Morning of Fire: John Kendrick's Daring American Odyssey in the Pacific
By Scott Ridley
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Morning of Fire by Scott Ridley is the thrilling story of 18th century American explorer and expeditioner John Kedrick as he journeyed for land and trade in the Pacific. Set against the backdrop of one of the most exciting and uncertain times in world history, John Kendrick’s odyssey aboard his sailing ship Lady Washington carries him from the shores of New England across the unexplored waters of the Pacific Northwest to the contentious ports of China and the war-ravaged islands of Hawaii, all while avoiding intrigues and traps from the British and the Spanish. Morning of Fire is riveting American and naval history that brings the era of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson gloriously alive—a tale of danger, adventure, and discovery that fans of Nathaniel Philbrick will not want to miss.
Related to Morning of Fire
Related ebooks
Surviving the Essex: The Afterlife of America's Most Storied Shipwreck Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Blast: My Return to Mount St. Helens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath on the Ice: A Novel Based on the Terra Nova Expedition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Across the Continent: The Union Pacific Photographs of Andrew Joseph Russell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeep Enough: A Working Stiff in the Western Mine Camps Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Final Voyage of the Valencia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack White Blue: The Assassination of Patrolman James Sackett Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell At 50 Fathoms Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRiver of Perfumes: A Novel of Marine Combat Correspondents in Hue City during Vietnam's Tet Offensive Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath in the Sahara: The Lords of the Desert and the Timbuktu Railway Expedition Massacre Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Saving Michelangelo's Dome: How Three Mathematicians and a Pope Sparked an Architectural Revolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ship and the Storm: Hurricane Mitch and the Loss of the Fantome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Military Memoirs of a Confederate: A Critical Narrative Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Never Worked In Pocatello —: The Life and Times of Santa Fe Railroad’s Paul T. Collins Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Chinchaga Firestorm: When the Moon and Sun Turned Blue Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe White Passage Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Three Bricks and Three Brothers: The Story of the Nantucket Whale-Oil Merchant Joseph Starbuck Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBabbitt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEarly Glenwood Springs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdrift in the Arctic Ice Pack - From the History of the First U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWeird Tales from Northern Seas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Explorer King: Adventure, Science, and the Great Diamond Hoax--Clarence King in the Old West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hammer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNorfleet: The Actual Experiences of a Texas Rancher’s 30,000-Mile Transcontinental Chase After Five Confidence Men Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEliot Ness: The Real Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Richard Tregaskis's Guadalcanal Diary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
United States History For You
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Library Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer: An Edgar Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White Album: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Morning of Fire
8 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Would that we remembered the subject of this book better. For one thing, it would have made it a better book!In the period after the American Revolution, Spain claimed most of the western coast of North America as well as that of South America, but it was James Cook who had explored the region, so the British felt that they had a claim as wel, and the Americans... well, they were itchy. Having thrown off the British, they had learned that those British taxes had actually paid for things they needed, and so they had to do them themselves (and pay for them themselves), and they were also learning that economic development required resources and trade. Things they weren't very good at. Times were hard. So they set about learning.One thing a Boston conglomerate tried was exploring those Pacific Northwest regions. They were pretty sure there were furs there, for instance. And no one (other than Indians who weren't regarded as counting) was in actual possession. So John Kendrick and Robert Gray took the Columbia (for which the Columbia River was named) and the smaller Lady Washington and set out... into a sea of politics. The Spanish and British were both, on the whole, friendlier to the Americans than to each other, so both tried to get some use out of Kendrick. And Kendrick had his own problems, as his subordinate Gray was not fond of being under orders.The result was a very complicated many-year voyage by Kendrick. He didn't discover much, but Gray found the Columbia River, which the Spanish and Cook and George Vancouver's British expedition had all missed. In the long run, that may have been the biggest result of the whole trip, since it would influence the history of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. But that's another book.Gray's insubordination caused Kendrick a lot of problems -- Gray went home before Kendrick, and badmouthed his boss; Kendrick found his position at home precarious. He would never return to Boston. He never even tried; he was killed in the Hawaiian Islands in odd circumstances.This book is probably the most detailed look at the complexities of Kendrick's expedition, and it's a topic well worth the coverage. And the book seems to me to be fairly complete. I did have a few problems with it. For starters, author Scott seems to assume we'll remember every name we encounter along the way, whether we're told it's important or not. There are a lot of names in here (Spaniards, British, Americans, a few Chinese, and a whole lot of people from different native tribes, both in the Pacific Northwest and in Hawaii). If he can't give us more help, a Dramatic Personae would have helped.Dates would have helped, too. I was trying to use this book for a research project, and I can't remember how many times I found myself saying, "Yes, but what year is it?" It's a real problem if you're reading the book in small pieces, or are trying to fit it into world events.If I have one big problem, though, it's that I suspect Scott is too kind to Kendrick. Kendrick abandoned his wife, failed in his mission, got into fights with a lot of people, got himself killed in a place he had no real reason to be. Every one of these events, individually, can be explained away. But it's a long enough list that I have to wonder if Kendrick was really as great and wise as Scott implies. I cannot say that Scott is wrong. But he failed to convince me.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5After the American Colonies were militarily successful in their bid for independence from Great Britain the Second Continental Congress met May 10, 1775, by resolution of the First Continental Congress, October 22, 1774; became the Confederation Congress ("United States in Congress Assembled"), March 2, 1781, following ratification of the Articles of Confederation, March 1, 1781. The freedom cost them dearly and the newly formed Confederation was in great debt. The Old World was trying to bring the Americans into line by closing economic ports to all American traders.It is in this atmosphere that a group of investors had the foresight to finance an expedition to find and open trade routes in the Pacific and to the Asian market. They saw China as a way for America to sell and barter its wares so that they may get out of debt and have an economic lifeline. For this dangerous and bold en devour they hired John Kendrick to take command. John Kendrick was famous in his time coming from a whaling family he was a whaling captain for twenty years and commanded a privateer during the American Revolutionary War.This extremely well researched book is about this seven year expedition of exploration, trading and diplomacy that has been left to mainly unknown. Yet it was Kendrick’s reputation that brought veterans of the Revolution and sailors, both seasoned and young, to go on this unthinkable expedition. That they were willing to take this risk shows the faith people had in Kendrick's abilities. The expedition consisted of two ships, the eighty-three foot three-masted brig the Columbia Rediviva and the sixty foot coastal sloop the Lady Washington.Serving under Kendrick as captain of the Lady Washington was Robert Gray who had served in the Continental Navy not in a position of command. Even so he thought he should be in command and documentation shows that he did all he could to undermined Kendrick and had some success at first in Boston when he returned as the first American to circumnavigate the world. Even though his trip was at a loss for the company yet he prospered. Yet he is the one history remembered.Kendrick spent seven years building the foundations for the United States to have not only a thriving trade in the Pacific region his dealing were the legal basis for the United States taking possession of the North West Territories that are now part of the modern United States. Even years after his death the natives of the Pacific region still spoke well of Kendrick regardless of the story Gray told.This book tells of the desperate time for a fledgling America trying to gain economic independence while the Old World empires were fighting for territorial and economic dominance. The research allowed the author to write the history of the expedition from original documents from the United States, Spain, United Kingdom and work by native authors. The objectivity in the writing of this this book is readily apparent and details are rich. The period of time is richly captured by the author and we get a look at seven years of the life of a great American Explorer that open the entire Pacific region for all Americans who followed. This book is an easy read and exceeds that of many naval novel.