Francis McCullagh

Despite his weak-minded and annoying Anti-Semitism, McCullagh is an excellent writer. His prose is a pleasure to read, not to mention the fact that he was witness to a vanished people (the Cossacks) waging a mode of warfare that was practically obsolete at the time of the Russo-Japanese War.

His observations of the Cossacks are fascinating- as well as the millions of other little details in this piece of reportage.

The reason why I would include it in a "maritime" bookshelf, is that during much of the first portion of the book, he is literally ringside- quarantined on a ship in the bay- at the Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur. Excellent book.… (mehr)