Two Ships Passing In the Book

The Overlook

By Tom Clavin

“The Overlook” can be found at tomclavin.substack.com. An overlook is a place from which one can see in several if not all directions, including where one has been and where one is going. If you enjoy the column, please "like" it and let me know what you think by commenting (check out previous ones while you're at it).  Likes, comments, and shares help with author “discoverability” on Substack.com, and all support is appreciated. Don't forget to hit the ‘Subscribe’ button – it’s free!

            Being published this week is To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth, and so far, thankfully, the reviews have been very favorable. If you’ll indulge me, this week’s column will be devoted to how the book, written by Phil Keith and yours truly, came about.

          First, though, the Utter basics. In the summer of 1862, the CSS Alabama, built in England and bankrolled by the Confederate States of America, set sail to wreak havoc upon Union shipping. In this endeavor, the rebel raider was extraordinarily successful. It roamed the world preying on ships carrying cargo bound for the Northern states, burning the overtaken victims and sending them to the bottom of the ocean. Finally, a frustrated Union Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, told Captain John Winslow to take his ship, the USS Kearsarge, and “travel to the uttermost ends of the earth, if necessary, to find and destroy the Alabama.” The hunt was on. It would end in June 1864, when the Kearsarge and Alabama squared off in a fight to the finish off the coast of France.

          I met Phil Keith at least 12 years ago when he attended a series of writing workshops I was offering at the Fort Pond House in Montauk. He was a retired Navy officer working on a novel. That book was entertaining enough but the book I saw in Phil was a nonfiction one that would somehow connect with his experiences in the Vietnam War. He did go on to write the very well-received Blackhorse Riders, followed by Firebase Illingworth, and then there was a terrific World War II naval story titled Stay the Rising Sun, about the aircraft carrier USS Lexington.

          Phil and I became good friends but I did not expect us to write a book together. He had his projects and I had mine, including solo works like Dodge City and Lightning Down and collaborations with Bob Drury including Valley Forge and Blood and Treasure (which, ahem, moves up to #9 on this Sunday’s New York Times Paperback Nonfiction list). But we both seized upon wanting to write the remarkable story of Eugene Bullard, the first African American fighter pilot who was also a boxer, nightclub impresario in Paris, a spy during World War II, and back in America, a civil rights pioneer. Out of that joint effort came All Blood Runs Red, published in 2019, which among other accolades was awarded the gold medal from the Military Writers Society of America.

          That could have been a one-off for us, but the story of the Kearsarge and the Alabama was a strong magnet. It included not only the rivalry of the two ships but that of their captains, Winslow and Raphael Semmes, who during the Mexican-American War had been shipmates and good friends. The reception for All Blood Runs Red indicated a desire for another Keith-Clavin collaboration, so we set sail.

          Phil suggested that we each write the book from one captain’s perspective – he would take Winslow, I would take Semmes. I had not experimented this way in any of my previous collaborations and had doubts it would work . . . but what the heck, I do believe an old dog can learn new tricks. It turned out quite well, and when you read To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth I think you’ll see the shifting points of view works. Anyway, it’s hard to mess up such a gripping tale of derring-do on the high seas.

          It was exciting to turn in the manuscript early last year and especially so when our editor agreed it was a tale told well via a seamless narrative. As some readers might already know, Phil Keith passed away in March 2021. I’m very glad he knew we had turned in the book we wanted to write and that the Navy man’s last book was a high seas adventure, but I am also very sad that he is not here to enjoy the reception.

          According to a review this week in The American Spectator, “In Uttermost Ends, the pair has put together a compelling sea story. But more than a sea story, it repays the time of readers with an interest in history, the life and perils of 19th-century naval warriors, and the meaning of courage and devotion to duty and cause, even when this duty involves incredible hardships and risk to life and limb.”

Let’s hope we see more of that, and strong sales which would mean more people are enjoying this amazing true tale.

I will be giving a talk about Uttermost at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton on Wednesday, May 11, at 1 p.m. Hope to see some of you readers there. And I’m not done with presenting Lightning Down: Next Thursday, the 21st, my talk on that World War II story of survival will be part of the Bridgehampton Museum Lecture Series. The evening begins at 6 with a reception. To register, please go to bhmuseum.org.

Tom Clavin is the bestselling author/co-author of 18 books. The trade paperback edition of Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America’s First Frontier (with Bob Drury) has just been published and this Sunday will be its third week on the New York Times bestseller list in the Paperback Nonfiction category. To purchase To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth, please go to your local bookstore or to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, or BN.com.