Women at Sea: Travel Writing and the Margins ofCaribbean Discourse, by Lizabeth Paravisini-Geberr and Ivette RomeroCesareo (Palgrave, New York NY, 2001, 309pp, index, ISBN 0-312-2 1996-2; $55) We generally learn of exploration and travel from a man's point of view, so I was intrigued by the idea of reading a selection of pieces written by or about women and their travels and experiences in the Caribbean. This book, however, comprises interpretive essays abo ut the avai lable literature of women in the Caribbean, with original excerpts sporadically included, contributed by authors from a variety of interesting backgrounds. While some of the critiques do center aro und the experiences of women in a maritime environment, they primarily exam ine the expression of margin alized women in the region-pirates, slaves, prophetesses and madwomen-through the means of travel writing and travelogues. ALENA DERBY East Carolina U niversity Greenville, North Carolin a Ahab's Wife; Or, The Star-Gazer, by Sena Jeter Naslund (William Morrow & Co., New York NY, 1999, 688pp, ISBN 0-68817187-7; $28hc;ISBN 0-688 1-7785-9; $15pb) This remarkable book is a fictional sequel ro Moby-Dick that Melville wo uld be proud of-fiction well laced with history and the whaling ethos of Nantucket befo re the Civil War. T he author has done a great deal of research on all aspects of whaling and the Nantucket of the era, and speaks co mfortably and authoritatively about her subj ects, albeit with a few errors in maritime terminology. "Ahab was neither my first husband or the last" the book begins, going on to develop as the fi ctional autobiography of a yo ung girl named U na, born in Kentucky, who moves to live with a lighthouse family in New England and falls under the spell of the sea at age 14. T he love of the seacoast is soon eclipsed by her infa tuation with two yo ung men. She follows them as they step out on a whaler bound for the Pacific. She learns the lingo, learns to climb a mast in heavy weather, and soon has the sharpest eyes of any lookout on the ship. Near Tahiti the ship is stove by a whale and, following the story of the Essex, she, the captain, his son, and the two yo ung men are set adrift in SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02
a whaleboat while the rest of the crew in the other boats disappear. Soon they are separated and after a horrible boat journey they are rescued, more dead than alive, by another whaler. Bur the book is more than an imaginative, fictional account of privation and the whole bloody awfulness of a whaling operation , for it is a beautifully told tale of human character under stress. Much of the story is carried in the narrator's letters and letters of her family and friends to her whi ch are fascinating and moving. While there is plenty of excitement, sadn ess, fear, self-inquiry, and happiness, th e book holds one's interest from page to page because of the beauty of the author's creativity. I could not put it down, and was moved as no other book has moved me for many years. THOMAS HALE Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts NEW&NOTED USS Constitution's Finest Fight, 1815: TheJournalofActingChaplainAssheton Humphreys, US Navy, edited by Tyrone G. Martin (The Nautical &Aviation Publishing Co mpany ofAmerica, Mount Pleasant SC, 2000, 109pp, illus, appen, index, [SBN 1-877853-60-7; $22.95 hc) Pearl Harbor Betrayed: The True Story of a Man and a Nation under Attack, by Michael Gann on (Henry H olt and Co mpany, New York NY, 2001 , 339pp , illus, notes, index, ISBN 0-8050-6698-5; $27.5 0hc)
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Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age: The Vocabulary of Runic Inscriptions and Skaldic Verse, by Judi th J esch (Boydell Press, Rochester NY, 2001 , 344 pp, illus, appen, index, ISBN 0-85 115-826-9; $9 0hc) Schooners, Skiffs & Steamships: Stories along Lake Superior's Water Trails, paintings and text by Howard Sivertson (Lake Superior Port Cities, Inc., Duluth MN, 2001, 90pp, 40 illustrative paintings, ISBN 0-942235-5 1-7; $24.95hc) Those Beautiful Coastal Liners: The Canadian Pacific's Princesses, by Robert D. Turner (Sono Nis Press, Victoria BC, 200 1, l 59pp, illus , appen, notes, references, index, ISBN 1-55 039- 109-7; $39.95pb) J, J, J,
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