A detailed and riveting account of the U.S. Navy's greatest mutiny and its wide-ranging cultural and historical impact The greatest controversy in the history of the U.S. Navy of the early American Republic was the revelation that the son of the Secretary of War had seemingly plotted a bloody mutiny that would have turned the U.S. brig Somers into a pirate ship. The plot discovered, he and his co-conspirators were hastily condemned and hanged at sea. The repercussions of those acts brought headlines, scandal, a fistfight at a cabinet meeting, a court martial, ruined lives, lost reputations, and tales of a haunted ship "bound for the devil" and lost tragically at sea with many of its crew. The "Somers affair" led to the founding of the U.S. Naval Academy and it remains the Navy's only acknowledged mutiny in its history. The story also inspired Herman Melville's White-Jacket and Billy Budd. Others connected to the Somers included Commodore Perry, a relation and defender of the Somers' captain Mackenzie; James Fenimore Cooper, whose feud with the captain, dating back to the War of 1812, resurfaced in his reportage of the affair; and Raphael Semmes, the Somers' last caption who later served in the Confederate Navy. The Curse of the Somers is a thorough recreation of this classic tale, told with the help of recently uncovered evidence. Written by a maritime historian and archaeologist who helped identify the long-lost wreck and subsequently studied its sunken remains, this is a timeless tale of life and death at sea. James P. Delgado re-examines the circumstances, drawing from a rich historical record and from the investigation of the ship's sunken remains. What surfaces is an all-too-human tale that resonates and chills across the centuries.

The single best work of reportage about the battlecruiser, ever, by a war correspondent who was with Beatty's Battlecruiser Squadron at Jutland. Filson Young: the Bob Woodward of battlecruisers.An excerpt: Here, then, was the ideal type for which Lord Fisher in our conversations had so often sighed; and I was secretly disappointed when, on my mentioning Fisher's name, Beatty merely smiled. And I was still more crestfallen when, a few days later, I spoke of Beatty enthusiastically to Lord Fisher, he gave me a blank, sour look and said: "Really? Never met him."I did not know the Navy as well in those days as I know it now, or I would have been less surprised than I was that the obviously ablest men in control of naval affairs were far from seeing eye to eye with one another, and even (what was more remarkable) neglected to make any real study of one another's aims and potentialities. Naval thought, where it existed, was divided into camps, each one regarding victory over the others as essential to victory over the Germans. Thus Lord Charles Beresford, whose best work in his retirement was his untiring public advocacy of naval efficiency, gave one in private a most alarming impression that the Navy was already practically in German control; and one of his mildest views of Lord Fisher was that he was a madman who, on the eve of war, had deliberately scrapped the majority of our cruisers. Winston Churchill was at one time probably one of the men most disliked by the Navy at large; but when one tried to discuss his administration seriously, one was told stories of his bad manners: as, for example, of his going on board a ship, entering the wardroom, ringing the bell and sending for the Commander - a solecism the gravity of which one must have lived in a wardroom to appreciate. And yet, one felt, it was not quite an argument against his efficiency as an administrator. But all the naval officer saw was a man to whose power our sacred naval traditions were committed, and who apparently knew or cared so little for the smallest of them that the greatest might well be in peril at his hands. The anti-Churchill camp was a very strong one. He, on the other hand, seemed to regard Lord Fisher as a dangerous genius to be caught, chained, tamed, and made careful use of; Lord Fisher regarded him (I am speaking of the two years before the war) as a politician to be fought or flattered, made or destroyed, according to his degree of adaptability to the great purpose.

For most of the Cold War naval arms control was the forgotten dimension of arms control. Beginning in the late 1980s, however, it has become increasingly prominent in the East-West dialogue. But it is usually studied from the perspective of Soviet-American relations. This book examines the subject from a European perspective. What role might naval arms control play in the European context? What impact might naval arms control have on the interests and perceptions of European states? What opportunities for and obstacles to naval arms control exist in Europe? The authors address these questions, describing the naval interests and attitudes towards naval arms control of European coastal states, as well as the Soviet Union and the United States, in the Norwegian, Baltic, and Mediterranean seas.

DEFENDER DOLPHINS: The Story of Project Short Time is the first eyewitness account of a unique and daring SECRET project during the Vietnam War involving the first-ever military use of dolphins. Meet Garth, John, Slan, Tinker and Toad, Project Short Time's highly trained defender dolphins who protected a key ammunition pier in Vietnam - and laid a foundation for modern-day partnerships with dolphins, many of them their descendants. Learn how the author - the Navy's First Marine Mammal Officer - as well as all the scientists, engineers, military leaders, and trainers built the Navy's SECRET Marine Mammal Program literally from scratch, added to scientific knowledge, and successfully saved lives and high value resources during the Vietnam War. Included inside are Never-before-seen historic photographs. A timeline of events, a map, and a glossary. Behind-the-scenes human-interest stories. Profiles of key personnel. A look at the defender dolphins and other key marine mammals. A where-are-they-now summary. A refutation of common misconceptions and distortions about military dolphins. "Detailed and fascinating account of a clandestine effort undertaken decades ago during the Vietnam war..." --- U.S. Marine Lt. Col. (ret.) James Zumwalt, son of Admiral Elmo R. (Bud) Zumwalt Jr., the Chief of Naval Operations who ordered the deployment of Project Short Time. "Of great interest to readers..." --- Ricou Browning, author/creator the popular 1960s movie and television franchise Flipper "Hal Goforth's remarkable story details for the first time the partnership forged between man and dolphins..." - Terrie M. Williams., PhD, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz No one is in a better position to tell the dramatic story of the world's first military dolphins than CAPT (Ret) Harold W. Goforth, Jr., the U.S. Navy's first Marine Mammal Officer. For two years he lived and breathed dolphin training, deploying with the revolutionary Dolphin Swimmer Defense System to Vietnam until his tour ended in 1971. A marine scientist and professor of marine sciences and exercise physiology, Goforth spent 10 years researching DEFENDER DOLPHINS: The Story of Project Short Time. He and his wife, Sharon, divide their time between San Diego and South Florida.

This reference text explains what modern piracy is, where and why it happens, and what measures are being taken to combat it. While piracy today typically occurs in specific areas-such as Somalia and Southeast Asia-a single pirate attack can involve and affect many different countries. For example, a supertanker traveling in the South China Sea might be owned by a Saudi Arabian oil company, built in South Korea, registered in Liberia, captained by an Italian, and crewed by Filipinos. And, as reports of attacks on commercial vessels and cruise liners become more common, the topic of modern piracy receives ever-increasing international scrutiny. This chapter-based reference handbook examines modern piracy from the mid-1970s to today. The subject is addressed from a global perspective, covering both the causes and consequences of present-day piracy and evaluating its impact on a number of related issues, including international law, commercial shipping, and terrorism. Documents important resolutions and laws from the United Nations and European Union as well as U.S. policy statements regarding piracy Features charts and tables that provide at-a-glance statistical information on pirate attacks, as well as data on factors that contribute to piracy A resources chapter provides an annotated print and electronic bibliography organized by subject (e.g., international law, Somalia and the Horn of Africa, and the Mersk Alabama incident) Presents a glossary of short definitions of unfamiliar terms

With a heritage dating back to the mid-seventeenth century, the Royal Marines have accrued a rich history of rituals, artefacts and material culture that is consciously deployed in order to define and shape the institution both historically and going forward into an uncertain future. Drawing upon this heritage, Mark Burchell offers a unique method of understanding how the Royal Marines draw upon this material culture in order to help transform ordinary labour power to political agency comprising acts of controlled and sustained violence. He demonstrates how a barrage of objects and items - including uniforms, weapons, landscapes, architecture, personal kit, drills, rituals, and iconography - are deployed in order successfully to integrate the recruits into the Royal Marines' culture. It is argued that this material culture is a vital tool with which to imprint the military's own image on new recruits as they embark on a process of de-individualisation. Having been granted unprecedented access to the Commando Training Centre at Lympstone as an anthropologist, Burchell observed an intake of recruits throughout their demanding and exhausting year-long training programme. The resulting book presents to the academic community for the first time, a theorised in-depth account of a relatively unexplored social community and how its material culture creates and reifies new military identities. This path-breaking interdisciplinary analysis provides fresh understanding of the multiple processes of military enculturation through a meticulous revision of the relationships that exist between disciplinary and punishment practices; violence and masculinity; narratives and personhood; and will explore how these issues are understood by recruits through their practical application of body to physical labour, and by the cues of their surrounding material culture.

There are two competitive views of Passchendaele and its commander, Sir Douglas Haig. One school contends that the battle was a very costly failure and that Sir Douglas Haig, the architect of the battle, was a blundering murderer. A second school of thought argues that Passchendaele was in many ways a success and that Haig learned much during the campaign and went on to put his learning to good use during the victorious offensive of 1918. This study removes some of the blame for the failure from Haig by examining the involvement of the Royal Navy in the planning and prosecution of the campaign. Documentary evidence demonstrates that the actions of the Admiralty were decisive in attracting the attention of the army to Flanders and in gaining approval for the battle itself. The Admiralty had a hitherto unknown effect on the prosecution of the battle. The fact that the British fought the battle for the wrong reasons and that the army on the coast waited while soldiers at Passchendaele died raises Passchendaele to an even higher plane of tragedy.

Covering more than two centuries of naval history, this chronology highlights the individuals and events that shaped one of the world's greatest fighting forces—the United States Navy. The United States Navy: A Chronology, 1775 to the Present showcases the dramatic role of the nation's warships throughout America's long history and documents the Navy's vital contributions to establishing the United States as a superpower. Beginning with the American Revolutionary War, this comprehensive work details major and minor events in the history of the U.S. Navy through Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The topics included in this book describe not only battles at sea, but also important political and administrative changes, as well as notable events in the careers of admirals and other naval leaders. Significant battles in all major wars are covered, along with actions in smaller conflicts. This chronology also includes the founding of noted schools of instruction; the introduction of new classes of warships and aircraft; and significant naval texts, such as Alfred Thayer Mahan's seminal The Influence of Naval Power upon History.

"[An] excellent source of detailed information about both famous and obscure places in U.S. naval history." Reference Books Bulletin

Illusrated with full color maps and photographs. U.S. Marines in the Global War on Terrorism series. Covers the combat service support operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom between November 2002 and October 2003. Tells a story of reorganization, preparation, and execution by the 1st and 2d Force Service Support Groups.

This volume is the first recent work to examine the major naval combatants of World War II. Sadkovich has brought together essays by eight contributors, each an expert in his field, to reevaluate the roles and performances of the particular navies and the specific geopolitical circumstances under which they operated. Also included is an introduction that both outlines the pre-War conditions that shaped the navies and draws comparisons between the eight combatants. Reevaluating Major Naval Combatants of World War II is a superb collection of provoactive essays on eight navies. Carl Boyd, Old Dominion University This study of World War II naval combatants, a collection of eight separate essays, developed out of the editor's recognition that no recent work has attempted to evaluate the performance of the war's major naval participants. Sadkovich commissioned an essay on each of the eight major navies involved in the war, allowing each essay's author to assess the role and performance of a particular navy according to the tasks and compositions of that combatant. Although each essay mirrors the peculiarities of the navy under discussion, the common elements allow comparisons and conclusions to be drawn. The volume is devoted to the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union. Each essay has been written by an expert in the particular field. In addition, the editor has provided an introduction that describes the changing state of navies worldwide prior to the war and draws comparisons between the navies discussed in each essay. A selected bibliography has also been included. The book will be a noteworthy addition to both university and public libraries, and an essential source for researchers and scholars of naval history.

On November 30, 1916, an apparently ordinary freighter left harbor in Kiel, Germany, and would not touch land again for another fifteen months. It was the beginning of an astounding 64,000-mile voyage that was to take the ship around the world, leaving a trail of destruction and devastation in her wake. For this was no ordinary freighter--this was the "Wolf, "a disguised German warship.
In this gripping account of an audacious and lethal World War I expedition, Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen depict the "Wolf "'s assignment: to terrorize distant ports of the British Empire by laying minefields and sinking freighters, thus hastening Germany's goal of starving her enemy into submission. Yet to maintain secrecy, she could never pull into port or use her radio, and to comply with the rules of sea warfare, her captain fastidiously tried to avoid killing civilians aboard the merchant ships he attacked, taking their crews and passengers prisoner before sinking the vessels.
The "Wolf "thus became a huge floating prison, with more than 400 captives, including a number of women and children, from twenty-five different nations. Sexual affairs were kindled between the German crew and some female prisoners. A six-year-old American girl, captured while sailing across the Pacific with her parents, was adopted as a mascot by the Germans.
Forced to survive on food and fuel plundered from other ships, facing death from scurvy, and hunted by the combined navies of five Allied nations, the Germans and their prisoners came to share a common bond. The will to survive transcended enmities of race, class, and nationality.
It was to be one of the most daring clandestine naval missions of modern times. Under the command of Captain Karl Nerger, who conducted his deadly business with an admirable sense of chivalry, the "Wolf "traversed three of the world's major oceans and destroyed more than thirty Allied vessels.
We learn of the world through which the "Wolf "moved, with all its social divisions and xenophobia, its bravery and stoicism, its combination of old-world social mores and rapid technological change. The story of this epic voyage is a vivid real-life narrative and simultaneously a richly detailed picture of a world being profoundly transformed by war.

During WWII the mission of the Navy was, first and foremost, 'holding the line' against the German surface fleet, preventing it from disrupting the vital transatlantic sea-lanes or escorting an invasion force to Britain. The importance of holding the line cannot be over-emphasised but it is often overlooked as there was no decisive battle on the seas surrounding Britain in WWII. This work is a strategic and operational history of the Home Fleet. It examines the role of the home fleet in allied strategy and how well the home fleet carried out the missions assigned to it within the framework of that strategy.

The Confederacy's only national naval academy was anchored in Virginia's James River aboard the CSS Patrick Henry. While their Union counterparts at the U.S. Naval Academy studied at a safe distance from the war, the midshipmen of the Confederate States Naval Academy were sent on active duty to defend the South's waterways. Using original Confederate documents and many previously unpublished letters and diaries, James Lee Conrad has compiled a fresh and scholarly study of a neglected subject.

This is the story of that small band of women who wore U.S. Marine uniforms during the Korean War. These women are a "lost generation" of women Marines who stepped into the breach between two wars and preserved the opportunity to be a Marine for those who were as yet unborn. They were, in fact, a "thin green line"--and they stood fast, just like Marines are taught to do.

The Constitution was one of the US Navy's first six original frigates, ordered as a counter to the Barbary corsairs in the Mediterranean. Fast and heavily built, she was nominally rated as a 44 but mounted thirty 24-pdr and twenty-two 12-pdr cannon. Her most famous encounter, after which she became nicknamed 'Old Ironsides' due to British shot being seen bouncing off her hull, involved HMS Guerriere, which she smashed; the same treatment was meted out to HMS Java four months later. Now the oldest commissioned warship afloat in thw world, she is berthed in Boston Harbor. The 'Anatomy of the Ship' series aims to provide the finest documentation of individual ships and ship types ever published. What makes the series unique is a complete set of superbly executed line drawings, both the conventional type of plan as well as explanatory views, with fully descriptive keys. These are supported by technical details and a record of the ship's service history.

This short history is the first broad and selective survey of the phenomenon known as "jointness"--the co-operative operations of land and naval forces until the twentieth-century and of land, sea, and air forces since World War I. Touching on operational, doctrinal, and political dimensions, the survey ranges from the ancient Mediterranean to recent times while focusing on European and American experiences from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, including Desert Storm. Illustrative cases and reference materials are attuned to the interests of scholars, defense analysts, and students of military affairs. Jointness, subject of major concern to military historians, policymakers, politicians, and military professionals has in the past been covered within certain periods on a case by case or topical basis. This history begins instead with a broad survey from ancient to modern times and then focuses more closley on joint operations since World War I with wide-ranging examples to illustrate trends and patterns of Jointness. The survey closes with a discussion of the central problem of friction and other paradoxes connected with joint military operations. A selected bibliography provides an array of sources both for general readers and military professionals. Maps and appendices further enrich this important history.

Sir Charles Cotton served in the Royal Navy from 1772 to 1812. Unfortunately timing precluded his presence at Trafalgar, but he participated in other pivotal battles, including The Saintes and "The Glorious First of June." His career culminated with command of a squadron based off Lisbon, Portugal, followed by commands of the prestigious Mediterranean and Channel Fleets. Each of these commands notably influenced the Peninsular War. This study helps to answer one of the most frequently asked questions about this era: How did British naval power contribute to the defeat of Napoleon? Krajeski expands current thinking about the Royal Navy's leadership and accomplishments during this period. Cotton belongs to the most storied generation of naval commanders in British history. They first served during the American Revolution, participating in numerous combined operations and naval engagements along the North American coast, in the Caribbean, and elsewhere. The experience that they gained between 1775 and 1783 figured prominently upon the resumption of war against France in 1793. As a captain in the Channel Fleet, Cotton fought at the Battle of "The Glorious First of June" in 1794 and actively blockaded the French Atlantic ports; as an admiral between 1797 and 1806, he focused primarily on the blockade of Brest. In 1808 he achieved a modest measure of contemporary fame as commander of a squadron that supported Sir Arthur Wellesley's campaign in Portugal. Cotton subsequently influenced the Peninsular War as commander of the Mediterranean and Channel Fleet. He died while in command of the Channel Fleet.

"Vintage Kindleberger: well-written, witty, and informative."
--Rondo Cameron, Emory University

"A fascinating and enlightening guide to economic history, maritime lore, and labor market analysis. Kindleberger develops a trenchant critique of the current tendency to interpret all labor market phenomena as optimal and efficient outcomes and he does so with his usual wit and insight."
--Daniel Mitchell, UCLA.

In this volume, eminent economist Charles Kindleberger sets out to challenge the widespread belief that the market for seafarers, in the days before steam, was efficient, conforming more or less to a strong prior belief in the neo-classical economic model of supply and demand.

Maritime history is traditionally strewn with references to crimping or shanghaiing, naval press-gangs, desertion, mutiny, marooning and shipwrecks due to drunkeness or negligence. In contrast, Kindleberger examines issues of recruitment and pay, the treatment of seamen, and the question of government intervention and its impact on efficiency, in the engaging narrative style that is his trademark.

Offering an original and informative account of the markets for seafarers in the age of sail, "Mariners and Markets" will be welcomed by economic and maritime historians alike.

Using four warship-centered examples, this book shows how naval battles are won or lost-and how technological advantage is rarely as decisive in defeat or victory as is often claimed. Providing a unique assessment of naval strategy and historic outcomes across centuries of warfare, Understanding Victory: Naval Operations from Trafalgar to the Falklands presents four case studies that examine each ship-based battle narrative to expose and analyze the factors that contributed to each side's success or defeat. The work opens with an overview of the general causes of success and failure in naval operations. Each case study starts with a detailed narrative of the battle and then reviews the conflict from the key perspectives identified in the introduction. These classic examples of naval warfare underscore how the outcome of naval operations is often predetermined by the clarity and quality of the mission aim, and point out striking constants in naval warfare despite the obvious differences in military technologies over a long span of time. Focuses on four ship-centered battle narratives: the battle of Trafalgar, the battle of Jutland, the sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse, and the Falklands War Identifies 11 perspectives that explain victory and defeat in naval operations Provides a history-based survey of successful naval operations while highlighting the nature of naval operations in the 21st century Presents information written in a clear, reader-friendly style without compromising on its scholarly standards of content and accuracy Offers fascinating reading for naval college students, general audiences who enjoy naval history, and naval historians alike

Hell Week is an attempt to bare the bones of the gruelling six month long U.S. Navy Commando training in a serious yet humorous manner.

Survey of the neglected naval campaign of the Crimean War highlights its impact on international relations with China and Japan as well as Russia. The `Crimean War' was much more than a series of battles in the Crimea. One of the most neglected aspects has been the naval campaign in the Pacific Ocean - as highlighted in this full-scale survey, which brings out the involvement of China and Japan. The campaign took a joint British and French squadron from Chile to Kamchatka, to be defeated in battle at Petropavlovsk - where the British Admiral committed suicide. Despite their victory, the Russians withdrew from all their Pacific coastal settlements, and the British and French concentrated on searching for the mouth of the Amur River, thought to be a Russian base. The Russians in turn also concentrated there, in order to build a base, sending repeated expeditions along the river. Both China, who claimed to rule along the Amur, and Japan, only just `opened up' by Commodore Perry's expedition, were involved - indeed, the British used a Japanese port as their advanced base. The United States had only recently reached the Pacific coast and several Americans had their eyes on Russian Alaska and Hawaii as territories for future acquisitions. All this meant the Allies hadto tread very delicately in Pacific waters. The war in Europe ended before a decisive action could take place in the Pacific. Ironically, having lost in the fighting, the Russians ended with a great advance in their territory.