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| Genre/Form: | History Naval history |
|---|---|
| Material Type: | Government publication, State or province government publication |
| Document Type: | Book |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Lorraine McConaghy; Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest. |
| ISBN: | 9780295989556 0295989556 |
| OCLC Number: | 320802551 |
| Description: | xi, 381 pages : illustrations, maps ; 27 cm. |
| Contents: | Young America on the Pacific : "The sailor of manifest destiny views" -- The Decatur in the old Navy : "To command our own seas and coasts" -- Boston : getting under way -- Episode 1: Through the Strait of Magellan : "Off to Californio!" -- Episode 2: Seattle : "Down came the Indians, like so many demons" -- San Francisco : "This reckless life" -- Episode 3: Nicaragua : "Seeing the elephant" -- Episode 4: Panama : "All the subtle demonisms of life and thought" -- The Civil War and beyond. |
| Series Title: | Emil and Kathleen Sick lecture-book series in western history and biography, 15. |
| Responsibility: | Lorraine McConaghy. |
| More information: |
Abstract:
Reviews
Publisher Synopsis
This is a rich resource, both for 19th-century American politics and the human side of ship life. * Reference and Book News * Warship Under Sail recounts the Decatur's exploits during several years of voyages in the Pacific, but is bound to join the most important works to examine Seattle's earliest history . . . . a fascinating-and factually correct-tale that transcends the more simplistic versions of the city's past. * Crosscut.com * McConaghy emphatically sees all the Decatur's theaters of action through the prism of its daily routines and disruptions of routine . . . By concentrating on the foreground with such gusto, she gives you an extraordinarily vivid idea of how men under pressures of danger, drink and disease (syphilis was rampant) strived to create order out of chaos. * Seattle Times * No matter what your background, Lorraine McConaghy's extensive research casts a new light on local and national history in the era before the Civil War while providing an intimate look at life aboard a sailing warship. It is an engrossing read that is well worth your time. * Shavings * Warship Under Sail is an impressive piece of scholarship that provides an unsparing account of the brutality of naval life.... It was a difficult time, and McConaghy has captured the debilitating tedium and the compounded ghastliness of it all without ever succumbing to the seductive scent of salt breezes or the romance of billowed sail. * International Journal of Maritime History * This is a marvelous book, deserving of high praise. * The Journal of Military History * The richness of detail regarding the everyday life of a mid-nineteenth century sailor is undoubtedly the book's greatest strength but, McConaghy's skillful ability to bring this sailing adventure to life is equally fascinating, fun, and well, just highly entertaining. * The Grog Ration * She situates her study at the intersection of two growing fields of historical interest, 19th century maritime culture and the United States in the world, and makes a notable contribution to both, as well as to our understanding of the navy in the making of the Pacific Northwest. * Pacific Northwest Quarterly * This is an excellent book for those who are interested in naval history and the Pacific Northwest in the 1850's. * The Lone Star Review * ... this bargain-priced book is simultaneously worthy of coffee tables, research desks, and library collections.... While not a pretty picture, it reveals life aboard a warship at the end of the era of sail. * Sea History * The U.S. Navy of the 1850s is a fascinating subject in itself, but it has never been so well integrated into the broader political, social, and cultural history of the antebellum United States. . . . Warship Under Sail illuminates the contradictions and interactions that characterize this period of American expansion. It should, therefore, be read not only by military and maritime historians, but also by scholars interested in the American West, antebellum culture, politics, and imperialism. * The Northern Mariner * Read more...
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Related Subjects:(16)
- Decatur (Sloop of war)
- United States. -- Navy -- History -- 19th century.
- Northwest, Pacific -- History, Naval -- 19th century.
- Pacific Area -- History, Naval -- 19th century.
- Pacific Coast (Latin America) -- History, Naval -- 19th century.
- United States -- Territorial expansion.
- Seafaring life -- Northwest, Pacific -- History -- 19th century.
- Seafaring life -- Pacific Area -- History -- 19th century.
- Seafaring life -- Pacific Coast (Latin America) -- History -- 19th century.
- United States. -- Navy.
- Seafaring life.
- Territorial expansion.
- Latin America -- Pacific Coast.
- Pacific Area.
- Pacific Northwest.
- United States.
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by ameier updated 2013-12-04
