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

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

1st of August

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


1620 - Speedwell leaves Delfshaven to bring pilgrims to America by way via England where she met Mayflower for their common journey
Speedwell was a 60-ton pinnace that, along with Mayflower, transported the Pilgrims and was the smaller of the two ships. A vessel of the same name and size traveled to the New World seventeen years prior as the flagship of the first expedition of Martin Pring.
Speedwell was built in 1577, under the name Swiftsure, as part of English preparations for war against Spain. She participated in the fight against the Spanish Armada. During the Earl of Essex's 1596 Azores expedition she served as the ship of his second in command, Sir Gelli Meyrick. After hostilities with Spain ended, she was decommissioned in 1605, and renamed Speedwell.
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Model of a typical merchantman of the period, showing the cramped conditions that had to be endured

1704 - The Capture of Gibraltar by Anglo-Dutch forces of the Grand Alliance
occurred between 1–3 August 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. Since the beginning of the war the Alliance had been looking for a harbour in the Iberian Peninsula to control the Strait of Gibraltar and facilitate naval operations against the French fleet in the western Mediterranean Sea. An attempt to seize Cádiz had ended in failure in September 1702, but following the Alliance fleet's successful raid in Vigo Bay in October that year, the combined fleets of the 'Maritime Powers', the Netherlands and England, had emerged as the dominant naval force in the region. This strength helped persuade King Peter II of Portugal to sever his alliance with France and Bourbon controlled Spain, and ally himself with the Grand Alliance in 1703. Now with access to the Portuguese port of Lisbon the Alliance fleets could campaign in the Mediterranean, and conduct operations in support of the Austrian Habsburg candidate to the Spanish throne, the Archduke Charles, known to his supporters as Charles III of Spain.
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Sketch of Gibraltar by an officer of Admiral Rooke's fleet on 1 August 1704

1761 – Launch of Essex class 64 gun third rate HMS Africa
HMS Africa
was a 64-gun third rate Essex-class ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1761 and in active service during the latter half of the Seven Years' War against France and Spain.
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1778 – Launch of French Magicienne class 32 gun frigate Magicienne
Magicienne was a frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. The British captured her in 1781 and she served with the Royal Navy until her crew burned her in 1810 to prevent her capture after she grounded at Isle de France (now Mauritius). During her service with the Royal Navy she captured several privateers and participated in the Battle of San Domingo.
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1798 - The Battle of the Nile (also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay; French: Bataille d'Aboukir)
was a major naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast off the Nile Delta of Egypt from 1 to 3 August 1798. The battle was the climax of a naval campaign that had ranged across the Mediterranean during the previous three months, as a large French convoy sailed from Toulon to Alexandria carrying an expeditionary force under General Napoleon Bonaparte. The British fleet was led in the battle by Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson; they decisively defeated the French under Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers.
Bonaparte sought to invade Egypt as the first step in a campaign against British India, part of a greater effort to drive Britain out of the French Revolutionary Wars. As Bonaparte's fleet crossed the Mediterranean, it was pursued by a British force under Nelson who had been sent from the British fleet in the Tagus to learn the purpose of the French expedition and to defeat it. He chased the French for more than two months, on several occasions missing them only by a matter of hours. Bonaparte was aware of Nelson's pursuit and enforced absolute secrecy about his destination. He was able to capture Malta and then land in Egypt without interception by the British naval forces.
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Battle of the Nile, 1 August 1798, Daniel Orme, 1805, National Maritime Museum. Nelson returns on deck after his wound is dressed.

1798 - french flagship Orient exploded
During the Battle of the Nile ......
At 21:00, the British observed a fire on the lower decks of the Orient, the French flagship. Identifying the danger this posed to the Orient, Captain Hallowell directed his gun crews to fire their guns directly into the blaze. Sustained British gun fire spread the flames throughout the ship's stern and prevented all efforts to extinguish them. Within minutes the fire had ascended the rigging and set the vast sails alight. The nearest British ships, Swiftsure, Alexander, and Orion, all stopped firing, closed their gunports, and began edging away from the burning ship in anticipation of the detonation of the enormous ammunition supplies stored on board. In addition, they took crews away from the guns to form fire parties and to soak the sails and decks in seawater to help contain any resulting fires. Likewise the French ships Tonnant, Heureux, and Mercure all cut their anchor cables and drifted southwards away from the burning ship. At 22:00 the fire reached the magazines, and the Orient was destroyed by a massive explosion. The concussion of the blast was powerful enough to rip open the seams of the nearest ships, and flaming wreckage landed in a huge circle, much of it flying directly over the surrounding ships into the sea beyond. Falling wreckage started fires on Swiftsure, Alexander, and Franklin, although in each case teams of sailors with water buckets succeeded in extinguishing the flames, despite a secondary explosion on Franklin.
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Battle of the Nile, August 1st 1798 at 10 pm

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The Battle of the Nile: Destruction of 'L'Orient', 1 August 1798, Mather Brown, 1825, National Maritime Museum

1798 – Death of French Admiral Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers during the Batlle of the Nile
Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers, Comte de Brueys (February 12, 1753 – August 1, 1798) was the French commander in the Battle of the Nile, in which the French Revolutionary Navy was defeated by Royal Navy forces under Admiral Horatio Nelson. The British victory helped to ensure their naval supremacy throughout the Napoleonic Wars. He was also a Freemason in the La Bonne Foi lodge at Montauban.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

2nd of August

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1665 - The Battle of Vågen (also Battle in the Bay of Bergen, or shortened Battle of Bergen)
was a naval battle between a Dutch merchant and treasure fleet and an English flotilla of warships in August 1665 as part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The battle took place in Vågen (meaning "the bay, voe" in Norwegian), the main port area of neutral Bergen, Norway. Due to a delay in orders the Norwegian commanders took the side of the Dutch, contrary to the secret intentions of the King of Norway and Denmark. The battle ended with the defeat of the English fleet, which retreated, much damaged but without losing any ships. The treasure fleet was relieved by the Dutch home fleet seventeen days later.
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1795 - HMS Diomede (44) wrecked after striking a sunken rock off Trincomalee
HMS Diomede
was a 44-gun fifth rate built by James Martin Hillhouse and launched at Bristol on 18 October 1781. She belonged to the Roebuck class of vessels specially built during the American Revolutionary War for service in the shallow American coastal waters. As a two-decker, she had two complete batteries of guns, one on the upper deck and the other on the lower deck.
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1916 – Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of the Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci in Taranto
Leonardo da Vinci was one of three Conte di Cavour-class dreadnoughts built for the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) in the early 1910s. Completed just before the beginning of World War I, the ship saw no action and was sunk by a magazine explosion in 1916 with the loss of 248 officers and enlisted men. The Italians blamed Austro-Hungarian saboteurs for her loss, but it may have been accidental. Leonardo da Vinci was refloated in 1919 and plans were made to repair her. Budgetary constraints did not permit this and her hulk was sold for scrap in 1923.
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1917 – windjammer and commerce raider SMS Seeadler wrecked in French Polynesia
SMS Seeadler
(Ger: sea eagle) was a three-master windjammer. She was one of the last fighting sailing ships to be used in war when she served as a merchant raider with Imperial Germany in World War I. Built as the US-flagged Pass of Balmaha, she was captured by the German submarine SM U-36, and in 1916 converted to a commerce raider. As Seeadler she had a successful raiding career, capturing and sinking 15 ships in 225 days until she was wrecked, in September 1917, in French Polynesia.
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SMS Seeadler by Christopher Rave

1943 - PT-109's (under command of future US-president Kennedy) collision with japanese Amagiri
PT-109 was a PT boat (patrol torpedo boat) last commanded by Lieutenant, junior grade John F. Kennedy, who became President of the United States in 1960, in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Kennedy's actions to save his surviving crew after the sinking of PT-109 made him a war hero, which proved invaluable in his initial run for the House of Representatives eleventh district seat only two years after WWII and later in his run for President in 1960. In his run for the House in 1947, materials about the PT-109 incident were made available and distributed as flyers to a large percentage of the voters in the eleventh district. The PT-109 collision contributed to his long-term back problems and required months of hospitalization at Chelsea Naval hospital.
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An official U.S. Navy model

1951 - Schoonerbrig Wilhelm Pieck, renamed training ship Greif commissioned
Greif is a brigantine, owned by the town Greifswald in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
It was built in 1951 at Warnowwerft, Warnemünde/Rostock with a steel hull. It was launched May 26, 1951 and commissioned August 2, 1951. It was the first steel vessel built after the war at the port, and was christened Wilhelm Pieck for the first president of the German Democratic Republic. In 1990 it would participate in the first German-German sail event. The ship was given to the town of Greifswald and overhauled in Rostock, and given the new-name Greif.
The ship is used as a training ship for maritime youth education. It has participated in Hanse Sail, including Hanse Sail Rostock 2011
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Dieses Bild zeigt das Segelschulschiff Greif (ex "Wilhelm Pieck" (DDR)) anlässlich der Hanse Sail 2008.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

3rd of August

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1768 - Launch of French César, a 74 gun Ship of the Line, César -class
César was a 74-gun ship of the French Navy. Ordered in the spring of 1767 from the Toulon shipyard, she was launched on 3 August 1768. She saw service in the American War of Independence, and was destroyed in battle during it.
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The end of the César, by François Aimé Louis Dumoulin.

1801 - HMS Pomone (44 gun), Cptn. Gower, captured Carriere (44 gun)
Pomone was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, launched in 1785. The British captured her off the Île de Batz during in April 1794 and incorporated her into the Royal Navy. Pomone subsequently had a relatively brief but active career in the British Navy off the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of France before suffering sufficient damage from hitting a rock to warrant being taken out of service and then broken up in 1803.
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1804 - US-ships started bombardement of Tripolis harbour
The United States paid tribute to the Barbary States during the Quasi-War to ensure that American merchant ships were not harassed and seized. In 1801, Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli was dissatisfied that the United States was paying him less than they paid Algiers, and he demanded an immediate payment of $250,000. In response, Thomas Jefferson sent a squadron of frigates to protect American merchant ships in the Mediterranean and to pursue peace with the Barbary States.
The first squadron under the command of Richard Dale in President was instructed to escort merchant ships through the Mediterranean and to negotiate with leaders of the Barbary States. A second squadron was assembled under the command of Richard Valentine Morris in Chesapeake. The performance of Morris's squadron was so poor, however, that he was recalled and subsequently dismissed from the Navy in 1803.
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Constitution c. 1803–04

1829 - Launch of french Sphinx class aviso Corvette Sphinx, first french paddle steamer
Sphinx was a paddle steamer, initially rateed as a corvette, of the French Navy, and lead ship of her class. She was the first operational French naval steamer. She took part in the Invasion of Algiers in 1830, pioneering the role of steamers in navies of the mid-19th century, and later took part in the transfer of the Luxor Obelisk from Egypt to Paris.
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1861 - Construction of first ironclad USS Monitor authorized
Approval

After the United States received word of the construction of Virginia, Congress appropriated $1.5 million on 3 August 1861 to build one or more armored steamships. It also ordered the creation of a board to inquire into the various designs proposed for armored ships. The Union Navy advertised for proposals for "iron-clad steam vessels of war" on 7 August and Welles appointed three senior officers as the Ironclad Board the following day. Their task was to "examine plans for the completion of iron-clad vessels" and consider its costs.
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1918 - hospital ship HMAT Warilda was torpedoed by the German submarine and sunk
HMAT Warilda
(His Majesty's Australian Transport) was a 7713-ton vessel, built by William Beardmore and Company in Glasgow as the SS Warilda for the Adelaide Steamship Company. She was designed for the East-West Australian coastal service, but following the start of the First World War, she was converted into a troopship and later, in 1916, she was converted into a hospital ship.
Her identical sister ships, also built by William Beardmore and Company, were SS Wandilla (1912) and SS Willochra (1913).
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

4th of August

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1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.
The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) was a major European war of the early 18th century, triggered by the death in November 1700 of the childless King Charles II of Spain. It established the principle within Europe that dynastic rights were secondary to maintaining the balance of power between different countries.
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Philip accepts the Spanish throne as Philip V; November 16, 1700

1783 - Launch of French Mercure
The Mercure was a 74-gun Séduisant-class ship of the line of the French Navy.
She took part in the Battle of the Nile under Captain Cambon. She fought against HMS Majestic and was captured by HMS Alexander. Damaged beyond repair and aground, she was burnt.

1790 - The Revenue Cutter Service is established by Congress, authorizing the construction of 10 vessels to enforce federal tariff and trade laws and prevent smuggling. The service receives its present name, U.S. Coast Guard, in 1915 under an act of Congress that merges the Revenue Cutter Service with the Life-Saving Service, thereby providing the nation with a single maritime service dedicated to saving life at sea and enforcing the nation's maritime laws.
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1804 - Adam Duncan died
Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan (1 July 1731 – 4 August 1804) was a British admiral who defeated the Dutch fleet off Camperdown (north of Haarlem) on 11 October 1797. According to the British, this victory should be considered one of the most significant actions in naval history.
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1845 - Cataraqui (also called Cataraque) was a British barque which sank off the south-west coast of King Island in Bass Strait on 4 August 1845. The sinking was Australia's worst ever maritime civil disaster incident, claiming the lives of 400 people. Only 1 passanger and 8 of crew survived.
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1898 - During the Spanish-American War, USS Monterey (BM 6) becomes the first monitor to cross the Pacific, reaching Manila Bay, Philippines, from San Francisco, Calif.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

5th of August

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


1777 - Launch of HMS America was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 5 August 1777 at Deptford
She took part in the Battle of the Chesapeake on 5 September 1781, and in 1795 was part of the British fleet at the Battle of Muizenberg.
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1781 - The Battle of the Dogger Bank
was a naval battle that took place on 5 August 1781 during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, contemporaneously related to the American Revolutionary War, in the North Sea. It was a bloody encounter between a British squadron under Vice Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, 5th Baronet and a Dutch squadron under Vice Admiral Johan Zoutman, both of which were escorting convoys.
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1799 – Death of Admiral of the Fleet Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, KG (8 March 1726 – 5 August 1799)
Admiral of the Fleet Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, KG (8 March 1726 – 5 August 1799) was a British naval officer. After serving throughout the War of the Austrian Succession, he gained a reputation for his role in amphibious operations against the French coast as part of Britain's policy of naval descents during the Seven Years' War. He also took part, as a naval captain, in the decisive British naval victory at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in November 1759.
In North America, Howe is best known for his service during the American Revolutionary War, when he acted as a naval commander and a peace commissioner with the American rebels; he also conducted a successful relief during the Great Siege of Gibraltar in the later stages of the War.
Howe later commanded the victorious British fleet during the Glorious First of June in June 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars.
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1816 – The British Admiralty dismisses Francis Ronalds's new invention of the first working electric telegraph as "wholly unnecessary", preferring to continue using the semaphore.
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1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge: Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops attempt to take the city, but are driven back by fire from Union gunboats.
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1964 – Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow: American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

6th of August

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


1622 – Birth of Tjerk Hiddes de Vries, Dutch admiral (d. 1666)
Tjerk Hiddes de Vries
(Sexbierum, 6 August 1622 - Flushing, 6 August 1666) was a naval hero and Dutch admiral from the seventeenth century. The French, who could not pronounce his name, called him Kiërkides. His name was also given as Tsjerk, Tierck or Tjerck.
During the Second Anglo-Dutch War Tjerk was appointed full captain on 27 March 1665. He commanded d' Elff Steden in the Battle of Lowestoft, managing with great personal courage to free his ship from an entanglement with several other burning Dutch vessels, set alight by an English fireship. This fight was a severe defeat for the Dutch and those who by their bravery set a contrast to the general incompetence shown during the battle, were hailed as heroes by the populace. Tjerk in a written report severely criticised his fallen supreme commander Van Obdam. The Frisian admiralty board, in need to replace the also killed Lieutenant-Admiral of the Frisian fleet, Auke Stellingwerf, and sensing the public mood, appointed Tjerk Lieutenant-Admiral of Frisia on 29 June 1665. He thus jumped two ranks, not an uncommon occurrence for the Dutch navy in that century.
Normally the Frisian fleet was rather small, but in view of the emergency the province made a strong war effort, building 28 new vessels, Tjerk supervising the formation of the strongest naval force Frisia would ever send out..........
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1789 – Launch of Minerve class 40-gun frigate Melpomène of the French Navy,
sistership:
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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plans with stern board outline and some detail, sheer lines with inboard details and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Princess Charlotte (captured 1799), a captured French Frigate, after being fitted for a 38-gun Fifth Rate, Frigate.

1808 – Launch of French Clorinde , a 40-gun Pallas-class frigate of the French Navy, designed by Sané. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1814 and renamed her HMS Aurora. After 19 years as a coal hulk she was broken up in 1851.
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Hand-coloured etching and aquatint showing HMS Eurotas in action with La Clorinde (1808). La Clorinde is shown on the left. She was captured the day after the action by the Dryad and Achates.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

7th of August

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


1761 - Lord Anson in HMY Royal Charlotte yacht hoisted the Union flag
HMY Royal Caroline was a ship-rigged royal yacht. She was ordered in 1749 to replace HMY Carolina as Britain's principal royal yacht. She was built at Deptford Dockyard under the supervision of Master Shipwright John Hollond to a design by Surveyor of the Navy Joseph Allin. She was launched on 29 January 1750 and was broken up 70 years later, in 1820.
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1778 - HMS Cerberus (1758 – 28 guns), HMS Juno (1757 - 32), HMS Kingfisher (1770 - 14) and HMS Lark (1762 - 32) abandoned and burnt at Rhode Island to avoid capture. HMS Orpheus (1773 - 32) followed one week later and was also burnt to avoid capture.
HMS Cerberus was a frigate of the Royal Navy built in 1758 and carrying 28 guns. HMS Lark, also a frigate, was built in 1762 and carried 32 guns. Cerberus had been stationed off Rhode Island as part of a blockade of its ports since April 1776, and was joined by Lark in February 1777. Upon the arrival of a large French fleet off Narragansett Bay in late July 1778, the two ships were among the twenty British vessels in the bay which were then tasked to defend British-occupied Newport. Stationed in the northern stretch of the East Passage (separating Aquidneck and Conanicut Islands), the two ships were ordered to Newport, with instructions to not surrender to the enemy. While en route to Newport on August 5, the two ships were sighted by French ships of the line. Rather than engage on a lopsided battle that would have ended in their surrender, the two captains decided to scuttle their ships. Captain Symonds ran Cerberus aground, put the crew ashore, and set fire to the ship, while Captain White did the same with Lark. Two other British frigates, Orpheus and Juno, suffered the same fate. When Lark's gunpowder magazine was reached by the flames, it exploded, sending debris flying for miles around.
The wrecks of all four ships lay essentially undisturbed until the 1970s, when an archaeological team located portions of Lark, Cerberus, and Orpheus. As of 2008, the full extent of the wreck sites has not been established, and only fragmentary evidence of the ships has been recovered.
The site of the wrecks of Cerberus and Lark was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
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1788 – Launch of French ship Commerce de Marseille (1788)
The Commerce de Marseille was a 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of the Océan class. She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from chamber of commerce of Marseille.
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There is a wonderful monographie / drawing set available, published by the well known Gerard Delacroix, including 34 plates in scale 1:48

Building log by our members @Francis Jonet :

Building log by our member @Michele Padoan :

Ship History:

1798 - HMS Indefatigable (1784 - 64) Cptn. Sir Edward Pellew, captured Vaillante.
HMS Indefatigable was one of the Ardent class 64-gun third-rate ships-of-the-line designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1761 for the Royal Navy. She was built as a ship-of-the-line, but most of her active service took place after her conversion to a 44-gun razee frigate. She had a long career under several distinguished commanders, serving throughout the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She took some 27 prizes, alone or in company, and the Admiralty authorised the issue of four clasps to the Naval General Service Medal in 1847 to any surviving members of her crews from the respective actions. She was broken up in 1816.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

8th of August

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


1745 - John Byng promoted to Rear-Admiral of the Blue - The start of his ending career
Byng is best known for "failing" to relieve a besieged British garrison during the Battle of Minorca at the beginning of the Seven Years' War. Byng had sailed for Minorca at the head of a hastily assembled fleet of vessels, some of which were in poor condition. He fought an inconclusive engagement with a French fleet off the Minorca coast, and then elected to return to Gibraltar to repair his ships. Upon return to Britain, Byng was court-martialled and found guilty of failing to "do his utmost" to prevent Minorca falling to the French. He was sentenced to death and, after pleas for clemency were denied, was shot dead by a firing squad on 14 March 1757.
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Remark Uwe: It seems to be, that George Byng was a typical "son", but make your own opinion!
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The Shooting of Admiral Byng, artist unknown

1796 - HMS Mermaid (1784 – 32 gun Active class Frigate) engaged Vengeance and batteries.
HMS Mermaid was a 32-gun Active-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1784. During the French Revolutionary Wars she served in the West Indies, the Channel, and the Mediterranean. During the Napoleonic Wars she first served in the Americas, but from early 1811 on, she was armed en flute and served as a troopship until she was broken up in 1815.
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1806 - Launch of French 110 gun ship Commerce de Paris
The Commerce de Paris was a 110-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class.
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The Commerce de Paris under construction in Toulon in 1806

1808 - Boats of HMS Porcupine (1807 - 22 guns), Cptn. Hon. Henry Duncan, cut out Conception.
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.
After dark on 8 August, Porcupine, still under the command of Duncan, had her cutter and jolly boat under Lieutenant Francis Smith cut out a vessel she had run ashore on the island of Pianosa. The cutting out party was successful, bringing out Concepcion, which was armed with four guns. She had been lying within 30 yards of a tower and a shore battery of six guns. She was also defended by soldiers on the beach and one of her guns which she had landed. She had been carrying bale goods from Genoa to Cyprus. The action cost Porcupine one man killed, and a lieutenant and eight men severely wounded, with three men later dying of their wounds. Smith might have received a promotion for this and prior actions but Duncan's letter to Admiral Collingwood was lost and the duplicate arrived only after Collingwood had died in March 1810.
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1914 - The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–17), also known as the Endurance Expedition started from Plymouth
The Edurance Expedition is considered the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. After the conquest of the South Pole by Roald Amundsen in 1911, this crossing remained, in Shackleton's words, the "one great main object of Antarctic journeyings". The expedition failed to accomplish this objective, but became recognised instead as an epic feat of endurance.
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Endurance under full sail by Frank Hurley, paget plate, 1914–1915 State Library New South Wales a090012h

1915 - Beginning of the Battle of the Gulf of Riga
The Battle of the Gulf of Riga was a World War I naval operation of the German High Seas Fleet against the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea in August 1915. The operation's objective was to destroy the Russian naval forces in the Gulf in preparation for landing German troops to facilitate the fall of Riga in the later stages of the Central Powers' offensive on the Eastern Front in 1915. The German fleet, however, failed to achieve its objective and was forced to return to its bases; Riga remained in Russian hands until it fell to the German Army on 1 September 1917.
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Russian Battleship Slawa (1915)

1940 - Launch of japanese battleship Yamato
Yamato (大和) was the lead ship of her class of battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) shortly before World War II. She and her sister ship, Musashi, were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing 72,800 tonnes at full load and armed with nine 46 cm (18.1 in) Type 94 main guns, which were the largest guns ever mounted on a warship.
Named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, Yamato was designed to counter the numerically superior battleship fleet of the United States, Japan's main rival in the Pacific. She was laid down in 1937 and formally commissioned a week after the Pearl Harbor attack in late 1941. Throughout 1942, she served as the flagship of the Combined Fleet, and in June 1942 Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto directed the fleet from her bridge during the Battle of Midway, a disastrous defeat for Japan. Musashi took over as the Combined Fleet flagship in early 1943, and Yamato spent the rest of the year, and much of 1944, moving between the major Japanese naval bases of Truk and Kure in response to American threats. Although present at the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, she played no part in the battle.
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1942 - The Battle of Savo Island, also known as the First Battle of Savo Island
and, in Japanese sources, as the First Battle of the Solomon Sea (第一次ソロモン海戦 Dai-ichi-ji Soromon Kaisen), and colloquially among Allied Guadalcanal veterans as The Battle of the Five Sitting Ducks,[4][5] was a naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval forces. The battle took place on August 8–9, 1942 and was the first major naval engagement of the Guadalcanal campaign, and the first of several naval battles in the straits later named Ironbottom Sound, near the island of Guadalcanal.
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The U.S. Navy heavy cruiser USS Quincy (CA-39) photographed from a Japanese cruiser during the Battle of Savo Island, off Guadalcanal, 9 August 1942. Quincy, seen here burning and illuminated by Japanese searchlights, was sunk in this action. The flames at the far left of the picture are probably from the USS Vincennes (CA-44), also on fire from gunfire and torpedo damage.

2000 – Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised
to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor and 30 years after its discovery by undersea explorer E. Lee Spence.
H. L. Hunley, often referred to as Hunley, was a submarine of the Confederate States of America that played a small part in the American Civil War. Hunley demonstrated the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare. She was the first combat submarine to sink a warship (USS Housatonic), although Hunley was not completely submerged and, following her successful attack, was lost along with her crew before she could return to base. The Confederacy lost 21 crewmen in three sinkings of Hunley during her short career. She was named for her inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley, shortly after she was taken into government service under the control of the Confederate States Army at Charleston, South Carolina.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

9th of August

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1778 - First Engagement between British squadron under Lord Howe and French squadron under Comte d'Estaing off Rhode Island
Howe was ordered to institute a naval blockade of the American coastline, but this proved to be ineffective. Howe claimed to have too few ships to successfully accomplish this, particularly as a number had to be detached to support operations by the British Army. As a result, large amounts of covert French supplies and munitions were smuggled to America. It has been suggested that Howe's limited blockade at this point was driven by his sympathy with and desire for conciliation with the Americans. By 1778 the blockade was looking more promising, with many merchant ships being taken. Howe complained to London that while his ships were able to successfully guard the southern colonies, the blockade of the northern colonies was still ineffective.
...........
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Lord Howe and the Comte d'Estaing off Rhode Island, 9th August 1778

1781 - HMS Iris, ex USS Hancock (1777 – 28 guns) took USS Trumbull (1776 – 30 guns)
Remark Uwe 1: In most web-pages is written, that HMS Isis (50 guns) took the Trumbull, but this is a typewriting error
Remark 2: Some sources mention this at the 8.th, some 9th, and others on 28.8.1781

On 8 August 1781, Trumbull — the last remaining frigate of the original 13 authorized by Congress in 1775 — eventually departed from the Delaware capes in company with a 24-gun privateer and a 14-gun letter-of-marque. Under their protection was a 28-ship merchant convoy. On 28 August 1781, lookouts on the American ships spotted three sails to the eastward; two tacking to give chase to the convoy.
At nightfall, a rain squall struck with terrific force and carried away Trumbull's fore-topmast and her main topgallant mast. Forced to run before the wind, the frigate separated from the convoy and their escorts, and soon found herself engaged with the frigate Iris (the former Continental frigate Hancock), and the 18-gun ship General Monk (the former Continental privateer General Washington). Even with the "utmost exertion," the wrecked masts and sails could not be cleared away. Knowing he could not run, Nicholson decided to fight.
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"USS TRUMBULL Captured by HMS IRIS and HMS GENERAL MONK"
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1803 – Robert Fulton operated the first steamboat on the Seine
On August 9, 1803, about six o'clock, Robert Fulton began to move a boat of his own, powered by a fire pump. Parti de Chaillot, the machine went up the Seine to the speed of a pedestrian in a hurry, then down, made several maneuvers and embarked several members of the Institute, which Volney, Prony, and Carnot Bossut, which could verify the success of the experiment. Fulton tests came after a long series of attempts to apply steam to the inland waterways: Germany Denis Papin (1707), and of Auxiron Joffroy in France (1774), Ramsey (1786) and Fitch (1790 ) in America, and Lord Dundas Symmington (1788-1801) in England. Fulton is a self-taught and creativity is rooted, as often in those days, in the practice of industrial design.
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1835 - Launch of Russian ship of the line Lefort 84 guns
Lefort (Russian "Лефорт", also spelled "Leffort") was a ship of the line of the Imperial Russian Navy.
Lefort was a ship of the line of the Imperatritsa Aleksandra (Empress Alexandra) class, rated at 84 guns but actually armed with 94 guns. Her keel was laid in 1833 at Saint Petersburg and she was launched 9 August 1835 in the presence of Nicholas I. She was named after Admiral Franz Lefort, chief of the Russian Navy from 1695-1696. She was the last classic wooden battleship of the Russian Imperial Fleet, Empress Alexandra-class.
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1862 – Launch of USS Lackawanna, a screw sloop-of-war in the Union Navy
The first USS Lackawanna was a screw sloop-of-war in the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
Lackawanna was launched by the New York Navy Yard on 9 August 1862; sponsored by Ms. Imogen Page Cooper; and commissioned on 8 January 1863, Captain John B. Marchand in command. She was named after the Lackawanna River in Pennsylvania.
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USS Lackawanna crew, 1880.

1910 - With sailing of the polarship Fram leaving the norwegian Kristiania, Roald Amundsen is starting his (at this time) confidential expedition to the South-pole
In the months before departure, funds for the expedition became harder to acquire. Because of limited public interest, newspaper deals were cancelled and parliament refused a request for a further 25,000 kroner. Amundsen mortgaged his house to keep the expedition afloat; heavily in debt, he was now wholly dependent on the expedition's success to avoid personal financial ruin.
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Fram under sail
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1942 - A Japanese force runs through the Allied forces guarding Savo Sound, sinking three American heavy cruisers,
USS Quincy (CA 39), USS Vincennes (CA 44), and USS Astoria (CA 34), along with other damaged Allied vessels. As a result of the loss, the sound gains the nickname, Iron Bottom Sound.
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USS Astoria on 8 August 1942.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

10th of August

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1512 - – The naval Battle of Saint-Mathieu,
during the War of the League of Cambrai, sees the simultaneous destruction of the Breton ship La Cordelière and the English ship The Regent
The naval Battle of Saint-Mathieu took place on 10 August 1512 during the War of the League of Cambrai, near Brest, France, between an English fleet of 25 ships commanded by Sir Edward Howard and a Franco-Breton fleet of 22 ships commanded by René de Clermont. It is possibly the first battle between ships using cannon through ports, although this played a minor role in the fighting. This was one of only two full-fledged naval battles fought by King Henry VIII's Tudor navy. During the battle, each navy's largest and most powerful ship—Regent and Marie-la-Cordelière (or simply Cordelière)—was destroyed by a large explosion aboard the latter.
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The simultaneous destruction of the Cordelière and the Regent depicted by Pierre-Julien Gilbert

1628 – The Swedish warship Vasa sinks in the Stockholm harbour after only about 20 minutes of her maiden voyage
The ship was built on the orders of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus as part of the military expansion he initiated in a war with Poland-Lithuania (1621–1629). It was constructed at the navy yard in Stockholm under a contract with private entrepreneurs in 1626–1627 and armed primarily with bronze cannon cast in Stockholm specifically for the ship. Richly decorated as a symbol of the king's ambitions for Sweden and himself, upon completion she was one of the most powerfully armed vessels in the world. However, Vasa was dangerously unstable and top-heavy with too much weight in the upper structure of the hull. Despite this lack of stability she was ordered to sea and foundered only a few minutes after encountering a wind stronger than a breeze.
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1666 – Holmes´ Bonfire (09.08.-10.08.)
'Holmes's Bonfire' of 10/20 August 1666 was a successful British attack on Dutch shipping that came in the aftermath of their victory in the battle of St. James's Day on 25/26 July. In the aftermath of that battle the British fleet was cruising off the Dutch coast, while Dutch shipping attempted to shelter in the shallow coastal waters. A particularly large group of ships – perhaps as many as 200 fully loaded merchant ships – took shelter between the islands of Vlieland and Ter Schelling, protected by two men-of-war.
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1756 – Launch of French Glorieux, 74 guns, later HMS Glorieux or HMS Glorious
Glorieux 74 (launched 10 August 1756 at Rochefort, designed by François-Guillaume Clairin-Deslauriers) – captured by the British in the Battle of the Saintes in April 1782, sank in a storm in September 1782
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Plate IV. A View of the Sea on the Morning after the Storm, with the distressed situation of the Centaur, Ville de Paris and the Glorieux as seen from the Lady Juliana, the Ville de Paris passing to Windward under close reef'd Topsails

1759 – Launch of HMS Valiant , 74 guns, Valiant class
HMS Valiant
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, modelled on the captured French ship Invincible and launched on 10 August 1759 at Chatham Dockyard. Her construction, launch and fitting-out are the theme of the 'Wooden Walls' visitor experience at Chatham Historic Dockyard.
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1837 – Wrecked Gloire, Artemise class 52 gun ship (launched 1837 at Rochefort) – wrecked 10 August 1847 off Korea.
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1904 – The Battle of the Yellow Sea between the Russian and Japanese battleship fleets (Russo-Japanese War) takes place.
The Battle of the Yellow Sea (Japanese: 黄海海戦 Kōkai kaisen; Russian: Бой в Жёлтом море) was a major naval engagement of the Russo-Japanese War, fought on 10 August 1904. In the Russian Navy, it was referred to as the Battle of 10 August.[1] The battle foiled an attempt by the Russian fleet at Port Arthur to break out and form up with counterparts from Vladivostok, forcing them to return to port. Four days later, the Battle off Ulsan similarly ended the Vladivostok group's sortie, forcing both fleets to remain at anchor.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

11th of August

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1695 - unsuccessfull Bombardment of Dunkirk by british
By the mid-17th century the channel port of Dunkirk had a reputation for being a haven for privateers who were a menace to Dutch and English shipping. However, when Dunkirk was acquired by France in 1662, after a brief period of English rule, the harbour entrance was becoming silted and large ships could not enter. French king Louis XIV decided to transform the town into an important naval harbour and fortress, spending vast sums of money there throughout the rest of the 17th century.
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1705 - HMS Plymouth (1653 - 60 guns) foundered.
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The English ship ‘Plymouth’, 60 guns, was built in 1653 and rebuilt in 1705. The drawing is inscribed pleijmoud vergadt which identifies the ship. There is a drawing in the Boymans Museum in Rotterdam (MB1866.T331) of ‘de oude pleijmout daer Sr thomas/hallin mede naer konstantinoobelen was’ (The old ‘Plymouth’ in which Sir Thomas Allin went to Constantinople).

1718 - Battle of Cape Passaro. British fleet under Sir George Byng defeated Spanish fleet under Antonio de Gaztaneta off Sicily.
The Battle of Cape Passaro (or Passero) was the defeat of a Spanish fleet under Admirals Antonio de Gaztañeta and Fernando Chacón by a British fleet under Admiral George Byng, near Cape Passero, Sicily, on 11 August 1718, four months before the War of the Quadruple Alliance was formally declared.
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The Battle of Cape Passaro, 11 August 1718 by Richard Paton (oil on canvas, 1767)

1779 French Sibylle class 32 gun frigate Fine launched in Nantes
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1791 - Battle of Cape Kaliakra
The Battle of Cape Kaliakra was the last naval battle of the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). It took place on 11 August 1791 off the coast of Cape Kaliakra, Bulgaria, in the Black Sea. Neither side lost a ship, but the Ottomans retreated to Istanbul afterward.

1901 - The first german South Polar Expedition of Erich von Drygalski started from Kiel the voyage on board of ship Gauß .
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

12th of August

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1499 - The naval Battle of Zonchio
(Turkish: Sapienza Deniz Muharebesi, also known as the Battle of Sapienza or the First Battle of Lepanto) took place on four separate days: 12, 20, 22 and 25 August 1499. It was a part of the Ottoman–Venetian War of 1499–1503. It was the first naval battle in history in which cannons were used on ships.[citation needed]
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1780 - HMS Bienfaisant (1758 - 64), Cptn. John Macbride, took Count d'Artois off the Old Head of Kinsale.
The Action of 13 August 1780 (other sources says 12th August, others 9/1780) was a minor naval battle fought off the Old Head of Kinsale (County Cork, Ireland) in which the 64-gun French "private man of war" (privateer) Comte d'Artois fought two British Royal Navy ships, HMS Bienfaisant and HMS Charon, during the American Revolutionary War.
After Royal Navy admiral George Rodney successfully brought relief to the defenders of Gibraltar, capturing a Spanish convoy off Cape Finisterre and eight days later winning the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, his fleet returned to Britain in March 1780. One of the ships of his fleet, HMS Bienfaisant, under John MacBride, sailed back with them and kept a watch of the Irish coast in order to report if there were any movements by Spanish and French fleets in the area.
Reports arrived in early August 1780 of a large French privateer, the 64-gun Comte d'Artois, which had sailed from Brest to cruise off the Irish south coast, and was at once to be dealt with. MacBride was ordered to sail together with the 44-gun HMS Charon to capture Comte d'Artois. After several days in search of the vessel, a mysterious sail was finally sighted early on 13 August, chasing after some of the ships of a British convoy departing from Cork.

Comte d'Artois
Comte d'Artois was an Indiaman of the French East India Company, launched in 1759. She had been hulked in 1767 to serve as a careening hulk, but in 1780 was sold as a privateer. From May 1780 until the action she cruised under the command of Lieutenant Chevalier Robert Sutton de Closnard (or Clonard).

Bienfaisant
was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1754.

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1798 - HMS Hazard (1794 - 16), William Butterfield, captured french Neptune (20/10) from the Isle de France bound for Brest.
HMS Hazard was a 16-gun Royal Navy Cormorant class ship-sloop built by Josiah & Thomas Brindley at Frindsbury, Kent, and launched in 1794. She served in the French Revolutionary Wars and throughout the Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes, and participated in a notable ship action against Topaze, as well as in several other actions and campaigns, three of which earned her crew clasps to the Naval General Service Medal. Hazard was sold in 1817.
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1809 - HMS Monkey (1801 - 12), Lt. Thomas Fitzgerald, and HMS Lynx (1794 - 16), John Willoughby Marshall, captured three Danish luggers off Dais Head near Rostock.
On 12 August, Commander John Willoughby Marshall and Lynx, in the company of the gun-brig Monkey under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Fitzgerald, discovered three Danish luggers off the Danish coast.
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HMS 'Lynx' and 'Monkey' capturing three Danish luggers, 12 August 1809
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1809 – Launch of HMS Orpheus, Apollo class 36 gun frigate
HMS Orpheus
was a 36-gun Apollo-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy launched in 1809 from Deptford Dockyard. She was broken up in 1819.
Construction
Ordered on 27 February 1807 and laid down in August 1808 at Deptford Dockyard. Launched on 12 August 1809 and completed on 21 September 1809.
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1812 – Launch of French Ceres , 40 gun Pallas-class frigate
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2000 – The Russian Navy submarine Kursk explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise, killing her entire 118-man crew
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Kursk was an Oscar-class submarine, twice the length of a 747 jumbo jet, and one of the largest submarines in the Russian Navy.

The Kursk submarine disaster, the sinking of the Oscar-class submarine (Russian: Project 949A Антей) Kursk, took place during the first major Russian naval exercise in more than ten years, in the Barents Sea on 12 August 2000, killing all 118 personnel on board. Nearby ships registered the initial explosion and a second, much larger, explosion two minutes and fifteen seconds later, which was powerful enough to register on seismographs as far away as Alaska. The Russian Navy did not realise that the sub had sunk and did not halt the exercise or initiate a search for it for more than six hours. Because the sub's emergency rescue buoy had been intentionally disabled, it took more than 16 hours for them to locate the sunken boat.
Over four days, the Russian Navy used four different diving bells and submersibles to try to attach to the escape hatch without success. The navy's response was criticised as slow and inept. The government initially misled and manipulated the public and media about the timing of the accident, stating that communication had been established and that a rescue effort was under way, and refused help from other governments. On the fifth day, President Vladimir Putin authorised the navy to accept British and Norwegian offers of assistance. Seven days after the submarine went down, Norwegian divers finally opened a hatch to the escape trunk in the boat's ninth compartment, hoping to locate survivors, but found it flooded.


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Silhouette of soviet Oscar-II class guided missile submarine (project 949A "Antey").

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Wreck of Russian submarine Kursk (K-141) in a floating dock at Roslyakovo.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

13th of August

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1704 - Battle of Malaga
An Anglo-Dutch fleet under Sir George Rooke, flying his flag in HMS Royal Katherine (84), fought an inconclusive action with a Franco-Spanish fleet under the Comte de Toulouse, in Foudrayant (104).
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1761 - The Battle of Cape Finisterre
was a naval engagement fought off the Northern Spanish Atlantic coast near Cape Finisterre between British and French squadrons during the Seven Years' War. A British force comprising the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Bellona and 36-gun frigate HMS Brilliant was sailing from Lisbon to Britain with a cargo of specie when on 13 August they encountered a French force comprising the 74-gun Courageux and the 32-gun frigates Malicieuse and Hermione. The British ships immediately chased the French squadron, maintaining contact through the night, and on the following morning two separate engagements occurred as Brilliant fought the French frigates and Bellona battled Courageux.
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A drawing depicting the action of 14 August 1761 off Cape Finisterre at which HMS Bellona captured French ship Courageux. Drawn by H. Fletcher c. 1890
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Scale: 1:48. A model of the 74-gun ship Bellona (1760) made entirely in a mid-brown patinated wood and varnished or polished.
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Scale: 1:38.4 (5/16 inch to the foot). A model of the 74-gun ship Bellona (1760), made entirely in wood with wood, metal, and organic and inorganic material fittings and painted and varnished.

1764 - Launch of HMS Ardent
HMS
Ardent was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built by contract by Hugh Blaydes at Hull according to a design by Sir Thomas Slade, and launched on 13 August 1764 as the first ship of the Ardent-class. She had a somewhat turbulent career, being captured by the French in 1779, and then re-captured by Britain in 1782.
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1777 - newly developed powder keg torpedoe made by David Bushnell attached to the 'Turtle' was used to attack HMS Cerberus (28), Cptn. J. Symons, at anchor off New London, CT. It actually blew up a schooner astern of the frigate, and killed several men on board. This was the first vessel ever destroyed in such a manner.
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A diagram of Bushnell's American Turtle

1779 - The Penobscot Expedition
was a 44-ship American naval task force mounted during the Revolutionary War by the Provincial Congress of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The flotilla of 19 warships and 25 smaller support vessels sailed from Boston on July 19, 1779 for the upper Penobscot Bay in the District of Maine carrying a ground expeditionary force of more than 1,000 colonial Marines and militiamen. Also included was a 100-man artillery detachment under the command of Lt. Colonel Paul Revere. The Expedition's goal was to reclaim control of what is now mid-coast Maine from the British who had seized it a month earlier and renamed it New Ireland. It was the largest American naval expedition of the war. The fighting took place both on land and at sea in and around the mouth of the Penobscot and Bagaduce Rivers at what is today Castine, Maine over a period of three weeks in July and August of 1779. One of its greatest victories of the war for the British, the Expedition was also the United States' worst naval defeat until Pearl Harbor 162 years later in 1941.
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This is a depiction of naval action in the American Revolutionary War's 1779 Penobscot Expedition.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

14th of August

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1744 - Launch of HMS Colchester
HMS Colchester
was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Harwich according to the dimensions specified in the 1741 proposals of the 1719 Establishment, and launched on 14 August 1744.
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1787 - Launch of unique HMS Veteran, 64 guns third rate
HMS Veteran
was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 August 1787 at East Cowes. She was designed by Sir Edward Hunt, and was the only ship built to her draught.
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1804 - Boats of HMS Galatea (1794 - 32), Cptn. Henry Heathcote, failed to cut out French privateer General Ernouf (late Lily) lying at the Saintes near Guadeloupe.
In February 1804 Galatea sailed to the West Indies as escort to a convoy of merchant vessels. On 19 May she recaptured Boyd, which was carrying plantation stores. A month later, on 25 June, she recaptured the English ship Beaver, which was carrying a cargo of slaves and ivory.
On 3 August the French privateer schooner Elizabeth, of six guns, arrived at Dominica. Galatea had cut her out at Guadeloupe.
The debacle
The next attempt to cut out a French vessel went badly. On 14 August Galatea attempted to cut out the French privateer Général Ernouf, which had been the British sloop-of-war Lilly). Général Ernouf was sheltering at the Saintesnear Guadeloupe where shore batteries could protect her. The attack was a debacle for the British, who failed completely in their attempt. Captain Heathcote had been too obvious in his reconnoitering and the French were waiting for the night attack. In all, the British lost some 10 men killed, including Lieutenant Charles Hayman, the commander of the boarding party, and first lieutenant of Galatea, and 55 or more wounded or captured. The French lost four killed and suffered some wounded, among them Captain Lapointe, commander of Général Ernouf, and Lieutenant Mouret, commander of the detachment of troops the French stationed aboard her in anticipation of the attack. The French also captured Galatea's barge, which the other three boats of the cutting out party could not retrieve as they made their escape.
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HMS Galatea, by Thomas Whitcombe

1813 - capture of USS Argus by HMS Pelican
The first USS Argus, originally named USS Merrimack, was a brig in the United States Navy launched on 31 August 1803 and commissioned on 6 September 1803. She enforced the Embargo Act of 1807 and fought in the First Barbary War – taking part in the blockade of Tripoli and the capture of Derna – and the War of 1812.
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Argus during the War of 1812
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The crew of the HMS Pelican prepare to board the USS Argus. Captain Maples leading the Pelican's boarding party.

1904 - The naval Battle off Ulsan - sinking of russian armed cruiser Rurik
(Japanese: 蔚山沖海戦 Urusan'oki kaisen; Russian: Бой в Корейском проливе, Boi v Koreiskom prolive), also known as the Battle of the Japanese Sea or Battle of the Korean Strait, took place on 14 August 1904 between cruiser squadrons of the Imperial Russian Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Russo-Japanese War, four days after the Battle of the Yellow Sea.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

15th of August

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1807 - Action between HMS Comus vs. Fredrickscoarn
Comus was under Captain Edward Heywood from July 1807, and in August she was with the expedition to Copenhagen. During this service she took part in a notable, illegal and ultimately one-sided single-ship action, and accumulated substantial prize money.
On 12 August the 32-gun Danish frigate Frederiksværn (Fredrickscoarn in British usage), sailed for Norway from Elsinor and Admiral Lord Gambier sent the 74-gun third rate Defence and Comus after her, even though war had not yet been declared. Comus was faster than Defence in the light winds and so outdistanced her.
On 14 August 1807 Comus sighted Frederiksværn and chased her, catching up off Marstrand a little before midnight on the 15th. Heywood ordered the Frederiksværn to halt and allow herself to be detained.[8] War not having been declared, and Frederiksværn being a naval vessel, she ignored Heywood's instructions. Heywood ordered a musket fired, to which Frederiksværn replied with a shot from her stern guns. Comus followed with a broadside.
After an action of 45 minutes, Frederiksværn's rigging was disabled. Comus and Frederiksværn then came together, which enabled a boarding party from Comus to climb over Frederiksværn's bow and capture her.
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1895 - The battleship USS Texas is commissioned. She is the first American steel-hulled battleship.
USS Texas was a second-class battleship built by the United States in the early 1890s, the first American battleship commissioned[1] and the first ship named in honor of the state of Texas to be built by the United States.[a] Built in reaction to the acquisition of modern armored warships by several South American countries, Texas was meant to incorporate the latest developments in naval tactics and design. This includes the mounting of her main armament en echelon to allow maximum end-on fire and a heavily-armored redoubt amidships to ensure defensive strength. However, due to the state of U.S. industry at the time, Texas's building time was lengthy, and by the time she was commissioned, she was already out of date. Nevertheless, she and her near-sister USS Maine were considered advancements in American naval design.
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USS Texas in 1898 (commissioned 1892)


1914 – The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship SS Ancon.
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1940 – An Italian submarine Delfino torpedoes and sinks the Greek cruiser Elli at Tinos harbor during peacetime, marking the most serious Italian provocation prior to the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War in October.
Elli (Greek: Κ/Δ Έλλη) was a 2,600 ton Greek protected cruiser (Greek: Εύδρομο Καταδρομικό) named for a naval battle of the First Balkan War in which Greece was victorious. She was completed in 1913 and commissioned in 1914. Elli saw action during World War I and in the disastrous Asia Minor Expedition. An Italian submarine sank her, before the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War on 15 August 1940 while she sat at anchor.
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1942 – World War II: Operation Pedestal: The SS Ohio reaches the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies for the island's defenses.
The SS Ohio was an oil tanker built for the Texas Oil Company (now Texaco). The ship was launched on 20 April 1940 at the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. in Chester, Pennsylvania. She was requisitioned by the Allied forces to re-supply the island fortress of Malta during the Second World War.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

16th of August

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1742 - HMS Gloucester (1711 - 50 guns) burnt near Ladrones to avoid capture by Spanish.
HMS Gloucester was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built for the Royal Navy in the 1710s. She participated in the 1701–15 War of the Spanish Succession. The ship was burned to prevent capture after she was damaged in a storm during Commodore George Anson's voyage around the world in 1742.
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1778 - HMS Isis (1774 - 50 guns) engaged french Cesar (1768 - 74 guns)
HMS Isis
was a 50-gun Portland-class fourth-rate of the Royal Navy. She saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
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The end of the César, by François Aimé Louis Dumoulin.

1779 - HMS Ardent (1764 - 64 guns), Cptn. Phillip Boteler, captured by Franco-Spanish fleet in the Channel.
HMS Ardent
was a 64-gun Ardent-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built by contract by Hugh Blaydes at Hull according to a design by Sir Thomas Slade, and launched on 13 August 1764 as the first ship of the Ardent-class. She had a somewhat turbulent career, being captured by the French in 1779, and then re-captured by Britain in 1782.
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Capture of HMS Ardent by the frigates Junon and Gentille

1801 - Horatio Nelson failed in his attack on Boulogne
The raid on Boulogne in 1801 was a failed attempt by elements of the Royal Navy led by Vice Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson to destroy a flotilla of French vessels anchored in the port of Boulogne, a fleet which was thought to be used for the invasion of England, during the French Revolutionary Wars. At dawn on 4 August, Nelson ordered five bomb vessels to move forward and open fire against the French line. Despite the inferior gunpowder of French artillery and the high number of shots fired by the bomb vessels, the British sustained more casualties and withdrew. The night of 16 August Nelson returned and tried to bring off the flotilla, attacking with seventy boats and nearly two thousand men organized into four divisions, but the attack was successfully repelled by the defenders, led by Admiral Latouche Tréville.
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1807 - Beginning of the Second Battle of Copenhagen
The Second Battle of Copenhagen (or the Bombardment of Copenhagen) (16 August – 5 September 1807) was a British bombardment of the Danish capital, Copenhagen in order to capture or destroy the Dano-Norwegian fleet, during the Napoleonic Wars. The incident led to the outbreak of the Anglo-Russian War of 1807, which ended with the Treaty of Örebro in 1812.
Britain's first response to Napoleon's Continental system was to launch a major naval attack on the weakest link in Napoleon's coalition, Denmark. Although ostensibly neutral, Denmark was under heavy French and Russian pressure to pledge its fleet to Napoleon. In September 1807, the Royal Navy bombarded Copenhagen, seizing the Danish fleet, and assured use of the sea lanes in the North Sea and Baltic Sea for the British merchant fleet. A consequence of the attack was that Denmark did join the war on the side of France, but without a fleet it had little to offer.
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Contemporary Danish painting of the battle seen from land.

1808 - HMS Sybille (44), Cptn. Clotworthy Upton, captured Espiegle (1804 - 16), Cptn. Maujouan.
Espiègle was a 16-gun brig-sloop of the French Curieux-class . She was built by the Enterprise Ethéart, Saint-Malo, and launched in 1804. She was armed in 1807 at Saint Servan. The British frigate Sybille captured her on 16 August 1808. There was already an Espiegle in the Royal Navy so the Navy took the vessel they had just captured into service as HMS Electra, her predecessor Electra having been wrecked in March. Electra captured one American privateer before she was sold in 1816.
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1897 - The ship Belgica under lead of Adrien de Gerlache set sail for the first expedition to winter in the Antarctic region
In 1896, Baron Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery (2 August 1866 – 4 December 1934), who was an officer in the Belgian Royal Navy , purchased the Norwegian-built whaling ship Patria, which, following an extensive refit, he renamed as the Belgica. With a multinational crew, which included Roald Amundsen, Frederick Cook, Antoni Bolesław Dobrowolski, Henryk Arctowski and Emil Racoviță, he set sail from Antwerp on 16 August 1897.
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The Belgica anchored at Mount William
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

17th of August

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1606 - Battle of Cape Rachado - Indecisive action between a Dutch fleet under Cornelis Matelief de Jonge and a Portuguese fleet near Malacca
The Battle of Cape Rachado, off the present day Malaccan exclave of Cape Rachado in 1606, was an important naval engagement between the Dutch East India Company and Portuguese fleets.
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Battle for Malacca between the VOC fleet and the Portuguese, 1606.

1712 – Action of 17 August 1712 - Danes under Sehested fight and then defeat Swedes under Henck near Rugen
This battle took place on 17 August 1712 south of Rügen, in the Baltic Sea, during the Great Northern War. It was the second time that the two fleets met, first action was at 31 July the same year. The site is known as Neues Tief in German, Nydyp in Danish, and Nya Djupet in Swedish, all meaning "New Deep." The action was a victory for Denmark, commanded by Hannibal Sehested, over Sweden, commanded by Henck.
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places of the two battles on 31 July and 17 August

1757 – Launch of HMS Shannon, a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.
Shannon was one of five frigates of the class built of fir rather than oak. Fir was cheaper and more abundant than oak and permitted noticeably faster construction, but at a cost of a reduced lifespan; the four fir-built Coventry-class vessels that did not get captured lasted an average of only nine years before being struck off.
The vessel was named after the River Shannon in Ireland. In selecting her name the Board of Admiralty continued a tradition dating to 1644, of using geographic features for ship names; overall, ten of the nineteen Coventry-class vessels were named after well-known regions, rivers or towns. With few exceptions the remainder of the class were named after figures from classical antiquity, following a more modern trend initiated in 1748 by John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich in his capacity as First Lord of the Admiralty.
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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the sixth-rate sloop

1796 - Dutch fleet under Ad. Engelburtus Lucas surrendered to British squadron under Ad. Sir George Keith Elphinstone at Saldanha Bay, South Africa.
The Capitulation of Saldanha Bay was the surrender in 1796 to the British Royal Navy of a Dutch expeditionary force sent to recapture the Dutch Cape Colony. In 1794, early in the French Revolutionary Wars, the army of the French Republic overran the Dutch Republic which then became a French client state, the Batavian Republic. Great Britain was concerned by the threat the Dutch Cape Colony in Southern Africa posed to its trade routes to British India. It therefore sent an expeditionary force that landed at Simon's Town in June 1795 and forced the surrender of the colony in a short campaign. The British commander, Vice-Admiral Sir George Elphinstone, then reinforced the garrison and stationed a naval squadron at the Cape to protect the British conquest.

1803 - HMS Racoon (1795 - 16) destroyed Mutine (1799 – 18) off St.Jago.
In August, Having received information that French privateers were operating out of Cuban ports, Bissell sailed along the east end of the Jamaican coast and then crossed to Santiago de Cuba. There he saw four schooners, which appeared to be armed. Within a few days Racoon was able to encounter three of them early in the morning. Racoon captured two after tedious chases, as they separated. They were the Deux Amis and the Trois Freres, both of three guns. Racoon was also able to drive the third, of two guns, on shore, where she was wrecked.
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HMS Racoon capturing French navy corvette Mutine, circle of William John Huggins

1803 – Launch of french 74 gunner Magnanime (1803 - 74)
Magnanime was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
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Magnanime towing Commerce de Paris, by Ange-Joseph Antoine Roux, 1809.

1804 - HMS Loire (1796 - 40) captured privateer frigate Blonde (30) off Bordeaux after a chase of 36 hours.
On 16 August 1804 Loire gave chase to a suspicious-looking sail. After a chase of 20 hours, including a running fight of a quarter of an hour, during which the British had one midshipman and five men wounded, and the French lost two men killed and five wounded, the latter hauled down her colours. She proved to be French privateer Blonde, of Bordeaux, mounting 30 guns, eight-pounders on the main deck, with a crew of 240 men under François Aregnaudeau; the same ship that, about five months earlier, had captured the Wolverine. Loire took the prize in tow to Plymouth where the prisoners were disembarked on 31 August. Blonde was not commissioned in the Royal Navy.
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1807 – Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
The North River Steamboat or North River, colloquially known as the Clermont, is widely regarded as the world's first vessel to demonstrate the viability of using steam propulsion for commercial water transportation. Built in 1807, the North River Steamboat operated on the Hudson River – at that time often known as the North River – between New York City and Albany, New York. She was built by the wealthy investor and politician Robert Livingston and inventor and entrepreneur Robert Fulton (1765–1815).
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1841 – Launch of HMS Collingwood, Vanguard class (1841-80)
HMS Collingwood
was an 80-gun two-deck second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 August 1841 at Pembroke Dockyard.
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1977 – The Soviet icebreaker Arktika becomes the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

18th of August

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1590 – John White, the governor of the Roanoke Colony, returns from a supply trip to England and finds his settlement deserted.
Governor White finally reached Roanoke Island on 18 August 1590, his granddaughter's third birthday, but he found his colony had been long deserted. The buildings had collapsed and "the houses [were] taken downe." The few clues about the colonists' whereabouts included the letters "CRO" carved into a tree, and the word "CROATOAN" carved on a post of the fort. Croatoan was the name of a nearby island (likely modern-day Hatteras Island) and of a local tribe of Native Americans. Roanoke Island was not the original planned location for the colony and the idea of moving elsewhere had been discussed. Before the Governor's departure, he and the colonists had agreed that a message would be carved into a tree if they had moved and would include an image of a Maltese Cross if the decision was made by force. White found no such cross and was hopeful that his family were still alive.
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John White discovers the word "CROATOAN" carved at Roanoke's fort palisade.

1759 - The naval Battle of Lagos between Britain and France
took place over two days, on 18 and 19 August 1759, during the Seven Years' War off the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and is named after Lagos, Portugal. For the British, it was part of the Annus Mirabilis of 1759.
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Battle of Lagos in 1759 off Portugal - painting by Thomas Luny

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The British Royal Navy defeat the French Mediterranean Fleet at the Battle of Lagos - by Richard Perret

1798 - HMS Leander (1780 - 50), Cptn. Thomas Boulden Thompson, captured by Genereaux (1785 - 74) Cptn. Lejoille.
HMS Leander
was a Portland-class 50-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy, launched at Chatham on 1 July 1780. She served on the West Coast of Africa, West Indies, and the Halifax station. During the French Revolutionary Wars she participated in the Battle of the Nile before a French ship captured her. The Russians and Turks recaptured her and returned her to the Royal Navy in 1799. On 23 February 1805, while on the Halifax station, Leander captured the French frigate Ville de Milan and recaptured her prize, HMS Cleopatra. On 25 April 1805 cannon fire from Leander killed an American seaman while Leander was trying to search an American vessel off the US coast for contraband. The resulting "Leander Affair" contributed to the worsening of relations between the United States and Great Britain. In 1813 the Admiralty converted Leander to a hospital ship under the name Hygeia. Hygeia was sold in 1817.
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1803 – Launch of HMS Hero 74 gun Fame class Ship of the Line
HMS Hero
was a 74-gun third rate of the Royal Navy, launched on 18 August 1803 at Blackwall Yard.
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The wreck of HMS Hero in the Texel, 25 December 1811

1838 - The United States Exploring Expedition led by Lt. Charles Wilkes weighs anchor at Hampton Roads on a world cruise
The United States Exploring Expedition was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States from 1838 to 1842. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones. Funding for the original expedition was requested by President John Quincy Adams in 1828, however, Congress would not implement funding until eight years later. In May 1836, the oceanic exploration voyage was finally authorized by Congress and created by President Andrew Jackson. The expedition is sometimes called the "U.S. Ex. Ex." for short, or the "Wilkes Expedition" in honor of its next appointed commanding officer, United States Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. The expedition was of major importance to the growth of science in the United States, in particular the then-young field of oceanography. During the event, armed conflict between Pacific islanders and the expedition was common and dozens of natives were killed in action, as well as a few Americans.
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Route of the voyage :
1. Hampton Roads; 2. Madeira; 3. Rio de Janeiro;
4. Tierra del Fuego; 5. Valparaíso; 6. Callao; 7. Samoa;
8. Fiji; 9. Sydney; 10. Antarctica; 11. Hawaii

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Return route :
1. Puget Sound; 2. Columbia; 3. San Francisco;
4. Polynesia; 5. Philippines; 6. Borneo; 7. Singapore;
8. Cape of Good Hope; 9. New York

1887 – Launch of SS Britannia, british passenger steamer
SS Britannia
was a British Passenger Liner that was scrapped after 22 years of duty (1887–1909) at Genoa, Italy.
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1920 – Launch of Oceanliner RMS Empress of Canada
RMS Empress of Canada
was an ocean liner built in 1920 for the Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP) by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland. This ship—the first of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Canada—regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until 1939.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

19th of August

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1702 - The Action of August 1702
was a naval battle that took place from 19–25 August 1702 O.S. between an English squadron under Vice-Admiral John Benbow and a French under Admiral Jean du Casse, off Cape Santa Marta on the coast of present-day Colombia, South America, during the War of the Spanish Succession. Benbow vigorously attacked the French squadron, but the refusal of most of his captains to support the action allowed du Casse to escape. Benbow lost a leg during the engagement and died of illness about two months later. Two of the captains were convicted of cowardice and shot.
Benbow's resolution to pursue the French, in what proved to be his last fight, proved irresistible to the public imagination. The events of the fight inspired a number of ballads, usually entitled Admiral Benbow or Brave Benbow, which were still favourites among British sailors more than a century later.
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Adml John Benbow courageously commanding his Men to fight after his Leg was shattered to Pieces, St Martha (West Indies) 19-24 July 1702

1711 - Birth of Edward Boscawen, PC (19 August 1711 – 10 January 1761)
who was an Admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament for the borough of Truro, Cornwall. He is known principally for his various naval commands during the 18th century and the engagements that he won, including the Siege of Louisburg in 1758 and Battle of Lagos in 1759.[2] He is also remembered as the officer who signed the warrant authorising the execution of Admiral John Byng in 1757, for failing to engage the enemy at the Battle of Minorca (1756). In his political role, he served as a Member of Parliament for Truro from 1742 until his death although due to almost constant naval employment he seems not to have been particularly active. He also served as one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on the Board of Admiralty from 1751 and as a member of the Privy Council from 1758 until his death in 1761.
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1801 - HMS Sybille (1791 - 44), Cptn. Chas. Adam, captured French national frigate Chiffone, in Mahe Road - also known as the Battle of Mahe
The Battle of Mahé was a minor naval engagement of the last year of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought on 19 August 1801 in the harbour of Mahéin the Seychelles, a French colony in the Indian Ocean. Since the demise of the French Indian Ocean squadron in 1799, the Royal Navy had maintained dominance in the East Indies, controlling the shipping routes along which trade flowed and allowing the rapid movement of military forces around the theatre. French First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte had long-harboured ambitions of threatening British India, and in 1798 had launched an invasion of Egypt as an initial step to achieving this goal. The campaign had failed, and the French army in Egypt was under severe pressure by early 1801, partly due to the presence of a British squadron acting with impunity in the Red Sea.
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1808 – Death of Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, Swedish admiral and shipbuilder (b. 1721)
Fredrik Henrik af Chapman (9 September 1721 in Gothenburg – 19 August 1808) was a Swedish shipbuilder, scientist and officer in the Swedish navy. He was also manager of the Karlskrona shipyard 1782-1793. Chapman is credited as the first person to apply scientific methods to shipbuilding and is considered to be the first naval architect.
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Title page of Architectura Navalis Mercatoria, published 1768.

1812 - The frigate USS Constitution captures the frigate HMS Guerriere, off Halifax, Nova Scotia after an intense battle.
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Constitution fires into the burning hulk of Guerriere, now badly damaged

2017 - A team of civilian researchers led by entrepreneur and philanthropist Paul G. Allen announces they found the wreck of World War II cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA 35), which was lost July 30, 1945, in 18,000 feet of water. About 800 of the ship's 1,196 Sailors and Marines survived the sinking, but after four to five days in the water - suffering exposure, dehydration, drowning, and shark attacks - only 316 survived.

Navy firing detail as part of a burial-at-sea in 2008 for one of the 316 survivors of Indianapolis sinking on 30 July 1945.
 
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