Reviews A Man and His Ship: America's Greatest C ox. His initial efforts foc used on the seized Nava/Architect and His Quest to Build the German ocean liner Vaterland, used during SS United States by Steven Ujifusa (Simon the war to transport doughboys to Europe & Schuster, New York, 2012, 464pp, illus, to fight against the Kaiser. Working with notes, index, ISBN 978- 1-45 16-45 07- 1; $29.99hc) The United States Navy and the American merchant marine have traditionally existed at opposite ends of the spectrum. From the birth of the United States, the merchant marine was the dominant maritime entity in the nation, until its d ecline in the latter half of the nineteenth century, as the new steel navy m ade its appearance. Today, the US Navy is the foremost military force sailing upon the oceans, while the American merchant marine ranks twenty-first in terms of tonnage, behind flags-of-convenience nations such as Panama, Liberia, and the Marshall Islands, and nations which provide support to their commercial fleets, such as Greece, Norway, Denmark, and China. Yet there was a time, at the end of the Second World War, when both the American navy and the merchant marine were at their pinnacle. Both entities commemorated the event with new flagships: the navy set its sigh ts on a super-carrier, capable of hurtling nuclear-armed bombers at the Soviet Uni on, while a maverick naval architect aimed to unseat the Europeans from their dominance on the North Atlantic wi th the fastes t ocean liner ever built. The carri er, USS United States, m et opposition in the famed Revolt of the Admirals and was scrapped shortly after construction began. 'This setback allowed for the building of SS United States, the subject of Steven Uj ifusa's new book, A Man and H is Ship: America's Greatest Naval Architect and His Quest to Build the SS United States. A historian and m ember of the Advisory Council of the SS United States Conservancy, Ujifusa brings together a narrative with two distinct threads. In the initial part of A Man and His Ship, the author provides an excellent overview of the state of the maritime industry in the first half of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of W illiam Francis Gi bbs. A Harvard dropout, Gibbs had a passion for ship design and construction since watching the launch of SS St. Louis as a boy. H e found employm ent and a mentor in Admiral D avid Taylor and went on to start his own company, Gibbs & SEA HISTORY 141 , WINTER 2012- 13
the International Mercantile Marine and developing a relationship with the fatherand-son duo of Philip and John Franklin,
G ibbs supervised the refurbishment of the liner, renam ed Leviathan, and began design work on what wo uld eventually becom e SS United States. In the inter-war years, Gibbs refined his concepts of survivability at sea on ships such as SS Maiolo. G ibbs's success sets up Ujifusa to recount the building of SS United States in the second half of the book. Unlike Frank Braynard's recently re-released The Big Ship: The Story of the SS U nited States, A Man and His Ship looks at the construction and operation of the ship through the eyes of G ibbs, and ofseveral of the crew who served on board and who are now members of the SS United States Conservancy. While this portion of the book lacks the specificity of the first half, it does provide an excellent overview of how the ship em erged into a m arket that was slowly disappearing as air travel, labor issues, operating costs, and foreign competition led not o nly to the early demise of the transatlantic ocean liner, bur also to the decline of the American merchant marine. The book's conclusion aims to bring attention to the plight of the ship,
currently berthed in Philadelphia awaiting a final disposition- to become a landmark, tourist attractio n, or scrap. Steven Ujifusa has done a masterful job of bringing a maritime topic into the mainstream by addressing the larger role of the ship in the context of the history and economy of the natio n. SS United States was designated the flagship of the American merchant mari ne and in many ways she still remains its flag bearer. U nder flaking paint and a rust-streaked hull are the engines that drove her at over 35 kno ts from Ambrose Light to Bishop Rock, awaiting only the will, fortitude, and funds to mark her return to the world's stage. Just as we associate steamboat travel with Robert Fulton and Clermont, the ironclad with John Ericsson and Monitor, and nuclear power at sea with H yman Rickover and Nautilus, A Man and H is Ship shines a much-needed spotlight on Wi lli am Francis G ibbs and his creation, SS United States. SALVATO RE R. M E RCOG LIANO Buies Creek, North Carolina
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