Fwd: 1976 REBELS UNDER SAIL - Fwd: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History

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Begin forwarded message:

From: James Renwick Manship
Date: October 11, 2006 10:52:48 AM EDT
To: RADM Paul Tobin
Subject: 1976 REBELS UNDER SAIL - Fwd: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History

Dear Admiral Tobin,

In my writer's retreat here in the beautiful Blue Ridge, no longer am I in the beach cottage nearly in sight of the finest Navy in the world.

However, in the 8000 volume library here, with walls covered with pictures of sailing ships, I found the 1976 published book:

REBELS UNDER SAIL: The American Navy during the Revolution,

by William M. Fowler, Jr., where the research and writing was funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

On the dust jacket is written, "Fowler describes how a small group of delegates to Congress, led by John Adams and strongly supported by Washington, labored to form a powerful fighting fleet."

On page 29 is written, "...as it related to naval activities, the suggestion made by some historians that Washington somehow had to be convinced of the need to commission vessels seems out of place. He would have been a poor commander not to have employed the weapons at his disposal. He hardly needed to have it pointed out to him that the enemy was totally dependent upon their sea lanes for supplies and this was their most vulnerable point...."

"If he could arm and equip vessels along the North and South shores of Massachusetts Bay, he could intercept these ships and take their valuable cargoes to fill his much depleted magazines."

"Colonel John Glover of the Marblehead regiment, a sea captain and merchant himself, offered the charter of his schooner "Hannah", while the men of the "Webfoot Regiment" eagerly volunteered to sign on." (note 11)

And of course the Liberty Tree flag flew on the first Navy ship commissioned, "Hannah".

In the Introduction are some sage words:

"And so the commemorative bandwagon rolls along at a ponderable rate, but occasionally in a splurge of historical hoopla it runs away with itself. Such may well be the case during America's Bicentennial."

"Naval historians should be especially aware of contracting Bicentennial fever with its alarming symptom of verbal (Ed. Note: ...and "legendary image" Fake Snake inflation) inflation, for in the past one whiff of sea air has carried many away to an ethereal plane where all is glory, romance and John Paul Jones."

"To be sure, the American Revolution was, as Alfred Thayer Mahan would quickly testify, a naval war."

"Compared to the enemy's squadrons, the Continental navy was a puny force. Nevertheless, against overwhelming odds, they ventured to sea, and in their own way, both by victory and defeat, they helped to achieve independence. For that they deserve to be remembered."


Could you ask CDR Eric Berryman or CAPT Brayton Harris (who resurrected the fabricated, albeit well-meaning "Fake Snake" Navy Jack Flag of the Bicentennial) or any of the rest of their team if they had consulted William Fowler who was doing his research for his 1976 book when they re-created the legendary Fake Snake Flag a few years before, or if any of that team had read the book by William Bell Clark, George Washington's Navy, published in Baton Rouge in 1960?

Very respectfully,

James Renwick Manship, Sr.
LCDR, USNR
Director, FirstNavyFlag.US

Begin forwarded message:

From: James Renwick Manship
Date: October 11, 2006 8:07:20 AM EDT
To: RADM Paul Tobin
Subject: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History

Dear Admiral Tobin,

The attached Navy letter with imbedded images of the 1872 Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, and a description of a book by your predecessor, RADM Preble.

I will be interested to see your response.

V/R, James Renwick Manship, (once upon a time, seemingly long, long ago, LCDR, USNR -- keep smiling!)