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KNIGHT’S MODERN SEAMANSHIP, 11th edition. Rewritten and revised by Captain R. A. Hall, U. S. Navy, assisted by officers of the Department of Seamanship and Navigation, U. S. Naval Academy. New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc. 1945. 948 pages. $5.00
Reviewed by Commander W. T. Dutton, U. S. Navy
The preface to the eleventh edition of Knight’s Modern Seamanship remarks on the difficulty of accomplishing a revision of this work during wartime. It cannot be denied that the rapid development and adoption of new procedures, many of them still held confidential for reasons of security, do put restraining fetters upon the revisers; but there are few whose current knowledge will enable them to locate any important omissions in the mass of new data presented.
First investigation discloses that the table of contents has been enlarged and that an index has been added at the back of Appendix V. Those who are desirous of locating information or data expeditiously will find both of these aids to be of great benefit. A second outstanding change in this volume is the rearrangement of chapters to give a more logical presentation. Part I of the book covers ships and their care, part II Ship Handling, part III the Rules of the Road, and part IV Weather.
Part I gives the salient characteristics of the newest construction of all types of war- craft and noncombatant vessels; included are the Liberty ship and the M.C. C-2 merchant ship, a double-page inboard profile being devoted to the latter, while a new 19- page chapter illustrated with 16 photographs describes all the various types of landing craft developed during the war. New shipboard appurtenances mentioned for the first time include variable pitch propellers and self-synchronous steering gear controls. Several pages devoted to stability, buoyancy, and metacentric height should expose new thousands of seafarers to the principles of damage control, while the sections on upkeep reflect many wartime lessons in a strict admonition to keep paint thickness to a minimum in order to lessen hazards from fire. Yellow zinc chromate is given first preference for topside priming coats, hot plastic combined anti-corrosive, anti-fouling paint is recommended for bottoms, while danger from fire again makes itself felt in a caution against the use of wood, linoleum, or matting for deck covering instead of the recently developed ground garnet surface held together in a fire resistant resinous binder.
The chapters covering ship handling necessarily show less revision than those in the other parts of the book. However, evolutions such as fueling at sea, passing mail, and abandoning a badly damaged and rapidly sinking ship are all obviously freshly written in the light of the Navy’s experiences in World War II. There are several new diagrams illustrating the distances involved in mooring, while the computations involved are clarified in a simpler form than was used
previously. The procedure for towing is rewritten and based on the use of the towing pads now found on all naval vessels instead of the bridle around the after barbette or mount. The appendix on mechanical appliances aboard ship has been revised and includes a new section on patent chain hoists.
Part III consists of 137 pages of “Rules of the Nautical Road.” It includes not only the Inland and International Rules but also those governing the Great Lakes and those in force on the Western Rivers. General clarification and a stimulus to interest is provided in a chapter of this section devoted to the basic principles involved. Captain R. F. Farwell, U. S. Naval Reserve, the national authority on the subject, criticized and reviewed this part of Kniglil's.
Advances made in meteorology during recent years have been equaled by but few other sciences. Professor Frederick L. Caudle of the University of Wisconsin and for 12 years a meteorologist in the U. S. Weather Bureau has completely rewritten this subject for part IV of Knight’s book. The data and information offered are completely up to date and of personal interest to all those who go to sea. Readers will find Professor Caudle’s chapters clearly and interestingly written.
Future cargo handlers may feel disappointed not to find any information on cargo stowage in Knight’s. The Navy now includes many officers who have acquired a vast quantity of information concerning loading and unloading cargo under varied and all conditions. It would be beneficial if one of these experts would incorporate his knowledge in a new chapter of Knight’s in order that officers assigned to duties involving cargo handling and stowage could find an ever present reference ready for consultation. This would seem to be a pressing need as the Navy does not ordinarily train extensively in this subject and no standard Navy text is available which covers the problems involved.
Recent educational advances have been in the direction of books with good paper, large print, and an ever increasing number of diagrams, photographs, and visual aids. Knight’s eleventh edition could be improved somewhat along these lines, but a frontispiece precludes any criticism on this point with a statement from the publishers to the effect that the work was printed according to the recommendations of the War Production Board and that any shortcomings were due to the effort to conserve paper and other critical materials.
48 MILLION TONS TO EISENHOWER: THE ROLE OF THE SOS IN THE DEFEAT OF GERMANY. By Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Leigh, Historical Section, ETO. Washington: The Infantry Journal. 1945. 179 pages. $2.00.
Reviewed by Senior Professor Allan Westcott, U. S. Naval Academy
A million copies of this book were printed in France by the Information and Education Division, U. S. Forces, European Theater, but this is the first American edition. It contains much formerly secret information and a wealth of statistical data.
To cite typical examples, the U. S. Service of Supply in the European Theater, including Medical Corps, Ordnance, Signal Corps, Chemical Warfare Service, Transportation Corps, Military Police, and reinforcements, numbered over 527,000 on D-Day, or about 31 per cent of the total army forces. This proportion continued through the war, the Supply Service in April, 1945, numbering 979,000 out of a total of 2,800,000. As compared with World War I, World War II called for six times as much material per man, and this material took more space per ton—99 cubic feet as compared with 63.
The landings in Normandy were to be by daylight at low tide. Actually, on June 6, the landings in the two coastal areas assigned to the American forces started at 65 minutes after low tide, and the tidal rise from 7:00 to 10:00 a.m. was 18 feet (8 feet in the first hour). There were some slips in location of landing points and in demolition of beach obstacles. Mines off Utah Beach sank three U. S. destroyers. But in the outcome, though the forecast for army casualties in the first three days was 25 per cent, the actual casualties through June 8 were only 10,201, or less than 7.25 per cent of the 140,982 men landed by sea and air. Supply problems were greatly complicated by the storm of June 18-22, during which the Americans alone lost 82
vessels totaling 15,000 tons, and also by the delay in the use of Cherbourg. This port, scheduled for capture by June 14, was not taken until the 27th, and its opening for service required 21 days instead of the estimated three. Yet, despite these difficulties, in three months after D-Day American forces were in positions they had not expected to occupy in less than nine months’ time.
The present book divides transport work in the European Theater into three phases: first, by truck, over short hauls earlier, and later by the “Red Ball” and other long-haul lines; second by railway transport; and finally through the port of Antwerp, the opening of which enabled supply problems to be handled with one-fourth the effort previously involved.
To cite other figures comparing the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I and World War II, the motor vehicles in service at the end of the second war numbered 710,000 as compared with 80,000 in the first, and their total weight was 58 times as great. Out of every 100 soldiers wounded, the deaths were reduced from 8 to 4, and the total of deaths from disease was reduced from 23,238 to 741. Here the comparison is between 2,000,000 men in World War I over a period of 25 months, and 3,800,000 in the second war over 38 months. Loss of service due to venereal disease was 30 times greater in the first war.
Oil consumption was 43 times greater in World War II. It was handled in part by the construction of 3,500 miles of pipe line (6-in. and 4-in.). Another striking figure is that out of 1,671,000 U. S. troops who went to the United Kingdom up to June 1, 1944, 24 per cent were carried in two ships, the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. These and other figures are very effectively presented in 17 statistical charts, to which are added three maps and 32 pages of photographs.
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Science of the Seven Seas. By Henry Stommel,
Fellow of Pierson College, Yale University.
New York: Cornell Maritime Press. 1945. 224
pages. $2.50.
Here in informal style are plenty of facts about the sea, the sky, and ocean life, to cite the three main divisions of the volume. Such natural phenomena as waves, tides, current, fog and clouds, volcanic islands, lightning, and winds are given a popular explanation which should prove both interesting and useful to seafarers young and old.
Square Sails and Spice Islands. By Laura Long. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., Inc. 1945. 249 pages. $2.50.
Under this title the author puts into light narrative form the lives of two distinguished brothers and naval officers, Oliver Hazard and Matthew Calbraith Perry. It is the story, in brief, of the elder brother’s relatively short naval career culminating in victory on Lake Erie, and of the youngcr’s experiments in steam navigation, fleet command in the Mexican War, and initiative in the opening of Japan. For those who like their biography cut thin and well buttered, this will prove very acceptable fare.
Important Professional Books
Cranston, Alan. The Killing of the Peace. New York: Viking Press. 1945. $2.50.
A factual record of how the will of the people was thwarted after the first World War.
Cressey, George B. The Basis of Soviet Strength. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1945. $3.00.
A survey of raw materials, agriculture, climate, expanding industry, racial backgrounds and regional characteristics of Soviet territory.
DeWecrd, Major H. A., editor. Selected Speeches and Statements of General of the A rmy George C. Marshall. Washington: Infantry Journal. 1945. $2.75.
Ingham, Travis. Rendezvous by Submarine. New York: Doublcday, Doran. 1945. $2.50.
Story of Charles Parsons and the guerilla soldiers in the Philippines.
Miller, Commander Norman M., U.S.N. I Took the Sky Road. New York: Dodd, Mead. 1945. $3.00.'
Exploits of the Liberator Squadron VB-109 in the Pacific.
Peffer, Nathaniel. America’s Place in the World. New York: Viking Press. 1945. $2.75.
The political alternatives that face us in the post-war world—power alliances or international co-operation under law.
Embrce, John F. The Japanese Nation. New York: Farrar & Rinehart. 1945. $3.00.
A penetrating analysis of the Japanese social structure—government, education, religion, family, national attitudes, and behavior.