HMS Gaspee in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay, the first armed destruction of a king's vessel before the Revolutionary War. Whipple, one of the first captains appointed to the Continental Navy, later advanced to commodore. His greatest maritime success came in 1779 when he captured the largest number of enemy prizes seized in the war during a single evenr. After surrendering when his fleet was bottled up in the ill-fated defense of Charleston, he became a British prisoner for the remainder of the war. Whipple fell into poverty and finally emigrated to Marietta, Ohio, where he built and then commanded the first vessel to sail down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans and the Gulf. Abraham Whipple is an overlooked and somewhat tragic naval hero, largely lost in the dusty history of the Continental Navy, but Cohen's stunning and seminal biography should go a long way in correcting this oversighr.
depth, with each chapter richly illustrated with photos and diagrams on ship construction, sails and rigging, and ship handling. Early seventeenth-century ships are represented bya variety of reconstructions including the Mayflower, Henry Hudson's Halve Maen (Half Moon), Kalmar Nyckel, and the Duyjken. The Jamestown replicas, Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, provide a unique study in that these vessels are the second recreations of these seventeenthcen tury ships of discovery, and the new ships are the products of lessons learned from the building and use of the first set of replicas. The inclusion ofJapan's coastal trading craft, the Bezaisen, provides an important recognition that places outside the western tradition built very solid ships, and Japanese researchers and shipbuilders are starting to build replicas of their traditional craft. The schooner Sultana may be, with the Endeavour, the best documented replica Lours ARTHUR NORTON vessel in the texr. As a Royal Navy vessel, West Simsbury, Connecticut Sultana's lines were recorded and archived, plus her original log survives and provides Sailing into the Past-Learning from today's researcher-mariners with critical Replica Ships, edited by Jenny Bennett sailing information. Building new vessels in the 20'h and (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 2009, 192pp, illus, biblio, index, ISBN 978- 21 " centuries is from the outset, a compro1-59114-811-1; $45.95hc) mise between authenticity and the reality of Sailing into the Past is a wealth of having to choose alternate building materiinformation on modern replica sailing ves- als. The desire to build replicas that will last sels. Individual chapters represent specific decades requires the use of stronger wood vessels, with each having been contributed and better fasteners, canvas, and other maby authors with firsthand experience with terials. In addition, vessels have to comply "their" vessels. with modern safety regulations and many In the introductory chapter on "experi- have installed engines, electrical systems, and mental archaeology," Sean McGrail explains modern navigational equipment. All in all, this book is an important how once a vessel's physical remains are recovered, the knowledge of how they sailed study, yet still a fun read, for anyone inand how to sail them has to be rediscovered, volved or interested in the growing field of most times by trial and error. He also brings replica vessel construction and operations. up the issue of replicas (copies of spe- Ultimately, replicas make researchers ask cific vessels) versus building a representative the kinds of questions that would never be vessel of a type from a bygone era for which asked by non-sailors. These questions relate no vessel plans, physical remains, or detailed to construction and life aboard, as well as descriptions exisr. In these examples, replica operating the ship under sail and oar. For watercraft are "floating hypotheses," where those interested in traditional sailing vessels, only by using and experimenting with them this is one book they should have, both can we begin to understand how a vessel may because of its broad reach through time and have been rigged, operated, and thus how the variety of different sailing vessels that are presented. life might have been structured on board. Triremes, Viking ships, the Hanseatic LAWRENCE BABITS, PHD cog, and the caravel are each examined in Greenville, North Carolina 54
SEA HISTORY 132, AUTUMN 2010