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GALVESTON'S TI IE ELISSA Ti IE T\ LI SI Ill' \l F TE \.\ S
by Kurt D. Voss All p roceeds fro m this p ictorial history benefit the ELISSA preservation f und.
Publi shed by Arcadia Publi shing a nd Galveston Hi storical Foundati on $2 1.99. 128 pages, 200 photographs A utographed copi es available at (409) 763 -1 877, or onlin e at:
www . tsm-elissa.org
Rescue ofthe Bounty paints a sympathetic picture of Walbridge, most ass uredly laying o ut h is fa ul ts but asking read ers not to judge a man's entire li fe by one bad, t ragedy-inducing decisio n. Yes, th ey say, the choice to sail was unwise, but Walbridge to uch ed the hearts and scu lpted the mi nds of many you ng p eople over the course of his career in sailing ships, and this one ac t should not be his entire legacy. Tougias and Campbell weave their na rrative by invoking the voices of m any individuals involved with the sh ip, both th at day and during the yea rs leading up to the storm t hat cla imed it. Fo r every sailor aboard B ounty in October 2 012 , there was a Coast G uard rescuer in the sky. For every sailor, a worrier waited anxiously ashore. So often these days, rescue stories of sh ips at sea arise fro m tankers, or crabbers, or other large vessels operating well offshore. W hen a tragedy like this befalls the tall-sh ip community, it causes us to once again consider the ques tion: are we truly ready to sail?
have the opp ortunity to prey upon British shipping. Six British boats ca rrying hundreds of sai lors and m arines were rowed six miles up the treacherous Connecticut River undetected and unopposed by bewildered a nd largely disorganized local residents. As a result of the event, the British suffered two men k illed a nd rwo injured, w ith no
J OHN GALLUZZO
Weym outh, Massachusetts
GUN BAY An Edward Ballantyne Novel
William H. White
By William H. White, award-winning author of 1he 1812 Trilogy and Our Flag Was Still 1here. Available in paperback and Kindle, thro ugh the author's website at www. seafiction.net and through the NMHS Ship's Store at www.seahistory.org or by calling 1-800-221-NMHS, ext. 0. 60
The British Raid on Essex: The Forgotten Battle ofthe War of 1812 by Jerry Roberts (Wesleyan U niv. Press, M idd letown , C T , 197pp, illus, map s, appen , notes, biblio, index, I SBN 978 -0 -8 195-7476; $27.95hc) Imagi ne moving to a small Connecticut town and learni ng that its annual commemoration celebration is k nown locally as "Loser's D ay." O n the second Saturday in May, the fife and dru m corps Sailing Masters in Wa r of 1812 ma riti me-like uniform s lead s a parade fro m the Connecticut riverfront up Main Street past residents and curious to u rists. This is the way a pictu resque New England community commem orates the awkwa rd events of 7 and 8 April 1814. Som e say that they were so disconcerting, th at this is why the residents changed the town's original name fro m Pettipaug to Essex in 1820. On those dates, twenty-seven American ships, six of which were privateers, suffered destruction or heavy damage. This m arked the greatest single loss of American ships during the Wa r of 1812; these vessels wo uld n ever
Am erican cas ualties. The records of these events h ad largely been misplaced, lost, or squeezed out of th e collective m emoryuntil now. Three notable War of 1812 clashes occurred in Connecticut: the Thames River blockade of USS United States commanded by Stephen Decatur, the bombardment of Ston in gton, and the Pettipaug ship-burning. Few historian s cared much about the Pettipaug affair except for Jerry Roberts, fo rmer vice president at the Intrepid Sea and Space M useum in New York and recently the executive d irector of the Connecticut R iver M useum in Essex. Dismayed w ith the town's image, Roberts led an ambi tious research program to piece together the actual story of the events of th at raid, almost enti rely th ro ugh primary source documents and archaeological evidence. Roberts's narra tion of these events is written in the style of a history deteaive story by introducing the reader to a ra nge of both the Am erican and Bri tish citizens who participated in the events. The raid and its aftermath SEA HISTORY 148, AUTUMN 2014