Naval/Maritime History 27th of August - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 October 1799 – The Cutting Out of the Hermione


The Cutting out of the Hermione, or Capture of Hermione, was a naval action that took place at Puerto Cabello, Venezuela on 25 October 1799. The formerly British frigate HMS Hermione, which had been handed over to the Spanish by its crew following a vicious mutiny, lay in the heavily guarded sea port of Puerto Cabello now under the command of Don Ramon de Chalas. A British frigate, HMS Surprise, was sent under Edward Hamilton to recapture Hermione. In naval terms this was called a cutting out operation—a boarding attack by small boats, preferably at night and against an unsuspecting and anchored target. This had become a popular tactic during the later 18th century.


HMS Hermione being cut out of Puerto Cabello by boats from HMS Surprise

Background
HMS Hermione was a frigate of the Royal Navy, commanded by Captain Hugh Pigot. In September 1797 a number of the crew had risen up against the tyrannical[3] Pigot and had murdered him and nine other officers, throwing their bodies overboard. Fearing retribution for their actions, the mutineers had sailed Hermione to the Spanish port of La Guaira, and handed her over to the Spanish. The mutineers claimed they had set the officers adrift in a small boat, as had happened in the mutiny on Bounty some eight years earlier.

The Spaniards took Hermione into service under the name Santa Cecilia where she remained for two years at La Guaira. Her crew which included 25 of her former crew, remained under Spanish guard.

Meanwhile, news of the fate of Hermione reached Admiral Sir Hyde Parker when HMS Diligence captured a Spanish schooner. Parker wrote to the governor of La Guaira, demanding the return of the ship and the surrender of the mutineers but the governor only moved the ship to Puerto Cabello. Meanwhile Parker dispatched HMS Magicienne under Captain Henry Ricketts to commence negotiations.[4] Parker also set up a system of informers and posted rewards that eventually led to the capture of 33 of the mutineers. eventually reached Parker that Santa Cecilia had been sighted in Puerto Cabello, and ordered HMS Surpriseto intercept her, should she attempt to put to sea.

Captain Edward Hamilton of Surprise decided that the honour of the Royal Navy depended on the recovery of the ship, and was determined to retake her.[9] ing near the port he devised a plan to cut her out of the harbour, and asked for a boat and an extra twenty men from Parker. Parker declared the scheme too risky, and refused to send the men, but Hamilton went ahead anyway.

Battle
Santa Cecilia was heavily manned, with around 400 Spanish under the command of Captain Don Ramon de Chalas. She lay under the guns of two shore batteries, together mounting some 200 guns.


Santa Cecilia being boarded by British marines and sailors in Puerto Cabello
Hamilton had a force of some 100 soldiers, and sailors, in his boats.

Hamilton meticulously planned the capture. The boarding parties were clothed in dark only, with no sign of white or light colours. Each of the boats was placed in a formation of two divisions, and were towed in threes. One division would attack the starboard side while the other was to board the larboard side.[1] Each boat was given as a specific task a part of the ship which they were responsible for securing.

Stealth was a key part of the attack plan, but Hamilton did not achieve this because, as he led his boats for the attack, he was spotted by two Spanish gun-vessels. In addition, some of the boats were caught in a boom, a floating barrier. They soon got free, but this alerted the Spanish shore batteries, which opened fire. With the alarm given, the crew of Santa Cecilia were ready for the British as the boats got alongside her. As the British approached, the Spanish kept up a brisk fire of musketry but fired on their own gun boats as well the attacking British which caused confusion to both sides.

Nevertheless, Santa Cecilia was boarded. Initially, the first party to board was pushed back, and Hamilton was alone on the quarter deck fighting four Spaniards. A musket butt soon knocked him down. At this moment the other division had swung around, and they too boarded the ship. This included the Marines, who, with a single volley, rushed the main deck saving Hamilton. They then charged with the bayonets, driving the Spaniards from the top decks. The Spaniards were then caught in a crossfire, which drove them below deck. The fight continued in the heart of the ship.

As the fight below deck continued, Hamilton's sailors were cutting the cables holding Santa Cecilia at bay, and the sails were loosed to catch the breeze.

Captain de Challas was wounded, captured, and taken below, despite some resistance by a few who tried to take back the ship. The rest of the Spanish surrendered soon after de Challas was captured.


Santa Cecilia is sailed out from Puerto Cabello after being secured - print by Thomas Whitcombe

The batteries surrounding Puerto Cabello opened fire when they saw the ship sailing away, and scored a number of hits on the ship, but no major damage was done. Hamilton ordered no shots to be fired, and no light to be shown; a tactic which worked, as Santa Cecilia sailed out of danger.

By 2:00 a.m. the battle was over and fire from the shore batteries had died down. The boats with Santa Cecilia met up with HMS Surprise by 3:00 a.m.

Aftermath
The Spanish had lost 120 killed, while 231 were taken prisoner, 97 of whom were wounded. All but three including Don Challas and two other officers were subsequently returned to the port the next day. Another fifteen Spanish escaped by jumping overboard and swimming ashore, while 20 more escaped in a launch that had been guarding the ship. By contrast the British had not lost a single man, and had just twelve wounded, four of them seriously. One of them was Hamilton himself, who had suffered a blow to the head from a musket, and wounds from a sabre, pike and grapeshot.

Parker had the recaptured Hermione renamed HMS Retaliation, after which the Admiralty ordered her to be renamed HMS Retribution on 31 January 1800. The prize money was distributed making Hamilton a rich man, so much so that he declined a pension.

For his daring exploit, Hamilton was made a knight by letters patent, a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (2 January 1815), and eventually became a baronet (20 October 1818). The Jamaica House of Assemblyawarded him a sword worth 300 guineas, and the City of London awarded him the Freedom of the City in a public dinner on 25 October 1800.

In 1847, the Admiralty awarded Hamilton a gold medal for the recapture of Hermione, and the Naval General Service Medal with the clasp, "Surprise with Hermione", to the seven surviving claimants from the action.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_out_of_the_Hermione
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Surprise_(1796)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hermione_(1782)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 October 1799 - HMS Amaranthe (1793 - 14) wrecked off Florida


The French brig Amarante (equally Amaranthe), was launched in 1793 at Honfleur for the French Navy. The British Royal Navy captured her at the end of 1796 and took her into service as HMS Amaranthe. She captured one French vessel in a single-ship action before she was wrecked near Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1799.

French service and capture
Amarante was the name ship of a two-vessel class of 12-gun brigs built to a design by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait. She was also the first vessel that Joseph-Augustin Normand built at Honfleur for the French Navy.

Between February 1794 and December, she was under the command of enseigne de vaisseau Jacques-Philippe Delamare and escorted convoys from to Le Havre to Brest. Between February 1795 and May, she escorted convoys between Saint-Malo and Dieppe, and performed fisheries protection duties for the Dieppoise fishermen. She then protected the herring fisheries in the Channel.

Delamare was suspended in 1798 as a terrorist by order of the representative of the people Boissier. He was reinstated some months later and sent to Brest. A decree of the Public Safety Committee, dated 22 September, confirmed him in command of Amarante.

On 1 March 1797 Amarante was at La Hogue roads undergoing repairs.

HMS Diamond captured Amarante off Alderney on 31 December 1796. The letter in the London Gazette describes her as a brig of twelve 6-pounder guns, and nine men. She was sailing from Le Havre to Brest.[7]She had no casualties.

British service
Amarante arrived at Portsmouth on 2 January 1797. In August 1797 the Royal Navy commissioned her as Amaranthe under Commander Francis Vesey, and she then underwent fitting until February 1798.

Vesey sailed her for Jamaica in July 1798. However, on 29 August, she and Endymion recaptured the British East India Company "extra ship" Britannia, Stewart, master.[8] Britannia had been sailing from Bengal to London when the French privateer Huron captured her.

In November, Surprise and Amaranthe captured the French 4-gun privateer Petite Française.

On 13 April 1799 Amaranthe captured the French letter of marque schooner Vengeur after a long chase and sharp fight. Vengeur had only six 4-pounder guns, half Anmaranthe's armament, but resisted fiercely for an hour and eight minutes. French casualties were 14 killed and 5 wounded (one of whom died later and another of whom was expected to die), out of 36 crew and passengers on board; British casualties were one man killed and four wounded. Vengeur had been carrying a cargo of flour from Santiago de Cuba to Jérémie, Haiti. She had been a privateer on her previous cruise, and Vesey described her as a "very fine Copper-bottomed Schooner, capable of mounting Ten Carriage Guns, nearly new, and fails uncommonly fast".

Vesey received promotion to post captain on 16 September. Commander George Blake then replaced Vesey as captain of Amaranthe.

Fate
On 25 October 1799 Amaranthe was cruising off the coast of Florida. That evening she went aground. Efforts to free her were unavailing and the officers and crew took to the boats and rafts, with the last men having to swim for shore. Twenty-two men drowned. Morning revealed that the survivors had landed some leagues north of Cape Canaveral. The survivors had to walk for 13 days along the shoreline until they reached the Spanish settlement at Fort Matanzas on 8 November, where they were declared prisoners of war. The next day the Spaniards delivered the British to St Augustine. From there they traveled to Charleston, and on to Jamaica. The court martial took place on Hannibal on 30 December 1799 at Port Royal Harbour, Jamaica. The court martial acquitted Blake, his officers and crew of the loss of Amaranthe. However, the board found Blake blameable for having sailed west after dark at too high a speed and for failing to take frequent soundings with the lead. The board also ordered seaman Daniel Day to spend a month in jail for having prevaricated in his evidence and having wasted its time.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_brig_Amarante_(1793)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 October 1805 - French price Indomtable wrecked with the loss of 1500 seamen including french captain Jean Joseph Hubert


Indomptable ("Indomitable") was an Tonnant-class 80-gun ship of the line in the French Navy, laid down in 1788 and in active service from 1791. Engaged against the Royal Navy after 1794, she was damaged in the Battle of Trafalgar and wrecked near the Spanish city of Cadiz on 24 October 1805.


Indomptable (centre) at Trafalgar, between Fougueuxand HMS Belleisle (left) and Santa Ana and HMS Royal Sovereign (right)

Early service
Indomptable was designed by naval engineer Jacques-Noël Sané and laid down in Brest in September 1788. She was launched on 20 December 1790, and completed in February 1791.

Her first engagement was on 29 May 1794 against HMS Barfleur and HMS Orion during the Glorious First of June campaign. Following the battle the dismasted Indomptable was towed back to Brest by Brutus.

In 1795, she served in the Mediterranean under Admiral François Joseph Bouvet and took part in the landing attempt in Ireland planned by General Louis Lazare Hoche. In 1801, she was engaged in the campaign in Egypt, but was unable to break the English blockade and stayed in Toulon. Other elements of the fleet managed to reach Elba.

Indomptable fought in the battle of Algeciras in 1801 when she was again badly damaged. In 1802 and 1803, she served in Toulon under Admiral Latouche Tréville.

Trafalgar campaign
Main article: Trafalgar Campaign
On 17 January 1805, she went to sea under Admiral Villeneuve, together with ten other ships of the line and eight frigates, and on 20 January the fleet sailed for the French Caribbean. Off Cadiz, the fleet was joined by the 74-gun Aigle, and six Spanish ships of the line under Vice-Admiral Federico Gravina. When the fleet reached the West Indies, Villeneuve sent Commodore Cosmao-Kerjulien with the Pluton and the Berwick to attack the British position on Diamond Rock, which surrendered on 2 June. Villeneuve returned to Europe on hearing that Horatio Nelson had arrived in the West Indies.

Cape Finisterre and Trafalgar
On 22 July 1805, in the battle of Cape Finisterre the quartermasters of Indomptable spotted the British fleet under Sir Robert Calder. After a violent artillery exchange, the fleets became separated in the fog. Exhausted after six months at sea, the fleet anchored in Ferrol before sailing to Cádiz to rest and refit. With his command under question and planning to meet the British fleet to gain a decisive victory, Villeneuve left Cádiz and met the British fleet near Cape Trafalgar.

Indomptable was in the Spanish line between San Justo and Santa Ana at the opening of the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. She engaged Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood's flagship HMS Royal Sovereignoff her lee beam as she approached, then raked William Hargood's HMS Belleisle as that ship passed Indomptable's stern. Later, she engaged HMS Revenge, HMS Dreadnought and HMS Thunderer, losing her place in the line but regrouping behind the Spanish flagship Principe de Asturias.

Downwind of the British and effectively out of range, Indomptable turned towards the bay of Cadiz. At about two in the morning of 22 October, her crew heard distress calls from the French ship Bucentaure which had struck a reef off Santa Catalina fort. The ship's boat was run out and brought alongside Bucentaure, whose crew requested an anchor and hawsers to secure their vessel. This became impractical as Bucentaure settled deeper onto the rocks and began to sink: instead, Indomptable's boats began ferrying sailors off the vessel and back to their own. Rescue efforts continued until mid-afternoon on 23 October, by which time Bucentaure was completely submerged.

Wreck
On the following night, a storm broke Indomptable's anchor chains and she was carried onto rocks offshore from Cadiz. Contemporary accounts estimate between 1,000 and 1,400 people were on board, including around 500 rescued from Bucentaure the previous night, and two men from HMS Conqueror who had been aboard Bucentaure as prize crew. Around 150 men survived the wreck, including just two of the twenty-four officers on board.


Jean-Joseph Hubert (Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines, 17 December 1765 — Off Cadiz, 25 October 1805) was a French Navy officer and captain.

Career
Hubert joined the French Royal Navy on 27 September 1780 as a volunteer and served on Languedoc during the American War of Independence. On 5 October 1787, he was promoted to sub-Lieutenant.

During the French Revolution, Hubert was promoted to Ensign on 12 January 1792 and served on Vengeur until she ran aground and was lost off Ajaccio. He was then given command of the xebec Jacobin. Promoted to Lieutenant on 10 September 1794, he was appointed on 21 October to captain the frigate Boudeuse, and transferred to the frigate Alceste on 31 March 1795.

On 4 May 1795, Hubert was promoted to Captain. Still captaining Alceste, he took part in the Battle of Hyères Islands, where he battled several British ships before rescuing Alcide

On 23 February, Hubert transferred to the frigate Junon. He captained the 80-gun Guillaume Tell from 10 May 1797, and in August 1798 he successively commanded the 64-gun Banel and her sister-ship Frontin.

In 1799, Hubert was appointed to the frigate Carmagnole and he took part in the Action of 8 July 1800. In November, Carmagnole ran aground by a storm at Vlissingen and was so wrecked that she was deleted on the spot.

On 9 March 1801, Hubert took command of the frigate Créole, and in July he was appointed to the 74-gun Swiftsure.

On 5 February 1804, Hubert was awarded the Legion of Honour. On 19 July 1804, Hubert took command of the 80-gun Indomptable, and he was promoted to Officier of the Legion of Honour on 14 June. In Villeneuve's fleet, he took part in the Battle of Cape Finisterre and in the Battle of Trafalgar, where he was wounded. Indomptable exchanged broadsides with HMS Belleisle before tacking to the South-East, firing on Revenge, Dreadnought and Thunderer, before observing Gravina's signals and sailing to Cadiz.

Four days later, on the 25th, Indomptable rescued survivors of the wreck of Bucentaure off Cadiz and anchored near Rota. During the night, her cables broke and she was thrown on the shore, where she was wrecked with only 150 survivors out of 1200 men. Hubert drowned.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Indomptable_(1789)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Joseph_Hubert

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 October 1812 - USS United States vs HMS Macedonian, ending with capture of HMS Macedonian


The capture of HMS Macedonian was a naval action fought near Madeira on 25 October 1812 between the heavy frigate USS United States, commanded by Stephen Decatur, and the frigate HMS Macedonian, under the command of John Surman Carden. The American vessel won the long bloody battle, capturing and bringing Macedonian back to the United States. It was the first British warship to ever be brought into an American harbor.


Naval Battle Between the United States & The Macedonian on Oct. 25, 1812, by Thomas Birch, 1813

Background
The United States declared war on the United Kingdom on 18 June 1812. United States, the frigate Congress, and the brig Argus joined Commodore John Rodgers's squadron at New York City and put to sea immediately, cruising off the east coast until the end of August. The squadron again sailed on 8 October 1812, this time from Boston. Three days later, after capturing Mandarin, United States parted company and continued to cruise eastward.

Combatants
USS United States was the first of the six original frigates of the United States Navy, completed in 1797. She was a then-modern 'heavy frigate' design, which was intended to be powerful enough to defeat any contemporary French or British frigate whilst still being fast enough to evade any opposing ship of the line. Rated as a 44-gun vessel, the primary armament was thirty-two 24-pounder cannon mounted on the main gun deck. She had seen action during the Quasi-War of 1798-1800, capturing several small French vessels.

HMS Macedonian was a Lively-class frigate, of the Royal Navy's fifth rate. This was a successful design which had been used since 1804. Macedonian was the eleventh ship in the class, launched in 1810 just two years before the battle. Officially rated with 38 guns, the main armament was twenty-eight 18-pounder cannon. She had not previously seen action.

Although Macedonian was larger than the fifth-rate frigates used in earlier conflicts (such as the American Revolutionary War), she was still significantly smaller and more lightly armed than United States. The American vessel's broadside totalled 864 pounds of shot, whilst the British vessel's was only 528 pounds; the 24-pounders on United States also had a longer effective range. United States was the larger and more solidly built of the two, with 1576 tons burthen as opposed to Macedonian's 1082 tons burthen. United States also carried a larger crew.

Comparison of combatant vessels (English measurement methods used for both ships


Battle
At dawn, on 25 October, five hundred miles south of the Azores, lookouts on board United States reported seeing a sail 12 miles (19 km) to windward. As the ship rose over the horizon, Captain Decatur made out the fine, familiar lines of HMS Macedonian, which was on its way to its station in the West Indies.

Both ships were immediately cleared for action and commenced maneuvers at 0900. Captain Carden elected not to risk crossing the bows of United States to rake her, but chose instead to haul closer to the wind on a parallel course with the American vessel. For his part, Decatur intended to engage Macedonian from fairly long range, where his 24 pounders would have the advantage over the British 18 pounders, and then move in for the kill.

The actual battle developed according to Decatur's plan. United States began the action at 0920 by firing an inaccurate broadside. This was answered immediately by the British vessel, bringing down a small spar of United States. Decatur's next broadside had better luck, as it destroyed Macedonian's mizzen top mast, letting her driver gaff fall and so giving the maneuvering advantage to the American frigate. United States next took up position off Macedonian's quarter and proceeded to riddle the hapless frigate methodically with shot. She hailed Macedonian demanding the name of her antagonist and whether or not she surrendered. By noon, Macedonian was a dismasted hulk. When United States closed for another broadside, Carden was forced to strike her colors and surrender. She had had over 100 round shot lodged in her hull and suffered over one hundred casualties, one third of her crew, while United States only suffered 12. Because of the greater range of the guns aboard United States, she got off seventy broadsides to Macedonian's thirty, and emerged from the battle relatively unscathed.

Aftermath
The two ships lay alongside each other for over two weeks while Macedonian was repaired sufficiently to sail. United States and her prize arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, on 4 December amid tumultuous national jubilation over the spectacular victory. Wherever they went, Captain Decatur and his crew were lionized and received special praise from both Congress and President James Madison. Macedonian was subsequently purchased by the United States Navy, and was renamed USS Macedonian. It had a long and honorable career under the American flag.

After repairs, United States sailed from New York on 24 May 1813, accompanied by USS Macedonian and the sloop Hornet. On 1 June, the three vessels were driven into New London, Connecticut, by the 74-gun ship HMS Valiant and the 40-gun frigate HMS Acasta, and United States and Macedonian were kept blockaded there until the end of the war. However, Decatur was transferred to the frigate President in the spring of 1814, and he took the officers and crew of United States with him to his new command. Hornet managed to slip through the blockade on 14 November 1814 and escaped to sea, but Decatur and the President were not as fortunate as they were captured by the blockading force on 14th January 1815.


HMS Macedonian was a 38-gun fifth rate Lively-class frigate in the Royal Navy, later captured by USS United States during the War of 1812. She was built at Woolwich Dockyard, England in 1809, launched 2 June 1810 and commissioned the same month. She was commanded by Captain Lord William FitzRoy. Among the original crew was the 13-year-old Samuel Leech, who later wrote a memoir of his experiences.


USS United States by 1852

USS United States was a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy and the first of the six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed the frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so United States and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. She was built at Humphrey's shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and launched on 10 May 1797 and immediately began duties with the newly formed United States Navy protecting American merchant shipping during the Quasi-War with France.

In 1861 United States was in port at Norfolk and was seized by the Virginia Navy and subsequently commissioned into the Confederate navy as CSS United States, but was later scuttled by Confederate forces. Union forces raised the scuttled ship, and retained control of the ship until she was broken up in 1865.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_United_States_vs_HMS_Macedonian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_United_States_(1797)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Macedonian

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 October 1918 – SS Princess Sophia sinks north of Juneau, Alaska with loss of all 343 passengers and crew.


The SS Princess Sophia was a steel-built coastal passenger liner in the coastal service fleet of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Along with SS Princess Adelaide, SS Princess Alice, and SS Princess Mary, Princess Sophia was one of four similar ships built for CPR during 1910-1911.



On 25 October 1918, Princess Sophia sank with the loss of all aboard after grounding on Vanderbilt Reef in Lynn Canal near Juneau, Territory of Alaska. With 343 or more people dying in the incident, the wreck of the Princess Sophia was the worst maritime accident in the history of British Columbia and Alaska. The circumstances of the wreck were controversial, as some felt that all aboard could have been saved.


Princess Sophia on Vanderbilt Reef, 11:00 hrs, Friday 25 October 1918. This photograph is usually seen only in a cropped, close-up version. The full view gives a better idea of the extreme weather conditions that had arisen by Friday, forcing the abandonment of the rescue plan.

Read the whole story of this disaster ......



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Princess_Sophia
https://princesssophia.org/history/the-sinking/
http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2016/10/25/history-oct-24-1918-the-ss-princess-sophia-disaster/

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 October 1927 – The Italian luxury liner SS Principessa Mafalda sinks off the coast of Brazil, killing 314.


The SS Principessa Mafalda was an Italian transatlantic ocean liner built for the Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI) company. Named after Princess Mafalda of Savoy, second daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III, the ship was completed and entered NGI's South American service between Genoa and Buenos Aires in 1909. At the time she was the largest Italian passenger ship afloat. Principessa Mafalda was known for her luxury and was the preferred mode of travel for such celebrities of the day as Carlos Gardel.


Principessa Mafalda

On 25 October 1927, while off the coast of Brazil, a propeller shaft fractured and damaged the hull. The ship sank slowly in the presence of rescue vessels, but confusion and panic resulted in 314 fatalities out of the 1,252 passengers and crew on board the ship. The sinking resulted in the greatest loss of life in Italian shipping and the largest ever in the Southern Hemisphere in peacetime.

Last voyage
On 11 October 1927 Principessa Mafalda sailed from Genoa for Buenos Aires with intermediate stops scheduled at Barcelona, Dakar, Rio de Janeiro, Santos and Montevideo. The ship was under the command of Captain Simone Gulì with 971 passengers and 281 crew aboard. She also carried 300 tonnes of cargo, 600 bags of mail, and 250,000 gold lire destined for the Argentine government. The trip was to take 14 days.

It soon became apparent that the ship was in poor condition. Principessa Mafalda left Barcelona almost a day late due to mechanical problems and several times she slowed to a complete stop on the high seas, sometimes for hours. Water in bathrooms became intermittent. A refrigeration system failure caused tons of food to spoil, resulting in numerous cases of food poisoning. At the stop at Cape Verde, Captain Gulì telegraphed the company to request a replacement vessel, but was told "Continue to Rio and await instructions." With the ship resupplied with fresh food and partially repaired, he took her out onto the Atlantic.

By 23 October Principessa Mafalda had developed a small but noticeable list to port. The passengers, who had received few explanations for the previous breakdowns, now began to worry that the ship was taking on water. Although far behind schedule, she was finally traveling at full steam off the coast of northern Brazil on the 24th. Life aboard then flowed more quietly with the longest part of the journey nearly complete. On crossing the Equator, a line-crossing ceremony was organized on deck with orchestra music and a huge cake.

Around 17:15 hours on 25 October 1927, near the Abrolhos Archipelago, 80 miles off Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, the ship was rocked by several strong shudders. Passengers were initially assured that this was only due to the loss of a propeller and the situation was not dangerous. However, on the bridge the engineer reported that the starboard propeller shaft had indeed fractured, but it had also traveled off its axis and cut a series of gashes in the hull. Complicating matters, the watertight doors could not be fully closed. At 17:35 Captain Gulì sounded the alarm and ordered the radio officer to send SOS. He also stated this was merely a precaution as he believed his ship could stay afloat until the next day. Two ships, the SS Empirestar (British) and Alhena (Dutch), arrived quickly. With clear weather and rescue nearby, it seemed that the situation was in hand. However, panic began to spread among both passengers and crew

There are many conflicting versions about what happened next. What is known is that officers had difficulty maintaining order, some passengers were armed, and the ship kept moving forward in a wide circle for at least an hour. Rescue vessels received confusing signals about how to assist. Not all the lifeboats could be launched due to the list, some were rushed by the crowd, and many were not even seaworthy. An Argentinian newspaper claimed that the first lifeboat away was filled almost entirely with crew, including the purser. The rescue vessels, fearing a possible boiler explosion, kept themselves at a distance. A few remaining lifeboats did shuttle between Principessa Mafalda and Alhena, but some were capsized by the panicked throngs. Captain Gulì went down with the ship, and the chief engineer, Silvio Scarabicchi, reportedly committed suicide by shooting himself. Gulì was posthumously decorated for bravery at sea, as were the two radio operators, Luigi Reschia and Francesco Boldracchi, who had remained at their post until they had been drowned.

At 22:10, nearly five hours after the initial accident, Principessa Mafalda sank stern first. Since she went down on a busy shipping lane, a number of vessels arrived to assist. By daybreak, Alhena had picked up 450 survivors. Avelona rescued 300, Empirestarrescued 202, Formosa 151. Rosetti rescued 122. Moselle rescued 49 people, 22 of whom were landed at Bahia. Those rescued by Empirestar were transferred to Formosa and landed at Rio de Janeiro. Many controversies remain about exactly what transpired and who was responsible for the death toll. Reports of gunfire, sharks in the water, exploding boilers, and nearby ships refusing to assist were widely published but never confirmed. Even the exact wreck site remains a matter of dispute today.

Aftermath
An investigation by the Italian Navy Board began immediately following the tragedy. It determined that a joint in the propeller casing was to blame for the accident and it ordered that propeller shafts on all Italian-registered vessels be fitted with devices designed to avoid such accidents. It also determined that six lifeboats located on the stern could not be used because of poor placement. Issues of the vessel's age, inadequate maintenance, and the problematic actions of the crew were not investigated. However, the NGI was ordered to pay heavy compensation to the families of victims.

A journalistic investigation conducted in 1956 by the weekly L'Europeo established more facts. A 2012 analysis demonstrated that while the number of casualties among steerage passengers was indeed high, the death rate between first and third class was actually the reverse of that of the RMS Titanic, more first class passengers died (51.8%) than did steerage class passengers (27.8%).


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Principessa_Mafalda

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 October 1944 – The USS Tang under Richard O'Kane (the top American submarine captain of World War II) is sunk by the ship's own malfunctioning torpedo.


USS Tang (SS-306) was a Balao-class submarine of World War II, the first ship of the United States Navy to bear the name Tang. She was built and launched in 1943.

In her short career, Tang sank 33 ships totalling 116,454 tons. Commander Richard O'Kane received the Medal of Honor for her last two engagements (23 and 24 October 1944).

Tang was sunk during the last engagement by a circular run of her final torpedo, going down in 180 ft (55 m) of water. 78 men were lost, and the nine survivors were subsequently picked up by a Japanese frigate and taken prisoner. This was the only known occasion on which a Momsen lung was used to escape a sunken submarine.


USS Tang (SS-306), off Mare Island Navy Yard, December 1943


Fifth war patrol


Damage to USS Tang from its own torpedo

After a refit, Tang stood out to sea on 24 September for her fifth war patrol. After topping off her fuel at Midway Island, she sailed for the Formosa Strait on 27 September. In order to reach her area, Tang had to pass through narrow waters known to be heavily patrolled by the Japanese. A large area stretching northeast from Formosa was known to have been mined by the enemy, and O'Kane was given the choice of making the passage north of the island alone, or joining a coordinated attack group (Silversides, Trigger, and Salmon, under Commander John S. Coye, Jr., flag in Silversides) which was to patrol off northeast Formosa, and making the passage with them. Tang chose to make the passage alone and these vessels never heard from Tang, nor did any base, after she left Midway.

The story of Tang's fate comes from the report of her surviving commanding officer.

On the night of 10–11 October, Tang sank the cargo ships Joshu Go and Ōita Maru. The submarine continued on patrol until 23 October, when she contacted a large convoy consisting of three tankers, a transport, a freighter, and numerous escorts. Commander O'Kane planned a night surface attack. Tang broke into the middle of the formation, firing torpedoes as she closed on the tankers (later identified as freighters). Two torpedoes struck under the stack and engine room of the nearest, a single burst into the stern of the middle one, and two exploded under the stack and engine space of the farthest. The first torpedoes began exploding before the last was fired, and all hit their targets, which were soon either burning or sinking. As the submarine prepared to fire at the tanker which was crossing her stern, she sighted the transport bearing down on her in an attempt to ram. Tang had no room to dive, so she crossed the transport's bow and with full left rudder saved her stern and got inside the transport's turning circle. The transport was forced to continue her swing to avoid the tanker, which had also been coming in to ram. The tanker struck the transport's starboard quarter shortly after the submarine fired four stern torpedoes along their double length at a range of 400 yd (370 m). The tanker sank bow first and the transport had a 30° up-angle. With escorts approaching on the port bow and beam and a destroyer closing on the port quarter, Tang rang up full speed and headed for open water. When the submarine was 6,000 yd (5,500 m) from the transport, another explosion was observed, and its bow disappeared.

On the morning of 24 October, Tang began patrolling at periscope depth. She surfaced at dark and headed for Turnabout Island (25.431493°N 119.93989°E). On approaching the island, the submarine's surface search radar showed so many blips that it was almost useless. Tang soon[clarification needed] identified a large convoy which contained tankers with planes on their decks and transports with crated planes stacked on their bows and sterns. As the submarine tracked the Japanese ships along the coast, the convoy's escorts became suspicious, and the escort commander began signaling with a large searchlight. This illuminated the convoy, and Tang chose a large three-deck transport as her first target, a smaller transport as the second, and a large tanker as the third. Their ranges varied from 900–1,400 yd (820–1,280 m). After firing two torpedoes at each target, the submarine paralleled the convoy to choose its next victims. She fired stern torpedoes at another transport and tanker aft.

As Tang poured on full speed to escape the gunfire directed at her, a destroyer passed around the stern of the transport and headed for the submarine. The tanker exploded, and a hit was seen on the transport. A few seconds later, the destroyer exploded, either from intercepting Tang's third torpedo or from shell fire of two escorts closing on the beam. Only the transport remained afloat, dead in the water. The submarine cleared to 240 ft (73 m), rechecked the last two torpedoes which had been loaded in the bow tubes, and returned to finish off the transport. The 23rd torpedo was fired at 900 yd (820 m) and was observed running hot, straight, and normal. Tang's score for the night would later be confirmed as the freighters Kogen Maru (6600 tons) and Matsumoto Maru (7000 tons).

At 02:30 on the morning of 25 October, the 24th and last torpedo (a Mark 18 electric torpedo) was fired. It broached and curved to the left in a circular run. Tang fishtailed under emergency power to clear the turning circle of the torpedo, but it struck her abreast the after torpedo room approximately 20 seconds after it was fired. The explosion was violent, and men as far forward as the control room received broken limbs. The ship went down by the stern with the aft three compartments flooded. Of the nine officers and men on the bridge, including O'Kane, three were able to swim through the night until picked up eight hours later. One officer escaped from the flooded conning tower and was rescued with the others.

The submarine bottomed at 180 ft (55 m) and the thirty survivors crowded into the forward torpedo room as the aft compartments flooded, intending to use the forward escape trunk. Publications were burned, and all assembled in the forward room to escape. The escape was delayed by a Japanese patrol which dropped depth charges, and started an electrical fire in the forward battery. Beginning at 6:00 AM on 25 October, using the Momsen Lung, "the only known case" where it was used, thirteen men escaped from the forward torpedo room. By the time the last had exited, the heat from the battery fire was so intense, paint on the bulkhead was scorching, melting, and running down. Of the 13 men who escaped from the forward torpedo room, only five were rescued. One sailor who was near the group of five but injured during the ascent was not rescued. Three who were on the bridge were rescued after swimming for 8 hours. Another survivor escaped the conning tower and used his pants as a flotation device. A total of 78 men were lost. Those who escaped the submarine were greeted in the morning by the sight of the bow of the transport sticking straight out of the water.

Nine survivors, including O'Kane, were picked up the next morning by Japanese frigate CD-34. Survivors of Tang's previous sinkings were on board, and they beat the men from Tang. O'Kane stated, "When we realized that our clubbing and kickings were being administered by the burned, mutilated survivors of our handiwork, we found we could take it with less prejudice." The nine captives were placed in a prison camp at Ōfuna until the end of the war, where they were interrogated by Japanese intelligence.

Tang was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 8 February 1945.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Tang_(SS-306)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 October 1944 - Battle of Surigao Strait and Battle off Samar

The Battle of Leyte Gulf is generally considered to have been the largest naval battle of World War II and, by some criteria, possibly the largest naval battle in history.

The battle consisted of several separate engagements between the opposing forces: the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, the Battle of Surigao Strait, the Battle of Cape Engaño and the Battle off Samar, as well as other actions.

Battle of Surigao Strait


The Battle of Surigao Strait

The Battle of Surigao Strait is significant as the last battleship-to-battleship action in history. The Battle of Surigao Strait was one of only two battleship-versus-battleship naval battles in the entire Pacific campaign of World War II (the other being the naval battle during the Guadalcanal Campaign, where the USS South Dakota and Washington sank the Japanese battleship Kirishima). It was also the last battle in which one force (in this case, the U.S. Navy) was able to "cross the T" of its opponent. However, by the time that the battleship action was joined, the Japanese line was very ragged and consisted of only one battleship (Yamashiro), one heavy cruiser, and one destroyer, so that the "crossing of the T" was notional and had little effect on the outcome of the battle.

Nishimura's "Southern Force" consisted of the old battleships Yamashiro and Fusō, the heavy cruiser Mogami, and four destroyers. The four destroyers were Shigure, Michishio, Asagumo and Yamagumo. This task force left Brunei after Kurita at 15:00 on 22 October, turning eastward into the Sulu Sea and then northeasterly past the southern tip of Negros Island into the Mindanao Sea. Nishimura then proceeded northeastward with Mindanao Island to starboard and into the south entrance to the Surigao Strait, intending to exit the north entrance of the Strait into Leyte Gulf where he would add his firepower to that of Kurita's force.

The Japanese Second Striking Force was commanded by Vice Admiral Kiyohide Shima and comprised heavy cruisers Nachi (flag) and Ashigara, the light cruiser Abukuma, and the destroyers Akebono, Ushio, Kasumi, and Shiranui.

The Japanese Southern Force was attacked by U.S. Navy bombers on 24 October but sustained only minor damage.

Nishimura was unable to synchronise his movements with Shima and Kurita because of the strict radio silence imposed on the Center and Southern Forces. When he entered the Surigao Strait at 02:00, Shima was 25 nmi (29 mi; 46 km) behind him and Kurita was still in the Sibuyan Sea, several hours from the beaches at Leyte.

As the Japanese Southern Force approached the Surigao Strait, it ran into a deadly trap set by the U.S. 7th Fleet Support Force. Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf had a substantial force. There were six battleships: West Virginia, Maryland, Mississippi, Tennessee, California, and Pennsylvania. All but Mississippi had been sunk or damaged in the attack on Pearl Harbor and repaired, Tennessee, California, and West Virginia having been rebuilt. Four heavy cruisers (USS Louisville( flagship), Portland, Minneapolis, and HMAS Shropshire) carried 35 8-inch (203 mm) guns, and 54 6-inch (152 mm) guns were mounted by four light cruisers (Denver, Columbia, Phoenix, and Boise). Added to this were the smaller guns and torpedoes of 28 destroyers and 39 motor torpedo boats (Patrol/Torpedo (PT) boats). To pass through the narrows and reach the invasion shipping, Nishimura would have to run the gauntlet of torpedoes from the PT boats followed by the large force of destroyers, and then advance under the concentrated fire of the six battleships and their eight flanking cruisers deployed across the far mouth of the Strait.

At 22:36, PT-131 (Ensign Peter Gadd) was operating off Bohol when it made contact with the approaching Japanese ships. The PT boats made repeated attacks for more than three-and-a-half hours as Nishimura's force streamed northward. No torpedo hits were scored, but the PT boats did send contact reports which were of use to Oldendorf and his force.

Nishimura's ships passed unscathed through the gauntlet of PT boats. However, their luck ran out a short time later, as they were subjected to devastating torpedo attacks from the American destroyers deployed on both sides of their axis of advance. At about 03:00, both Japanese battleships were hit by torpedoes. Yamashiro was able to steam on, but Fusō was torpedoed by USS Melvin and fell out of formation, sinking forty minutes later. Two of Nishimura's four destroyers were sunk; the destroyer Asagumo was hit and forced to retire, but later sank.

The traditional account of Fusō's sinking was that she exploded into two halves that remained floating for some time. However, this view has been questioned recently because additional evidence has come to light. Fusō survivor Hideo Ogawa, interrogated in 1945, wrote an article on the battleship's last voyage. He says that "shortly after 0400 the ship capsized slowly to starboard and Ogawa and others were washed away." Fusō was hit on the starboard side by two or possibly three torpedoes. One of these started an oil fire. The fuel used by IJN ships in this period was poorly refined and had a tendency to burst into flame; burning patches of fuel were most likely the source of the story of Fusō blowing up. It is unlikely that a vessel as strongly built as a battleship could be blown in half and both halves remain upright and afloat, so the traditional version of Fusō's fate is improbable. Samuel Morison states that the bow half of Fusō was sunk by gunfire from Louisville, and the stern half sank off Kanihaan Island.


USS West Virginia firing on the Japanese fleet

At 03:16, West Virginia's radar picked up the surviving ships of Nishimura's force at a range of 42,000 yd (38,000 m). West Virginia tracked them as they approached in the pitch black night. At 03:53, she fired the eight 16 in (406 mm) guns of her main battery at a range of 22,800 yd (20,800 m) or 12.9 miles, striking Yamashiro with her first salvo. She went on to fire a total of 93 shells. At 03:55, California and Tennessee joined in, firing a total of 63 and 69 14 in (356 mm) shells, respectively. Radar fire control allowed these American battleships to hit targets from a distance at which the Japanese battleships with their inferior fire control systems could not return fire.

The other three U.S. battleships also had difficulty, equipped with less advanced gunnery radar. Maryland eventually succeeded in visually ranging on the splashes of the other battleships' shells, and then fired a total of 48 16 in (406 mm) projectiles. Pennsylvania was unable to find a target and her guns remained silent.

Mississippi only fired once in the battle-line action, a full salvo of 12 14-in shells. This was the last salvo ever fired by a battleship against another battleship in history, closing a significant chapter in naval warfare.

Yamashiro and Mogami were crippled by a combination of 16 in and 14 in armor-piercing shells, as well as the fire of Oldendorf's flanking cruisers. The cruisers that had the latest radar equipment fired well over 2,000 rounds of armor piercing 6-inch and 8-inch shells. Louisville (Oldendorf's flagship) fired 37 salvos—333 rounds of 8-inch shells. The Japanese command had apparently lost grasp of the tactical picture, with all ships firing all batteries in several directions, "frantically showering steel through 360°." Shigure turned and fled but lost steering and stopped dead. At 0405 Yamashiro was struck by a torpedo fired by Bennion, and suddenly sank at about 04:20, with Nishimura on board. Mogami and Shigure retreated southwards down the Strait. The destroyer USS Albert W. Grant was hit by friendly fire during the night battle, but did not sink.

The rear of the Japanese Southern Force—the "Second Striking Force" commanded by Vice Admiral Shima—had departed from Mako and approached Surigao Strait about 40 mi (35 nmi; 64 km) astern of Nishimura. Shima's run was initially thrown into confusion by his force nearly running aground on Panaon Island after failing to factor the outgoing tide into their approach. Japanese radar was almost useless due to excessive reflections from the many islands. The American radar was equally unable to detect ships in these conditions, especially PT boats, as PT-137 hit the light cruiser Abukuma with a torpedo that crippled her and caused her to fall out of formation. Shima’s two heavy cruisers, Nachi and Ashigara, and eight destroyers next encountered remnants of Nishimura's force. Shima saw what he thought were the wrecks of both Nishimura's battleships and ordered a retreat. His flagship Nachi collided with Mogami, flooding Mogami's steering room and causing her to fall behind in the retreat; she was sunk by aircraft the next morning. Of Nishimura's seven ships, only Shigure survived. Shima’s ships did survive the Battle of Surigao Strait, but they were sunk in further engagements around Leyte, while Shigure survived long enough to escape the debacle, but eventually succumbed to the American submarine Blackfin on 24 January 1945, which sank her off Kota Bharu, Malaya, with 37 dead.

Battle off Samar


The battle off Samar

Halsey's decision to take all the available strength of 3rd Fleet northwards to attack the carriers of the Japanese Northern Force had left San Bernardino Strait completely unguarded.

Senior officers in 7th Fleet (including Kinkaid and his staff) generally assumed Halsey was taking his three available carrier groups northwards (McCain's group, the strongest in 3rd Fleet, was still returning from the direction of Ulithi), but leaving the battleships of TF 34 covering the San Bernardino Strait against the Japanese Center Force. In fact, Halsey had not yet formed TF 34, and all six of Willis Lee's battleships were on their way northwards with the carriers, as well as every available cruiser and destroyer of the Third Fleet.

Kurita's Center Force therefore emerged unopposed from San Bernardino Strait at 03:00 on 25 October and steamed southward along the coast of the island of Samar. In its path stood only the 7th Fleet's three escort carrier units (call signs 'Taffy' 1, 2, and 3), with a total of sixteen small, very slow, and unarmored escort carriers, protected by a screen of lightly armed and unarmored destroyers and smaller destroyer escorts (DEs). Despite the losses in the Palawan Passage and Sibuyan Sea actions, the Japanese Center Force was still very powerful, consisting of four battleships (including the giant Yamato), six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and eleven destroyers.

Battle
Kurita's force caught Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague's Task Unit 77.4.3 ('Taffy 3') by surprise. Sprague directed his carriers to launch their planes, then run for the cover of a rain squall to the east. He ordered the destroyers and DEs to make a smoke screen to conceal the retreating carriers.

Kurita, unaware that Ozawa's decoy plan had succeeded, assumed he had found a carrier group from Halsey's 3rd Fleet. Having just redeployed his ships into anti-aircraft formation, he further complicated matters by ordering a "General Attack", which called for his fleet to split into divisions and attack independently.

The destroyer USS Johnston was the closest to the enemy. On his own initiative, Lieutenant Commander Ernest E. Evans steered his hopelessly outclassed ship into the Japanese fleet at flank speed. Johnston fired its torpedoes at the heavy cruiser Kumano, damaging her and forcing her out of line. Seeing this, Sprague gave the order "small boys attack", sending the rest of Taffy 3's screening ships into the fray. Taffy 3's two other destroyers, Hoel and Heermann, and the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts, attacked with suicidal determination, drawing fire and disrupting the Japanese formation as ships turned to avoid their torpedoes. As the ships approached the enemy columns, Lt. Cdr. Copeland of Samuel B. Roberts told all hands via bull horn that this would be "a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival could not be expected." As the Japanese fleet continued to approach, Hoel and Roberts were hit multiple times, and quickly sank. After expending all of its torpedoes, Johnston continued to fight with its 5-inch guns, until it was sunk by a group of Japanese destroyers.

As they were preparing their aircraft for attack, the escort carriers returned the Japanese fire with all the firepower they had – one 5 in. gun per carrier. The officer in tactical command had instructed the carriers to "open with pea shooters," and each ship took an enemy vessel under fire as soon as it came within range. Fanshaw Bay fired on a cruiser, and is believed to have registered five hits, one amidst the superstructure that caused smoke. Kalinin Bay targeted a Myoko-class heavy cruiser, claiming a hit on the cruiser's No. 2 turret, with a second just below the first. Gambier Bay sighted a cruiser, and claimed at least three hits. White Plains reported hits on multiple targets, two between the superstructure and forward stack and another on the No. 1 turret of a heavy cruiser.

Meanwhile, Rear Admiral Thomas Sprague (no relation to Clifton) ordered the sixteen escort carriers in his three task units to immediately launch all their aircraft equipped with whatever weapons they had available, even if these were only machine guns or depth charges. Collectively, Sprague had a total of some 450 aircraft from the carriers at his disposal. Although most of these aircraft were older models, such as the FM-2 Wildcat and TBM Avenger torpedo bombers, the fact that the Japanese force had no air cover meant that American planes could attack unopposed. Consequently, the air counterattacks were almost unceasing, and some, especially several of the strikes launched from Felix Stump's Task Unit 77.4.2 (Taffy 2), were heavy.

The carriers of Taffy 3 turned south and retreated through the shellfire. Gambier Bay, at the rear of the American formation, became the focus of the battleship Yamato and sustained multiple hits before capsizing at 09:07. Several other carriers were damaged but were able to escape.

Admiral Kurita withdraws

St. Lo exploded after a kamikaze strike.

The ferocity of the defense seemingly confirmed the Japanese assumption that they were engaging major fleet units rather than merely escort carriers and destroyers. The confusion of the "General Attack" order was compounded by the air and torpedo attacks, when Kurita's flagship Yamato turned north to evade torpedoes and lost contact with the battle. Kurita abruptly broke off the fight and gave the order 'all ships, my course north, speed 20', apparently to regroup his disorganized fleet. Turning again towards Leyte Gulf, Kurita's battle report stated he had received a message indicating a group of American carriers was steaming north of him. Preferring to expend his fleet against capital ships rather than transports, Kurita set out in pursuit and thereby lost his opportunity to destroy the shipping in Leyte Gulf. After failing to intercept the non-existent carriers, Kurita finally retreated towards San Bernardino Strait. Three of his heavy cruisers had been sunk, and the determined resistance had convinced him that persisting with his attack would only cause further Japanese losses. In addition, Kurita's decision was no doubt influenced by the fact that he did not know that Ozawa had lured Halsey's entire fleet away from Leyte Gulf. Poor communication between the separate Japanese forces and a lack of air reconnaissance meant that Kurita was never informed that the deception had been successful, and that only a small and outgunned force stood between his battleships and the vulnerable transports of the invasion fleet. Thus, Kurita remained convinced that he had been engaging elements of the 3rd Fleet, and it would only be a matter of time before Halsey surrounded and annihilated him. Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague wrote to his colleague Aubrey Fitch after the war, "I ... stated [to Admiral Nimitz] that the main reason they turned north was that they were receiving too much damage to continue and I am still of that opinion and cold analysis will eventually confirm it."

Almost all of Kurita's surviving force escaped. Halsey and the 3rd Fleet battleships returned too late to cut him off. Nagato and Kongō had been moderately damaged by air attack from Taffy 3's escort carriers. Kurita had begun the battle with five battleships. On their return to their bases, only Yamato and Haruna remained battleworthy.

As the desperate surface action was coming to an end, Vice Admiral Takijirō Ōnishi put his 'Special Attack Force' into operation, launching kamikaze attacks against the Allied ships in Leyte Gulf and the escort carrier units off Samar. The escort carrier St. Lo of Taffy 3 was hit by a kamikaze aircraft and sank after a series of internal explosions.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf#Battle_of_Surigao_Strait_(25_October_1944)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 October 1944 - Japanese battleship Fusō sunk during the Battle of Leyte Gulf


Fusō (扶桑, a classical name for Japan) was the lead ship of the two Fusō-class dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Launched in 1914 and commissioned in 1915, she initially patrolled off the coast of China, playing no part in World War I. In 1923, she assisted survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake.



Fusō was modernized in 1930–1935 and again in 1937–1941, with improvements to her armor and propulsion machinery and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style. With only 14-inch (356 mm) guns, she was outclassed by other Japanese battleships at the beginning of World War II, and played auxiliary roles for most of the war.

Fusō was part of Vice-Admiral Shōji Nishimura's Southern Force at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. She was sunk in the early hours of 25 October 1944 by torpedoes and naval gunfire during the Battle of Surigao Strait. Some reports claimed that Fusō broke in half, and that both halves remained afloat and burning for an hour, but according to survivors' accounts, the ship sank after 40 minutes of flooding. Of the few dozen crewmen who escaped, only 10 survived to return to Japan.



Battle of Surigao Strait

The Battle of Surigao Strait

Commanded by Rear Admiral Masami Ban, Fusō left Brunei at 15:30 on 22 October 1944 as part of Nishimura's Southern Force, heading east into the Sulu Sea and then northeast into the Mindanao Sea. Intending to join Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita's force in Leyte Gulf, the force passed west of Mindanao Island into Surigao Strait, where it met a large force of battleships and cruisers lying in wait. The Battle of Surigao Strait became the southernmost action in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

At 09:08 on 24 October, Fusō, Yamashiro, and the heavy cruiser Mogami spotted a group of 27 planes, including Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers and Curtiss SB2C Helldiver dive bombers escorted by Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters from the carrier Enterprise. A bomb from one of them destroyed the catapult and both floatplanes. Another bomb hit the ship near Turret No. 2 and penetrated the decks, killing everyone in No. 1 secondary battery; the ship began to list 2 degrees to starboard. Early the next morning, Fusō opened fire around 01:05 after a shape was spotted off the port bow; it turned out to be Mogami; Fusō's fire killed three sailors in that ship's sick bay.

One or two torpedoes, possibly fired by the destroyer Melvin, hit Fusō amidships on the starboard side at 03:09 on the 25th; she listed to starboard, slowed down, and fell out of formation. Some Japanese and American eyewitnesses later claimed that Fusō broke in half, and that both halves remained afloat and burning for an hour, but they specifically mentioned only the size of the fire on the water, and not any details of the ship. Historian John Toland agreed in 1970 that Fusō had broken in two, but according to historian Anthony Tully in 2009:


Fusō and Mogami under air attack during the Battle of Surigao Strait

[Survivors' accounts] and the USS Hutchins report are describing a sinking and event at odds with the conventional record—one that seems far removed from the spectacle of the invariably alleged huge magazine explosion and blossom of light at 0338 that supposedly blew the battleship in half! ... Fusowas torpedoed, and as a result of progressive flooding, upended and capsized within forty minutes.​

Fusō sank between 03:38 and 03:50; only a few dozen men survived the rapid sinking and oil fire. There is evidence that some of these were rescued by the destroyer Asagumo, which was itself sunk a short time later; it is also possible that some who escaped the sinking reached Leyte only to be killed by Filipinos, as is known to have happened to survivors from other Japanese warships sunk in the Battle of Surigao Strait. Ten crew members are known to have survived, all of whom returned to Japan. The total number of casualties is estimated at 1,620 sailors. Fusō was removed from the navy list on 31 August 1945.

Wreck
RV Petrel discovered the wreck of Fusō in late 2017. It was discovered that the hull of the ship was mostly in one piece, although bow was broken and angled away from the main hull as a result of a torpedo hit. The pagoda mast was found to have snapped off when the ship sank and was subsequently lying some distance from the hull. The ship lays upside down in 607 ft (185 m) of water.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Fusō
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Musashi

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 25 October


1616 – Dutch sea-captain Dirk Hartog makes second recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil, at the later-named Dirk Hartog Island off the West Australian coast.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Hartog


1669 – Launch of French Français 62/66 (designed and built by Laurent Hubac, launched 25 October 1669 at Brest) – renamed Glorieux in June 1671; burnt in action 1677


1703 – Launch of french Étoile, 30 guns, design by Philippe Cochois, launched 25 October 1703 at Le Havre – captured by the English Navy November 1704, becoming HMS Swallow's Prize, 32.


1779 – Launch of French Émeraude, a Sibylle class was a class of five 32-gun

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibylle-class_frigate


1787 – Launch of French Impétueux 74 (launched 25 October 1787 at Rochefort) – Captured by the British in the Glorious First of June 1794 and added to the RN under the same name, accidentally burnt 1794

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Impétueux_(1787)


1791 – Launch of french Concorde, 36 guns (launched 25 October 1791 at Brest) – captured by British Navy 4 August 1800.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Concorde_(1793)


1796 - HMS Santa Margaritta (36), Cptn. Thomas Byam Martin, captured Vengeur (18). The day before she captured the 16-gun privateer Buonoparte.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Santa_Margarita_(1779)


1797 - HMS Indefatigable (44), Sir Edward Pellew, captured privateer Hyene (24).

Ten days after that, Indefatigable captured the privateer Hyène after a chase of eight hours. She was armed with twenty-four 9-pounder guns and had a crew of 230 men. She was two weeks out of Bayonne but had not captured anything. Hyène had apparently mistaken Indefatigable for a vessel from Portuguese India. Pellew estimated that, had she not lost her foretopmast in the chase, she might have escaped.[29] She had been the post-ship Hyaena until her capture in 1793; the Royal Navy took her back into service under her original name.[

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Indefatigable_(1784)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hyaena_(1778)


1801 - HMS Bonetta (18), Thomas New, wrecked on a shoal east of the Jardines, Cuba. Mr Goarman, 2nd Lt. and officer of the watch, was found guilty of causing the loss by sleeping on watch and for disobeying Capt. New's orders. He was dismissed from the service for ever, lost all his pay and was imprisoned for two years in the Marshalsea.

HMS Bonetta (1797) was an 18-gun brig-sloop captured from the French in 1797. She was wrecked in 1801.


1804 - HMS Georgiana Gun-boat, Lt. Joshua Kneeshaw, grounded on a sand-bank on an ebb tide near Harfleur. She was burnt to avoid capture.


1807 - Boats of HMS Herald (20), G. M. Hony, cut out French privateer Caesar (4) anchored under the fortress at Otranto

On 25 October 1807, Herald was off Otranto when she found an armed trabaccolo anchored under the fortress. Despite resistance, Herald's boats cut out the vessel, which turned out to be the French privateer César, armed with four 6-pounders. César was sailing from Ancona to Corfu with a cargo of rice and flour. All but four of the crew escaped. Herald suffered four men wounded.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Herald_(1806)


1810 - HMS Calliope (10), John M'Kerlie, captured French privateer Comtesse d'Hambourg (14) off the Dogger Bank

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Calliope_(1808)


1813 – Launch of HMS Granicus, a Scamander class sailing frigates were a series of ten 36-gun ships,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scamander-class_frigate


1813 – USS Congress, commanded by Capt. John Smith, captures and burns the British merchant ship Rose in the Atlantic off the coast of Brazil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Congress_(1799)


1855 – Launch of French Redoutable, a 90-gun Algésiras-class steam ship of the line

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Redoutable_(1855)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoléon-class_ship_of_the_line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramillies-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 October 1588 - La Girona was a galleass of the 1588 Spanish Armada that foundered and sank off Lacada Point, County Antrim


La Girona was a galleass of the 1588 Spanish Armada that foundered and sank off Lacada Point, County Antrim, on the night of 26 October 1588, after making its way eastward along the Northern Irish coast. The wreck is noteworthy for the great loss of life that resulted, and the treasures recovered.


Wreck of the Girona (Ulster Museum Exhibit Painting)

Shipwreck
La Girona had anchored in Killybegs harbour, Donegal, with a damaged rudder. With the assistance of an Irish chieftain, MacSweeney Bannagh, she was repaired and set sail for Scotland on 25 October, with 1,300 men on board, including Alonso Martinez de Leyva.

After Lough Foyle was cleared, a gale struck and La Girona was driven on to Lacada Point and the Spanish Rocks(as they were known, thereafter) in County Antrim, on the night of 26 October 1588. Of the estimated 1300 souls on board, there were nine survivors. 260 bodies washed ashore and were buried in a common grave at the local churchyard.


This 19th-century engraving depicts a Spanish galleon (galleass) shipwrecked at Port-Na Spaniagh in 1588. Lacada Point and Spanish Rocks are in the background.

The survivors were sent on to Scotland by the local clan leader Sorley Boy MacDonnell of Dunluce Castle, which was situated just to the west on the Giant's Causeway cliffs overlooking the coast. From there, MacDonnell is also believed to have conducted the first clandestine salvage efforts on the shipwreck.

Salvage
In 1967-68, off the coast of Portballintrae (Port-na Spaniagh bay), a team of Belgian divers (including Robert Sténuit, the world's first aquanaut), located the remains of the wreck and brought up the greatest find of Spanish Armada treasure ever salvaged. The underwater site was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act on 22 April 1993.

Commemoration
The wrecking of La Girona is officially commemorated with a period illustration on the reverse side of sterling banknotes issued by the First Trust Bank in Northern Ireland.



Ulster Museum Exhibit, Belfast
"Treasures from the Girona"

Gold and silver coins, jewelry, armaments, and utilitarian objects from the Spanish galleass, Girona, are on permanent display at the Ulster Museum (National Museums of Northern Ireland) in Belfast.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girona_(ship)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 October 1597 – Imjin War: Admiral Yi Sun-sin routs the Japanese Navy of 300 ships with only 13 ships at the Battle of Myeongnyang.


In the Battle of Myeongnyang, on October 26, 1597, the Korean Joseon kingdom's navy, led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin, fought the Japanese navy in the Myeongnyang Strait, near Jindo Island, off the southwest corner of the Korean peninsula.


1940s. Picture of Part of a Naval Battle Scroll from the Imjin War.

With only 13 ships remaining from Admiral Won Gyun's disastrous defeat at the Battle of Chilchonryang, Admiral Yi held the strait as a "last stand" battle against the Japanese Navy, who were sailing to support their land army's advance towards the Joseon capital of Hanyang (modern-day Seoul).

The actual numeric strength of the Japanese fleet that Admiral Yi fought is unclear; various sources indicate the number of Japanese ships could have been anywhere between 120 and 330 ships, though the low end of this range appears to be a count of actual warships and the high end appears to be referring to the entire Japanese fleet (including roughly 200 supporting non-combatant ships). Regardless of the size of the Japanese fleet, all sources indicate that the Japanese ships heavily outnumbered the Korean ships, by at least a ten-to-one ratio. In total 30 Japanese warships were sunk or crippled during the battle. Todo Takatora, the commander of the Japanese navy, was wounded during the battle and half of his subordinate officers were also wounded or killed. Given the disparity in numbers of ships, the naval battle is regarded as one of Admiral Yi's most remarkable victories, and a humiliating naval defeat for the Japanese. Even after the victory, however, the Joseon navy was still outnumbered by the remaining Japanese navy, so Admiral Yi withdrew to the Yellow Sea to resupply his fleet and have more space for a mobile defense. After the Korean navy withdrew, the Japanese navy made an incursion into the western coast of Korea, near some islands in Yeonggwang County.

Battle Preparation

Admiral Yi studied numerous sites for his last stand with the Japanese navy and decided on luring them into the Myeongnyang Strait. The Japanese would clearly enter the strait when the tide was favorable, thus, he didn’t want to fight south of the strait, with the current at the attacker’s advantage. Instead, he wanted to fight in the waters just north of the strait, where the currents were calmer. The strait had very strong currents that flowed at approximately 10 knots, first in one direction, then in the opposite direction, in three hour intervals. Admiral Yi realized he could use this unique condition as a force multiplier. The narrowness of the strait would prevent the Joseon fleet from being flanked by the numerically superior enemy fleet, and the roughness of the currents prevented the Japanese from effectively maneuvering, forcing them to attack in smaller groups and made it difficult to close in with the Korean ships. Furthermore, once the tide changed the flow of the current would in effect push the Japanese away from Yi’s fleet and the momentum could be harnessed to increase the effectiveness of a counterattack.



North Flowing Current
Morning of October 26, the huge Japanese fleet was spotted by Yi’s scouts as they deployed around the small bay on the southern end of Myeongnyang strait. Admiral Yi’s fleet then redeployed out of their base in Usuyeong to block the northern end of the strait. Yi described about “200 enemy ships flowing into the strait” and at least 133 ships in his immediate vicinity. It is estimated that at least 133 ships were warships and at least 200 ships immediately behind were logistical support ships. In the Japanese record, the ships put into the front line where the middle class warships called ‘Seki-bune’ since the Japanese navy came to understand the risk of attacks by the main Korean warships which had stood by near the strait.

Yi’s warships deployed on the northern end of the strait and dropped anchor. Yi in his flagship advanced upon the vanguard of the Japanese fleet, which was commanded by Kurushima Michifusa. For a time only the flagship fought in the battle. The crews of the Joseon fleet were made up of survivors from Chilchonryang and they were still badly shaken up and intimidated by the overwhelming size of the Japanese fleet. In Yi’s diary: “My flagship was alone facing the enemy formation. Only my ship fired cannons and arrows. None of the other ships advanced, so I could not assure our outcome. All other officers were seeking to run, as they knew this battle was against a massive force. Ship commanded by Kim Eok-chu, the Officer of Jeolla Right province, was at 3km away.” For a time it looked like Yi’s flagship was “a ship standing like a castle in the middle of the sea.”

The flagship’s ability to hold out against the Japanese vanguard eventually gave heart to the rest of Yi’s fleet and small groups of his ships came to his aid. First came a ship commanded by local magistrate An Wi and then several ships commanded by central squadron leader Kim Ung-ham. Seeing the success of the flagship and the handful of other boats, the rest of Yi’s fleet joined in the fight.

South Flowing Current
The tide soon shifted and the Japanese ships began to drift backwards and collide with each other. Admiral Yi ordered his ships to advance and press the attack, plunging into 30 Japanese ships. The dense formation of Japanese ships crowded in the narrow strait made a perfect target for Joseon cannon fire. The strong tides prevented those in the water from swimming to shore, and many Japanese sailors who abandoned sinking or damaged ships drowned. By the end of the battle, approximately 30 Japanese warships were damaged. Some Korean documents record the number of damaged Japanese warships, however the condition of the damaged ships is unclear.

The immediate results of the battle were a shock to the Japanese command. Without being resupplied or reinforced, the morale of the Japanese soldiers declined. Joseon and Ming armies were able to regroup. Even after the victory, however, the Joseon navy was still outnumbered by the remaining Japanese navy, so Admiral Yi withdrew to the Yellow sea to resupply his fleet and have more space for mobile defense. After hearing the news of the heroic victory, many surviving ships and sailors who had been hiding after the defeat at Chilcheollyang joined Admiral Yi’s fleet.

Due to this dramatic victory of Admiral Yi, Joseon destroyed the Japanese campaign to provide supplies and reinforcements to their army. As a result, they started building castles on the southern coast and preparing for a long-range war instead of the advancement to Hanyang, the capital of the Joseon dynasty.

The Statue of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin in KoreA


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Myeongnyang
http://factuation.com/the-greatest-naval-war-13-against-130/

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 October 1707 - HMS Romney (1694 - 50) wrecked


HMS Romney was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Blackwall Yard in 1694.

Commanded by Captain William Coney, Romney was wrecked on the Scilly Isles on 26 October 1707 when a disastrous navigational error sent Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's fleet through dangerous reefs while on their way from Gibraltar to Portsmouth. Four ships (Romney, Association, Firebrand and Eagle) were lost, with nearly 2,000 sailors. Romney hit Bishop Rock and went down with all but one of her crew. The sole survivor was George Lawrence, who had worked as a butcher before joining the crew of Romney as quartermaster. The Scilly naval disaster was one of the greatest maritime disasters in British history. It was largely as a result of this disaster that the Board of the Admiralty instituted a competition for a more precise method to determine longitude.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Romney_(1694)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 October 1805 – Spanish Rayo, an 80-gun ship of the line wrecked


The Rayo was an 80-gun ship of the line of the Spanish Navy. As was traditional for Spanish ships not named after a saint, its second, dedicatory name was San Pedro Apóstol. It fought at Trafalgar and was dismasted as a result of damage sustained in the battle. When she sortied after Trafalgar in order to recover prizes, the warship was captured by HMS Donegal. Subsequently, she ran aground and was wrecked in a storm. Her broken hull was set ablaze and destroyed by British sailors on 31 October.


Español: Dirección completa de la ubicación en la Real Biblioteca: http://realbiblioteca.patrimonionac.../frameset&FF=Xnavio&SORT=D&searchscope=5&2,2,
Date1804Source http://realbiblioteca.patrimonionacional.esAuthorHonorato Bouyon

Service
Early
Construction on Rayo started in 1748 in Havana, Cuba, alongside the Real Fénix and was launched in the summer of 1749. It was commissioned in January 1751, but was unable to leave port for the lack of crew. It took another year to find the enough men to sail. It left Havana for Cadiz with a minimal complement of 453, accompanied by the ships Princesa, Infante and Galicia and a cargo of sugar and timber. She remained in Cadiz for further outfits.

In 1765, under the command of Captain Don José de Rojas Recaño, Rayo was assigned to the fleet under the command of Admiral Don Juan José de Navarro Viana y Búfalo, the 1st Marqués de la Victoria. The fleet was made up of the Rayo, Arrogante, Triunfante, Atlante, Galicia, Princesa, Guerrero , Velasco, Poderoso, two chambequines and five minor vessels. The fleet sailed from Cádiz on 17 May. After briefly stopping at Cartagena, it sailed on to Genoa, arriving on 17 July to drop off the infanta Doña Luisa María Teresa de Parma, daughter of Felipe I de Parma and pick up the Princess Maria Luisa of Spain, daughter of King Carlos III. The fleet returned to Cartagena on 11 August where it dropped off the infanta Doña Luisa María Teresa de Parma and the Marques of la Victoria, Juan José de Navarro Viana y Búfalo. Command was then handed over to Admiral Don Luis de Córdova y Córdova. A smaller fleet was formed, sailing from Cartagena on 23 August, consisting of the Rayo, Princesa and Guerrero which was tasked with escorting two tartans and a saetía back to Cádiz.

In 1769, Rayo was disarmed and stationed at Cádiz under the command of Captain Don Pedro Moyano who was charged with the ship's preservation. Between February and April 1769, the ship was careened and refitted

Rebuild
Trafalgar


Rayo Ship

Rayo was dismasted as a result of damage sustained in the battle. A few days later, Rayo went to sea in an attempt to recapture prizes taken by the British. During this effort, it was captured by HMS Donegal. With a British prize crew aboard, she ran aground in the storm of 26 October and was wrecked. Her broken hull was set ablaze and destroyed by British sailors on 31 October.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_ship_Rayo_(1751)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 October 1808 - HMS Jackal (or Jackall), a Bloodhound-class brig wrecked on the French shore, about three miles from Calais


HMS Jackal (or Jackall) was a Bloodhound-class brig of the Royal Navy, launched in 1801. She captured a number of small prizes in the Channel, including one armed sloop, before she was lost in 1807.

Service
Jackal was built to a design by Sir John Henslow. The Royal Navy commissioned her in April 1801 under the command of Lieutenant George Pattison, for the Nore. In 1802 Lieutenant William Hicks replaced Pattinson. An investigation by the Victualling Commissioners resulted in a court martial dismissing Hicks from the Navy for what was a kick-back scheme. Further investigation implicated the commanders of six more vessels in accepting over-charging by suppliers at Margate.

Lieutenant Charles Tovey Leaver recommissioned Jackal in April 1803.

On the afternoon of 29 September 1803, Jackall sighted and chased a sloop running along the shore between Nieuport and Dunkirk. The wind fell so Leaver sent 11 men in a boat to board the quarry. As the British approached, the sloop ran ashore near three field pieces and a small battery of two guns, and her crew of 10 or 12 men escaped on shore. Jackall, which had been using her sweeps, and with the assistance of a light breeze that had arisen, came up and provided support for the boat and the sloop, which the boarding party had gotten off. The sloop turned out to be from Dunkirk, armed with four 2-pounder guns, and possibly serving to transport troops. Despite the fire from the sloop before she grounded, and the guns on shore, which were within 25 yards of the sloop, the British sustained no casualties.[3] The sloop turned out to be San Façon.

In June 1804 Jackall detained and sent into Dover Vrow Elina, of Embden, which was sailing from Dort to France.

In 1804 Lieutenant Charles Stewart replaced Leaver. Stewart was captain on 14 June when Jackall intercepted three luggers off Kent. She was able to capture two, Io, of Deal, and Nancy, both of which turned out to be smuggling brandy and gin from Guernsey. Stewart sent them into Dover.

Jackall came into Deal with the loss of her fore top-mast on 23 September.

Still, in October, Jackal detained and sent into Dover Juno, Schels, master, which had been carrying wheat from Amsterdam to Cadiz.

On 10 January 1805 Jackal sailed from Deal with a pilot, Mr Kercaldie, on board to replace the floating light on the Galloper Sand.[9] This had broken loose from its moorings in the December gales that swept it through the Downs on 18 December when a Deal boat put two men on board and took it in to Dover.

Jackall was in company with Blazer and Furious on 20 April and so shared in the capture on that day of Dorothea.

In mid-August Vrow von Scholten, Fitzpatrick, master, came into the Downs after Jackall detained her. Vrow von Scholten had been sailing from St Thomas's to Amsterdam.

On 10 February 1806 Jackall recaptured Pomona, John Lemon, master. Pomona had been sailing from St Kitt's to London when a Dutch privateer had captured her. Jackall sent Pomona into the Downs.

Then on 12 April Jackall arrived in the Downs with two vessels she had detained.

The next day Jackall captured Printz Henrick, Krohn, master. At the end of the month, on 30 April, Jackall captured Mentor, Lutjberg, master. Mentor, of and for Uddevalla, had been sailing from Rochelle.

On 25 June, Amelia, Escort, Jackall, and Minx captured sundry Dutch fishing boats.

In February 1807, Jackall towed Thames, Maule, master, on a voyage from London to Jamaica, into Ramsgate after Thames ran into difficulties off Fecamp. Maule reported that he had seen the French carry into Dieppe a large ship that had been dismasted. Stewart reported that there were a number of dismasted ships near the coast and that many may have been driven on shore. Furthermore, he had seen a number of men of war dismasted and anchored near the French coast.

Jackall, Furious, Mariner, and Minx shared in the proceeds of the capture on 13 April of Twee Gebroeders, Moller, master. Lloyd's List reported the vessel as Twee Gesusters, and that she had been sailing from Normande to Norway when Lynx and Jackall had detained her and sent her into the Downs.

Fate
On 29 May 1807 Jackal was in the North Sea when she sighted and gave pursuit to a French privateer lugger, which eventually escaped into Dunkirk. As the weather worsened in the evening Jackal attempted to head back to the Downs, but grounded in the night. The crew manned the pumps until dawn, when they discovered that they were on the French shore, about three miles from Calais. As the tide rose, Jackalsank around 5 a.m., at which point the crew took to the rigging. By 8 a.m. the tide had gone out sufficiently that all were able safely to go ashore, whereupon the French took them prisoner.

The court martial for the loss of Jackal did not take place until 16 June 1814, presumably after her officers and crew returned from captivity.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Jackal_(1801)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 October 1859 – The Royal Charter is wrecked on the coast of Anglesey, north Wales with 459 dead.


Royal Charter was a steam clipper which was wrecked off the beach of Porth Alerth in Dulas Bay on the north-east coast of Anglesey on 26 October 1859. The precise number of dead is uncertain as the complete passenger list was lost in the wreck although an incomplete list (not including those who boarded just before departure) is retained in the Victorian Archives Centre in, Victoria, Australia. About 450 lives were lost, the highest death toll of any shipwreck on the Welsh coast. It was the most prominent victim among about 200 ships wrecked by the Royal Charter Storm.



The Royal Charter was built at the Sandycroft Ironworks on the River Dee and was launched in 1855. She was a new type of ship, a 2719-ton iron-hulled steam clipper, built in the same way as a clipper ship but with auxiliary steam engines which could be used in the absence of suitable winds.

The ship was used on the route from Liverpool to Australia, mainly as a passenger ship although there was room for some cargo. There was room for up to 600 passengers, with luxury accommodation in the first class. She was considered a very fast ship, able to make the passage to Australia via Cape Horn in under 60 days.


The Royal Charter sank in an 1859 storm, stimulating the establishment of modern weather forecasting.

Wreck
In late October 1859 Royal Charter was returning to Liverpool from Melbourne. Her complement of about 371 passengers (with a crew of about 112 and some other company employees), included many gold miners, some of whom had struck it rich at the diggings in Australia and were carrying large sums of gold about their persons. A consignment of gold was also being carried as cargo. As she reached the north-western tip of Anglesey on 25 October the barometer was dropping and it was claimed later by some passengers, though not confirmed, that the master, Captain Thomas Taylor, was advised to put into Holyhead harbour for shelter. He decided to continue on to Liverpool however.


The Royal Charter broke up on these rocks near Moelfre

Off Point Lynas the Royal Charter tried to pick up the Liverpool pilot, but the wind had now risen to Storm force 10 on the Beaufort scale and the rapidly rising sea made this impossible. During the night of 25/26 October the wind rose to Hurricane force 12 on the Beaufort Scale in what became known as the "Royal Charter gale". As the wind rose its direction changed from E to NE and then NNE, driving the ship towards the north-east coast of Anglesey. At 11 pm she anchored, but at 1.30 am on the 26th the port anchor chain snapped, followed by the starboard chain an hour later. Despite cutting the masts to reduce the drag of the wind, Royal Charter was driven inshore, with the steam engines unable to make headway against the gale. The ship initially grounded on a sandbank, but in the early morning of the 26th the rising tide drove her on to the rocks at a point just north of Moelfre at Porth Alerth on the north coast of Anglesey. Battered against the rocks by huge waves whipped up by winds of over 100 mph, she quickly broke up.

One member of the crew, Maltese born Guzi Ruggier also known as Joseph Rogers managed to swim ashore with a line, enabling a few people to be rescued, and a few others were able to struggle to shore through the surf. Most of the passengers and crew, a total of over 450 people, died. Many of them were killed by being dashed against the rocks by the waves rather than drowned. Others were said to have drowned, weighed down by the belts of gold they were wearing around their bodies. The survivors, 21 passengers and 18 crew members, were all men, with no women or children saved.

A list of 320 passenger names departing from Melbourne in August 1859 on the Royal Charter is available on-line from the Public Records Office, Victoria: "Index to Outward Passengers to Interstate, UK and Foreign Ports, 1852–1901".

A large quantity of gold was said to have been thrown up on the beach at Porth Alerth, with some families becoming rich overnight. The gold bullion being carried as cargo was insured for £322,000, but the total value of the gold on the ship must have been much higher as many of the passengers had considerable sums in gold, either on their bodies or deposited in the ship's strongroom. Many of the bodies recovered from the sea were buried nearby at St Gallgo's Church, Llanallgo, where the graves and a memorial can still be seen. There is also a memorial on the cliff above the rocks where the ship struck, which is on the Anglesey Coastal Path.


Scene of the shipwreck

At the time of the disaster there were allegations that local residents were becoming rich from the spoils of the wreck or exploiting grieving relatives of the victims, and the "Moelfre Twenty-Eight" who had been involved in the rescue attempts sent a letter to The Times trying to set the record straight and refute the accusations. The fact that English-speaking press representatives must have encountered a language barrier when attempting to gather information can only have served to further misunderstandings.

Almost exactly a century later (to the day) in October 1959 another ship, the Hindlea, struck the rocks in almost the same spot in another gale. This time there was a different outcome, with the Moelfre lifeboat under its coxswain, Richard Evans, succeeding in saving the crew.

During an episode of the BBC TV Show Who Do You Think You Are?, gardener Monty Don discovered his great-great-grandfather, Reverend Charles Vere Hodge, died on board Royal Charter.

Aftermath


The Royal Charter Memorial in the churchyard of St Gallgo's Church, Llanallgo

The aftermath of the disaster is described by Charles Dickens in The Uncommercial Traveller. Dickens visited the scene and talked to the rector of Llanallgo, the Rev. Stephen Roose Hughes, whose exertions in finding and identifying the bodies probably led to his own premature death soon afterwards. Dickens gives a vivid illustration of the force of the gale:

"So tremendous had the force of the sea been when it broke the ship, that it had beaten one great ingot of gold, deep into a strong and heavy piece of her solid iron-work: in which also several loose sovereigns that the ingot had swept in before it, had been found, as firmly embedded as though the iron had been liquid when they were forced there."
Dickens's friend, the painter Henry O'Neil exhibited the picture A Volunteer in 1860, based on the incident, depicting Rogers about to leap into the sea with the rope around him.

The disaster had an effect on the development of the Meteorological Office as Captain Robert FitzRoy, who was in charge of the office at the time, brought in the first gale warning service to prevent similar tragedies. The intensity of the "Royal Charter" storm and winds were frequently used as a yardstick in other national disasters – when the Tay Bridge collapsed in 1878 the Astronomer Royal referred to the Royal Charter storm frequently in his report.

The wreck was extensively salvaged by Victorians shortly after the disaster. The remains today lie close inshore in less than 5 metres of water as a series of iron bulkheads, plates and ribs which become covered and uncovered by the shifting sands from year to year. Gold sovereigns, pistols, spectacles and other personal items have been found by scuba divers by chance over the years.[4] Teams have air-lifted, water-dredged and metal-detected for other treasure as late as 2012 .

Britain's largest gold nugget
Vincent Thurkettle, a prospector from Norfolk, found in 2012 what is Britain’s biggest gold nugget while scouring the waters just off Anglesey. He kept his find secret until early May 2016 as he and friends continued to search for other debris from Royal Charter. He found the 97-gramme nugget in water about five metres deep, about five metres from the shore. The nugget was about 40 metres from the site of Royal Charter's wreck, so Thurkettle had to notify the Receiver of Wreck, who took possession of it on behalf of the Crown. Recent storms had exposed seabed that had lain under two metres of sand.

Cultural references
American folk singer Tom Russell recorded a song about the wreck of the Royal Charter, "Isaac Lewis" on the 2003 album Modern Art.

American folksingers William Pint and Felicia Dale covered the song "Isaac Lewis" on their 2017 album Midnight on the Sea.

The Royal Charter public house in Shotton is named after the vessel.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Charter_(ship)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 October 1887 - Ada and Ethel was a wooden schooner that was wrecked 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Seal Rocks, New South Wales, Australia, on 26 October 1887.


Ada and Ethel was a wooden schooner that was wrecked 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Seal Rocks, New South Wales, Australia, on 26 October 1887.

Ship description and construction
On 9 January 1886, Mr. Roderick of Eagleton, New South Wales, launched a new vessel built to the order of Messrs. Captain C. T. Messell and E. Davies, of Sydney, New South Wales. The christening ceremony was performed with champagne by Miss Ada Messell, Captain Messell′s daughter. The vessel was named after Ada and her infant sister Ethel May, who died approximately 12 months later.

Ada and Ethel then was taken to Sydney, entering Sydney Heads at half-past eleven on the night of 19 February 1886 under tow by the steamer Malua and was brought up in Pyrmont Bight to have her mast and other fittings installed. The passage down from Williams River was made in 10 hours.

Ada and Ethel was rigged as a fore-and-aft schooner, intended for the coasting trade. Her dimensions were 82.2 feet (25.05 m) long, 19.6 feet (5.97 m) beam, and 6.4 feet (1.95 m) depth, which gave her a gross register tonnage of 73 tons. She was built substantially of the best colonial hardwood, coppered, and copper-fastened. She was a sister ship of Julian, which was launched about eight months earlier and belonged to the same firm.

Wreck
Ada and Ethel left port on the afternoon of 26 October 1887 under the command of Captain Frederick. They soon found that the ship was taking on water so rapidly that by 19:30 the vessel became unmanageable, and Captain Frederick endeavoured to make for Port Stephens, New South Wales, where he intended to beach her. However, it was soon apparent that Ada and Ethel would not reach the shore, and Captain Frederick and the five members of his crew abandoned ship off Seal Rocks, New South Wales.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_and_Ethel

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 October 1893 - The battleship USS Oregon (BB 3) launches. During the Spanish-American War, she participates in the Battle of Santiago. After decommissioning in 1924, she serves as a historic ship before being sold to become a storage hulk for ammunition during World War II.


USS Oregon (BB-3) was a pre-dreadnought Indiana-class battleship of the United States Navy. Her construction was authorized on 30 June 1890, and the contract to build her was awarded to Union Iron Works of San Francisco, California on 19 November 1890. Her keel was laid exactly one year later. She was launched on 26 October 1893, sponsored by Miss Daisy Ainsworth (daughter of Oregon steamboat magnate John C. Ainsworth), delivered to the Navy on 26 June 1896, and commissioned on 15 July 1896 with Captain H.L. Howison in command. Later she was commanded by Captains Albert S. Barker and Alexander H. McCormick. Captain Charles E. Clark assumed command 17 March 1898 throughout the Spanish–American War.


USS Oregon in dry dock, 1898

Oregon served for a short time with the Pacific Squadron before being ordered on a voyage around South America to the East Coast in March 1898 in preparation for war with Spain. She departed from San Francisco on 19 March, and reached Jupiter Inlet 66 days later, a journey of 14,000 nautical miles (26,000 km; 16,000 mi). This was considered a remarkable achievement at the time. The journey popularized the ship with the American public and demonstrated the need for a shorter route, which led to construction of the Panama Canal. After completing her journey Oregon was ordered to join the blockade at Santiago as part of the North Atlantic Squadron under Rear Admiral William T. Sampson. She took part in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, where she and the cruiser Brooklyn were the only ships fast enough to chase down the Spanish cruiser Cristóbal Colón, forcing its surrender. Around this time she received the nickname "Bulldog of the Navy", most likely because of her high bow wave—known as "having a bone in her teeth" in nautical slang—and her perseverance during the cruise around South America and the battle of Santiago.



After the war, the Oregon was refitted and sent back to the Pacific. She served for a year in the Philippines during the Philippine–American War and then spent a year in China at Wusong during the Boxer Rebellion before returning to the United States for an overhaul. In March 1903, the Oregon returned to Asiatic waters and stayed there for three years, decommissioning in April 1906. The Oregon was recommissioned in August 1911, but she saw little activity and was officially placed on reserve status in 1914. After the United States joined World War I in 1917, the Oregon acted as one of the escorts for transport ships during the Siberian Intervention. In October 1919, she was decommissioned for the final time. As a result of the Washington Naval Treaty, the Oregon was declared "incapable of further warlike service" in January 1924. In June 1925, she was lent to the State of Oregon, which used her as a floating monument and museum in Portland, Oregon.

In February 1941, the Oregon was redesignated IX–22. Due to the outbreak of World War II, it was decided that her scrap value was more important than her historical value, so she was sold. Her stripped hulk was later returned to the Navy, and it used as an ammunition barge during the Battle of Guam, where she remained for several years. The USCGC Tupelo (WLB-303) assisted in towing the Oregon to Guam. During a typhoon in November 1948, she broke loose and drifted out to sea. She was located 500 miles southeast of Guam and then towed back. She was sold on 15 March 1956 and reduced to scrap iron in Japan.

Design and construction
Main article: Indiana-class battleship
Oregon was constructed from a modified version of a design drawn up by a policy board in 1889 for a short-range battleship. The original design was part of an ambitious naval construction plan to build 33 battleships and 167 smaller ships. The United States Congress saw the plan as an attempt to end the U.S. policy of isolationism and did not approve it, but a year later approved funding for three coast defense battleships, which would become Oregon and her sister ships Indiana and Massachusetts. The ships were limited to coastal defense due to their moderate endurance, relatively small displacement and low freeboard, or distance from the deck to the water, which limited seagoing capability. They were however heavily armed and armored; Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships describes their design as "attempting too much on a very limited displacement."


Oregon in the Willamette River, April 1941.

Construction of the ships was authorized on 30 June 1890 and the contracts for Indiana and Massachusetts were awarded to William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia. They also offered to build Oregon, but the Senate specified one of the ships had to be built on the West Coast of the United States. Therefore, the contract for Oregon—not including guns and armor—was awarded to Union Iron Works in San Francisco for $3,180,000. The total cost of the ship was over twice as high, approximately $6,500,000. Her keel was laid down on 19 November 1891 and she was launched two years later on 26 October 1893, a ceremony attended by thousands of people. The construction was slowed due to delays in armor deliveries, so the ship was not completed until March 1896. Her sea trial was on 14 May 1896, during which she achieved a speed of 16.8 kn (31.1 km/h; 19.3 mph), a significant improvement over the design speed of 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) and superior to her sister ships.


The three Indiana-class battleships were the first battleships to be built by the United States Navy that were comparable to contemporary European ships, such as the British HMS Hood. Authorized in 1890 and commissioned between November 1895 and April 1896, they were relatively small battleships with heavy armor and ordnance that pioneered the use of an intermediate battery. Specifically intended for coastal defense, their freeboard was insufficient to deal well with the waves of the open ocean. Their turrets lacked counterweights, and the main belt armor was placed too low to be effective under most conditions.


Outboard profile of Oregon, with position and arc of fire of the armament

The ships were named Indiana, Massachusetts, and Oregon and were designated Battleship Number 1 through 3. All three served in the Spanish–American War, although Oregon—which was stationed on the West Coast—had to cruise 14,000 nautical miles (26,000 km; 16,000 mi) around South America to the East Coast first. After the war, Oregon returned to the Pacific and participated in the Philippine–American War and Boxer Rebellion, while her sister ships were restricted to training missions in the Atlantic Ocean. After 1903, the obsolete battleships were de- and recommissioned several times, the last time during World War I when Indiana and Massachusetts served as training ships, while Oregon was a transport escort for the Siberian Intervention.

In 1919, all three ships were decommissioned for the final time. Indiana was sunk in shallow water as an explosives test target a year later and sold for scrap in 1924. Massachusetts was scuttled off the coast of Pensacola in 1920 and used as an artillery target. The wreck was never scrapped and is now a Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve. Oregon was initially preserved as a museum, but was sold for scrap during World War II. The scrapping was later halted and the stripped hulk was used as an ammunition barge during the battle of Guam. The hulk was finally sold for scrap in 1956.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Oregon_(BB-3)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana-class_battleship

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 October 1942 – World War II: In the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the Guadalcanal Campaign, one U.S. aircraft carrier, Hornet, is sunk and another aircraft carrier, Enterprise, is heavily damaged, while two Japanese carriers and one cruiser are heavily damaged.


The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, fought during 25–27 October 1942, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Santa Cruz or in Japan as the Battle of the South Pacific (Japanese: 南太平洋海戦 Minamitaiheiyō kaisen), was the fourth carrier battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II. It was also the fourth major naval engagement fought between the United States Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy during the lengthy and strategically important Guadalcanal campaign. As in the battles of Coral Sea, Midway, and the Eastern Solomons, the ships of the two adversaries were rarely in sight or gun range of each other. Instead, almost all attacks by both sides were mounted by carrier- or land-based aircraft.


The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise under attack

In an attempt to drive Allied forces from Guadalcanal and nearby islands and end the stalemate that had existed since September 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army planned a major ground offensive on Guadalcanal for 20–25 October 1942. In support of this offensive, and with the hope of engaging Allied naval forces, Japanese carriers and other large warships moved into a position near the southern Solomon Islands. From this location, the Japanese naval forces hoped to engage and decisively defeat any Allied (primarily U.S.) naval forces, especially carrier forces, that responded to the ground offensive. Allied naval forces also hoped to meet the Japanese naval forces in battle, with the same objectives of breaking the stalemate and decisively defeating their adversary.


A damaged Japanese dive bomber (upper left) dives towards Hornet at 09:14 ...


... and seconds later crashes into the carrier.

The Japanese ground offensive on Guadalcanal was under way in the Battle for Henderson Field while the naval warships and aircraft from the two adversaries confronted each other on the morning of 26 October 1942, just north of the Santa Cruz Islands. After an exchange of carrier air attacks, Allied surface ships retreated from the battle area with one carrier sunk (Hornet) and another heavily damaged (Enterprise). The participating Japanese carrier forces also retired because of high aircraft and aircrew losses, plus significant damage to two carriers.

Santa Cruz was a tactical victory and a short-term strategic victory for the Japanese in terms of ships sunk and damaged, and control of the seas around Guadalcanal. However, Japan's loss of many irreplaceable veteran aircrews proved to be a long-term strategic advantage for the Allies, whose aircrew losses in the battle were relatively low and quickly replaced.

The whole description of the battle at wikipedia


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Santa_Cruz_Islands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hornet_(CV-8)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(CV-6)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 October 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with an overwhelming American victory.


The Battle of Leyte Gulf (Filipino: Labanan sa Golpo ng Leyte) is generally considered to have been the largest naval battle of World War II and, by some criteria, possibly the largest naval battle in history.

It was fought in waters near the Philippine islands of Leyte, Samar and Luzon, from 23–26 October 1944, between combined American and Australianforces and the Imperial Japanese Navy. On 20 October, United States troops invaded the island of Leyte as part of a strategy aimed at isolating Japan from the countries it had occupied in Southeast Asia, and in particular depriving Japanese forces and industry of vital oil supplies. The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) mobilized nearly all of its remaining major naval vessels in an attempt to defeat the Allied invasion but was repulsed by the U.S. Navy's Third and Seventh fleets. The IJN failed to achieve its objective, suffered heavy losses, and never sailed to battle in comparable force thereafter. The majority of its surviving heavy ships, deprived of fuel, remained in their bases for the rest of the Pacific War and suffered under heavy sustained aerial attack.

The battle consisted of several separate engagements between the opposing forces: the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, the Battle of Surigao Strait, the Battle of Cape Engaño and the Battle off Samar, as well as other actions.

This was the first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organized kamikaze attacks. By the time of the battle, Japan had fewer naval ships than the Allied forces had aircraft carriers, underscoring the disparity in force strength at this point in the war.

Battle off Cape Engaño (25–26 October 1944)
See also: Leyte Gulf order of battle


The Japanese aircraft carriers Zuikaku, left, and (probably) Zuihōcome under attack by dive bombers early in the battle off Cape Engaño

Ozawa's "Northern Force" comprised four aircraft carriers (Zuikaku—the last survivor of the six carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941—and the light carriers Zuihō, Chitose, and Chiyoda), two World War I battleships partially converted to carriers (Hyūga and Ise—the two aft turrets had been replaced by a hangar, aircraft handling deck and catapult, but neither ship carried any aircraft in this battle), three light cruisers (Ōyodo, Tama, and Isuzu), and nine destroyers. His force had only 108 aircraft - slightly more than the maximum capacity of the flagship Zuikaku.

Ozawa's force was not located until 16:40 on 24 October, largely because Sherman's TG 38.3—which was the northernmost of Halsey's groups—was responsible for searches in this sector. The force that Halsey was taking north with him—three groups of Mitscher's TF 38—was overwhelmingly stronger than the Japanese Northern Force. Between them, these groups had five large fleet carriers (Intrepid, Franklin, Lexington, Enterprise, and Essex), five light carriers (Independence, Belleau Wood, Langley, Cabot, and San Jacinto), six modern battleships (Alabama, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, South Dakota, and Washington), eight cruisers (two heavy and six light), and more than 40 destroyers. The air groups of the ten U.S. carriers present contained 600–1,000 aircraft.

At 02:40 on 25 October, Halsey detached TF 34, built around the 3rd Fleet's six battleships and commanded by Vice Admiral Willis "Ching" Lee. As dawn approached, the ships of Task Force 34 drew ahead of the carrier groups. Halsey intended Mitscher to make air strikes followed by the heavy gunfire of Lee's battleships.


The crew of Zuikaku salute as the flag is lowered on the listing carrier after an airstrike, she is the last carrier participating in the Pearl Harbor Attackto be sunk.

Around dawn on 25 October, Ozawa launched 75 aircraft to attack the 3rd Fleet. Most were shot down by American combat air patrols, and no damage was done to the U.S. ships. A few Japanese planes survived and made their way to land bases on Luzon.

During the night, Halsey had passed tactical command of TF 38 to Admiral Mitscher, who ordered the American carrier groups to launch their first strike wave, of 180 aircraft, at dawn—before the Northern Force had been located. When the search aircraft made contact at 07:10, this strike wave was orbiting ahead of the task force. At 08:00, as the attack went in, its escorting fighters destroyed Ozawa's combat air patrol of about 30 planes. The U.S. air strikes continued until the evening, by which time TF 38 had flown 527 sorties against the Northern Force, sinking Zuikaku, the light carriers Chitose and Zuihō, and the destroyer Akizuki, all with heavy loss of life. The light carrier Chiyoda and the cruiser Tama were crippled. Ozawa transferred his flag to the light cruiser Ōyodo.

Crisis – U.S. 7th Fleet's calls for help
Shortly after 08:00 on 25 October, desperate messages calling for assistance began to come in from 7th Fleet, which had been engaging Nishimura's "Southern Force" in Surigao Strait since 02:00. One message from Kinkaid, sent in plain language, read: "My situation is critical. Fast battleships and support by air strikes may be able to keep enemy from destroying CVES and entering Leyte." Halsey recalled in his memoirs that he was shocked at this message, recounting that the radio signals from the 7th Fleet had come in at random and out of order because of a backlog in the signals office. It seems that he did not receive this vital message from Kinkaid until around 10:00. Halsey later claimed he knew Kinkaid was in trouble, but he had not dreamed of the seriousness of this crisis.

One of the most alarming signals from Kinkaid reported, after their action in Surigao Strait, 7th Fleet's own battleships were critically low on ammunition. Even this failed to persuade Halsey to send any immediate assistance to the powerful 7th Fleet. In fact, the 7th Fleet's battleships were not as short of ammunition as Kinkaid's signal implied, but Halsey did not know that.

From 3,000 mi (2,600 nmi; 4,800 km) away in Pearl Harbor, Admiral Nimitz had been monitoring the desperate calls from Taffy 3, and sent Halsey a terse message: "TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVENTY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS." The first four words and the last three were "padding" used to confuse enemy cryptanalysis (the beginning and end of the true message was marked by double consonants). The communications staff on Halsey's flagship correctly deleted the first section of padding but mistakenly retained the last three words in the message finally handed to Halsey. The last three words—probably selected by a communications officer at Nimitz's headquarters—may have been meant as a loose quote from Tennyson's poem on "The Charge of the Light Brigade", suggested by the coincidence that this day, 25 October, was the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Balaclava—and was not intended as a commentary on the current crisis off Leyte. Halsey, however, when reading the message, thought that the last words—"THE WORLD WONDERS"—were a biting piece of criticism from Nimitz, threw his cap to the deck and broke into "sobs of rage". Rear Admiral Robert Carney, his Chief of Staff, confronted him, telling Halsey "Stop it! What the hell's the matter with you? Pull yourself together."

Eventually, at 11:15, more than three hours after the first distress messages from 7th Fleet had been received by his flagship, Halsey ordered TF 34 to turn around and head southwards towards Samar. At this point, Lee's battleships were almost within gun range of Ozawa's force. Two-and-a-half hours were then spent refuelling TF 34's accompanying destroyers.

After this succession of delays it was too late for TF 34 to give any practical help to 7th Fleet, other than to assist in picking up survivors from Taffy 3, and too late even to intercept Kurita's force before it made its escape through San Bernardino Strait.

Nevertheless, at 16:22, in a desperate and even more belated attempt to intervene in the events off Samar, Halsey formed a new task group—TG 34.5—under Rear Admiral Oscar C. Badger II, built around Third Fleet's two fastest battleships—Iowa and New Jersey, both capable of a speed of more than 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)—and TF 34's three cruisers and eight destroyers, and sped southwards, leaving Lee and the other four battleships to follow. As Morison observes, if Badger's group had succeeded in intercepting the Japanese Center Force it may have been outmatched by Kurita's battleships.

Cruisers and destroyers of TG 34.5, however, caught the Japanese destroyer Nowaki—the last straggler from Center Force—off San Bernardino Strait, and sank her with all hands, including the survivors from Chikuma.

Battle off Cape Engaño – final actions
When Halsey turned TF 34 southwards at 11:15, he detached a task group of four of its cruisers and nine of its destroyers under Rear Admiral DuBose, and reassigned this group to TF 38. At 14:15, Mitscher ordered DuBose to pursue the remnants of the Japanese Northern Force. His cruisers finished off the light carrier Chiyoda at around 17:00, and at 20:59 his ships sank the destroyer Hatsuzuki after a very stubborn fight.

When Admiral Ozawa learned of the deployment of DuBose's relatively weak task group, he ordered battleships Ise and Hyūga to turn southwards and attack it, but they failed to locate DuBose's group, which they heavily outgunned. Halsey's withdrawal of all six of Lee's battleships in his attempt to assist Seventh Fleet had now rendered TF 38 vulnerable to a surface counterattack by the decoy Northern Force.

At about 23:10, the American submarine Jallao torpedoed and sank the light cruiser Tama of Ozawa's force. This was the last act of the Battle of Cape Engaño, and—apart from some final air strikes on the retreating Japanese forces on 26 October—the conclusion of the Battle for Leyte Gulf.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf