Entering the Third Decade of the IJNH By Charles C. Chadbourn, III, Ph.D., U.S. Naval War College
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ith the advent of 2022, the International Journal of Naval History begins its third decade. Dr. Gary Weir, founding editor emeritus, recognized the importance of digital scholarship ahead of many contemporaries. The IJNH remains as he conceived it: a digital journal intended to be a naval history forum to stimulate historical research and foster communication among historians. The current issue features articles from American, British, and Danish scholars. In our lead story for the winter issue, Dr. Samantha Cavell offers fascinating insight into the interweaving of events in Europe and America as a context for understanding the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. In 1959 Billboard ranked Johnny Horton’s “The Battle of New Orleans” as the year’s top song. Reading Dr. Cavell’s authoritative account, one quickly discerns this battle was about much more than a catchy tune popular with American teenagers and country music fans. She examines the campaign to take the city primarily from the British perspective, showing how events in Europe and America came together and how severe the threat of invasion was to the new American nation. The naval implications become clear. She also offers an interpretation of the wider intent of the invasion on the southern coast, which she describes as being little more than a “half-baked invasion force” doomed to failure. Readers will enjoy the freshness of her writing and interpretation of the meaning of the battle for the conclusion of the War of 1812. In “Admiral Zumwalt and Changing OPNAV,” Dr. Tom Hone describes succinctly in refreshingly crisp language the dramatic changes Adm. Elmo Zumwalt brought to the Navy during his time as CNO, 1970 to 1974. These reforms would shake the Navy to its core. Anyone who served in the Navy during those years remembers the Z-Grams, popular among sailors. But not everyone is quite so widely aware of the extent to which changes within OPNAV and at the Naval War College proved equally profound as instruments of long-lasting reform. Hone is a master at telling this story. Dr. Chuck Steele, in “Admiral David Beatty: The Royal Navy Incarnate,” addresses connections between
the admiral and ethos in the Royal Navy during World War I. The issue considered is the degree to which Beatty conflated his fortunes with those of the organization he served and how this blurring of identities played an outsized role in coloring expectations for the Royal Navy in war and peace. Steele convincingly demonstrates that Beatty’s career in the Royal Navy is an instructive warning to those in naval service who would sacrifice competence in core proficiencies for the sake of a peculiar sense of fighting spirit. Viktor Stoll of the University of Cambridge writes about British imperialism in China in the late 19th century. Stoll explains the vagaries of British strategy in the period. His article offers a fascinating picture of policy complexity during European powers’ struggle for concessions in China in 1898. Danish historian Hans Christian Bjerg provides context to the purchase of the Virgin Islands by the United States from Denmark in 1917. Many have forgotten that American Secretary of State W. H. Seward initiated an attempt to purchase the islands in 1865 as part of the United States’ examination of strategic expansion in the Caribbean following the American Civil War. The sale languished at the time, but concerns over the implications of German navalism for the Western Hemisphere by the early 20th century reawakened interest in the acquisition. Using Danish sources with which many Americans would be unfamiliar, Bjerg shows how events in Europe more so than in America influenced the purchase. As an archivist, Renae Rapp shares her knowledge of the richness of the collections at the SUNY Maritime College. Some may be surprised at the role played by RADM Stephen B. Luce, father of the Naval War College. Maritime historians can find at the college a treasure trove of holdings about the merchant marine. Many of these items are available online. Rapp provides hyperlinks for direct access to many things in the SUNY Maritime College Archives. Finally, of course, we have book reviews as well. We are appreciative to the Naval Historical Foundation for underwriting our www.ijnhonline.org platform, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with the NHF. Pull Together • Winter 2022
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