Description
Book SynopsisThis classic study examines the deployment of U.S. naval vessels in European and Near Eastern waters from the end of the Civil War until the United States declared war in April 1917. Initially these ships were employed to visit various ports from the Baltic Sea to the eastern Mediterranean and Constantinople (today Istanbul), for the primary purpose of showing the flag. From the 1890s on, most of the need for the presence of the American warships occurred in the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Unrest in the Ottoman Empire and particularly the Muslim hostility and threats to Armenians led to calls for protection. This would continue into the years of World War I. In 1905, the Navy Department ended the permanent stationing of a squadron in European waters.
From then until the U.S. declaration of war in 1917, individual ships, detached units, and special squadrons were at times deployed in European waters. In 1908, the converted yacht Scorpion was sent as station ship (stationnaire) to Constantinople where she would remain, operating in the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea until 1928. Upon the outbreak of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson ordered cruisers to northern European waters and the Mediterranean to protect American interests. These warships, however, did more than protect American interests. They would evacuate thousands of refugees, American tourists, Armenians, Jews, and Italians after Italy entered the conflict on the side of the Allies.
Trade Review“Scholarly, attentive to detail, yet thoroughly accessible to readers of all backgrounds, American Sea Power in the Old World is highly recommended and a welcome contribution to public and college library collections.”—Midwest Book Review“American Sea Power in the Old World [is] a highly competent, well-regarded survey of US naval cruising in an important region of the world at the dawn of the so-called American Century. It remains, over thirty-five years on, among the best broader histories of the peacetime deployment of US naval vessels in the long nineteenth century.” —Michigan War Studies Review“This book, first published in 1980, has stood the test of time and has become the benchmark against which all historical studies of the U.S. Navy, from the period after the Civil War to World War I, are compared.... The book is well written and nicely illustrated…. Overall, the book is a great addition to the historical story of the U.S. Navy in the era between the Civil War and World War I.” —The Journal of America’s Military Past“This [is a] brilliantly researched account."—Baird Maritime “Still’s treatment of the Navy’s role in support of America’s diplomatic, strategic, commercial, and – curiously – Protestant missionary activities in European and Near Eastern waters remains a valuable read those with an interest in American diplomatic history, the advent of the Great War, and the transition of the fleet from the coastal and riverine force of the Civil War through the post-war doldrums and on to the rise of the ‘New Navy’.” — StrategyPage
