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+ Historic , antique U.S. Coast Survey maps . from the 1800s _ Original lithographs , most Ameri can sea ports and shores. Reprints , too . Unique framed , great gifts . Catalog, $1.00. Specify area.
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knot ones. Crossings often became much longer with fog, storms, diversions from wolf packs, and such that routinely beleaguered the convoys. Here was where the long-legged, sea-kindly 327s came into their own. The book begins in 1939 with Bibb and Campbell dispatched from their east coast ports to a mid-Atlantic meeting with the City of Flint, which was carrying 238 survivors of SS Athenia's sinking by the U30 off the coast of Ireland. That ship had 1, 103 passengers on board of which 118 were killed-thus started the "Battle of the Atlantic." Walling chronicles the activities of the 327 cutters through the early days of convoying and their many problems, through the better days as more escorts and more aviation support became available. Several were later employed as amphibious-assault command ships in both the Atlanti c and Pacific. After 1945, the surviving six-Hamilton had been sunk off Iceland in 1942-were again employed on weather stations and in general rescue work in the North Atlantic. In the 1960s a new class of cutters was built to replace the 327s, and they began to be retired (the first one in 1974 and the last in 1988). Two are now museum ships in Baltimore and Patriot's Point, SC. The book ends with several appendices of related material and additio nal data on the 327s. TOWNSEND HORNOR
Osterville, Massachusetts
Union jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil Wlir, by M ichael J . Bennett (University of North Carolina Press, C hapel Hill, NC, 2004, 337pp, tables, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-8078-2870-X; $34.95hc) Occasionally one reads a book and thinks, "Fascinating! I never thought about (the subject) this way or I didn't know that." In reading Union jacks, I fo und myself frequently having these feelings and gaining a new perspective of the Civil War. Much has been written about the sea bat tles and naval leaders on both sides of that historic co nflict. By contrast, almost noching has been written about the ordinary men who fought those battles. Though led by these more famous men, Jacks were confined behind the wooden or steel-plated bulwarks of naval vessels. SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005