"Fans of Edward L. Beach Jr.'s books, including his submarine novel Run Silent, Run Deep and his history of the U.S. Navy, will be drawn to this memoir by his father, a popular novelist of his era. Not only was Beach Sr. a good story-teller but he was also an astute observer of history in the making, and his naval career spanned the sailing and steam navies. Written in the 1930s but never before published, this book is as much about the U.S. Navy as it is about Beach.

In his early days Beach served with Civil War veterans aboard wooden ships, while late in his service his shipmates were the future naval leaders of World War II. His firsthand accounts of the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898, insurrection in Haiti in 1915, and Scapa Flow in 1918 provide the kind of details that bring readers into the conflict.

His recounting of the wreck of the Memphis, a cruiser under Beach's command that was destroyed in 1916 by a tsunami in Santo Domingo Harbor, is eyewitness reporting at its best.".

"As Beach describes the growth of the Navy from the 1880s, when the modern Navy had its beginning, to the end of World War I, when it was on its way to becoming the most powerful naval force on earth, he tells not only what happened but how and why. Beach Jr. puts his father's writing in historical context for today's readers, and in some cases offers insights into his father's feelings, such as the elder Beach's sympathies for the Filipinos and later for the Haitians when the U.S.

Navy intervened in their countries. Rarely does a valuable primary source like this come to light so many years after it has been written."--BOOK JACKET.