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Battleship Oklahoma BB-37
On a quiet Sunday morning in 1941, a ship designed to keep the peace was suddenly attacked. This book tells the remarkable story of a battleship, its brave crew, and how their lives were intertwined.
Jeff Phister and his coauthors have written the comprehensive history of the USS Oklahoma from its christening in 1914 to its final loss in 1947. Phister tells how the Oklahoma served in World War I, participated in the Great Cruise of 1925, and evacuated refugees from Spain in 1936. But the most memorable event of the ship’s history occurred on December 7, 1941. Phister weaves the personal narratives of surviving crewmen with the necessary technical information to recreate the attack and demonstrate the full scope of its devastation. Captured Japanese photographs and dozens of historic U.S. Navy photographs deepen our understanding of this monumental event.
Raised after the attack, the Oklahoma sank again while being towed stateside and now rests on the ocean floor, 540 miles northeast of Oahu. Battleship Oklahoma : BB-37 tells the complete story of a proud ship and her fall through the eyes of those who survived her loss.
Jeff Phister and his coauthors have written the comprehensive history of the USS Oklahoma from its christening in 1914 to its final loss in 1947. Phister tells how the Oklahoma served in World War I, participated in the Great Cruise of 1925, and evacuated refugees from Spain in 1936. But the most memorable event of the ship’s history occurred on December 7, 1941. Phister weaves the personal narratives of surviving crewmen with the necessary technical information to recreate the attack and demonstrate the full scope of its devastation. Captured Japanese photographs and dozens of historic U.S. Navy photographs deepen our understanding of this monumental event.
Raised after the attack, the Oklahoma sank again while being towed stateside and now rests on the ocean floor, 540 miles northeast of Oahu. Battleship Oklahoma : BB-37 tells the complete story of a proud ship and her fall through the eyes of those who survived her loss.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
27 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 3, 2018
This book has strengths and weaknesses which combined gives it an average rating. The strength is the depth of research that the authors (Phister and his co-writers Thomas Hone and Paul Goodyear) had undertaken in order to get the story right. Not only is the story of the Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor told, but the context and history of the vessel from commissioning through its berthing at Pearl Harbor is told well. The oral histories from the survivors are also presented, which gives the reader a glimpse to the horror of what happened on that fateful day.
However, the weakness is that the narrative is poorly written and makes for a confusing read. I haven't counted, but there are numerous times when the characters "started" something. "Started" towards a motor launch. "Started" to dog a hatch. "Started" to swim the ninety feet. "Started" to run to the starboard side. I can understand the occasional use of that word, but when I see it 3-4 times on a page it becomes a major distraction and takes away from the enjoyment.
Also, there are numerous times when discussing the narratives of the survivors, that the story switches to an unrelated character with a new paragraph without fully concluding the previous character's storyline. The number of times that I've had to go back and re-read the previous paragraphs to understand the transition also detracts from a good read. This could have been easily solved by treating each oral history as a separate chapter instead of trying to merge them into a handful of larger chapters.
These two sections of weakness becomes important when you add in the fact that most readers have never been on a battleship or in the Navy (myself included though I had military service in another branch). What is missing is a proper explanation as to place. Though most readers are familiar with the terms starboard, port, fore, aft, bow, stern, hatches and portholes, what we are missing is location of places mentioned - Radio IV, cobbler shop, lucky bag and linen storage. I have no idea where these places are located on a normal vessel, much less one that has a massive list and has capsized. This needed to be made clearer earlier in the narrative. Because of the confusion in the sense of place, it was easier to notice the poor transitions and the overuse of the word "started."
Despite my literary criticisms, this book is rich in information which makes it a worthwhile read. However, I would recommend finding a good online reference to the locations mentioned above in order to make better sense of the material.
However, the weakness is that the narrative is poorly written and makes for a confusing read. I haven't counted, but there are numerous times when the characters "started" something. "Started" towards a motor launch. "Started" to dog a hatch. "Started" to swim the ninety feet. "Started" to run to the starboard side. I can understand the occasional use of that word, but when I see it 3-4 times on a page it becomes a major distraction and takes away from the enjoyment.
Also, there are numerous times when discussing the narratives of the survivors, that the story switches to an unrelated character with a new paragraph without fully concluding the previous character's storyline. The number of times that I've had to go back and re-read the previous paragraphs to understand the transition also detracts from a good read. This could have been easily solved by treating each oral history as a separate chapter instead of trying to merge them into a handful of larger chapters.
These two sections of weakness becomes important when you add in the fact that most readers have never been on a battleship or in the Navy (myself included though I had military service in another branch). What is missing is a proper explanation as to place. Though most readers are familiar with the terms starboard, port, fore, aft, bow, stern, hatches and portholes, what we are missing is location of places mentioned - Radio IV, cobbler shop, lucky bag and linen storage. I have no idea where these places are located on a normal vessel, much less one that has a massive list and has capsized. This needed to be made clearer earlier in the narrative. Because of the confusion in the sense of place, it was easier to notice the poor transitions and the overuse of the word "started."
Despite my literary criticisms, this book is rich in information which makes it a worthwhile read. However, I would recommend finding a good online reference to the locations mentioned above in order to make better sense of the material.
February 22, 2010
A nice book that summarizes USS Oklahoma's history prior to Pearl Harbor, and then contains many accounts of crew members escaping the ship during the attack. The final chapters talk about the ship's refloating, and of it's ill-fated trip back to the West Coast for scrapping after the war.
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