Cruise of the Lanikai: Incitement to War
Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1973. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. xiii, [1], 345, [1] pages. Illustrations. Tabular data. Occasional Footnotes. Endpaper map. Source Notes. Bibliography, Appendix Index. DJ has some wear and soiling. Rear Admiral Kemp Tolley (29 April 1908 – 28 October 2000) was an officer in the U.S. Navy and is the author of three books and numerous articles on U.S. Navy activities in the Pacific, China, and the Soviet Union. USS Lanikai, was a schooner-rigged diesel powered yacht commissioned into the United States Navy during both World War I and World War II, before being transferred to the Royal Australian Navy. The ship was built as MY Hermes by W. F. Stone of Oakland, California, in 1914, for the Williams-Diamond Company, agents for the trading company Jaluit-Gesellschaft of Hamburg, Germany. Lanikai was taken into the United States Navy at Cavite Navy Yard, Philippine Islands, under charter from Luzon Stevedoring Co., on 5 December 1941, and commissioned the same day with Lieutenant (and future admiral) Kemp Tolley in command. The author was commanding officer of the Lanikai, which was commissioned as a U.S. navy ship on 5 December 1941; her real mission was to provoke the Japanese to sink her, thus triggering U.S. entry into World War II. The book detailed the schooner's 4,000-mile trip to Java, then the final 900-mile leg to Allied lines in Australia. On 5 December 1941 in the Philippines, a young Navy ensign named Kemp Tolley was given his first ship command, an old 76-foot schooner that had once served as a movie prop in John Ford's "The Hurricane." Crewed mostly by Filipinos who did not speak English and armed with a cannon that had last seen service in the Spanish-American War, the Lanikai was under top-secret presidential orders to sail south into waters where the Japanese fleet was thought to be. Ostensibly the crew was to spy on Japanese naval movements, but to Tolley it was clear that their mission was to create an incident that would provoke war. Events overtook the plan, however, when Pearl Harbor was bombed before the Lanikai could get underway. When Bataan and Corregidor fell, she was ordered to set sail for Australia and became one of the few U.S. naval vessels to escape the Philippines Lanikai was detached on 26 December 1941 and ordered to attempt to escape to friendly waters. This was the start of a two-month odyssey during which Lanikai sailed from Manila in the Philippine Islands, to Surabaya on Java in the then Netherlands East Indies. Lanikai participated briefly in the doomed defense of Java and was strafed by Japanese aircraft on at least one occasion. Just prior to the fall of Java, Tolley took Lanikai to Tjilatjap on the south coast of Java where she evacuated allied stragglers. Lanikai departed Java 26 February 1942 just prior to the Dutch surrender and arrived at Fremantle, Australia on 18 March 1942. In this book Tolley tells the saga of her great adventure during these grim, early days of the war and makes history come alive as he regales the reader with details of the operation and an explanation of President Roosevelt's order. Tolley's description of their escape in Japanese warship-infested waters ranks with the best of sea tales, and few will be able to forget the Lanikai's 4,000-mile, three-month odyssey. Condition: Good / Good.
Keywords: WWII, Naval, Pacific Theater, U.S.S. Lanikai, Cruise Books, Charles Adair, Philippines, Bataan, Thomas Hart
ISBN: 0870211323
[Book #84236]
Price: $75.00