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to Great Lakes historical scholarship to appear in many years. The value for the regional musicologist is obvious-but of equal or greater significance was that Walton also indirectly functioned as an oral historian and cultural anthropologist as he sought out his songs and collected data on a wide range of topics. With the recent increase in scholarly interest in Great Lakes maritime history, this is a particularly timely publication. While we are developing an impressive knowledge of historic Great Lakes ship technology and shipping economics, the culture of the region's maritime people remains elusive and misinterpretation rampanr. Walton's journal provides hard data that current and future scholars should mine profitably for years to come. For those interested in the formation of a distinct Great Lakes maritime culture, Songquest is a gold mine. In it we glimpse an era when salt and freshwater sailors intermingled on the ships of America's busiest commercial waterway. This book should be on the shelf of anyone seriously interested in the Great Lakes or in the cultural history of American seafaring. JoHN ODIN JENSEN
Wakefield, Rhode Island
FICTIO N The Chains of A lbion (Book Two of the Reluctant Adventures of Lieutenant Martin Jerrold, by Edwin Thomas (Thomas Dunne Books, Sr. Martin's Press, NY, 2005, ISBN 0-312-32513-4; $24.95hc) The bulk of naval fiction set during the Napoleonic era tends to be predictable. A larger-than-life British hero, a ship, and a cast of supporting characters trounce the enemy within (smugglers, war profiteers, and government agents) and the enemy without (usually the French). Action ashore, frequently involving the humorous evils of domesticity, gives way to the real action at sea-tacking across enemy bows or luffing to cross his stern before the invariable cry of "boarders away" echoes to the mastheads. Next it's butchery below, 'rween, and above decks until the hero, through some measure of good fortune, emerges scarred and victorious to mourn the dead, inspire the living, and squander
his prize money while awaiting tlle sequel. Author Edwin Thomas takes a different tack with his chronicles of Lieutenant Marrin Jerrold. Jerrold is typical of naval officers of the era: educated men of genteel rearing, driven as children into a way oflife that they never learned to love. Promoted through favoritism, some were forced from the navy due to incompetence. For others, gambling, inebriation, lust, or even cowardice brought censure or death. A few of those lackluster souls survived and even prospered, supported by luck and competent subordinates, or better yet by gaining one of many naval appointments ashore. Unfortunately for Thomas's reluctant lieutenant, his luck is generally bad and those souls around him seldom have his best interests at heart. Jerrold begins The Chains of Albion in command of a prison hulk anchored in the Medway, a reward he earned by breaking a smuggling ring in the previous volume. For a man who values glory not a whit, it is a p lum assignment-safe and easy; but when a French prisoner escapes, Jerrold must recapture him or lose his ship. The chase takes the reader from the Medway through the crowded streets of London and across the English countryside to Brighton. Along the way, Jerrold is plagued by Admiralty, Horse Guards, politicians, the minions of Napoleon, ladies of dubious morals, and, most dangerous of all, the British Post Office. Naturally, there is a ship or rwo somewhere at the end, a broadside, and "boarders away." After all, hero or anti-hero, this is a naval yarn. That is as much as can be revealed without giving away too much of the plot. Edwin Thomas is one of the most promising young writers of any genre that I have stumbled across in some time. His research is excellent, his characterizations have the ring of accuracy, and his writing style is superb (you need not be an experienced sailor or have a naval lexicon handy to read his book-certainly a change from most naval fiction). I look forward to the tllird volume in this series, Treason's River (due in April 2006), and t1ruly hope to see Martin Jerrold drink, wenclh, and stumble his way to the rank of Adm1iral across the coming years. WADE G. DUDLEY Greenville, North Carolina
SEA HlSTOR~Y 113, WINTER 2005-2006