Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-12
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. G.. NJ.

OUR NAVAL HERITAGE. Fitzhugh
Green. The Century Co.
The case of Joseph Conrad is count
ed strange one. Here is the COM
piete inlander, his blood for centuries
shut off from contacts with the sea
by virtue of the placement of his
country in the heart of continental
Europe. Nevertheless, it was the clear
and imperative call of those remote
and unknown waters that shaped the
career of this Polish lad, Teodor JoZef
Konrad Korzeniowski. He left his
native land, gave up the bulk of his
Slavic name to become Joseph Con-
rad, sailor in the tradition of English
seamanShip; English man of letters,
author of as great sea tales as ever
will be written.
x 4 y X
1t does seem strange case. But
Is it? Is it not, rather, notable
example in an almost universal hui
man experience? For, is 1t not likely
that, among all peoples. there may
be found faint and fugitive traces Of
long ago ages when tribal contacts
with the great shore waters were a
sion of man along the road that may
have carried him ultimately into the
lnnermoSt heart of continents-miles
and ages away from oceanic waters?
road almost forgotten, but not
quite-fashing out in strange instinc-
tive moments of remembering. May
1t not be these fragments of racial
memory that have given to the sea its
| universal and immemorial enchant-
! q
The goal of the adventurer. Sea
yarns and romances the thran of the
growing boy. Sea history the glory
OF nations, surprising in pride and
appeal all other achievements what
ever.
] x !, x
Fitzhugh Green hints at this in
Our Naval Heritage" Few Amer
| leans realize how rightfully we come
by our instructive ability and love for
the sea. 1t was deep in our tribal
blood at the very dawn of written his
tory. For Caesar indicates in his
| Commentaries how far the northern
| mariners had progressed. Their YES
| sells, he says, were of great size, of
| oaken timbers fastened together with
| iron. and We're sped along by broad
| leathern sails. They We're much
I larger than he Roman galley and
| thoroughly - worthy. Indeed, it was
| the nava, .os.ess of our ancestral
Britons that brought about the Roman
| occupation of their country" Rome,
| going to school TO ancient Britain, SO
! TO speak, for lessons that the wild
| waters OF the open ocean taught. les
sons not included within the curricu-
!un of the Enclosed Mediterranean.
1t is upon our eager. natural turn
| ing to the sea as a people that Fitz-
| hugh Green counts for a ready ac-
ceptance Of Our Naval Heritage
! that Is, he counts upon this pro-
! vjded only that he be able to deliver
! the long story within the narrow
| limits of leisure for reading that
| these hurrying times leave any man.
| He hits upon the happiest of ex-
| pedients. In some magic craft. cor
| responding to the seven-league boots
| that we have followed many a time
| on land. he makes only the great
| ports lying in between a modern
| 50.0o0-ton liner and its direct an
| cestor-"the log floating in an ante
| dlluVian river. to which swan pant
| ing primitive man that he might float
| gleefully TO safety from the pursuing
| beast behind" A prodigiouS stretch
| of time between these two, wherein
age by age, century by century, year
! by year, the material world and men
have been getting acquainted with
| each other under the irresistible inner
| urge of man to go forward, to con-
| quer nature. to achieve that which
| is called civilization. And in the
| story of Our Naval Heritage" it is
| the growth of man himself. reflected
! in the growth of his sea messengers.
| that gives to the book it's ringing call
TO the reader. Growth is mans in :
| spiration Miracle is outside his do
main. Every phase of growth is of
absorbing interest. That is why this
story Is a great and appealing one.
| X
mo ship or type of ship was ever
! invented"-the author talking From
| time to time in the history of ship
| building we find types so grotesque
/ as to appear absolutely new. But they
| are not new. Close inspection of
their essential details reveals the fact
| that their novelty lies only in modi-
! fications that have grown directly
| from an increase in seafaring
| knowledge.
THE first man that rode astride a
| tree-trunk in midstream must soon
| have sensed his ability to steer il
| by padding with his hands. In shall
| low water he could drop off. and
with feet on bottom, push It. Whence
| brief space later, we find him using
n rude paddle from a raft of several
| logs with long pole aboard in case
of emergency. How exulting must he
| have laughed at the astonished chat
| tering monkeys swinging overhead
as he glided noiselessly beneath
! them.
Time passed. Rats enlarged
| grew too large-became unwieIdy
Possibly here huge river reptiles
made men draw their legs higher
aboard. Whence came a decking tc
| protect the whole from attack
Moreover. the difficulty of avoiding
| obstacles such as grounded logs en-
| couraged him to develop a more
tractable form of craft. Whence the
canoe"
SO the story goes on, the author
seeing in pictures and writing in pic
| lures. The first recorded ship was
Noah's ark. From the ark to the
Leviathan the evolution of sea-craft
has been toward perfection in speed
and stability"
"The Dark Ages OF the Sea- is a
chapter devoted chiefly to the mon
Sters that were believed to lie in wait
| for the unwary mariner. Points OF
historical interest are contained
within this chapter. 1t turns out thai
Jonah is not the only man who has
| been swallowed by a whale. In 1855
| during storm on the Mediterranean
a huge fish swallowed a man who
had been swept overheard The
skipper seized a gun and discharged
| 1t at the gigantic fish which in terro,
| promptly disgorged his man, still
alive. Many similar Jonah tales
cluster round the early whaling DAYS
of Massachusetts. And didn't We
just the other day-read the press