chronicles: the emagazine of history

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ADMIRAL DUNCAN AND THE INVISIBLE FLEET HUGH OʼNEIL: IRELANDʼS CHARISMATIC TRAITOR

Vol. 1 No. 2May, 2010

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CHRONICLES EDITORBarbara Marriott

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SENIOR EDITORTom Grundner

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Contents

FROM THE EDITOR

The Men of War 1

FEATURE ARTICLES

The Halsey-Dolittle Raidby Midshipman Kristin Hope 2

Admiral Duncan and the Invisible Fleetby Alaric Bond 8

Hugh OʼNeil: Irelandʼs Charismatic Traitorby Marina Julia Neary 11

BOOK REVIEWS

The Isle of Stone: A Novel of Ancient Spartaby Nicholas NicastroReviewed by Publishers Weekly 14

The Line Upon a Wind: The Great War at Sea, 1793-1815by Noel MostertReviewed by Jay Freeman 15

Saga: A Novel of Medieval Icelandby Jeff JanodaReviewed by Brad Hooper 16

NEW AND NOTABLE

NAVAL EVOLUTIONS: A Memoir by Sir Howard Douglas with Christopher J Valin

True Colorsby Alaric Bond

AT ABOUKIR AND ACRE: A Story of Napo-leon's Invasion of Egyptby George A. Henty

From the Editor...

Chronicles • May, 2010 • Vol 1, No 2

- 1 - www.FireshipPress.com - 1 -

! Through the ages war along with a healthy dose of culture has defined heroes and villains. While the reasons for war and battles might sometimes be shrouded in complexities, motivations are clearer and can usually be attributed to a multitude of very human traits including greed, patriotism, honor, pride and self-preservation. This issue of Chronicles considers men who have been caught up in the tangles of the fight. It is up to you to decide what category they fit into. ! The Halsey/Doolittle Raid covers a part of early U.S. World War II history that is too often neglected by historians. The bombing of Tokyo by United States bombers in 1942 is a footnote mostly forgotten by all except the most ardent WWII and mili-tary aviation buffs. Kristin Hope describes how this innovative and daring event took shape and was executed. Midshipman 1/C Kristin Hope is about to graduate from the United States Naval Academy and hopes to undergo Navy pilot training at Pensacola Florida. She comes from a family with an aviation tradition. Her father was an Air Force fighter pilot and a commercial pilot. Her mother was both a civilian and a military Air Traffic Controller. MIDN Hope already holds a Private Pilot Pow-ered and Glider license. ! In 1797 England was fighting for her life and the right to control her destiny at sea. It was a war that produced brilliance such as that displayed by a little known British naval officer, Adam Duncan. In his article, Admiral Duncan and the Invisible Fleet, Alaric Bond describes the cleverness of Duncan who with few resources scored a strategy triumph. Alaric Bond has been writing professionally for over twenty years with work covering broadcast comedy, periodicals, childrenʼs stories, television and the stage. He is also a regular contributor to nautical magazine and newsletters. His “Fighting Sail” series of novels begins in 1795, and follows the lives of several characters as they journey through the Revolutionary and Napole-onic Wars. He lives in Herstmonceux, East Sussex. ! Marina Julia Neary takes the reader back to the lusty days of the sixteen hun-dreds when loyalties were defined mostly by self-interest. Her article on Hugh OʼNeill is the story of a man who subjugated his own people in his quest for power. Neary is a multilingual arts and entertainment journalist, award-winning historical essayist, novelist, playwright and poet. Her Victorian thriller, Wynfieldʼs Kingdom, was featured in the First Edition magazine in the UK. Her plays Hugo in London, and Lady with a Lamp premiered in Greenwich, CT. Her poetry has been published in various literary journals including New Voices and The Recorder. She serves on the editorial board of Bewildering Stories, a speculative fiction magazine. Her life-long fascination with Irish nationalism led her to explore the life of Hugh OʼNeill. ! So, its off to the Wars, on land, sea and air, with Chronicles.

Barbara Marriott

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, instead of harming the morale of the United States and its people the at-tack solidified it. The American people called for a counter-attack not only against the Japanese forces, but against Japanʼs homeland. However the problem was distance. It was before the evolution of the catapult and the innovative design of the angled flight deck, and it was to take a combination of the Army Air Corps B-25 bombers and the naval technology of the USS Hornet, one of the first aircraft carriers, to take the war from United Statesʼ shores to the shores of Japan.

American military officials wanted to attack Japan with air power. But how? The United States had lost its bases in

the Philippines and bringing carriers within strike range of Japan was too risky. The solution came when Capt. Francis Low took off from a Navy airfield and was inspired by the concept of a carrier/bomber-based attack. The runway was marked with a line indicating the end of a carrier runway. As he watched two army bombers crossed this line while landing. He wondered if Army Air Corps bombers could actually launch off of a Navy aircraft carrier. He immediately contacted Admiral Ernest King, who was the Chief of Naval Operations. Admiral King had a reputa-tion for being open to new military strate-gies and advancements.! Upon hearing the idea, Admiral King set the plan in motion, contacting General



Henry “Hap” Arnold who then contacted the only person he could think of for this type of assignment, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle. Doolittle was a renowned stunt and test pilot known for breaking speed records and pushing an aircraft to its limits. General Arnold saw him as the ideal leader and strategist for this mis-sion. ! Even with Doolittle in charge of prepa-rations, the Halsey-Doolittle Raid came with a number of obstacles. The first two involved the sheer basics of the opera-tion: how were the bombers going to get to Japan and how were they going to get back to the United States? In theory the bombers should be able to take off from a car-rier, but due to the short runway they would never be able to land. This problem was solved through the use of American airstrips in China, which would be available through a tricky balance of aircraft fuel, the range at which the bombers launched from the carrier, and the targets that were chosen. Next a carrier had to be chosen. The USS Hornet was the only option because it was conducting a routine mission through the Panama Canal to San Diego, California. Thus, its presence in the Pa-cific would not draw attention.! The next difficulty that faced this mis-sion was that although Army Air Corps bombers were to be used, a decision had not been made on which ones. Would it be the B-23 Dragon, the B-26 Marauder,

or the B-25 Mitchell? The B-23ʼs 92ft wingspan was too long for a carrier take-off and the B-26 Marauder, fully-loaded, would never take-off in 500ft, the length of the carrierʼs runway. This meant it had to be the B-25. Fortunately the B-25 had a 67.7ft wingspan, short enough for car-rier operations, and a short take-off ca-pability. However, the B-25 was not per-fect and had to be altered drastically for the mission to succeed. ! Preparations for the mission began by installing self-sealing rubber fuel tanks in the fuselage of the B-25s. The tanks

would deflate as fuel was used, thus gradually increas-ing room in the air-craft for the five-man crew. The bot-tom turret, which was usually inaccu-rate at best, was replaced with a 60 gallon fuel tank. The extra fuel tanks gave the plane a fuel capac-ity of four hundred forty gallons, add-ing 500 miles to

their range. ! The top-secret Norden bombsight was removed from the chosen aircrafts, which lightened each airplane by 600 pounds. Two reasons were given to the pilots for bombsightʼs removal, both of which were sobering. The first was stated by Doolittle himself “It is inevitable that some of the ships will fall in the enemyʼs hands.” The second reason was that the Norden bombsight was largely pointless at the extremely low altitude in which the pilots would be flying.



The “twenty-cent bombsight”

! A new bombsight was designed by Capt. Charles Ross Greening to replace the Norden. Although itʼs official name was the "Mark Twain Bombsight,” most pilots called it the “twenty-cent bomb-sight” because it cost about twenty cents to make. With this, knowing airspeed and altitude, the bombardier could calculate the angle and set the bombsight. When this line of sight was crossed, the bombs were released. ! Another strange but effective modifi-cation was the addition of two broom-sticks that were painted black and in-stalled on the tail to give the appearance of two machine guns, thus discouraging enemy fighters from attacking the rear. Once the aircrafts were modified they were flown to the Eglin Army Air Corps Base in Florida.! A Navy pilot, Lt. Henry L. “Hank” Miller, was brought in to teach the B-25 pilots how to take off and land on carriers, and naval customs and courtesies. When he arrived for their training, a B-25 crew took him up for a flight in a B-25 using the usual takeoff speed of 110 miles per hour. When Lt. Miller told them they could do the same thing at 67 miles per hour, the crew didnʼt believe him. On the next take-off, Lt. Miller took the controls and did just that. This was an introduction to the many concepts and skills he would teach them. ! The first lesson was taking off at low speeds. This simulated carrier conditions where they wouldnʼt have time to gain speed but would still have enough run-way to take-off. He started the pilots with a light load of 21,000 pounds and in-creased it until they were at the required weight of 31,000 pounds, 2000 pounds over the maximum load for which the air-craft was designed. This weight included the full crew, fuel, and bombs needed for the mission.

! Initially the pilots needed 800 feet, 300 feet more than the carrier would al-low. By the end of training the pilots were able to takeoff in 500 feet. One pilot was even rumored to have completed a take-off in 287 feet. ! The last thing the pilots needed to learn was low-level flying, sometimes only a few feet or inches off the ground. This would allow them to fly the distance from the carrier to mainland Japan unde-tected by radar. It also made them less susceptible to enemy fighters and in-creased bombing precision. ! Before loading the bombs for the at-tack on Japan, the pilots and naval crew decorated the bombs with medals and sayings. The medals were sent from American citizens who had received them during peacetime from the Japanese. One received his while he was a sailor in The Great White Fleet that visited Japan. Admiral Halsey attached one medal to a



Major General Doolittle attaches a Japanese medal to a bomb.

500-pound bomb, announcing “Boys, re-turn these medals with interest. Good hunting.” One Marine on the ship, who lost his parents in Pearl Harbor, wrote, “This is from Mom and Pop Bogart.” Other inscriptions included, “I donʼt want to set the world on fire—just Tokyo” and “Youʼll get a BANG out of this.”

On April 1, 1942, sixteen B-25B bombers, their five-man volunteer crews, and maintenance personnel were loaded onto the USS Hornet at Alameda, Califor-nia. Each plane carried four extra fuel tanks, a .30-caliber machine gun, two .50-caliber machine guns in an upper tur-ret, 500-pound bombs, three high-explosive bombs and one incendiary bomb. The planes were arranged and tied down on the Hornet's flight deck in the order of expected launch. !The Hornetleft the port of Alameda on April 2 and a few days later joined the carrier USS En-terprise and its escort Task Force 16, a combination of cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, in the mid-Pacific Ocean, north of Hawaii. The two carriers and their escort ships then proceeded, in ra-

dio silence, towards the waters east of Japan.! All plans were kept extremely secret; the details known only to King, Doolittle, Duncan, Low, Halsey and Arnold. Even after the task force and the pilots had been set on course to bomb Tokyo, no one but Lt Col. Doolittle; Admiral Mitscher, the Hornetʼs commander; and Admiral Halsey knew the mission or the destination. Rumors spread through the crew about the force's mission; some thought the bombers were being deliv-ered to a base in the Aleutians, others thought the aircrafts were destined for a Russian airfield on the Kamchatka penin-sula. After a week at sea Halsey suc-cinctly announced the destination to the entire crew, "Attention! The target is To-kyo!"! On the morning of April 18, at a dis-tance of about 650 miles from Japan, a Japanese patrol boat sighted the task force. Although an American cruiser quickly destroyed the boat with gunfire neither Doolittle nor Mitscher could be sure that the patrol boat had not sent a warning to Japan. Japanese wartime



documents reveal that the Japanese pa-trol boat did report meeting an American carrier group, but the report was ignored in disbelief.

Because of the threat of discovery, Doolittle and Mitscher decided to launch the B-25s immediately, a day early and about 400 miles farther from Japan than planned. At eight oʼclock in the morning, Admiral Halsey from his flagship issued the order, flashed by a blinking light to the USS Hornet, “LAUNCH PLANES. TO COLONEL DOOLITTLE AND GALLANT COMMAND: GOOD LUCK AND GOD BLESS YOU. HALSEY.” Despite their intense training, none of the B-25 pi-lots, including Doolit-tle, had ever taken off from a carrier before, but all 16 planes launched off the Hor-net safely. They then flew single-file to-wards Japan at wave-top-level to avoid de-tection, just as Lt. Henry Miller had taught them.

The planes began arriving over Japan about noon and bombed military targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka, and Nagoya. Although some B-25s encoun-tered light anti-aircraft fire and a few en-emy fighters over Japan, not a single B-25 bomber was shot down or severely damaged during the raid.

Tokyo was stunned by the bombing. People panicked. After repeated prom-ises by the authorities that Japan's sky will be "clean" forever, the Doolittle raid was a shock to Japan's military and civil-ian population. The heads of the Japa-nese Air Force and Navy accused each

other, and the commander of Tokyo's air defense committed suicide. ! Although the raid had been a success, the planes and crew still had a long way to go in order to reach safety. Fifteen of the sixteen planes proceeded southwest along the southern coast of Japan and across the East China Sea towards China, where recovery bases supposedly awaited them. One B-25 was extremely low on fuel and headed for the closer land mass of Russia. ! This flight to safety, however, was not

what they had in-tended. The relief that was felt by the pilots when they realized the raid would be dur-ing the daylight hours, removing the threat of obstacles such as barrage balloons, was replaced by dread with the knowledge they would now have to navigate their way toward China at night. Their navigation of Chinaʼs terrain was not as detailed as it

should have been. To make this matter worse, bad weather closed in, reducing their visibility to nothing. They knew they were going to be low on fuel for the flight, but the extra 400 miles they flew to reach Japan consumed the reserve they relied on to reach safety. Fifteen of the sixteen planes crash landed. The crew who flew to Russia was able to land near Vladivos-tok.! Out of the 80 men and 16 planes that flew from the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942, all 16 planes were lost. The five pilots who landed in Russia became POWs, escaping through Iran a year



Bobby Hite being led to a Japanese transport plane two days after the raid

later. Of the others, three were killed bail-ing out of their aircraft and eight were captured by the Japanese. Three of the captured American airmen were exe-cuted, one died of malnutrition and mis-treatment, and four tried to escape but were caught and spent another 40 months in captivity. For the rest, fourteen died in missions following the raid, ten in Europe, North Africa and Indo-China, and four were shot down and interred as German POWs.

Right after the mission, Doolittle said that he thought the mission had been a total failure and he expected a court

martial upon his return to the United States. However, instead of being court-martialed, Doolittle was promoted to Brigadier General, skipping the rank of Colonel, awarded the Medal of Honor, and assigned a new command with greater responsibility. Although all the air-craft were lost and the damage inflicted during the raid was minimal, the opera-tion provided an incalculable boost to American morale when just about every-thing else in the Pacific was going badly. It also pointed out the vulnerability of the Japanese homeland to bomber attack. This would later be important in the deci-sions to bomb Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the bombings that ended the war.



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1797 was an eventful year in an eventful war. The Battle of Cape St Vin-cent had raised morale, and with it a new hero was launched upon the public (al-though the publicity was to a great extent engineered by the subject). But Nelson was to go on to lose a campaign, and an arm, at Tenerife a few months later, and the year had opened with an attempted invasion of Ireland that was defeated more by the weather, and incompetence on behalf of the French, than any British warship. It was also the time of the Spi-thead mutiny when men, tired of wages and conditions that had hardly altered in 150 years, and urged on by the recent increase in “intellectual” recruits, raised by the Quota Act, rose up and demanded change.

At this time Adam Duncan, a tall and strikingly charismatic Scotsman, who had served with Rodney and Keppel, had

charge of the North Sea Fleet. It was his responsibility to keep the Eastern ap-proaches safe for British shipping, and to blockade and eventually destroy the powerful Dutch fleet that was set to spearhead an invasion of England. To achieve this he was allowed a motley col-lection of tired ships, several of which had been converted from merchants, manned by men to whom promises made by a desperate Admiralty following Spithead seemed likely to be broken. ! On the 12th of May the inevitable happened; the naval base at the Nore rose up in revolt; the North Sea Fleet re-fused to sail, and England was left unde-fended. In his own flagship Duncan had met with a rebellious crew, although his understanding, reassurance and pure strength of character proved sufficient to quell an outright rebellion. It was left to him to maintain the watch over the Dutch



Admiral Duncan and the Invisible

Fleet

byAlaric Bond

with only his flagship Adamant (74 guns) and the smaller Venerable (50 guns) plus an assortment of lighter craft, while the rest of his ships lay at anchor, under the command of Richard Parker's “Floating Republic”. Not for the first, or last, time Britain was open to invasion.

The Dutch fleet was a powerful one, mainly consisting of line of battleships specifically designed with a low draft, for the shallow waters off their coast. In addi-tion there were several powerful frigates, and over one hundred transport vessels and supply ships ready to carry the mighty French army based nearby. Two British warships, supported by a handful of smaller craft, were no match for such a force. However Duncan was able to fool the enemy into thinking his ships were just the inshore squadron of a far superior fleet.

Anchoring his flagship outside the Dutch harbour, he began to signal to a non-existent battle-fleet that was seemingly just out of sight of land, while his supporting vessels sailed to and fro, carrying “messages”, and alternating their appearance and col-ours to bolster the ruse. For a few des-perate days all shipping, including small craft and fishing vessels, were prevented from sailing, Duncan being well aware that firm news of Britainʼs vulnerable state would see the enemy fleet at sea, and wiping his scant squadron away without a thought.

In time the situation on shore started to ease; the first British ships rejoined Duncan on June 4th with more following on the 9th. By October the fleet was back

under full control, although the men were still disturbed by the events of the previ-ous months. Then, on October 9th, news arrived that the Dutch battle-fleet had fi-nally sailed.! Duncan went to meet them with eleven sail, seven of which were crewed by men who, only a short time before, had been mutineers. The Dutch force consisted of sixteen lines of battleships, five frigates and five brigs. Duncanʼs fleet was soon reinforced but still remained

outnumbered.! The action took place in the

shallows to the south of the Texel. The Dutch, conform-

ing to conventional tactics, formed a line of battle. Duncan had no pre-formed plan, although he trusted his officers in the same way that Nelson would later in the wars. By 12:30 the British were bearing down on the

Dutch in a two column formation that anticipated

Trafalgar by several years. Despite the poorer quality of

his ships, the men of the North Sea Fleet were eager to prove their

loyalty and fought well; one man, Jack Crawford of the Venerable, achieving immortality by literally nailing the colours to the mast, after they had been shot away. ! The battle that ensued was one of the bloodiest of the wars. Both navies were highly professional, and the British, al-though fewer in number, and equipped in the main with worn out ships, were clearly the underdogs. One of the more interest-ing aspects of the action was the mutual respect shown by each force, and it is significant to note that the two opposing



admirals survived the battle, and re-mained close friends for the rest of their lives.

Now, more than two centuries later, the memory of Duncan has fallen into de-cline. On the bi-centennial of the battle, Dundee City Council published a volume of essays about the man and his times. This included an excellent appraisal by Brian Livery, although the title is now out of print. Neil Duncan also produced a bi-ography in 1995 which has suffered a

similar fate. Christopher Lloyd brought out “St Vincent and Camperdown”, a study of the two actions, in 1963 and two other biographies were written, one in 1898 and one in 1900. Considering the plethora of Nelson related volumes that have appeared on the market recently (one figure quoted is 40 biographies in the last ten years), it seems unfair that such a fascinating character who achieved so much should not be better remembered.



The Royal Navy is immobilized by

mutiny, and the only thing that’s standing in the way of an invasion is a commander who is communicating

with a fleet that isn’t there.

The Third Book in Alaric Bond’sFighting Sail Series

Hugh O’Neil - Hailed by some as a self-sacrificing idealist who fought for Irish freedom. Condemned by others as the

man who destroyed Gaelic Ireland.

“Men are fated to do what their talents demand of them.”With that phrase Sean OʼFaolain, the most prominent biographer of Hugh OʼNeill,

the 2nd Earl of Tyrone, sums up the legendary Irish rebelʼs political career encompass-ing three decades of ambition, volatile alliances, tantalizing promise of victory and ulti-mate defeat. The Great OʼNeill never thought twice about befriending strangers or turn-ing former friends into enemies. Taking the existing tradition to the extreme, he galloped in and out of alliances. He rebelled against his patron queen, lost, repented, received her pardon, rebelled again against her successor, fled Ireland and finally settled in Rome under the protection of the Pope and the King of Spain, securing himself the reputation of a brazen, charismatic traitor.

With his famous crimson beard, four wives that would make Henry VIII envious, and countless children, legitimate and bastard, Hugh OʼNeill maintains his status as one of the most controversial and mysterious figures in Irish history. The very date of his birth is uncertain. OʼFaolain claims it is 1550, while other historians believe it to be as early as 1540. Keeping accurate records was hardly a priority for Gaelic chieftains. Up until his death in 1616 Hugh OʼNeill remained a coveted ally for some of the most prominent political figures in Europe. There were always monarchs willing to take him under their wing.

He was born during a chaotic era when family relatives denounced and poisoned each other. As a mere lad he was a protégé of Elizabeth I who shouldered the chore of supervising his reeducation. The Virgin Queen perceived the articulate, energetic boy as a worthwhile investment and raised him to be a law-enforcer in Gaelic Ireland. His du-



Hugh O’Neil:Ireland’s

Charismatic TraitorBY

Marina Julia Neary

ties were to impose the English ways upon the native “barbarians” and to suppress any at-tempts of the Irish chieftains to reclaim their freedom. ! Initially, OʼNeillʼs behavior appeared per-fectly in line with the Queenʼs will. He per-formed all the tasks expected of him, having fought in 1580 with the English forces against Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, and later assisted with the suppression of the Scots rebellion in Ulster in 1584. For his service to the crown, he was made by Parliament 2nd Earl of Tyrone, in spite of his questionable le-gitimacy, and soon became the most powerful man in Ireland. ! All the bloodshed and intrigue that Hugh

had witnessed as a child growing up in the woods of Ulster prior to becoming Elizabethʼs protégé had become intrinsic parts of his nature. He did not feel at ease unless he was in a state of conflict, be it physical, mental or political. Fortunately in Tudor-dominated Ireland, there was no shortage of opportuni-ties to engage in a conflict. ! His pugnacious, effervescent character would not allow him to enjoy the benefits of his station. He eloped with Mabel, the sister of his sworn enemy Sir Henry Bagenal. By then Hugh had already had two marriages under his belt. The first one, to Katherine OʼNeill, ended in a scandalous annulment. The second one, to Joanna OʼDonnell, left him a widower. Having cut his grieving period short, Hugh abducted and seduced Ma-bel, a naïve, exquisitely beautiful Protestant girl twenty years younger. She ran away with Hugh embraced Catholicism and enraged her family. ! Her marriage brought her no joy, as the amorous fog before her eyes had gradually dissipated. Having witnessed treachery and corruption that abounded within the walls of Dungannon Castle, she learned what it was really like to be married to an Irish chieftain. She died in 1595, allegedly of a broken heart caused by Hughʼs repeated infidelities. Because of the controversy surrounding her marriage to OʼNeill, Mabel became known as Helen of Troy of Elizabethan Ireland. Hughʼs fourth and last wife was Katherine Ma-gennis who later accompanied him into exile in Rome. ! He was not the first man in history to turn his country into a laboratory for his political experiments. Nor was he the only man of his generation to be misunderstood by his contemporaries. Nineteenth century Irish nationalists invented a romantic myth about Hugh OʼNeill, depicting him as a self-sacrificing idealist who fought for Gaelic freedom. However, modern historians blame OʼNeill for accelerating the demise of Gaelic Ireland. His outlandish attacks against the Tudor dynasty were dictated not by patriotism or al-truism but by profane curiosity. His Nine Year War was just a political experiment, a test of his abilities as military leader. ! After his defeat at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 he was reduced to the statue of guer-rilla chieftain and spent a year roaming the Irish countryside with his children and sol-



diers. At last he wrote an official letter of surrender to Mountjoy, giving himself over to the mercy of the Tudors and pleading for pardon. Astonishing enough, he received that pardon several days before Queen Elizabeth died and he was later restored to his earl-dom. Upon returning to Tyrone, he found his former domain a hunger-ridden wasteland. The famished natives greeted him with hatred, volleying him with stones and dirt.

The Queenʼs successor, James I, a Stuart and a Celt, was sympathetic towards Ire-land. A bit of patience and diplomacy on Hughʼs part and Gaelic Ireland could have been given a second chance. Unfortunately, the truce did not last long. Hugh, an incor-rigible provocateur of fate, made it impossible for him and his family to stay in Ireland. His unpopularity with his subjects kept growing, as did his conflict with James I. The fi-nal straw was his personal animosity with Sir Arthur Chichester. ! On September 14, 1607 Hugh OʼNeill and Rory OʼDonnell, Earl of Tyrconnel, fled Ireland. The event became known as the Flight of the Earls and ranks among the most celebrated episodes of Irish history, as it ushered Irish migration. Hugh and Rory found temporary shelter in the Netherlands. The winter was brutal, and they did not wish to risk traveling by sea. Then in the spring of 1608 they proceeded to Rome where Pope Paul V welcomed them with open arms, praising them as Catholic avengers. ! The last eight years of his life Hugh OʼNeill spent under the protection of the Pope and the King of Spain, sipping wine and sharing his tales, which inspired many epic bal-lads home in Ireland.



Two Great FireshipPress Books by

Marina Julia Neary

Wynfield’s Kingdom

And coming in 2010Wynfield’s War

Lady with a Lamp



Book Reviews

Having brought John Paul Jones and Alexander the Great to life, Nicastro (Empire of Ashes) turns his formidable skills as a historical novelist on an obscure episode in the Peloponnesian War, that al-most three-decade conflict between Athens and Sparta, which he labels antiquity's "war to end all wars."

The choice to have a narrow focus, rather than an all-encompassing epic sweep, proves a wise one, as it enables Nicastro to go into nitty-gritty detail about the lifestyles of Greece in 425 B.C., making the harsh Spartan attitudes, for example, comprehensible, if not ac-ceptable, to a modern sensibility.

The author instills emotional depth in his three main char-acters—Damatria, a wealthy Spartan woman, and her two sons, An-talcidas and Epitadas—and the supporting cast through adept use of the telling descriptive phrase.

The careful research and study that went into this book should en-thrall fans of the classics, military history buffs and general readers.

Publishers Weekly

The Isle of Stone: A Novel of Ancient Sparta

byNicholas Nicastro



For 22 years, the Napoleonic Wars ravaged Europe, toppled thrones, reshaped empires, and determined the diplomatic and political destinies of European nation-states for the next century. The land battles and chief military figures of those battles are familiar, even to many laypeo-ple. The naval campaigns, perhaps less publicized, were equally as im-portant in the defeat of Napoleon.

Mostert, a former foreign correspondent, has written a stirring saga of these campaigns that is both comprehensive and easy to digest. Al-though Mostert doesnʼt neglect the technical aspects of naval warfare, he avoids the trap of allowing details to overwhelm his exciting narra-tive.

This is a vast, fast-moving chronicle that ranges across great distances while examining a host of characters, both well known and relatively ob-scure. Mostert does justifiably place great emphasis on Admiral Nelson and the critical battle at Trafalgar. He also offers useful and interesting descriptions of less-prominent aspects of the wars, including conflicts with the Barbary pirates and the British struggles against the rise of American naval power.

This is an outstanding survey of a prolonged struggle that helped shape world history.

Jay Freeman

The Line Upon a Wind: The Great War at Sea,

1793-1815by

Noel Mostert



This detail-rich novel is a retelling of a thirteenth-century Icelandic saga written by an unknown author. The original document arose from the colonization of Iceland by Norwegian settlers, and this particular tale un-folds before the enticed reader's eye as an intriguing concoction of ab-ject realism (the day-to-day livelihood as practiced by the colonizers is explained, and the physical features of the land are beautifully de-scribed) and flights of fantasy (elves are co-inhabitants of the Iceland presented here).

The story line is essentially about land—who owns it, who disputes the ownership of it—in this hardscrabble agrarian society, where inheritance of land means everything, and honor (and necessary revenge against those who would besmirch it) is the essential tenet of life. Tribal organi-zation and clan government are opened to contemporary viewing and appreciation.

With the author's ability to pump viability into the characters, the novel does what good historical fiction is supposed to do: put a face on history that is recognizable to us all.

Brad Hooper

Saga: A Novel ofMedieval Iceland

by

Jeff Janoda



New and NotableNAVAL EVOLUTIONS: A Memoir

bySir Howard Douglas

Edited and with a New Introduction byChristopher J. Valin

One of the most revolutionary tactics in naval warfare was developed in the 18th Century, and was called “Breaking the Line.” The Royal Navy used it to win fleet engagements ranging from the Battle of the Saints, to Trafalgar. But, who developed it?Fireship Press is proud to revisit this controversy with the release of a new edition of the book, with an intro-duction by Christopher Valin, perhaps the world’s leading expert on the life of Sir Charles Douglas.

True Colours(The Third Book in theFighting Sail Series)

byAlaric Bond

The Royal Navy is immobilized by mutiny, and the only thing that’s standing in the way of an invasion is a com-mander who is communicating with a fleet that isn’t there.With ship-to-ship duels and fleet engagements, ship-wrecks, storms and groundings, True Colours maintains a relentless pace that culminates in one of the most devastating sea battles of the French Revolutionary War—the Battle of Camperdown.

AT ABOUKIR AND ACRE: A Story ofNapoleon's Invasion of Egypt

(Henty Homeschool History Series) by

George A. Henty At Aboukir and Acre is the story of Edgar Blagrove, a young man whose father was an English merchant in Alexandria. When Napoleon arrives, he is separated from his father, attaches himself to a Bedouin tribe, and fights the French. After witnessing the French defeat at Aboukir Bay, he joins the British Navy as a midshipman, and participates in Napoleon's defeat at Acre by serving as an interpreter to Sir Sidney Smith.



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