In the spring of 1915, Sgt. Werner Riess was recovering from surgery at a military hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany. Referring to his battlefield diary and letters sent home, he wrote this memoir of his time in the German field artillery, fighting Russians and Cossacks on the Eastern Front.
Edited and annotated by Warren Riess, translated by Christa Mayer-Bohne. Printed editions include the original memoir in German.
“I found the memoir a fascinating read on many levels and found it difficult to put down. The diaries and letters lose nothing in translation from their original German and the addition of useful maps and well-researched relevant history by the editor means that [the] book can be enjoyed by readers without much knowledge of the First World War. The extracts from letters between Werner and his wife are poignant and show the emotional costs of wartime to relationships.
“This is a very personal view of a single soldier balanced by the editor’s overview to place it in context in the campaign…Five Stars.”–British Ordnance Society Newsletter
1797 House, 2020. Cloth, paperback, & Kindle editions, 290 pages, 3 B&W photos, 10 maps. Glossary of military terms. Available in bookstores and Amazon worldwide.
The Ship that Held Up Wall Street tells the story of the discovery, excavation, and investigation of what came to be called the “Ronson ship site,” named for the site’s developer. Entombed in Manhattan’s financial district for more than two hundred years, the ship proved to be the first major discovery of a British colonial merchant ship.
Years of arduous analytical detective work led to critical breakthroughs revealing how the ship was designed and constructed in 1717, its probable identity, its history as a merchant ship, and why and how it came to be buried in Manhattan.
Winner of Mystic Seaport Museum’s 2015 John Gardner Maritime Research Award.
Texas A&M University Press, 2014. Hard cover 8.5 x 11, 112 pages, 37 B&W photos, 17 line art. Glossary. Index. $29.00.
The second volume, Studying the Princess Carolina: Anatomy of the Ship, is now available.
Angel Gabriel: The Elusive English Galleon presents the history of and search for the remains of a fascinating seventeenth-century ship. She was built for Sir Walter Raleigh’s last expedition to America in 1617, carried many people on adventures in the Atlantic Ocean for eighteen years, brought families to settle in America, and was wrecked by a hurricane at Pemaquid, Maine in 1635.
Primary and secondary sources indicate that at least eleven families sailed to New England on her last voyage: Andrews, Bailey, Blaesdell, Bradbury, Burnham, Cogswell, Furber, Haines, Hook, Simpson, and Tuttle. Some information about their lives in America is included in Chapter 5.
1797 House, 2001. Paperback, 132 pages, 17 B&W photos, 16 line art. Appendix/Glossary. Index. $20.00.