What is so intriguing about Broos Campbell’s No Quarter, the first book of his Matty Graves series, is that while it follows the general conventions of Georgian naval fiction, it is remarkably original in setting, character and outlook. Campbell has chosen a fascinating and often overlooked period of history - the “Quasi-war” between the young American republic and the French - a time of shifting alliances when it is not always easy to tell friend from foe both internationally and within the fledgling Navy.
Matty Graves is a seventeen year old master’s mate aboard the U.S. Navy’s armed schooner Rattle-Snake. The novel opens on the day after Christmas, 1799. George Washington’s funeral procession is passing through the streets of Baltimore, from which the Rattle-Snake is preparing to sail. It is a moment of tremendous change for the young nation and its navy, leaving Matty Graves to navigate the shoals of ambiguity and uncertainty that constantly shift around him.
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Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
What to do with Modern Pirates?
One of the powers and responsibilities of the US Congress, under Article 1 Section 8, Clause 10 of the US Constitution, is “to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations.“ It seems relatively straight forward. Why then has the US Navy usually released Somali pirates who have been captured at sea?
The problem is that, notwithstanding a Constitutional mandate to do so, the US doesn’t want to hold the pirates. The same is true with all the other naval forces in the region. This catch and release policy seems more appropriate for managing trout fisheries than for protecting the lives and property of those at sea. Part of the problem lies in the first words of Clause 10 - “to define and punish piracies “. The discussion of exactly how to define and punish piracy is definitely ongoing.
A detailed and very interesting look at what to do with captured pirates has been published in the Tulane Maritime Law Journal by Michael H. Passman, entitled “Protections Afforded to Captured Pirates Under the Law of War and International Law“.
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The problem is that, notwithstanding a Constitutional mandate to do so, the US doesn’t want to hold the pirates. The same is true with all the other naval forces in the region. This catch and release policy seems more appropriate for managing trout fisheries than for protecting the lives and property of those at sea. Part of the problem lies in the first words of Clause 10 - “to define and punish piracies “. The discussion of exactly how to define and punish piracy is definitely ongoing.
A detailed and very interesting look at what to do with captured pirates has been published in the Tulane Maritime Law Journal by Michael H. Passman, entitled “Protections Afforded to Captured Pirates Under the Law of War and International Law“.
Read More
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York
Thomas Truxes, senior lecturer inthe history department at Trinity University, as new book which looks fascinating - Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York.
“This enthralling book is the first to uncover the story of New York City merchants who engaged in forbidden trade with the enemy before and during the Seven Years’ War (also known as the French and Indian War). Ignoring British prohibitions designed to end North America’s wartime trade with the French, New York’s merchant elite conducted a thriving business in the French West Indies, insisting that their behavior was protected by long practice and British commercial law. But the government in London viewed it as treachery, and its subsequent efforts to discipline North American commerce inflamed the colonists.
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“This enthralling book is the first to uncover the story of New York City merchants who engaged in forbidden trade with the enemy before and during the Seven Years’ War (also known as the French and Indian War). Ignoring British prohibitions designed to end North America’s wartime trade with the French, New York’s merchant elite conducted a thriving business in the French West Indies, insisting that their behavior was protected by long practice and British commercial law. But the government in London viewed it as treachery, and its subsequent efforts to discipline North American commerce inflamed the colonists.
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The Lightship Nantucket - Part 2: A New Paradigm for Ship Preservation
The classic model of ship preservation is to attempt to restore the ship to as close to her original condition as possible, turn her into a museum and support the project through admission fees and fund raising. This approach has worked for some ships but has failed for many more.
It did not succeed for the Nantucket Lightship (MLV-612) which was how Bill and Kristen Golden had the opportunity to buy her on eBay in 2000. It also did not work for the New Bedford Lightship (LV 114 ) which was transferred to the custody of the City of New Bedford, where she languished for thirty years until she was finally scrapped in 2007.
Bill and Kristen Golden took another approach to preserving the lightship.
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It did not succeed for the Nantucket Lightship (MLV-612) which was how Bill and Kristen Golden had the opportunity to buy her on eBay in 2000. It also did not work for the New Bedford Lightship (LV 114 ) which was transferred to the custody of the City of New Bedford, where she languished for thirty years until she was finally scrapped in 2007.
Bill and Kristen Golden took another approach to preserving the lightship.
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The Lightship Nantucket - Part 1: A Ship Reborn
Over twenty years ago, I went aboard the last Nantucket Lightship (MLV-612). It was a floating museum then and had been maintained in roughly the same condition as when she was in service, only a few years before. The primary difference was that as a museum she was tied up alongside a dock and not bobbing at anchor forty to eighty miles out in the Atlantic, marking the treacherous Nantucket Shoals.
Last night, the New York Ship Lore and Modeling Club was hosted on the Nantucket Lightship by its owner Bill Golden. She was moored in Manhattan’s North Cove, off the Hudson River, one of only three vessels in the mid-winter solitude of the usually crowded cove. She didn’t look so different from when I had seen her last. She had a better paint job but otherwise was the same high-sided squat little ship with her two towering beacons that had welcomed travelers to America even as she warned them away from the shoals. It wasn’t until I crossed the gangway and stepped inside that I realized how much the ship had changed.
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Last night, the New York Ship Lore and Modeling Club was hosted on the Nantucket Lightship by its owner Bill Golden. She was moored in Manhattan’s North Cove, off the Hudson River, one of only three vessels in the mid-winter solitude of the usually crowded cove. She didn’t look so different from when I had seen her last. She had a better paint job but otherwise was the same high-sided squat little ship with her two towering beacons that had welcomed travelers to America even as she warned them away from the shoals. It wasn’t until I crossed the gangway and stepped inside that I realized how much the ship had changed.
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Sunday, January 11, 2009
Woodes Rogers did not cut off Blackbeard’s head!
I recently came across a really dreadful book review in the Daily Mail Online. The review was titled “He beheaded Blackbeard and hanged cut-throats by the dozen… the life of history’s most ruthless pirate hunter“. It reviews a new book, PIRATE HUNTER: THE LIFE OF CAPTAIN WOODES ROGERS by Graham A. Thomas.
One need not read beyond the title to see a problem. Woodes Rogers did not behead Blackbeard. Nope. Never happened. Blackbeard slipped out of the Bahamas to avoid Woodes Rogers when Rogers was appointed governor with a mandate to crush piracy. Blackbeard moved his base to North Carolina and was indeed killed and had his head cut off and hung from a bowsprit by Lieutenant Robert Maynard, who had been dispatched by Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia, not Rogers.
Starting badly, the review gets worse...
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One need not read beyond the title to see a problem. Woodes Rogers did not behead Blackbeard. Nope. Never happened. Blackbeard slipped out of the Bahamas to avoid Woodes Rogers when Rogers was appointed governor with a mandate to crush piracy. Blackbeard moved his base to North Carolina and was indeed killed and had his head cut off and hung from a bowsprit by Lieutenant Robert Maynard, who had been dispatched by Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia, not Rogers.
Starting badly, the review gets worse...
Read more
Monday, January 5, 2009
Blockbusters and Publishing: The Pareto Principle vs. Netflix
In an article in today's Wall Street Journal by Anita Elberse, Blockbuster or Bust - Why struggling publishers will keep placing outrageous bids on new books, Ms. Elberse describes how publishers continue to fall back on their old business model of paying large advances for blockbusters, even in these difficult economic times.
It brought to mind the cliché about generals that are always preparing to fight the last war. That is exactly what the publishing industry seems to be doing now.
Go the complete article on Huffington Post
It brought to mind the cliché about generals that are always preparing to fight the last war. That is exactly what the publishing industry seems to be doing now.
Go the complete article on Huffington Post
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