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Maritime Currents: History and Archaeology Ser.: Too Far on a Whim : The Limits of High-Steam Propulsion in the US Navy by Tyler A. Pitrof (2024, Trade Paperback)
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherUniversity of Alabama Press
ISBN-100817361405
ISBN-139780817361402
eBay Product ID (ePID)28062384299
Product Key Features
Number of Pages232 Pages
Publication NameToo Far on a WHIM : the Limits of High-Steam Propulsion in the Us Navy
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2024
SubjectMilitary / Naval, Marine & Naval
TypeTextbook
AuthorTyler A. Pitrof
Subject AreaTechnology & Engineering, History
SeriesMaritime Currents: History and Archaeology Ser.
FormatTrade Paperback
Dimensions
Item Height0.7 in
Item Weight14.1 Oz
Item Length8.9 in
Item Width6 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional
LCCN2023-038205
Reviews"Tyler Pitrof's meticulous scholarship highlights an important aspect of military innovation: the dangers of relying on single-source expertise when fielding new technologies like high-steam propulsion. This work is a cautionary tale that goes beyond mere history and is applicable today, especially in light of the Titan maritime disaster in the Atlantic." --John T. Kuehn, professor of military history, US Army Command and General Staff College, " Too Far on a Whim: The Limits of High-Steam Propulsion in the US Navy is ground-breaking work in what is obviously an under-served aspect of U.S. Navy history. . . Pitrof's narrative is well organized, and his writing is crisp and concise. . . It will resonate beyond naval historians to include historians of science and technology, and lay audiences." --Craig Felker, author of Testing American Sea Power: U.S. Navy Strategic Exercises, 1923-1940
IllustratedYes
Dewey Decimal359.070973
SynopsisWinner of the 2024 Lyman Book Award for Maritime and Naval Science, Technology, and Environment. In Too Far on a Whim , Tyler A. Pitrof presents a high-spirited revision of the US Navy's commitment to high-steam propulsion systems, the mainstay of its World War II fleets. Pitrof's research persuasively demonstrates that in its war against the Imperial Japanese Navy, the US Navy succeeded despite its high-steam propulsion systems rather than because of them. War with an aggressive Japan and a resurgent Germany loomed in the dark days of the late 1930s. Rear Admiral Harold G. Bowen Sr., head of the US Navy's Bureau of Engineering, advanced a radical vision: a new fleet based on high-steam propulsion, a novel technology that promised high speeds with smaller engines and better fuel efficiency. High-steam engines had drawbacks--smaller operational ranges and maintenance issues. Nevertheless, trusting its engineers to resolve these issues, the US Navy put high-steam propulsion at the heart of its warship design from 1938 to 1945. The official record of high-steam technology's subsequent performance has relied heavily on Bowen's own memoir, in which he painted high-steam innovation in heroic colors. Pitrof's empirical review of primary sources such as ship's maintenance records, however, illuminates the opposite--that the heroism lay in the ability of American seamen to improvise solutions to keep these difficult engines running. Pitrof artfully explains engineering concepts in layman's terms and provides an account that extends far beyond technology and into matters of naval hierarchies and bureaucracy, strategic theory, and ego. He offers a cautionary tale--as relevant to any endeavor as it is to military undertakings--about how failures arise when technical experts lack managers who understand their work. Admiral Bowen wielded excessive power because no one else in the US Navy knew enough to countermand him. Compulsively readable, Too Far on a Whim is a landmark for those interested in naval history and technology but also for readers interested in the interplay between innovation, decision-making, and engineering., Argues that the US Navy's commitment to high-steam propulsion for its World War II fleet was a tactical, technological, and bureaucratic failure
LC Classification NumberVM623.P58 2024
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