Reviews The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail by W. Jeffrey Bolsrer (Belknap Press of rhe H arvard U niversiry Press, 201 2, 416pp, illus, maps, nores, gloss, appen, biblio, index, I SBN 978- 0-67404765-5; $29.95hc) 1he Mortal Sea is a rale of rhe American and European fi shing indusrry, from rhe srruggles of fishing under sail ro irs mo ro rized rwe nrierh cenru ry. While foc used on rhe hi srory of m an's relarionship wirh rhe sea, Bolsrer employs an exrraordinarily fluid w riring sryle, besr conveyed rhro ugh som e lirerary fillers, like here in irs opening page: "On clear, dry days in rhe age of sail, wirh fish coming over rhe rail, ... [a n ea rby coasr] could ch arm rhe m os r hard ened fi sherma n. G reen-capped islands and barren dark rocks, each girt ro und by waterline srripes of living white barnacles and fringes wirh mustard-hued bladder wrack, protruding from waters teeming with life. . . . Vast armies of porpoises, the horsemen of the sea, arced across rhe surface like cavalry rolling across a plain. A nd every cod yanked unceremoniously from rhe hook had, as fisherman said, a coin in its mouth .. . . [but] the stunning productivity of rhat ecosysrem came with a price." The world 's popularion hundreds of yea rs ago was much smaller than roday's, and the rechnology avail able ro h arves t rhe oceans was relatively primitive. After Europeans overfished the waters around their coas ts, the discovery of North America and its uncapped fishing grounds abundant w ith marine life provided sustenance fro m the sea. Unfortunarely, due to economic greed and hubris, coupled with ingenuity replacing rradirion, m an aga in overharvesred this fragile n atural resource. "Fishermen knew that hooks of a certain size, baited in a certain way and set at a certain depth, were likely ro attracr a certain kind of fi sh ." With regards ro fis hing itself, they held that "nature existed separately fr om human s, ... [and] rhe immortal sea would buffer itself somehow from hum an-induced catas trophe." Man ass umed that his desire for seafood and h is rrawls, long-lines, and gill nets co uld nor affect rhe limitless abundance of the sea. But done repeatedly over time, these ac rivities did exactly that. They dras tiSEA HISTORY 144, AUTU MN 2013
cally depleted fi sh srocks: cod, menhaden, mackerel, halibut, herring, lobsrer, and srriped bass all suffered, and some, like Atlantic sturgeon and salmon, di sappea red alrogether. Bolster documents the hisrory of a series of fish shortages over time that largely paralleled adva nces in fi shing rechnology and optimized rhe carch of a dwindling number of desirable deep-sea and littoral species . This caused clashes
460pp, illus, maps, no res, biblio, index, ISBN 978-0-9864-628 1-0; $55pb) The destrucrion of rhe C onfederare ironclad Arkansas in Augusr 1862 began a twenty-four-month period in which several imporrant naval and amphibious operations occurred in the spider-web-like series of swamps and rivers north of the C onfederate stronghold ofVicksburg, Mississippi . With rhe loss of rhe Arkansas, the Yazoo River and the co nnecting triburaries and rivers became a focal point for both the Union and C onfederate leaders. Myron]. Smith, library director and professor at Tusculum C ollege, expl ains how the Union sought to use these approaches ro capture Vicksburg and the Confederares' exrraordinary efforrs ro srop rhem.
THE GLENCANNON PRESS berween coastal village fi sherman, who depended upon fish fo r rheir meager living and large commercial fisheries, academic ichthyologists, government scientists, and politicians. The author concluded, "The living sea was inextricably entwined with the decisions and fa re of the people who dared to do business in its great waters ." In this rhoughr-provoking and riveting work, Bolsrer presents a scholarly historical perspective of man's disrurbance of the aquatic biological equilibrium, his management of natural resources from the oceans, and what their decline porrends for the future of the earth, its climate, and irs inhabitants. L OUIS A RTHU R NORTON
West Simsbury, C onnecticut
The Fight for the Yazoo, August 1862july 1864: Swamps, Forts, and Fleets on Vicksburg's Northern Flank by Myron
NEW! The S.S. United States and the Blue Riband. Historian Lawrence M. Driscoll brings to life this epic adventure of the fastest superliner to ever sail the North Atlantic. Hardcover, 8Y2xll, 256 pp. 169 photos. $35 + $5 S&H. THE LAST GREAT RAcE;
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]. Smith, Jr. (McFarland & Company, 2012,
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