From Annapolis to Scapa Flow: The Autobiography of Edward L Beach Sr

Sea Power, Apr 2003 by Gardner, Sherry L

FROM ANNAPOLIS TO SCAPA FLOW: The Autobiography of Edward L. Beach Sr., by Edward L. Beach Sr. with Edward L. Beach Jr. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, Jan. 2003. 344 pp. $34.95. ISBN: 1-55750-298-6. Preparing this memoir for publication was Beach Jr.'s last project-one he considered the most important-before his death in December 2002.

The career of Edward L. Beach Sr., who graduated from the Naval Academy in 1888, spanned the beginning of the modern Navy to the end of World War I. Beach Sr.'s memoirs-written in 1930 but never published-tell us much about the author and also give fascinating details concerning the Navy in which he served. The firsthand accounts of the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898, the insurrection in Haiti in 1915, and Scapa Flow in 1918 provide details that put the reader into the conflict. Beach Jr. puts his father's writing in historical context for today's reader and offers some insight into his father's feelings about the events of the day. With 19 black-andwhite photographs and index.