1946.12 在红海的阳光下 作者：威廉-麦克菲

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Under the Red Sea Sun
By William Mcfee
DECEMBER 1946 ISSUE
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Commander Edward Ellsberg
DODD, MEAD
IN The Year of Stalingrad Alexander Werth, who interviewed Stalin recently, emphasizes what few of us under stand: that the Russians as a people know almost nothing of the war outside Continental Europe. But Massawa, that torrid and humid port in Eritrea, which Commander Edward Ellsberg converted into a naval base of vital importance in defeating Rommel in Africa, is probably just as unknown to Americans as to the Russians.

The Red Sea is not an easy area to make interesting. Those who have been in it usually want to get away from it and forget it. And Massawa is so much worse than any other part of the Red Sea that Port Sudan and Jedda are by comparison health resorts.
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Rejoining the serviee at the age of fifty, Commander Ellsberg was offered a choice of Iceland or the Rod Sea for salvage work. lie chose the Red Sea.. Under the Red Sea Sun is his twelfth book. He is now a captain in the Naval Reserve, but he retains the rank of commander on his title page as a tram de guerre, one may say.
There are a number of novel features about Ellsberg’s career. He is the product of Annapolis and the United States Navy of the era of Admirals Sims and King. He has specialized in salvage with spectacular success. Salvage to Ellsberg is not merely a profession, a science, and an art. It is a passion. No vessel seems so lovely iu his eves as when she is on the bottom of the sea and lie is given the exquisite and delicate job of raising her, as from the dead.
In addition to his status as a naval officer, an engineer of remarkable originality, and an executive who can work miracles. Kllsberg is a writer. Ordinarily, when such a feat. as he records in Under the Red Sea Sun has been achieved — the restoration of a ruined harbor full of sabotaged German and Italian ships, docks, and a floating crane — the officer responsible would turn over his data to a professional writer, who would do a professional job. But no professional writer could do this so well as Ellsberg himself has done it. The intrusion of a journalistic mind, either as a collaborator or a ghost, would be fatal to the authenticity of such a tale. This gift of writing, quite apart from his gift of gett ing work done, was obvious in On the Bottom long ago. It is obvious here in his latest book. We cannot say that a writer has been lost in the salvage man. For most of ns laymen Ellsberg is salvage personified. He can explain the most technical thing so simply, dramatically, and entertainingly that it is as exciting as a mystery thriller: much more exciting than some of them. He has the art to dramatize disaster. When \ye gaze at Ids map of Massawa harbor, with its score of sunken wrecks, our eyes brighten, our blood pressure rises. We know’ thal Kllsberg is going to raise those wrecks. We know he will face incredible difficulties; lie will fight with the modern naval equivalent of beasts at Kphesus: but we know also that he will win. He always does. And he conveys his own fine feeling of triumph, of a job well done. Bead what the British Admiralty thought of him.

There is another side to the Ellsberg character, which has not been mentioned but. which is important. He is a diplomat. He cun get on with the British. He had Eritreans, Arabs, Italians, and Persians to work with, but his crowning glory was that he got along with British officers and dockyard civilians in Massawa. Take the whiskey that Grant list’d, this uncanny ability of Ellsherg should be isolated and packaged for the rest of the military personnel. Ellsberg was an ambassador, not so much of good will as of intelligence and character. When he met men of supreme technical ability if was dec]) calling unto deep. After reading this most excellent book one can only echo Napoleon’s remark after meeting Goethe: Voild un homme!
WILLIAM MCFEE




书籍
在红海的阳光下
作者：威廉-麦克菲
1946年12月号
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$3.50
爱德华-埃尔斯伯格指挥官
多德、米德
在《斯大林格勒之年》中，最近采访过斯大林的亚历山大-韦特强调了我们中很少有人知道的事情：俄国人作为一个民族对欧洲大陆以外的战争几乎一无所知。但是，马萨瓦，这个位于厄立特里亚境内的炎热潮湿的港口，被指挥官爱德华-埃尔斯伯格改造成对在非洲击败隆美尔至关重要的海军基地，美国人可能和俄国人一样不知道。

红海不是一个容易让人感兴趣的地区。那些曾经身处其中的人通常都想远离它，忘记它。而马萨瓦比红海的任何其他地方都要糟糕得多，相比之下，苏丹港和杰达是健康的度假胜地。
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在50岁的时候重新加入军队，埃尔斯伯格指挥官被提供了一个选择，即在冰岛或罗德海进行打捞工作，他选择了红海。红海阳光下》是他的第十二本书。他现在是海军后备队的一名上尉，但他在扉页上保留了指挥官的军衔，可以说是一个践行者。
埃尔斯伯格的职业生涯有许多新颖的特点。他是安纳波利斯和西姆斯和金上将时代的美国海军的产物。他专门从事打捞工作，取得了惊人的成功。打捞对埃尔斯伯格来说不仅仅是一种职业、一门科学和一门艺术。它是一种激情。在他看来，没有哪艘船能像在海底的时候那样可爱，而他却要把她从死神那里救出来，这是一项精致而微妙的工作。
除了作为一名海军军官、一名具有非凡独创性的工程师和一名能够创造奇迹的执行者的身份外，克利斯伯格还是一名作家。克尔斯伯格还是一位作家。通常情况下，当他在《红海阳光下》中记录的这种壮举--恢复一个充满被破坏的德国和意大利船只、码头和浮动起重机的废墟港口时，负责的官员会把他的数据交给专业作家，后者会做一份专业工作。但没有一个专业作家能像埃尔斯伯格本人那样出色地完成这项工作。作为合作者或幽灵的新闻思想的侵入，对这样一个故事的真实性是致命的。这种写作的天赋，除了他完成工作的天赋之外，在很久以前的《底层》中就很明显。在他最近的书中也很明显。我们不能说一个作家在打捞人的过程中已经失去了。对于大多数非专业人士来说，埃尔斯伯格是拯救的化身。他能把最技术性的东西解释得如此简单、戏剧化和富有娱乐性，以至于像悬疑惊悚片一样令人兴奋：比一些悬疑惊悚片更令人兴奋。他有将灾难戏剧化的艺术。当我们凝视着马萨瓦港的地图，上面有许多沉没的残骸，我们的眼睛会变亮，血压会上升。我们知道塔尔-克尔斯伯格要把这些沉船升起来。我们知道他将面临令人难以置信的困难；他将与现代海军在克菲苏斯的猛兽作战：但我们也知道他将获胜。他总是这样。他还传达了他自己对胜利的美好感觉，对完成任务的美好感觉。蓓儿丹娣是英国海军部对他的看法。

埃尔斯伯格的性格还有另一面，这一点没有被提及，但也很重要。他是一个外交家。他能和英国人打成一片。他有厄立特里亚人、阿拉伯人、意大利人和波斯人可以合作，但他的最高荣誉是他与马萨瓦的英国军官和码头平民相处融洽。就拿格兰特列举的威士忌来说，艾尔舍格的这种不可思议的能力应该被隔离出来，包装给其他军事人员。埃尔斯伯格是一位大使，与其说是善意的，不如说是智慧和性格的。当他遇到具有最高技术能力的人时，如果是dec]）呼唤到深处。读完这本最优秀的书后，人们只能附和拿破仑在见到歌德后所说的话。Voild un homme!
威廉-麦克菲（WILLIAM MCFEE