{"id":899,"date":"2012-01-18T18:09:07","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T01:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/blog\/?p=899"},"modified":"2012-05-18T12:40:39","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T19:40:39","slug":"americas-privateer-coffee-table-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/americas-privateer-coffee-table-book\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s Privateer; Lynx and the War of 1812"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

by J. Dennis Robinson<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201cTo this day, we don\u2019t really know who won the War of 1812.\u00a0 According to Jamie Trost, a naval history enthusiast who has captained Lynx in both Pacific and Atlantic waters, there are three answers.\u00a0 Trost says:<\/em><\/p>\n

The British perspective is:\u00a0 What war?\u00a0 They barely acknowledge it happened.\u00a0 The Canadian perspective is:\u00a0 America attacked, Canada defended, and America retreated no less than 13 times.\u00a0 The American perspective is: We don\u2019t remember much about that war, but we\u2019re damn sure that we won it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em> \u2013 from America\u2019s Privateer; Lynx and the War of 1812<\/a> <\/em><\/strong>by J. Dennis Robinson<\/p>\n

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That’s the average American for you! (Like Sweet Baby James used to sing, Don’t know much about history, don’t know much biology…)\u00a0 <\/em>I don’t pretend to be a historian either, but I damn sure am working on it!<\/p>\n

I was born in Baltimore where everybody knows at least one thing about the largely forgotten War of 1812 —\u00a0 that Francis Scott Key wrote a poem while detained on a British ship during the bombardment of Fort McHenry; a poem that would be printed in newspapers, sung to the tune of an English drinking song and voted our National Anthem more than a hundred years later, in 1931.\u00a0 I admit to becoming emotionally labile whenever I hear The Star-Spangled Banner sung at the beginning of a baseball game or at the Superbowl half-time show, I’ve been known to tear up.\u00a0 (Another song I learned growing up in Maryland was The Battle of New Orleans:\u00a0 In 1814 we took a little trip, along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip’<\/em>We took a little bacon and we took a little beans and fought the bloody British in the town of New Orleans…<\/em>\u00a0 Again, the words of this song suggests that the rednecks not the redcoats won the battle, if not the war!)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This year, 2012, we commemorate the bicentennial of the War of 1812, a war fought for free trade and sailors\u2019 rights, a war fought in part, by letters-of-marque and privateers.\u00a0 For those of us who love ships and are interested in maritime tradition, the commemoration of this war will be a chance to rediscover history.<\/p>\n

Having been aboard the schooner Lynx a few years ago, I was eager to buy this book when it came out.\u00a0 Though the modern Lynx is not exactly a replica ship, nor is she a privateer, she is none-the-less an active “tall ship” (I dislike that dumbed-down term, but find myself using it!) that promotes traditional sailing and America’s maritime heritage in the 21st century.\u00a0 On a day sail out of Kawaihae Harbor Bob and I helped raise sail, we listened to several crew members in period dress tell us about their duties and we witnessed a firing of one of the six-pounder carronades by a handy female gunner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Aboard the Lynx, along the North Kohala Coast<\/p><\/div>\n

America\u2019s Privateer<\/em><\/strong> is a book about the \u201cforgotten war\u201d and the privateers who assisted America\u2019s \u00a0fledgling navy. \u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the story of the original Lynx<\/em>, a licensed letter of marque \u201ccreated to carry cargo swiftly under wartime conditions, and if need be, to run an enemy blockade or capture a ready prize\u201d — <\/em>and today\u2019s Lynx<\/em>,\u00a0 inspired by and similar to the original —\u00a0 custom-designed by legendary Melbourne Smith, \u00a0designer and builder of historical ships including the US Brig Niagra,<\/em> Californian<\/em>, builder of the Pride of Baltimore<\/em>, designer of the Spirit of Massachusetts<\/em> and Maryland Federalist,<\/em> and a consultant for HM Bark Endeavour<\/em>,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Lynx<\/em> is the result of one wealthy adventurer\u2019s dream, a man to whom history matters.\u00a0 As any boat owner knows, boats are expensive to maintain, they are labors of love.\u00a0 (I, for one, am glad Mr. Woods put his money into a sailing, living history museum rather than a racing yacht or a football team.)\u00a0 The book, published by The Lynx Educational Foundation, tells the story of both Lynxes, why the war of 1812 matters and how today\u2019s Lynx<\/em> teaches maritime history and heritage.<\/p>\n

Robinson says, \u201cToday\u2019s privateer Lynx is not on a mission to prove that America won the \u201cForgotten War,\u201d but rather to remind us why we fight for liberty in the first place.\u00a0 It is precisely because the War of 1812 is unfamiliar to all but a few naval history buffs, that it is the ideal backdrop for a fresh conversation about the very meaning of freedom.\u00a0 Lynx is on a mission, we might say, to incite America to discussion.\u00a0 The enemy this time is not the British, but our own complacency and forgetfulness\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Current attacks at sea bear a haunting similarity to those of the early 19th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Private security companies are at this moment trying to re-establish the \u201cletter of marque\u201d system that would allow privateers to take on 21st<\/sup> century pirates in Somalia and elsewhere\u201d<\/em> (pg. 148).<\/p>\n

Will privateers make a come-back?\u00a0 Should they?\u00a0 Is it even possible in today’s world?\u00a0 I don’t know, but America’s Privateer<\/em><\/a> is a book to read and ponder and if you get the chance to sail aboard her, don’t pass it up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A seaman pressed into service aboard the Lynx<\/p><\/div>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  \u201cTo this day, we don\u2019t really know who won […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[149,150],"class_list":["post-899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-privateer-lynx","tag-war-of-1812"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1097,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions\/1097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}