another problem that led ro malnurrition or intestinal disorders. Once a vessel was at sea, emergency medical care was limited to rudimentary measures until a patient could be transferred ashore. Epidemics from contagious diseases could rapidly spread because of the close confines within avessel, and as ships' voyaging times became shorter and more numerous, they became potential carriers of diseases that spread to non-immune populations at destinations . Merchant Seamen's Health, 1860-1960 focuses on British seafarers because the health data are more available and Britain was the dominant shipping country during the later part of the n i nereenth century through WWI. One problem of statistical note is that once a person dropped out of the maritime workforce, it was difficult to follow the long-term outcome and disposition of his medical condition. Carter addresses many of the historical events that played a role in forming more recent maritime health and safety policies, British procedures that ultimately influenced international law. A simple safety measure could lead to an unanticipated consequence and a medical requirement. For example, it was only after ships starred to use colored
port and starboard navigation lights rhar crewmen were examined-and weeded our-for color blindness. This book abounds with graphs of accidents and incidents of disease that occurred between 1860 and 1960. In addition, the data vary depending upon whether the seamen were in merchant or naval service, the standards and enforcement of health care measures being better in the Royal Navy. The graphs clearly show that as maritime technology improved in ship design, operations, and services, so did responses to issues of workplace health and safety. Well researched, with an impressive number of footnotes, Merchant Seamen's Health, 1860-1960 provides a comprehensive list of references for scholars who may wish to probe more deeply into the evidence given by the author. One criticism is that the author's prose is repetitious, often dry, and-perhaps of necessity-clinical. A great deal of information is presented in tabular and graphic form with sparse information about inclusion or exclusion criteria. The number of seamen that each data point represents is inferred, bur it lacks the rigor of statistical analyses that should
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accompany these graphs. An added note section would be helpful beyond the references in the footnotes. Still, Carter's book is a significant contribution to maritime history literature.
Lours ARTHUR NORTON West Simsbury, Connecticut
Outlaws ofthe Atlantic: Sailors, Pirates, and Motley Crews in the Age of Sail by Marcus Rediker (Beacon Press, Boston, 2014, 248pp, ISBN 978-0-80703-309-8; $26.95hc) In Outlaws of the Atlantic, Marcus Rediker challenges the larger conceptual frameworks in m aritime historiography. On one end it delivers a bruising to some of the "greats" in the field of maritime history, notably Samuel Elliot Morison: "Perhaps the best known writer of the old maritime history... the Boston patrician , patriotic admiral, and Harvard historian who wrote about the Christopher Columbuses and the John Paul Joneses of the world. This kind of history looks from the top down- history, in my view, seen from the wrong end of the spyglass." On rhe other end, the author offers a volume of seven chapters and an epilogue backed with
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Join Lr. William Henry Allen on his quest to rake the war to British home waters, where he and the crew of USS Argus will wreak havoc on the British merchant fleer before coming head-to-head with the Royal Navy brig sent to hunt them down. You will be reacquainted with Oliver Baldwin (lhe Greater the Honor and In Pursuit of Glory) and Edward Ballantyne (Gun Bay and When Fortune Frowns).
In Hostile waters is available in paperback or on Kindle through Amazon.com. For more on William H. White and his books, visit the author's website: www.seaficrion.net.
SEAHISTORY 152,AUTUMN 2015