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Destroyer USS Gainard's Namesake I served on USS Gainard (DD-706). W henever we tied up, there was a board placed on the qu ar terdeck, which stated that our sh ip was named after Alouishous K. Gain ard, master of the City ofFlint, and then there was a brief history along the lines of the one yo u include in the las t issue of Sea History ("At War Before the War-SS City ofFlint's Ordeal Under the Nazi Flag," by Dr. D onald E . Willett). But names of the sh ip's m as ters are only similar. Are they the same person by any chance?
E. B.
ER ICSON
Loomis, Califo rnia
From the Editor: According to the Naval History and H eritage Command, DD-706 was indeed named for Captain Gainard of City ofFlint fa me, despite the spelling discrepancy: "Joseph Aloysius Gainard, born 11 October 1889 in C helsea, Massachuse tts, enlisted in the US Naval Reserve Force 23 November 1917. H e received the N avy C ross fo r distinguished service while m aster of American merchant steamer City ofFlint, seized by a German cruiser on the high seas 9 October 1939 but returned to him in a No rwegian fjord 3 N ovember.
Recalled to active duty on 30 July 1941, he commanded submarine decoy ship Big H orn (A0-45) in the Caribbean, then commanded attack transport Bolivar (APA-34) in the Pacific. Illness took Captain Gainard from this duty and he died in the US N aval Hospital at Sa n Diego, California, 23 December 1943." Yo u can learn more about Captain Gainard and the ship named for him at the NHHC website at www. history. navy. mil.
Jones Act Insights Thank yo u for Michael Rauwo rth 's article on the Jones Act in the summer 2017 iss ue (Sea Histo ry 159). As a lawye r outside the field of m aritime law, I enjoyed reading about the intricacies of the Act and its enfo rcement. In addition to learning about the Act, I also learned a new wo rd"cabotage"-and got a chuckle abo ut the comment in the introduction that someone could have heard about the Act " in the class room ." When most students-outside ofl aw schools-rarely even hear about our Constitution in class, I doubt they would ever have heard about the Jones Act. J OHN
E.
B ECK
Leesburg, Virginia I spent some time today reading and "probing the mys teries of the Jones Act," and I must say I enjoyed this, as technical and convoluted as the legal thing m ay be. I
thought it was extremely well done. I am lookin g forwa rd to the second article. I hope this feedback will serve to encourage the priming of other more technically detailed articles like this one. J OHN EWALD
Snohomish, Washington
Getting It Right From the Editor: O ne of my favo rite pans of Sa muel Eliot Morison's 1he Maritime H istory ofMassachusetts, 1783-J860 was in his "Supplement of Letters" at the end of later editions of the book. Morison w rote that he had "received a considerable number ofletters of correction and supplement," and he published them in subsequent primings. O ne of the letters was sent to Morison by Lincoln Colcord, who wrote fro m his home in Searsport, Ma ine, in D ecember of 1921 , to tell the estimable maritime and naval historia n of a "stupendous error" he fo und in one of the chapters. "A Puritan and the son of Puritans," he wrote, "inheritor of a quick eye and a ready chuckle for the downfa ll of others, it gives me great glee to fi nd this after all; for, to tell the truth, I'd begun to fear that the error might be my own . A nd that, of course, wo uld have made it an enti rely different matter." H e goes on to spin a ya rn that's worth every salty word on the page, and if yo u can get your hands on a copy of the book, be sure to read the letters at the back.
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S ecretary ofthe Navy, Frank Knox, presenting Joseph A . Gainard with the Navy Cross, circa D ecember 19 4 0.
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