A.A. Hoehling is a first-rate historical storyteller and has chosen in this work a format admirably suiting his talents. His subjects include such familiar "incidents" as the duel of the "Monitoe' and the "Merrimack," the Union penetration of Mobile Bay, and the cruise of the "Alabama." More interesting for both the casual reader and the specialist are Hoehling's accounts of W.B. Cushing's sinking of the Confederate ram "Albemarle" with an improvised spar torpedo boat, remote ancestor of today's fast attack craft; and his gripping description of the engineering tour de force by which Union Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bailey saved the gunboat flotilla that accompanied the ill-fated Red River Expedition of 1864. The career of the Confederate "submersible-H.L. Hunley" is a monument to the cold courage of the successive crews who "took her down" time after time despite her record as a man-killer. And from war's lighter side, Hoehling offers the tale of the Union steamer "Idahoe," which in 1863 received an unusual cargo: prostitutes expelled from the city of Nashville as a threat to the health and morals of the city's Union garrison. This work has no serious analytical pretensions. Nevertheless, Hoehling's anecdotes do more than many a scholarly account to establish the complex nature of the naval war. A chapter on ferryboats converted to gunboats highlights the need of shallow-draft craft for brown-water missions. Another discusses the loss of the ironclad "Indianole' during the Vicksburg campaign and shows how both Union and Confederate naval forces suffered when inexperienced commanders faced unusual situations. The concluding chapter, a first-person narrative of the cruise of the raider "C.S.S. Shenandoah," demonstrates the difficulties of waging a guerre de course with steamers. Damn the Torpedoes! is a casual evening's reading that leaves a pleasant intellectual aftertaste. -- From Independent Publisher

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Since its opening in 1991 within the premises of a small model factory at Alnwick Station, Barter Books has grown well beyond original expectations. Starting off in what was the ticket and parcel office of the original Station, the bookshop has expanded down the platforms and through the waiting rooms, until it now covers over one-quarter of the whole Station site. This translates into an area exceeding 8000 square feet and containing over 350,000 books on more than three miles of shelving. Now houses the Famous Writers Mural - 40 feet long by 18 feet high. The bookshop also sells secondhand DVDs, videos and music (CDs, LPs, cassettes, sheet music), as well as a small but growing section of artists' prints. And then there are the shop's many extra features! These include an open fire in the winter, coffee and cookies, a model railway running above the book columns, a mini-cybercafe, generous seating and browsing areas, a children's room, and dozens of glass cases containing many of the more interesting antiquarian books. A final note: during the enlargement process the owners took (and are taking!) particular pleasure in restoring, as they can, various features of the Station. This so far includes the original North Eastern Railway cast iron fireplaces, two of the Station clocks, a drinking fountain, and various waiting rooms. Most dramatic of all, however, was the restoration of part of the glass roof. That was when we all stood about watching as the sun came streaming in for the first time in many years to bring the wonderful old Station visually back to life. The very latest addition has been a forty foot mural celebrating the names of those who worked at Alnwick Station in its railway days - over 400 names plus the coats of arms of the three railway companies involved.

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Barter Books Ltd
Alnwick Station, Wagonway Road, Alnwick, NE66 2NP, United Kingdom

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