REVIEWS seems lacking here also. The book is distractingly repetitive and redundant; dates jump forward and back, making the reader's task of following a sequence more difficul t. T he author states at the outset that there was precious little information on his subj ect available with large gaps in chronological documents. T his could acco unt for his repetition of information , else the book might have rurned out to be an "article." Despite fac tual and editing erro rs, Thomas Macdonough, Master of Command in the Early U S. Navy accomplishes what Skaggs intended- it tells the story of a great officer in the early US Navy and, while its writing is sometimes confusing, the tale is still worth the telling. W ILLlAM H . W HITE Rumson, New Jersey
The Bounty: The True Story ofthe Mutiny on the Bounty, by Caroline Alexander (Viking Penguin , New York, 2003, 49lpp, illus, notes, bib lio, index, ISBN 0-97003 133-X;$ 27.95 he) The ship Bounty is often associated with mutiny, and the surname Bligh is a synonym for a sadistic ship's captain. T he popular im age and the reality of the events that led up to the mutiny and its afterm ath appear to be untrue. Author/ historian Caroline Alexa nder's book The Bounty corrects the myth through the scrupulous reading of the Bounty's log, letters by members of the crew, and court martial tes tim ony. The record shows that Lieutenant W illiam Bligh was a man of honor, a skillful mariner with a stro ng sense of du ty and co ncern about the well-being of his crew. Perhaps guil ty of micro-manage ment, Bligh is portrayed as a reluctant disciplinarian (by earl y nineteenth-century British Navy standards). Like most sea ca ptains, he was demanding, particularly of his protege and later mutineer Fletcher Christian. Alexander takes her readers th ro ugh the intricate mutin y plot, the campaign of midshipman and mutineer Peter H aywa rd to discredit Bligh, and the attacks on his character by Edward C hristian, Fletcher's bro ther. She describes th e incidents in the context of the sweeping changes that we re occurring in Europe-the political and philosophical aftermath of the French Revolution 46
and destruction of the ancient order. T his boo k co rrects an oversimplified story of that South Seas botani cal quest, the famous mutiny, and Bligh's remarkable voyage of survival, while presenting an equally co mpelling, more histo ri cally accurate, narrati ve of th e events. LOU IS ARTH UR NORTO
The Ship: Retracing Captain Cook's Endeavor Voyage, by Simon Baker (H ydra Publ ishing, Irvingto n, NY, 2003, 224pp, illus, biblio, index, !SB 1-59258-004-1; $27.5 0h c) T his work's tide is something of a misnomer. The book, commissioned by BBC Wo rldwide, wo uld more accurately be tided, "Observa tions of a BBC Team on Captain Cook's First Voyage." Ir is based on a recent voyage in an Endeavour recreation conducted fo r a BBC histo ry producti on. The author uses that six-week transit as the means to homogenize his thoughts, details of Cook's ac rual voyage, and the reactions to it of a group of "historians and experts" participating in the modern voyage. Reactions of the modern-day gro up to the hard realities of sailing a square- rigged ship are also stirred in . The author's stated objectives included seeking the answers to three questions: Who was the real captain Cook? What was the significance of his achievements then? What do they mean today? By answering those questi ons, Mr. Simon hoped to reevaluate Cook's standing as a highly accomplished cartographer, navigator and explorer. An abundan ce of illustrati ons, antique charrs, and color photographs bl end well with the text. T he result is a magazine fo rmat geared to fas t reading. J OSEPH F. CALLO New York, New York Through Spanish Eyes: The Spanish Voyages to America, 1774-1792, by Wallace M. Olson (H eri tage Research, Auke Bay, AK, 2002, 586pp, illus, maps, appen, biblio, index, ISB 0-965 9009-1-6; $60pb) In the latter dlird of the eighteenth century, Spain and its Navy enjoyed a significant revival. Spain designed and built superb warships, the Spanish naval signaling system and tactical doctrine becan1e the
most advanced in Euro pe, and Spain paid far more attenti on to educating her naval offi cers than did Britain. Unfortunately for Spain, these reforms did not affect her greatest weakness, her naval manning system. T hus, their co mbat results were disappointing, but still of interest to the historian . One of their achievements was a series of voyages of exploration from Mexico along the California and Cascadian coastlines to Alaska. Al though they sought to study the regions and its inhabitan ts as a scientific pursuit, a greater goal was to claim terri to ry fo r Spain in the face of Russian and , later, British incursions. In Through Spanish Eyes, Wallace Olson provides a thorough and readable account of those voyages, made up, in large part, of journal extracts from die naval officers who led the expedi tions. T he book's focus on their reports regard ing the native peoples and their cultu res makes the book of more interest to smdents in that field than to naval historians. Still, the growth of Spanish naval professionalism shines thro ugh, culmin ating in the acco unt of the Alaska portion of die famous Malaspina Expedition of 1791. T he book also touches on the local aspects of the Nootka Sound crisis of 1790, whi ch almost led to war berween England and Spain and left the Royal Navy mobilized to face its new co nflict wirli Revolutionary France. Through Spanish Eyes is a welcome contribution to a period in naval history when too little is avai lable in English about navies other than that of Great Bri tain . T he reviewer hopes it will stimulate others to write more about the navies of Spain and other European powers. W ILLlAM
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Alexandria, Virginia
Perils ofthe Atlantic: Steamship Disasters, 1850 to the Present, by William Flayhart (W W No rto n & Company, N ew York, 2003, 380pp, illus, notes, bibli o, index, !SB 0-393-04 155-7; $58 .90hc) Perils ofthe Atlantic is a collecti o n of relati vely brief acco unts of rwenty- rwo disasters (collisions, fi res, gro undings, sto rms) in the No rth Atlantic, predominantly in the nin eteenth century. In each case, there we re survivors who could report what hapSE A HISTORY 106, WINTE R 2004