They were out to make money. He was there to learn the truth.
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"Walsh's description is striking in the extreme, portraying an indu stry that had evolved step-by-step to the point of ruthless efficiency from a long history of bloody pursuit:'- Sea History
Puts a human face on both undocumented migrants and those who enforce policy
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"Noble skillfu lly interweaves ta les of brave ry, compassion and skill on the part of U.S. Coa st Guard servicemen with moving portraits of those will ing to risk th eir lives for a new life in the U.s:'- Kelly M. Greenhill, author of Weapons of Mass Migration
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UNIVERSITY PRESS OF FLORIDA 800.226.3822 I WWW.UPF.COM
GAINESVILLE TALLAHASSEE TAMPA BOCA RATON PENSACOLA
ORLANDO MIAMI JACKSONVILLE FORT MYERS SARASOTA
52
Lakes . Entrepreneurs with a vision, such as Clevelander Samuel L. M ather, recognized rhe opportuni ty; many eastern iro n men did not. Samuel M ather also initiated the takeover of the Iron C liffs Co mpany in 1890, creating C leveland-Cliffs. Cleveland-C liffs continued to prosper. Stable leadership was a key: W ill iam G. Mather foll owed his fa ther Samuel as president and kept his eye o ut fo r new opportunities. One of these was the development of their own fleet of ships instead of chartering other vessels to haul ore. In 1888, Marher ordered co nsrrucrion of two purpose-built vessels, the Frontenac and Pontiac. Ar 3 19 feet, the steel Pontiac was th en rhe largest bulk freigh ter on the lakes. Subsequently, shipping rares dropped, profits climbed, and mo re vessels were added to rhe fl eet. The authors were given access to the C leveland-C liffs company records, from which rhey traced key management decisions. These included the transition to pellets from rhe 195 0s, a move rhar kept Lake Superio r ores competitive with high-grade fo reign ore. But the company's fleet d id not fare so well. Cliffs did nor fo llow Interlake Steamship (a subsidiary of Pickands Mather Co.) in building bigger self-unloading vessels. The Saulr locks had been enlarged, allowing 1,000-foot ships to transit to and fro m rhe iron mines of Lake Superio r. When rhe huge Republic Steel float contract was rebid in 1977, Cliffs lost it to Interlake and rhe Ame rican Steamship Company. This began rhe demise of C liffs's ore-trans po rt business. The Ameri ca n steel industry was soon in distress and virtually collapsed under competition fro m impo rted steel and the changing global eco nomy. After achieving its highest profits ever in 1976, the company's management was struggling to turn the business around a decade later. True to fo rm, the company refocused on irs core business, iron ore mining. Bur a second ro und of bankruptcies within the integrated sreel industry cam e as a shock. They used this as an opportuni ty to purchase mines from steel companies ar bargain prices, and rhen wo uld wai r fo r rhe economic turnaro und and increase in dem and fo r iron o re. The wait was short. Chin a entered rhe marketp lace with huge demands fo r iron o re and was even prepared to ship ir across rhe Pacific to China. The C hinese preferred pellets, which increased effi ciency and improved quali ty.
Cleveland-Cliffs emerged as the largest iron ore producer in rhe United States. Bur m an agement determined the iron m ining business in No rth Ame ri ca had reached m aturi ty and began explorin g global opporrun iries-including coal and iron m ines in South America and Australia. To reflect its new role as an imernarional mineral resources co mpany, in 2008 the com pany's nan1e was changed to C liffs Natu ral Resources, Inc. It remains headquartered in C leveland, Ohio, on Lake Erie. Today, a walk from Cliffs's dowm own headquarters to rhe lakefrom leads to rhe high-tech G rear Lakes Science Center and its largest exh ib it, rhe 192 5-bui lr steamship William G. Mather. Named fo r rhe fo rmer company presidem , she was the p ro ud flagship of the fl eet. Decked o ut with special cabins and oak-paneled dining roo ms, the M ather carried nor o nly iro n o re, bm the company's directors as they met en route fro m C leveland to Ishpeming and the mines in the Upper Peninsula. The Mather is both symbol and expression of C leveland-Cliffs, whose name remai ns painted in large letters alo ng its 618-foo t riveted hull. T I M OT H Y
J. R UNYAN
Greenville, N orth Carolina
Poxed & Scurvied: The Story of Sickness and H ealth at Sea by Kevin Brown (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD , 2011 , 246pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 9781- 159 11 4-8 09-8; $34.95 hc) For centuries, vessels plying the oceans carried plague and yellow fever around rhe wo rld and created subsequent devastating epidem ics . Long mo mhs away fro m land brought o n scurvy rhar killed o r debilitated millions of sailors. Many diseases that incubate in domesticated an imals (es pecially pigs) were carried o nboardin close proxi m ity to the crew and, when turned loose ashore, these pathogens read ily found new hosts. As a result, ships transported measles, small pox, cholera, rrachom a, typhus, and tuberculosis from one land mass to another, diseases that infected and decimated Native Am erican populations. The Indians, in turn, introduced syphi lis to the O ld Wo rld th rough sailo rs-a d isease-retrib utio n of sorts. When a shi p first visited an exotic port, new crewmen, those w ho lacked immunities, were es pecially vulnerable to yellow fever, typhoid , dengue a nd Maira fevers, and malaria. Sick sailors
SEA HI STORY 137, WINTER 20 11 - 12