by Kurt D. Voss All proceeds from this pictorial history benefit the ELISSA preservation fund.
Published by Arcadia Publishing and Galveston Historical Foundation $21.99. 128 pages, 200 photographs Autographed copies available at (409) 763-1877, or online at:
w w w. t s m - e l i s s a . o r g New and Classic Maritime Books on Sale at the NMHS Ship’s Store.
www.seahistory.org
THE UN I VERSITY OF TENNESSEE PRESS
Preorder at utpress.org or 800-621-2736
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Long Island and the Sea by Bill Bleyer (Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, SC, 2019, 160pp, illus, index, biblio, isbn 97801-4671-3862-8; $21.99pb) Imagine a book written about a place by a professional journalist who, for more than three decades, has written about that location—where he was born, grew up, and has lived much of his life. This is that book. I had not even completed the introduction when I read that a 1985 US Supreme Court decision had officially designated Long Island NOT an island, but rather a peninsula. I had to stop and fact check that. To my astonishment I discovered that, indeed, United States v. Maine in 1985 had made just that determination. I was hooked. Bleyer’s 250 pages of good reading are bolstered by 25 pages of notes on sources and a bibliography for further reading. Twenty-nine chapters are chronologically arranged and cover a period ranging from the coastal Algonquins to current maritime activity, including ongoing vessel restoration projects (the 1883 oyster sloop Christeen by the Waterfront Center in Oyster Bay) and the Southhold, New Yorkbased international marine assistance organization known across the country, SeaTow. This is a book to read and re-read any time you need to refresh your memory on a plethora of regional topics, from bay houses to Grumman ocean-going hydrofoils. Need to know more about rum-running and the shipyards that built fast boats for the Coast Guard and then even faster ones for the salts of all ages who smuggled the liquor? Curious about the era of the PanAm flights of the Boeing 314 Yankee Clipper lifting off for Marseille from Manhasset Bay? This book has it. If you’re a fan of military history, and skirmishes touching on the shores of the island/peninsula, you’ll find piracy and chapters on the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and both World Wars, including the adventures of schooner Zaida and the Picket Patrol.
If you’re already a fan of maritime history of Long Island, this is the book to round out your collection. If you know someone who thinks the Island is only about the Long Island Expressway and the LIRR, this is the book that will convince them otherwise. Will Van Dorp New York, New York Breaking the Gas Ceiling by Rebecca Ponton (Modern History Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 2019, 271pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, isbn 978-1-61599-443-4; $29.95pb) Breaking the Gas Ceiling by Rebecca Ponton is an insightful, well-researched compendium of the women who have and are continuing to blaze trails in the oil and gas industry. They faced physical and psychological challenges—lack of dedicated female berths, open shower stalls, and doorless bathrooms, to name just a few. High hurdles did not deter these women; they viewed them simply as obstacles to overcome. I chuckled with familiarity when reading about some of the obstacles discussed in the book because they reminded me of the ones I encountered as a junior officer in the Coast Guard in the late 1990s. At that time, there were no female admirals and only a couple of female captains. We did not know what our future looked like, but collectively the female junior officers—JOs—knew that we’d have to forge it ourselves. Let’s take a look at some of these women who have helped make it possible for other women to follow them in this very-male-dominated profession. Amelia Florence Behrens Musser Furniss faced those same challenges in 1921. When she descended into a 162-foot oil well to retrieve tools, newspapers called it an “exploit.” No—she was doing her job. Margaret McMillan, born the same year that women gained the right to vote in the United States, was a water safety pioneer. McMillan built her own company and represented the United States at the SEA HISTORY 170, SPRING 2020