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The Brothers Karamazov
p883 [Dmitri to Alyosha] “...I hate America already! And though they may be wonderful at machinery, every one of them, damn them, they are not of my soul. I love Russia... I love the Russian God, though I am a scoundrel. I shall choke there!”...
What’s interesting about what “America” meant to Europeans around this time is that the average American was still pretty traditional and old fashioned. Even in 1880 a huge percentage of the population lived on subsistence agriculture was not that different from what Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy were familiar with. It would turn out that Americans were actually as bad as Europeans believed them to be, but that wouldn’t be proved until after Spindletop and all the mass consumerism (and fast food) of the 20th century.
While Dostoyevsky did “finish” The Brothers Karamazov, it still, at the end, feels as unfinished as Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. One supposes that, had Dostoyevsky lived longer, he would have eventually tried to interest some periodical in carrying the further adventures of those crazy Karamazov brothers. And I would be just as interested in learning more about the complex Lise, the delightful Madame H., and of course the tragic soap opera queens, Katerina and Grushenka. And with all the philosophy out of the way -- perhaps -- the story might have flowed more smoothly.
In my edition of this book, the Afterword by Sara Paretsky maintains that “...only active love was possible for Russia -- and humanity’s -- salvation, and that active love was most possible through Orthodox Christianity.” But isn’t the love of Katerina for Dmitri, and even of Grushenka for Dmitri, examples of a kind of “active love” -- perhaps a love distantly related to the saving love for Faust of his doomed Gretchen? While I much prefer the Austen women to Dostoyevsky’s women (with the exception of Madame H.) I have to say I prefer Dostoyevsky’s women to the nonsensical women of Goethe’s Faust. (It would be fun to film versions of either The Magic Mountain or Doctor Faustus with the women represented by manikins or life size marionettes.)
It is truly amazing how many cases of parricide have been in the news in the past week since I finished reading this. I guess Dostoyevsky was right about the younger generation (and most of these killers have been teens) going to hell in a hand-basket.
Up Next
Before we move on to our next book (On the Move by Oliver Sacks), I'm going to take this opportunity to add in one of my longer contributions.
USS Independence
Recently the wreck of the USS Independence was rediscovered on the floor of the ocean near San Francisco. The local paper told just enough of her story to start me thinking. Here is some of what should have been said.
In 1938, following the Japanese invasion of China and the German annexation of Austria, the U.S. Congress enacted The Naval Act of 1938, also known as the Second Vinson Act. (Carl Vinson was a Democratic congressman from Georgia and the Chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee. There is currently a nuclear powered supercarrier named for him. This is an honor usually reserved for Presidents.)
“The 1938 Act specifically authorised the construction of 105,000 tons of battleships (the first three Iowa Class ships were built under this authorization), 68,754 tons of cruisers, 38,000 tons of destroyers and 13,658 tons of submarines...” -Wiki
That “68,754 tons of cruisers” included 32 light cruisers of the Cleveland-class. Light cruisers are an odd sort of support ship, not the sort of ship to get anyone excited. The most notable thing about this item in the list was that there were so many of them ordered. And “light” here refers to the size of their main guns, not the size of the ships; these light cruisers were as big as and as fast as the heavy cruisers (CAs) that bore the brunt of the fighting during the dark days, or rather dark nights, of 1942. The difference was that the Cleveland-class ships mounted 12 6” guns instead of the CAs 9 8” guns. Their secondary battery consisted of 12 more dual purpose 5” guns in twin turrets. These 5” guns, along with a large number of smaller anti-aircraft guns, made them an excellent anti-aircraft asset for a fleet that was then quite vulnerable to air attack.
In June of 1940, following the brief and disastrous Battle of France, Congress passed the even larger Two-Ocean Navy Act, also known as the Vinson-Walsh Act. Now faced with the prospect of confronting both a victorious Germany in the Atlantic and a dangerous Japan in the Pacific, this Act authorized the construction of 18 large aircraft carriers (CVs) of the Essex- class, and an additional 2 Iowa-class battleships (BBs) (bringing the total authorized to 7 of which only 4 would be completed by the end of the war) plus 5 even larger Montana-class BBs (their construction would be cancelled because there simply weren’t enough shipyards to build them and the Essex CVs at the same time). There were also to be 6 super heavy cruisers of the Alaska-class (only 2 would be completed), 27 more cruisers, 115 more destroyers and 43 more submarines.
There was really only one problem with the construction program funded by the Vinson bills, the major elements -- BBs and CVs -- were not scheduled to start joining the fleet until 1944 and the grand fleet, or fleets, envisioned by the Navy would not fully exist until 1946. Until then the U.S. Navy would only have its existing six large fleet carriers -- plus the small and slow U.S.S. Ranger, which would be relegated to service in the Atlantic and Mediterranean during the war.
The ex-Secretary of the Navy -- a chap by the name of Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- began to worry about that period until 1944 when no new CVs would be joining the fleet. He suggested to the navy that it might be a good idea to convert some of these large, fast, Cleveland-class CL hulls to aircraft carriers to fill that gap. Now the Navy had learned, from its experience with the smaller U.S.S. Ranger, that small carriers were inferior to large carriers in every way. What they wanted were the big Essex-class ships that were on the way. On 12 October 1941 the Navy told the President, “No.” Roosevelt pointed out that he was talking about what the Navy needed and asked them to reconsider, they then admitted, on 25 October, that such a conversion of CLs could result in new carriers reaching the fleet much sooner. In January of 1942, after Pearl Harbor, the Navy ordered the first conversion of a Cleveland-class CL. In February they ordered two more conversions. In March another three. By June 1942, two U.S. Navy CVs had been sunk and a third had just rejoined the fleet after months spent at the Bremerton shipyard to repair damage from a Japanese torpedo; the Navy ordered a final three conversions bringing the number of ships in what would be known as the Independence-class to nine. In October 1942 the last operational U.S. carrier in the Pacific retreated to Nouméa, New Caledonia for extensive repairs from bomb damage suffered at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. Saratoga, the only other heavy carrier not sunk, was again under repair from another torpedo hit. (There’s another great story to tell about the sister ships Saratoga and Lexington, Kagi and Akaga... maybe later.)
By 1943 the Enterprise and Saratoga had rejoined the fleet and they were joined by the first of the Essex-class heavy carriers -- their construction had been expedited after Pearl Harbor -- as these ships became available. But the Independence-class ships, now designated Light Fleet Carriers (CVLs) entered service faster and by November 1943 all nine ships were in commission and providing excellent service. For Operation Galvanic in November 1943 (the invasion of the Gilbert Islands including Tarawa) the Fast Carrier Task Force consisted of 6 CVs and 5 CVLs. During the Battle of the Philippine Sea (arguably the decisive naval battle of the war) the U.S. Fifth Fleet was constructed around 7 CVs and 8 CVLs.
By the end of the war the surviving Enterprise and Saratoga would be joined by no less than 17 Essex-class heavy carriers, but during the years when the U.S. fought its way across the Pacific to Japan, it was the Independence-class ships that bore more than their fair share of the load. In fact the only U.S. fleet carrier lost after 1942 was the Independence-class U.S.S. Princeton during the Battles of Leyte Gulf.
And this is just one of the reasons that it would be impossible to overemphasize FDR’s role in winning the Pacific War.
Coda: The Cleveland-class ships displaced 11,000 tons and so represented in total 99,000 tons of shipping. The first CVL was commissioned 14 January 1943 and the last 17 November 1943.
In June 1942, at the same time the U.S. Navy ordered the final 3 Cleveland conversions, the Imperial Japanese Navy ordered the conversion to a supercarrier of the third Yamato-class battleship. The 65,000 ton Shinano was formally commissioned on 19 November 1944 at Yokosuka. She was still being fitted out when she was ordered to sail 300 miles to Kure where she would complete fitting and receive her air group. On 28 November, in route to Kure, Shinano was attacked by the submarine U.S.S. Archerfish. Struck by four torpedoes, she sank at 10:57 (military time) on 29 November.
In truth, the loss of Shinano was not all that significant. The crucial battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf had already been fought and lost. When she sank she was carrying not naval aircraft but 50 rocket propelled kamikaze flying bombs and six suicide boats that she was supposed to deliver to Okinawa or the Philippines.
The Independence CVLs were second rate carriers, but they were there when needed and it would have taken more than four torpedoes to sink them all. There are actually advantages, in a battle, in having more flight decks, in having your valuable aircraft in more baskets. If given the choice, I imagine the Navy would rather have had 4 more Essex-class CVs than the 9 Independence-class conversions. But the IJN would have been much better off building 6 ships like the Independence in 1943 rather than the giant Shinano late in 1944.
Jump to Next: On The Move - "A New Vision of the Mind" - Part 1
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