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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.545973
EAN num: 9781557504067
ISBN number: 1557504067
Label: US Naval Institute Press
Manufacturer: US Naval Institute Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 360
Printing Date: 2002-10
Publishing house: US Naval Institute Press
Sale Popularity Level: 824696
Studio: US Naval Institute Press
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Product Description:
In early December 1941 in the Philippines, a young Navy ensign named Kemp Tolley was given his very first ship command, an old 76-foot schooner that had once served as a movie prop in John Ford's 'The Hurricane.' Crewed mostly by Filipinos who did not speak English and armed with a cannon that had last seen service in the Spanish-American War, the Lanikai was under top-secret presidential orders to sail south into waters where the Japanese fleet was thought to be. Ostensibly the crew was to spy on Japanese naval movements, but to Tolley it was clear that their mission was to create an incident that would provoke war.
Events overtook the plan, however, when Pearl Harbor was bombed before the Lanikai could get underway. When Bataan and Corregidor fell, she was ordered to set sail for Australia and became one of the few U.S. naval vessels to escape the Philippines. In this book Tolley tells the saga of her great adventure during these grim, early days of the war and makes history come alive as he regales the reader with details of the operation and an explanation of President Roosevelt's order. Tolley's description of their escape in Japanese warship-infested waters ranks with the best of sea tales, and few will be able to forget the Lanikai's 4,000-mile, three-month odyssey.
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Rated by buyers 
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If not brought to my attention by a friend, I would have missed this remarkable book. Tolley was the US Navy skipper of the Lanikai, a converted island sailing schooner, in Manila Bay when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. This book is three tales in one, interwoven with reasonable success. First, it is an account of FDR's concern that the Japanese would attack the British and Dutch in Asia and the USA would not have the support of public opinion which was needed for the United States' inevitable entry into the fray against the Axis as soon as possible. Tolley makes a reasonable case that the vulnerable Lanikai was to be placed in harms way possibly to create an incident (such as the Japanese sinking of the USS Panay in China four years earlier), but the pace of war overtook whatever plan was intended. Secondly, the book is a story of the amazing flight of the Lanikai south from the collapsing Philippines to Java, and then, as the defense of the Dutch East Indies collapsed, onward to Australia. It was one of the few ships, civilian or military, to escape either the invading Japanese armadas moving south or the Indian Ocean sweep of the fleet that had bombed Pearl Harbor, a sweep that destroyed most of the ships trying to escape Java toward India. If this were not enough, this is a clear story of the early tragic months of the war in the Pacific, at sea, in the Philippines, and in the Indies, as well-trained Japanese forces swept all before them, and the hastily assembled ABDA (Australian, British, Dutch, American) defenses collapsed. I learned a lot of interesting history and enjoyed the small boat saga too.
Rated by buyers 
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The Lanikai was originally assigned a suicide mission to get the US into the war; this was however overcome by events (meaning Pearl Harbor) and the story becomes an escape yarn, as the sailing boat escapes the Philippines, and makes its way south.
A fascinating sea yarn, that ranks there with the O'Brian novels, only this one is true.
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