Monthly Archives: January 2015

View from the Quarterdeck: January 2015

In 1950 Samuel Flagg Bemis, long-time Sterling Professor of Diplomatic History and Inter-American Politics at Yale, won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography with his book entitled John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy. A decade later Bemis … Continue reading

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The Development of Modern Counter-piracy Initiatives in Southeast Asia: Vietnamese Boat Refugees and Alternative Incidents 1979-1997

Robert C. McCabe Maynooth University Introduction Between 2009 and 2012, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), a specialised division of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), recorded 648 reports of actual and attempted pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia and … Continue reading

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Swimming in the ‘Fishpond’ or Solidarity with the ‘Beresfordian Syndicate’: An Analysis of the Inquiry by the Subcommittee of Imperial Defence into Naval Policy, 1909

Keith McLay Canterbury Christ Church University Modern histories of the army and navy have long recognised that these institutions are in respect of their external and internal relationships, sui generis, political. The former relations, typically manifest in a competition for … Continue reading

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BOOK REVIEW – With Commodore Perry to Japan: The Journal of William Speiden, Jr., 1852-1855

John A. Wolter, David A. Ranzan, and John J. McDonough, eds., With Commodore Perry to Japan: The Journal of William Speiden, Jr., 1852-1855. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2013. B & W illustrations; maps; appendices; notes; bibliography, 256 pp. Review by … Continue reading

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BOOK REVIEWS – Some New Looks at the Old Breed: Preparing for Victory: Thomas Holcomb and the Making of the Modern Marine Corps and Victory in Defeat: The Wake Island Defenders in Captivity, 1941-1945

David J. Ulbrich, Preparing for Victory: Thomas Holcomb and the Making of the Modern Marine Corps, 1936-1943. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2011. Index, photographs, bibliography, maps, notes, 285 pp. Gregory J.W. Urwin, Victory in Defeat: The Wake Island Defenders in … Continue reading

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BOOK REVIEW – Information at Sea: Shipboard Command and Control in the U.S. Navy, from Mobile Bay to Okinawa

Timothy S. Wolters, Information at Sea: Shipboard Command and Control in the U.S. Navy, from Mobile Bay to Okinawa. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. Index, photos, maps, essay on sources, 317 pp. Reviewed by John T. Kuehn. Major General … Continue reading

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BOOK REVIEW – Clouds Above The Hill (“Saka No Ue No Kumo”)

Shiba Ryotaro, Clouds Above The Hill (“Saka No Ue No Kumo”) Edited by, Phyllis Birnbaum. Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter, Paul McCarthy, and Andrew Cobbing, New York: Routledge, 2012-2014. 4 volumes. Review by Robert P. Largess Independent Scholar Perhaps the … Continue reading

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BOOK REVIEW – Cruise of the Dashing Wave: Rounding Cape Horn in 1860

Philip Hichborn, Cruise of the Dashing Wave: Rounding Cape Horn in 1860. Edited by William H. Thiesen. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2010. Notes, appendices, index, 148 pp. Review by Timothy G. Lynch SUNY Maritime In Cruise of the Dashing … Continue reading

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BOOK REVIEW – The Development of Mobile Logistic Support in Anglo-American Naval Policy, 1900-1953

Peter V. Nash. The Development of Mobile Logistic Support in Anglo-American Naval Policy, 1900-1953. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2009. 320 pp. Review by Joseph Moretz British Commission for Military History Field Marshal the Earl Wavell is reputed to have … Continue reading

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BOOK REVIEW – At War in Distant Waters: British Colonial Defense in the Great War

Phillip G. Pattee, At War in Distant Waters: British Colonial Defense in the Great War. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2013. 273 pp. Review by Joseph Moretz British Commission for Military History Though the historiography of naval operations during the First … Continue reading

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BOOK REVIEW – Commerce Raiding: Historical Case Studies, 1755-2009

Bruce A. Elleman and S.C.M. Paine, eds., Commerce Raiding: Historical Case Studies, 1755-2009. Newport: Naval War College Press, 2013. Index, bibliography, tables, 356 pp. Review by Jason W. Smith Class of 1957 Post-doctoral Fellow in Naval History, US Naval Academy … Continue reading

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Taking the Moral High Ground: The United States, Privateering, and Immunity of Private Property at Sea

Michael J. Crawford Naval History and Heritage Command On 12 April 1961 President John F. Kennedy lodged with the secretary general of the United Nations the 1958 United Nations Convention on the High Seas, which the Senate had ratified. 1 … Continue reading

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