Book Description
On November 26, 1943 the United States sustained its largest loss of troops at sea. Over 2,000 U.S. servicemen were aboard the British troop ship HMT Rohna in the Mediterranean on their way to the China-Burma-India Theater of war. Traveling in a convoy, the Rohna and 23 other ships were attacked by German bombers. After a fierce fight that ended with no ships lost, a single bomber made a final run. Armed with the latest technology (a rocket powered, remote controlled Henschel HS-293 glide bomb), it set its sights on the Rohna. Many men were killed instantly by the direct hit. Rescue ships spent hours pulling survivors from the water. By the time the losses were totaled, 1,015 U.S. servicemen had lost their lives. During a four-year period, author Michael Walsh met with survivors at their annual reunions, sitting with them as they recorded their stories of that night. Rohna Memories: Eyewitness to Tragedy is a repository of their recollections, whenever possible in their own words. Also included are:
- Diagrams and photos
- Letters home
- Witness reports
- Tributes by relatives
- Lists of survivors and casualties
Customer Reviews:
Rohna Memories.......2005-07-19
Excellent book relating theses horrifying experiences as told by the survivors. Having lost an uncle in this terrible tragedy and not knowing his fate until recently has been emotional for my family. I salute the many people that have been persistent in bringing this to the attention of the public.The many hero's of WWII should never be forgotten when so many young boys became old men in a matter of minutes. Thanks to Michael Walsh and all who wrote on this diaster.
Rohna Memories- Eyewitness to Tragedy.......2005-04-21
I found the writer's angle very different than the usual "just the facts" history book. The story of this horrible event is told through the men that were there. Like most eyewitness accounts, their stories are different and even sometimes contradict each other. I found the stories very touching. The fact that over 1000 men could die from one bomb and then be kept secret for 50 years is amazing. So many mothers, fathers, wives and family members never knew. This book transports you back in time.
Amazon.com
In the early 1990s, Eamon Duffy's monumental The Stripping of the Altars provided a new slant on the English Reformation. Duffy has now dug deeper into the same fascinating period. The Voices of Morebath is the story of a hamlet buried deep in the heart of Devon. The parish priest Sir Christopher Trychay remained in office through the troubled times of the mid-16th century. During his long tenure he carefully recorded the impact of national events in his ordinary rural community. Trychay's account is unique because it is not a personal diary but a record of the parish accounts. Sir Christopher, however, was talkative and opinionated, so the accounts are laden with the minutiae of parish life. Duffy weaves these otherwise cryptic details into the wider tapestry of events of the time, and by analysing the result shows the devastating revolution that took place in ordinary people's lives. As the drama unfolds we see the folk of Morebath forced from their secure Catholicism into the new religion of King Henry. After Edward's brief reign the villagers breathe a sigh of relief and haul out all their Catholic paraphernalia, grateful that Mary Tudor has restored the Catholic faith. Then it all goes for good once Elizabeth takes the throne. Duffy has given us history that is absorbing, readable, and complete. His own enthusiasm for his topic gives the book a zest that takes it beyond the usual academic tome. Anyone the least bit interested in English history must not neglect this important book. --Dwight Longenecker, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
This delightful book offers a rare glimpse of life in a remote sixteenth-century English village during the dramatic changes of the Reformation. Through vividly detailed parish records kept from 1520 to 1574 by Sir Christopher Trychay, the garrulous priest of Morebath, we see how a tiny Catholic community rebelled, was punished, and reluctantly accepted Protestantism under the demands of the Elizabethan state.
Customer Reviews:
Of Altars and Prayerbooks and Candles (and Especially Money).......2006-01-22
THE VOICES OF MOREBATH is perhaps not quite accurately titled. As Duffy himself confesses, what we really have is one voice, that of Christopher Trychay, the local priest, who meticulously set down the financial transactions of his church in this small, rural, not-quite-impoverished hamlet. Even there we do not hear Trychay's total voice, for he was not recording his thoughts, philosophies, or observations about the government or the society around him, just the financial records of the church. Of course, a careful reading of such records can tell us a surprising amount about the welfare of the hamlet, especially because, at the time, the secular and spiritual realms were inextricably intertwined.
Duffy's writing style is not, I fear, particularly engrossing, and, at times, I had to force my attention on the sense of the text. Still, considering that Duffy was examining primarily financial records, hardly scintillating fare regardless of the historical era, he does a fair job at interpretation and extrapolation, and the observations of Morebath society that he draws from these records are well supported. Duffy is being a careful historian here, for he refrains from interjecting conclusions and suppositions that are not supported by the record; however, occasional dry passages are the inevitable result of such a studied approach.
I did find several points in this book to be instructive in that they created new perceptions for me: It seems as though churches in 16th Century Britain were as much concerned with their financial status as are those in today's Western societies; we find practically nothing in the record concerning spiritual or social matters but much concerning money. On at least the local level, Tudor-era agricultural villages seem to have had no civil government of any sort, the priest and his church being its substitute. Rather than civil law, social pressure, orchestrated as needed by the priest, ensured conformity with societal norms and financial support of the church.
Most surprisingly, these country farmers seem largely to have bent before the prevailing monarchical winds, changing their religious devotions as dictated by the current king or queen, moving from Catholicism to Protestantism under Henry and Edward, reverting to Catholicism under Mary, and then harking back to Protestantism under Elizabeth. Under one monarch, they had to surrender their holy books and ornamentation, and under the next they had to restore them. They apparently did so with such relative ease that one wonders just how sincere they were in their religious beliefs. This picture does seem to conflict with that drawn by Alice Hogge in her book GOD'S SECRET AGENTS, which is rife with beheadings, disembowelings, secret "priest holes" built into houses, and serious government spying. However, perhaps that is a difference between powerless country farmers and aristocratic city dwellers of the time. There was, of course, indication of at least some passive resistence to these abrupt changes decreed by the government, such as the hiding of church ornamentation now and then, but, except for the Prayer Book Rebellion, the causes of which are not entirely clear to Duffy, there appears to have been little overt resistence in the countryside.
In sum, THE VOICES OF MOREBATH does provide the reader with an informative glance at life in a small country hamlet during the 16th century. Frustratingly, it is a glance through the small window of local church finances and, as such, must surely miss seeing many other aspects of that life. Also, because it is a glance based primarily on everyday financial concerns of a rural church, it sometimes approaches the boring. Still, for a reader who wishes to further his understanding of commoners' lives over four hundred years ago, of the forced transitions of the Reformation, and of the burdensome taxation imposed by successive monarchs intent on waging fruitless wars with Scotland and France, all of which underlay the founding of a constitutional representative democracy in the New World, the book is a valuable resource. I recommend it for the serious student of history if not, perhaps, for the casual reader.
English Reformation made personal.......2003-08-20
From 1520 to 1574, in a small sheep-farming community in Devon, parish priest Christopher Trychay maintained a careful record of village happenings, filling the pages of his account book with what Eamon Duffy calls "the personality, opinions, and prejudices of the most vivid country clergyman of the English sixteenth century." That Trychay's tenure happened to coincide with the English Reformation -- in the course of which his parishioners would be swept into rebellion and he himself would adopt the new Protestant faith -- makes his chronicle all the more priceless.
A Window on Tudor Religion and Society.......2001-12-18
Professor Duffy painlessly weaves an engrossing story from the manuscript record of Morebath parish in England's West Country. Important background information is worked in while you trace the story of the parish's growth and trials during the tumultuous changes of the Reformation. Duffy's treatment relies on a unique and garrulous chronicle kept by Morebath's priest for half a century, Sir Christopher Trychay.
Thanks to Duffy's explanations, you understand how catastrophic the changes imposed under Edward VI were for this rural parish. You also see how spirituality was closely woven into the daily life and practice of pre-Reformation Morebath. The story of how the priest and his parishoners work out a modus vivendi under the religious changes of the day makes for compelling reading. The Voices of Morebath is an outstanding example of micro-history, I highly recommend this book for students of Tudor history and culture.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Albion, published by North American Conference on British Studies on March 22, 2003. The length of the article is 841 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village. (Reviews of Books).(Book Review)
Author: David Loades
Publication:
Albion (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2003
Publisher: North American Conference on British Studies
Volume: 35
Issue: 1
Page: 99(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Renaissance Quarterly, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2003. The length of the article is 1159 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village. .(Book Review)
Author: Sarah Covington
Publication:
Renaissance Quarterly (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2003
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 56
Issue: 2
Page: 539(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Canadian Journal of History, published by University of Saskatchewan on December 1, 2004. The length of the article is 861 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village.(Book Review)
Author: Margaret McGlynn
Publication:
Canadian Journal of History (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2004
Publisher: University of Saskatchewan
Volume: 39
Issue: 3
Page: 577(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Church History, published by American Society of Church History on September 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1171 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village.(Book Review)
Author: Eric Josef Carlson
Publication:
Church History (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2003
Publisher: American Society of Church History
Volume: 72
Issue: 3
Page: 662(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
In 1985 in Columbia, more than 23,000 people died due to the government's failure to take seriously scientists' warnings about an imminent volcanic eruption at Nevado del Ruiz. In 1993, at Volcán Galeras, the death toll was smaller but no less tragic: despite seismic data that foretold possible disaster, an expedition of international scientists proceeded into the volcano. Two hours later, nine people were dead.Expertly detailing the turbulent history of Colombia, Victoria Bruce links together the stories of the heroes, villains, survivors, and victims of these two events. No Apparent Danger is a spellbinding account of clashing cultures and the life-and-death consequences of scientific arrogance.
Customer Reviews:
Well-written, so one can focus on the controversy!.......2004-06-25
Bruce's book is well-written and describes the geological processes involved in a clear and simple fashion.
At first I wasn't really sure why she had chosen to write about both the Nevado Del Ruiz and Galeras eruptions, but it became clear that she was following the professional development of the Columbian volcanologists and the Columbian governmental response to volcanic disasters. The information provided about the politics and civil unrest concurrent with the volcanic eruptions and the effects on ability of the scientists to recieve funding, equipment and international help is VERY interesting.
It's obvious that the most contraversial part of this account is the role played by Stan Williams as the field trip leader on the fateful excursion into the Galeras caldera. While volcanologists are aware of the potential risks associated with visiting a volcano, I would have wanted to be aware of the occurrence of the tell-tale tornillos. It didn't seem like there was a complete overview of the current state of Galeras prior to the field trips such that each participant could determine their own level of risk-taking. It was also not clear to me that Zapata in fact relayed the information about the tornillo during the morning of the trip to Williams. Did Williams know about the recent tornillo? After all, Zapata was the only one with a radio. As with any tragedy, the events raise more questions than answers.
It seems to me that the tragedy was the result of many different small events that primarily become clear in hinesight. While safety measures used in previous trips likely should have been used during the fated excursion, _none_ of the scientists that went on the trip were completely unaware of the danger involved. Williams is not to _blame_ for the tragedy, but he is certainly _responsible_ for the people on HIS field trip, simply because he was the leader. It can be argued that he should have taken better precautions and that is where Williams's regrets should lie. It's obvious that some of the participants knew Williams's level of concern was not as high as their own and they intelligently chose to wear their own safety gear. (Did the other participants have access to safety gear if they had wanted it?)
Regardless of the controversy surrounding the field trip, Bruce also does a good job of describing (and perhaps becoming somewhat involved in) the politics of science in general. When I started graduate school, I was completely naive about the politics of money, research and publishing - grant writing, intellectual property, etc. Bruce provides a brief but revealing look at how politics also drive science.
Science isn't a clear cut, straightforward pursuit. Bruce certainly portrays this fact quite clearly in her book. I certainly recommend reading this book along with Stan Williams's book as counterpoint.
One-sided and questionable research methods.......2003-09-12
I was on Galeras volcano 10 years ago when it erupted. Like most of the other volcanologists at the Pasto, Colombia meeting to study Galeras I did not go into the crater, but was looking at deposits on the outer flanks when the eruption occurred. Stanley Williams had stressed the danger of going inside, and only those making data collections went with him into the crater.
Victoria Bruce's book is largely an attack on Williams. She is correct in some assertions- Williams is (or was - he is only a shadow of his former self now) a maverick who argued with parts of the volcanological establishment. He also formed many productive working arrangements with scientists from a variety disciplines, especially with students and young volcanologists from Colombia and the other countries he worked in.
I object to Bruce's research methods - she called me twice to ask about the Colombian meeting and the events of the eruption. She never gave any hint that her book would be an attack on Williams and she never asked me critical questions about his leadership. After I read her book I felt that her approach to me as a participant had not been honest.
By necessity Bruce talked to volcanologists only after the eruption, and by that time volcanologists as a profession had realized that their previous somewhat cavelier methods of researching active volcanoes needed to change. But Williams' expedition into Galeras was typical of most of the visits I have made to erupting volcanoes with various trip leaders. Perhaps volcanologists were taking dumb risks, but only a handful of volcanologists had died in eruptions before, and the risks seemed worth taking in light of the heightened learning opportunities.
My concern with Bruce's book is that her criticism of Williams is too harsh; he was blamed for the sins of the profession, and perhaps volcanologists he had disagreed with in the past could see only his weaknesses and not also his strengths. In some ways this was tearing down a scrappy, non-conformist who was a sometimes too successful competitor for grants and scientific acclaim.
Galeras was ten years ago; Bruce's book, and Williams' are a few years old. Everyone moves on, but I'd like the reader of these reviews to consider that Williams might not have been the self-centered egotist depicted in Bruce's book, but a flawed human unfairly treated in a book about a tragedy that surprised all of us on the volcano.
Chuck Wood
The volcano eruptions at Nevado del Ruiz and Galeras........2002-08-02
There are two stories in this book. The first is about the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano that resulted in the deaths of 23,000 people. The second is the death of six scientists and three Columbians in the Galeras eruption. The scientists killed were led by Stan Williams, who also substained very serious injuries. The three Columbians were local hikers in the area.
If the focus was on numbers, Bruce should have concentrated her studies on the Nevado del Ruiz eruption that killed so many Columbians because of the mud slides. This was not done, but the focus was on diminishing the egotistical Stan Williams who led six of his companions to death. Both stories are worth a book of their own.
Great investigative reporting.......2002-07-16
Victoria Bruce is a fearless academic detective. She also happens to be a pretty good writer. "The True Story of Volcanic Disaster at Galeras and Nevado Del Ruiz" is a gripping tale of human error and vanity. Bruce reports how Colombians relied heavily on American and European volcanologists for guidance and funding.
The book is two parts. The destruction of Armero and its 23,000 residents by Nevado del Ruiz is one of the world's worst disasters. However, the tale of what took place at Galeras is far more interesting. It uncovers fraud. It shows that Stanley Williams promoted his career at the expense of others and proves that his scientific arrogance led to the unnecessary loss of life at Galeras.
In addition, Victoria Bruce masterfully conquers two major obstacles in this book. First, she explains the complexities of geology in a simplistic fashion and secondly she properly describes the violence inside Colombia with intellectual honesty.
WHEN SCIENTISTS GO TOO FAR.......2002-03-07
I was impressed by the overall tenor of the book, but found it murky in terms of continuity at times. The last few chapers clear up much of the confusion. The book is to be lauded for its capable detective work and straightforward nature of revealing what is not only a human tragedy, but a scientific scandal.
Dr. Williams has been a master of self-aggrandizement ever since the Galeras incident. He seems oblivious to the role of his own neglect in causing the tragedy. I have observed this on several television interviews involving him.
This carefully-researched book brings this unfortunate series of attributes forth without malice or rancor being shown: a prodigious task in light of the plain facts.
As with other human endeavors, science is prone to human frailties such as pride, unduly tenacious stubbornness, and simple inattention. This book is valuable in presenting a prototypical instance of that deficiency. One can only hope that, with the passage of time, the unfortunate Professor Williams will reflect more on what was truly an avoidable mishap, and strive less to attempt to vindicate the unvindicatable
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