Reviews The Sea Their Graves: An Archaeology of Death and Remembrance in Maritime Culture by David J. Stewart (University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2011 , 260pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 978-0-81 30-3734 -9 ; $69.9 5hc) The fundamental question behind this book has to do not with the ac t of sailing ships in the Age of Sail, nor with sh ipwrecks, but instead with that w hich came next. After the ships had broke n up or sun k and lives had been lost, h ow were British and American sailors m em orialized and remembered? The author's fieldwork fo r this study took him to the burial gro unds of the best-known maritime communities of the United Kingdom and New E n gland, to search fo r graves tones, spires, stainedglass windows and plaques-any thing that might yield clues into the tho ugh ts behind memori alization of mariners who died at sea. H e asks and answers the question of who created the memorials (the state? family? shipmates?) and delves into the symbolism of both imagery and the words chosen to remember the dead. D avid Stewart, a professor of m aritime archaeology, looks beyond th e maritime folk gro up to examine ch an gi n g atti tudes towa rds death and remembrance in Anglo-American culture, includin g the rise of individualism, the sh ift in the belief that every person should be rem embered with a person al m arker of some kind, and the fi xation on the need fo r a body to be interred under a stone and therefore returned home at any cost. W ithin the folk group he exam ines evidence on m a rkers that indicate the relative racial equality among ship's crew members, sailors' ch anging attitudes towa rds religion over time, and the hardsh ips endured by fa mily members of sailors whose ships did not return or who personally were n ever recovered fro m watery graves. Stewart conducted thoro ugh research, both in the field and in the archives, to bring this book toget h er, presenting a unique study of an overlooked facet of mariti me li fe, what one m ight consider the las t chapter of the Age of Sail ashore. H e suggests that m ore can be done both in the U nited K ingdom and the United States, as well as in the
SEA HISTORY 145 , WINTER 2013- 14
other nations heavily involved in the traffic on the Atlantic during the Age of Sail: France, H olland, Spain, etc. In his conclusion, he also draws connections to modern-day memori alization of lost sailors and suggests that the spirit of the maritime folk gro up of the Age of Sail is not yet dead, but lives on as the traditions of remembrance continue with today's fishermen, merchant mariners, navy sailors and more. JoHN GALL UZZO
Hull, M assachusetts
The Workboats of Core Sound: Stories and Photographs ofa Changing World by Lawrence C. Earley (University of North Carolina Press; Ch apel H ill, 201 3, 176pp, il lus, maps, gloss, biblio, index, ISBN 978 -1-4696-1064-1; $35hc)
cal residents and researching the h istory of the region. Right away, he was captivated by the everyday workboats he saw everywhere, and when he talked to the people who own, build, and work them , he discovered that the boats were more than just a means of transportation, but that each was a "memory bank of relationships and experiences ." According to Ea rley, when he showed C ore Sound residents photographs of a local workboat, "they saw layers of history, biography, technology, and environmental info rmation." In his book, replete with 109 beautifully reproduced black and white
Historic, antique U.S. Coast Survey maps _, from the 1800s ; Original lithographs, most America n sea ports and shores. Reprint s, t oo. Unique framed , great gift s. Catal og. $ 1 .00 . Specify area.
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1~'4infll~ll!ll When photographer Lawrence Earley first visited C ore Sound in "Down Eas t" Nor th Carolina (not to be confused with the famous "D own Eas t" along the coast of M aine), he was taken in by the natural beauty of the m arshes and the coastal landscape. But, in Down East No rth Carolina, there is no separating the marine environment from the people who live there and to whom the water is everything. Towns with n ames like "Sea Level " and "Atlantic" have had a special relationship with the creeks, marshes, sounds, and the ocean that connect them all fo r generations, and the one thing they have in common were the hand-built wooden workboats that could navigate this web of waterways . As a photographer and writer, Earley sees best through his camera lens and then learns more about what he has photographed through conversations with lo-
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