{"id":3434,"date":"2017-06-25T22:47:25","date_gmt":"2017-06-25T13:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/?p=3434"},"modified":"2017-07-06T17:44:34","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T08:44:34","slug":"this-weeks-re-review-lone-star-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/this-weeks-re-review-lone-star-navy\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week’s Re-review – Lone Star Navy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I write a weekly book review for the Daily News of Galveston County<\/em>. It is not the biggest newspaper in Texas, but it is the oldest. I have been doing this for over a decade. In 2006 two books came out at separate times about the Texas Navy. Although you may never have heard of the Texas Navy, it was important both to the survival of Texas as a republic, and as a result to the history of the United States. I reviewed both. I am reprinting the first one this week, and will do the other next week.<\/p>\n

Nonfiction work full of unbelievable stories<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Mark Lardas<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Daily News<\/p>\n

Published April 30, 2006<\/p>\n

You may have never heard of the Texas Navy. Maybe you thought it on par with Horse Marines or the Swiss Navy. The Republic of Texas not only had a navy, but it was the biggest single reason that Mexico failed to retake its breakaway province during the Texas War of Independence or the decade that Texas spent as an independent nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cLone Star Navy<\/a>\u201d tells the story of the Texas Navy. More than that, author Jonathan Jordan explains why the Texas Navy was so vital to the Republic\u2019s existence and why the navy\u2019s contributions were so quickly and completely forgotten. And here\u2019s the good news: Jordan makes his case with engaging prose.<\/p>\n

Before railroads, the sea was the only way to move large amounts of material into or out of Texas.<\/p>\n

The Texas Navy never had more than four ships simultaneously at sea during its lifetime, but its influence over the Republic was enormous. It was one of the first navies to commit a steam-powered warship to combat. It was also the first \u2014 and only \u2014 navy to fight steam warships with a force of wooden sailing vessels and win.<\/p>\n

This is the canvas of facts Jordan used in his book. Yet, as much as \u201cLone Star Navy\u201d is a great adventure tale told entertainingly, it is also serious history. For while he does tell the often-raucous saga of the Texas Navy, he meticulously researched every fact presented.<\/p>\n

\u201cLone Star Navy\u201d is very readable. If you are a fan of novels by Patrick O\u2019Brien, you are as likely to be entertained by this book. Jordan\u2019s work has one advantage over fiction. Many of the events he describes would not be believable had they occurred in a novel. Yet, the improbable mix of personalities, ships, and events that made up the Texas Navy, as presented by Jordan, is not just a great sea story. It actually happened.<\/p>\n

Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, amateur historian, and model-maker, lives in League City. His website is\u00a0<\/em>marklardas.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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I write a weekly book review for the Daily News of Galveston County<\/em>. It is not the biggest newspaper in Texas, but it is the oldest. I have been doing this for over a decade. In 2006 two books came out at separate times about the Texas Navy. Although you may never have heard of the Texas Navy, it was important both to the survival of Texas as a republic, and as a result to the history of the United States. I reviewed both. I am reprinting the first one this week, and will do the other next week.<\/p>\n

Nonfiction work full of unbelievable stories<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Mark Lardas<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Daily News<\/p>\n

Published April 30, 2006<\/p>\n

You may have never heard of the Texas Navy. Maybe you thought it … Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5645,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3435,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434\/revisions\/3435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}