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For quit some while I have wanted to acquire The History of the American Sailing Navy written by Howard I. Chapelle. Every now and then I would go on-line to see about buying it used only to see a high price and then add in the exchange rate to finally say forget it! However last week I was thinking why not see about an inter-library loan and... low and behold our local University had the book. What I really wanted was complete information on the Gunboat Navy for my Lone Warriors article and Away Boarders naval board game. To my surprise Chapelle devotes 63 pages to the aforementioned topic with lots of illustrations and line drawings of vessels. The gun boat vessels in the US Navy are very unique and there was some cutting edge designs put forward to combat the British dominance of the sea ports along the eastern sea cost and in particular the War of 1812-1816. The book I received is 558 pages in length which includes; Illustrations, Plans, Text Figures, and nice introduction with acknowledgements. Chapters include; The Colonial Period The Continental Navy, 1775-1785 The Federal Navy, 1785-1801 The Gun Boat Navy, 1801-1812 The War Navy, 1812-1816 The Post War Navy, 1816-1830 The Bureaucratic Navy, 1830-1840 The Last years of Sail, 1840-1855 which focuses on Barks and Brigs My copy is a 1949 version and is dedicated in memory to the late Mr. George C. Wales Marine Artist. At the beginning of the book there is a nice colored print by Mr. Wales showing the President and Endymion exchanging broadsides (January 15, 1815) courtesy of the Marine Historical Association, Mystic, Connecticut. Mr. Chapelle went to great pain to ensure the reader is informed of how the American Navy came to be and what the issues where in its infancy to its consummation. Lots of drawings and prints for the ship bottler to ponder. For me it was a history lesson on the development of the gun boats and they are an interesting breed of vessels on to their own. The appendix alone is worth the purchase if you are an naval enthusiast or historian. Jeff