served as the state’s tax base and soldiery. Some, like those in Imperial Germany and Japan, asserted the supreme military authority of an unelected monarch. A few showed remarkable prescience, as in the case of the small isle of Pitcairn: its charter, authored in 1838, granted men and women parts in government while emphasizing environmental conservation. Backed by thorough research and cultivated prose, The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen ranks among the finest histories published in 2021. Yet it must count for something when such a remark may be understating a book’s caliber. Andrew Montiveo Los Angeles, California Lighthouses of the Georgia Coast by William Rawlings (Mercer University Press, Macon, GA, 2021, 216pp, illus, notes, index, isbn 978-0-88146-775-8; $29hc) The state of Georgia probably doesn’t leap to the forefront when the average person thinks about America’s lighthouses as cultural icons and tourist attractions. With only five historic light stations on its barrier islands, Georgia pales in comparison to states like Maine and Michigan in terms of lighthouse quantity. But the special qualities of Georgia’s lighthouses and their rich historical context is conveyed in fine, entertaining detail in William Rawlings’s new book. The book is divided into two nearly equal parts. The first half serves as a general history of lighthouses and their keepers through the ages. The second half takes a detailed look at the history of lighthouses along the coast of Georgia. Some of the facts presented in the first half might be familiar to well-read lighthouse aficionados. Nevertheless, Rawlings is a master of context, and he recognizes that lighthouses were developed as a key ingredient of a maritime transportation system, and his book neatly ties the development of the world’s lighthouses to the spread of international trade and the evolution of navigation science. Rawlings devotes a chapter to lighthouse construction, covering the various materials and architectural styles used over the years. Special attention is paid to the fascinating wave-swept granite towers in 62
the British Isles. A chapter on illumination technology takes the reader from simple coal or wood fires through the important development of the Fresnel lens in France, to Gustaf Dalen’s “sun valve” that paved the way for automation, and all the way to today’s LED optics. After a chapter chronicling the administration of America’s lighthouses from the 18th century to the present day, Rawlings devotes a chapter to lighthouses during the American Civil War—a subject that hasn’t been covered widely. A new US Lighthouse Board had been established several years earlier, and the country’s navigational system was at its historical peak when it was interrupted by the war. Rawlings explains the strange mission of the Confederate States Lighthouse Bureau, which extinguished and sometimes destroyed the lighthouses in the South. At many locations Fresnel lenses were dismantled and hidden during the conflict, and it would take more than a decade to return the South’s lighthouses and other aids to navigation to fully operational status, Rawlings tells us. A chapter on “Keepers of the Light” informs us of the duties of lighthouse keepers through the years, with special attention paid to notable acts of heroism and to the legacy of female keepers. It’s the second half of the book that will really shine for lighthouse buffs, who might already be somewhat familiar with much of the material presented in the first half. Rawlings writes about each of Georgia’s five lighthouses in engaging detail, paying much attention to the overall context of coastal Georgia history. Not only a history book but a guidebook, each chapter includes information for visitors, with directions, hours, and more. Casual lighthouse fans will probably come to the book with some advance knowledge of Georgia’s two most famous lighthouses, at Tybee Island and St. Simons Island. They are majestic, world-class attractions, to be sure, but Rawlings’s book presents just as much interesting detail on the lesser-known sites: Cockspur Island, Sapelo Island, and Little Cumberland Island. Attention is paid also to the story of Savannah’s legendary “Waving Girl,” which relates to the now-lost light station of Elba Island. The Waving Girl was Florence
Martus, a keepers’ daughter who obsessively waved to every passing ship for decades, with a white cloth by day and a lantern at night. The book is richly illustrated throughout, with architectural drawings, maps, historical illustrations and photos, and present-day views including many by the author himself. There’s also a handy glossary of lighthouse terms in the back. Kudos as well to the elegant, handsome layout and design of the book. Rawlings has written previously both fiction and non-fiction, and this is his eleventh book. His writing is consistently clear, concise, and highly readable. Lighthouses of the Georgia Coast is an obvious and highly recommended addition to any lighthouse library, or for anyone interested in the maritime history of America’s South. Jeremy D’Entremont US Lighthouse Society Portsmouth, New Hampshire Valor and Courage: The Story of the USS Block Island Escort Carriers in World War II by Benjamin J. Hruska (University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 2021, illus, notes, biblio, index, isbn 978-0-8173–2099-7; $54.95hc) Benjamin Hruska uncovered a historian’s mother lode in the Bogue-class escort carrier USS Block Island. CVE 21, the first incarnation of the Block Island, was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean while on anti-submarine patrol; it was the only escort carrier to fall victim to a U-boat torpedo during the Battle of the Atlantic. CVE 106, the second USS Block Island, launched less than two weeks after the demise of the first, served in the Pacific and survived the war. The two ships, each serving in one of the two naval theaters of operation, are enough to celebrate as a historical find, but in addition to the vessels’ respective stories, the crews of the two vessels comprised mostly the same men. About seventy percent of CVE 21’s personnel were transferred to CVE 106. Historians have enjoyed access to men who fought in both oceans and who survived a sinking. The captains of the two Block Islands—Logan C. Ramsey and Francis “Massie” Hughes—were US Naval Academy graduates who knew one another and served together before their SEA HISTORY 178, SPRING 2022