Another New Book... Captain James Carlin

[JohnDLittlefield]

Captain James Carlin: Anglo-American Blockade Runner (2017) by Colin Carlin (descendent of James Carlin)
University of South Carolina Press, 275 pp.

I have been in contact with the author, James Carlin, for a few months. Nice guy and very helpful. He sent me the last draft of the manuscript before publication since it was going to take several weeks (or months) to get a copy sent to Turkey and I needed/wanted to read the book for possible new info to use in my manuscript. Now, I have a proper copy of the book and am enjoying it.

James Carlin was not only a blockade runner, but the Commander of Francis Lee's Torch, the mostly failed attempt at a torpedo boat made for the Confederate Navy. Since Carlin was a British citizen, his involvement with the Confederate war effort and his involvement with Torch made his particiation in the war potentially legally problematic. Makes for a good read. Interesting book. Well written and worthy of the purchase price.

 

[USS ALASKA]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1611177138/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

"Colin Carlin has produced a ground-breaking work that lifts the veil off the all-important ship captains who supplied the Confederacy with the necessary supplies to sustain its fight for independence. The author does a superb job in relating the story of his relative, James Carlin, a key member of the cadre of captains who sustained the Confederacy by running supplies through the Northern blockade on specialized vessels … A sweeping story from England to Charleston, Florida, and Cuba. This book is a must."

-Stephen R. Wise, author of Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running during the Civil War

Indeed sir - the author has a few posts on CWT. And with a thumbs up from Stephen Wise!

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Already on my Amazon Wish List.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Captain James Carlin: Anglo-American Blockade Runner
By Colin Carlin
Studies in Maritime History.(Columbia:University of South Carolina Press, 2017. Pp. xxiv, 275. $34.95, ISBN 978-1-61117-713-8.)

Until recently, historians have typically given short shrift to the naval aspects of the American Civil War, often treating the war at sea as a sideshow of peripheral importance. In the past decade or so, however, with the general revival of interest in the history of the Civil War, many books have been published on various aspects of the naval war that redress the previous landlubber historiographical imbalance. With regard to the literature on blockade-runners, it must be noted that although these vessels were primarily crewed by British and European sailors, many works have been written from an almost entirely American perspective. In this respect, Colin Carlin's intimate portrait of his ancestor, British Confederate James Cornelius Carlin(1833–1921), who was among the successful captains who ran the blockade of Confederate ports, provides a potentially welcome addition to literature on the blockade.

Researching blockade-runners is a complicated process, owing to the clandestine nature of such activities. Colin Carlin uses source materials located in archives in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States to reconstruct the story of James Carlin's career, and he should certainly be commended for that. The author also provides clear and useful maps and many well-chosen illustrations that illuminate James Carlin's exploits and encounters. Altogether, Captain James Carlin: Anglo-American Blockade Runner will appeal primarily to a general readership interested in the maritime affairs of the Confederacy rather than to Civil War scholars.

Full review can be found here - https://www.academia.edu/36877167/J...n_James_Carlin_Anglo-American_Blockade_Runner
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Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[JohnDLittlefield]

(duplicate post- deleted)

 

[5fish]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1611177138/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

Captain James Carlin is a biography of a shadowy nineteenth-century British Confederate, James Carlin (1833-1921), who was among the most successful captains running the U.S. Navy's blockade of Southern ports during the Civil War. Written by his descendent Colin Carlin, Captain James Carlin ventures behind the scenes of this perilous trade that transported vital supplies to the Confederate forces.

An Englishman trained in the British merchant marine, Carlin was recruited into the U.S. Coastal and Geodetic Survey Department in 1856, spending four years charting the U.S. Atlantic seaboard. Married and settled in Charleston, South Carolina, he resigned from the survey in 1860 to resume his maritime career. His blockade-running started with early runs into Charleston under sail. These came to a lively conclusion under gunfire off the Stono River mouth. More blockade-running followed until his capture on the SS Memphis. Documents in London reveal the politics of securing Carlin's release from Fort Lafayette.

On his return to Charleston, General P. G. T. Beauregard gave him command of the spar torpedo launch Torch for an attack on the USS New Ironsides. After more successful trips though the blockade, he was appointed superintending captain of the South Carolina Importing and Exporting Company and moved to Scotland to commission six new steam runners.

After the war Carlin returned to the southern states to secure his assets before embarking on a gun-running expedition to the northern coast of Cuba for the Cuban Liberation Junta fighting to free the island from Spanish control and plantation slavery.

In researching his forebear, the author gathered a wealth of private and public records from England, Scotland, Ireland, Greenland, the Bahamas, and the United States. The use of fresh sources from British Foreign Office and U.S. Prize Court documents and surviving business papers make this volume distinctive.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

It's an interesting book.

James Carlin's brother was one of my community's pioneer settlers in Florida. The historical society I work for made a small contribution of material towards the book from our Carlin Collection.