We have in these pages chronicled many shipwrecks and maritime disasters, each of which is woeful in its own way. The wreck of the barque Mexico in 1836, however, evokes particular pity, not only from the fact that its victims—most of whom were women and children—perished from freezing, but also because the wreck occurred so tantalizingly close to shore. Let the tale be told.
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The French East Indiaman Prince left Port L’Orient in France on February 19, 1752. She soon ran into trouble, and became temporarily grounded on a sand bank; but her captain, M. Morin, ordered some cargo to be thrown overboard, and the lightened vessel was able to proceed. The ship returned to port temporarily for repairs, and set out again on June 10th of that year.
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Sir Charles Wager served as Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty from 1733 to 1742. He had a long and distinguished naval career, both at sea and ashore; and it will be useful for us to relate an anecdote from his early life that discloses much about his character and fortitude. The story that follows is found in the 1840 volume The Book of Shipwrecks and Narratives of Maritime Discoveries and the Most Popular Voyages.
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There is an anecdote told about the Athenian commander Iphicrates during the time his forces were defending the city of Corinth from 393 to 391 B.C.
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De poena prophetarum falsarum. If a leader cannot base his decisions on verifiable truth, or on the closest approximation of what he believes to be the truth, he will not escape calamity. He must surround himself with advisors who have his, and not their own, interests at heart; and he must seek independent confirmation of advice provided, especially during times of war or crisis.
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As a leader or someone responsible for another person, you will often need to provide hope when your people are in dire situations. You must master techniques and strategies for alleviating people’s stress and anxiety, and for taking them across the finish line. Sincerity cannot be faked. You have to care, and to show you care. We discuss some of these techniques that I’ve learned from practicing law for twenty-five years.
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There is an unintentionally amusing passage in a letter Petrarch sent to his brother Gherardo in 1349. In it, the harried scholar pours out his frustration at the antagonistic and insulting behavior of his servants:
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It will be useful to compare the leadership styles of two wartime American presidents of the nineteenth century. James Madison was president during the War of 1812, while Abraham Lincoln occupied the office of chief executive during the American Civil War. The first of these must be counted a failure as a wartime commander-in-chief, while the second was able to prosecute his nation’s most terrible conflict to a successful conclusion. What qualities enabled one to emerge triumphant, and the other to suffer the indignity of failure, we will now examine.
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The Soviet defector and writer Victor Suvorov published a book in 1987 called Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of the Soviet Special Forces. Suvorov, whose real name is Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun, was himself a Spetsnaz veteran and a Soviet intelligence officer. I enjoyed his book Inside the Soviet Army as well; and he has written other volumes which I have not yet had the opportunity to examine.
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Tales of superlative leadership abound in naval history. Through the study of historical examples, we are instructed in the qualities and characteristics of proper command. In early 1871 the British Admiralty sent a detachment of soldiers and marines to Australia aboard the iron screw frigate Megaera. The ship carried 42 officers, 44 marines, 180 seamen, and 67 boys, for a total of 333. After stopping briefly at the Cape of Good Hope, the Megaera embarked on the long journey across the Indian Ocean to Sydney. It was anticipated that the vessel would reach its destination by July 5.
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Quintus Curtius 
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