He gave me the book last Tuesday as we were winding down from a golf tournament in Temecula.

Jim Lindsey is a terrific golfer who played on the San Diego State golf team several years ago. He is also a friend and a good man. He had mentioned the book at the tournament a year earlier. This year, he brought it and handed it to me for safe keeping and transferring it to an appropriate place.

i was honored to be a steward, even if only for a short while. i was the carrier of the torch because Jim knew of my Navy experience and thought my writing about that time in my life was an indicator of my capability to find a good place for the book.

i reached out to a number of my Navy friends who might have a better idea than mine about who to approach for retaining the book.

Jim’s book is entitled American Naval Biorgraphy: Comprising Lives of the Commodores Distinguished in the History of the American Navy. It is 440 worn, faded, and stained pages of American Naval History from its beginning to 1844. Why 1844? John Frost. LL. D. (Doctor of Law) finished writing his book in 1843. It was published the following year.

Many of those Navy officers i contacted were impressed. The first response was from my friend Dave Carey. Dave was a POW in Vietnam. i was a co-facilitator with him of a two-day leadership seminar for senior officers during our last active duty tour. He retired, and i took his place, as if anyone could take Dave’s place, as the Director of Leadership, Management, Education and Training (LMET) for the West Coast and Pacific Rim. Dave was a Naval Academy graduate and reached out to Jimmy DeButts, who is the editor of Shipmate Magazine, the academy’s alumni magazine. Jimmy noted the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association and Foundation would “love to be stewards of that book.” i connected with Jimmy and will be sending it to him later this week.

You see, i have become entranced by this book. i am retiring to our living room in a club chair by the fireplace and reading, carefully turning the frail pages and wandering around in US Naval history 260-180 years ago. Those Navy heroes are all there: Richard Dale, Edward Preble, Thomas Truxton, Stephen Decatur, Oliver Hazard Perry, William Bainbridge, and many others.

Of course, that line of amazing men begins with John Paul Jones. It is compelling to read about the father of our Navy through the words of his contemporary.

The language itself is captivating. i have spent some time looking up words and terms of which i was not familiar. It is not a read. It’s a journey.

Soon, i will finish and carefully send Jim’s book, handed down through four generations of his family, to the Naval Academy, a fitting place for it to rest. There are republished, newer copies of the book currently available on the internet. There are also texts that one can read residing in the cloud. i will likely add one of those to my library.

Jim’s copy came from his great, great grandfather, Harrison Tinkham. Jim’s response to my questions included a bit about that man: “Harrison Tinkham (my great-great grandfather) who was a Sea Captain originally from Massachusetts who later migrated to San Francisco. (only a guess…He may have captained a boat of supplies for the gold rush 49ers and then stayed in San Francisco)  He was born 1821 and died in San Francisco in 1889.  Obituary in San Francisco paper list him as Capt. Harrison Tinkham age 68.  Other family records just say he was a sailor.  Can’t say if he was military or civilian shipping. 

Yet another piece of information for me to return to the past and wonder about that man and his life at sea.

Admittedly, some of my interest may have been driven by recently reading a novel series on the U.S. Navy in its beginning. James L. Haley wrote three novels, The Shores of Tripoli, A Darker Shore, and Captain Putnam and the Republic of Texas (Haley has recently published the fourth novel in the series, The Devil in Paradise: Captive Putnam in Hawaii. His hero, Bliven Putnam, goes from a farm in Massachusetts through at least 1820 in his role as a Navy officer.

This Haley fiction gave me a image of a Navy sailing man of war. As i read my friend’s book of biographies, i kept envisioning life at sea in those times of unmechanized ships.

The experience has been invigorating. Jim Lindsey’s book has put life to my Navy and its history, a fitting thing to consider at the end of this year’s Veteran’s Day.

Thanks, Jim Lindsey, Dave Carey, and Jimmy Butts.