HOME SQUADRON THE U.S. NAVY ON THE NORTH ATLANTIC STATION

By JAMES C. RENTFROW

CDR. JAMES C. RENTFROW, USN, is a graduate of the U.S. Naval

Academy and former EA-6B Naval

Flight Officer. He has a PhD from

the University of Maryland, College

Park, and currently teaches U.S. and

naval history at the Naval Academy.

Advance Praise

Sailor-scholar James Rentfrow has done us all a great service by chronicling and analyzing the

historical roots of the current U.S. Navys intensely operational nature. Multiship warship exercises,

operations, and tactics at sea may be the hallmarks

of our modern naval force, but their origins in the

late nineteenth century have, strangely never been

comprehensively examined until now. Anyone

involved in contemporary strike group operationsof any navywill gain from learning how it all began, and why. CAPT. PETER M. SWARTZ, USN (RET.), principal research scientist, CNA

Cdr. James Rentfrow's Home Squadron fills a critical gap in our understanding of the evolution of

the modern Navy. A superb analytical effort, it

conveys within a flowing literary style the story of

the critical years of the Navy's other inter-war period, when it finally transitioned from wood and sail to steel and steam, developing all new tactics

and maneuvers along the way. Rentfrow also

examines the critical personalities who weighed in

to pull the Navy out of the doldrums to set the stage

for the United States' emergence as a great power in

the twentieth century. This is a strong effort that I

am sure will become a trusted reference for scholars

of the period. CAPT. HENRY J. HENDRIX, USN, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command

New Perspectives on Maritime History

and Nautical Archaeology

A BOOK FOR REVIEW

NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS BOOK NEWS

ames Rentfrow examines the transformation of the U.S. Navy as a fighting organization that took

place on the North Atlantic Station between 1874 and 1897. At the beginning of this period, the

warships assigned to the station were collectively administered by a rear admiral, but they were

operationally deployed as individual units, each of whose actions were directed by their captains. By

1897 the North Atlantic, or Home Squadron, as it was known, consisted of a group of warships constituting a protean battle fleetthat is, an organized body moving and fighting in close order, which meant that the actions of the captains were directed by a commanding admiral.

The development of an American battle fleet resulted in the construction of a new organizational

identity for the North Atlantic Squadron. The path toward this transformation was as critical as the

eventual outcome. It was not linear, but one in which progress in critical areas was modulated by

conflicting demands that caused distraction. From 1874 to 1888 exercises in fleet tactics under steam

were carried out sporadically utilizing existing wooden cruising vessels. From 1889 to 1894, as the last

wooden cruisers were decommissioned the squadron became comprised entirely of new steel warships,

but ad-hoc concentrations of vessels for purposes besides exercise and training continued to stunt the

development of the doctrine and tactics necessary for a multiship fighting capability. Much work was

done, however, to develop a concept of multiship operations. From 1895 to 1897 the identity of the

North Atlantic Squadron as a combat unit solidified. Tactical exercises were held that had specific

offensive and defensive wartime applications. These exercises were necessary to develop a combat

capability.

Here, Rentfrow demonstrates that the U.S. government had an interest in developing an

offensive naval combat capability as early as the 1870s. Based on the record of the North Atlantic

Squadron, imperial aspirations, in the sense of possessing a capability to restrict the actions of other

great powers in the Caribbean region, existed prior to the War of 1898. The process of change,

however, often resulted in the appearance of capability without the rigorous exercise necessary to

possess it.

New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology James C. Bradford and Gene A. Smith, Editors

This series is devoted to exploring the significance of the earths waterways while providing lively and important books that cover the spectrum of maritime history and nautical archaeology. Limited by neither geography nor time, volumes

in the series contribute to the overall understanding of maritime history and can be read with profit by both general

readers and specialist alike.

HOME SQUADRON: The U.S. Navy on the North Atlantic Station By James C. Rentfrow

Publication date: 15 April 2014

240 pp., 16 photos, notes, bibliography, index. Hardcover list price: $54.95 41.50 ISBN: 978-1-61251-447-5 History Naval eBook edition also available.

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