Reviews Joseph Conrad, Master Mariner: lhe Novelist's Life at Sea, Based on a Previously Unpublished Study by Alan Villiers by Peter Villiers (Sheridan House, Dobbs Ferry, NY, 2006, 122pp, illus, index, appen, gloss, 122pp, ISBN 978-1-57409-2448; $19.95pb) Conrad scholars have known for years that this study by master mariner and distinguished sea writer Alan Villiers was in the works but not finished. When Villiers died in 1982, it lay dormant for many years until his son Peter took up the task of finishing it. This elegantly designed and illustrated volume is the result of his efforts and will be of interest to Conrad scholars, maritime historians, and readers of sea literature alike. Everyone will enjoy the beautiful reproductions of Mark Meyers's paintings of the twelve ships that formed the core of Conrad's sea experience. My concern about who was writing, father Alan or son Peter, disappeared as the difference between their styles emerged. Alan Villiers's distinctive style is both easygoing and full of vitality because he avoids sea jargon, explains only what has to be explained, and captures the essence of ships, men, and experience at sea with fresh and memorable phrases. The context of deteriorating conditions in commercial sail or accepted practice in handling square-rigged ships appears casually as needed, never in blocks that interrupt the narrative Bow. Occasionally this leads to lacunae-a fai lure to elaborate the crucial knockdown in The Nigger of the Narcissus, for example. Here the reader unfamiliar with accepted practice in coping with knockdowns needs a paragraph of explanation, and then another on the precise physics of the righting maneuver. In other cases, the blend of narrative and explanation is seamless because the simple but effective structure of the book tells the story of Conrad's involvement with the dozen most important ships during his twentyyear sea career. 48
The book's focus falls on Conrad the seaman (Konrad Korzeniowski) rather than Conrad the novelist, so both Alan and Peter Villiers adopt the strategy of dealing with his Polish identity throughout, bridging frequently to "Joseph Conrad" as the sea experience resurfaces in fictional form . Beyond Conrad's fans, anyone interested in understanding life at sea in the later decades of the commercial sail trade will appreciate the father's insight and the son's unobtrusive but helpful additions. ROBERT FOULKE
Lake George, New York
Crisis at Sea: lhe United States Navy in European Wlzters, 1917-1918 by William N. Still Jr. (University Press of Florida, Gainesville, 2006, 7 41 pp, illus, maps, index, biblio, notes, ISBN 08130-2987-2; $100hc) This study is a sequel to Professor Still's previous work, American Sea Power in the Old World: the United States Navy in European and Near Eastern Wtzters, 1865-1917 (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 1980). The present work is far more extensive in terms of research and in the multiplicity of subjects covered. This book totals more than 500 pages of text, excluding the bibliography, index, an essay on sources, and 148 pages of endnotes. William Still is professor emeritus of history at East Carolina University, where he was the co-founder and director of the Program in Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology (now the Program in Maritime Studies). This new book is the product of over twenty years of research. Dr. Still's objective was to write a comprehensive single-volume history of the US Navy's operations, logistics, and cooperation with its British and French counterparts during the seventeen months of warfare against the Central Powers. While other authors have written competent general histories of US military operations during World War I, no other author pays as much attention to naval logistics of the war as does Still. This work's other great value is that he balances an evaluation of naval officer
leadership with careful coverage of enlisted men's morale, welfare, and recreation at sea and ashore in Ireland, Scotland, England, France, and the Mediterranean. Still demonstrates how American naval officers worked to prepare the navy for eventual participation in WWI, well before President Wilson's decision to enter the war. He emphasizes how VADM William S. Sims, in cooperation with the Royal Navy, used the US Navy's destroyers to escort ocean convoys and to integrate the US battleship squadron with the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet. This was not done without tension, as Admiral William S. Benson, the first Chief of Naval Operations, worked to maintain a sufficient force on the coast to protect the US ports and coastal shipping. Other areas of US Navy activity receive detailed attention throughout the tome. Although Still himself is an enlisted naval veteran, readers should not expect a white-washed version of the navy's performance during the war. For example, he notes that the navy prepared for the wrong war. Involved in coalition warfare in the eastern Atlantic, the allies had already been fighting for more than two years-the Royal Navy had met the best the German High Seas Beet could produce at the Battle of Jutland. What the British needed were destroyers to protect transAtlantic convoys, not more battleships. Subsequently, the navy department suspended its prewar shipbuilding program and put destroyer and sub chaser-building programs into effect. American naval officers pushed their British coun.terparts hard to obtain the responsibility for mining the North Sea to deprive U-boats a northern route from their bases, but hundreds of mines produced in the US were defective and exploded prematurely. Although the convoy system did an excellent job of protecting merchantmen, the escorts rarely sank or damaged a U-boat. The reason? Very little research had been done on anti-submarine detection work. Still used masses of primary sources, SEA HISTORY 120, AUTUMN 2007