Michael Hadley and Roger Sarty shed new light on Canadian and German history -- and on Canada's naval defences in particular -- by exploring the naval operations and politics of both nations between 1880 and 1918. Beginning with Canada's feeling of "Splendid Isolation" and Germany's imperial ambitions against North America, the authors' intriguing and graphic account takes us from the early turmoil of federal politics in Canada to the conflict of the Great War and the eventual mothballing of the Canadian fleet. Having conducted an exhaustive study of Canadian, German, American, and British sources -- many of which have not been examined before -- Hadley and Sarty evaluate such major issues as policies and practice; intelligence schemes and spy scares; naval bills and the Dreadnought crisis; U-boats, commercial submarines, undersea cruisers, and surface raiders; and coastal patrols and convoy protection. Many factors that were believed to have been responsible for shaping -- and misshaping -- the Canadian Navy of 1939-45 are shown to have been in play during the First World War. Tin-Pots and Pirate Ships reveals the Canadian tradition of building a fleet only when needed, dismantling it once the conflict is over, and ultimately accepting terms dictated by alliance partners.

Michael L. Hadley is an award-winning writer, scholar, yachtsman, retired naval officer, international traveller, and lecturer. He is the author and editor of several books on naval and maritime history, including Spindrift: A Canadian Book of the Sea (co-edited with Anita Hadley) and Citizen Sailors: Chronicles of Canada’s Naval Reserve, 1910–2010 (co-edited with Richard H. Gimlett), and his work has won such prestigious awards as the John Lyman Prize of the North American Society for Oceanic History and the Keith Matthews Award of the Canadian Nautical Research Society. He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Michael L. Hadley's profile page

Roger Sarty, history professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, was in previous careers senior historian at the Department of National Defence and deputy director at the Canadian War Museum. His other books on the Canadian Army in the Maritimes include Saint John Fortifications (2003, with Doug Knight) and Guardian of the Gulf: Sydney Cape Breton and the Atlantic Wars (2012, with Brian Tennyson)./p>

Roger Sarty's profile page

"Until now no thorough account of German naval operations off the Canadian east coast or Canadian operations to check them was available. Nothing of this scope has even been attempted before ... I am deeply impressed with the thoroughness and diligence of the research and scholarship ... It is also well and thoughtfully written, displaying a remarkable clarity of prose and a fast-paced and easy style." Marc Milner, Department of History, University of New Brunswick. "an important and unusual study in that [Hadley and Sarty] have so effectively pulled together many complex facets of Canadian and German (as well as relevant British and US) naval planning and policy ... The scholarship is not only sound but impressively so ... [The authors'] collaboration here has been very effective and especially so in terms of their critical but balanced and eminently intelligent handling of the materials they have uncovered." B. Hunt, Royal Military College, Kingston.

"Until now no thorough account of German naval operations off the Canadian east coast or Canadian operations to check them was available. Nothing of this scope has even been attempted before ... I am deeply impressed with the thoroughness and diligence of the research and scholarship ... It is also well and thoughtfully written, displaying a remarkable clarity of prose and a fast-paced and easy style." Marc Milner, Department of History, University of New Brunswick.
"an important and unusual study in that [Hadley and Sarty] have so effectively pulled together many complex facets of Canadian and German (as well as relevant British and US) naval planning and policy ... The scholarship is not only sound but impressively so ... [The authors'] collaboration here has been very effective and especially so in terms of their critical but balanced and eminently intelligent handling of the materials they have uncovered." B. Hunt, Royal Military College, Kingston.