The USS Macedonean (originally HMS) is largely forgotten today, but her legacy is intertwined with the early days and wellfare of the young American republic. She was the first English warship to be captured by the American Navy, and was instrumental to putting an end to the Barbary pirates, and even had a hand in the reopening of Japan to the world.

It is only fitting therefore that a book would be written about her. De Kay's book, "Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian" is an extremely entertaining read, one that well worth the time. There aren't many single ship biographies out there about the American sailing navy, which makes this book a solid gem.

Chronicling the Macedonean from her construction in a shipwayd in england, to her (What was left of her) final destruction at the hands of a fire in 1922, De Kay weaves a entertaining account of the ship, her glories and her more tarnished incidents. The true cast of character is diverse, ranging from the honorable John carden, who lost the Macedonian to the USS United States and never commanded a ship again, to Commodore James Biddle, who's own tenure as captain was filled with sickness and death on the ship, to "Commodore George DeKay" who successfully used the Macedonian to bring much needed relief to an Ireland suffering from famine.

The Macedonian's history was filled with political intruige, madmen, jealousy, courage, an death. De Kay chronicles it all in vivid color. If you enjoy C.S Forester, Patrick O'Brian, or Naval History, I'd strongly suggest this book.

You don't often find a biography of a ship. Especially a ship which has a history as rich and varied as this one. The lives, careers,countries this ship saw. Wonderful history. It ties time together and does what few teachers can, makes history live. With a broadside!

Fascinating account of how the capture of one ship from the British during the War of 1812 boosted national morale and elevated the United States in the international arena. De Kay skillfully illustrates how the US's leaders shrewdly manipulated the Macedonian's psychological power by sending her on highly visible missions. As a result, the Macedonian was there for over 100 years' worth of some of the US's most fascinating history, and captained by some of the most colorful officers in the United States Navy. De Kay masterfully ties the Macedonian's history with our history. Excellent!

The author has mastered the art of suspenseful writing and can make any dry history exciting. There is an amazing amount of information in this small book, and it is as exciting to read as any historical fiction novel. I read the author's other book on the Monitor and in both books he amazed me by his ability to end a paragraph or chapter and keep me in suspense for the next.

The Battle of Stonington is a book in a class by itself. It covers an obscure time and place in American history with a depth of detail and readability that recommend it to the serious scholar, the arm chair admiral, the general military buff and anyone who enjoys a good story.

DeKay writes in a fashion worthy of the best fiction. The Battle of Stonington may be described as a Tom Clancy novel written about the War of 1812. Like Clancy, DeKay writes with a high degree of both historic and techinical detail but, at the same time, creates enough dramatic tension to hold the attention of the reader.

There is, however, one key difference between DeKay and Clancy. DeKay's book is not fiction. Everything in the book is true. The persona dramatis range from immortal seafaring legends to humble but ingenious Yankee patriots. The story includes elements of duty, honor, ingenuity, courage, moral dilemas, patriotism and down right miracles.

How will a handful of militia men defend their homes and honor against five British warships commanded by a hero of the Battle of Trafalger with only three cannons? DeKay engroses the reader for page upon page of historic detail and mounting tension. Even the informed historian who knows the eventual outcome will gladly allow himself to be wrapped up in the story.

I exhort anyone with an interest in American military of naval history, or for that matter, any one who enjoy's a good yarn, to read this book. DeKay brings alive the stuff of which legends are made.

Can a small book by an obscure author possibly be this good? Read it for yourself and believe.

As a person who has spent a great portion of his life in the Borough of Stonington, a small colonial town in the southeast corner of Connecticut, it's difficult for me to imagine there being a book which could capture both my heart and mind to any greater degree than this one. For this is not simply a recollection of a long-forgotten battle in a relatively trivial arena, but the story of a small community struggling (and shining) through the onslaught of war. What amazes me most about this book is how clearly it paints a picture of an America in which our contemporary feelings of patriotism and national identity had not yet fully evolved. Stonington versus the British navy; Stonington versus New London (a city roughly 10 miles to the west); Americans versus Americans; a war seemingly on two fronts. This book completely shatters what little we have been taught about this war in the classroom. Contrary to mainstream beliefs on the subject, Mr. De Kay shows us a time and a place in which the war was just as much in our backyard as it was on our doorstep -- possibly even more so. In addition to the heroic displays of many Stoningtonians who successfully fought off what appears now to have been a somewhat half-hearted British bombardment, he shows us the less than heroic actions of numerous others who would have been more than happy to "go back" into the English fold and were not afraid to practice treachery to achieve this wish. And this is just one fascinating aspect to a book which is, overall, a truly wonderful read. Additionally, the author does a great job of introducing us to many of the area's inhabitants and showing us what life was like in that time. And his "coverage" of the particular battle in question is nothing short of remarkable. You feel as if you are there, fighting hand in hand alongside the people who you now know. In total, this book is astounding, and one which I highly recommend to anyone with a love for history. Far from being a textbook account, itis a very personal, digestible telling of a story we should, but don't, all already know about. And I am speaking not just for those of us with roots in New England, but for all Americans. For this, in a sense, is a microcosm of all of our histories. For we are all the product, at least to some degree, of our nation's past. Anyhow, this book is wel worth reading. It is as entertaining as a movie, with the factual content of a textbook........and well worth the admission price.

We have read a lot of biographies, but this one was different. I don't really know why. My son, 6, was captivated by this book. He now devours EVERYTHING he hears about Martin Luther King, Jr. My son learned about a man like himself in many ways who experienced difficulties and fought unfair laws just because of his color. He also learned about a man named Gandhi and the influence he had on Dr. King. I was so impressed by the impression that this book made on my son. And he recognized scenes from the book when we watched the movie "KING." Rarely does any book have this much impact on a young child. It definitely deserves 5 stars.

This is the perfect biography for kids around 8-12 years old to read. It has lots of information and is a little more advanced than a Martin Luther King biography you would find in a first grade classroom would be.This would also be a great book to read if a child has to do a report.

Astonishing revelations fill this book. Perhaps you thought that the American civil war was fought in America and was decided at Gettysburg. The story is not so simple. The English ruling class favored the South so strongly that they flaunted their own laws and found ways for the Confederacy to build and outfit raiders in England. These few raiders destroyed the American whaling fleet and ran insurance rates so high that the American mercantile fleet was driven from the seas (and suffers to this day). The cotton textile industry in England was in disaster. Workers were naked and hungry. The ruling class was on the verge of recognizing the South and forcing an armistice on the two parties. Then the North launched the most effective barrage of the war. Charity in the form of food and clothing came from the North to the unemployed textile workers in England. The English under class, against their own short-term interest made its voice heard, and England remained neutral.

Chap 1. Montgomery: Mallory, the Confederacy's Secretary of the Navy selects James Bulloch to build a raider navy in England. Mallory has never met nor heard of Bulloch, but on the recommendation of a mutual friend (Judah Benjamin, the Attorney General) and a brief interview decides Bulloch is the man. It was an excellent choice. Astonishing.

Chap 2. Liverpool: Bulloch arrives in Liverpool unexpected and with no credentials. He presents himself to a man he has never met, Charles Prioleau, the managing director of the Confederacy's unofficial English bank, who agrees to fund the venture. Astonishing. Prioleau introduces Bulloch to an English lawyer who sets about gutting English law to allow the building of warships, on the grounds that warships without guns aren't warships. Astonishing. Do these guys know a secret handshake?

Chap 3. Number 290: Bulloch contracts the building of warship 290. Obviously a warship, but without weapons, the customs inspector ignores it.

Chap 4. Nemesis: American Quaker, Thomas Dudley comes to England to oppose Bulloch.

Chap 5. The Enrica: 290 is named Enrica. Dudley and Bulloch vie.

Chap 6. The Passmore Affidavit: William Passmore, English able seaman attests that he was recruited to join the 290, with clear understanding that it was a warship for the South. This is clearly against English law.

Chap 7. Escape: The English drag their feet and Bulloch barely gets Enrica out of England.

Chap 8. Terceira: Enrica receives her guns and supplies in a neutral port. Semmes takes command. The ship becomes CSS Alabama.

Chap 9. First Blood: American whalers around Azores are destroyed by Alabama.

Chap 10. The Grand Banks: more destruction.

Chap 11. Off the Georges Bank: and more destruction.

Chap 12. The Pirate Semmes: battle in the press.

Chap 13.'An Instance of Sublime Christian Heroism' : England is close to meddling in US affairs. Not so astonishing if you are the biggest baddest nation on the planet. America sends charity to England. The English working class wins one for Lincoln. Astonishing.

Chap 14. USS Hatteras: Semmes lures Union gunboat USS Hatteras out into the Gulf of Mexico, sinks it, and rescues survivors.

Chap 15. Straws in the Wind: CSS Florida joins the war.

Chap 16. Brazil: more ships seized. CSS Georgia joins the battle. Semmes turns a captured ship into his auxiliary vessel.

Chap 17. The Laird Rams: At Laird's, Bulloch is building two seagoing ironclad rams that could pulverize the Union Navy's wooden ships, shell Union harbors, and turn the tide of the war. Congress debates whether to authorize a raider war on British mercantile shipping. The British begin to wonder about the beast they unleashed. They need not worry for about half a century. The US cabinet considers sending a squadron of ships to destroy the rams at dock. US envoy Adams informs Lord Russell that there will be war if the rams put to sea. Russell detains the rams. Astonishing.

Chap 18. Simon's Bay: CSS Alabama is getting worn out and the crew is getting surely. The Sea Bride is captured and sold. Semmes infuriates the crew by using the proceeds for operating funds instead of paying it out as prize money.

Chap 19. Singapore: Semmes finds that the American mercantile fleet won't come out of harbor.

Chap 20. To Cherbourg: Semmes takes Alabama to Cherbourg in France, looking for a dry dock and intending to pay off the crew and request replacement.

Chap 21. Battle: No dry dock facilities are available and the USS Kearsarge shows up. Semmes figures if he waits that more Union ships will show up, so that his best chance is to fight now. The CSS Alabama badly needs repair, is leaking, has moist powder, defective fuses, and broken machinery, but Semmes chooses to fight. Alabama is lost.

Chap 22. The Shenandoah: Bulloch purchases Bombay trader Sea King to be christened CSS Shenandoah, which destroys the American Pacific whaling fleet.

Chap 23. The Claims: the war is over and Britain finds that the side it did not support now has the largest, most-modern, most experienced Navy and Army in the world. The USN has double turreted sea going monitors that could destroy any British vessel without being scratched. The upstart is angry and dangerous and wants reparations. Congress passed a watered down neutrality act, based on the British act, that would allow Irish Republicans to outfit of merchant raiders in America and operate against Britain. Astonishing. Britain's government will not settle, but wealthy interests in England begin to consider that maybe they had more to loose by not settling.

Chap 24. Sumner's Speech: Senator Sumner gives a rousing speech in the senate attributing half the cost of the war to British perfidy. The speech is a sensation.

Chap 25. Geneva: Bismarck's German Confederacy emerges. Britain sees two dangerous upstarts that might unite against her. It looks like a really good idea to settle the Alabama claims.

Chap 26. l'Envoi: The precedent set by the Alabama tribunal eventually becomes international law. Astonishing.

James Tertius (is that Ter-tee-us, or Ter-shus?) de Kay is one of the most fun writers of military history alive. He's only hurt by the fact that he writes things on obscure and unusual topics, or treats them from an unusual angle. One of his books (Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian) is essentially a biography of a ship, and another (Monitor) is that combined with a portrait of the man who designed her. One book mainly recounts a battle (The Battle of Stonington) in which no one was killed. The Rebel Raiders recounts the Confederacy's efforts to build commerce raiders in Britain, and the American authorities' attempts, largely unsuccessful, to stop them.

The first portion of the narrative is devoted to the construction of the ships in Britain, and James Bulloch's efforts in this regard. The second portion recounts Raphael Semmes' cruise in command of the Alabama, culminating in the famous battle off Cherbourg. A third part, shorter than the other two, recounts the efforts of the American government after the war to recoup the losses suffered by the American merchant marine because of the Alabama's cruise. Many ships that weren't sunk were sold to the British, who wouldn't, of course, pay full price or sell them back after the war.

De Kay is especially good at personalities, and this story abounds with them. Bulloch and Semmes are portrayed as interesting characters, and Charles Francis Adams, the American minister in London (a 19th Century ambassador) is active throughout the story. It's fascinating.

I do have a few criticisms. There's no index, and the one map given is inadequate. There was an attempt to recount all of the vessels purchased in Britain during the war, but the Stonewall, which made it out of port, and wound up in Cuba only to find out the war was over, isn't mentioned. Perhaps he's left that out for another book.

Given all of that, this is a wonderful book, and I recommend it strongly.

James T. deKay's delightful book is a wonderful read for both left-handers and those who live with them. It contains amusing facts and anecdotes about the joys and troubles of living left-handedly in a right-handed world, with amusing illustrations on nearly every page. This is the perfect book for a smile or two, but it is far from substantial. Left-handers will love finding out just how unique - and wonderful - they are, and right-handers will enjoy the insight into a backwards world. James T. deKay has also written "The Natural Superiority of the Left-Hander", "The World's Greatest Left-Handers", and "Left-Handed Kids", if you are interested in further reading.

A great book for leftie's of all ages. Finally someone realizes our natural greatness! :o) Many interesting facts are included here that are sure to provide hours of enjoyment. Fascinating information will stupify those stubborn righties on why left is right! The easy to read format is great for lefty kids who'll also have fun dumbfounding their right-handed counterparts who try to make fun of them. :o)

Alot of detailed information well put together and very readable.

This slim volume recounts the history of USS Monitor which, in its famous engagement with the CSS Virginia (Merrimac) on March 9, 1862, rendered all wooden warships obsolete and initiated a naval arms race among world's navies that climaxed 80 years later in the Pacific battles of World War II.

Monitor's creator was a Swedish engineering prodigy named John Ericsson who had supervised 400 men as a canal engineer by age 16. For an 1829 railroad design competition built a steam locomotive that established a land speed record by covering a measured mile in 57 seconds (63 mph). But the contest sponsors changed the rules to defeat foreigner Ericsson and his attempts to provide innovate designs to the Royal Navy were also rejected. In frustration Ericsson emigrated to the United States and in 1837 invented the first practical screw propeller to drive steamships through the water.

In 1861 Union intelligence indicated the Confederates were rebuilding the scuttled former Union warship USS Merrimac as a heavily armed ironclad. If that ship (rechristened CSS Virginia but generally called simply "Merrimac"), broke the blockade of Hampton Roads then US coastal cities, including Washington, DC, would be vulnerable to attack. The Union needed an ironclad quickly, and Ericsson already had a plan!

Monitor's keel was laid in Brooklyn, NY on October 25, 1861, and Ericsson and his numerous subcontractors worked 108 days and nights until on February 9, 1862 USS Monitor was turned over to the Navy. Exactly one month later Monitor faced Merrimac at Hampton Roads. Objectively the battle was a tactical draw, but strategic victory went to the Union. The Union blockade was preserved, the Confederates remained bottled up and Britain and France, who were leaning toward supporting the South, decided to remain officially neutral.

This book tells the story of the design, construction, combat history, demise and legacy of USS Monitor in a well-written narrative format. It provides enough details for general readers interested in naval, engineering and civil war history. It may be too general for the serious buff, but I recommend it as an amazing tale to everyone else who wants to know more about this important historical event.

There are some small reproductions of period etchings and photos and a good map of the Hampton Roads battle area. The only thing missing are good schematics of Monitor's interior design.

....Like the Monitor itself, this book is short and concise and yet it packs quite a wallop. In a little more than two hundred well-written pages, Mr. DeKay manages to cram a lot. The book is all about the first ironclad warship of the U.S. Navy and its duel in Chesapeake Bay with the Confederate vessel Merrimac. The book starts with a biography of the ship's cantankerous Swedish inventor John Ericsson and his efforts to get the government bureaucracies of two continents to show interest in his his prophetic ideas for naval warfare (propeller engines, armor plating, torpedoes, revolving gun turrets). The book then talks about the labyrinthine maneuvers of Ericsson and his financial backers through the government contract process to get the ship built. Finally, the author describes in blow-by-blow detail the epic battle between the "cheesebox on a raft" Monitor and the vastly larger and better-armed Merrimac. Every page crackles with factual gems (e.g. The Civil War really was "brother against brother". The Merrimac's commander rammed and sank a Union ship while his brother was on board). Landlubbers and civilians need not be discouraged from reading this book. Engineering and naval concepts are presented in jargon-free language. The book can be finished in two or three days of casual reading. Great for the bathroom-er, uh, excuse me, head.

I discovered this book while browsing for quality literature to bring to my classroom. I read this book because it fits my third grade curriculum and has a low reading level. Meet Christopher Columbus is an excellent introduction to biographies and explorers. The format of the book allows for less experienced readers to read small parts of his life without being overwhelmed. The language is simple enough for children to comprehend the main idea and details presented without difficulty. The history is accurate and presented in a logical fashion. I recommend this to parents and teachers to help students learn about Columbus as well as improve their reading!

Not what I expected at all. If you are looking for a serious study of the left-hander THIS ISN'T IT. This is a childrens book, however it is a very funny one. The book cracked me up, probably worth what I paid for it. Good to read to children asking about left handers. It even has childrens pictures.

Although filled with interesting trivia about some famous left-handers, it only takes about 15 minutes to read. A lot of the information is common knowledge and several very famous left-handed athletes and artists are left off of the list. A quick, painless read. This book is probably better suited as a "pick-me-up" book to read to a left-handed child who feels like he or she doesn't belong in a right-handed world.