标题: 1946.12 在红海的阳光下 作者：威廉-麦克菲 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-6-15 18:41 标题: 1946.12 在红海的阳光下 作者：威廉-麦克菲 BOOKS
Under the Red Sea Sun
By William Mcfee
DECEMBER 1946 ISSUE
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Commander Edward Ellsberg
DODD, MEAD
IN The Year of Stalingrad Alexander Werth, who interviewed Stalin recently, emphasizes what few of us under stand: that the Russians as a people know almost nothing of the war outside Continental Europe. But Massawa, that torrid and humid port in Eritrea, which Commander Edward Ellsberg converted into a naval base of vital importance in defeating Rommel in Africa, is probably just as unknown to Americans as to the Russians.
The Red Sea is not an easy area to make interesting. Those who have been in it usually want to get away from it and forget it. And Massawa is so much worse than any other part of the Red Sea that Port Sudan and Jedda are by comparison health resorts.
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Rejoining the serviee at the age of fifty, Commander Ellsberg was offered a choice of Iceland or the Rod Sea for salvage work. lie chose the Red Sea.. Under the Red Sea Sun is his twelfth book. He is now a captain in the Naval Reserve, but he retains the rank of commander on his title page as a tram de guerre, one may say.
There are a number of novel features about Ellsberg’s career. He is the product of Annapolis and the United States Navy of the era of Admirals Sims and King. He has specialized in salvage with spectacular success. Salvage to Ellsberg is not merely a profession, a science, and an art. It is a passion. No vessel seems so lovely iu his eves as when she is on the bottom of the sea and lie is given the exquisite and delicate job of raising her, as from the dead.
In addition to his status as a naval officer, an engineer of remarkable originality, and an executive who can work miracles. Kllsberg is a writer. Ordinarily, when such a feat. as he records in Under the Red Sea Sun has been achieved — the restoration of a ruined harbor full of sabotaged German and Italian ships, docks, and a floating crane — the officer responsible would turn over his data to a professional writer, who would do a professional job. But no professional writer could do this so well as Ellsberg himself has done it. The intrusion of a journalistic mind, either as a collaborator or a ghost, would be fatal to the authenticity of such a tale. This gift of writing, quite apart from his gift of gett ing work done, was obvious in On the Bottom long ago. It is obvious here in his latest book. We cannot say that a writer has been lost in the salvage man. For most of ns laymen Ellsberg is salvage personified. He can explain the most technical thing so simply, dramatically, and entertainingly that it is as exciting as a mystery thriller: much more exciting than some of them. He has the art to dramatize disaster. When \ye gaze at Ids map of Massawa harbor, with its score of sunken wrecks, our eyes brighten, our blood pressure rises. We know’ thal Kllsberg is going to raise those wrecks. We know he will face incredible difficulties; lie will fight with the modern naval equivalent of beasts at Kphesus: but we know also that he will win. He always does. And he conveys his own fine feeling of triumph, of a job well done. Bead what the British Admiralty thought of him.
There is another side to the Ellsberg character, which has not been mentioned but. which is important. He is a diplomat. He cun get on with the British. He had Eritreans, Arabs, Italians, and Persians to work with, but his crowning glory was that he got along with British officers and dockyard civilians in Massawa. Take the whiskey that Grant list’d, this uncanny ability of Ellsherg should be isolated and packaged for the rest of the military personnel. Ellsberg was an ambassador, not so much of good will as of intelligence and character. When he met men of supreme technical ability if was dec]) calling unto deep. After reading this most excellent book one can only echo Napoleon’s remark after meeting Goethe: Voild un homme!
WILLIAM MCFEE
埃尔斯伯格的性格还有另一面，这一点没有被提及，但也很重要。他是一个外交家。他能和英国人打成一片。他有厄立特里亚人、阿拉伯人、意大利人和波斯人可以合作，但他的最高荣誉是他与马萨瓦的英国军官和码头平民相处融洽。就拿格兰特列举的威士忌来说，艾尔舍格的这种不可思议的能力应该被隔离出来，包装给其他军事人员。埃尔斯伯格是一位大使，与其说是善意的，不如说是智慧和性格的。当他遇到具有最高技术能力的人时，如果是dec]）呼唤到深处。读完这本最优秀的书后，人们只能附和拿破仑在见到歌德后所说的话。Voild un homme!
威廉-麦克菲（WILLIAM MCFEE