Known widely as "the City by the Sea," Newport has a long history of maritime activity. Since the Colonial period, it has been an important seaport for the mercantile trade and a harbor of inestimable value for naval vessels. In 1869, the navy opened the Naval Torpedo Station on Goat Island in Newport harbor. The Naval War College on Coasters Harbor Island and the Naval Training Station soon followed. The navy's Newport presence expanded through two world wars; in the 1940s, the U.S. Naval Operating Base included extensive facilities on both sides of Narragansett Bay. Today, Newport remains a site of naval training, research, and development. The prestigious Naval War College, the Naval Education and Training Center, and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center have kept the navy a leading Rhode Island and southeastern New England employer.

Known throughout the world as "The City by the Sea," Newport, Rhode Island, has a long history of maritime activity. Since the Colonial period, Newport has been recognized as both an important seaport for the mercantile trade and a harbor of inestimable value for naval vessels. I n 1869, the U.S. Navy opened its pioneer site in the region, the Naval Torpedo station on Goat Island in Newport harbor. The Naval War College on Coasters Harbor Island and the Naval Training Station soon followed. The navy's presence expanded through two world wars; and in the 1940s the U.S. Naval Operating Base with headquarters in Newport, included extensive naval facilities on both sides of Narragansett Bay. Today, Newport remains an integral site of naval training, research, and development. The prestigious Naval War College, the Naval Education and Training Center, and other navy command schools, in addition to the Naval Undersea Warfare Center with its Division Newport, have kept this branch of the armed services a leading employer in Rhode Island and southeastern New England.

This candid book documents for the first time the U.S. Navy’s use of entrapment in pursuit of homosexuals in and around Newport, Rhode Island, during the early twentieth century. This most extensive systematic persecution of gays in American history occurred with the approval of Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels and Assistant Secretary Franklin Roosevelt, as dozens of sailors were ordered to identify and even seduce gay men in order to report their names to the authorities. Noted historian Lawrence Murphy reveals the details of this sordid campaign that ultimately generated a national scandal and first raised issues of gay rights and governmental persecution of homosexuals.

Before the American Revolution, Newport was one of the biggest ports on the eastern seaboard thanks to its religious freedom and lack of effective control by Britain. Its then free-running economy based on international trading would face many challenges and changes over the 18th and 19th centuries.