War history includes the development and evolution of the instruments with which it is fought.  When I began this read, I was expecting to find an exposition on how the grounding of the USS Tennessee was a turning point in the modernization of the US Navy.  I actually found that the theme of the book is the second clause of the subtitle – “the Rise of the US Navy” – of which the grounding of the Tennessee is merely one, though a recurring, story.

Tennessee’s  operational  career  as  an  armored  cruiser  spanned  just  over  11  years  from  1906  to  1917.  In  1916,  it  was  renamed  the  Memphis  to  free  the Tennessee  name  for  a  new  battleship. During  its  career,  it  transported  Presidents  Theodore  Roosevelt  and  William  Howard  Taft  to  Panama  for  inspections of canal construction. In 1907 the cruiser participated in the naval review  associated  with  the  Jamestown  Exposition,  held  from  7  to  11  June  1907 to commemorate the tricentennial of the founding of the first English settlement  in  America.  The  outbreak  of  World  War  I disrupted  commercial  sailings  and  financial  transactions,  leaving  Americans  scrambling  for transportation home. On 6 August 1914 the Tennessee sailed out of anchorage at Tompkinsville, Staten Island, for Falmouth, England with only a navigation complement, barely enough crew to sail safely, but not a “fighting crew”.  Its ammunition holds were loaded with three bags of $50,000 each in double eagle gold pieces as part of a shipment of $1.5 million in US government money and $3 million in private money to satisfy expenses and secure transportation for expatriate Americans. The Tennessee spent about a year in the eastern  Mediterranean  protecting  American  interests  until  the  ship’s  return  trip in August 1915, carrying “seven carloads of English gold” to safekeeping in the United States and Canada. By then renamed Memphis, the vessel was participating in American intervention in the Dominican Republic when it was wrecked by a hurricane that left the Tennessee aground and unsalvageable.

That is the story of Tennessee’s service and wreckage, but an even bigger part  of  the  story  is  the  second  part  of  the  subtitle,  The  Rise  of  the  US  Navy, beginning in 1881. The Civil War Navy was obsolete and retired. In the words of  William  Hunt,  Navy  Secretary:  “The  condition  of  the  Navy  imperatively  demands  the  prompt  and  earnest  attention  of  Congress.  Unless  some  action  be had ... it must soon dwindle into insignificance ... We have been unable to make such an appropriate display of our naval power abroad as will cause us to be respected ... It is a source of mortification to our officers and fellow countrymen  generally,  that  our  vessels  of  war  should  stand  in  such  mean  contrast alongside those of other and inferior ”.

The navy’s rise began with the 1884 appropriation. Dolphin, Atlanta, Boston and Chicago introduced steel hulls to the fleet. By 1898, the rise was sufficient to decimate the Spanish fleets in Manilla and of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish-American War that put an end to the Spanish Empire. Lessons from the Spanish-American war that a heavily-armed cruiser like Tennessee could outrun anything it could not outfight lasted until the Royal Navy’s Dreadnoughtmade  them  obsolete  in  1906.  The  acquisition  of  an  American  island  empire  gave rise to the Anti-Imperialist League whose leaders, including industrialist Andrew Carnegie, labour leader Samuel Gompers, Harvard professor William James, and Mark Twain became the conscience of America and questioned its need for a navy. President Theodore Roosevelt made a statement as he sent the Great White Fleet around the world in 1908.

The advent of U-boats during World War I changed naval warfare as they threatened to starve Britain into submission. The USN responded with a shift to  wooden  submarine  chasers,  harbor 

patrol  boats,  and  destroyers.  Naval  preparation notwithstanding, American mothers “didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier”.   When war did come, six new Tucker-class destroyers were the first Americans over there. The USN suffered few combatant ship losses at sea and none in classical big-gun, ship-on-ship duels.

World  War  I  did  end,  and  Nashville  became  the  home  of  the  largest  remaining  portions  of  the  Tennessee/Memphis. The  narrative  concludes  with  the  successor  Tennessee  moored along  Ford  Island  in  Pearl  Harbor  on  7  December 1941, but that is another story.

War History Network members  will  appreciate  “Hard  Aground “ for  its  extensive chronicle of the evolution of the USN from the remnants of the Civil War fleet through two wars and to the cusp of another. The intermittent one-to-two-page  snippets  of  artwork  featured  in  Puck  magazine  or  paintings  of  maritime themes situate naval history in the context of social milieu. Secondary sources  are  liberally  quoted.  The  index  is  helpful  in  locating  topics  and  the  bibliography  is  a  guide  to  further  reading.  Author  Andrew  C.A.  Jampoler  has  crafted  a  tome  broader  than  its  title  suggests.  Begin  reading  this  book  with  broad  expectations  and  let  the  text  narrow  them,  rather  than  expecting  Tennessee to be the focus. If it has a weakness, it is in its meandering breadth in contrast to linear development found in many accounts. That recognized, it is a worthwhile read.