Ordered to join the Pacific Squadron in 1854, the sloop of war
Decatur sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, through the Strait of
Magellan to Valparaiso, Honolulu, and Puget Sound, then on to San
Francisco, Panama, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, while serving in the
Pacific until 1859, the eve of the Civil War. Historian Lorraine
McConaghy presents the ship, its officers, and its crew in a
vigorous, keenly rendered case study that illuminates the forces
shaping America's antebellum navy and foreign policy in the
Pacific, from Vancouver Island to Tierra del Fuego.
One of only five ships in the squadron, the Decatur participated
in numerous imperial adventures in the Far West, enforcing
treaties, fighting Indians, suppressing vigilantes, and protecting
commerce. With its graceful lines and towering white canvas sails,
the ship patrolled the sandy border between ocean and land.
"Warship under Sail" focuses on four episodes in the Decatur's
Pacific Squadron mission: the harrowing journey from the Atlantic
to the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Magellan; a Seattle war
story that contested American treaties and settlements;
participation with other squadron ships on a U.S. State Department
mission to Nicaragua; and more than a year spent anchored off
Panama as a hospital ship. In a period of five years, more than 300
men lived aboard ship, leaving a rich record of logbooks, medical
and punishment records, correspondence, personal journals, and
drawings. Lorraine McConaghy has mined these records to offer a
compelling social history of a warship under sail. Her research
adds immeasurably to our understanding of the lives of ordinary men
at sea and American expansionism in the antebellum Pacific
West.
Lorraine McConaghy is the historian at the Museum of History and
Industry in Seattle.
"The world that Dr. McConaghy has captured, both aboard the
Decatur and in the ports it visited, will be unfamiliar to almost
everyone who reads this book; indeed, that strangeness or lost-ness
is one of her major points. The maps and historic images help to
make that world more concrete." - Coll Thrush, author of "Native
Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place"
"The story the author tells is fresh and original and relates to
a number of significant subjects, including the history of the Old
Navy, the Pacific Northwest, antebellum national politics, the
Manifest Destiny movement, and the lore of the sea." - James Valle,
Delaware State University
"In "Warship under Sail," McConaghy has found a lens through
which to examine anew the founding of Seattle. The vessel
participated in the iconic 'Battle of Seattle, ' that day-long
skirmish during January 1856 between 'Natives' and 'non-Natives'
that looms so large in historical accounts of the city." - John M.
Findlay, University of Washington
Listen to Lorraine McConaghy talk about the book:
http: //www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=collection_podcasts
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