Dry Dock: 100 Years Harborside! is New York 's greater maritime sto ry, and, for that matter, our nation's shipping, labor, economic, and maritime history all together. Mr. Caddell finan ced the production of the book, but he has directed that all proceeds from its sale go to the Noble Maritime Center. The book itself is a quality product, with dozens of Michael Falco's spectacular photographs of current Caddell employees at their wo rk gracing the pages. ARTHUR BALDWIN
Paterson, New Jersey
The Fisherman's Cause: Atlantic Commerce and Maritime Dimensions ofthe American Revolu tion by C hristopher P. Magra (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2009, notes, index, I SBN 978- 0-52 151838-3; $75hc) Christopher Magra's The Fisherman 's Cause ma kes a significant contribution to the historiography of Amer ican comm ercial fi shing during the colonial and revo lutionary periods. Magra successfu lly demonstrates that the New England fishing industry, parricula rl y cod merchants and fishermen, played an important role in the road to revolutio n and to its successful execution. Cod fishermen and merchants held a central place in the Atlantic economy, producing a nd trading a critical commodity desired in both South-
At Sea with God
em Europe and the West Indies. Their centrality provided them opporrunities for great profit but made them vulnerable to shifts in British imperial policy toward Norrh America. The general fort unes of Massachusetts cod fisherman and fi sh merchants rose during the first six decades of the 18th century. With the conclusion of the Seven Years War, however, the British Crow n's vigoro us enforcement of navigation laws, combined with increases in taxes and restrictions on the trade of suga r, molasses, and rum, plus restricted access to the fishing gro unds and markets in Newfo undland, cut deeply into profits. On a political level, the New England fish merchants and fis hermen lost out to British West Indies sugar plantation owners, who sought to prevent American trade for cheap French sugar, and to powerfu l West Country fishing interests, who sough t to repel American encroachments into Newfoundland a nd the Grand Banks. As a result, fishermen and fish m erchants had stron g incentives to support a war. During the war, A merican fis h m erchants used some of their vessels and trading connections in the West Indies and the Iberian Peninsula to bring war m aterials and information back to the A merican wa r effort. Fishing boats, Magra argues, becam e the core for the first A merican Navy, fun ctioning as coast
guard ships and as arm ed vessels that captured a respectable number of E ngli sh merchant ships. At the end of the wa r, one of the most sticky and substantive issues at the treaty bargaining table involved the successful negotiations for access to the G rand Banks fishing gro unds by American fis hermen . Fishing, Magra demonstrates, rema ined a vital supporting thread throughout the Revolutionary War. The book 's intended audience is the professional historian and no t the general reader. As an expansion of the au thor's PhD dissertation, the book suffers from excessive detail and unneeded historiographic tangents. The copious footnotes, generally a good addition, tend to distract from the Bow of the book. Given the excellent scholarship and the exceptional range of sources, the edito rs at Oxford University Press did less than they might have in assisting the author to transition his work. Their failure to include a full bibliography is a serious omission. D espite these criticism s, C hristopher Magra's deep scholarly treatment places the cod fisheries near the center of the American Revolurion and rhe history of colonial Am erica . For those seriously interested in maritime America during the Revolu tion or the history of American fisheries, this is a significant book. JoH N Om N J EN SEN
Wakefield , Rhode Island
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