Was most happy to receive this 'gift' on my birthday, Nov. 16, in the form of a book review written by Marie Vernon, which appeared in the Living section of the St. Augustine Record, daily newspaper.
gift' on my birthday, Nov. 16, in the form of a book review written by Marie Vernon, which appeared in the Living section of the St. Augustine Record, daily newspaper.
Although Midshipman Porter did not call into St. Augustine, the oldest city in the new world was on the front lines of every conflict in its centuries old history. It has known the footsteps of conquerors, conquistadors, pirates, privateers, buccaneers in the era of sail - and is still in the combat zone for cyber hackers, smugglers of dope, contraband and illegal immigrates of many nationalities - friend and foe.
These are early days in the young adventurer's career, but the dastardly practices performed by evil scoundrels were ancient before man set out to explore the seas and conquer the world. Book two in the saga in on the slips, fitting out and eager to be launched. It bears many similarities to current events, despite the passage of time.
Cruelty and greed have no expiration date. But hopefully bravery and heroism will keep it in check.
[Reprinted]
Book review "Midshipman Porter: In Harm's Way"
Q&A with Jack Owen
Posted: November 16, 2014 - 12:08am
Jack Owen author of 'Midshipman Porter: In Harms Way'
From page one, “Midshipman Porter: In Harms Way” immerses readers in
the era when tall ships and the men who sailed in them played an
integral role during our nation’s infancy. The British have imposed
unreasonable taxes on the American colonies and have blockaded vital
ports up and down the east coast to prevent tax-free smuggling. In a
time when roads were marginal at best and transportation slow, this
presents a severe hardship to the colonists who rely heavily on merchant
vessels, both for transporting goods and as a source of communication.
As further insult, British captains are authorized to seize merchant
vessels and to impress captured sailors into service for the Royal Navy.
When the blockade makes life difficult for his family in Boston, Captain David Porter, commander of a merchant ship, relocates his family to Baltimore, where the port remains open. It is there that David Porter, Jr. spends his childhood, immersed in the city’s rich culture of seamanship. By the time young Davy is grown and ready to put to sea, the War for Independence has ended, but an uneasy peace prevails. Ships plying their trade between Baltimore and the Caribbean Islands are in danger from ships of the Royal Navy as well as French and Spanish privateers.
While historic events form the spine of Owens’ story, it is the details of daily living in that crucial period, both at sea and on land, that create an indelible picture. For instance, the importation of salt from Bermuda, a British colony, is critical to the American colonists and can only be accomplished at great danger to American merchant ships. Battles at sea are described with attention to infinite detail such as the fact that the sailors loading the cannons below decks wore felt slippers and worked behind wetted canvas to prevent stray sparks from igniting the gunpowder. Likewise, readers will experience what it felt like to cling to rigging far above the ship’s heaving deck during a tropical storm.
Owen’s prose is both precise and colorful, as in this description of the procedure when Porter’s ship docks in a Santo Domingo harbor: The bum-boats bearing bananas, plantains and citrus fruits surrounded Eliza before the anchor-scope settled on the sea bed. Naked ebony boys flashed white teeth...holding up fruit in one hand and the appropriate amount of fingers up with the other.
As Midshipman Porter makes his way upward through the ranks, he experiences disasters and moments of jubilation, capture and escape. He serves under captains who are harsh to their crews and others from whom he learns much about the craft of seamanship. In a Philadelphia brothel, he has his first — but not his last — sexual encounter. The vessels on which he sails vary from small coasting merchant ships to sleek privateers to the pride of the newly formed Continental Navy, the Baltimore-built Constellation, launched in 1797.
This novel captures the imagination with its distinctive characters and uniquely intimate access to events and personages that helped to determine our nation’s destiny. It will appeal to those who love a good sea-going tale and to historians who appreciate meticulous research.
Q&A with Jack Owen
Where did you obtain your extensive knowledge of seamanship?
Observation and osmosis of things nautical. I grew up in a seaside resort on the English side of the Channel with an active fishing fleet competing for the same patch of water as weekend sailors. I learned about lines, lies and salty language at an early age. Five years voluntary service in the Royal Navy, starting as a boy at age 16, probably helped, too. As a journalist, investigative crime reporter and boating columnist in south Florida for half a century, plus contributor to National Fisherman, Boating, and Good Old Boat, some of that information stuck.
What resources did you find helpful in researching the history of America’s post-colonial period?
Books and Broadsheets from that period and about the period were invaluable sources of confirmation. Its made much easier, but with less thrill of discovery, with the advent of Google, etc. As a former maritime journalist and antiquarian bookseller, both my Old Book Shop stock in Palm Beach and my own library of Porter specific tomes, helped. Personal visits to some locations, in and out of the service, plus associations with naval families, also worked.
Is the Porter family based on actual persons?
Very much so. Dig into any naval or military action from the Revolution to today, and somewhere a Porter will crop up. I test-read an early chapter to a pod of writers in Gainesville, several years ago. One of the group, an esoteric experimental author, turned out to be a Porter descendant. She had no idea great-great-great-great grandfather was such a sporty lad. Quite took the wind out of her sails.
Are the encounters Midshipman Porter and his family have with various historic figures such as Captain Horatio Nelson, Patrick Henry and the Poe family of Baltimore based on fact?
Some are so, some are near-misses. Back in the day, populations of major cities were pretty cozy. Baltimore was home to 13,503 homeowners in 1790; St. Augustine’s population this year is 13,113 people according to Internet sources. Like-thinking folks are liable to move in the same circles. Merchants, shipowners and politicians socialized within the society they created. Many Porters, historians and biographers have recorded “the facts,” according to them. My excursion into “Faction” adds flesh to the bones and a light in the eyes of historical figures, dates and events.
What is next for Midshipman—now Lieutenant—Porter?
A smashing yarn of tragedy, horror and honor, which began with the capture of USS Philadelphia by Barbary Pirates on the night of Halloween, 1803. Villains and heroes of that era outmatch anything Hollywood screenwriters could invent. The legendary incident, which created the line “to the shores of Tripoli” in the U.S. Marine Corps hymn, has sunk into dry history texts. But the capture and enslavement of 307 American sailors, their 18-month captivity, the germ of a naval academy, the first regime-change warlike overseas action of the fledgling county and the raising of the American flag on foreign soil involved David Porter.
When the blockade makes life difficult for his family in Boston, Captain David Porter, commander of a merchant ship, relocates his family to Baltimore, where the port remains open. It is there that David Porter, Jr. spends his childhood, immersed in the city’s rich culture of seamanship. By the time young Davy is grown and ready to put to sea, the War for Independence has ended, but an uneasy peace prevails. Ships plying their trade between Baltimore and the Caribbean Islands are in danger from ships of the Royal Navy as well as French and Spanish privateers.
While historic events form the spine of Owens’ story, it is the details of daily living in that crucial period, both at sea and on land, that create an indelible picture. For instance, the importation of salt from Bermuda, a British colony, is critical to the American colonists and can only be accomplished at great danger to American merchant ships. Battles at sea are described with attention to infinite detail such as the fact that the sailors loading the cannons below decks wore felt slippers and worked behind wetted canvas to prevent stray sparks from igniting the gunpowder. Likewise, readers will experience what it felt like to cling to rigging far above the ship’s heaving deck during a tropical storm.
Owen’s prose is both precise and colorful, as in this description of the procedure when Porter’s ship docks in a Santo Domingo harbor: The bum-boats bearing bananas, plantains and citrus fruits surrounded Eliza before the anchor-scope settled on the sea bed. Naked ebony boys flashed white teeth...holding up fruit in one hand and the appropriate amount of fingers up with the other.
As Midshipman Porter makes his way upward through the ranks, he experiences disasters and moments of jubilation, capture and escape. He serves under captains who are harsh to their crews and others from whom he learns much about the craft of seamanship. In a Philadelphia brothel, he has his first — but not his last — sexual encounter. The vessels on which he sails vary from small coasting merchant ships to sleek privateers to the pride of the newly formed Continental Navy, the Baltimore-built Constellation, launched in 1797.
This novel captures the imagination with its distinctive characters and uniquely intimate access to events and personages that helped to determine our nation’s destiny. It will appeal to those who love a good sea-going tale and to historians who appreciate meticulous research.
Q&A with Jack Owen
Where did you obtain your extensive knowledge of seamanship?
Observation and osmosis of things nautical. I grew up in a seaside resort on the English side of the Channel with an active fishing fleet competing for the same patch of water as weekend sailors. I learned about lines, lies and salty language at an early age. Five years voluntary service in the Royal Navy, starting as a boy at age 16, probably helped, too. As a journalist, investigative crime reporter and boating columnist in south Florida for half a century, plus contributor to National Fisherman, Boating, and Good Old Boat, some of that information stuck.
What resources did you find helpful in researching the history of America’s post-colonial period?
Books and Broadsheets from that period and about the period were invaluable sources of confirmation. Its made much easier, but with less thrill of discovery, with the advent of Google, etc. As a former maritime journalist and antiquarian bookseller, both my Old Book Shop stock in Palm Beach and my own library of Porter specific tomes, helped. Personal visits to some locations, in and out of the service, plus associations with naval families, also worked.
Is the Porter family based on actual persons?
Very much so. Dig into any naval or military action from the Revolution to today, and somewhere a Porter will crop up. I test-read an early chapter to a pod of writers in Gainesville, several years ago. One of the group, an esoteric experimental author, turned out to be a Porter descendant. She had no idea great-great-great-great grandfather was such a sporty lad. Quite took the wind out of her sails.
Are the encounters Midshipman Porter and his family have with various historic figures such as Captain Horatio Nelson, Patrick Henry and the Poe family of Baltimore based on fact?
Some are so, some are near-misses. Back in the day, populations of major cities were pretty cozy. Baltimore was home to 13,503 homeowners in 1790; St. Augustine’s population this year is 13,113 people according to Internet sources. Like-thinking folks are liable to move in the same circles. Merchants, shipowners and politicians socialized within the society they created. Many Porters, historians and biographers have recorded “the facts,” according to them. My excursion into “Faction” adds flesh to the bones and a light in the eyes of historical figures, dates and events.
What is next for Midshipman—now Lieutenant—Porter?
A smashing yarn of tragedy, horror and honor, which began with the capture of USS Philadelphia by Barbary Pirates on the night of Halloween, 1803. Villains and heroes of that era outmatch anything Hollywood screenwriters could invent. The legendary incident, which created the line “to the shores of Tripoli” in the U.S. Marine Corps hymn, has sunk into dry history texts. But the capture and enslavement of 307 American sailors, their 18-month captivity, the germ of a naval academy, the first regime-change warlike overseas action of the fledgling county and the raising of the American flag on foreign soil involved David Porter.
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