Off-Soundings: Aspects of the Maritime History of Rhode Island
by Alexander Boyd Hawes
ISBN 188 9274 054; 323 Pages; 44 Illustrations; Index; $39.95.
This work of
substantial scholarship is a fascinating narrative by the late Alexander Boyd Hawes, an
adoptive Rhode Islander. A richly illustrated historical survey of the colony and state
throughout the age of sail, it is "a very useful and important contribution to the
field of maritime history, and to Rhode Island history in particular," writes Naval
War College Professor John M. Hattendorf in his introduction. This "very useful
source of information on local maritime history … will be read and used to great
advantage in Rhode Island." The Rhode Island Historical Society exclaimed to its
members "Anyone who loves history, who loves the sea, and who loves Rhode Island (or
New England) will love Off Soundings…. Buy it, borrow it, read it. You’ll
not regret it."
Off Soundings
reveals that history through extended essays on "Pirates and Piracies;"
"Privateers and the Rhode Island Navy;" "‘This Execrable
Commerce’—The Slave Trade;" and "Trade with the Far East."
Drawing on countless primary sources, then written with precision and clarity, the
richly detailed text presents the men, vessels and events that made Rhode Island
a major player in the maritime world during the age of sail. As the
director of the Rhode Island Historical Society said prior to publication, Off
Soundings fills a void in that 
it is the first
major study of Rhode Island’s maritime past in nearly a century. Albert T. Klyberg
noted that it supercedes the old standard text, a mere chapter on the sea trade in Edward
Field’s two-volume The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the
End of the Century published in 1902. Yet Rhode Island’s history
is—perhaps more so than any other colony and state’s—the story of maritime
people and events, as this vibrant and scholarly volume proves.
Exhaustively researched and annotated, Off Soundings is a book that critics recommend to general readers as well as serious students of history. Other plaudits came from Senator Claiborne Pell, former Navy Secretary and Senator John Chafee, and the historical novelist James L. Nelson, author of the Revolution at Sea novels, who calls it "a must-have addition to anyone’s library of historical writing." He said Hawes relates "the vast history of Rhode Island and the sea, and the men who made their names and fortunes sailing from her ports, some as legal merchants, some as pirates and smugglers... The research and scholarship is thorough and impressive, and the writing is fluid with a surprising touch of humor." A Providence Journal critic wrote "Do not look for this book on the coffee tables of many of Rhode Island’s first families. Because to read it is to gain a new appreciation of why the colony was known as ‘Rogue’s Island.’ …. Still, this is a hard book to out down, the subject matter is so gripping." The Yale Alumni Magazine called it "absolutely fascinating."
Off Soundings has unusual appeal in physical terms. The handsome volume was designed by Robert L. Wiser and Kathleen Sims; it was printed at the Stinehour Press, America’s premier book printer. The volume features more than 40 instructive illustrations: maps, exotic scenes, "piratical" engravings from Daniel Defoe’s classic book of pirates, a ship’s plan from Captain John Smith’s handbook, and portraits of colonial shipowners and ships alike. A featured picture is the rarely seen image of a full-rigged ship by the noted marine artist Michele Felice Cornč who painted this gallant vision on his dining room’s papered wall in Newport, Rhode Island, circa 1825. (Luckily an unnamed antiquarian saved the wallpaper before the house was renovated in the 1920s.) Cornč, a leading painter of his day, was celebrated for his naval battle scenes from the War of 1812.
Off Soundings was written by a retired attorney and self-taught historian. Born in New York and reared near Boston, Alexander Hawes was a Rhode Islander at heart and longtime summer resident. A prominent international lawyer in Washington for decades — among other things, he was a founder and first general counsel of the relief agency CARE — he brought to bear a towering intellect and keen powers of investigation when he turned to history after retiring from law practice. Sadly, he did not live to fully complete his original grand design for the book, nor to see it published even without his planned chapters on fishing, shipbuilding and whatnot. It saw the light of print five years after Mr. Hawes’s death thanks to the efforts of his widow, Rosilla H. Hawes, who sent the manuscript around to publishers, both trade houses and university presses, only to have it ignored or rejected. Finally she found Posterity Press.
Since its publication last year, Off Soundings has been recognized for its content as well as its design. In the Washington Book Publishers competition, Off Soundings won first place for interior design in the Commercial Publishers category, and a first place for the design of its cover in the same category. In the latter instance it shared top honors with a book published by the CQ Press, the book division of Congressional Quarterly.
Off Soundings received honorable mention (i.e. second prize) in the US category of the John Lyman Book Awards, conferred by the North American Society for Oceanic History, an affiliate of the American Historical Association. Among maritime history scholars, these awards are the equivalent of the Booker Prize.
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