Never Subdued II
"In Never Subdued II, Franklin Hook's narrative nonfiction studies the spread of radical Islam throughout the Mediterranean, Middle East, Southwest Asia and the rest of the world."
A Note to the Reader...
My curiosity was first piqued when I was doing research for my first historical narrative, Never Subdued, which involved Muslims of the southern Philippines, some of whom were pirates. I discovered that these characters were labeled Moros by the Spanish invaders because they were Muslims.
Of course, I learned quite a bit about the Moros during my original research, but many questions remained. Why, for example, did some of these practitioners of the Muslim religion turn to piracy? Why was there such hostility to the Spanish and, currently, also to the Jews?
Why where they such fanatics in following certain passages in the Koran, (also spelled Qur'an') especially those suggesting that murder and violence is an acceptable part of the culture?
I don't claim to be any expert of the Koran or the Muslim religion, but perhaps there are some significant parallels with the Christian Bible and the Torah (the Torah and the first five books of the old testament of the Christian Bible are the same) of the Hebrews that would explain fundamentalist thinking.
- author Franklin Hook
Relation to modern-day threats
This narrative nonfiction presents the consequences of religious intolerance from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim fundamentalists, and Hook masterfully relates this story to Isis and present day extremist states. Presenting a solid review of historical acts of terror from fanatics belonging to three of the major religions, Franklin Hook presents the reader with suggestions on how we can handle the current situation with Isis and gives hope for the future.
An excerpt from Chapter 4
On June 22, Captain Rodgers on the USS John Adams, and Lieut. Isaac Hull, who had replaced Andrew Steritt as commanding officer of the USS Enterprise, re-engaged the nine gunboat flotilla and Tripoli's largest cruiser, a 22 gun polacre (a polacre is a nautical term, meaning a three masted sailing vessel).
The sister ship, the USS Adams, remained outside of the harbor covering the two attacking ships' sterns while Captain Rodgers maneuvered his heavier vessel into the shallow waters of Tripoli, right alongside the enemy cruiser. Lieutenant Hull, after chasing one of the smaller gunboats, maneuvered his 12-gun schooner Enterprise closer inshore to cover enemy shore batteries and the rest of the smaller gunboats beginning to align up for action. Subsequently a 45 minute artillery battle resulted in the enemy's cruiser striking its colors. At the same time they were lowering their flag a final broadside from their own guns apparently released a spark into a powder keg or magazine aboard the enemy vessel triggering a tremendous explosion. According to Rodgers' own action report recorded by Victory in Tripoli author Joshua London, the blast de-masted the enemy cruiser's main and mizzen masts which rose 150 to 160 feet in the air. It also blew up bulkheads and deck along with sails and rigging and all parts associated.
Enemy sailors previously had abandoned ship before the colors were struck and swam to shore fleeing American artillery. They had just returned by boat when the explosion occurred. All of them were killed.
Capt. Rodgers, who estimated the number of the enemy crew to be about 200, thought most of them were killed in the explosion as well as their captain. Author London described it as the single most significant action taken by the Mediterranean Squadron up to that point.
