The U.S. Merchant Marine at War, 1775-1945

As the U.S. Merchant Marine has declined over the last several decades, so too has the memory of the countless acts of unflinching courage and patriotism performed by its civilian officers and seamen in America's armed struggles. Scouring long-out-of-print books and dusty archives, veteran writer and merchant marine officer Bruce Felknor has collected the most dramatic of these stories from all of America's wars through World War II into a single comprehensive illustrated volume. Excerpts from such authors as Winston Churchill, Samuel Eliot Morison, and Lowell Thomas are combined with eyewitness accounts -- many never before published -- by heroes, victims, and survivors. Those profiled include Capt. Thomas Boyle and the crew of his Baltimore schooner, Capt. Jonathan Haraden and the crew of his privateer that captured British merchantmen three times their size and fire power during the Revolutionary War, as well as some of the nearly six thousand merchant mariners killed or drowned in World War II. Felknor's scene-setting essays and clarifying notes, drawn from ship's logs, shipping records, official archives, and his own wartime service, provide fascinating background and context, and offer intriguing comparisons of the men, conditions, pay, and performance across the decades. Such valuable information casts new light on the nation's rich maritime legacy. The phenomenal record of Confederate raider Raphael Semmes is described in colorful detail by members of the merchant crew of his infamous Alabama and by his Union victims. Here too are the thrilling, triumphant stories of the armed merchantmen Silver Shell, Norlina, and Navajo, each of which destroyed German U-boats in 1917 afterhours-long pitched battles. Containing the most previously unpublished material, the section on World War II recounts devastating attacks on merchant convoys by U-boat wolfpacks, kamikazes, dive bombers, and even a flaming Junkers-88 bomber. There are also chilling stories of men in lifeboats enduring the elements, shark attacks, and Japanese machine guns.

Felknor (Dirty Politics) has assembled an anthology, drawn from books and historical documents and threaded by his own narration, devoted to keeping alive the heroic deeds of America's merchant marine the civilian sailors who manned cargo ships during wartime. Included are thrilling stories from the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War and both world wars, with about half the book devoted to WWII. Felknor has effectively sewn together a patchwork of tales that detail heroism and cowardice, self-sacrifice and grim determination. It's all here Maine civilians in 1775 capturing a British vessel in port and then pursuing and taking a larger British ship; the feared CSS Alabama and other raiders driving Yankee commerce from the seas in the 1860s; the gritty WWI merchant captains who took on U-boats and won; and much more. The armed guard the crews who manned the defensive armament of merchant ships in the 1940s is also woven into the picture, particularly through newsman Robert Carses's account. During WWII, the merchant marine's percentage of loss was double that of the army's, Felknor explains, but the survivors weren't awarded veterans' status by Congress until 50 years later. Felknor is to be congratulated for bringing back into the public consciousness the largely forgotten services of generations of gallant seamen. 17 illustrations and maps. Editor, Mark Gatlin; agent, Jane J. Brown. (Aug.) Copyright 1998 Publishers Weekly Reviews