Naval/Maritime History 22nd of March - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

The commander of the British Squadron in the famous action between Droits del"homme, HMS Amazon, and HMS Indefatigable, was Sir Edward Pellew. A great, great, great uncle of mine, Octavius Cardew was a 14 year-old midshipman on HMS Amazon, which also ran aground. Most of the crew survived and helped rescue the French sailors from the Droits de l"homme. They were taken prisoner, but exchanged later as a gesture for helping rescue French sailors. Octavious passed Lieutenant, served in several Frigates, but died at Portsmouth of illness in 1803 !
This is really an interesting family history! Wow
I just took a look at ThreeDecks page - Octavius is also there mentioned

and here the page for the HMS Amzon, which ran aground during the action
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
15th of January

please use the following link and you will find the details and all events of this day .....


1759 – Launch of HMS Firm, a 60-gun Edgar-class fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 January 1759 at Blackwall Yard, London.
HMS Firm
was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 January 1759 at Blackwall Yard, London.
Her carpenter from 1775 was James Wallis, who had previously served aboard HMS Resolution with Captain James Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific.
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1782 - Action of 15 January 1782 - frigate HMS Fox intercepted and engaged two small Spanish Navy frigates.
The Action of 15 January 1782 was a minor naval engagement that took place near the island of Jamaica during the American Revolutionary War. A Royal Naval frigate HMS Fox (32) intercepted and engaged two small Spanish Navy frigates.
HMS Fox was an Active-class fifth-rate frigate of thirty-two guns and was commanded by Captain Thomas Windsor from 1781. While on a cruise near Jamaica they saw two sail and then went to intercept. They turned out to be two small Spanish frigates and thus Windsor showed his colours.
The two Spanish frigates Socorro Guipuscoano (26) a ship of twenty-six guns and Dama Biscayma (20) of twenty guns tried to escape but Fox overhauled them both. They engaged Fox for nearly an hour before they finally struck. Fox had one boatswain and one seaman killed, and seven others wounded.
The two Spanish ships were bound to Havana from San Sebastián. The prizes were carried into Jamaica and the prize money was distributed accordingly making Windsor and his crew rich men.
For his action Thomas Windsor was promoted and went on to command HMS Lowestoffe on 31 January.
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1808 - HMS Sparkler (12), Lt. James Samuel Asked Dennis, driven ashore by a gale and wrecked on the Dutch coast
HMS Sparkler
(1804) was 178-ton (bm) Archer Class gun-brig fitted with two 18-pounder guns and ten 18-pounder carronades. The ship was launched at Brightlingsea on 6 August 1804 and wrecked on a reef off Schelling Island on the Dutch coast on 14 January 1808. After her upper deck was underwater and the surf was breaking over her, the crew took to the rigging. A fisherman rescued the survivors the next day. Sparkler lost 14 of her 50 crew in the incident.
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1814 - Cutter of HMS Castor (32), Cptn. Charles Dilkes, took L'Heureux under the guns of Montjui.
HMS Castor
was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French briefly captured her during the Atlantic Campaign of May 1794 but she spent just 20 days in French hands as a British ship retook her before her prize crew could reach a French port. Castor eventually saw service in many of the theatres of the wars, spending time in the waters off the British Isles, in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as the Caribbean.
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1815 – War of 1812: American frigate USS President, commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur, is captured by a squadron of four British frigates HMS Majestic (54), HMS Endymion (50), HMS Tenedos (38) and HMS Pomone (38)
The capture of USS President was one of many naval actions fought at the end of the War of 1812. The frigate USS President tried to break out of New York Harbor but was intercepted by a British squadron of four warships and forced to surrender. The battle took place several weeks after the Treaty of Ghent, but there is no evidence that the combatants were aware that the war had officially ended.
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1822 – Chinese ocean-going junk Tek Sing (Chinese, "True Star") ran aground on a reef and sank. Approx. 1600 people died in this disaster.
The Tek Sing (Chinese, "True Star") was a large three-masted Chinese ocean-going junk which sank on February 6, 1822 in an area of the South China Sea known as the Belvidere Shoals. The vessel was 50 meters in length, 10 meters wide and weighed about a thousand tons. Its tallest mast was estimated to be 90 feet in height. The ship was manned by a crew of 200 and had approx. 1600 passengers. The great loss of life associated with the sinking has led to the Tek Sing being referred to in modern times as the "Titanic of the East".
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1846 - The sloop of war USS Jamestown captures the slaver Robert Wilson off Porto Praya.
The first USS Jamestown was a sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War.
Jamestown was launched in 1844 by the Gosport Navy Yard, Virginia; and commissioned there on 12 December, with Commander Robert B. Cunningham in command.
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1865 – Second Battle of Fort Fisher
In a joint amphibious force with the Union army, Rear Adm. David D. Porter and Maj. Gen. Alfred H. Terry capture Fort Fisher, Wilmington, N.C., which is the last port by which supplies from Europe could reach Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lees troops at Richmond, Va.

The Second Battle of Fort Fisher was a successful assault by the Union Army, Navy and Marine Corps against Fort Fisher, south of Wilmington, North Carolina, near the end of the American Civil War in January 1865. Sometimes referred to as the "Gibraltar of the South" and the last major coastal stronghold of the Confederacy, Fort Fisher had tremendous strategic value during the war, providing a port for blockade runners supplying the Army of Northern Virginia.
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This is really an interesting family history! Wow
I just took a look at ThreeDecks page - Octavius is also there mentioned

and here the page for the HMS Amzon, which ran aground during the action
Hi Uwe. I didn't know the three decks website. Really great. I'll check it since I have some other family members that were in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. However, most of my family were actually British Army. My most famous ancestor was Major General WTB Mounsteven. He was a 17 year-old Ensign who was the King's flag bearer in the 28th Regiment of foot-"The Slashers" at the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo. There is a famous painting of the 28th at Waterloo by Lady Butler where you can see the flag, but not my ancestor.....He was severely wounded at waterloo, but recovered. He later switched to the 79th Highlanders "The Cameronians" regiment, and went on to become a Major General...One of his sons became a Royal Marine, another son died in the Indian Mutiny 1848. I love history. Thank you again for spending so much time and effort to do this website. It really enhances my life for sure ! I don't know how you find the time. Huzzah !
Alex R
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
16th of January

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in the following some of the events in a Pre-View -> for more details and also events please use the link

1780 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent
Moonlight Battle. British fleet under Rodney defeat Spanish under de Langara and relieve Gibraltar.

The Battle of Cape St. Vincent was a naval battle that took place off the southern coast of Portugal on 16 January 1780 during the Anglo-Spanish War. A British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated a Spanish squadron under Don Juan de Lángara. The battle is sometimes referred to as the Moonlight Battle because it was unusual for naval battles in the Age of Sail to take place at night. It was also the first major naval victory for the British over their European enemies in the war and proved the value of copper-sheathing the hulls of warships.
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The moonlight Battle off Cape St Vincent, 16 January 1780 by Francis Holman, painted 1780, shows the Santo Domingo exploding, with Rodney's flagship Sandwich in the foreground.

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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary half full hull and half skeleton model of the Royal George (1756), a first rate, 100-gun three-decker ship of the line, built in the Georgian style. The model is partially decked and has the name Royal George painted on the counter of the stern. The starboard hull shows plank on frame while the port side is unplanked to show the internal construction and layout, including numerous fittings such as galley stoves, capstans and cabin furnishings.

1814 Start of 5 day engagement in which HMS Venerable (74), Cptn. James Andrew Worth, and HMS Cyane (22), Cptn. Thomas Forrest, took french L'Iphigenie (38) and Alcmene (44) off Madeira
In early 1814, Commander Jean-Léon Émeric was put in charge of a two-frigate squadron comprising Iphigénie and Alcmène, under Commander Ducrest de Villeneuve, for a cruise between the Azores and Cap-Vert, off Guinea.
On 16 January 1814, the 74-gun third-rate ship of the line HMS Venerable, her prize, the ex-French letter of marque brig Jason, and HMS Cyane were in company when they spotted two 44-gun French frigates, Alcmène and Iphigénie.
Venerable joined her and after a chase that left Cyane far behind, captured Alcmène, though not without a fight. Venerable lost two men dead and four wounded, while the French lost 32 dead and 50 wounded. Alcmène had a complement of 319 men under the command of Commander Ducrest de Villeneuve, who was wounded when he brought her alongside Venerable and attempted a boarding.
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1852 – Launch of French Charlemagne, an 80-gun French ship of the line
Charlemagne was an 80-gun Suffren-class French ship of the line commissioned in 1852. The ship was in the Mediterranean Sea in 1852. The ship was sent by Napoleon III to the Black Sea as a show of force in violation of the London Straits Convention just prior to the Crimean War.
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Straight walls of an arsenal model of Suffren, with the lower long 30-pounder battery, the upper short 30-pounder battery, and the 30-pounder carronades on the deck

1855 – Launch of HMY Victoria and Albert II, a 360-foot (110 m) steamer, a royal yacht of the sovereign of the United Kingdom
HMY Victoria and Albert II
, a 360-foot (110 m) steamer launched 16 January 1855, was a royal yacht of the sovereign of the United Kingdom until 1900, owned and operated by the Royal Navy. Of 2,470 tons, the yacht could make 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) on her paddles. There were 240 crew.
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Painting of HMY Victoria and Albert II - William Frederick Mitchell orginaly published in The Royal Navy in a series of illustrations

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1998 - MV Flare (P3GL2) was a Cypriot-registered bulk carrier that sank with the loss of 21 lives in the Cabot Strait on January 16, 1998
MV Flare (P3GL2)
was a Cypriot-registered bulk carrier that sank with the loss of 21 lives in the Cabot Strait on January 16, 1998.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17th of January

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1640 - Action of 12–17 January 1640 - Battle of Itacamara (Battle of Pernambuco)
Ending of a 5 day naval battle between a Dutch fleet and a combined Spanish-Portuguese fleet during the Eighty Years' War.

The Action of 12–17 January 1640 was a naval battle between a Dutch fleet and a combined Spanish-Portuguese fleet during the Eighty Years' War. The battle took place on the Brazilian coast off Pernambuco and was an attempt by a fleet consisting of approximately eighty vessels transporting about 5,000 soldiers under the command of Portuguese Admiral Fernando de Mascarenhas to land reinforcements to bolster the Portuguese militia besieging the city of Recife. On 12 January this fleet was intercepted by a Dutch task force of about forty ships commanded by Willem Loos. The ensuing battle lasted with occasional breaks until the evening of 17 January, when the Spanish and Portuguese fleet retreated and sailed away to the north.
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1759 – Launch of HMS Minerva, one of the four 32-gun Southampton-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy
HMS Minerva
was one of the four 32-gun Southampton-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1759 and served through the Seven Years' War, but was captured in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War and served as the French Minerve until being recaptured in 1781 and renamed HMS Recovery. She was broken up in 1784.
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1773 – Captain James Cook commands HMS Adventure and HMS Resolution in the first expedition to sail south of the Antarctic Circle.
On 17 January 1773, Resolution and Adventure were the first ships to cross the Antarctic Circle and crossed twice more on the voyage. The third crossing, on 3 February 1774, was the most southerly penetration, reaching latitude 71°10′ South at longitude 106°54′ West. Resolution thus proved Alexander Dalrymple's Terra Australis Incognita to be a myth
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1775 – Launch of French Sévère, a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy
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Lancement du vaisseau de 64 canons le Caton à Toulon en 1777.

1798 – Launch of HMS Kent, a 74-gun Ajax-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy
HMS Kent
was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 January 1798 at Blackwall Yard.
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Scale: 1:24. A model of the stern of HMS Kent (1798) showing the timbering, made entirely in wood.

1805 – Launch of French Pluton, a Téméraire class 74-gun French ship of the line built at Toulon
Pluton was a Pluton-class, Sub-class of Téméraire class, 74-gun French ship of the line built at Toulon. She was one of two prototypes for a derivative sub-class of the original design; this sub-class (somewhat smaller than the primary design) was specially intended for construction in some of the shipyards in states occupied by the French, where there was less depth of water than in the main French shipyards. Although the Pluton (and her sister, the Borée) were built at Toulon, all other vessels of this sub-class were built in these overseas yards, notably at Antwerp but also at Genoa, Trieste, Venice, Amsterdam, Flushing and Rotterdam.
Sistership Rivoli
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1907 - Prinz Waldemar, a steam passenger-cargo ship, wrecked because of earthquake
Prinz Waldemar was a steam passenger-cargo ship built in 1902 by the Reiherstieg Schiffswerfte & Maschinenfabrik of Hamburg for Hamburg America Line (HAPAG). She was named after Prince Waldemar of Prussia. The ship was primarily employed as a passenger and cargo carrier between Hamburg and South America during her career.
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1911 – Japanese battlecruiser Kongō (金剛, "Indestructible Diamond", named for Mount Kongō) laid down
Kongō (金剛, "Indestructible Diamond", named for Mount Kongō) was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. She was the first battlecruiser of the Kongō class, among the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Her designer was the British naval engineer George Thurston, and she was laid down in 1911 at Barrow-in-Furness in Britain by Vickers Shipbuilding Company. Kongō was the last Japanese capital ship constructed outside Japan. She was formally commissioned in 1913, and patrolled off the Chinese coast during World War I.
Kongō underwent two major reconstructions. Beginning in 1929, the Imperial Japanese Navy rebuilt her as a battleship, strengthening her armor and improving her speed and power capabilities. In 1935, her superstructure was completely rebuilt, her speed was increased, and she was equipped with launch catapults for floatplanes. Now fast enough to accompany Japan's growing carrier fleet, Kongō was reclassified as a fast battleship. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Kongō operated off the coast of mainland China before being redeployed to the Third Battleship Division in 1941. In 1942, she sailed as part of the Southern Force in preparation for the Battle of Singapore.
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1922 - French ironclad turret ship Marceau wrecked, the last french Barbette
Marceau was an ironclad turret ship built for the French Navy during the 1880s, the lead ship of her class. She served in the Mediterranean Squadron until 1900, when she was rebuilt and subsequently placed in reserve. She returned to service in 1906 as a torpedo training ship. During World War I, she served in Malta and Corfu as a submarine tender. The old ironclad was sold for scrapping in 1920, and while being towed to Toulon, she ran aground in a gale off Bizerte and became stranded. The wreck remained visible there until the 1930s.
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1929 – Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.
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1994 – Ocean liner American Star beached at Fuertefentura
SS America
was an ocean liner built in 1940 for the United States Lines and was designed by the noted American naval architect William Francis Gibbs. She carried many names in the 54 years between her construction and her 1994 wrecking, as she served as the SS America (carrying this name three different times during her career), the USS West Point, the SS Australis, the SS Italis, the SS Noga, the SS Alferdoss, and the SS American Star. She served most notably in passenger service as the SS America, and as the Greek-flagged SS Australis.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18th of January

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1788 – The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from Great Britain to Australia arrive at Botany Bay
The First Fleet was the 11 ships that departed from Portsmouth, England, on 13 May 1787 to found the penal colony that became the first European settlement in Australia. The Fleet consisted of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports, carrying between 1,000 and 1,500 convicts, marines, seamen, civil officers and free people (accounts differ on the numbers), and a large quantity of stores. From England, the Fleet sailed southwest to Rio de Janeiro, then east to Cape Town and via the Great Southern Ocean to Botany Bay, arriving over the period of 18 to 20 January 1788, taking 250 to 252 days from departure to final arrival.
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1814 - HMS Severn (40), Cptn. Joseph Nourse, escorting a convoy engaged French frigates Etoile (40), Cptn. Pierre-Henri Phillibert, and Sultane (40), Cptn. Georges Du-Petit-Thouars
On 18 January 1814
Etoile and Sultane encountered a British merchant convoy at 24°N 53°W in the Central North Atlantic. Sighting distant sails at 04:00, the French captains soon confirmed that the convoy, sailing northwest towards its destination of Bermuda, was defended by only one British warship, the 40-gun frigate HMS Severn under Captain James Nourse. At 07:30, Nourse approached the unidentified ships, determining at 08:40 that they were enemy vessels and giving orders for the convoy to scatter. The French squadron pursued Severn, Nourse opening long-range fire with his stern mounted guns at Etoile at 10:30. The French ship held off returning fire with its bow guns until 16:05 when the range had narrowed considerably, Severn's flight distracting the French sufficiently to allow the convoy to escape. Severn proved to be a fast ship, Nourse successfully holding off pursuit through an exchange of fire at a distance of more than 2 nautical miles (3.7 km). At 17:30 French fire stopped as the range lengthened once more, and Severn began to pull away, Philibert finally calling off pursuit at 08:00 on 19 January.

The French squadron then sailed southwest, arriving at Maio in the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands on 22 January. The squadron anchored at Porto Inglês, and was discovered there at 09:55 the following morning by a British frigate squadron of the 36-gun ships HMS Astrea under Captain George Charles Mackenzie and HMS Creole under Captain John Eveleigh. The British ships were en route to Porto Inglês from Fuerteventura and first spied the French ships, with two small prizes, at anchor from across a promontory, assuming them to be Spanish or Portuguese ships. When the French failed to respond to the coded signals however the British captains realised that the strangers must be enemy vessels and resolved to attack them where they were anchored
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1884 - The passenger steamer SS City of Columbus ran aground on Devil’s Bridge off the Gay Head Cliffs in Aquinnah, Massachusetts
The passenger steamer City of Columbus ran aground on Devil’s Bridge off the Gay Head Cliffs in Aquinnah, Massachusetts, in the early hours of January 18, 1884. She was owned by Boston & Savannah Steamship Company and was built in 1878 by John Roach and Sons, at Chester, Pennsylvania. City of Columbus made regular runs from Boston, Massachusetts to Savannah, Georgia.
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1911 – Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.
Eugene Burton Ely
(October 21, 1886 – October 19, 1911) was an aviation pioneer, credited with the first shipboard aircraft take off and landing.
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1916 - Scotia, a barque that was built in 1872 as the Norwegian whaler Hekla, was destroyed by fire
Scotia was a barque that was built in 1872 as the Norwegian whaler Hekla. She was purchased in 1902 by William Spiers Bruce and refitted as a research vessel for use by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. After the expedition, she served as a sealer, patrol vessel and collier. She was destroyed by fire in January 1916.
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1939 - Herzogin Cecilie, a German-built four-mast barque (windjammer), sank
Herzogin Cecilie was a German-built four-mast barque (windjammer), named after German Crown Princess Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1886–1954), spouse of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1882–1951) (Herzogin being German for Duchess). She sailed under German, French and Finnish flags.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
19th of January

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1678 - HMS Guernsey engaged an Algerine Corsair.
HMS Guernsey
was a 22-gun ship launched as HMS Basing in 1654, and renamed HMS Guernsey in 1660. She was converted to a fireship in 1688 and broken up in 1693.

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This may be a portrait of the ‘Guernsey’, fifth-rate, 30 guns. She was built in 1654 as the ‘Basing’. She was renamed in 1660 and condemned in 1693. She is viewed from abaft the starboard beam. On the tafferel is a large cross with a helmet and mantling above it, presumably the arms of Guernsey. Above the quarter gallery is a swan with wings outspread. It is freely drawn, but not as accurately as most drawings by the Younger at this period. The ship is shown too long for the amount of stern showing, and the stern is heeled slightly to port while the fore part of the ship is not.

1764 - Launch of French Ville de Paris, a large 90-gun ship of the line, that became famous as the flagship of the Comte de Grasse during the American Revolutionary War.
Ville de Paris was a large three-decker French ship of the line that became famous as the flagship of the Comte de Grasse during the American Revolutionary War.
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The Ville de Paris, Foundering in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean (PAD6009)

1799 - Action of 19 January 1799
The Action of 19 January 1799 was a minor naval battle of the French Revolutionary Wars fought in waters of the Strait of Gibraltar, off Punta Europa. A Spanish squadron of 14 gunboats with a mistico as flagship, commanded by Francisco Mourelle de la Rua, attacked a British merchant convoy escorted by several Royal Navy warships, among them a 74-gun ship of the line. The British warships failed to defend the convoy, losing a gunboat sunk and another captured. The convoy also lost a ship and two brigs. For this action Mourelle de la Rua was promoted to frigate captain.
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Engraving of a Spanish gunboat of the late 18th century.

1824 – Launch of HMS Asia, an 84-gun Canopus class second rate ship of the line
HMS Asia
was an 84-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 19 January 1824 at Bombay Dockyard.
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Scale: 1: 48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Asia (1824) and Bombay (1828), both 84-gun Second Rate, two-deckers, building at Bombay Dockyard, India. The plan includes later undated alterations.

1840 - During the Exploring Expedition, USS Vincennes, commanded by Lt. Charles Wilkes, becomes the first U.S. Navy ship to reach the Antarctic Continent.
USS Vincennes (1826)
was a 703-ton Boston-class sloop of war in the United States Navy from 1826 to 1865. During her service, Vincennes patrolled the Pacific, explored the Antarctic, and blockaded the Confederate Gulf coast in the Civil War. Named for the Revolutionary War Battle of Vincennes, she was the first U.S. warship to circumnavigate the globe.
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19th-century painting (based on a sketch by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, USN), depicting USS Vincennes in Disappointment Bay, Antarctica, circa January–February 1840.

1883 - “Cimbria” Catastrophe – the Story of the “German Titanic”
The HAPAG passenger ship SS Cimbria sank with the loss of between 389 and 437 lives (sources disagree) after colliding with the steamer Sultan ( United Kingdom) in the North Sea near Borkum Island. Between 56 and 133 people survived and were saved by Diamant and Thetis (flags unknown).
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1943 - The Battle off Zuwarah was a World War II naval battle which took place on the night of 19 January 1943 in Libyan waters between British and Italian forces.
The Battle off Zuwarah was a World War II naval battle which took place on the night of 19 January 1943 in Libyan waters between British and Italian forces. The battle ended with the complete destruction of an Italian flotilla of small minesweepers and auxiliary vessels evacuating Tripoli.
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1996 – The barge North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.
The North Cape oil spill took place on January 19, 1996, when the tank barge North Cape and the tug Scandia grounded on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island after the tug caught fire in its engine room during a winter storm. An estimated 828,000 gallons of home heating oil was spilled. Oil spread throughout a large area of Block Island Sound, including Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge, resulting in the closure of a 250-square-mile (650 km2) area of the soundfor fishing.
Hundreds of oiled birds and large numbers of dead lobsters, surf clams, and sea stars were recovered in the weeks following the spill. US federal and Rhode Island state governments undertook considerable work to clean up the spill and restore lost fishery stocks and coastal marine habitat. The North Cape oil spill is considered a significant legal precedent in that it was the first major oil spill in the continental U.S. after the passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, resulting from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska on March 24, 1989.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20th of January

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1783 – Launch of HMS Gladiator, a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy
HMS Gladiator
was a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 20 January 1783 by Henry Adams of Bucklers Hard. She spent her entire career on harbour service, never putting to sea. Even so, her crew earned prize money for the seizure of two Russian and five American ships. Her sessile existence made her an excellent venue for courts-martialand a number of notable ones took place aboard her. She was broken up in 1817.
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1786 – Launch of Spanish Mexicano (or Mejicano), a 112-gun three-decker ship of the line built at Havanna for the Spanish Navy in 1786
Mexicano (or Mejicano) was a 112-gun three-decker ship of the line built at Havanna for the Spanish Navy in 1786 to plans by Romero Landa. One of the eight very large ships of the line of the Santa Ana class, also known as los Meregildos. Mexicano served in the Spanish Navy for three decades throughout the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, finally being sold at Ferrol in 1815. Although she was a formidable part of the Spanish battlefleet throughout these conflicts, the only major action Mexicano participated in was the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797.
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Graduated Bar Scale. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for an unnamed Spanish 112-gun three-decker. Spain built a number of 112-gun warships of which five were built at Ferrol, where Julian Martin de Retamosa was the shipbuilder. These included the 'Purisma Concepcion', 'San Jose' (1783), 'Santa Ana', 'Salvador del Mundo' (1787), and 'Reina Luisa'. It is possible that this plan was never approved or used to construct a 112-gun three-decker. Signed by Julian Martin de Retamosa [Shipbuilder and designer, and Lieutenant General of the Spanish Royal Navy].

1789 – Launch of Spanish San Hermenegildo, a 112-gun three-decker ship of the line built at Havanna for the Spanish Navy
San Hermenegildo was a 112-gun three-decker ship of the line built at Havanna for the Spanish Navy in 1789 to plans by Romero Landa, one of the eight very large ships of the line of the Santa Ana class, also known as los Meregildos. San Hermenegildo served in the Spanish Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars and was destroyed with heavy loss of life during the Second Battle of Algeciras.
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1887 - Kapunda; a British emigrant ship which; sank after colliding with the barque Ada Melmoure in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil
Kapunda was a British emigrant ship which sank on 20 January 1887 after colliding with the barque Ada Melmoure in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil. She was an iron-hulled ship of 1,095 tons, owned by Frinder, Anderson, and Company
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1918 - The Battle of Imbros was a naval action that took place during the First World War.
The Battle of Imbros was a naval action that took place during the First World War. The battle occurred on 20 January 1918 when an Ottoman squadron engaged a flotilla of the British Royal Navy off the island of Imbros in the Aegean Sea. A lack of heavy Alliedwarships in the area allowed the Ottoman battlecruiser Yavûz Sultân Selîm and light cruiser Midilli to sortie into the Mediterranean and attack the British monitors and destroyers at Imbros before assaulting the naval base at Mudros.
Although the Ottoman forces managed to complete their objective of destroying the British monitors at Imbros, the battle turned sour for them as they sailed through a minefield while withdrawing. Midilli was sunk and Yavûz Sultân Selîm heavily damaged. Although Yavûz Sultân Selîm managed to beach herself within the Dardanelles, she was subjected to days of air attacks until she was towed to safety. With the most modern cruiser of the Ottoman Navy sunk and her only battlecruiser out of action, the battle effectively curtailed the Ottoman Navy's offensive capability until the end of the war.
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1921 – The British K-class submarine HMS K5 sinks in the English Channel; all 56 on board die.
HMS K5
was one of the K-class submarines that served in the Royal Navy from 1917-1921. She was lost with all hands when she sank en route to a mock battle in the Bay of Biscay.
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Aerial view of K5 showing smoke from steam engine

1942 - SS Kurtuluş was a Turkish cargo ship which became famous for her humanitarian role in carrying food aid during the famine Greece suffered under the Axis occupation in World War II. She sank on 20 February 1942 in the Sea of Marmara
SS Kurtuluş
was a Turkish cargo ship which became famous for her humanitarian role in carrying food aid during the famine Greece suffered under the Axis occupation in World War II. She sank on 20 February 1942 in the Sea of Marmara during her fifth voyage from İstanbul, Turkey to Piraeus, Greece. In Turkish kurtuluş means "liberation".
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21st of January

please use the following link and you will find the details and all events of this day .....


as usual in the following you can find some of the events in a Pre-View - for mor Events and also much more detailed information please use the link

1782 - HMS Blonde (1760 - 32), Cptn. Andrew Barclay, wrecked on Nantucket Shoal
HMS Blonde
was a 32-gun fifth rate warship of the British Royal Navy captured from the French in 1760. The ship wrecked on Blonde Rock with American prisoners on board. An American privateer Captain Daniel Adams rescued the American prisoners and let the British go free. The Captain's decision created an international stir. Upon returning to Boston, the American privateer was banished for letting go the British crew and he and his family became Loyalist refugees in Nova Scotia.
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1783 – Launch of HMS Carnatic, a 74-gun Courageux-class third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy,
HMS Carnatic
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 21 January 1783 at Deptford Wharf. The British East India Company paid for her construction and presented her to the Royal Navy.
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1788 - Arthur Phillip, commander of the First Fleet, and a party which included John Hunter, departed Botany Bay in three small boats to explore other bays to the north. Phillip discovered that Port Jackson, about 12 kilometres to the north, was an excellent site for a colony with sheltered anchorages, fresh water and fertile soil.
The First Fleet was the 11 ships that departed from Portsmouth, England, on 13 May 1787 to found the penal colony that became the first European settlement in Australia. The Fleet consisted of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports, carrying between 1,000 and 1,500 convicts, marines, seamen, civil officers and free people (accounts differ on the numbers), and a large quantity of stores. From England, the Fleet sailed southwest to Rio de Janeiro, then east to Cape Town and via the Great Southern Ocean to Botany Bay, arriving over the period of 18 to 20 January 1788, taking 250 to 252 days from departure to final arrival.
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1796 - pilot ship Cartier, a brig launched in 1787 for the Bengal Pilot Service, was captured by French privateer corvette Émilie, captained by privateer Robert Surcouf.
Cartier was a brig launched in 1787 for the Bengal Pilot Service as a pilot ship operating at Balasore Roads. The French privateer Robert Surcouf captured her, and then used her to capture the East Indiaman Triton on 29 January 1796. The British Royal Navy subsequently recaptured her.
The brig Cartier operated in Balasore roads, in the Indian Ocean. On 21 January 1796 the French privateer corvette Émilie, captained by Robert Surcouf, captured her.
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1805 - HMS Doris (1795 - 36), Cptn. Patrick Campbell, wrecked on the Diamond Rock off Quiberon Bay.
HMS Doris
was a 36-gun Phoebe-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched on 31 August 1795. which saw service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Doris was built by Cleveley, of Gravesend.
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model of the HMS Phoebe (leadship of the class)

1854 - RMS Tayleur, a full rigged iron clipper ship chartered by the White Star Line, ran aground and sank on her maiden voyage in 1854. Of more than 650 aboard, only 280 survived. She has been described as "the first Titanic"
RMS Tayleur
was a full rigged iron clipper ship chartered by the White Star Line. She was large, fast and technically advanced. She ran aground and sank on her maiden voyage in 1854. Of more than 650 aboard, only 280 survived. She has been described as "the first Titanic".
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22nd of January

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1761 – Launch of HMS Arrogant, a 74-gun Arrogant class third rate ship of the line


HMS Arrogant
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 22 January 1761 at Harwich. She was the first of the Arrogant class ships of the line, designed by Sir Thomas Slade.
he took part in the Action of 8 September 1796 and in January 1799 was with the British squadron at the defence of Macau during the Macau Incident.
By 1804 she had been converted to a hulk at Bombay where she served as a receiving ship, sheer hulk, and floating battery. In 1810 she was condemned as unfit for further service. She was sold out of service in 1810
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The Arrogant, Intrepid and Virginie chasing French and Spanish Squadron off coast of China, 27 January 1799 (PAH9508)


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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with quarter gallery decorations, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed for 'Defence (1763), Kent' (1762), 'Cornwall' (1761), and 'Arrogant' (1761), all 74-gun Third Rate, two deckers. Signed by Thomas Slade [Surveyor of the Navy, 1755-1771].

1783 - The Action of 22 January 1783 was a single ship action fought off the Chesapeake Bay
The Action of 22 January 1783 was a single ship action fought off the Chesapeake Bay during the American War of Independence. The British frigate Hussar, under the command of Thomas McNamara Russell, captured the French frigate Sybille, under the command of Kergariou-Locmaria. The circumstances of the battle included controversial violations of accepted rules of war regarding the flying of false flags and distress signals.
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1809 - HMS Primrose (18), James Mein, wrecked on the Manacle near Falmouth.
HMS Primrose (1807)
was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Thomas Nickells (or Nicholls), at Fowey and launched in 1807. She was commissioned in November 1807 under Commander James Mein, who sailed her to the coast of Spain on 3 February 1808.
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1856 – Launch of French Audacieuse, an Ardente-class frigate of the French Navy
Audacieuse was an Ardente-class frigate of the French Navy.
She served between France and the Far East, notable ferrying ambassador Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros to China in 1857 and bringing guns from the Taku Forts to France.
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Audacieuse, drawn by Roux

1873 - The Northfleet, a British full rigged ship, is rammed by Spanish steamer Murillo and sinks 293 passengers and crew near Dungeness
The Northfleet was a British full rigged ship that is best remembered for her disastrous sinking in the English Channel in January 1873.
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1891 – The Hapag liner Augusta Victoria starts in Ciuxhaven for a 3 month cruise.
Off-season pleasure cruises were therefore started in 1891, and Augusta Victoria's cruise in the Mediterranean and the Near East from 22 January to 22 March 1891, with 241 passengers including the Ballins themselves, is often stated to have been the first ever cruise

Augusta Victoria, later Auguste Victoria, placed in service in 1889 and named for Empress Augusta Victoria, wife of German Emperor Wilhelm II, was the name ship of the Augusta Victoria series and the first of a new generation of luxury Hamburg America Line ocean liners. She was the first European liner with twin propellers and when first placed in service, the fastest liner in the Atlantic trade. In 1897, the ship was rebuilt and lengthened and in 1904 she was sold to the Imperial Russian Navy, which renamed her Kuban.
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1906 – SS Valencia runs aground on rocks on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, killing more than 130.
SS Valencia
was an iron-hulled passenger steamer built as a minor ocean liner for the Red D Line for service between Venezuela and New York City. She was built in 1882 by William Cramp and Sons, one year after the construction of her sister ship Caracas. She was a 1,598 ton vessel (originally 1,200 tons), 252 feet (77 m) in length. In 1897, Valencia was deliberately attacked by the Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The next year, she became a coastal passenger liner on the U.S. West Coast and served periodically in the Spanish–American War as a troopship to the Philippines. Valencia was wrecked off Cape Beale, which is near Clo-oose, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on 22 January 1906. Since her sinking killed 100 people (including all of the women and children aboard), some classify the wreck of Valencia as the worst maritime disaster in the "Graveyard of the Pacific", a famously treacherous area off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island.
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SS Valencia around 1900, showing much of her original Red D Line profile

1941 - Operation Berlin started
Operation Berlin
was a successful commerce raid performed by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau between January and March 1941. The commander-in-chief of the operation was Admiral Günther Lütjens, who subsequently commanded the famous cruise of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
23rd of January

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1781 - HMS Culloden (1776 - 74), Cptn. Balfour, wrecked on the east end of Long Island in a gale.
HMS Culloden
was a 74-gun Culloden-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Deptford Dockyard, England, and launched on 18 May 1776. She was the fourth warship to be named after the Battle of Culloden, which took place in Scotland in 1746 and saw the defeat of the Jacobite rising.
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Inscribed in black ink 'Culloden man of war', lower left, and signed 'D Serres', lower right, in a browner ink.

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration and name on the counter, sheer lines with inboard detail and stern quarter decoration and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Culloden' (1776), a 74-gun, Third Rate, two-decker as built at Deptford Dockyard.

1790 - The mutineers of the HMS Bounty burned the ship while she was moored at Pitcairn Island.
HMS Bounty,
also known as HM Armed Vessel Bounty, was a small merchant vessel that the Royal Navy purchased for a botanical mission. The ship was sent to the Pacific Ocean under the command of William Bligh to acquire breadfruit plants and transport them to British possessions in the West Indies. That mission was never completed due to a mutiny led by acting lieutenant Fletcher Christian. This incident is now popularly known as the mutiny on the Bounty. The mutineers later burned Bounty while she was moored at Pitcairn Island. An American adventurer rediscovered the remains of the Bounty in 1957; various parts of it have been salvaged since then.
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1795 – After an extraordinary charge across the frozen Zuiderzee, the French cavalry captured 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns, in a rare occurrence of a battle between ships and cavalry.
The Capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder on the night of 23 January 1795 presents a rare occurrence of a "naval" battle between warships and cavalry, in which a French Revolutionary Hussar regiment surprised a Dutch Republican fleet frozen at anchor between the 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) stretch of sea that separates the mainland port of Den Helder and the island of Texel. After a charge across the frozen Zuiderzee, the French cavalry captured 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns. A capture of ships by horsemen is an extremely rare feat in military history.
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Capture of the Dutch fleet by the French hussars

1798 - HMS Melampus (1785 - 36), Cptn. Graham Moore, captured French corvette Volage (1795 - 22), M. Desageneaux.
HMS Melampus
was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes before the British sold her to the Dutch navy in 1815. With the Dutch she participated in a major action at Algiers, and then in a number of colonial punitive expeditions in the Dutch East Indies.
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Detail from the painting by Bristol artist Chris Woodhouse of the 36-gun Bristol-built frigate HMS Melampus, commissioned and purchased in 1990 by Bristol City Museum

1807 - HMS Orpheus (1780 - 32), Cptn. Thomas Briggs, wrecked on a coral reef in the West Indies
HMS Orpheus
was a 32–gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1780, and served for more than a quarter of a century, before she was wrecked in 1807.
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1904 – Ålesund Fire
Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, burnt down 850 houses, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. German Kaiser Wilhelm II dispatched four ships loaded with personnel, food, medicine, materials for shelters, and equipment. He funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style.

The Ålesund fire happened in the Norwegian city of Ålesund on 23 January 1904. It destroyed almost the whole city centre, built mostly of wood like the majority of Norwegian towns at the time
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1909 – RMS Republic, a passenger ship of the White Star Line, becomes the first ship to use the CQD distress signal after colliding with another ship, the SS Florida, off the Massachusetts coastline, an event that kills six people. The Republic sinks the next day.
RMS Republic
was a steam-powered ocean liner built in 1903 by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, and lost at sea in a collision in 1909 while sailing for the White Star Line. The ship was equipped with a new Marconi wireless telegraphy transmitter, and issued a CQD distress call, resulting in the saving of around 1,500 lives. Known as the "Millionaires' Ship" because of the number of wealthy Americans who traveled by her, she was described as a "palatial liner" and was the flagship of White Star Line's Boston service. This was the first important marine rescue made possible by radio, and brought worldwide attention to this new technology.
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1960 – The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 metres (35,797 ft) in the Pacific Ocean.
Trieste is a Swiss-designed, Italian-built deep-diving research bathyscaphe, which with its crew of two reached a record maximum depth of about 10,911 metres (35,797 ft), in the deepest known part of the Earth's oceans, the Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench near Guam in the Pacific. On 23 January 1960, Jacques Piccard (son of the boat's designer Auguste Piccard) and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh achieved the goal of Project Nekton.
Trieste was the first manned vessel to have reached the bottom of the Challenger Deep.
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1961 – The Portuguese luxury cruise ship Santa Maria is hijacked by opponents of the Estado Novo regime with the intention of waging war until dictator António de Oliveira Salazar is overthrown.
The Santa Maria hijacking was carried out on 22 January 1961 when Portuguese and Spanish political rebels seized control of a Portuguese passenger ship, aiming to force political change in Portugal. The action was also known as Operation Dulcinea, the code name given by its chief architect and leader, Portuguese military officer, writer and politician Henrique Galvão, who had been exiled in Caracas, Venezuela since 1959. After United States naval intervention, the ship arrived in Brazil, and the hijacking ended on 2 February when the rebels were given political asylum there
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24th of January

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1709 – Death of George Rooke, English admiral and politician (b. 1650)
Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Rooke (1650 – 24 January 1709) was an English naval officer. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Solebay and again at the Battle of Schooneveld during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. As a captain, he conveyed Prince William of Orange to England and took part in the Battle of Bantry Bay during the Williamite War in Ireland.
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1761 - HMS Richmond (32), Cptn. Elphinstone, destroyed Felicite (32), Cptn. Donell (Killed in Action), off Flanders.
HMS Richmond
was the name ship of the six-vessel, 32-gun Richmond-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1757 and served throughout the American Revolutionary War until the French 74-gun Bourgogne and the frigate Aigrette captured her on 11 September 1781 in the Chesapeake. She then served as Richemont.
Fate: The French burned her at Sardinia on 19 May 1793 to prevent the Spanish from capturing her.
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1794 - Action at Sunda Strait
The Sunda Strait campaign of January 1794 was a series of manoeuvres and naval actions fought between warships and privateers of the French Republic and a squadron of vessels sent by the British East India Company to protect trade in the region, later augmented by Dutch warships. The campaign developed as French forces based on Île de France reacted more quickly than the British forces in the Indian Ocean to the expansion of the French Revolutionary Wars on 1 February 1793. French privateers rapidly spread along the British trade routes in the Far East, becoming concentrated around the narrow Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies. These ships were soon joined by French Navy frigates and began to inflict losses on shipping in the region. The Royal Navy forces in the Indian Ocean were deployed elsewhere and so the East India Company, the private enterprise that ruled much of British India in the 1790s and maintained their own fleet and navy, raised a squadron of armed merchant ships to patrol the Strait and drive off the raiders.
The arrival of this British force on 2 January 1794 was initially a success, the squadron over-running and capturing two large and well-armed privateers on 22 January, not long after the French vessels had been beaten off during an attack on the British trading post at Bencoolen. On 24 January an action against a larger French squadron was fought in the Strait itself, but ended inconclusively and the squadrons divided, the British receiving the Dutch frigate Amazone as reinforcements. The French subsequently turned southwards out of the Strait and attacked Bencoolen again on 9 February, capturing an East Indiaman in the harbour before returning to Île de France with their prize.
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1805 – Four Repulse class 74 gun ships of the line were ordered
These were the HMS Valiant, HMS Elizabeth, HMS Cumberland and the
HMS Venerable
The Repulse-class ships of the line were a class of eleven 74-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir William Rule. The first three ships to this design were ordered in 1800, with a second batch of five following in 1805. The final three ships of the class were ordered towards the end of the Napoleonic War to a modified version of Rule's draught, using the new constructional system created by Sir Robert Seppings; all three were completed after the war's end.
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1807 – Launch of HMS Valiant, a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, exactly two years after the order
HMS Valiant
was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 24 January 1807 at Blackwall Yard.
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1870 - screw sloop of war USS Oneida sunk after a collision with british steamer Bombay
The second USS Oneida was a screw sloop-of-war in the United States Navy. During the Civil War, she destroyed the CSS Governor Moore and served in blockade operations. She was attached to the Asiatic Squadron from 1867–1870. She sank in 1870 outside Yokohama, Japan after collision with the British steamer Bombay. The Court of Inquiry found the officers of Oneida were responsible for the collision. Bombay's captain was blamed for not staying at the scene to render assistance - a decision that caused some controversy. Japanese fishing boats saved 61 sailors but 125 men lost their lives. The American government made no attempt to raise the wreck and sold it to a Japanese wrecking company. The company recovered many bones from the wreck and interred them at their own expense. The Japanese erected a memorial tablet on the grounds of Ikegami Temple in Tokyo and held a Buddhist ceremony in the sailor's memory in May 1889.
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The sinking of USS Oneida off Yokohama, Japan, 24 January 1870.

1915 – World War I: Battle of Dogger Bank
British Grand Fleet battle cruisers under Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty engage Rear-Admiral Franz von Hipper's battle cruisers

The Battle of Dogger Bank was a naval engagement on 24 January 1915, near the Dogger Bank in the North Sea, during the First World War, between squadrons of the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet.
The British had intercepted and decoded German wireless transmissions, gaining advance knowledge that a German raiding squadron was heading for Dogger Bank and ships of the Grand Fleet sailed to intercept the raiders. The British surprised the smaller and slower German squadron, which fled for home. During a stern chase lasting several hours, the British caught up with the Germans and engaged them with long-range gunfire. The British disabled Blücher, the rearmost German ship, and the Germans put the British flagship HMS Lion out of action. Due to inadequate signalling, the remaining British ships stopped the pursuit to sink Blücher; by the time the ship had been sunk, the rest of the German squadron had escaped. The German squadron returned to harbour, with some ships in need of extensive repairs.
Lion made it back to port but was out of action for several months. The British had lost no ships and suffered few casualties; the Germans had lost Blücher and most of its crew, so the action was considered a British victory. Both navies replaced commanders who were thought to have shown poor judgement and made changes to equipment and procedures, to remedy failings observed during the battle.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25th of January

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1782 - The Battle of St Kitts (aka The Battle of Frigate Bay)
The British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood out manouvered and was attacked by a larger French fleet under the Comte de Grasse off Basse Terre, St. Kitts. Hood repulsed repeated attacks but could not prevent the loss of the Island.

The Battle of Saint Kitts, also known as the Battle of Frigate Bay, was a naval battle that took place on 25 and 26 January 1782 during the American Revolutionary War between a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood and a larger French fleet under the Comte de Grasse.
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1782 - HMS Solebay (1763 - 28) wrecked off Nevis
HMS Solebay
was a Mermaid-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy which saw active service between 1766 and 1782, during the latter part of the Seven Years' War and throughout the American Revolutionary War. After a successful career in which she captured seven enemy vessels, she was wrecked ashore on the Caribbean Island of Nevis.
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1797 - Action of 25 January 1797
The Action of 25 January 1797 was a minor naval battle of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought in the Gulf of Cádiz. The Spanish third-rate ship of the line San Francisco de Asís was attacked and pursued for several hours by a British squadron of three fifth-rates frigates and a sixth-rate corvetteunder George Stewart, 8th Earl of Galloway. After an intermittent but fierce exchange of fire, the British warships, badly damaged, were eventually forced to withdraw. The San Francisco de Asís, which suffered only minor damage, was able to return to Cádiz without difficulties. The commander of the ship, Captain Alonso de Torres y Guerra, was promoted for his success.
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1800 - HMS Brazen (1798 - 18), Cptn. J. Hanson, driven by a gale on to the Ave Rocks near Newhaven and wrecked.
HMS Brazen
was the French privateer Invincible General Bonaparte (or Invincible Bonaparte or Invincible Buonaparte), which the British captured in 1798. She is best known for her wrecking in January 1800 in which all but one of her crew drowned.
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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, stern board outline, and longitudinal half-breadth for Brazen (captured 1798), a captured French privateer prior to being fitted as a 16-gun Ship Sloop. The plans shows the ship with her original French name of 'Invincible General Bonaparte'. Note the pronounced 'V' shaped hull, indicating that she was built for speed. Signed by Edward Tippett [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1793-1799].

1860 – Launch of HMS Prince of Wales, a 121-gun screw-propelled first-rate three-decker Ship of the Line
HMS Prince of Wales
was one of six 121-gun screw-propelled first-rate three-decker line-of-battle ships of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 25 January 1860.
In 1869 she was renamed HMS Britannia and under that name served at Dartmouth as a cadet training ship until 1905.
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1890 - Irex was a sailing vessel wrecked at Scratchell's Bay on the Isle of Wight by The Needles while on her maiden voyage.
Irex was a sailing vessel wrecked at Scratchell's Bay on the Isle of Wight by The Needles on 25 January 1890, while on her maiden voyage.
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1941 - The keel to USS Wisconsin (BB 64) is laid. Commissioned in April 1944, she serves during the later stages of World War II in the Pacific. She is now a museum battleship stationed in Norfolk, Va.
USS Wisconsin (BB-64)
is an Iowa-class battleship, the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. She was built at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and launched on 7 December 1943 (the second anniversary of the Pearl Harbor raid), sponsored by the wife of Governor Walter Goodland of Wisconsin.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26th of January

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1787 – Launch of HMS Captain, a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy,
HMS Captain
was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 26 November 1787 at Limehouse. She served during the French revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars before being placed in harbour service in 1799. An accident caused her to burn and founder in 1813. Later that year she was raised and broken up.
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The 'Captain' capturing the 'San Nicolas' and the 'San José' at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, 14 February 1797

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1793 - Horatio Nelson appointed to command HMS Agamemnon (1781 - 64)
HMS Agamemnon was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. She saw service in the Anglo-French War, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and fought in many of the major naval battles of those conflicts. She is remembered as being Nelson's favourite ship, and was named after the mythical ancient Greek king Agamemnon, being the first ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.
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Horatio, Lord Nelson, by John Hoppner

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1805 - HM brig Epervier (16), John Impey, captured the French privateer schooner L'Elizabeth (4)
HMS Epervier
was a French 16-gun Alcyon-class brig. HMS Egyptienne captured her in the Atlantic Ocean on 27 July 1803; she was taken into Royal Navyservice under her existing name. Before being broken up in 1811 she captured several prizes and was present at the Battle of San Domingo. Her crew received a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal for their participation in that battle and another for an action in December 1808. She was laid up in late 1810 and was sold in 1811.
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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration and name in a cartouche on the stern counter, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth half-breadth for the Epervier (captured 1803), a captured French Brig, possibly as fitted as an 18-gun Brig Sloop. Signed by Nicholas Diddams [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1803-1823].

1807 – Launch of HMS Porcupine, a Royal Navy Banterer-class post ship of 24 guns
HMS Porcupine
was a Royal Navy Banterer-class post ship of 24 guns, launched in 1807. She served extensively and relatively independently in the Adriatic and the Western Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars, with her boats performing many cutting out expeditions, one of which earned for her crew the Naval General Service Medal. She was sold for breaking up in 1816 but instead became the mercantile Windsor Castle. She was finally sold for breaking up in 1826 at Mauritius.
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Model of HMS Cyane (sistership)

1788 – The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sails into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on Australia.
Commemorated as Australia Day

The First Fleet was the 11 ships that departed from Portsmouth, England, on 13 May 1787 to found the penal colony that became the first European settlement in Australia. The Fleet consisted of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports, carrying between 1,000 and 1,500 convicts, marines, seamen, civil officers and free people (accounts differ on the numbers), and a large quantity of stores. From England, the Fleet sailed southwest to Rio de Janeiro, then east to Cape Town and via the Great Southern Ocean to Botany Bay, arriving over the period of 18 to 20 January 1788, taking 250 to 252 days from departure to final arrival.
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The First Fleet entering Port Jackson on 26 January 1788 by Edmund Le Bihan

1808 - William Bligh deposed as governor of NSW by 'Rum Rebellion' mutiny.
The Rum Rebellion of 1808 was the only successful armed takeover of government in Australian history. During the 19th century, it was widely referred to as "the Great Rebellion".
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A propaganda cartoon created within hours of William Bligh's arrest, portraying him as a coward

1826 – Launch of HMS Sulphur, a 10-gun Hecla-class bomb vessel of the British Royal Navy
HMS Sulphur
was a 10-gun Hecla-class bomb vessel of the British Royal Navy, famous as one of the ships in which Edward Belcher explored the Pacificcoast of the Americas.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
27th of January

please use the following link and you will find the details and all events of this day .....


As usual in the following you can find some of the events in a Pre-view -> for more details of these events and also other events please use the link

1663 – Birth of George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington, Royal Navy admiral (d. 1733)
Admiral of the Fleet George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington, KB, PC (27 January 1663 – 17 January 1733) of Southill Park in Bedfordshire, was a Royal Navy officer and statesman. While still a lieutenant, he delivered a letter from various captains to Prince William of Orange, who had just landed at Torbay, assuring the Prince of the captains' support; the Prince gave Byng a response which ultimately led to the Royal Navy switching allegiance to the Prince and the Glorious Revolution of November 1688.
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The Battle of Cape Passaro at which Byng commanded the British fleet

1695 - french Content (1686 - 66) and Trident (1688 - 52) captured by an English Squadron of six ships
On the 27th of January, a squadron of six frigates, commanded by Commodore James Killegrew, in the 60-gun ship Plymouth, being between Cape Bona, on the Barbary coast, and Pantellaria, discovered two large French ships, Which proved to be the Content, of sixty guns, Captain the Marquis du Chalard, and the Trident, fifty-two guns. Captain Count d'Aulnoy. The French, mistaking the frigates for merchant-ships, made sail towards them: but discovering their error, hauled to the wind and endeavoured to escape. Commodore Killegrew chased, and the Plymouth outsailing the other ships of the squadron, at 4h. p.m. got within gun-shot of the French ships, upon which she gallantly opened fire. For more than an hour this ship, unsupported, maintained a conflict with two powerful ships the wind being so light as to preclude the other ships from closing â€" during which time the brave commodore was killed by a cannonball The Falmouth, Captain Caleb Grantham, next got into action, but she also was alone for an hour. As soon as the four remaining frigates â€" Carlisle (Captain John Norris), Newcastle, Southampton (Captain Richard Kirby), and Adventure had arrived up, the French ships separated, but were pursued â€" the Content, by the Carlisle and Newcastle; and the Trident, by the Falmouth and Adventure. The French fought their ships well, and maintained a running fight throughout the night; but in the forenoon of the following day both surrendered, having lost many men, and being much disabled. The Trident, being leaky, was sent into Gorcjonti, and the Content was carried to Messina. The Plymouth suffered the most severely, having, in addition to the commodore, fourteen men killed and thirty wounded; besides being greatly damaged, and with the loss of her fore-topmast. The other five ships lost together about double that number. Commodore Killegrew was buried at Messina with military honours.

Content (1686 - 66), captured in 1695 by HMS Plymouth and taken into service as HMS Content and hulked in 1703.
Trident (1688 - 52), captured by HMS Plymouth in 1695 and taken in service as HMS Trydent. Later renamed Trident Prize, she was sunk as a breakwater in 1702 at Harwich.
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1770 - HMS Jamaica, a 10-gun (14-gun from 1749) two-masted Hind-class sloop of the Royal Navy, wrecked
HMS Jamaica
was a 10-gun (14-gun from 1749) two-masted Hind-class sloop of the Royal Navy, designed by Joseph Allin and built by him at Deptford Dockyard on the Thames River, England and launched on 17 July 1744. She and her sister Trial were the only sloops to be built in the Royal Dockyards between 1733 and 1748.
After more than 25 years service, she was wrecked off Cuba on 27 January 1770.
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1779 - Launch of french Terrible, a 110-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class
In 1793, she took part in a Franco-Spanish fleet assembled before Cádiz under Admiral d'Estaing, but the end of the American War of Independence occurred before it saw action.
She took part in the Bataille du 13 prairial an 2, where she was dismasted by HMS Royal Sovereign. She later took part in the campaign of Winter 1794-1795, and in the Cruise of Bruix.
She was decommissioned in 1802, condemned in May 1804, and eventually broken up in October.
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1785 – Launch of HMS Gorgon, a 44-gun fifth-rate two-decker ship of the Adventure class of 911 tons, launched at Blackwall Yard in 1785 and completed as a troopship.
HMS Gorgon
was a 44-gun fifth-rate two-decker ship of the Adventure class of 911 tons, launched at Blackwall Yard in 1785 and completed as a troopship. She was subsequently converted to a storeship. She also served as a guardship and a hospital ship at various times before being broken up in 1817.
Troopship
Gorgon was fitted as a troopship at Portsmouth at a cost of £5,210, the work being completed on 15 December 1787. Lieutenant Charles Craven commissioned her in October 1787. She then was paid off one year later. One year after that, she was fitted for foreign service at an additional cost of £5,200 and recommissioned under Lieutenant William Harvey in October 1789.
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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the longitudinal half-breadth of the Gorgon (1785), a 44-gun Fifth Rate, two-decker, as fitted as a troopship, and with alterations for fitting the Charon (1783), a 44-gun Fifth Rate, two-decker, possibly as an Hospital Ship, at Plymouth Dockyard. According to the Progress Book, volume 5, folio 208, HMS Gorgon was fitted at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1790 for Foreign Service, suggesting that this plan was copied from the set for Gorgon, and altered for Charon.

1801 - HMS Concorde (36), Cptn. Barton, engaged Bravoure about 75 miles west of Cape Finisterre.
Concorde had a narrow escape from a French squadron under Rear-Admiral Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume, which had sailed from Brest on 23 January 1801. The French sighted Concorde off Cape Finisterre on 27 January, and the 40-gun Bravoure was sent to chase her down. Concorde cast off a Swedish ship she was towing and drew the French frigate away from the main body of the fleet. Barton then turned and engaged her for forty minutes, silencing her guns. By now the main French fleet was fast approaching, and with his sails and rigging damaged, Barton did not attempt to take possession of Bravoure and instead made for a British port to report the encounter. Concorde had four men killed and 19 wounded in the engagement, while Bravoure had 10 killed and 24 wounded.
Concorde (originally Le Concorde) was a 32-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. Built in Rochefort in 1777, she entered service with the French early in the American War of Independence, and was soon in action, capturing HMS Minerva in the West Indies. She survived almost until the end of the war, but was captured by HMS Magnificent in 1783. Not immediately brought into service due to the draw-down in the navy after the end of the war, she underwent repairs and returned to active service under the White Ensign with the outbreak of war with France in 1793 as the fifth-rate HMS Concorde.

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Planset Review of the ancre monographie you can find here:


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1816 – Death of Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, English admiral and politician (b. 1724)
Admiral Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood (12 December 1724 – 27 January 1816) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he saw action during the War of the Austrian Succession. While in temporary command of Antelope, he drove a French ship ashore in Audierne Bay, and captured two privateers in 1757 during the Seven Years' War. He held senior command as Commander-in-Chief, North American Station and then as Commander-in-Chief, Leeward Islands Station, leading the British fleet to victory at Battle of the Mona Passage in April 1782 during the American Revolutionary War. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, then First Naval Lord and, after briefly returning to the Portsmouth command, became Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet during the French Revolutionary Wars.
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1961 – The Soviet submarine S-80 sinks when its snorkel malfunctions, flooding the boat.
S-80 was a diesel-electric submarine of the Soviet Navy.
Its keel was laid down on 13 March 1950 at Krasnoye Sormovo as a Project 613 unit (NATO : Whiskey class). It was launched on 21 October, and delivered to Baku on the Caspian Sea on 1 November for tests, then transferred north via inland waterways in December. It was commissioned into the Northern Fleeton 2 December 1952, and operated there until mid-1957.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
28th of January

please use the following link and you will find the details and all events of this day .....


1596 – Death of Francis Drake, English captain and explorer (b. 1540)
Sir Francis Drake
(c. 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer and explorer of the Elizabethan era. Drake carried out the second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580, and was the first to complete the voyage as captain while leading the expedition throughout the entire circumnavigation. With his incursion into the Pacific Ocean, he claimed what is now California for the English and inaugurated an era of conflict with the Spanish on the western coast of the Americas,[4] an area that had previously been largely unexplored by western shipping.
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1794 – Launch of Spanish Príncipe de Asturias, a three-deck 112-gun ship of the line, named after Ferdinand, eldest surviving son of Charles IV of Spain.
The Príncipe de Asturias was a Spanish three-deck 112-gun ship of the line, named after Ferdinand, eldest surviving son of Charles IV of Spain. She was built in Havana in 1794 to designs by Romero Landa and launched on 28 January 1794. It was owned by the Spanish Navy.
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1797 – Launch of HMS Neptune, a 98-gun Neptune-class second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.
HMS Neptune
was a 98-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She served on a number of stations during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and was present at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
Neptune was built during the early years of the war with Revolutionary France and was launched in 1797. She almost immediately became caught up in the events of the mutiny at the Nore, and was one of a few loyal ships tasked with attacking mutinous vessels if they could not be brought to order. The mutiny died out before this became necessary and Neptune joined the Channel Fleet. She moved to the Mediterranean in 1799, spending the rest of the French Revolutionary Wars in operations with Vice-Admiral Lord Keith's fleet. After refitting, and spending time on blockades, she formed part of Lord Nelson's fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, and was heavily involved in the fighting, sustaining casualties of 10 killed and 34 wounded.
She was not fully repaired and returned to service until 1807, when she went out to the Caribbean. In 1809 she participated in the successful invasion of Martinique, and the subsequent battle with Troude's squadron. Returning to Britain towards the end of the wars, she was laid up in ordinary, and in 1813 became a temporary prison ship. She was finally broken up in 1818.
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1799 - HMS Proserpine (28), Cptn. James Wallis, struck sand bank in the river Elbe in bad weather and wrecked.
HMS Proserpine
was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1777 was wrecked in February 1799.
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1801- french Coquille-class frigate Dédaigneuse (1797 - 40) was taken by the British
The Dédaigneuse was a 40-gun Coquille-class frigate of the French Navy, launched in 1797. The Royal Navy captured her in 1801 and took her into service as HMS Dedaigneuse. She was hulked as a receiving ship in 1812 and sold in 1823.
French service
On 30 December 1800, as she was taking political prisoners at Cayenne to bring them back to France under Captain Prevost Lacroix, she spotted Tamar.
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lines & profile NMM, Progress Book, volume 5, folio 743, states that 'Dedaigneuse' (1801) arrived at Plymouth Dockyard on 20 February 1801, was docked on 29 July 1801 and her copper was replaced. She was undocked on 24 August, and sailed on 9 November 1801 having been fitted.

1841 - The Ross Sea was discovered by James Ross during his Antarctic-expedition with HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, starting the detailed cartography
The Ross expedition was a voyage of scientific exploration of the Antarctic in 1839 to 1843, led by James Clark Ross, with two unusually strong warships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. It explored what is now called the Ross Sea and discovered the Ross Ice Shelf. On the expedition, Ross discovered the Transantarctic Mountains and the volcanoes Erebus and Terror, named after his ships. The young botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker made his name on the expedition.
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HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in the Antarctic, by John Wilson Carmichael, 1847

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1870 - City of Boston sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia for Liverpool and disappeared
The SS City of Boston was a British iron-hulled single-screw passenger steamship of the Inman Line which disappeared in the North Atlantic Ocean en route from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Liverpool in January 1870.
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1946 - fishing and racing gaff rig schooner Bluenose wrecked near Haiti
Bluenose was a fishing and racing gaff rig schooner built in 1921 in Nova Scotia, Canada. A celebrated racing ship and fishing vessel, Bluenose under the command of Angus Walters became a provincial icon for Nova Scotia and an important Canadian symbol in the 1930s, serving as a working vessel until she was wrecked in 1946. Nicknamed the "Queen of the North Atlantic", she was later commemorated by a replica, Bluenose II, built in 1963. The name Bluenose originated as a nickname for Nova Scotians from as early as the late 18th century.
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1980 – USCGC Blackthorn collides with the tanker Capricorn while leaving Tampa, Florida and capsizes, killing 23 Coast Guard crewmembers.
USCGC Blackthorn (WLB-391)
was a 180-foot (55 m) seagoing buoy tender (WLB) which sank in 1980 in a collision near the Tampa Bay Sunshine Skyway Bridge, resulting in 23 crew member fatalities. An Iris-class vessel, she was built by Marine Ironworks and Shipbuilding Corporation in Duluth, Minnesota. Blackthorn's preliminary design was completed by the United States Lighthouse Service and the final design was produced by Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Corporation in Duluth. On 21 May 1943 the keel was laid, she was launched on 20 July 1943 and commissioned on 27 March 1944. The original cost for the hull and machinery was $876,403.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29th of January

please use the following link and you will find the details and all events of this day .....


1616 - dutch Willem Cornelisz Schoutena and Jacob Le Maire are the first passing Cape Horn to the Pacific
Willem Cornelisz Schouten
(c. 1567 – 1625) was a Dutch navigator for the Dutch East India Company. He was the first to sail the Cape Horn route to the Pacific Ocean.
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1696 – HMS Sovereign of the Seas burnt by accident to the waterline
(some sources say 27th some 29th)

Sovereign of the Seas was a 17th-century warship of the English Navy. She was ordered as a 90-gun first-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, but at launch was armed with 102 bronze guns at the insistence of the king. It was later renamed Sovereign, and then Royal Sovereign. The ship was launched on 13 October 1637 and served from 1638 until 1697, when a fire burnt the ship to the waterline at Chatham.
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The Morgan-Drawing by Willem van de Velde the Younger

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sternboard decoration, sheer lines with broadside decoration and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for the Sovereign of the Seas (1637), a 102-gun First Rate, three-decker. The plan refers the ship as the Royal Sovereign, which was her name after the 1659-60 rebuild.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with some decoration detail, sheer lines with stern quarter detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Royal Sovereign (1637), a 102-gun First Rate, three-decker.

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1778 – Launch of HMS Actaeon, a 44-gun Roebuck-class frigate
The Roebuck-class ship was a class of twenty 44-gun sailing two-decker warships of the Royal Navy. The class carried two complete decks of guns, a lower battery of 18-pounders and an upper battery of 9-pounders. This battery enabled the vessel to deliver a broadside of 285 pounds. Most were constructed for service during the American Revolutionary War but continued to serve thereafter. By 1793 five were still on the active list. Ten were hospital ships, troopships or storeships. As troopships or storeships they had the guns on their lower deck removed. Many of the vessels in the class survived to take part in the Napoleonic Wars. In all, maritime incidents claimed five ships in the class and war claimed three.
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1790 – The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne.
The first lifeboat station in Britain was at Formby beach, established in 1776 by William Hutchinson, Dock Master for the Liverpool Common Council.
The first non-submersible ('unimmergible') lifeboat is credited to Lionel Lukin, an Englishman who, in 1784, modified and patented a 20-foot (6.1 m) Norwegian yawl, fitting it with water-tight cork-filled chambers for additional buoyancy and a cast iron keel to keep the boat upright.
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1795 - french Auguste caught in a tempest off Brest and wrecked with the loss of most of her crew.
Auguste was an 80-gun ship of the line in the French Navy, laid down in 1777 and in active service from 1779. She tooks part in the Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War and later in the French Revolutionary Wars, notably fighting at the Combat de Prairial. She was lost with most hands during the Croisière du Grand Hiver in January 1795.
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1801 - HM Fireship Incendiary (16), Cptn. Richard Dalling Dunn, taken and destroyed off Cape Spartel by French Squadron under Rear-Admiral Ganteaume
HMS Incendiary
was an 8-gun Tisiphone-class fireship of the Royal Navy. She was present at a number of major battles during the French Revolutionary Wars, and captured, or participated in the capture, of several armed vessels. In January 1801 she was in the Gulf of Cadiz where she encountered Admiral Ganteume's squadron. French ship Indivisible was credited with the actual capture.
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lines & profile The drawing appears to be the design draught for 'Tisiphone' class fireships. The 'as built' sheer and profile of 'Comet', 1783, shows built-up bulwarks and other differences to this draught

1805 - HMS Kingfisher (18), Richard William Cribb, captured French privateer Deux Amis (6), Francis Dutrique, in the Caribbean
HMS Kingfisher
(or King's Fisher or Kingsfisher) was a Royal Navy 18-gun Merlin-class ship sloop, designed by William Rule, built by John King and launched in 1804 at Dover. She served during the Napoleonic Wars, first in the Caribbean and then in the Mediterranean before being broken up in 1816.
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1943 - The Battle of Rennell Island
begins when Japanese shore-based aircraft attack Task Force 18 cruisers and destroyers covering the movement of transports toward Guadalcanal. USS Chicago (CA 29) is torpedoed and heavily damaged by Japanese bombers and sinks the next day.

The Battle of Rennell Island (Japanese: レンネル島沖海戦) took place on 29–30 January 1943. It was the last major naval engagement between the United States Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Guadalcanal Campaign of World War II. It occurred in the South Pacific between Rennell Island and Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands.
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1944 - The battleship USS Missouri (BB 63) is christened.
Built at the New York Navy Yard, her keel was laid on Jan. 6, 1941. After her christening and launching Jan. 29, she is completed rapidly, commissioning on June 11 of the same year, the last battleship to enter active service in the U.S. Navy.
USS Missouri (BB-63)
("Mighty Mo" or "Big Mo") is an Iowa-class battleship and was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named after the U.S. state of Missouri. Missouri was the last battleship commissioned by the United States and is best remembered as the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan which ended World War II.
Missouri was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944. In the Pacific Theater of World War II she fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands, and she fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. She was decommissioned in 1955 into the United States Navy reserve fleets (the "Mothball Fleet"), but reactivated and modernized in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan, and provided fire support during Operation Desert Storm in January/February 1991.
Missouri received a total of 11 battle stars for service in World War II, Korea, and the Persian Gulf, and was finally decommissioned on 31 March 1992 after serving a total of 16 years of active service, but remained on the Naval Vessel Register until her name was struck in January 1995. In 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
30th of January

please use the following link and you will find the details and all events of this day .....


1761 - HMS Venus (32) and HMS Juno (32) took french La Brune (32), to the westward of Scilly
Brune was a Blonde class 30-gun frigate of the French Navy. She took part in the naval battles of the Seven Year War, and was captured by the British. Recommissioned in the Royal Navy as the 32-gun HMS Brune, she served until 1792.
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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of a ‘Richmond’-class 32-gun frigate (circa 1757), built in the Georgian style.

1794 - HMS Amphitrite (24), Cptn. Anthony Hunt, wrecked after striking an uncharted submerged rock whilst on passage between Elba and Livorno.
HMS Amphitrite
was a 24-gun Porcupine-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. She served during the American Revolution primarily in the economic war. On the one hand she protected the trade by capturing or assisting at the capture of a number of privateers, some of which the Royal Navy then took into service. On the other hand, she also captured many American merchant vessels, most of them small. Unfortunately, Amphrite was wrecked early in 1794.
Construction and commissioning
Amphitrite was ordered on 8 January 1777 from Deptford Dockyard, and laid down there on 2 July 1777. She was built under the supervision of Master Shipwright Adam Hayes, and was launched on 28 May 1778. She was commissioned into navy service on 22 July 1778, having cost a total of £12,737.6.6d to build, including the cost of fitting out and coppering.
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Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Pelican (1777). Annotated with Isaac Rogers (bottom right). From Tyne & Wear Archives Service, Blandford House, Blandford Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4JA.

1809 - Start of Sir A. Cochrane's campaign to capture Martinique.
The invasion of Martinique of 1809 was a successful British amphibious operation against the French West Indian island of Martinique that took place between 30 January and 24 February 1809 during the West Indies Campaign 1804–1810 of the Napoleonic Wars. Martinique, like nearby Guadeloupe, was a major threat to British trade in the Caribbean, providing a sheltered base from which privateers and French Navy warships could raid British shipping and disrupt the trade routes that maintained the British economy. The islands also provided a focus for larger scale French operations in the region and in the autumn of 1808, following the Spanish alliance with Britain, the Admiralty decided to order a British squadron to neutralise the threat, beginning with Martinique.
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1809 – Ballahoo-class cutter HMS Haddock (4), Ch. Win. Selwyn, captured by the French brig Le Genie (16) in the Channel.
HMS Haddock
was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1805.
“On Thursday 21st inst launched off the stocks at Mr Isaac Skinner's shipyard his Majesty's Schooner "Haddock". The above schooner is said (by every merchant and shipbuilder) to be the completest vessel ever built in Bermuda”— The Royal Gazette, 30 March 1805
Haddock only sailed for some three to four years before the French captured her in 1809 in the English Channel. This schooner was the only Royal Navy ship ever to use the name.
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Scale: 1:48. A plan showing body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth of 'Haddock' (1805), a four to six gun schooner, as taken off in October 1805 and modified on her refit. This plan was used for the subsequent Cuckoo class of gun schooners (1805) consisting of 'Magpie' (1806), 'Jackdaw' (1806), 'Cuckoo' (1806), 'Wagtail' (1806), 'Woodcock' (1806), 'Wigeon' (1806), 'Sealark' (1806), 'Rook' (1806), 'Landrail' (1806), 'Pigeon' (1806), 'Crane' (1806), 'Quail' (1806).

1858 - John Gilpin, an 1852 clipper in the California trade, abandoned after collision with iceberg
John Gilpin was an 1852 clipper in the California trade, named after the literary character John Gilpin.
The ship was known for its 1852 race against the clipper Flying Fish, and for its collision with an iceberg.
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LESLIE A. WILCOX (BRITISH 1904-1982). THE AMERICAN CLIPPER SHIP “JOHN GILPIN” LEAVING BOSTON.

1862 - The first U.S. Navy ironclad warship, USS Monitor, is launched.
Commissioned a month later, she soon engages in battle against CSS Virginia, the first battle between ironclad warships.
USS Monitor
was an iron-hulled steamship. Built during the American Civil War, she was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Union Navy. Monitor is most famous for her central role in the Battle of Hampton Roads on 9 March 1862, where, under the command of Lieutenant John Worden, she fought the casemate ironclad CSS Virginia (built on the hull of the former steam frigate USS Merrimack) to a standstill. The unique design of the ship, distinguished by its revolving turret which was designed by American inventor Theodore Timby, was quickly duplicated and established the monitor type of warship.
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1895 - SS Elbe, a transatlantic ocean liner for the Norddeutscher Lloyd, foundered on the night of 30 January 1895 following a collision in the North Sea with the loss of 334 lives.
SS Elbe
was a transatlantic ocean liner built in the Govan Shipyard of John Elder & Company, Ltd, Glasgow, in 1881 for the Norddeutscher Lloyd of Bremen. She foundered on the night of 30 January 1895 following a collision in the North Sea with the loss of 334 lives
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1945 – World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with German refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing approximately 9,500 people, half of them children.
- The largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history -
MV Wilhelm Gustloff
was a German military transport ship which was sunk on 30 January 1945 by Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea while evacuating German civilians, German officials, refugees from Prussia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Estonia and Croatia and military personnel from Gotenhafen (now Gdynia) as the Red Army advanced. By one estimate, 9,400 people died, which makes it the largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history.
Constructed as a cruise ship for the Nazi Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy) organisation in 1937, she had been requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine (German navy) in 1939. She served as a hospital ship in 1939 and 1940. She was then assigned as a floating barracks for naval personnel in Gdynia (Gotenhafen) before being put into service to transport evacuees in 1945.
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1959 – MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat and "unsinkable" like the RMS Titanic, strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sinks, killing all 95 aboard.
MS Hans Hedtoft
was a Danish liner that struck an iceberg and sank on 30 January 1959 on her maiden voyage off the coast of Western Greenland. The only piece of wreckage ever found was a lifebelt. As of 2019, she remains the last known ship sunk by an iceberg with casualties.
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About the Wilhelm Gustloff sad story. My wife uncle was in Gdansk when the ship left harbour on the 30 of January he was in the German army as many Ukrainian or Polish where at he time fighting the Russian. It took many years for the Russian to admit having sunk her, as it took many year to admit the Polish massacre of Katyn
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
31st of January

please use the following link and you will find the details and all events of this day .....


1748 - HMS Nottingham (60), Cptn. Harland, and HMS Portland (50), Cptn. Charles Stevens, took Magnanime (74) off Ushant.
The Action of 31 January 1748 was a minor naval battle of the War of Austrian Succession between two British Royal naval ships and a French naval ship of the line. The battle ended with the capture of the French ship of the line Le Magnanime.
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1808 - HMS Delight Sloop (1806 - 16), Philip Cosby Handfield, wrecked on the coast of Calabria.
HMS Delight
was a British Royal Navy 16-gun brig-sloop of the Seagull class launched in June 1806, six months late. She grounded off Reggio Calabria in January 1808 and was burnt to prevent her being salvaged.
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1808 - HMS Leda (1800 - 38), Cptn. Robert Honeyman, wrecked at the entrance of Milford Haven.
HMS Leda
, launched in 1800, was the lead ship of a successful class of forty-seven British Royal Navy 38-gun sailing frigates. Leda's design was based on the French Hébé, which the British had captured in 1782. (Hébé herself was the name vessel for the French Hébé-class frigates. Hébé, therefore, has the rare distinction of being the model for both a French and a British frigate class.) Leda was wrecked at the mouth of Milford Haven in 1808, Captain Honeyman was exonerated of all blame, as it was a pilot error.
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1828 - HMS Cambrian (38), Cptn. Gawen William Hamilton, wrecked in attacking pirates off the fort at Grabusa (or Carabousa), a small island about a mile off Akra Vouxa, the north-west point of Crete.
HMS Cambrian
was a Royal Navy 40-gun purpose built fifth-rate frigate. She was built and launched at Bursledon in 1797 and served in the English Channel, off North America, and in the Mediterranean. She was briefly flagship of both Admiral Mark Milbanke and Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell during her career, and was present at the Battle of Navarino. Cambrian was wrecked off the coast of Grabusa in 1828.
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1892 - SS Eider, a 4,179 ton German ocean liner built for Norddeutscher Lloyd, wrecked
SS Eider
was a 4,179 ton German ocean liner built for Norddeutscher Lloyd in 1884 by John Elder & Co. of Glasgow as the fourth ship in the Rivers class. She had four masts and was a two-funnelled steamer 430 ft long, with a crew of 167, and capable of carrying 1,204 passengers. However, she had a short service history, being lost in what is remembered as one of the most impressive and memorable shipwrecks on the coast of the Back of the Wight, a region on the Isle of Wight, England.
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1917 – World War I: Germany announces that its U-boats will resume unrestricted submarine warfare after a two-year hiatus.
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1918 – A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.
The "Battle of May Island" is the black humour name given to the series of accidents that occurred during Operation E.C.1 in 1918. Named after the Isle of May, an island in the Firth of Forth, close by, it was a disastrous series of accidents amongst Royal Navy ships on their way from Rosyth in Scotland to fleet exercises in the North Sea. On the misty night of 31 January to 1 February 1918, five collisions occurred between eight vessels. Two submarines were lost and three other submarines and a light cruiser were damaged. 104 men died, all of them Royal Navy.

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1953 - MV Princess Victoria, one of the earliest roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) ferries, sank
MV Princess Victoria
was one of the earliest roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) ferries. Built in 1947, she operated from Stranraer to Larne. During a severe European windstorm on 31 January 1953, she sank in the North Channel with the loss of 133 lives. This was then the deadliest maritime disaster in United Kingdom waters since World War II.
 
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