BOOK DEPARTMENT
Members of the Institute, both regular and associate, may save money by ordering books through its Book Department, which will supply any obtainable book. A discount of 10 per cent is allowed on books published by the Institute, and 5 per cent on books of other publishers (government and foreign publications excepted). Address Secretary-Treasurer, U. S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland.
CLEAR FOR ACTION. A Novel about John Paul Jones. By Clements Ripley. D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc.: New York and London. 1940. 310 pages. $2.50.
Reviewed by Captain H. A. Baldridge, U. S. Navy (Retired), Curator, U. S. Naval Academy Museum
Most serious minded readers and students of history may look askance at historical novels, for they do not know just how much is history and how much is fiction. In Mr. Ripley’s novel the reader may dismiss this question, while at the same time, if romanticism has its appeal, his book may be doubly enjoyed.
The book should have a special interest to the general public and particularly to the younger generation who are in the Navy now or about to join it; whether they be commissioned or enlisted in the regular Navy; or whether they be in the greatly increased Naval Reserve, either as commissioned or enlisted members, for the following reasons:
(1) The story, being romantic and in all essential respects true to history, is easy to read.
(2) The treatment of the manner and the way the colonists lived their lives, their manner of talking and the atmosphere of the times, may shock most readers who learn for the first time that our forebears were real live men and women, because our ordinary histories leave unsaid the sordidness and political trickery from which no people are free, no matter how patriotic.
(3) The true greatness of John Paul Jones, both as a naval leader and as a man, is revealed.
The other characters in the book, Benjamin Franklin, Lee, Deane, John Hancock, John Adams, and the two youngsters Fanning and Mayrant, are all true to life; even the love interest of Jones and Dorothea Dandridge and her final marriage to Patrick Henry are not overdrawn; neither are the conditions surrounding Jones in France after his arrival there with the Ranger and the difficulties he met with and overcame in getting the French East Indiaman which became the historic Bon Homme Richard.
How good a storyteller Mr. Ripley is may be realized when it is stated that he wrote Jezebel a few years ago and that Bette Davis won the Academy Award for her performance in the motion picture.
Some studio would perform a real public service at this time if this story were placed on the screen so that the many millions who do not read books could see these interesting historical characters and a story of John Paul Jones.
TOWARD A NEW ORDER OF SEA POWER. By Harold and Margaret Sprout. Princeton University Press. 1940. 332 pages. $3.75.
Reviewed by Lieutenant Commander Berwick B. Lanier, U. S. Naval Reserve
In the present book the authors of that excellent earlier work, The Rise of American Sea Power, review the attempts of the more important post-war naval powers to find some acceptable basis of world sea power which might be substituted for Pax Brittanica.
When Mahan published his Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1890, the geographical position of the British Isles across the doorway of northern Europe, combined with the control of the Straits of Gibraltar, enabled Britain to deny to her chief European rivals any access to the outer oceans. Thereby, she also ensured herself as well the control of the waters of the Far East and of the Western Hemisphere because there were then no non- European naval powers of any consequence. A few small ships sufficed to ensure British control in those regions.
The sudden rise of the American and Japanese navies in the decade before the World War radically altered this situation, and the effort of Great Britain to preserve her position in those areas resulted in increased friendship toward the former and an alliance with the latter. She reserved her own fleet for her great European rival, Germany.
At the end of the First World War the German Navy was no longer a menace. In addition, the British Fleet had been greatly increased by war-time building and was superior to her remaining rivals in completed vessels. However, she was faced with a tremendous building program by her greatest commercial competitor, the United States. This aroused perplexity in the minds of the British public and of her statesmen.
At Paris, Woodrow Wilson had used the American building program as a lever to secure British support for his League of Nations. Later, the American government took the position that its interests in the Far East demanded a fleet strong enough to intervene decisively in that area if it should become necessary.
Japan continued her strenuous efforts to increase her own navy to a point where she could not be challenged in those waters.
The peoples and the leaders of the three nations commenced to look with the greatest alarm upon a situation which might offer only the alternatives of war or of crushing tax burdens leading toward bankruptcy. At the same time each nation was determined to maintain its security and its prestige.
The authors have devoted the major portion of the book to the efforts of the governments of the three nations to find some acceptable formula which might avoid the earlier grim alternatives without sacrificing the latter considerations. Their efforts finally resulted in the Washington Conference and the various treaties which developed from it.
For their source material the authors have relied upon contemporary newspaper and magazine articles, the record of debates and other public and diplomatic statements and documents. The treatment throughout is entirely objective. All sources are given in ample footnotes.
The book is a fine contribution to naval and diplomatic history. The exhaustive compilation of source material which it contains would, of itself, make it almost indispensable to future historians of the early post-war period.
The naval officers of the three principal nations which met at Washington have, as groups, always believed that their own particular nation made the greatest sacrifice and jeopardized its own position more than did the others. The present book should serve to correct some of those impressions, and to show the strength of the political forces, born of public opinion, which so often influence the naval policies of the nations.
AIR MASS AND ISENTROPIC ANALYSIS. By Jerome Namias and others. Milton, Mass.: American Meteorological Society. 1940. 232 pages. $1.25.
Reviewed by Lieutenant F. A. Berry, Jr., U. S. Navy
As the weather plays a major role in all types of naval activity, whether it be planning the major strategy behind the Polish and Norwegian campaigns, or the painting schedule and the weekly smoker, the reader will be amply repaid for the time spent in reading this book. An understanding of the general principles outlined will permit a more intelligent interpretation of the daily forecasts and considerably increase their value and usefulness.
The book consists of a collection of articles dealing with the study of air mass analysis, the new technique now in common use by the majority of all meteorologists throughout the world. The first sections deal with the basic principles of the air mass theory and give a description of the properties of the various types of air masses, their formation, location, and interactions with each other when brought in contact by the general circulation of the atmosphere. Included in this discussion is a table describing the behavior of the commonly observed meteorological elements— temperature, pressure, humidity, clouds, precipitation, visibility, and wind—upon the passage of the various types of fronts. This will enable the amateur forecaster to make his own forecasts if he so desires or to enlarge upon a general forecast and make it more applicable to his own particular location.
The remainder of the book consists of articles and diagrams of a more technical nature dealing with particular phases of the subject. One particularly interesting series of vertical sections shows actual conditions in frontal regions where structural icing was encountered by air-line pilots.
The last portion of the book deals with isentropic analysis, a new technique based upon the premise that all large-scale motions in the atmosphere must take place upon surfaces of equal entropy, hence adiabatically. This type of analysis is of little value for naval purposes as it requires a mass of data unavailable at sea and is still in the experimental stage of development.
MATERIALS HANDBOOK. An Encyclopedia for Purchasing Agents, Engineers, Executives, and Foremen. By George S. Brady. Fourth Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc. 1940. 591 pp. $5.00.
Reviewed by Lieutenant T. F. Conley, Jr., U. S. Navy
This book is an encyclopedia of industrial and engineering materials. Plain English and simple engineering terms are used to describe the nature of the materials, their physical properties, their sources, and their uses. The main portion of the book contains no illustrations or tables. A 20- page appendix contains a limited number of useful tables.
An excellent index lists about 4,700 items. In many cases, the materials are indexed under both their trade and proper names, which simplifies their identification. Such products as “Buna rubber,” “thiokol,” “Hastelloy,” “Fibreglas,” “Vinylite,” and “Castaloy” are readily identified.
The book does not attempt to impart detailed technical information about any of the materials considered. It does give general physical properties such as tensile strength, hardness, machineability, toxicity, chemical composition, specific gravity, and boiling point. When a proprietary product is described, the name of the manufacturer is given.
The principal value of the book lies in the fact that it enables any engineer to identify readily a large number of industrial materials and to determine their most important properties. In selecting materials for a given application, the book could well be employed to compile a list of products for technical investigation.
This book should be useful to supply officers, navy yard executives, purchasing agents, and others who must deal with and identify a wide variety of materials. It should also be of value as a reference book for engineers who may be occasionally concerned with materials developed outside their specialties.
MEEHEEVEE. By Lt. (j.g.) Raymond J. Toner, U.S.N.R. Chicago: Albert Whitman and Co. 1940. 319 pages. $2.00.
Reviewed by Ensign W. D. Lanier, Jr., U. S. Naval Reserve
The cruise of the U.S.S. Essex is one of those rare epics of the sea which can be told and retold and which grows more fascinating with repetition. A bare recital of the facts would make interesting reading, and Lieutenant Toner has added to the material of history the enlivening touch of fiction, giving the story lightness and warmth.
M’keever, the only fictional figure in the book, is a seaman who rises from the gun deck to the wardroom during the course of the cruise, and is a well-drawn portrait of an unusual man. But the real hero of the tale is Captain David Porter, handling his ship and his men with a master touch, conceiving a daring plan and carrying it through with energy and ability, rising to his moment of supreme greatness in the midst of defeat and disaster.
The fictional part of the narrative, which is small, seems somewhat prosaic by the side of the incredible truth. For in the saga of the Essex there are all the elements of sheer romance—a duel on a lonely island, a campaign against the natives of the Marquesas, a lovely Princess Pitteenee, a dramatic masquerade of the Essex as a British frigate, and a final crashing climax in the battle against the Phoebe and the Cherub. And in the figure of Lieutenant Gamble of the Marines and his tiny detachment left stranded in the Marquesas, there is material for another complete novel.
This entire book is naturally interesting to the naval officer, but he will find his greatest treat in the last chapter. For there is the tale of a fight which will always be part of the tradition of the United States Navy—a fight against hopeless odds, waged with desperate courage and stubborn heroism. Meeheevee makes fascinating reading, interesting reading, proud reading.
PORT DICTIONARY OF TECHNICAL TERMS. Compiled by the Committee on Standardization and Special Research. New Orleans: The American Association of Port Authorities. 1940. 208 pages. $1.50.
Reviewed by Lieutenant Commander Kenmore M. McManes, U. S. Navy
A misapplied or a misapprehended term is sufficient to give rise to fierce and interminable disputes. The Committee on Standardization and Special Research of the American Association of Port Authorities has supplied the shipping world with an excellent though small handbook for clarifying and making more understandable some of the terms used in maritime shipping. '
In accomplishing this, the Dictionary defines such diverse subjects as “hand of bananas” and “lithophaga arislata dilwyn” (a species of mollusca responsible for much damage to Panama Canal Works); marine cranes of 61 different types are described; legal terms frequently used in maritime contracts are explained.
The need for a description of technical terms is readily apparent to one engaged in the shipping business. New words and old words with new meanings are being rapidly added to our language. A word or a phrase may have a particular significance in one locality while a different shade of meaning may be attached to it in another. The evident aim of this dictionary is to standardize interpretation of marine shipping phraseologies and idiomatic combinations peculiar to it. By thus finding the significance of these expressions shippers and ship captains in Montreal, Boston, New Orleans, Milwaukee, or San Francisco are brought to a common understanding of the terms they use.
The authors emphasize that this edition is not conclusive and where different interpretations have been encountered they have selected the one which appeared to them to be best.
The final draft of the book was reviewed by the Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army and by the U. S. Maritime Commission.
INSTRUMENT FLYING. By Lieutenant Commander P. V. H. Weems, U. S. N. (Retired), and Charles A. Zweng, Instructor, U. S. Air Corps. Annapolis: Weems System of Navigation. 1940. 328 pages. $4.00.
Reviewed by Commander William Sinton, U. S. Navy
The latest publication from the Weems System of Navigation is Instrument Flying by the well-known Lieutenant Commander P. V. H. Weems, U. S. Navy (Ret.), and Charles A. Zweng, civilian instructor, U. S. Air Corps. Its binding, type, and presentation continue the high standards set by the publications of the Weems System of Navigation. It is actually a compendium and revision of several publications, adequately covering the field of instrument flying.
The first part of the book is a rewrite of Howard Stark’s book on instrument flying. This was the first orderly presentation of the subject and was supplied to all naval aircraft squadrons for several years. The radio aids to navigation sections show in many respects similarity to Carl S. Day’s Instrument and Radio Flying. The weather and meteorological section is unusually good in that it does not try to make forecasters of us all but explains in detail the interpretation of the meteorological broadcasts, teletype and telegraph, of the Weather Bureau. Enough theory of meteorology is included for a student to pass the Civil Aeronautics Authority examinations for pilot’s licenses. Simple air navigation is included, featuring Miss Tornich’s solution of radius of action and the alternate airport problems.
The last part of the book comprises a quiz section based on Mr. Zweng’s previous quiz publications, thus enabling a student to check his preparedness for taking the theoretical examinations given by the Civil Aeronautics Authority. Answers that have been accepted by the Civil Aeronautics Authority are included with each question.
The book is primarily a textbook for students and candidates for private pilot’s licenses, a particularly large field now that so many young people are taking the Civil Aeronautics Authority preliminary training course. There is nothing new or unusual in it, but its method of presentation is excellent. It can be wholeheartedly recommended to all those interested in flying.