R. L. Crossland

In The Abalone Ukulele, author R.L. Crossland takes the reader on an epic journey spanning ten years and thousands of miles.

Tribute courier Yi, an upper-class Korean, is on a mission to deliver a large payment of silver to China. One night, his men are attacked by Japanese insurgents and the silver is stolen. Yi blames himself. From then on, his life's purpose becomes repaying what he believes to be a dishonorable debt.

After a brief sojourn in the Yukon during the gold rush, the reader finds Yi in Shanghai ten years after the theft. Here, through a conjunction of circumstances and coincidences which may or may not be umyong, the Korean word for destiny, Yi brings US Navy men quartermaster Hobson and intelligence officer Draper over to his cause. Yi plans to steal Japanese gold and ensure it reaches Korea, there to pay his debt by financing revolution and helping the Korean people throw off the Japanese yoke. When presented with this opportunity to frustrate the increasingly threatening Japanese empire, the US Navy offers extremely secret and not-strictly-authorized assistance. Hobson and Draper must each play their part in the plan. Providing both help and hindrance are an unpredictable Admiral, a Chinese lady-of-the-night, and a bespectacled consular clerk from the American heartland who turns out to be much more than she seems.

This novel is exceptionally well researched. From navy customs and practices, to cultural norms in both China and Korea down to even the smallest historical details of dress and manner, it's very clear that R.L Crossland has done his homework. In particular, I admired his skill in crafting full-scale combat scenes. Crossland deftly controls the reader's focus while building tension and advancing the plot, and his ability to manage the emotional heights of the story whilst maintaining momentum is also very impressive.

That said, it might have made for an easier read if the author had chosen to introduce Hobson and Draper earlier in the narrative. The reader spends most of the early part of the novel with Yi, and his sudden disappearance as the reader takes up residence in Hobson's head is a little jarring. Draper is introduced even later and the reader sees very little of his back story, which is a shame. I would have been interested to learn more about Hobson's and Draper's previous histories, preferably with these given equal weight to Yi's.

      . . . It's an engaging story, beautifully and occasionally even lyrically written, with great care taken to fully inhabit each of the three point-of-view characters.

If you enjoy epic and sweeping historical fiction, then The Abalone Ukulele is the book for you. It will appeal even to those who know little about the history of this part of Asia, as the author takes care not to become so absorbed in the material that he leaves the reader behind. Rich and complex, this novel will keep you up late into the night, desperate to know what happens next.

- Charlotte Cross,  Onlinebookclub.org volunteer review

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From the winter issue #320 of "PowerShips" (The Magazine of Engine-Powered Vessels Published by the Steamship Historical Society of America). The SSHSA is headquartered in Warwick, R. I.:

THE ABALONE UKULELE : A Tale of Eastern Intrigue
R. L. Crossland. New Academia Publishing (newacademia.com). 2021. 372 pp. $26.00 paperback, $40.00 hardcover.

There is historical fiction that places an event in a particular time period, and then there is historical fiction that wraps a story within a time period, making it part of the fabric of that time. The author of The Abalone Ukulele has crafted a story that reads as if it's fact and not fiction, although I will grant that it does push one's imagination. The story centers around Jung-hee Yi, a disgraced Korean official, plus two U.S. Navy sailors: Lieutenant (jg) Stuyvesant Draper and Quartermaster Gideon Hobson.

This story covers the period 1893 to 1913, with most of the action taking place in 1913. The book's plot centers around Japan's desire to dominate China and Korea. Involved in the story are agents of the United States, China, Japan and the Korean government in exile. The story is centered in and around Shanghai, where various contending social, economic and ethnic groups collide and jockey for influence. The action flows from China to the Alaskan gold fields and back to China. The central theme of the book concerns itself with an economic war being fought between Japan and China, in which gold is used by Japan to destabilize Chinese currency and discredit the Chinese government.

The plot offers a mixture of competing Far Eastern and European organizations, each hoping to improve their dominance in China and the Far East. What's sad about the story is that even though the "heroes" of the book succeed in derailing the evil plot central to the book's story line, the reader knows that, in the long run, all those involved in this tale will see and participate in the destruction that World War II will inflict upon Asia.

The book is packed with a cast of real and believable literary characters, and the author has provided an index to enable one to refresh one's memory of who's who as the plot advances. There's also a glossary to walk one through the various nautical terms and jargon used in the text.

This book is an interesting fictional read concerning a place and time at the forefront of a series of events that would envelop the world in war, the outcome of which still governs the world we live in. If Far Eastern history is of an interest to you, this is a must read.

– ­Charles H. Bogart

H.S.A.

5.0 out of 5 stars

For lovers of The Sand Pebbles and Delilah.

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2021

Spanning the years 1893-1916, The Abalone Ukulele follows the exploits of enlisted US Navy Quartermaster Hobson and Lt. (j.g.) Stuyvesant Van Rensselaer Draper III (New York Naval Militia appointed to the Office of Naval Intelligence). Both are characters from Roger Crossland's previous novel, Jade Rooster. The Abalone Ukulele is a protracted episode in the lives of these characters, and not a direct sequel to Jade Rooster – much as in life, we seem to move from stage to stage without a large overlying dramatic scheme pushing us towards a singular destiny. You can read one without the other, though I do recommend Jade Rooster, which is a superb novel.

These two characters represent the Navy figuratively from the wardroom to the lower decks, and complement each other in the ad-hoc direct action/intelligence unit of two that they seem to find themselves in. Hobson is streetwise, a born Asia-hand. Draper represents the superlative qualities of the East Coast elite upper-class – educated, refined, chivalrous, and brave.

There is also Jung-hee "Skookum" Yi, disgraced officer, Korean patriot and the character who largely drives the plot. A Chinese prostitute named Clementine - a clever, bright woman who is Hobson's love interest, striving to transcend her station in life, and Franconia Knapp, US consular secretary, an independent woman with an interesting lineage, equally bristling at her socially designated role.

With these characters Crossland shows his strength as an author of historical fiction. Crossland has obviously done his research and fully fleshes out the historic, political, and social contexts of these Asian characters. This novel is somewhat of a deep dive into East Asian geopolitics and conflicts of the pre-WWI era. There are a bewildering multiplicity of thieves, revolutionaries and triads jostling for power. As in Jade Rooster, Crossland writes about them with incredible deftness, so you don't feel as if you're at the receiving end of a dry history lecture. Beyond that, Crossland flexes his literary skills that make the reader feel as if they are treading, seeing and smelling, the labyrinthian back streets of Shanghai.

Crossland's female characters are not insignificant. They grapple with the social mores of the era, and each are on an arc to live their lives with more agency than permitted in a time firmly dominated by men.

The other treat this novel gives the reader is a prologue detailing the rise of "Skookum" Yi. With the same skill in integrating historic research into a vivid story, we follow Yi's initial arc from an early defeat at the hands of the Japanese in the backstreets of Tientsin to the Alaskan gold fields. I was not prepared to enjoy this portion of the book – but with the depth of detail provided by Crossland – it was entirely fascinating, and somehow, I'd like to see him write another story in the Yukon.

The quality that drew me to Crossland's work initially is in full force here – his familiarity and love for the Naval service, and its history and traditions. Crossland is a former US Navy SEAL, intelligence officer, and combat veteran with a deep respect for the lore of his service. I can't state enough how engrossing it is.

It is a complex book, as Crossland takes his time to flesh out his characters and show the reader how they arrived at their motivations, as they hurtle towards a shared climactic event. His characters are complicated, and what I really enjoy about how Crossland writes – you feel they react realistically to the situations that challenge them. Obviously, there are moments that were included for dramatic effect, but they feel genuine.

Recommended for lovers of historical and naval fiction. If you liked the milieu of Richard McKenna's The Sand Pebbles and Marcus Goodrich's Delilah, you'll deeply enjoy this book.

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Dr. David Winkler in Naval Historical Book Review

THE ABALONE UKULELE: A TALE OF FAR EASTERN INTRIGUE
September 16, 2021Book Reviews, BooksAsiatic Fleet, David F. Winkler, fiction, pacific, Pre-War, R. L. Crossland
 

One of the pleasures of being the staff historian at the Naval Historical Foundation is to look over the numerous books that arrive at 1306 Dahlgren, sent by publishers and authors with an aim to get some publicity through a book review in our "Naval History Book Review" section in our weekly Thursday Tidings. While most books will go under the critical eye of one of our able member-reviewers, I retain the prerogative to pull aside a book for personal reading – especially when the opportune time of a summer vacation presents itself. With all my work-related readings being non-fiction, historical fiction offers a certain appeal. As such, last summer I read retired Capt. Kevin Miller's The Silver Waterfall — his fictional account of the Battle of Midway that offered a realistic portrayal of what occurred in the Central Pacific during those fateful days in early June 1942. In contrast to Miller, who fictionalized an actual event, retired Capt. Roger L. Crossland has concocted the Asiatic Fleet's involvement in the theft of a shipment of Japanese gold ingots in May 1913 destined for a Japanese Bank in Shanghai.

So why would Adm. Simeon "Ol' Blue Flame" Bulkley approve of such a clandestine operation at the near half-way point in the book? Briefing the Asiatic Fleet commander in his quarters in the USS Saratoga are Crossland's three main characters: Jung-hee "Skookum" Yi, a disgraced Korean army officer who had allowed the Japanese to seize a tribute payment from the Hermit Kingdom to the Qing dynasty and subsequently thrived as a smuggler and financier; Lt. (jg) Stuyvesant Draper, a New York Naval Militiaman assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence; and Quartermaster 3/c Gideon Hobson who was raised by missionaries in both Korea and Japan.

Given China's instability, Crossland details a Japanese scheme to bring in gold ingots to demonstrate Japanese economic clout to encourage Chinese use of Yen as currency instead of the recently established Yuan. Concerned about the further destabilization a weakened Yuan could cause, Bulkley buys into a scheme that not only affords time for China to regain its footing but also could underwrite a revolt against oppressive Japanese rule back on the Korean peninsula.

Crossland's narrative also features the backstories of his principal characters over the momentous two decades prior to World War I, including the 1894 Sino-Japanese War, the war between the United States and Spain in the Philippines, the major international intervention in China following the Boxer Rebellion, the Russo-Japanese War, the passage of the Great White Fleet, and the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

While the premise of the story is a bit far-fetched, Crossland's skill in spinning this yarn is quite commendable. He captures the chaos that was Shanghai in 1913 quite well, incorporating the competing military factions vying for power, the various criminal syndicates, the attempts to maintain law and order, and life in the bustling city itself. A haven for many bluejackets stationed on the USS Pluto, Madam Guan's "Lesser Shanghai Indian Club and Garter Society" on the Lane of Lingering Joy will be an important component in a quite complicated plot. As for capturing shipboard life with the Asiatic Fleet, Captain Crossland clearly benefitted from his naval reserve tour with the then Naval History Center (now Naval History and Heritage Command). That he earned the Admiral David Glasgow Farragut award for naval literature in 2006 for his first novel Jade Rooster also speaks well about his writing skills. 

Was the heist successful? I recommend getting The Abalone Ukulele to discover the unforeseen consequences that evolve as Crossland's story unfolds.

Dr. David Winkler is the Staff Historian at the Naval Historical Foundation and current Charles Lindbergh Chair of Aerospace History at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

The Abalone Ukulele: A Tale of Far Eastern Intrigue (R.L. Crossland, New Academia Publishing, Washington, DC, 2021).