Customer Reviews:
 I give it five stars - with a few qualifications! June 25, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This excellent book is clearly very well researched and succeeds, possibly for the first time, in bringing together most of the threads of thought, intention and action of those who were attempting to win 'The War for Southern Independence' from and within Europe and on the high seas, together with a thorough examination and evaluation of the attitudes and policies of European politicians, most especially those in the Governments of Great Britain and of France.
I have become fascinated by the European aspects of the War and I was delighted to have it confirmed yet again that the greatest of the Confederate heroes were Commander James Dunwoody Bulloch (an uncle of Theodore Roosevelt), Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury and Captain Raphael Semmes and, though the memoirs of Bulloch and Semmes are more elegantly written than the author manages, it is, of course, the latter's impartial (I assume) assessment and comments that are invaluable to twenty-first century readers.
I found myself slightly irritated by a few typographical errors (which rarely occur in writings of the nineteenth century, when, it seems, they had more time or deployed more diligence in editing and proof-reading), and a handful of horrible 'howlers' such as describing the British (Liberal) Government as the 'English' Government, such as confusingly naming the British Foreign Secretary, the Liberal Lord John Russell, as 'Earl Russell' (which, of course, he was, just to confuse matters more) on the same pages, and such as mentioning in several places the 'Bay of Biscayne,' when what was obviously meant was the Bay of Biscay. Why can't writers get things exactly right? Grrrrrr!!!
Procuring ships for 'the Southland' April 17, 2001
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
_The Confederate Navy in Europe_ is an account of the Confederate officers and officials who went on missions to Britain and France to buy ships for the CS Navy, and to support CSN operations on the high seas, such as commerce raiding. Spencer tells the story of how some officers rose to the occasion (some did less well) and did a lot with limited resources. The majority of the ships ordered never reached America. Shipbuilding takes time, and as the war dragged on the European powers were persuaded by Confederate battlefield misfortunes and US diplomatic pressure that it was most expedient to deny the sales of such innovative designs as ocean-going ironclads. Like other out-manned and out-gunned powers the CSA did have to resort to ingenuity and innovation. Speces does evaluate some of the ships ordered, and states that the navies that eventually ended up with these ships felt their performance to be mediocre. Still, it is an interesting bit of contrafactual speculation to imagine the CSN taking a small fleet of ocean-capable ironclads against Northern shipping and harbours. The European end of the well-known story of commerce raiding and ships as the Shenandoah and the Alabama is also covered here. I can recommend this book as a study of what people are able to do in pressed sitations. Of course, it is sad that their excellence comes to light in a state of war, and a civil war at that.
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