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17 September 2024
Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends who share a love for naval history!
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In this week’s Tuesday Tidings we will profile two other unique individuals; one is being honored at a dinner in New York and the other is celebrating a centennial birthday milestone. We also offer some big news from the Washington Navy Yard, as the Navy Department Library has reopened.
Congratulations to the US Naval Institute for hosting a fabulous discussion on the Battle of Leyte Gulf last Wednesday featuring Tom Cutler, Paul Stillwell, and Trent Hone. A link to the program is featured below! Also, best wishes for attendees at two gatherings having naval history ties this week. The Historic Naval Ship Association is meeting aboard the aircraft carrier Midway in San Diego, and the International Congress of Maritime Museums has gathered in Rotterdam.
On this date 130 years ago, Philo McGiffen became the first American to serve as an executive officer on a battleship in combat in the service of the Imperial Chinese Navy during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894. His unique naval officer career was recently profiled in an exhibit at the US Naval Academy, as told in this Naval History article.
For this week’s Naval History Book Review we feature Dr. Stephen D. Regan’s review of Witness to Neptune’s Inferno. Also check out the Society for Nautical Research Lecture Series below.
Tuesday Tidings is compiled by Dr. David F. Winkler and Jessie Henderson as a benefit for members of the National Maritime Historical Society and friends of naval history.
As always, comments and naval history news items are welcome at nmhs@seahistory.org.
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Courtesy of the subject and Winter 2014 edition of the Naval Historical Foundation Newsletter Pull Together courtesy USNI. | |
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About these Images – The Photo and the Sketch
For those who are alumni of the Naval War College or have attended naval history conferences, you may have identified the above photo and sketch as Professor John B. Hattendorf of Naval War College fame. As noted previously, he will receive some well-deserved recognition at the forthcoming National Maritime Historical Society Annual Awards Dinner at the New York Yacht Club next month on Thursday, 24 October.
Named “one of the most widely known and well-respected naval historians in the world” by the US Naval Institute’s Proceedings, Hattendorf, through his publications and original research, grew up away from the nation’s surrounding seas in Illinois and earned a BA in history at Ohio’s Kenyon College in 1964, leaving the heartland to receive a commission in the US Navy. During his service during the Vietnam War, he served on three destroyers and the Navy took advantage of his history background by assigning him tours with the Naval History Division and the Naval War College in 1972 as flag speechwriter, research assistant, and instructor under then-president Vice Adm. Stansfield Turner. While in uniform he furthered his education, earning an MA at Brown and then his PhD at Pembroke College, Oxford.
During his service at the Naval War College, Hattendorf served as director, Advanced Research Department; chair, Maritime History Department; and director, Naval War College Museum. He was the senior advisor at the John B. Hattendorf Center for Maritime Historical Research, established in 2017 and named in his honor. Hattendorf is the Ernest J. King Professor Emeritus of Maritime History. He was also the director of the Munson Institute of American Maritime Studies at Mystic Seaport, and taught at Salve Regina University, Graduate Program in International Affairs.
Hattendorf received many honors, awards and decorations. In 2009, he received the Department of the Navy Superior Civilian Service Award for his work as Chairman, Secretary of the Navy’s Advisory Subcommittee on Naval History. The 2014 Oxford Naval Conference, “Strategy and the Sea,” celebrated his distinguished career. He was an early recipient in 2014 of the Naval Historical Foundation’s prestigious Commodore Dudley W. Knox Medal for lifetime achievement in naval history. In 2016, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral John Richardson, presented him with the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award.
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CNO Admiral John Richardson presents John Hattendorf with the Distinguished Civilian Service Award, 22 September 2016, during the International Seapower Symposium at US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. USN photo by mass comm Specialist 1st class Nathan Laird. | |
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A prolific writer, Hattendorf has published books, articles, essays, historical documents, and edited collections. His histories range from studies on the War of the Spanish Succession to recent naval history. He has written popular readers’ guides to the Aubrey-Maturin series of naval novels by Patrick O’Brian, as well as works on Alfred Thayer Mahan and Sir Julian Corbett. He was senior editor of the series Classics of Sea Power for the US Naval Institute Press and edited the series Maritime Books, 1475–1800, a collection of facsimiles of rare books from the John Carter Brown Library. Hattendorf was a co-author of The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy and The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Warfare. He was editor-in-chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History (2007), for which he was awarded the 2008 Dartmouth Medal of the American Library Association, “honoring the creation of a reference work of outstanding quality and significance.”
Tuesday Tidings will have a presence at the dinner that will honor Dr. Hattendorf as well as Dr. Sylvia Earle and Ford Reiche. We look forward to seeing you at the Annual Awards Dinner to celebrate three exceptional figures in the maritime community. You can purchase tickets here.
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The Honorable J. William Middendorf.
Photo: US Navy
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As for the sketch of Dr. Hattendorf, credits must be given to Ambassador J. William Middendorf, who served as the 62nd secretary of the navy during the administration of Gerald. R. Ford. This Sunday, Middendorf will celebrate his centennial in Rhode Island with family and friends. One of the last survivors of the Greatest Generation, Middendorf served as an engineer and navigator in LCS (L) 53. Earning degrees from the College of the Holy Cross and Harvard, Middendorf had success in the field of investment banking and became involved in the Republican party, which led to his appointment as Secretary of the Navy and later as an Ambassador to the Organization of American States during the Reagan administration. Besides sketching portraits of colleagues during conferences and other gatherings, Middendorf is a prolific composer of symphonies, including the Naval Order March. He continues to publish, with Winning the New Cold War and The Great Nightfall being recent titles. | |
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Navy Department Library Reopens to Public in New Facility
September 3, 2024
Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) announced the reopening of the Navy Department Library on the Washington Navy Yard, 9 Sept.
Location:
Washington Navy Yard
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The Navy Department Library Reference Room. The materials of the Navy Department Library have been relocated for improved access, and this valuable resource is again open to the public. US Navy photo by Bryce Hodges. | |
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Story by Petty Officer 1st Class Abigayle Lutz
WASHINGTON NAVY YARD – Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) announced the reopening of the Navy Department Library on the Washington Navy Yard on 9 Sept.
The library closed for four months as it underwent a move into a new facility and is now located on the first floor of building 46/67, near the intersection of N Street SE and Harwood Street SE on the Washington Navy Yard.
“The Navy Department Library is eager to resume operations in serving the Department of the Navy, NHHC, Washington Navy Yard, researchers, and the public,” reported Dennis Wilson, Branch Head of the Navy Department Library. “The entire Navy Department Library is now located within one physical space, which enables greater efficiencies in workflow. The staff have access to retrieve materials from the Rare Book Room, from within the library space. In the previous location, both the Rare Book Room and Special Collections were in two separate areas outside of the library. The Rare Book Collection and Special Collections are now stored in a single, secured room, instead of two secured rooms on two different floors.”
In addition to increased benefits to library staff and patrons, the new facility provides advantages for the collection. “The new space offers more consistent climate control, ensuring the collection will last longer,” said Dylan Beazer, Reference Section Supervisor. “We also increased our ability to comfortably grow the collection.”
The Navy Department Library is open 9 AM. to 3 PM Monday–Friday and can be reached at 202-433-4132.
Visitors without a DoD Common Access Card (CAC) or military ID must report to the Visitors Center at the Washington Navy Yard 11th and O Street gate with a valid photo ID to enter base. Vehicle registration and proof of insurance is also required for visitors wanting to drive on base.
Some of the key features of the new location include a Reference Room with a new book and NHHC publications display, as well as a General Collections area that includes the Periodical Collection, Reference Vertical File, and Cruise Book Collection. Additionally, the library has scanning devices, a microfilm reader scanner, a photocopier, ample tables and chairs with access to power, two network computers with CAC access, and two non-network computers, and Wi-Fi will be implemented soon.
The new facility is home to a collection of more than 114,000 book titles, 374,000 manuscripts, and 189,000 periodicals, with a particular emphasis on naval, nautical, and military history from around the world.
Established by a directive from President John Adams to Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert in 1800, the Navy Department Library has now evolved into an institution that holds an array of naval and maritime history, customs, and traditions, serving as one of the few major military historical libraries accessible to the public. The Navy Department Library will have its 225th anniversary in March 2025.
To learn more about the Navy Department Library, please visit https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/about.html
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS | |
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Witness to Neptune’s Inferno: The Pacific War Diary of Lieutenant Commander Lloyd M. Mustin, USS Atlanta (CL 51)
By David F. Winkler, Casement Publishers (2024)
Reviewed by Stephen D. Regan, EdD
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David Winkler is like a great scent hound who can sniff out a good story that lesser historians missed. His narrative that accompanies Mustin’s diary is a great tale.
Lieutenant Mustin (soon to be promoted), the son of a Navy hero and stepson of a carrier task force commander who knew his skids were greased for a flag rank, started his daily musings when he was ordered aboard USS Atlanta (CL 51) in the fall of 1941. From the onset of World War II, he blames Washington, senior Navy officers, and American malaise for the debacle at Pearl Harbor. Once in the Pacific, he rages against task force admirals, calling Rear Admiral Spruance “Jughead;” he refers to his XO as stupid, and he vents substantial frustration on Admirals Ghormley and Fletcher, staff officers, and reserve officers in general. He cannot fathom why the Navy would not simply take the Surface Fleet and push the Japanese back to Asia in one major and constant battle, which, ironically, is what Japan also desired.
About the time the reader would castigate Mustin as an arrogant, narcissistic, narrow-minded, tunnel-visioned, know-it-all jerk, Winkler’s narrative deftly reminds you that Mustin’s opinions are probably parallel to those of many junior officers and the American public at large. Furthermore, this is from the deck plates at that specific time and not a “Monday-morning quarterback” perspective. Winkler reminds us that these junior officers had more guts than gray cells, more courage than wisdom, more ambition than patience, and more innocence than experience. This, alone, makes the book important.
Read full review>>
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | |
USNI Roundtable Panel Discussion on Leyte Gulf!
Watch here>>
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The Society for Military History
Distinguished Book Awards for 2025
Background: The Society for Military History is soliciting nominations for its annual Distinguished Book Awards for 2025. Established in 1933, the Society is devoted to stimulating and advancing the study of military history. Its membership (today more than 2,600) includes many of the most prominent scholars, soldiers, and citizens interested in military history. The Society encourages research and publication across the whole range of military history (ancient, medieval, and modern, including related popular studies). The Society publishes The Journal of Military History, the leading international scholarly journal of military history.
The Distinguished Book Awards: For the 2025 awards, books published (copyright date) in 2023 and 2024 are eligible. Works previously nominated for the Society’s book awards may be resubmitted provided they were published in 2023. Nominated books should be assigned to one of the following prize categories:
Distinguished Book (two awards)
- Edited and reference works contain collections of information, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, handbooks, and diagnostic manuals.
- Biography and memoirs—works that examine the life of a single individual or the lives of multiple individuals, or first-person accounts of lived experiences, in the context of war and/or the military
- First book—works that represent a single author’s first monograph)
The committee will make its selections for awards by January 30, 2025. The Society will give the awards at its annual meeting in Mobile, Alabama on 27–30 March 2025. The author of each prize-winning book will receive recognition at the Society’s annual awards presentation, an award plaque, and a $1,000 prize.
The committee must receive books for consideration for the 2025 awards by 7 October 2024.
Publishers must follow this process for each volume they intend to submit:
Please send a copy of each book for consideration with a letter specifying consideration for the SMH Book Awards to each committee member at the addresses listed below. Books must be submitted in physical copy, and electronic versions will not be considered. The committee recognizes the expense to authors and publishers associated with submitting five copies of each nominated book and therefore encourages serious submissions only. Please note that books will not be returned and that only award winners will be notified of selection.
At the discretion of the committee, submissions which are received after 7 October 2024 may be deferred for consideration in the 2026 awards.
Sincerely,
Debra J. Sheffer, PhD
Chair SMH Book Awards Committee
Email: debra.sheffer@park.edu
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SMH 2025 Book Awards
Committee Member Addresses
Marion Dorsey, PhD
Department of History
University of New Hampshire
14 Fogg Drive
Durham, NH 03824
Ian Beckett, PhD
School of History
University of Kent, Canterbury
Tides, Trewelloe Road, Praa Sands, Penzance
Cornwall, TR20 9SU, UK
Tarak Barkawi, PhD
Department of Political Science
Johns Hopkins University
1102 Bryn Mawr Road
Baltimore, MD 21210
Matthew Neufeld, PhD
Department of History
University of Saskatchewan
Room 619, Arts Tower
9 Campus Drive
Saskatoon SK S7N 5A5
Canada
Debra Sheffer, PhD
Park University
9002 N. Camden Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64154
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The Society for Military History announces a call for papers for its 90th Annual Meeting in Mobile, Alabama, 27–30 March 2025, at the Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel and the
Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel.
The Program Committee’s objective is to create a slate of panels that represent the breadth of expertise and interests as well as the overall diversity of the Society’s wide-ranging membership. Individual paper and panel proposals on all facets of military history broadly defined will be considered for inclusion. Members in the academic community, the armed forces and governmental agencies, museums and archives, and independent scholars, as well as international members, are encouraged to participate.
Priority will be given to individual paper and panel submissions that highlight the presentation of original research, new interpretations, topics of immediate interest to our membership, and cutting-edge trends and subject matter. Submission of roundtables is encouraged, but preference will be given to panels that present new, original research.
All submissions will be judged on their merit using the above criteria.
Submission Instructions:
Individual paper proposals must include a 250-word abstract of the paper, and a one-page vita with contact information and email address. If selected, individual papers will be assigned by the program committee to an appropriate panel with a chair/commentator.
Panel proposals must include a panel title and 250-word abstract summarizing the theme of the panel; paper titles and a 250-word abstract for each paper proposed; and a one-page curriculum vitae for each panelist (including the chair and commentator) that includes institutional affiliation, email address, and other contact information.
Roundtable proposals must include a roundtable title, the full name and institutional affiliation of each participant, a 250-word abstract summarizing the roundtable’s themes and significance, and a one-page curriculum vitae for each participant.
Members who wish to volunteer to serve as chairs and commentators should send a one-page curriculum vitae.
Send all materials to the Program Committee Chair before 18 October 2024 at smhconferences@gmail.com.
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Society for Nautical Research Winter Lecture Series 2024-25
The Society for Nautical Research is delighted to announce the schedule for the forthcoming winter lecture series. These online talks will highlight new and ongoing research being undertaken by members of the society and its affiliations. The series aims to promote research into economic, social, political, military and environmental aspects of nautical history, drawing on British, European and international experience.
The 12-part lecture series will be held fortnightly on Wednesday evenings at 6:30PM (UK) between October 2024 to March 2025. Lectures will only be available online (via zoom) and be FREE to Paying Members of the SNR.
Not yet a member?
Sign up now from as little as £22.50 a year. Get access to exclusive events and talks, quarterly editions of The Marriner Mirror, and discounts at affiliated museums and gift shops! https://snr.org.uk/become-a-member/
Dates for your calendar …
9th October 2024: Dr Catherine Scheybler (King’s College London), “The Spanish Ship of the Line: Its origins and development before 1752.”
23rd October 2024: Dr Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz (National Museum of the Royal Navy), Managing archaeological data for HMS Victory’s restoration. (full title TBC)
6th November 2024: Dr James Davy (University of Exeter), “Tempest; The Royal Navy and the Age of Revolution.”
20th November 2024: Associate Professor Evan Wilson (Hattendorf Historical Centre), “The Horrible Peace; British Veterans and the End of the Napoleonic Wars.”
4th December 2024: Sarah Mott, (Lloyd’s Register Foundation) “Rewriting Women into Maritime History; the SHE_SEES exhibition.”
18th December 2024: Bill Lindsay (independent scholar), “William Schaw Lindsay; Victorian Entrepreneur.”
Christmas Break
15th January 2025: Prof Rodrigo Pérez Fernández (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), “The past, present and future of shipbuilding.”
29th January 2025: Dr Alan James (King’s College London), (full title TBC)
12th February 2025: Dr Matthew Heaslip (University of Portsmouth), (full title TBC)
26th February 2025: Dr Michael Roberts (University of Bangor), Archaeological exploration of historical shipwrecks in the Irish Sea. (full title TBC)
12th March 2025: Dr Jo Stanley (independent scholar), “Diversity at Sea: How sharing historical research can make a difference to the present and future of the maritime industry and public understanding”
19th March 2025: Dr Cathryn Pearce (University of Portsmouth), “Bandied about for a place of refuge': Extreme Weather, Coastal Shipping, and the Loss of Lord Nelson, 1840”
How to attend the lectures?
Zoom details will be circulated prior to each of the lectures but details can also be found in the “events” section of the members area of the SNR website (Click Here).
For any questions or queries please contact the convener (daisy.turnbull@myport.ac.uk).
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UPCOMING NAVAL & MARITIME HISTORY GATHERINGS | |
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16 October 2024: USS Constitution Museum Salute to Service Gala, Boston, MA
19 October 2024: US Navy Birthday Ball, Arlington. VA
24 October 2024: National Maritime Historical Society Annual Awards Dinner, New York, NY
1 November 2024: Marine Birthday Ball, Albany, GA
2 November 2024: Marine Birthday Ball; Orlando, Fl.
2 November 2024: Marine Birthday Ball, San Francisco, CA
9 November 2024: Steamship Historical Society of America Annual Meeting, Queen Mary, Long Beach, CA
31 January–2 February 2025: Western Naval History Association Symposium (WNHA), San Diego, CA
27–30 March 2025: Society for Military History (SMH) Annual Meeting, Mobile, AL
9–11 April 2025: Council of American Maritime Museums Annual Meeting, Pensacola, FL
24–25 May 2025: Canadian Nautical Research Society Annual Conference Port Hope,
Ontario
18–19 September 2025: McMullen Naval History Symposium, US Naval Academy
24–28 September 2025: Historic Naval Ship Association (HNSA) Symposium/12th Maritime Heritage Conference, Buffalo, NY
| PREBLE HALL NAVAL HISTORY PODCAST | |
A naval history podcast from Preble Hall – the United States Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland. Preble Hall will interview historians, practitioners, military personnel, and other experts on a variety of naval history topics from ancient history to more current events.
Click here for the latest episode: 239: Marine General Kenneth F. “Frank” McKenzie Jr., Ret.>>
Click here for all Preble Hall Podcasts >>
| DRACHINIFEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | |
Welcome to Navy History Matters, Naval History and Heritage Command’s biweekly compilation of articles, commentaries, and blogs related to history and heritage. Every other week, they gather the top-interest items from a variety of media and social media sources that link to related content at NHHC’s website, your authoritative source for Navy history.
Click here for most recent article>>
| INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NAVAL HISTORY | |
The International Journal of Naval History (IJNH) provides a preeminent forum for works of naval history, researched and written to demonstrable academic standards, with the goal of stimulating and promoting research into naval history and fostering communication among naval historians at an international level. IJNH welcomes any scholarly historical analysis, focused on any period or geographic region, that explores naval power in its national or cultural context. The journal is independent of any institution and operates under the direction of an international editorial board that represents various genres of naval history.
Click here to read the February 2023 edition and archived issues on the IJNH website >>
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With the 250th anniversary of the US Navy on the horizon, NMHS seeks your support as we plan to honor those who have provided for our maritime security.
Click here to donate today >>
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