Midwatch in Verse: New Year's Deck Log Poetry of the United States Navy, 1941-1946

Naval deck logs require young officers to record mundane details of a ship's condition every few hours. According to a U.S. Navy tradition, the New Year's midwatch log--covering midnight to early morning of January 1--can be entered as poetry. Each chapter of this first book-length examination of midwatch poems presents verses written 1941-1946 aboard a ship engaged in combat during World War II, including celebrated warships like the USS Enterprise and nameless vessels like PC 1264. Historical overviews of the ships' operations, along with biographical sketches of the author(s), relate each poem to its moment in history.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Acknowledgments Preface Introduction USS Detroit: The Dashing “D” USS Finch: The Ultimate Indignity USS Dewey: The ­Whale-Struck USS Gilmer: Chasing Subs in Puget Sound USS New Orleans: The Coconut Log Bow USS Marblehead: The Long Journey Home USS Russell: A Highly Decorated Lady USS North Carolina: “Showboat” USS Aylwin: Surviving the Hurricane USS Casco: God Keep Our Ship USS Allen: The Old Girl USS Colorado: A Tale of Endurance USS Murphy: The Luck of the Irish USS Washington: Not Just Any Man Overboard USS Buchanan: The Scrapperoos USS Texas: Engage Until Neutralized USS Lansdowne: The Lucky L USS Dent: “There’s Nothing Like a Dame” USS Bush: A Brief and Tragic Glory USS Ringgold: A New Slant on Bunghole USS Mason: The Grand Experiment USS PC 1264: An Inglorious Fate USS Pennsylvania: “Old Falling Apart” USS South Dakota: Battleship X USS Ticonderoga: The Indestructible Captain Dixie USS Idaho: Perdition to Our Axis Foes USS Alabama: Very Well Done USS Enterprise: The Big E USS Huse: The Hunter Killer Conclusion Appendix A: Material Conditions in Navy Ships Appendix B: How Ships Get Their Names Appendix C: U.S. Navy Hull Designations in This Book Appendix D: Candid Comments by Poets in the Poems Appendix E: Non–World War II Poems References Index

About the Author :
David E. Johnson is an emeritus professor of psychology and a former president of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology. He has published articles, chapters, and books on the pedagogy of psychology. He lives in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where he continues his research and writing on U.S. Naval history. Gary Guinn, an emeritus professor of English, is the author of two novels, short fiction, and poetry. He served as a medical corpsman in the Naval Reserve from 1968 to 1974 and now lives in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

Review :
“A unique and original telling of the story of the US Navy in World War II. A humane and penetrating look at young officers in wartime called on to perform the most incongruous of duties—to write a poem in the place of a deck log. Midwatch in Verse informs, delights, and reveals a side of the US Navy known only to the few. Highly recommended.”—Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, Chief International Security and Diplomacy Analyst for NBC News, former Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and author of 2034: A Novel of the Next World War and To Risk It All: Nine Crises and the Crucible Of Decision “Midwatch in Verse reveals a side of sailors seldom seen in the thousands of articles and books written about the US Navy during the war. I definitely want a copy of this book to add to my collection of books on WWII.”—William Buskist, Professor Emeritus, Distinguished Professor of the Teaching of Psychology at Auburn University “It’s always delightful to come across something completely unexpected, and that’s what this work by Guinn and Johnson is—an unexpected delight.”—Patty Kirk, author of Confessions of an Amateur Believer, Starting from Scratch: Memoirs of a Wandering Cook, The Easy Burden of Pleasing God and The Gospel of Christmas.