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Editors Michael J. Crawford, Dennis M. Conrad, E. Gordon Bowen-Hassell, and Mark I. Hayes organized this wide array of texts chronologically by American and European theaters. They transcribed and incorporated important French, Italian, and Spanish documents with English translations. Volume 12 presents the essential primary sources during a crucial twomonth period in the young republic's naval history. After military defeats at Trenton and Princeron, the British consolidated their strength in the mid-Atlantic region, sailed into the Chesapeake, won the Battle ofBrandywine, and occupied Philadelphia, while the Continental Navy and privateers threatened British shipping. Later in 1777, the American victory at Saratoga set the scene for major changes on both sides. In this volume, we have the continuing maritime struggle of the United States against the Royal Navy. With a show of adroit diplomacy, American commissioners in Paris had, by the time period covered in this volume, managed to persuade France to join the war as an ally. Ships carrying the Treaty of Alliance and Treaty of Amity and Commerce arrived in the United States for ratification in early April, 1778. In response, the British Crown ordered its troops to evacuate Philadelphia and to clear the Delaware River of rebel ships, forts , and obstructions. Other notable events documented in this volume are: the sailing of the French fleet from Toulon for the United States, HM frigate Emerald's capture of the CN frigate Virginia (James Nicholson), the Georgia State navy's capture of HM sloop Hinchinbrook and the sloop Rebecca, the Continental Marine Committee's authorization for the completion of the frigate Alliance, capture of the CN frigate Alfred (Elisha Hinman) by HM frigate Arianne and HM sloop Ceres, Capt. Abraham Whipple's escape to sea in the frigate Providence, CN Ranger's (John Paul Jones) capture of HM sloop D rake in the Irish Sea, and CN Cutter Revenge's (Gustavus Conyngham) capture of British merchant ships in the Bay of Biscay. The appendices include replication of the muster book of the CN frigate Raleigh, a log of the Rhode Island privateer ship Marlborough, a lengthy excerpt from the log of the CN sloop of war Ranger, a nd Admiral Lord Howe's list of"Vessels seized SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
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by Kurt D. Voss All proceeds from this pictorial history benefit the ELISSA preservation fond.
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Published by Arcadia Publishing and Galveston Historical Foundation $21.99. 128 pages, 200 photographs Autographed copies available at (409) 763-1877, or online at:
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www.tsm-elissa.org or destroyed by His Majesty's Ships on Chesapeake Bay or parts of the American Coast Southward. " As in previous editions, the editing of this volume is superb in its skillful transcriptions, annotations, and retention of original language. The complex 130-page index is a work of art. The NDAR series continues to be the bedrock foundation for capturing the essence of the Revolutionary War at sea. WILLIAM
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Easton, Maryland
The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-Boats by Wi lliam Geroux (Viking, New York, 2016 , 370pp, notes, biblio, illus, index, ISBN 9780-525-42815-2 ; $28.95hc) Winston Churchill referred ro rhe Bartle of the Atlantic as "The only thing rhar ever really frightened [him] during the war." For six yea rs, from the sinking of SS Athenia on 3 September 1939 to the loss of SS Black Point on 5 May 1945, civilian merchantmen faced off against Nazi Uboats, and in the United Stares no community better represented this struggle than that of rural M athews County, Virginia. The US merchant marine faced its greatest
struggle during the Second World War, yet this was not the first time its men sailed into danger. From the inception of the United States, the merchant marine was on the front line, from the cargo ships and mariners that formed the first naval squadron in 1775, to attacks by French and British ships during the Napoleonic wars, to facing pirates along the shores of No rth Africa and the Caribbean, to the initial rest against German U-boats in the First World War, American merchant ships and the crews who manned th em faced danger throughout their history. In The Mathews Men, author William Geroux, a reporter and an employee of one of the largest shipping lines in the world, provides an account of what it was like for the mariners who faced off against Nazi submarines for four years. The title of the book is a bit misleading, because while the seven Hodge brothers-Raymond, Dewey, Willie, Coleman, Leslie, Spencer, and D avid-a re the intended focus of the story, in truth, this is a story that also takes place ashore and involves the entire Mathews County community and many other families. Such places as Gwynn's Island, Gales Neck, and rhe C hesapeake Bay are as important to the story as are the Atlantic, the 53