REVIEWS graceful about having a father lost at sea in a submarine. Later, under the in fl uence of the anti-war protest movement, she adopted the view that since wars were evil , so must be those who fo ught in them . If o ne happened to lose his life, it was o nly what he deserved. Many years later (1997), as she was clean ing our the personal effects of her recently deceased mother, Mary Lee Coe discovered a snapsh ot in a bureau drawer pictu ring a tired-looking Jim Coe in uniform with a small girl and boy at either side. Then, tucked away in the back of a closet, she fo und a carefully-tended Navy overcoat, and she bega n to understand her mother's lo ng-suppressed mo urning for her lost husband and her own "hole in her heart." Mary Lee Coe Fowler has do ne an admi rable job of recreating her fa ther's abbreviated life and career from Navy reco rds, scattered famil y mementos, and interviews with as m any of her parents' surviving fri ends and shipmates as she co uld track down. The more she learned, rhe more she recognized how false her early convictio ns had been. "Red" Coe was one of the most successful submarine skippers in the earliest months of
the war, with a service-wide reputatio n for skill, aggressiveness, and co nsiderati o n for his men . As skipper of an antiquated submarine, he sank rhe big Japanese fleer oiler Erimo in March of 1942. H e was rewarded by being given command of the m ore modern "fleet boat" Skipjack (SS- 182), in which he made three patrols, sank fo ur freighters, an d damaged another big tanker. H is m eticulous repo rts, showing how defective torpedoes had robbed him of other successes, stimulated the initial tests th at ultimately proved our to rpedoes were indeed ru nning deeper than set. Skipjack returned to Califo rnia fo r an overhaul and Coe was sen t to Po rtsmouth to reunite w ith his famil y and oversee the commissioning of a new "thick skin" boat, the Cisco. From there he sailed again for the Southwes t Pacific and ultimate oblivion. Japanese records tell a particularly poignant sto ry of the Cisco's loss. In September 1943 th e gunboat Karatsu, escorting the fleet oiler Hayatom o, detected an oil slick and d ropped depth charges on the suspected sub. These were followed up by bombs from pl anes sent fro m nearby Cebu, bringing up a heavy gush of oil. The Karatsu was the fo rmer USS
Luzon, salvaged by rh e Japanese fro m M anila Bay, a ship Coe wo uld have known well fro m his years in the Asiatic Fleet, and the H ayatomo was the tanker Coe had to rpedoed and dam aged in August 1942! Present-day submariners will find "Red" Coe's story interestin g and instructive and w ill easily fo rgive his d aughter's occasional lapses fro m nautical ja rgon . In resurrecting the story of his li fe and career, Mary Lee Coe Fowler discovered not only her lost father, but her estranged mother, and, m ost impo rtantly, she also fo und herself. J OHN
D.
ALDEN ,
D elmar, New York
Storm and Conquest: The Clash of Empires in the Eastern Seas, 1809 by Stephen Taylor (W W. Norton, 2008, 362pp, illus, biblio, no tes, maps, ISBN 9780-393-06047-8, $25.9 5hc) Stephen Taylor is a talented author whose latest work covers a period of history rarely rhe focus of m aritime historiography. After Nelson defeated rhe French in Europe, England's final battleground was its comm ercial link to the Indian subcontinent. This region provided Brita.i n with saltpe-
Sea Time
Life On Board Supply and Troop Ships During World War II and Its Aftermath by William F. Haynes, Jr., M.D. Career: Midship man: 1944-45 Deck offi cer: I946, I947 Med ica l o ffi cer: I95 5-57
Memoirs of li fe at US MMA (Kings Point) and adventures at sea chosen from Dr. Bill Haynes¡ 68 ocean cross ings in the Pacific war zone and in the Atlanti c ocean to and from Europe, treating medical illn esses and seasickness of German and Itali an POWs, US troops, and more than 30,000 escapees duri ng the Hungarian Revoluti on.
thrilled to have a resource book so well organized and informative ." - Joe Porter, Publisher,
Wreck Diving Magazine lllustrated, $35¡95
"The short stories on the displaced persons are most interes ti ng. O ne rea lizes from Dr. H aynes '
book the concern s, fears, anxieties and language
problems facing these imm igra nts. ITo date] li ttle has been written on this gro up of people displaced by World War II seeking a new home. freedom. and a chance to rebui ld their lives. "
--Captain Warren G. Leback (Kings Po int, ' 44) Former administrator, Maritime Admin istration U.S. Depart ment of T ra nspo11a1i on Publ: 2006. 6 x 9 14 inches. glossary and index. I 38 pages, 43 b&w halftones, one map, plus 28 color photos. Order from: The Darwin Press, Inc., P.O. Box 2202, Princeton, NJ 08543 books@darw inpress.com Iwww.darwinpress.com
To ll free: 866-772-98 17 or 609-737-1 349 ISB : 978-0-87850- 167-0 I $27.50 includes free shipp ing.
54
LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS - - - - - - - Available in bookstores and 01nline at www. lsu.edu/lsupress
SEA HISTORY 123, SUMMER 2008