Conway Maritime Press - Warship 44

eakfast in a Portsmouth
coffee house is one that must
be taken to heart. The
foundation of loyalty was
not violence but trust and
reward. Men followed good
officers, and ran away from
bad ones. No Navy in any
age can afford to ignore this
message.
The central theme of the
work is simple: the Royal
Navy in the Seven Years
War was a good service,
because it was almost
invariably successful. It is
worth asking how far the
weakness ofthe Flench cast
the navy in an unjustly
favourable light. The War of
American Independence
demonstrated that the
superiority survived, but not
in so great a deglee. Without
the powerful leadership of
Ansoir the service suffered.
and there are examples
enough in this book to reemphasise
the importance of
his contribution. Highly
recommended.
THE WAR OF 1812: A
DOCUMENTARY
HISTORY, VOLUME
I
Edited by William S
Dudley
US Naval Historical
Centre, 250 x 170mm;
774pp, illustrated.
In this magnificent volume
the US Naval Historical
Centre demonstrates some of
the advantages to
scholarship of Government
funding. Where the British
Navy Records Society has to
rely on the unpaid labours of
its editors for a series of
excellent but often
unconnected studies, the
historical centre can begin to
consider the War of t812,
one of the formative
experiences of the service, in
three volumes, of which this
is the first. While by no
means as exhaustive as the
series on the Quasi War with
Flance, and the conflict with
the Barbary Pirates, this will
be a major work and more
accessible because of its
relative brevity. In this
to l8l2 and the first year of
the War, the subjects include
the three famous frigate
actions in which the
Americans captured the
Macedonian, Jaua and.
Guetiere, along with minor
engagements and the details
of naval administration.
Recommended.'
FREE TRADE AND
SAILORS'RIGHTS: A
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF
THE WAR OF 1812
Compiled by John C
Freriksen
Greenwood Press, 235 x
169mm,399pp.
ISBN 0 313243131 f0.00
This work will be of
tremendous benefit to all
students of the War of 18t2,
providing a comprehensive
listing of all printed source
materials relating to the
war. The heavy
American,/Canadian bias is
to be expected. The war was
a major event in North
American history: a mere
sideshow for Britain.
Perhaps this work might
encourage more studies of
the British war effort.
Excellent.
WHY THE CRIMEAN
WAR? A
CAUTIONARY TALE
Norman
Rich
University Press of New
England, 220x 745mm,
257pp
ISBN 0 87451 328 6
tr7.25
A handy resume of the latest
work on the so-called
Crimean War. However, this
book, like almost every other
work on the subject reduces
the role of the Navy to
insignificance, accepts the
standard view that naval
commanders wete
incompetent and commits
several mistakes offact. The
Russian fortress in the
not even a village! The
importance of this theatre to
the author can be gauged
from its receiving little more
than one page in the whole
book. The navy is similarly
ignored. On the diplomacy of
the war this work is well
informed, but the conflict is
little understood.
THE
UNFORTUNATE
DUKE: HENRY
PELHAM, FIFTH
DUKE OF
NEWCASTLE:
1811-64
F Darrell Munsell
University of Missouri
Press, 230 x 155mm,
334pp
ISBN 0 826204562
930.00
This usefuI biography of the
Secretary of State for War
during the Crimean conflict
provides a remarkable
example of political
interference with senior
commanders on active
service. Newcastle blamed
Admiral Dundas for the
failure of the invasion of the
Crimea, considering him a
cautious and irresolute
incompetent. Despite the fact
that he had no authority
over the naval officers, he
advised General Lord
Raglan to ignore any orders
Dundas might give that
would endanger the army,
and hoped that thd naval
second in command. Rear
Admiral Lyons, would do the
same. The reason for
Newcastle's concern was the
alarmist stories of the
newspaper reporters on the
spot, who Iistened to any
rumours critical of Admiral
Dundas and did not check
their sources. A more
rounded treatment, using
Dundas's extant papers,
would have suggested that
Newcastle was unjustified in
his fears. He was driven
from office two months later
when the newspapers he had
tried to placate turned on
him. A case of poetic justice?
ARAB PIRACY IN
THE GULF
Sultan Muhammad Al-
Qasimi
Croom Helm,240 x
160mm, 244pp,20
coloured illustrations
ISBN 0 709921063
s25.00
In this stimulating book the
author attempts to
demonstrate that the British
East India Company
deliberately accused the
Arab traders of the Persian
Gulf of piracy in order to
destroy their ability to
compete in economic terms.
Previous. British studies
have always accepted the
contemporary accounts of
piracy and brutality atface
value. Using archives in
Britain and India this book
sets out to expose the
dishonesty of the original
claims, and the poor
scholarship of later works.
In accepting his revision we
must begin to reconsider the
cosy view of Britain in the
nineteenth century acting as
the disinterested world
policeman. This study points
to the cynical manipulation
of the truth by apparently
disinterested men, seeking to
safeguard their economic
expansion by crushing the
opposition. How much more
of the naval history of the
eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries might not be open
to the same critique?
Recommended.
HMS
COLLINGWOOD
7844-7848 PACIFIC
STATION
Edited by Allison Kay
The Pentland kess, 220 x
150mm, 279pp
ISBN 0 9462703\ 7
f 10.00
This book consists of the
edited journal of a lieutenant
aboard the flagship of the
Pacific Station, the 80-gun
sailing ship Collingwood. It
promises much, by the way
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