Midwatch in Verse: New Year's Deck Log Poetry of the United States Navy, 1941-1946

by David E. Johnson, Gary Guinn

Overview

Naval deck logs require young officers to record mundane details of a ship's condition every few hours. According to a U.S. Navy tradition, the New Year's midwatch log--covering midnight to early morning of January 1--can be entered as poetry. Each chapter of this first book-length examination of midwatch poems presents verses written 1941-1946 aboard a ship engaged in combat during World War II, including celebrated warships like the USS Enterprise and nameless vessels like PC 1264. Historical overviews of the ships' operations, along with biographical sketches of the author(s), relate each poem to its moment in history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476689265
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	02/28/2023
Pages:	249
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David E. Johnson is an emeritus professor of psychology and a former president of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology. He has published articles, chapters, and books on the pedagogy of psychology. He lives in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where he continues his research and writing on U.S. Naval history. Gary Guinn, an emeritus professor of English, is the author of two novels, short fiction, and poetry. He served as a medical corpsman in the Naval Reserve from 1968 to 1974 and now lives in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
USS Detroit: The Dashing “D”
USS Finch: The Ultimate Indignity
USS Dewey: The ­Whale-Struck
USS Gilmer: Chasing Subs in Puget Sound
USS New Orleans: The Coconut Log Bow
USS Marblehead: The Long Journey Home
USS Russell: A Highly Decorated Lady
USS North Carolina: “Showboat”
USS Aylwin: Surviving the Hurricane
USS Casco: God Keep Our Ship
USS Allen: The Old Girl
USS Colorado: A Tale of Endurance
USS Murphy: The Luck of the Irish
USS Washington: Not Just Any Man Overboard
USS Buchanan: The Scrapperoos
USS Texas: Engage Until Neutralized
USS Lansdowne: The Lucky L
USS Dent: “There’s Nothing Like a Dame”
USS Bush: A Brief and Tragic Glory
USS Ringgold: A New Slant on Bunghole
USS Mason: The Grand Experiment
USS PC 1264: An Inglorious Fate
USS Pennsylvania: “Old Falling Apart”
USS South Dakota: Battleship X
USS Ticonderoga: The Indestructible Captain Dixie
USS Idaho: Perdition to Our Axis Foes
USS Alabama: Very Well Done
USS Enterprise: The Big E
USS Huse: The Hunter Killer
Conclusion
Appendix A: Material Conditions in Navy Ships
Appendix B: How Ships Get Their Names
Appendix C: U.S. Navy Hull Designations in This Book
Appendix D: Candid Comments by Poets in the Poems
Appendix E: Non–World War II Poems
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

A unique and original telling of the story of the US Navy in World War II. A humane and penetrating look at young officers in wartime called on to perform the most incongruous of duties—to write a poem in the place of a deck log. Midwatch in Verse informs, delights, and reveals a side of the US Navy known only to the few. Highly recommended.”—Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, Chief International Security and Diplomacy Analyst for NBC News, former Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and author of 2034: A Novel of the Next World War and To Risk It All: Nine Crises and the Crucible Of Decision

From the Publisher