Customer Reviews

Manila And Santiago: The New Steel Navy in the Spanish-American War

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Manila & Santiago: The New Steel Navy in the Spanish-American War", by Jim Leeke, is an excellent modern work on the two major naval battles of the Spanish American War. The book focuses on the naval modernization efforts (or lack thereof) between 1865-1890; the commanders who fought the battles; and a third-person narrative description of the battles. Leeke's writing style is easy to read and suitable for most readers.

The first major naval battle of the war took place in Manila, Phillipines, on May 1, 1898. Admiral George Dewey and his Asiatic squadron engaged the Spanish fleet at anchor in Manila Bay. Leeke provides a narrative of the battle as experienced through the eyes of the men who fought the battle.

Leeke repeats this perspective in his coverage of the second major naval battle at Santiago de Cuba. Like most wartime engagements, it happened purely by chance. The spanish fleet sailed from continental Europe. The Americans did not know the destination of the fleet, but were able to make some educated guesses regarding the likely destinations. The ships under command of Commodore Winfield Scott Schley and Admiral "Fighting Bob" Evans eventually stumbled upon the Spanish ships anchored in the protected harbor of Santiago de Cuba. After a few months of a naval blockade, the Spanish fleet made a run for safety and the battle finally took place.

Leeke discusses very briefly the combined Army-Navy operations that took place around Santiago de Cuba, which is no surprise given the book's obvious focus on the major naval battles of the war.

Leeke provides an extensive bibliography and the text is well-footnoted. The publication dates for the bibliography range from 1898 through 2000, with a majority of the sources coming from before 1925.

The book includes 12 pages of black and white photos of the ships and sailors who fought. In addition, the book includes a few charts to assist the reader in understanding the overall battle. These charts were clean & simple making it very easy to understand the layout of ships involved in the battles.

I was very impressed with the book. It's expertly researched; easy to read; and a great story. The aftermath of the book analyzes the impact of these two decisive naval battles, each marking the end of a Spanish fleet -- one in the Pacific & one in the Carribean. I would highly recommend this book for naval history enthusiasts.

This is an excellent treatment of these two famous naval battles of the Spanish American War. It provides good detail and in depth treatment of the battles and what led up to them. My only criticism would be that I would have liked to have seen more information on the ships involved as well. But this is only a minor point. The history treatment is excellent. If your naval history libray is lacking for resources on this period this would be a good addition.

Mr. Leeke does a good job of updating our knowledge of the two major sea battles of the Spanish-American War, and he does so with an admirable economy of words. He provides a brief summary of the causes of the war and how each nation reacted to the outbreak of hostilities. I especially liked how he outlined the professional experiences of the senior US commanders, all of whom began their naval careeers during the Civil War. Mr. Leeke addresses the logistics of both sides and how those logistics affected the commanders' approaches to the battles. His accounts of the actual battles are succinct but clear, with good appreciations of the constraints acting on the respective commanders. A brief summary of the post-war situation closes out the book and completes the picture.

My only complaint is with the overly simplified charts. The chart of the Manila battle details the movements of the US ships, but doesn't even depict the locations of the Spanish ships. For the Santiago battle, the chart shows the initial positions of the US ships and the final positions of the Spanish ships, with nothing to indicate the maneuvers of the battle.

"You may fire when you are ready, Gridley." This famous quotation is known by plenty of people who don't know who Gridley was, or who gave the famous order, or what the battle was. One of the reasons the quotation is famous is that it was uttered by Commodore George Dewey, who after his rousing victory in Manila in 1898 became a naval hero to every true American at the time. One of the reasons the situation for the quotation is obscure is that Dewey's effort was part of the Spanish-American War, about which even its most famous participant, Teddy Roosevelt, said, "It wasn't much of a war but it was the only war we had." But the war was no negligible comic-operetta conflict. Its two main naval engagements are the subject of _Manila and Santiago: The New Steel Navy in the Spanish-American War_ (Naval Institute Press) by Jim Leeke. Yes, it was a little war, especially compared to the big Civil War before and World War One after. And yes, victory got us involved in the Philippines and in Cuba in ways that may have caused us more difficulties than the victory was worth. But Leeke, a Navy veteran, journalist, and historian, has shown how the war brought the U. S. Navy onto the world's stage as a real player, and how the Navy learned lessons that were going to pay in not only the First but also the Second World War. Leeke also brings into focus a forgotten part of the war; the victory of Dewey at Manila was celebrated and is still remembered, but who remembers the possibly more important victory of Sampson at Santiago?

The Union Navy had played its role in the Civil War; it was the most modern fleet in the world. The war won, the Navy "started disintegrating into a rotting, impotent force that would have been hard-pressed to defeat a fifth-rate banana republic." With Theodore Roosevelt acting as the secretary of the navy, Dewey assumed command of the Asiatic fleet, and after the sinking of the _Maine_, he steamed into Manila. He was lucky; the Spaniards put up a gallant fight, but their ships were older, smaller, weaker, and wooden hulled. The unexpected, speedy, and total victory proved to be a sensation for national pride. The victory of the Atlantic squadron in Santiago, Cuba, was just as decisive and influential, but it was far less dramatic. Rear Admiral William Sampson was in charge of the fleet that blockaded the fortified harbor of Santiago, where the Spanish cruisers had taken refuge. There was some rivalry between different commanders in the fleet, and some confusion because Sampson was beginning to show what was probably early Alzheimer's, but the main lack of drama was because of the inherent static nature of a blockade. After two months, the fleet of the Spanish Admiral Cervera was ordered (against his better judgement) to leave the harbor, and American ships quickly scuttled the Spanish ones. Cervera was an interesting character; he had impressed the Americans with his polite note to them assuring them that American prisoners he had taken were safe and had his admiration for their bravery. After his defeat, he was congratulated by the victors for his heroic fight, and when he was transferred later to Annapolis and to New York to wait out the end of the war, he was a celebrity. Americans respected his gentlemanliness and courtesy, and gathered on the streets to shake his hand. He returned to Spain, became a senator, and had a soft spot toward America for the rest of his life.

The naval victories validated the Navy to be the Big Stick which Roosevelt would brandish when he became president. As Leeke's entertaining and thoughtful analysis shows, the great effect of the war was a new elevation of the Navy's status. In evaluating naval performance during the war, tacticians found that greatest of its shortcomings was its poor gunnery performance, with something like 2% of shells hitting their targets; the guns succeeded because those of the Spaniards performed even worse. The Navy was to begin applying the gunnery principles of British Admiral Scott, instituting regular target practice and innovations in shipboard ordinance. The battles at Santiago and Manila had shown convincingly how essential a robust Navy was to an America taking its part among other nations, and Congress quickly authorized new cruisers and battleships, all of which would become part of Roosevelt's celebrated Great White Fleet. The war with Spain may not have been much of a war, but it was the start of a new and modern Navy.

Well researched, detailed description of historic characters, describes the development of US Navy's capacity to wage sea-based warfare and extend its area of influence to displace another country's sphere of influence.
Historically probably very accurate from the US perspective. The book is not very readable - I feel it could have been written in a more dramatic and better paced style - overall a bit dry. Some photos are there - but more maps and drawings of ships would have added value. A rare topic to be covered.

I was in the Navy with Mr. Leeke, and I am amazed at how much I didn't know about a relatively recent time in naval history. I found the book well constructed and it filled in many holes in my knowledge about the period and allowed me to contrast it to my time on board ship in the '70's. All in all, a very good read while being instructive at the same time. What more could one expect?

This is one of the best written books abouth The US Navy during the Spanish American War that I have ever read. It is told with references to the key officers ad politicians that shaped the navy in the period from the Civil War to The Spanish American War.It's only problem is that most of the pictures are of the individuals of the action in Manila bay than of ships or the battle off of Santiago,though that is not altogether a bad thing the picture section could have been better

Anyone interested in the Spanish-American War or the development of the "steel navy" will find Jim Keene's book on the two decisive naval battles of that splendid little war very entertaining and informative. Crsiply written and well pictured and illustrated. A winner!

If you don't know who George Dewey is, where Manila is located, or what the USS Olympia accomplished, then "Manila and Santiago" is the book for you. But if you are looking for anything more than an elementary recounting of the two major naval battles of the Spanish-American War, you are likely to be disappointed.

I was excited to see a new book come out on a sorely overlooked topic, but it turns out Jim Leeke just rehashed the same old stuff... literally. The bulk of his work is derived from autobiographical works of the major participants (Dewey, Sampson, Schley), as well as period books and journals published in the year or so after the conflict. Even the photos in the book appear to be halftone pictured lifted from these publications.

One of the problems with this is that many of the books were not exactly impartial or even first-hand accounts. Yellow journalism was a major factor in that war, and similar journalistic embellishments continued after the conflict as well. A major debate arose after the Battle of Santiago, as to who deserved the credit for the victory - Sampson or Schley (Leeke falls into the Sampson camp). Dewey also made an ill-advised presidential run in 1900, so it is possible his autobiography may have had some embellishment as well. In any case, I would be careful with any of the information gleaned from books from this period, unless looked at in context and with a critical eye.

The content in this book is essentially a straightforward chronological recounting of events, with a brief historical overview of the naval service of the key players during Civil War and "Doldrums" period of the 1870s. But this overview was so thin it didn't provide anything more than a brief thumbnail sketch of the major figures. For example, in Chapter 2, Leeke recounts how Dewey had some fatalistic draw to Manila during the Virginus Affair, but doesn't examine this in any detail. The author also devotes two brusque paragraphs to examine Dewey's marriage and the emotional blow if the premature death of his wife. While I realize this book wasn't intended to focus on Dewey's domestic life, the treatment of the event came across as a bit cold. But this is representative of the stark, unfleshed out personality sketches he makes of the major participants.

The subtitle of this book is "The New Steel Navy in the Spanish-American War", but Leeke's analysis of the technology and political state of the Steel Navy fell way short. For example, on page 24 he devotes a paragraph to discuss the design of the USS Maine. "Her original designation was Armored Cruiser No. 1... Reclassified as a second-class battleship, shorn of sails, the Maine now fit uneasily into any category." Leeke could have delved into significant, underlying reasons why the Maine was designed this way, but doesn't bother.

For example there was significant political debate around the development of the Steel Navy in the late 1880s and into the 1890s that directly shaped the configuration of the fleet during the Spanish-American War. President Cleveland and his Navy Secretary, William C. Whitney, were generally opposed to an offensive naval force, while the Harrison Administration and Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Tracy, wanted a more powerful blue water navy.

Much of this debate was rooted in whether the United States Navy should be capable of projecting it's power globally, or to remain a mostly domestic defensive force. This mirrored pro vs. anti-imperialist debates that became a contentious issue during and after the Spanish-American War. The design of the USS Maine and the later Indiana class battleships (as well as the cruiser Olympia) mirrored naval policy changes between the Cleveland and Harrison Administrations. The absence of any sort of discussion in Leeke's book shows a complete lack of depth of analysis. Additionally, economic and technical constraints are only briefly examined by the author.

The author's recounting of the events around the battles is fairly straightforward; if a bit thin on detail and analysis. One good thing is he stays on topic, avoiding straying too much into the many smaller naval operations or the land campaign.

I hoped this book would help kick start interest in the Spanish American War. But alas, it is so basic it doesn't generate any critical mass of interest in the subject. You can get almost as much information from relevant Wikipedia articles than you can with this book, and it won't cost you 20 dollars.

MANILA AND SANTIAGO: THE NEW STEEL NAVY IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
JIM LEEKE
NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS, 2009
HARDCOVER, 29.95, 192 PAGES, PHOTOGRAPHS, CHARTS, BIBLIOGRAPHY


The origins of the Spanish-American War lay in American support for the independence of Cuba from Spain. Spain's brutal suppression of Cuban insurgents horrified the American public. The U.S. government sought a diplomatic solution, but the explosion and sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, while on a goodwill mission, made a successful diplomatic outcome problematic. President McKinley ordered the U.S. Navy to blockade Cuba on 21 April 1898 and Congress declared war on April 24, 1898. The U.S. Navy had started planning for a war with Spain in 1895, when the Naval War College began an exercise to identify the options available to the U.S. Navy. These options were seen as: a direct attack on Spain; an attack on Spain's Pacific colonies of the Philippines and Guam; or an attack on Spain's colonies in the Caribbean, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Over the next several years, the options were re-worked with input from the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and reviews by a planning board that reported to the Secretary of the Navy. In this process, the first option of a direct attack on Spain was ruled out. Author Jim Leeke's MANILA AND SANTIAGO: THE NEW STEEL NAVY IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR places the reader in these crucial battles that firmly established the United States as a world power and establshed the validity of Mahan's The Influence Of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783. An outstanding and well researched account.


Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida