The sea is one-and perhaps someday we'll see Havengore on New York$ Brooklyn Heights waterfront, where Churchill$ American mother Jennie Jerome was born .... garden. The US had provided 50 old Carrying papers scrawled out or di cdestroyers to support the Battle of the tated by Churchill at moments of deciAtlantic against the German drive to sion , Havengore is set to travel European sever Britain's oceanic lifeline, and coasts and rivers, with teachers and stuRoosevelt's Lend Lease program was dents aboard to study decisions that sending shiploads of arms to Britain and shaped victory in war and the remarkSoviet Russia, which Germany had by able victory over Soviet Communism then invaded. Churchill also shipped won without total war. Thus H avengore British arms to Russia, remarking that if will be a traveling center of discussion Hider invaded hell, he would at least among different gro ups, drawing on the make a favorab le reference to the Devil resources of the archives of C hurchill AboardHavengore: Sally Browne, PS, Owen Palin the House of Commons. College, Cambridge, which have been mer, Ken Livingston, Mayor of London, and Dai Churchill says in his war memoirs made available to the proj ect. Liyanage, former Mayor ofMedway that as he and Harry sat in the sunlit It is good to work with original sources garden, Harry presently remarked that "the British Empire! But C hurchill was also de- rather than original suppositions! At ChurPresident would like very much to have a vo ted to freedom's cause. chill College I found it refreshing to follow meeting with me in some lonely bay or the trail of a perso n vas tly more interesting other. " This led to the meeting of August Serving in the Ranks than the poster-child image that has taken 1941 in Newfo undland, where military C hurchill, who had the im agination to shape in people's minds because of this plans were coordinated berween the neu- proclaim soaring humane goals at the em- man's giant deeds and compelling thoughts. tral US and embattled Britain. And at battled center of hum an iry's most atro- His greatest gift, perhaps, was to inspire Churchill's initiative, what became known cious war, also made conspicuous mis- common people to uncommon deeds. as the Atlantic Charter was drawn up to set takes, often inspired by that same visionary I believe freedom will always need such out the aims of the war effort America was quali ry. H e believed excessively in the ef- leaders to serve its cause. The sea is onebacking. fects of firepower, visualizing a mythical and perhaps someday we'll see H avengore The ch oices h ere were interes ting: "wall of fire" from naval guns that would on New York's Brooklyn Heights waterRoosevelt was reluctant to subscribe to defend British soldiers ashore in Wo rld front, where C hu rchill's American mother anything suggesting a renewed League of War I; but he also backed the 15-inch guns Jennie Jero me was born, carrying her son 's Nations, which would gethim in hot water that sent the German High Seas Fleet scut- message to a new generation. with the powerful isolationist forces in tling back to its bases at Jutland in that war, America, which at that time included even never to emerge again but to surrender. such liberal internationalists as Chester He interfered excessively in operations, I. A full description of the boat, her history and Bowles. But as the text shows, C hurchill to the exasperation of his military chiefs. restoration is found in Sally Browne, "Port of managed to get in his clause on a "more He bored and offended some otherwise London Authority's Havengore: Saving Sir Winpermanent system of general security. " And intelligent people with his flights of rheto- ston Churchill's Funeral Launch, " The American Neptune, 59 (2), 101- 12. to Churchill's "Freedom from Fear," Roose- ric. But often his interventions worked, 2. An authoritative report on the attack, by no velt added his "Freedom from Want. " and many people caugh t on that his rhetomeans favorable to Churchill's decision, is given The leadership of this extrao rdinary pair ric, theatrical as it was, was an embodiment in Warren Tute, The Deadly Stroke (Coward was strong and soundly rooted with the of his thought processes-which although McCann, New York, 1973). Tute'spostwardigpeoples they led-to the point that every by no means invariably right were gro unded ging revealed that Gensoul never forwarded the promise made in the charter was observed in reality as well as in his prophetic dreams. Caribbean alternative to the captive government after Roosevelt's death and Churchill's disIn a word, he was answerable fo r what he in France-he would not even consider this "with missal as Prime Minister at the end of the stood for. H e saw things through and strove English guns pointed at our ships.... "Thus the best war. In the Soviet-controlled areas after mightily to live up to the motto: "March chance for a peaceful resolution was discarded. victory the charter's ideals of no territorial always in the ranks of honour. " President Further Reading: Roy Jenkins, Churchill: A aggrandizement and of restoring liberties Kennedy termed him "the most honored and Biography (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New and devas tated economies and societies honorable man to walk the stage of human Yo rk, 2 001) offers a lively picture ofthe man were not observed. In the English-speaking history in the time in which we live." from an opposition MP. It skimps the reach of comity its word became law. the Atlantic Charter, and Churchill's bid to Education and Leadership And its principles were soon adopted by end the Cold War in 1949- but then, who the United Nations, born as a military For those who believe we n eed these can catch the whole WSC? alliance following US entty into the war. qualities both today and in what Thomas T hey remain enshrined in UN policies and J efferson once called " the ocean of time" Tax-deductible contributions to HELM may agencies today, and we may hope for the opening upon us, the Havengore project be made through NMHS. For further inforfuture. Not bad going for a document first h as been in co rporated as the ch arity mation: H ELM, PO Box 167, Gillingham, put forth by an aging Tory devoted to H ELM: Havengore Education and Lead- Kent ME7 4RD, England, or visit their web site at: www.havengore.com. saving what could be saved of the then ership Mission.
SEA HISTORY 101, SUMMER 2002
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