Jim Lad

That looks like it will make a very interesting build, Wefalck. John

Well done, Danny - very realistic. John

Mark, They're pinned with bamboo trunnels (treenails) made to fit a No. 75 drill hole. John

Glad to have you join in, Row - and remember; the only silly question is the one you don't ask! John

Thanks Grant! John

Just catching up - she really looks first class. John

Top tops, Danny! John

Cheers, Michael! John

You can make the eyes from wire the same diameter as the jackstay - that should be fine - and remember - smaller is better when it comes to the size of the wire you use. Double jackstays were a feature of some of the large iron square riggers of the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. I certainly wouldn't put them on your 1850's revenue cutter. As for steel or wooden yards - the same style of jackstay was used on both. John

Thanks, Pat! John

Thanks for the comments one and all. it sure is good to be back at work on her. John

Now that we've been back from holidays a couple of weeks I thought it was about time I posted an update on the 'Francis'. All the deck beams are now in place , so the next job will be to give the frames a final external fairing and then I can start work on the planking battens. I hope to be getting a bit of extra time at the museum over the next few weeks, so hopefully there'll be a bit more progress before long. John

That's one of the more difficult bits out of the way, Mark - now on to the easy stuff! John

I don't think there was much change in the style or size of jackstays over time. This photo of a large steel yard from a barque of the 1870's might be a help to you. As you can see, the eyes are about 18 inches apart and the jackstay itself is roughly 1 inch diameter. I think the idea is to keep the jackstays as inconspicuous as possible otherwise the yard will look lumpy and out of scale - but they should be there or the yard will look wrong. John

Nice to see her in her final home, Mobbsie! John

I've never done it, but I've seen a couple of beautiful models built from tinplate from old food cans. John

Looking good so far, Mark. As for the top transom - one step at a time will get you there. John

Voices of the Confederate Navy: Articles, Letters, Reports and Reminiscences Edited by R. Thomas Campbell Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. 2008 7” x 10”, softcover, 366 pages Photographs, maps, bibliography, index. $35.00 ISBN: 9780786477241 Since 1996, R. Thomas Campbell has authored or edited more than fifteen books on Confederate naval history. His books have always been written to appeal to a general, rather than an academic audience. While his earlier works were compilations of the most sensational stories from the Civil War, later works focused on particular topics, individuals, or theaters of the war. Voices of the Confederate Navy, his most recent book returns to the compilation format, but in a much more comprehensive way than in earlier works. Campbell aims to use sources written by the participants themselves in order to allow their voices to be heard. The breadth of this book is impressive. Campbell includes a chapter on every theater of the war, as well as chapters on special topics such as the Confederate States Marine Corps, the Naval School, blockade runners, cruisers, and the Torpedo Bureau. Most theaters receive equal treatment, but Campbell gives the most space to the chapters on Eastern North Carolina (32 pages), the Mississippi River (37 pages) and the Confederate cruisers (53 pages). The chapter on the Confederate Marine Corps is not surprisingly the shortest, at only 5 pages. Within each chapter the expected, familiar material is covered, but Campbell also includes information on little-known ships, battles, and people, which keeps things interesting. Within each chapter, Campbell includes selected documents. These documents come from various sources such as the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Southern Historical Society Papers, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Confederate Veteran magazine, and memoirs written by Confederate naval officers after the war. Thomas J. Scharf’s History of the Confederate States Navy (1887) is also used quite extensively. Preceding each document is a brief overview, sometimes written by Campbell himself and sometimes lifted from another source. These introductory statements place the documents within context and familiarize the reader with the topic. For seasoned Civil War naval historians, much of this is common knowledge, but to the general reader the introductory statements are very helpful. In the Preface, Campbell acknowledges that his sources are not perfect. Much of this material was written after the war, sometimes decades afterwards, and therefore might not be completely accurate. Memories fade or men consciously try to influence their own legacy when writing memoirs or reminiscences. Many of the Confederate Navy’s records, including all those pertaining to the Confederate States Marine Corps were destroyed during the evacuation of Richmond in April 1865. Therefore, researchers are left with what is available and must use their best judgment. Campbell is not trying to break new interpretive ground with this book, nor does he claim to do so. This is a compilation of documents with some brief explanation, no more and no less. It is a useful reference for general readers who want an overall history of the Confederate Navy, as well as more serious historians who want to easily lay their hands on the documents contained therein. As with all books published by MacFarland, the price of this book is rather steep. However, Campbell sells discounted copies through his personal website; type his name into any search engine to find his site. Andrew Duppstadt NC State Historic Sites

The Battle of the Denmark Strait: A Critical Analysis of the Bismarck’s Singular Triumph By Robert J. Winklareth Philadelphia: Casemate Publishing 2012 6-1/4” x 9-1/4”, hardcover, 336 pages Photographs, maps, appendices, bibliography, index. $32.95 ISBN: 9781612001234 The Battle of the Denmark Strait is considered one of the most famous and defining naval battles of World War II. Fought in May of 1941 in the waters between Greenland and Iceland and between the forces of the British navy, with the battlecruiser HMS Hood and battleship HMS Prince of Wales, against the German battleship Bismarck and cruiser Prinz Eugen, the battle of Bismark Strait pitched the mighty vessels of the German raiding operations against the pride of allied shipping in the North Atlantic. Despite being one of the most documented events in world naval history through photographs, war diaries, and official reports, controversy abounds as to the actual mechanisms of the battle and the details of how the battle was fought are confused due to conflicting photographs and battle diagrams. In an attempt to remedy the lasting historical confusion, Robert Winklareth, in The Battle of the Denmark Strait: A Critical Analysis of the Bismarck’s Singular Triumph, provides an extremely detailed look at not only the specific maneuvers of the battle itself, but also the definitive events leading up to the battle--contributing to its outcome, as well as the aftermath and the battle's lasting effects on the remainder of the War. Based on a technical analysis of documentary and photographic evidence including salvo-by-salvo descriptions and first-hand accounts, Winklareth examines the scenarios of the Battle of Denmark Strait with an eye for clarification and consolidation into a cohesive account. To provide new evidence for the account, Winklareth reconstructs the factors of naval gunnery including shell to target flight time, reactions and correction time, and recycle times affecting the course if the battle and the ultimate victory of the German force. Although the expansive detail provided in the account through salvo descriptions, minute by minute maneuvers and photographic changes add increased evidence for the clarification of the battle, the real highlight of Winklareth's account is that is goes beyond the minute details of the battle, and attempts to understand how the battle fit into the larger picture of global relations, extending years into the past to the resurrection of HMS Hood and the eventual sinking of the notorious Bismarck, and the uncertain future of both German and British warships. Whether inadvertently or intentionally, Winklareth provides an excellent account of naval development, expansion, and decline from the era before World War I to after World War II, and pf the fates of vessels Prinz Eugen and Rodney, and lasting interest in Bismarck and the battle, as underwater explorers uncover the remnants of the battle thousands of meters below the surface, showing how Battle of Denmark strait affected world events and continues to affect historical memory. Jennifer E. Jones East Carolina University

Naval Leadership and Management 1650-1950: Essays in Honour of Michael Duffy Edited by Helen Doe and Richard Harding Woodbridge Suffolk: The Boydell Press 2012 6-1/4” x 9-1/2”, hardcover, xiv + 206 pages Tables, notes, bibliography, index. $99.00 ISBN: 9781843836957 Until recently, studies of naval leadership and management have focused on the contributions of strident individuals, such as Nelson and Drake, but studies of individuals and sweeping war narratives offer a limited view of “…how naval leadership worked in the context of a large, complex, globally capable institution,” like the Royal Navy. Helen Doe and Richard Harding’s Naval Leadership and Management, 1650- 1950 is an excellent overview of the points of entry scholars may take in order to develop a wider view of the evolution of leadership and management in the Royal Navy in the 300 years leading up to World War II. The book is a collection of papers presented at a conference held in honor of Michael Duffy, a scholar who has contributed much to developing this wider view of British naval leadership. The papers included in this anthology explore various aspects of four main themes. The first section deals with the place of the hero in the navy. The main assertion of this section is that the Royal Navy was not effective simply because of one or two heroic individuals. Instead, the navy’s efficient organization, paired with strong leaders who were able to deal not only with battle strategy, but with mundane logistical matters, were the lifeblood of an effective navy. The second section explores organizational friction in command matters, such as the confusion over the chain of command with Marine officers between 1755 and 1797. The third section is concerned with the role of management capability in the exercise of naval power. One example of this is the licensing and incentivisation of privateering vessels between 1702 and 1815. The final section deals with the evolution of management and training in the Royal Navy, especially for officers. Papers in each of these four strains offer analysis on a variety of topics, mining source material from the British National Maritime Museum, British National Archives, the British Library, and a variety of other naval document collections. Despite the variety of topics presented in the papers, Richard Harding ably presents the overarching themes and intent of the work in the introduction. This helps to tie all the contributions together and helps the reader discern the common thread that runs through each. Ample footnotes throughout offer clarification and expansion of ideas, and identify sources for further research. There are a few small aspects of this work that are unfortunate. Overall, the editing of the work is weak and grammatical and style errors are common throughout. Perhaps the most disappointing facet of this work is that the subjects discussed focus heavily on the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, leaving the twentieth century somewhat neglected. It would have been nice to see more works that focus on the years around the two World Wars, as this was a transitional time in which the Royal Navy had to overhaul its leadership and management approaches. That said, however, Naval Leadership and Management is an excellent starting point for expanding understandings of leadership and organization in the Royal Navy, and offers an exciting glimpse of what is to come. Stephanie S. Croatt East Carolina University

Ireland and the War at Sea 1641-1653 By Elaine Murphy Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press 2012 6-1/2” x 9-1/2”, hardcover, xii + 253 pages Maps, glossary, tables, notes, appendices, bibliography, index. $90.00 ISBN: 9780861933181 Elaine Murphy’s book examines maritime conflicts that occurred in the waters surrounding Ireland from 1641 to 1653. Throughout much of the seventeenth century, privateering and piracy off of the Irish coast were obstacles for the English navy. Ireland’s maritime activities changed significantly in the 1640s and 1650s because naval activities and privateering operations in the area escalated and became more complicated with the eruption of rebellion in Ireland and then England’s civil war. England subsequently not only faced somewhat isolated cases of piracy, but also an expanding and organized privateering organization operating out of some of Ireland’s main port towns. Murphy’s book is aesthetically well produced, and it has a convenient and generally easy-to-follow layout that is divided into two main parts and a series of appendices. The first part includes four chapters that progress chronologically from the beginning of the rebellion; they provide a history of the wars. She discusses the manner in which the rebellion changed naval concerns as the events at sea gained importance. Murphy then addresses the resilience of the parliamentary navy and the maritime benefits that the Cessation of 1643 provided the royalists and confederates in Ireland. Irish privateers managed to economically destabilize the parliamentary navy as they gained prizes between 1646 and 1649, but they did not succeed in threatening parliament’s financial foundation. She also claims that the navy proved to be invaluable to Oliver Cromwell in his conquest of Ireland as it facilitated parliamentary armies in combating the royalist coalition. Details such as these emphasize the importance of sea power in warfare and provide an interesting historic perspective. Within the three chapters of the second part of the book, Murphy analyzes aspects concerning both the parliamentary and confederate naval efforts. She discusses the various ships that were utilized during the time and the significance of maritime activity and prize taking to those involved. The author also examines the war off of the coast of Ireland using archival sources to investigate the conduct of the opposing forces. For example, she notes that the captain of a confederate privateer, Joseph Content, claimed to have taken around thirty-six ships, but there is no clear account of the method he used to succeed. Her use of archival material to address questions such as these in the absence of readily available narratives is extremely intriguing, and she provides information that otherwise could have been lost to antiquity. The book has a few weaknesses despite its many strengths. Although not essential to the primary objective of the work, it would have been interesting if Murphy had provided additional details concerning the manner in which warfare involving privateers and armed merchantmen fit into a more extensive economic context of Europe around that time. Also, even though the author displays three maps in the beginning of the book, she does not integrate them into the relevant chapters or clearly illustrate the locations of naval conflicts. Nevertheless, several figures, maps, and tables included serve to visually convey information. Murphy also provides six helpful appendices that contain various details, and she incorporates her works cited in the form of endnotes along with a bibliography. The included general index, glossary, abbreviations page, and index of ships are all very useful. Although Murphy is of the opinion that military campaigns on land often receive more attention than those at sea, she successfully utilizes her work to emphasize the importance of maritime operations around Ireland during the mid-seventeenth century. This book would be particularly useful to those interested in the politics, economics, and logistics of maritime conflict in mid-seventeenth century Ireland. Murphy’s scholarly contribution, though, can be appreciated by anyone with an interest in maritime history. Alyssa Reisner East Carolina University

Britain and Colonial Maritime War in the Early Eighteenth Century: Silver, Seapower and the Atlantic By Shinsuke Satsuma Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press 2013 6-1/2” x 9-1/2”, hardcover, xii + 284 pages Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $115.00 ISBN: 9781843838623 Britain and Colonial Maritime War in the Early Eighteenth Century is adapted from the author's PhD research at the University of Exeter. Satsuma identifies an argument used in Britain to promote the idea of war at sea (particularly in the new world) during the War of Spanish Succession and traces its origin, its deployment, and its evolution. Satsuma claims that this argument affected policy and helps explain some of the decisions made by various political factions, but that it is distinct from actual or ideal government policy as explored by other historians, such as Daniel Baugh's 'blue water policy'. The text relies on early eighteenth-century political writing, including letters, pamphlets and government documents, to trace the argument and understand the political attitudes towards colonial maritime war in the early eighteenth century. The pro-maritime war argument that Satsuma identifies was historical grounded in the English experience of conflict, especially privateering, in the West Indies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It promoted war with Spain as economically advantageous: profits from the capture of Spanish prizes, especially the Flota ships, could pay for other operations, limiting the financial burden on the nation. Additionally, war could provide an opportunity to create new trading opportunities with Spanish colonies, either through treaty or by establishing new British colonies in Spanish territory. Proponents of the argument were not unified in their approach or in their broader political ideologies, but only in their support of the idea. During the War of Spanish Succession, successful deployment of the pro- maritime war argument resulted in some expeditions, including to Quebec in 1710, and plans for expeditions to the West Indies and the South Seas (particularly the Pacific American coast) that were ultimately mired in political and bureaucratic issues and never carried out. Satsuma argues that the political negotiations at the end of the war appeared to offer alternative routes to securing goals similar to those advanced by supported of the pro-maritime war argument, such as the government's control of the Spanish Asiento trade, and that war began to appear less attractive. During the War of the Quadruple Alliance and Anglo Spanish Conflict of 1726-1729 the pro-maritime war argument resurfaced in a slightly different form, and by the end of the period of conflict it had changed from a tool of the government to a tool of the opposition. Satsuma uses the discourse surrounding war at sea to explain the decisions and actions of the government and people in power. The pro-maritime war argument examined is defined very broadly, and as such it is not surprising to find that it persists. Satsuma's more interesting contribution is revealing how the promotion of this argument persistently affected actual policy, legislation, and, in some cases, practice in terms of Britain's maritime warfare and international relations in the period. Heather Hatch Texas A&M University

Passage to the World: The Emigrant Experience 1807-1940 By Kevin Brown Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing, 2013 6-1/4” x 9-1/2”, hardcover, xii + 243 pages Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $45.95 ISBN: 9781848321366 Distributed in the United States by Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland Man’s history is one of travel and exploration. In Passage to the World: The Emigrant Experience 1807-1940, author Kevin Brown emphasizes that everyone is a migrant. This book focuses on emigration via ocean liners. Brown presents an informative account that successfully demonstrates that the journey was not without peril by reflecting on the firsthand experiences of emigrants. The trip across the ocean was more than just a planned voyage; it was instead, a rite of passage that emigrants first needed to survive. The history depicted is collective; it acts as an amalgamation of emigrant experiences by inspecting a broad spectrum of anecdotes from various travelers. This history draws on emigrants from Eastern and Western Europe and Asia; it tells of them venturing predominately to America and Australia. The book’s time span is meant to show the highest influx of emigrants in the modern world. Emigration boomed when the slave trade ceased and continued until travel by sky became predominate in post war years. Brown’s broad interpretation may leave some readers desiring more specifics about an experience, yet readers are not neglected as the author offers comprehensive endnotes. Brown efficiently relies on primary sources, such as parliamentary and congressional papers, to support firsthand experiences on the perilous ocean voyage. To develop the argument that crossing the ocean was a rite of passage for emigrants, Brown organized his book with themes; they are the facets of the journey, which include: parting the homeland, becoming human freight, the life of convicts on a voyage, the risks at sea, which occasionally met with death, and feeling like a stranger in the emigrants’ new home. Brown interweaves colorful descriptions of many of Charles Dickens’ popular contemporary fictions when describing conditions in steerage, utilizing literary and cinematic references to illustrate emigrants’ ocean journeys. The author takes his readers from port of departure through port of entry. This includes the significant reasons for leaving a homeland where one is comfortable with the language and customs; it also encompasses the towns where booming emigration ports first appeared. Development is seen on vessels as conditions improve. Passage to the World touches his audiences’ empathy to convey the humility emigrants faced relegated to the status of human freight. Food preparation and hygiene are not taken lightly, and Brown smartly draws on his specialty in medicine to outline that while ocean liners fully stratified social classes, viruses and infections indiscriminately struck all people. This history successfully molds the conglomeration of emigrant histories into a streamlined explanation that highlights the perils and livelihoods of steerage to first- class cabin passengers on ocean liners. Passage to the World cleverly shines as a welcomed addition to the general public for the collective experiences and trials faced on ocean liners. Brown’s interpretation represents the current stance on emigration; it offers a well-researched look into the risks at sea while offering a comprehensive biography for those looking to delve deeper in the studies of ocean travel. Sara C. Kerfoot East Carolina University

America’s Black Sea Fleet: The U.S. Navy Amidst War and Revolution, 1919-1921 By Robert Shenk Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2012 6-1/4” x 9-1/4”, hardcover, xviii + 366 pages Photographs, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95 ISBN: 9781612510538 America’s Black Sea Fleet: The U.S. Navy Amidst War and Revolution, 1919- 1923, by Robert Shenk, offers a rare glimpse of the American naval presence in post- World War I Europe and Western Asia. His holistic representation of the events surrounding the fleet’s activities, from relief work to back-door diplomacy, allows readers to immerse themselves fully in this often-overlooked segment of world history. In particular, Shenk succeeds in his goal of presenting an overarching, non-biased view of American-Turkish relations during this time, particularly concerning the Armenian genocides. In such a heated debate, it is a breath of fresh air to see Admiral Bristol represented, not as a singular ideal, but as a man, capable of good deeds even with his shortcomings. Shenk has certainly proven himself as an historical researcher. In writing this book, he utilized a variety of public and private source material in his attempt to present a well-rounded interpretation, including diaries, ship logs, correspondence, archival collections, photographs, and more. This enterprising appetite for published and unpublished source material is impressive. In particular, his extensive use of the Mark L. Bristol papers for the good of the overall scholarly argument, rather than as propaganda for a one-sided attack, is certainly commendable. His endnotes allow ease for both the casual reader and the serious historian, as the background information and sources are present, but do not interfere with the general flow of the work. Shenk’s organizational scheme, on the other hand, leaves something to be desired. Though most social histories are thematic, this one tends to jump across years, continents, and ships, with little to no respect for the reader. Additionally, Shenk discusses individual naval movements without giving them an appropriate context in the history of the area, though he states this as one of his goals in the preface. This is true for the end of World War I as well as the immediate after-effects in Greece, Turkey, the Balkans, and particularly post-revolutionary Russia. A more detailed account of the situation, as well as maps to orient the reader, would have been extremely helpful. Both casual readers and naval historians alike might suffer from the lack of historical context. Additionally, the writing was awkward and disjointed in many places. Decisions in word choice, phrasing, and punctuation, should have worked for the storyline, rather than against it. The overuse of parenthetic remarks was particularly frustrating. If the purpose of the endnotes was to allow for readability, Shenk could have also avoided the prolific use of parentheses, most of which he could have worked into the text or relegated to the notes section. This book is certainly more than a naval history. While it examines naval officers, operations, and vessels, it also gives a brief insight into the society of post-World War I Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Shenk focuses on individual ships, but also on the basic human condition during this tumultuous era. This work perhaps would have benefitted from more time in the editing process. It stands, however, as a good example of primary source research and is an excellent addition to the subject literature. Chelsea Freeland East Carolina University

Another fine model finished while I was away on holiday. Congratulations on a job very well done, Bob. John