Naval history typically evokes battles at sea and other heroic episodes. Lord Nelson’s attack on the French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar in 1805 that ended with his own death amidst triumph is a famous example. Americans might recall John Paul Jones’s defiant reply that he had “not yet begun to fight” when challenged to surrender in 1779 while his ship fought HMS Serapis with masts entangled. Dramatic events that draw attention comprise only part of a larger story about war at sea. The institutional development, planning, and professional ethos behind naval operations provide the context that made famous victories possible. Bringing those factors into the picture gives a fuller view of how major events came to pass and why they matter. It also sheds light on current debates about readiness and security policy by showing how peacetime efforts shape wartime effectiveness.
Claude Berube’s On Wide Seas: The US Navy in the Jacksonian Era explores trends during a decade that lacked conflicts on the scale of periods before and afterward. Early 19th-century campaigns against the Barbary Pirates and subsequently Britain in the War of 1812 marked a heroic period of American naval history that closed the age of sail. Later, both the Mexican War and Civil War involved maritime operations of a larger scale that used new technologies including steam propulsion. The landings at Veracruz in 1847 projected American power overseas with an amphibious operation not matched until Gallipoli during World War I. The peacetime changes Berube traces between those two eras explain much about the navy’s institutional development. Andrew Jackson’s presidency bridged the transition from sail to steam during this period that saw America through much larger shifts.
