Assassin's Honor (9781561648207) (49 page)

Projects of this complexity require a lot of research and I am profoundly blessed to have a wonderfully diverse crew of experts (the Subject Matter Advanced Research Team: SMART) who helped me understand the facts and the flavor of the places, people, and events in this novel. Most are longtime readers of the Honor Series—true Wakians—and thus are part of my renowned SMART Wakians. I am very loyal and appreciative to these fascinating people. Here are some of them.

For insight into signals intelligence, the German language, and latter nineteenth-century German reports regarding the Caribbean, I send my sincere thanks to two of America's unsung heroes: Ron Kemper and Rich Rolfe, formerly of the NSA. For guiding me through the historical code vault at NSA and allowing me to peruse the Imperial German Navy code book of 1891, with attendant explanations and details, I thank Rene Stein, chief librarian at the NSA Cryptologic Museum at Fort Meade. RADM Tony Cothron U.S.N. (Ret), former Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence, has also helped with understanding many subtle factors in the Intel world over the years.

For the information about the Caste War of Mexico, I thank three dear friends with intimate knowledge of Yucatán: Reverend Ann McLemore, and authors John (Bing) and Jane Grimsrud. For first introducing me to the Yucatán by sea in 1987, and engendering a lifelong love for its people and culture, I thank the legendary Truman Morris (R.I.P.), my captain aboard the sailing vessel
Remote
.

For the information about Ybor City, Tampa, and Port Tampa, I have several people to thank—Elizabeth McCoy and Carl St. Meyer, from the very informative staff at the Ybor City State Museum; Dave Parsons at the Hillsborough County Public Library in Tampa; and Vickie Jewett at the Port Tampa Library.

For intense crucial efforts to unravel the mystery surrounding Martí's poisoning in Ybor City, huge thanks go to my dear friend Ela Lopez Ugarte, Editor-in-Chief at the Centro Estudiantes Martíanos (Center for Martí Studies) in Havana—one of the foremost Martí scholars in the world and an absolutely charming lady. Ela provided conclusive documentation (the January 1893 letter from Martí to Serafin Sanchez) showing that it happened 16 December 1892. For translation of some of the documents revealing details of the poisoning, I thank Mario Cano, Esquire, of Miami—a gentleman of the United States, Spain, and Cuba, who appreciates history and integrity.

For my understanding of Martí and the wonders of the Cuban culture and history, I thank Martí scholar and actor Chaz Mena,
mi tío
Raul Laffitte, the entire extended Laffitte family, Roberto Giraudy, George Alcober, Kiko Villalon, my father Robert Charles Macomber, and many others over the last sixty years.

For insight into the intriguing brotherhood of Freemasonry, my thanks go to Ted Connally of the Tropical Lodge of Southwest Florida, Justo Orihuela of the Grand Lodge of Cuba, and Charles Prosser of the Hillsborough Lodge of Tampa—good men all. I am very proud to have been designated a “Friend of Freemasonry.”

For ship handling, thanks go to some real masters whom I've observed performing that difficult art: Captain Paul Welling, U.S.C.G.; Captain Chuck Nygaard, U.S.N.; Commodore Ronald Warwick, R.N.R.; and Captain Ullrich Nuber, German Merchant Marine.

The actual writing of the novel was begun at a refuge I've come to rely upon, Mark and Christine Strom's beautiful “Maramonte” in the high mountains of western North Carolina. Thank you for letting me hide out and work.

Perspective, critical analysis, and unfailing positive support have come from my business manager, morale officer, and loving wife, Nancy Ann Glickman, who also researches the astronomy and ornithology in my novels.
The Assassin's Honor
would not have been accomplished without her.

Editing a novel as complex as this is not an easy task, and I am very grateful for the patient and insightful editorial work by one of the best in the business, Helena Sznurkowski Berg.

As usual in my projects, I have done a lot of reading. Much of it was facilitated by the wonderful team of “biblio-sleuths” at the Pine Island Library, led by their boss, Randy Briggs. I'd put these folks up against any library in the world—they have never failed in locating and obtaining my requests for sometimes bizarre materials.

The bibliography of research materials used in this project is listed below. I urge my readers to peruse them and learn more about Florida, Cuba, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, the United States, and the U.S. Navy during those tumultuous years of “The Gilded Age.”

By Order of the Kaiser
, by Terrell D. Gottschall (2003)

Germany's Vision of Empire in Venezuela 1871–1914
, by Holger Herwig (1986)

The Caste War of Yucatán
, by Nelson Reed (2002)

The Caste War Route
, webpage by John Grimsrud (2007)
http://bicycleyucatan.wordpress.com/felipe-carrillo-puerto-tihosuco-and-valladolid-yucatan
/

City of Intrigue, Nest of Revolution
, by Consuelo E. Stebbins (2007)

Key West, Cigar City, USA
, by Dr. Loy Glenn Westfall (1997)

Key West: The Old and the New
, by Jefferson B. Browne (1912)

A Sketch of the History of Key West
, Florida, by Walter C. Maloney (1876)

The Tampa Daily Journal
(newspaper), (6 February 1891)

The Tampa Daily Journal
(newspaper), (14 December 1892)

Tampa: In Civil War and Reconstruction
, by Canter Brown, Jr. (2000)

Ybor City: The Making of a Landmark Town
, by Frank Trebín Lastra (2006)

The Ybor City Story 1885–1954
(
Los Cubanos en Tampa
, by Jose Rivero Muniz), translated by Eustasio Fernandez and Henry Beltran (1976)

The American Steel Navy
, by CMDR John T. Alden U.S.N. (Ret) (1972)

A Century of U.S. Naval Intelligence
, by Captain Wyman H. Packard U.S.N. (Ret) (1996)

Characteristics of Principal Foreign Ships of War: Prepared for the Board on Fortifications, Etc
., Office of Naval Intelligence (1885)

Coaling, Docking, and Repair Facilities of the Ports of the World
, Office of Naval Intelligence (1909)

Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905
, Editorial Director Robert Gardiner (1979)

Masked Dispatches: Cryptograms and Cryptology in American History, 1775–1900
, (Series I, Pre-World War I, Volume I) by Ralph Weber, National Security Agency (1993)

The Naval Annual of 1891
, edited by T. A. Brassey (1891)

The Naval Aristocracy, The Golden Age of Annapolis and the Emergence of Modern American Navalism
, by Peter Karsten (1972)

Naval Customs, Traditions, and Usage
, by LCMDR Leland P. Lovette U.S.N. (1939)

The Naval Officer's Guide
, by CDR Arthur A. Ageton U.S.N. (2
^nd
edition, 1944)

The Naval Officer's Guide
, by VADM William P. Mack U.S.N. (Ret) and Captain Thomas D. Paulsen U.S.N. (9
^th
Edition, 1983)

Naval Shiphandling
, by Captain R. S. Crenshaw U.S.N. (Ret) (4
^th
Edition, 1975)

Navalism and the Emergence of American Sea Power 1882–1893
, by Mark Russell Shulman (1995)

The Office of Naval Intelligence: The Birth of America's First Intelligence Agency 1865-1918
, by Jeffery M. Dorwart (1979)

United States Cryptologic History, The Friedman Legacy: A tribute to William and Elizebeth Freidman
, National Security Agency (1992)

U.S. Cruisers 1883–1904: The Birth of the Steel Navy
, by Lawrence Burr (2008)

Watch Officer's Guide
, by ADM James Stavridis U.S.N. and Captain Robert Girrier U.S.N. (15
^th
Edition, 2007)

The Epicurean
, by Charles Ranhofer (1894)

Every-day Life in Washington
, by Charles M. Pepper (1900)

Grover Cleveland
, by Henry F. Graff (2002)

New York Songlines: Virtual Walking Tours of Manhattan StreetsNew York City
(website), by Jim Naureckas
www.nysonglines.com

Repast: Dining Out at the Dawn of the New American Century 1900–1910
, by Michael Lesy and Lisa Stoffer (2013)

Victorian America: Transformations in Everyday Life 1876–1915
, by Thomas J. Schlereth (1991)

Cuba: or the Pursuit of Freedom
, by Hugh Thomas (1971)

History of Cuba: the Challenge of the Yoke and the Star
, by Professor José Cantón Navarro (2001)

Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868–1898
, by Ada Ferrer (1999)

José Martí: Cuban Patriot
, by Richard Butler Gray (1962)

José Martí: A Revolutionary Life
, Alfred J. López (2014)

Las enfermedades de José Martí: un reto vencido
, an essay by Rolando López del Amo, published in
El Historiador
(2011)

Martí: Apostle of Freedom
, by Jorge Mañach (1950)

Noticias confidenciales sobre Cuba 1870–1895
, Nydia Sarabia (1985)

Nueva y humana visión de Martí
, by Carlos Márquez Sterling (1953)

Gulf of Mexico—Yucatan Channel
, U.S. Office of Coast Survey #C (1880)

Gulf Stream—Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean
, Lt. Mathew Fontaine Maury, U.S.N., U.S. Office of Coast Survey (1852)

Key West
, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map (1892)

Key West Harbor and Approaches
, U.S. Office of Coast Survey #469 (1896)

Tampa Bay
, U.S. Office of Coast Survey #177 (1888)

Tampa Bay
, U.S. Office of Coast Survey #177 (1895)

Tampa and Ybor City
, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map (1892)

Tampa, Port Tampa, and Ybor City
, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, (1895)

Upper Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico
, American privately published chart with U.S., British, French, and Spanish survey data (1860)

Yukatanmeer, Westlicher Teil
, German chart of the Yucatán east coast and the western Caribbean Sea (1992, with data from 1913)

And finally, I thank my dear readers around the world, the Wakians, for their loyalty, enthusiasm, and spreading of kind words about my work. You are the best readers an author could hope for, are very much a part of my life, and keep me motivated and ready to embark upon the next project in the Honor Series. Other authors have told me how jealous they are of the fun we have together.

And so the adventure continues. . . .

Onward and upward!

Robert N. Macomber

The Boat House

St. James, Pine Island

Florid

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THE HONOR SERIES

“Sign on early and set sail with Peter Wake for both solid historical context and exciting sea stories.” — U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings

At the Edge of Honor
. This nationally acclaimed naval Civil War novel, the first in the Honor series of naval fiction, takes the reader into the steamy world of Key West and the Caribbean in 1863 and introduces Peter Wake, the reluctant New England volunteer officer who finds himself battling the enemy on the coasts of Florida, sinister intrigue in Spanish Havana and the British Bahamas, and social taboos in Key West when he falls in love with the daughter of a Confederate zealot.

Point of Honor
. Winner of the Florida Historical Society's 2003 Patrick Smith Award for Best Florida Fiction. In this second book in the Honor series, it is 1864 and Lt. Peter Wake, United States Navy, assisted by his indomitable Irish bosun, Sean Rork, commands the naval schooner
St. James
. He searches for army deserters in the Dry Tortugas, finds an old nemesis during a standoff with the French Navy on the coast of Mexico, starts a drunken tavern riot in Key West, and confronts incompetent Federal army officers during an invasion of upper Florida.

Honorable Mention
. This third book in the Honor series of naval fiction covers the tumultuous end of the Civil War in Florida and the Caribbean. Lt. Peter Wake is now in command of the steamer USS
Hunt
and quickly plunges into action, chasing a strange vessel during a tropical storm off Cuba, confronting death to liberate an escaping slave ship, and coming face to face with the enemy's most powerful ocean warship in Havana's harbor. Finally, when he tracks down a colony of former Confederates in Puerto Rico, Wake becomes involved in a deadly twist of irony.