the yard turned out thirty-two submarines, including a record four in one ceremonial launch. Watterson relies heavily on statistics to tell his story, and well he should. Graphing the number of submarines built alongside the civilian employment numbers is dramatic enough; numbers like 434 enemy ships totaling 1.7 million tons sunk by Porrsmouth submarines show the definite effect the Portsmouth yard had on the war. The author delves into the human side of the story as well, in his examination of the managers and the people working for them. H e discusses patriotism both at the yard and as expressed through the Portsmouth media. He shows how both experience and innovation led to some of the triumphs of the yard. In regard to the form er, he explains how a recent history ofbuilding submarines at low levels of production made the transition to mass production relatively easy for the yard at the commencement of the war. In regard to the latter, he examines scheduling, bulk ordering of m aterials, wo rker empowerment, and other novel concepts and their roles in the greater success story. In the end, he presents the Portsmouth Navy Yard as yet another li ttle-known but majorly important cog in America's World War II production machine. ]OH N ]. GALLUZZO
More great NEW reads from Sea History Press ... COMING
A Dream of Tall Ships IN JULY!
How New Yorkers came together to save the city's sailing-ship waterfront by Peter and Norma Stanford with an introduction by John Stobart, RA This lively account of a great urban adventure begins in the 1960s with two New Yorkers who were committed to creating a maritime museum in M anhattan's old sailing ship waterfront-the South Street Seaport Museum. Entranced by the old brick buildings of the Fulton Fish Market neighborhood and aware of the rush of new office-building construction in Lower Manhattan, they moved to save the old buildings as an historic district, and breathe new life into New York's old Street of Ships. The idea of recreating the old sailing-ship waterfront inspi red yo ung and old, rich and poor, Wall Streeters and blue-collar workers, seamen, firemen, policemen and teachers to work together to found a museum showcasing the ships that built the port, which built the city, which built the nation.
Hardcover, 400 pages, 24 pages of photos and illustrations $25.00 + $6.95 s/h in US; call for international rates
The Skipper & the Eagle by Captain Gordon McGowan, USCG (Ret.)
The Slapper
~theEagle
Hull, Massachusetts BreakingIcefor Arctic Oil, the Epic Voyage ofthe SS Manhattan Through the Northwest Passage by Ross Coen (University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks, 2012, 215pp, isbn 978- 1-60223- 169-6; $24.95pb) In 1969, the lev iathan oil ranker Manhattan entered the Northwest Passage from the east, and when it emerged on the other side, it launched the American rush to Arctic resources. The Manhattan's refit as an icebreaking oil tanker and successful transit of the Northwest Passage changed conventional ways of thinking about the technology of moving millions of barrels of crude oil, while accommodating nascent ideas of environmental protection. Her trip also challenged the world's notions of the sovereignty of the fabled Northwest Passage itself-issues still with us today. The discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay two years earlier cranked up the engines of theoilindustryas they tried to figure out how to get millions of barrels of crude oil from SEA HISTORY 139, SUMMER2012
NEW EDITION!
with an introduction by Admiral Robert}. Papp, Jr., Commandant, US Coast Guard
In the year 1946, amid the post-war confusion, Commander Gordon McGowan, US Coast Guard, found himself the master of a three-masted barque, a battered prize of war. With her carry-over crew of German seamen and neophyte Coast Guard personnel, he trasfo rmed her into a well-found Coast Guard training ship able to make a trans-Atlantic voyage under sail. In Admiral Pap p's words, ". .. in his simple effort to document a small portion of Eagle's history, [McGowan] related a story of courage, initiative, humility and devotion to duty which stands the test of time, and should serve as both a lesson and example for the young public servants that the Coast G uard Academy strives to develop."
Hardcover, 255 pages, 36 illustrations $25 .00 + $6.95 s/h in US; call for international rates To order, visit the NMHS Ship's Store at www.seahistory.org, or call 9 I 4 737-7878, ext. 0. 53