A Definitive Naval History
"The similarity caught my eye when I was fishing off Fort Morgan," he says. Only 50 feet from the Alabama shore and 30 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico lay the wreckage of USS Tecumseh, a casualty of the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864. There, too, lay the remains of its captain and 92 Union seamen who lost their lives when the armored ship struck an underwater mine, rolled over, and sank quickly after a tremendous explosion.
The comparison of tank to ironclad came to Friend the hard way: through battle service in the Korean War as a first lieutenant in the 64th Tank Battalion. During one reconnaissance by fire, a Chinese grenade exploded on the open turret of a tank in his group, killing a fellow soldier and wounding another. It was this sort of experience—marking the vulnerability of soldiers being caught in tank or ship—that caused Friend to look more carefully at the Tecumseh. And eventually to write West Wind, Flood Tide: The Battle of Mobile Bay, acclaimed by the journal Civil War History as "the definitive study of the naval campaign." The book was published in 2004 by the Naval Institute Press.
Friend's interest in military history originated with his father, who fought in World War I and was "a soldier at heart." After graduating in 1951 from Virginia Military Institute with a degree in civil engineering, Friend followed in his father's footsteps and served in the U.S. Army for three years. In 1954, after his tour in Korea, he entered Tuck. His father, a vice president and director at International Paper Company and general manager of its Southern Kraft Division, knew of Tuck's reputation and encouraged him to apply. "Many of my father's business associates spoke well of Tuck, and that was enough for me."
The first year, he roomed with Mobile-native and fellow VMI grad Toulmin Greer T'56, Christopher Buxton T'55 from Britain, and exchange student Toshio Hiro-Oka T'55 from Japan. "Two foreigners and two Southerners—we had great fun!" recalls Friend with a chuckle.
Friend worked his entire career as a civil engineer, eventually starting his own market-feasibility company, which he operated for 20 years. Although he had already identified the Battle of Mobile Bay as a subject that interested him, it was not until his retirement that he started to research it in detail.
"For me, the book was seven-days-a-week: reading, writing, traveling—except when I was fishing. That kept me pretty busy." It took him 10 years "off and on" to write his book. "I don't think I could have done it as long as I was running my business." His advice for those wanting to work and enjoy extracurricular pastimes simultaneously? "Don't let your hobbies override your bread and butter, your business, where you get money to build your house and take care of your family."
The Battle of Mobile Bay is widely recognized as one of world's greatest naval engagements, a turning point in the Civil War and the nation's history. For Jack Friend, the battle and the Tecumseh continue to be the invisible source of fascination. "You can't see it," he says of the ship. "But you know where it is because of the buoy marking it."
