Tag Archives: naval

English broadside

Posted on May 1, 2019 by smellincoffee

Well…this has been the saddest Read of England, and the saddest reading month, since my college days.  At least the few I read were all fairly good! Read of England isn’t quite over, as I’ll be working on a few … Continue reading →

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The USS Alabama

Posted on March 17, 2019 by smellincoffee

Images of America: USS Alabama © 2013 Kent Whitaker & Battleship Memorial Park 128 pages When visiting downtown Mobile, one can’t help but notice the enormous battleship parked in the bay.  It’s the USS Alabama, tenth to bear the name, … Continue reading →

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The Return of Horatio Hornblower

Posted on March 24, 2018 by smellincoffee

Hornblower AddendumCollected 2011 eNet press79 pages Has it been eight years since I last sailed with Horatio Hornblower?  The naval adventure series by C.S. Forester, and the A&E movie series based on it were one of the highlights of 2010, … Continue reading →

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City of Fortune

Posted on March 15, 2018 by smellincoffee

City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas© 2012 Roger Crowley464 pages In the north of the Adriatic grew a city built not on land, but upon the water — whose fortune was earned in transit, by  running the ships … Continue reading →

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The Hemingway Patrols

Posted on November 14, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Hemingway Patrols: Ernest Hemingway and his Hunt for U-boats © 2009 Terry Mort 272 pages For some people, getting involved in the war effort meant collecting cans. For Ernest Hemingway, it meant patrolling the waters between the Florida Keys … Continue reading →

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The Armada

Posted on April 21, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Armada© 1959 Garrett Mattingly443 pages In the late summer of 1588, all of Europe held its breath as an enormous Spanish fleet, consisting of a hundred and fifty vessels of varying sizes, set sail for the English channel. Their … Continue reading →

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The Twilight War

Posted on January 12, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Twilight War: the Secret History of America’s Thirty-Year War with Iran656 pages© 2013 David Crist  In the presidential campaign of 2008, John McCain made plain what kind of aggressive foreign policy he would pursue by half-singing a chipper little … Continue reading →

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Dubh-Linn

Posted on October 31, 2016 by smellincoffee

Dubh-Linn: A Novel of Viking-Age Ireland© 2014 James Nelson326 pages All Thorgrim Nightwolf wanted was to go home.But the gods and Irish women have a way of…complicating things.  Thorgrim has more sense than to tangle with this benighted island and … Continue reading →

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Rescue Warriors

Posted on September 3, 2016 by smellincoffee

Rescue Warriors: The U.S. Coast Guard, America’s Forgotten Heroes© 2009 David Helvarg384 pages When Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, the Coast Guard was the first on the scene, with helicopters in the air saving lives long before FEMA … Continue reading →

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Miracle at Midway

Posted on August 21, 2016 by smellincoffee

Miracle at Midway© 1983 Gordon Prange, Donald Goldstein and,Katherine Dillon,512 pages Miracle at Midway is a thorough history of the June 4-7 effort of the Japanese to simultaneously seize the most likely U.S. approaches to the Empire and lure the … Continue reading →

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