Cruise of the Lanikai; Incitement to War

Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1973. Presumed First Edition/First Printing. Hardcover. Very good/good. xiii, [1], 345, [1] pages. Front endpaper map. Illustrations. Occasional footnotes. Source notes. Bibliography. Appendix. Index. DJ has some wear, edge tears and soiling. Inscribed and dated by the author on the dedication page to Uri and Senia Olkhovsky!!! USS Lanikai, was a schooner-rigged diesel powered yacht commissioned into the United States Navy during both World War I and World War II, before being transferred to the Royal Australian Navy. The ship was built as MY Hermes by W. F. Stone of Oakland, California, in 1914, for the Williams-Diamond Company, agents for the trading company Jaluit-Gesellschaft of Hamburg, Germany. Lanikai was taken into the United States Navy at Cavite Navy Yard, Philippine Islands, under charter from Luzon Stevedoring Co., on 5 December 1941, and commissioned the same day with Lieutenant (and future admiral) Kemp Tolley in command. The author was commanding officer of the Lanikai, which was commissioned as a U.S. navy ship on 5 December 1941; her real mission was to provoke the Japanese to sink her, thus triggering U.S. entry into World War II. The book detailed the schooner's 4,000-mile trip to Java, then the final 900-mile leg to Allied lines in Australia. Rear Admiral Kemp Tolley (29 April 1908 - 28 October 2000) was an officer in the U.S. Navy and is the author of three books and numerous articles on U.S. Navy activities in the Pacific, China, and the Soviet Union. On 5 December 1941 Tolley was given command of the sailing schooner Lanikai, and given orders to sail in waters off the Philippines and report any sightings of Japanese warships. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor before Tolley could embark on this mission and the Lanikai was assigned to the Inshore Patrol. Lanikai was detached on 26 December 1941 and ordered to attempt to escape to friendly waters. This was the start of a two-month odyssey during which Lanikai sailed from Manila in the Philippine Islands, to Surabaya on Java in the then Netherlands East Indies. Lanikai participated briefly in the doomed defense of Java and was strafed by Japanese aircraft on at least one occasion. Just prior to the fall of Java, Tolley took Lanikai to Tjilatjap on the south coast of Java where she evacuated allied stragglers. Lanikai departed Java 26 February 1942 just prior to the Dutch surrender and arrived at Fremantle, Australia on 18 March 1942.