Evening star., 1925-04-05
Reviews Of New Books

shining adventure of this period that
thrills one. For It is a new aspect of
New England history. 1t is romance
wha a'e one has found hitherto only an
uninviting, though very honorable,
prose. A complete justification of
ones joy here Is that this beautiful
story of the clipper ship is as authen-
tic and clearly historical as are the
less glowing and more familiar facts
of New England history.
A HISTORY OF AMERICAN PRIVA-
TIERS. BY Edgar Stanton Maclay,
A. NJ, author of "A History of the
United States Navy" etc. Illus
trated. New York: D. Appleton &
Co.
1t was not Saratoga. not Yorktown,
that struck the mortal blows TO Brit
ish supremacy in America. 1t was,
rather, the attack on English com
merce by way OF our sea forces Eng
lands supreme concern in both of her
wars with the United States was CEN
tered upon what was being done to
her trade on the high seas; not what
might be done on land to her troops.
which were in the main, mercenaries.
Mr.. Maclay's story is the story or the
American priyateer In our two wars
with England. A free lance of
craft, the privateer, sailing here and
there, striking It's blow, then swiftly
away to some other unsuspecting
point OF British interest. Into the
English Channel II Swept, up around
the north of Scotland. into the Irish
Sea, and out again to skirt the west
coast of this island-striking looting,
destroying, sinking. OF in hot haste
with the treasure to one or another
OF the wide-open ports of Spain or
France, both gleeful over the surprise
and perturbatio of the ancient en-
eny. A gigantic. a Gargantuan mos
quito, this privateer-sudden, unex-
pected malignant, persistent;
pestiferous thing, over whose de-
predations solemn official resolu-
tions arose to the effect that
1.-The number of privateers with
tested, the audacity with which they
have approached our coasts and the
success with which their enterprise
has been attended have proved in
furious to our commerce, humbling to
our pride and discredible to the direc-
tors of the naval power of the British
nation, whose flag till of late waved
over every sea and triumphed over
every rival; that there is reason to
believe that in the short space of less
than "a months above 500 vessels
have been captured by that power
whose maritime strength we have
hitherto impolitically held in con-
tempt" Gorgeous,
A deal of explanatory discussion
gives us the origin of the privateer
and its purpose. In it's freedom lay
the seed of its decline. since its lack
of organization demanded its incor-
poration as d part of the general
naval establishment, where in another
form it today performs its original
function of destroying commerce on
the high seas in time of war. A part
of it fell away into pure piracy.
Take away its license, and the priva-
teer became a sea rover. Drop the
license overheard, and the lawful sea-
man changed into a lawless marauder
That was what happened to Capt.
Kidd and many another. Another
chapter of authentic history turned
into a sea adventure that no invented
buccaneer could possibly surpass.
WHALING. BY Charles Boardman
Howes. New York: Doubleday,
Page & Co.
Another chapter in the universal
story of the hunter and the hunted.
In this case the biggest of all big
game invites the potential Nimrod
housed somew where in the most of us.
Not the jungle, but the sea is the
locale of this adventure where one
has a fighters chance-not against
fish at all: rather, against a. warm
blooded mammal that bears its young
like the rest of its family, those that
stayed on land instead of taking to
the sea as did the leviathan in the
formative ages of its development.
A story of whale hunting that covers
centuries of this industry and this
sport: story of the whale itself in
it's tribes and families, in it's COM
mercial appeal to man, in it's decline
and approaching extinction. And as
you go a-whaling here you have a
multitude of adventures besides.
Stresses of Arctic weather, the dan
gers of the pursuit, the perils of cap
ture, the quarrels over divisions of
the spoil, mutiny and chains. foodless
days. nights of 1oundering in ice
|. seas-everything that goes with the
hazardous business of gathering in
wholebone and sperm oil is offered
you here, as well as a simple and
well organized body of fact pertain
ing to the whale as an animal of
definite place in the scheme of crea-
tion. Again history and biology TAX
ing on the smiling face of romance
and adventure.
SEAMEN ALL. BY E. Keble Chatter
ton, author of Sailing Ships and
Their Story etc. Boston: Little,
Brown & Co.
This author has no other design
than to offer adventure for your en-
tertainment. Yet this adventure is
based upon facts of the sea- True
accounts, these, about all sorts of
seamen, about all kinds of ships.
drawn from the past two and a, half
centuries of sea history. The period
selected is that when the sailing ship,
that loveliest thing afioat, was at the
height of it's glory. And the stories
stepping out from that period are of
a quality to give point once more to
the old saying that truth is stranger
than fiction. Indeed If the writer of
pure fiction had offered many of these
tales to us they would have been re-
jected imm ediately on the score, not
of improbability, but of sheer impossi-
bility. Good stories for the incor-
rigible romancer to read; good ones
for the inventor to study. For, after
all, they are only the record of man
encounter with that greatest thing
God made"-the sea-
DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS. BY
Irwin Anthony. illustrated. Phil
adelphia: The Penn Publishing Co.
Let me quote this man for a minute,
otherwise you will not get the flavor
of him as invitation to a real readin G
of these tales, gathered here and
there and projected in no sense of
formal exposition. This material "has
been growled gruff1y into my ears and
unfolded' in precise scholarly phrase.
Museum and waterfront have been
equally kind. Everywhere busy men
have halted and talked of the wonders
of the deep. Bank presidents have
given me an hour and shared their
hobby. Directors of ports have turned
from signing correspondence, shippers
have hesitated before the insistent
telephone to talk. Good men and