Ships That Changed History

In his 27th book, Hoehling ( Lost at Sea ) focuses on the most important seagoing vessels of the past two centuries. He begins with the mid-19th-century clipper ships, the fastest freight carriers of their day, which were made obsolete by the even faster steamships used during the Civil War. Among the iron vessels he covers are the 700-foot-long Great Eastern , which boasted accommodations for 4000 passengers (it turned out to be a white elephant), and the U.S.S. Monitor , built for the North in the Civil War, which proved that ``steel navies'' were the battle fleets of the future. The ships that shaped events in this century include the Lusitania, which was torpedoed by a U-boat in 1915 (124 Americans died), increasing pressure on the U.S. to enter WW I; the Dunkirk fleet, which saved 339,000 troops from capture by the German army in 1940; and the U.S.S. Arizona, since 1941 a symbol of America's disastrous unpreparedness at Pearl Harbor. Hoehling's text is highly readable, although the quote-ridden chapter on the Arizona is disappointing. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Nov.)