bm a proj ectile that made a direct hit on a Japanese cruiser fired from a 10.4-inch gun on the Chinese battleship Ping Yuen was found to co ntain not high explosive, but cement. T he book describes in detail the genesis of che des ign, construction, and careers of all the ships in che C hin ese navy. T hey include iron Rendel gunboats built by the British firm ofArmstrong, inexpensive shallow-draft vessels mounting monstrous guns. T hese we re followed by G erman-bui It steel battleships, which were equal to the bes t in Europe in 1882 and far superior to anything possessed by th e Royal N avy on the China Sta tion, or by any other navy in the Far East. Fo reign-builr ships were joined by small er, more co nve ntional vessels built in China's own naval dockyards. After the Sino-Japanese W ar of 189495 when Japan decimated the Chinese fl eet, the C hin ese were back in the market for ships, acquiring the latest protected cruisers from Armstrong togeth er with li ght cruisers from Germany, as well as a flotill a of high-speed German torpedo boat descroyers suffi cientl y advanced to attract special attention from W escern navies. From 1937Chinawassubjected tocreeping aggression in an undeclared war with Japan. T h e process co ntinued into the Second Wo rld W ar, and the C hinese navy was th e first to experience the crippling effect of modem ae rial warfare on ships operatin g in rivers and constri cted coas tal wa ters.
SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001- 02