Maritime historian Jim Gibbs built two lighthouses, authored 20 books
- Published on Thursday, 06 May 2010 08:18
- Written by Joe Follansbee
- Hits: 801
- Category: Non-Fiction
{cbavatar}bluepete{/cbavatar}The Pacific Northwest lost one of its greatest champions of maritime history with the death of James A. Gibbs at age 88. Gibbs authored more than 20 books on Northwest maritime history, including Windjammers of the Pacific, which I used as a resource for my book on the schooner Wawona. Gibbs was a World War II veteran who later served as keeper of the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse on the Oregon Coast. He was also a founding member of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society and served as one of its first presidents. A former editor of the magazine Marine Digest, he built the Cleft of the Rock Lighthouse near Yachats, Oregon, and the Skunk Bay Lighthouse on Puget Sound, according to the Newport News-Times. Gibbs died April 30 at his home in Yachats.
In other maritime heritage news, a 14-year-old UK boy has died after falling off the mast of the tall ship TS Royalist in Gosport, Hampshire. According to the Express newspaper, Jonathan Martin, a Sea Cadet, was in a harness designed to prevent a fall, but the harness somehow failed. An investigation is continuing. In the South Pacific, Don McIntyre on the Talisker Bounty Boat has reported its first knockdown on its voyage recreating the 4,000 mile open boat trek by Lt. William Bligh in 1789. McIntyre says on his blog the four men on board, including himself, managed to get the boat uprighted, but he suffered a dislocated toe in the incident Wednesday.
The Frankfort Lighthouse near Lake Michigan has won a prestigious historic preservation award from the state's governor, according to the Traverse City Record-Eagle. In Rhode Island, a volunteer on the schooner Adventure has won the Paul S. Tsongas Profile in Preservation Award for his work on the vessel, according to wickedlocal.com. And the Times of India outlines a little known sinking that claimed hundreds of lives in 1888. The steamer Vijli sank on her route from Mandvi to Mumbai, killing 746 people.
Add a commentReview: John Keegan's The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare
- Published on Saturday, 20 March 2010 13:31
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- Category: Non-Fiction
{cbavatar}Boatswains_and_Bacteremia{/cbavatar}
My recent reading venture has been John Keegan's The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare. Though I am a novice to this subject, the world of 18th and 19th century naval warfare in the Age of Sail is at once majestic and gritty. These giant wooden whales, crafted with the finest of carpentry and woodworking skill allowed them to remain in the ranks of the British fleet for many decades, thus the reason, as Keegan points out, that many of the names of ships remained constant in various battles.
Of course, this was also due, in part, to the tendency of navies of time to reuse and recycle the names of ships as a matter of tradition. The HMS Victory, which served as the flagship of Lord Horatio Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar, was not the first nor the second, but the seventh masted ship to bear that name since the 16th century.
Add a commentRead more: Review: John Keegan's The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare
Military author Don Keith to publish new book on US submarine action
- Published on Tuesday, 16 February 2010 11:16
- Written by Fyddeye Administrator
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- Category: Non-Fiction
News Release -- eHam.net -- Active amateur radio operator and prolific author Don Keith will release his twenty-first book, War Beneath the Waves: The True Story of Courage and Leadership Aboard an American Submarine, in early April. The non-fiction work will tell the story of USS Billfish, an American submarine that came under an intense depth-charge attack by Imperial Japanese forces in the Makassar Strait off Borneo in 1943. The incident brought out the worst but also the best in its crew, Keith writes, and it resulted in a story that was not revealed for sixty years.
Keith, an ARRL member and Amateur Extra class licensee, has written extensively about submarines, including three books about the "silent service" in World War II. He also co-wrote The Ice Diaries with Capt. William Anderson, the story of USS Nautilus and her historic voyage beneath the polar ice pack to the North Pole in 1958. Keith headed a special event amateur radio operation to commemorate the 50th anniversary of that achievement in August 2008, using the call sign N9N, and operating from the Submarine Force Museum and Nautilus in Groton, Conn.
War Beneath The Waves will be published in hardback by NAL/Caliber, an imprint of Penguin Group USA. Four of Keith’s previous books were featured selections of the Military Book Club.
Contact Don Keith at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit his web site at www.donkeith.com. Keith also maintains a web site devoted to his writings on amateur radio at www.n4kc.com.
