story of hope and desire, shipwreck, and abandonment, of long and failed attempts at rescue from the fro zen swamps of Siberia's Lena delta. We share the excitement of the Jeannette's departure from San Francisco in rhe summer of 1878, rhe exhilaration of penetrating into hitherto unexplo red seas, and of discovering and naming n ew lands. We also experi ence dismay when rhe ship is beset in the intractable pack ice, with no open polar sea in sight, is then crushed and sinks, leaving her crew to fend for them selves a thousand miles from the m ainland with no means of communicating their fare. In the Kingdom of Ice is nor the first book derailing rhe loss of the Jeannette, bur I doubt if another has more skillfully bro ught together the essence of the m en and the tale of their struggle against the insurmountable odds into which they so confidenrly sailed. D AVID HIRZEL
Pacifica, Cali fo rnia
Shipwrecks ofthe California Coast: Wood to Iron, Sail to Steam by Michael D . White (The Histo ry Press, C harleston, SC, 201 4, l 73pp, photos, biblio, index, ISBN 978- 160949-924-2; $ 19.99pb) California is righrly fam o us for its scenic ocean beau ty and the wealth ofirs natural marine environment, bur too often its maritime cultural heritage is nor aclmowledged. In particular, Califo rnia's maritime heritage can be told through the thousands of shipwrecks that embody its long seafaring tradition . Michael White's Shipwrecks ofthe California Coast is a good place for the lay reader to start, as he presents an overview of m any of C alifornia's shipw recks, ranging from Spanish galleons to steam ships and schooners, bur someone m ore familiar with the subject may finish feeling unsatisfied and wan ting more historical context. The book's first half provides sh ort vignettes of many well-known C alifornia shipwrecks. A brief synopsis of each vessel's history is combined with derails on rh e w recking event, ofren acco mpanied by a phoro or illustration. The second half of the book is a ch ronological list of shipwrecks, fro m the Trinidad in 1540 to the Pacbaroness in 1986. This list is by no means comprehensive, but it gives rhe reader a sense of the vessel types and sinking locations up and down the coast. W hi te's book is not fo r the scholar or
SEA HISTORY 150, SPRIN G 201 5
MARINE HISTORY from WSU PRESS Battle Ready
Red Light to Starboard Recalling the Exxon Valdez Disaster
Angela Day Incorporating national and historical context as well as a local fisherman's perspective, Red Light to Starboard depicts the catastro phe that stunned the wo rld and devastated a spectacular, fragile ecosystem and its bordering communities. Paperback• ISBN 978-0-87422-318-7 • $19.95
BATTLE READY ,....,e...< 0.1 .... li'>l••,..n,••..,,..u...,.....,.._.,,.,,_.,,.,
Th e National Coast Defense System and the Fortificatio n of Puget Sound, 1894- 1925
David M. Hansen Battle Ready examines the fascinating saga of Washington State's seacoast defense. "A scho larl y study of the Puget Sound fo rts has been a lo ng tim e coming, and is so rely needed ... I welcome this work."- William Woodward, Ph.D.,
Professor of History, Seattle Pacific University Paperback • ISBN 978-0-87422-320-0 • $32.95
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