CRAFTING A STORY SUCH as this involves finding and collating a lot of fine details from a wide range of sources. I tend to cast a wide net in my research and then sift through the treasures I’ve caught, which can make crediting individual sources for specific details a tedious task both for me and for the reader. So throughout this work I’ve opted to cite the sources for major details, but in scenes that are built from a number of sources, I chose not to footnote each fine point. Also, I mention weather often in descriptions of scenes and similarly decided not to clutter the footnotes with the source material for these details. In each case, this information was gleaned from accounts in local newspapers. Also, unless otherwise noted, the details of the dig itself came from Porter’s reports and related accounts. Again, I opted not to footnote every detail. And finally, given the close scrutiny that John Paul Jones’s life has endured, I opted not to do much primary research on such a well-documented subject; details in the three chapters that focus on him were gleaned primarily from the published works of others, duly cited in the footnotes. Those chapters were also graciously reviewed by Mark Lardas, naval historian and member of the Nautical Research Guild, to whom I’m indebted for saving me from some rather embarrassing errors.
While writing is a solitary pursuit, research is not, and I owe thanks to my wife, Margaret, and our Parkside Pub regulars, particularly Jann Gumbiner, Katherine Jacobs, and Laura McFarland, who’ve exhibited remarkable patience as I’ve talked through this project; in-laws Joe and Helen Mercier, who let me use their attic space in Greece, New York, as a writing garret in the summer of 2012; my parents, Walter and Dorothy Martelle, for infusing me with a love of books and writing; James R. Wils, who provided research help at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina; Ray and Annie Herndon, Marc Midan, and Janine Lanza, who did valuable legwork for me checking Parisian archives (and a special thanks to Ray for some much-needed translation help); Cedric Guhl, Edouard Musy, and Karin Schindler of the extended Horace Porter family in Switzerland, who shared with me unpublished family papers; the staffs in the Library of Congress Manuscript Reading Room and the Newspaper Reading Room, two irreplaceable resources; the staffs of the National Archives in Washington, DC, and College Park, Maryland, particularly David Langbart and Richard Peuser, for their patience and guidance; longtime friend and former colleague Ivan Roman for his research help at the Navy Department Library, Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, DC; and archivist James Allen Knechtmann, for his assistance to both Ivan and me. Thanks, too, go to Sarah Hartwell of Baker-Berry Library, Dartmouth College; Paul Mercer, Senior Librarian, Manuscripts and Special Collections, New York State Library; and James Cheevers, US Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, who all provided crucial confirmations of stray facts. Also to Richard H. Owens, who shared his hard-to-find book Vigilance and Virtue: A Biography of General and Ambassador Horace Porter, 1837–1921 (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2002), and to Susan Noftsker, a descendant of John Sherburne, for her help in deciphering some family lore. Obviously enough, their assistance does not carry a burden of blame; any errors in this work are mine and mine alone.
Thanks are also due to my editor (and author in his own right), Jerome Pohlen, as well as Mary Kravenas, publicist Meghan Miller, and the rest of the team at Chicago Review Press; and most of all to agents Jane Dystel and Miriam Goderich of Dystel & Goderich—it’s good to have you two in my corner.
Finally, it’s fitting that since these acknowledgements began with my wife, Margaret, they shall end with her, too, as my first and best reader. You’ve made this a better book and, to paraphrase a line from a movie, you’ve made me a better man.