Samuel Eliot Morison

Samuel Eliot Morison
Samuel Eliot Morison in his official U.S. Navy portrait
Born	(1887-07-09)July 9, 1887 Boston, Massachusetts
Died	May 15, 1976(1976-05-15) (aged 88) Boston, Massachusetts
Allegiance	United States of America
Service / branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1942–1946
Rank	Rear Admiral (Reserve)
Battles / wars	World War II
Awards	See article

Samuel Eliot Morison, Rear Admiral, United States Naval Reserve (July 9, 1887 – May 15, 1976) was an American historian noted for his works of maritime history that were both authoritative and highly readable. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, and taught history at the university for 40 years. He won Pulitzer Prizes for Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942), a biography of Christopher Columbus, and John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1959). In 1942, he was commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to write a history of United States naval operations in World War II, which was published in 15 volumes between 1947 and 1962. He retired from the navy in 1951 as a rear admiral. Morison wrote the popular Oxford History of the American People (1965), and co-authored the classic textbook The Growth of the American Republic (1930) with Henry Steele Commager. Over the course of his distinguished career, Morison received eleven honorary doctoral degrees, including degrees from Harvard University (1936), Columbia University (1942), Yale University (1949), and the University of Oxford (1951). Morison also garnered numerous literary prizes, military honors, and national awards from both foreign countries and the United States, including two Pulitzer Prizes, two Bancroft Prizes, the Balzan Prize, the Legion of Merit, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Early life (1887–1912)

Samuel Eliot Morison was born July 9, 1887, in Boston, Massachusetts, to John Holmes Morison (1856–1911) and Emily Marshall (Eliot) Morison (1857–1925). He was named for his maternal grandfather Samuel Eliot—a historian, educator, and public-minded citizen of Boston and Hartford, Connecticut. The Eliot family, which produced generations of prominent American intellectuals, descended from Andrew Eliot, who moved to Boston in the 1660s from the English village of East Coker. The most famous of this Andrew Eliot's direct descendants was poet T.S. Eliot, who titled the second of his Four Quartets "East Coker".

Morison attended Noble and Greenough School (1897–1901) and St. Paul's (1901–1903) prior to entering Harvard University, where he was a member of the Phoenix S K Club. At the age of fourteen, he learned to sail, and soon after learned horsemanship—both skills would serve him well in his later historical writings. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1908. After studying at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques (1908–1909), Morison returned to Harvard, earning his Ph.D. in 1912. That year he became an instructor in history at the University of California, Berkeley.

The scholar and historian (1913–1941)

Morison's Harvard dissertation was the basis for his first book, The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis, Federalist, 1765–1848 (1913). In 1915, he returned to Harvard and took a position as an instructor. During World War I, he served as a private in the US Army. He also served as the American Delegate on the Baltic Commission of the Peace Conference until June 17, 1919.

From 1922–1925, Morison taught at Oxford University as Harmsworth Professor of American History—the first American to hold that position. In 1925, he returned to Harvard, where he was appointed a full professor. One of several subjects that fascinated Morison was the history of New England. As early as 1921, he wrote The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783-1860. In the 1930s, Morison wrote a series of books on the history of Harvard University and New England, including Builders of the Bay Colony: A Gallery of Our Intellectual Ancestors (1930), The Founding of Harvard College (1935), Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century (1936), Three Centuries of Harvard: 1636–1936 (1936), and The Puritan Pronaos (1936). In later years, he would return to the subject of New England history, writing The Ropemakers of Plymouth (1950) and The Story of the 'Old Colony' of New Plymouth (1956) and editing the definitive work, Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620–1647 (1952).

Morison was known during his time at Harvard to be the last professor to arrive on campus via horseback. He was chosen to speak at the 300th Anniversary celebration of Harvard in 1936 and a recording of his speech is included as part of the "Harvard Voices" collection.

In 1938 Morison was elected as an honorary member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati.

In 1940, Morison published Portuguese Voyages to America in the Fifteenth Century, a book that presaged his succeeding publications on the great explorer, Christopher Columbus. In 1941, Morison was named Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard. For Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942), Morison combined his personal interest in sailing with his scholarship by actually sailing to the various places that Christopher Columbus was then thought to have visited. The Harvard Columbus Expedition, led by Morrison and including his wife and Captain John W. McElroy, Herbert F. Hossmer, Jr., Richard S. Colley, Dr. Clifton W. Anderson, Kenneth R. Spear and Richard Spear, left on 28 August 1939 aboard the 147 foot ketch Capitana for the Azores and Lisbon, Portugal from which they sailed on the 45 foot ketch Mary Otis to retrace Columbus' route using manuscripts and records of his voyages reaching Triuidad by way of Cadiz, Madeira and the Canary Islands. After following the coast of South and Central America the expedition returned to Trinidad on 15 December 1939. The expedition returned to New York on 2 February 1940 aboard the United Fruit liner Veragua. The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1943.

The war years and military service (1942–1952)

In 1942, Morison met with his friend President Franklin D. Roosevelt and offered to write a history of United States Navy operations during the war from an insider's perspective by taking part in operations and documenting them. The President and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox agreed to the proposal. On May 5, 1942, Morison was commissioned Lieutenant Commander, US Naval Reserve, and was called at once to active duty. The result of Morison's proposal was the History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, published in 15 volumes between 1947–1962, documenting everything from strategy and tactics to technology and the exploits of individuals—a work which British military historian Sir John Keegan has called the best to come out of that conflict. Issued as The Rising Sun in the Pacific in 1948, Volume 3 won the Bancroft Prize in 1949.

Morison went on to the rank of Captain on December 15, 1945. On August 1, 1951, he was transferred to the Honorary Retired List of the Naval Reserve, promoted to Rear Admiral on the basis of combat awards.

In History as a Literary Art: An Appeal to Young Historians (1946), Morison argued that vivid writing springs from the synergy of experience and research:

American historians, in their eagerness to present facts and their laudable concern to tell the truth, have neglected the literary aspects of their craft. They have forgotten that there is an art of writing history.

Later years (1953–1976)

In 1955, Morison retired from Harvard University. He devoted the rest of his life to writing. In quick succession, Morison wrote Christopher Columbus, Mariner (1955), Freedom in Contemporary Society (1956), The Story of the 'Old Colony' of New Plymouth, 1620–1692 (1956), Nathaniel Holmes Morison (1957), William Hickling Prescott (1958), Strategy and Compromise (1958), and John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1959), which earned Morison his second Pulitzer Prize.

In the early 1960s, Morison's focus returned to his New England youth, writing The Story of Mount Desert Island, Maine (1960), One Boy's Boston, 1887–1901 (1962), Introduction to Whaler Out of New Bedford (1962), and A History of the Constitution of Massachusetts (1963). In 1963, The Two-Ocean War was published, a one-volume abridged history of the United States Navy in World War II.

In 1964, Morison received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon B. Johnson. In presenting the distinguished historian with the highest civilian award in the United States, Johnson noted:

Scholar and sailor, this amphibious historian has combined a life of action and literary craftsmanship to lead two generations of Americans on countless voyages of discovery.

Morison's later years would also be devoted to books on exploration, such as The Two-Ocean War (1963), The Caribbean as Columbus Saw It (1964), Spring Tides (1965), The European Discovery of America (1971–1974), and Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France (1972). His research for the latter book included sailing many of the routes taken by Champlain, and tracing others by airplane.

Morison's first marriage to Elizabeth S. Greene produced four children—one of whom, Emily Morison Beck, became editor of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Elizabeth died in 1945. In 1949, Morison married Baltimore widow Priscilla Barton. Priscilla died in 1973.

Death and legacy

Morison died of a stroke on May 15, 1976. His ashes are buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Northeast Harbor, Maine. He enjoyed considerable recognition during his lifetime, receiving two Pulitzers, two Bancroft Prizes, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' Emerson-Thoreau Medal (1961), and numerous honorary degrees, military awards, and honors from foreign nations.

On July 19, 1979, the frigate USS Samuel Eliot Morison was launched, honoring Morison and his contributions to the United States Navy. Morison's legacy is also sustained by the United States Naval History and Heritage Command's Samuel Eliot Morison Naval History Scholarship. Boston's Commonwealth Avenue Mall features a bronze statue depicting Morison in sailor's oilskin.

Morison's last known public appearance was on April 8, 1976, when he served as the ribbon cutter to open the USS Constitution Museum. "The Museum’s research library and an annual award given by the Museum for scholarship in history are both named in his honor."

The Naval Order of the United States also awards an honor in Morison's name—the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature.

Criticism

Slavery

Morison was criticized by some African-American scholars for his treatment of American slavery in early editions of his book The Growth of the American Republic, which he co-wrote with Henry Steele Commager and William E. Leuchtenburg. First published in 1930, the first two editions of the textbook, according to these critics, echoed the thesis of American Negro Slavery (1918) by Ulrich Bonnell Phillips. This view, sometimes called the Phillips school of slavery historiography, was considered an authoritative source on the history of American slavery during the first half of the twentieth century, despite the intense criticism by some African-American scholars for its alleged racist underpinnings. Phillips' theories were considered by many to be ground-breaking and progressive when first proposed. In 1944, the NAACP began its criticism of The Growth of the American Republic. In 1950, Morison, while denying any racist intent—he noted his daughter's marriage to the son of Joel Elias Spingarn, the former President of the NAACP—reluctantly agreed to most of the demanded changes. Morison refused to eliminate references to slaves who were loyal and devoted to their masters because they were treated well, and to some positive "civilizing" effects of the American system of slavery. Morison also refused to remove references to stereotypes of African Americans that he believed were vital in accurately depicting the racist nature of American culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—an era when even the most enlightened progressive thinkers routinely explained many aspects of human behavior as being a result of innate racial or ethnic characteristics. In the 1962 edition of the textbook, Morison removed additional content that these critics found offensive.

Battle of Savo Island

In his semi-official account of the Battle of Savo Island, a disastrous defeat for the U.S. Navy in World War II, Morison partly blamed the defeat on the failure of an Australian aircrew to inform the Americans of the approaching Japanese forces. Morison appears to have based this story on inaccurate, now refuted, information.

(Morison)"The Struggle for Guadalcanal"History of United State Naval Operations in World War II. Volume 5 of 15 ; page 25-26

   "First air-search contact, as we have seen, was that of MacArthur's Flying Forts on Mikawa's cruisers south of Kavieng on 7 August. Their report reached Admiral Turner before midnight, but the presence of cruisers close to a naval base was no cause for alarm.   Second contact was made by submarine S-38 south of Cape St. George after nightfall on the 7th. The hight speed and southeasterly course of the enemy indicated an urgent mission. Admiral Crutchley received this intelligence about breakfast time next morning, but awaited amplification by a nearer contact (the ships were then 550 miles from Guadalcanal) before assuming that they were after him.   The third sighting, by the Australian Hudson at 1026 August 8, would have been the tip-off but for several unfortunate circumstances. The pilot of this plane, [An Australian Hudson, on search mission FR-623 originating at Milne Bay, New Guinea.] instead of breaking radio silence to report as he had orders to do in an urgent case, or returning to base which he could have done in two hours, spent most of the afternoon completing his search mission, came down at Milne Bay had his tea, and then reported the contact. About sundown August 8 this vital information was finally sent to Townsville, which originated a dispatch to General MacArthur's headquarters at Brisbane. From that moment there was prompt action; Radio Canberra at 1817 put the contact report on "Bells," from which Admiral Crutchley got it at 1839 ; Canberra also sent it to Pearl Harbor, where it was placed on "Fox," from which Admiral Turner got it at 1845.10 Thus it took over eight hours to pass ultra-hot intelligence only 350 miles from a search plane to the Allied flagship. If the pilot's report had been made by radio, MacArthur could have sent out a search mission to track the ships and bombers to harass them. If the aviator had flow back to base immediately and his report had been transmitted promptly, Turner could have requested additional searches from that side."

(The Pain) Channel 9 (Australia) "7.30 Report" aired Monday 27 October, 2014

Crew of Hudson officially exonerated:

94 Year old Eric Geddes, sole survivor today of his Hudson crew said this after his 72 year campaign for the truth: "If I printed in tomorrow's newspaper that you were responsible for the death of 1023 sailors, how would you feel?"

(The Facts) 4 . Were the Hudsons to be Blamed for the Naval Disaster at Gualcanal? Captain Emile I. Bonnot, USNR (Ret). Historian General Emeritus Naval Order o f the United States, 23 February 1988:

   "The first battle of Savo Island fought in the dead of night 8-9 August 1942 following the successful landing on Guadalcanal on 7 August, was the worst defeat the US Navy had ever suffered in battle. A powerful Allied covering force, including an Australian Cruiser, were surprised and reduced to a shambles by Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa with five heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and a destroyer.

   Samuel Elliot Morison, Richard Newcomb and other writers have placed the blame for the disaster on the pilot and crew of an Australian Hudson plane that sighted Mikawa's force at 10:26 on the morning of 8th August. These writers stated, sometimes naming the pilot, William J Stutt, that the pilot did not break radio silence to make his contact report, spent most of the afternoon completing his search mission, came down at his Milne Bay Base, had tea and apple pie and then leisurely reported the contact about sundown on the eighth. Similarly blame was placed on a second Hudson, piloted by Lloyd Milne.

   Knowing that these statements were untrue, the pilot of the 'first Hudson, William J Stutt and his crew, Eric Geddes, Wilbur Courtis and John Bell all sergeants at the time, have lived under this cloud of disgrace for over forty years. In addition Stutt has been rankled over the mention of tea, contrary to Australian custom, he disliked tea, not having had ten cups of tea in his entire life.

In all the enquiries that followed concerning the disaster, including the official Australian enquiry into the loss of the HMAS Canberra, these four were never interrogated.

   A few Australians, among them W F Martin Clemens, who is a Companion of the Naval Order of the United States and the coast watcher hero on Guadalcanal, Mrs Lloyd Milne, the wife of the pilot of the second Hudson that sighted Mikawa 35 minutes after Stutt's sighting; G. Herman Gill who prepared the Official History of the Royal Australian Navy1942-45 (published in 1969) and A J Sweeting, General Editor of Official War History, became interested in clearing away the unjustified cloud that hung over the men. The documents which proved that the crew of Hudson A16-218 of the 32nd Squadron did a proper job on their mission on 8th August 1942. A recountal of the flight follows.

   In the early hours of 8th of August 1942 at the RAAF Fall River Base Milne Bay, New Guinea, a Hudson A16-218 of 32 Squadron was being readied for an armed reconnaissance mission over Bougainville Island, the Japanese controlled waters and the islands to the east. The Fall River Base was part of the Allied Southwest Pacific Command of General Douglas MacArthur. The Hudson crew of four, were Sergeant William J Stutt, pilot in command, Sergeant Wilbur Courtis, Navigator, Sergeant Eric Geddes, Radio Operator, and Sergeant John Bell, Gunner, all just graduated from Advanced Training School in Australia. The four were briefed in the Operations Room located in a native style thatched hut near the air strip. In the briefing they were given their search pattern, the mission "to search for Japanese submarines and surface craft activity" and received the identifying code letter of the day. During the short briefing there was a mention about the possibility of encountering Allied shipping at sea in the waters over which they would fly. They received no information on the large scale landings made on Guadalcanal and Tulagi. This information was deliberately withheld as it would have been a great liability and strain if they were forced down and captured. They would know nothing if they were interrogated and tortured. As it turned out, it would have been better if they had been informed as they might have been able to take more time and give a more accurate identification of the ships they sighted in Mikawa's force.

   The Hudson A16-218 being ready, the four crewmen took off at 6:15 am local time as per the Fall River log. The lumbering Lockheed Hudson searched the sea west of Bougainville Island, the largest island in the Solomon's chain, and climbed for altitude to overfly the mountains on Bougainville. As they were breaking through the cloud cover on the descent about 30 miles east of Kieta, they were startled to see a striking force of eight ships. Because of the briefing about Allied shipping, they thought it was possible that the ships were friendly.

   Stutt took the plane down and flew briefly on a parallel course of 120 degrees. Geddes flashed the Aldis Lamp requesting the "letter of the day" There were a couple of flashes from the ships which Geddes at first thought were flashes from an Aldis Lamp in reply to his challenge. But Geddes quickly decided they were gun flashes and not the signal from an Aldis Lamp. At the same time, two float planes were seen being launched from the ships and heading toward them. Stutt recognised them as Zero float planes which left no doubt in his mind that the ships were Japanese.

   With the anti-aircraft bursts appearing as puffs of black smoke around the plane and the Zero float planes trying to gain altitude and heading toward them, Stutt knew he had to get away. His mission was basically reconnaissance not combat. He had to get off a message. He climbed and headed for which little cloud cover there was over Bougainville. When Stutt thought he was out of sight in a cloud, he decided it was time to break radio silence and report to Fall River.

   It was 10:26 am when radio operator Geddes sent a message to their RAAF Fall River Base at Milne Bay. The message reported the sighting and gave composition of the force as they believed it to be.

The Message:RAAF Hudson

   - Sighted Japanese force
   - Three Cruisers
   - Three Destroyers
   - Two Seaplane Tenders or Gunboats
   - Latitude 0549S - Longitude 156-07E
   - Course120 degrees - Speed 15 Knots 

   Sergeant Geddes who sent the message received no response from Fall River. The Base was blacked out by violent electric storms in the area and could not receive it.

   Martin Clemens, while coast watching on Guadalcanal, says he had similar problems trying to transmit to Townsville, Australia. Sergeant HG Holland on mght A16157- 32 Squadron tried to raise Fall River about the same time without success. He called the radio phenomenon "skip distance and area"

   Others did copy the message, however, not the least being Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa himself.

   Mrs. N Milne, Wife of Lloyd Milne, pilot of Hudson A16-185, who sighted some of Mikawa's ships 35 minutes after Stutt's sighting, wrote in 1984 to Sadao Seno who had been in Mikawa's fleet and who had aided Dennis and Peggy Warner in writing their book "Kamikase, The Sacred Warrior" asking whether he could verify any of these facts on the Hudson's sighting. Seno replied on 15 September 1984 that he had found the account in the Detailed Action Report of Admiral Gunichi Mikawa's flagship Chokai, which is preserved in the Library of War History, Department of the National Defence College, where all remaining war documents are preserved.

Sado Seno reported that Mikawa had logged the following:

   "At 0903: Recognised the plane which had kept following us and drove it off by main battery fire. The plane found our fleet. Intercepted its report as follows: At 0927- three cruisers, three destroyers, two seaplane tenders or gunboats, 0549S, 156-07E, course120 degrees at 15 knots."

   Mikawa listed the time of the interception of the message on Tokyo time, which was the time used by the Japanese fleet. Converting the time to local time, it was the exact time that Geddes said he radioed his message to his Fall River Base.

   The cruiser USS ASTORIA probably intercepted the message. The Captain, Lt. Cmdr. Walter B Davidson said he had a report in the morning which he believed came from Coast Watchers, but no Coast Watchers sent such a message. Jack Reid was on the northern coast of Bougainville and saw nothing of the ships. Paul Mason was on the southern coast of Bougainville. Mason on Malaita Hill, had done a priceless job in reporting the flight of enemy aircraft but Mikawa's force had passed 40 miles to the east and out of his range of vision. There were no Coast Watcher reports

   A Melbourne radio station copied the message but it being addressed to Fall River, they presumed that any action required would originate from there.

   Admiral Hepburn's investigative report mentions that Captain Reifkohl of the USS VINCENNES "became aware of the contact during the afternoon." Captain Reifkohl made mention of it in his Orders.

   In the Australian enquiry into the sinking of HMAS CANBERRA the survivor Cmdr. E. J. Wright, Intelligence Officer and Control Officer of the aft 8" guns, stated that when he came off watch at sunset they already had the report of 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers and 2 aircraft tenders, but he said they thought the ships were operating between Rabaul and Buka Passage.

   Admiral Crutchly wrote that he had the report during the day. Naval Order Companion, Captain Elias B Mott ESN (Retired), then a Lieutenant and Assistant Gunnery Officer and Anti- Aircraft Officer on the USS ENTERPRISE, said they had the report in the early afternoon of the 8th and put it on their Status Board. From the position given, they had plotted it and estimated that if the force continued on to Guadalcanal, it could be expected around 1am on the 9th.

   Meanwhile Sergeant Stutt in the Hudson, having sent the message but not getting any acknowledgement, decided he had to get back to Milne Bay as quickly as possible. He climbed over the mountains on Bougainville and at his top cruising speed of 180 knots set a bee- line course for the Base, expecting a return flight of two hours

   After leaving Bougainville behind, Stutt had not gone far over the water when Sergeant Wilbur Courtis through his binoculars sighted two large vessels which he could not identify. Stutt circled and brought the plane lower, took the binoculars and recognised them as submarines on the surface. The Rising Sun on the conning towers told him they were Japanese.

   As the submarines attempted to dive, Sergeant Stutt or Courtis opened the bomb bay doors and Stutt released a stick of bombs on the first submarine which were near misses. Stutt continued on the next diving submarine and dropped another stick. One bomb appeared to be a direct hit.

   As the bombs were being dropped, Sergeant Geddes reported that here was a lot of Japanese radio traffic (RT) originating nearby. He said it was probably from the submarines but added that aircraft might also be nearby.

   Knowing that at least one of two Japanese planes had taken off in an attempt to get them, Stutt did not linger to see the results of their bombing but quickly regained altitude and again headed for base. Attacking the target of opportunity had taken only 16 minutes.

   Without any mishaps, the Hudson touched down at 12:42 as the log book shows, which was 2 hours 16 minutes after the sighting. Their return was earlier than expected and there was quite a flurry of excitement. The armourers were told to reload the bombs and the excitement grew. But in minutes a jeep appeared and Stutt and the crew were whisked away to the Operations Hut. Stutt was debriefed and the navigation log was studied by the Officer. Stutts full report. Sighted Japanese force- 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, 2 seaplane tenders or gunboats - position 0459 S - 156-07E - course 120 degrees - at 15 knots, was immediately radioed to headquarters. The message also included: 2 submarines, course 150 degrees in position 0235S - 154E, 2 sticks of bombs dropped. Stutt could not verify that one submarine was hit.

   The record of this report being received appears in the Operation Record Book of Headquarters North Eastern area of 8th August 1942. In listing the submarines sighted and attacked, it added "nil hits".

   The sighting report also appears in MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area Headquarters Situation Report No. 330. This report lists the sighting of 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers and 2 possible seaplane tenders. The reference to possible gunboats was deleted in this Situation Report.

   The second Hudson, A16-185 piloted by Lloyd Milne left Fall River at approximately the same time as A16-218 on a different search pattern. However it overlapped a portion of Stutt's flight in an area northeast of Kieta on Bougainville Island. At 11 :01am Milne sighted five ships that were part of Mikawa's force. EVidently after intercepting Stutt's message and anticipating further reconnaissance Mikawa had split his force to confuse further sightings. Milne did not break radio silence but returned to Fall River at 2:04pm a little less than two hours after Stutt. He reported his sighting as 2 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and an unidentified vessel at Latitude 0542S Longitude156.05E, course 280, speed 25 knots. After being debriefed, Milne's report was immediately radioed by Operations at Fall River Base, Milne Bay.

   The MacArthur COMSOWESPAC Situation report 330 of 8th August 1942 lists the message as above giving the time of sighting as 11:01 except it gives the speed as 12 knots. The Operations Record Book of Headquarters North Eastern Area of 8th August 1942 gives the speed of 25 knots but lists 2 destroyers instead of light cruisers.

   For some reason, there seems to have been a delay of many hours before Crutchly and Turner received the Hudsons sighting reports though Crutchly stated later he had the reports in the afternoon.

   Contrary to the historians, the record shows that the Hudsons wasted no time on their patrols. Stutt broke radio silence in trying to get out his message and both Hudsons returned promptly to base and immediately gave their verbal reports. The records show that Stutt and Milne did a proper, professional job in reporting their sightings. In fact the entire 32nd Squadron including the two Hudsons, received a" Letter of Commendation" from Major General Kenny on MacArthur's staff in recognition of " its excellent work in the Port Moresby area from 1st August 1942 to 5th September 1942." The only fault lay with Stutt's identification of two of Mikawa's ships as seaplane tenders which led to faulty conclusions but which could have been corrected later by further reconnaissance which did not take place. In fact Milne's sighting at 11:01am was the last sighting while Mikawa steamed boldly down the "Slot" without air cover.

   The purpose of this writing is to lift the cloud of blame that hung over the heads of crews of the Australian Hudsons for over 40 Years. It is to present the account of the flights as stated by William J Stutt and other members of the crew and to reference the documentary evidence of their compatriots laboriously exhumed from old dusty files that confirmed the accounts.

Honors and awards

Military, civilian, and foreign honors

• Legion of Merit with Combat "V"
• World War I Victory Medal
• Navy Unit Commendation
• American Campaign Medal
• Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with six campaign stars
• European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one campaign star
• World War Two Victory Medal
• Philippine Liberation Ribbon
• Order of the White Rose of Finland
• Vuelo Panamericano Medal, awarded by the Republic of Cuba (1943)
• Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1961)
• Order of Isabella the Catholic (1963)
• Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964)
• Honorary Member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati

Honorary degrees

• Trinity College, Hartford (1935)
• Amherst College (1936)
• Harvard University (1936)
• Union College (1939)
• Columbia University (1942)
• Yale University (1949)
• Williams College (1950)
• University of Oxford (1951)
• Bucknell University (1960)
• Boston College (1961)
• College of the Holy Cross (1962)

Literary prizes

• Loubat Prize (1938) for The Founding of Harvard College (1935) and Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century (1936)
• Pulitzer Prize (1943) for Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942)
• Bancroft Prize (1949) for The Rising Sun in the Pacific (1948)
• Pulitzer Prize (1960) for John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1959)
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences Emerson-Thoreau Medal (1961)
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal (1962)
• Balzan Prize (1962) for History of United States Naval Operations in World War II (1963)
• Bancroft Prize (1972) for The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages (1971)

Works

Main article: Samuel Eliot Morison bibliography

The following is a list of books written by Samuel Eliot Morison arranged alphabetically.

• Admiral of the Ocean Sea. 2 vols. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1942.
• American Contributions to the Strategy of World War II. London: Oxford University Press, 1958.
• The Ancient Classics in a Modern Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1939.
• Builders of the Bay Colony. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1930.
• By Land and By Sea. New York: Knopf, 1953.
• The Caribbean as Columbus Saw It. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1964. (with Mauricio Obregon)
• Christopher Columbus, Mariner. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1955.
• The Class Lives of Samuel Eliot and Nathaniel Homes Morison, Harvard 1839. Boston: Privately printed, 1926.
• The Conservative American Revolution. Washington, DC: Society of the Cincinnati, 1976.
• Doctor Morison's Farewell to the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Boston: Merrymount Press, 1939.
• The European Discovery of America. 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971–1974.
• The Events of the Year MDCCCCXXXV. Boston: Merrymount Press, 1936.
• The Founding of Harvard College. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935.
• Francis Parkman. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1973.
• Freedom in Contemporary Society. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1956.
• The Growth of the American Republic 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1930.
• Harrison Gray Otis, 1765–1848: The Urbane Federalist. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969.
• Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century. 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936.
• Harvard Guide to American History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963. (with Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Frederick Merk, Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr., and Paul Herman Buck)
• Historical Background for the Massachusetts Bay Tercentenary in 1930. Boston: Massachusetts Bay Tercentenary, Inc., 1928, 1930.
• Historical Markers Erected by Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission. Texts of Inscriptions As Revised By Samuel Eliot Morison. Boston: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1930.
• History As A Literary Art. Boston: Old South Association, 1946.
• A History of the Constitution of Massachusetts. Boston: Special Commission on Revision of the Constitution, 1963.
• A History of the Constitution of Massachusetts. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1917.
• History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. 15 vols. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1947–62.
• An Hour of American History: From Columbus to Coolidge. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1929.
• Introduction to Whaler Out of New Bedford. New Bedford: Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1962.
• John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1959.
• Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913.
• Life in Washington a Century and a Half Ago. Washington, DC: Cosmos Club, 1968.
• The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783–1860. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921.
• Nathaniel Homes Morison. Baltimore: Peabody Institute, 1957.
• A New and Fresh English Translation of the Letter of Columbus Announcing the Discovery of America. Madrid: Graficas Yagues, 1959.
• Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620–1647. Editor. New York: Knopf, 1952.
• Old Bruin: Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, 1796–1858. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1967.
• One Boy's Boston, 1887–1901. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962.
• The Oxford History of the American People. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.
• Oxford History of the United States. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1927.
• The Pilgrim Fathers: Their Significance in History. Boston: Merrymount Press, 1937.
• Portuguese Voyages to America in the Fifteenth Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1940.
• A Prologue to American History: An Inaugural Lecture. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922.
• The Proprietors of Peterborough, New Hampshire. Peterborough: Historical Society, 1930.
• The Puritan Pronaos. New York: New York University Press, 1936.
• Ropemakers of Plymouth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950.
• Sailor Historian: The Best of Samuel Eliot Morison. Edited by Emily Morison Beck. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977.
• Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1972.
• The Scholar in American: Past, Present, and Future. New York: Oxford University Press, 1961.
• The Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus. New York: Oxford University Press, 1939.
• Sources and Documents Illustrating the American Revolution, 1764–1788, and the Formation of the Federal Constitution. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923.
• Spring Tides. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965.
• The Story of Mount Desert Island, Maine. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1960.
• The Story of the 'Old Colony' of New Plymouth, 1620–1692. New York: Knopf, 1956.
• Strategy and Compromise. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1958.
• These Forty Years. Boston: Privately printed, 1948. (Address to the 40th Reunion, Harvard Class of 1908)
• Three Centuries of Harvard, 1636–1936. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936.
• The Two Ocean War. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1963.
• Vistas of History. New York: Knopf, 1964.
• William Hickling Prescott. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1958.
• The Young Man Washington. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1932.

Further reading

• Keegan, John. The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare. New York: Viking, 1989.
• Morison, Samuel Eliot. "The Gilberts & Marshalls" in Life Magazine, May 22, 1944.
• Pfitzer, Gregory M. Samuel Eliot Morison's Historical World: In Quest of a New Parkman. Boston: Northeastern, 1991.
• Washburn, Wilcomb E. "Samuel Eliot Morison, Historian" in The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, Vol. XXXVI, July 1979.
• Faith of a Historian Presidential address read at the annual dinner of the American Historical Association in Chicago on December 29, 1950. American Historical Review 56:2 (January 1951): 261-75.

External links

• Official United States Navy Biography
• Samuel Eliot Morison at Find a Grave