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

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

19th of July

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

17 July 1717 – King George I of Great Britain sails down the River Thames with a barge of 50 musicians, where George Frideric Handel's Water Music is premiered. The first performance of the Water Music suites is recorded in The Daily Courant, the first British daily newspaper. At about 8 p.m...

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1588 - The Spanish Armada is sighted in the English Channel. First day of the planned invasion of England by the spanish.
The Spanish Armada (Spanish: Grande y Felicísima Armada, literally "Great and Most Fortunate Navy") was a Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from A Coruña in late May 1588, under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England. The strategic aim was to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I and her establishment of Protestantism in England, with the expectation that this would put a stop to English interference in the Spanish Netherlands and to the harm caused to Spanish interests by English and Dutch privateering.

1717 - The naval Battle of Matapan
took place on 19 July 1717 off the Cape Matapan, on the coast of the Mani Peninsula in southern Greece, between the Armada Grossa of the Republic of Venice, supported by a mixed squadron of allied ships from Portugal, the Papal States and Malta, and the Ottoman fleet, under Kapudan Pasha Eğribozlu İbrahim Pasha.

Leon Trionfante 80 guns


1790 - The naval Battle of Kerch Strait
(also known as Battle of Yenikale, by the old Turkish name of the strait near Kerch) took place on 19 July 1790 near Kerch, Crimea, and was a slight victory for Imperial Russia over the Ottoman Empire during the Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792.

1812 - USS Constitution (1797) (44), Isaac Hull, escapes from British squadron after 3 day chase off New Jersey
War was declared on 18 June and Hull put to sea on 12 July, attempting to join the five ships of a squadron under the command of Rodgers in President. He sighted five ships off Egg Harbor, New Jersey on 17 July and at first believed them to be Rodgers' squadron but, by the following morning, the lookouts determined that they were a British squadron out of Halifax: HMS Aeolus, Africa, Belvidera, Guerriere, and Shannon. They had sighted Constitution and were giving chase.

Constitution during the chase


1843 - disastrous Lauching / Floating out of SS Great Britain, the second ship of Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Conditions were generally favourable and diarists recorded that, after a dull start, the weather brightened with only a few intermittent showers. The atmosphere of the day can best be gauged from a report the following day in The Bristol Mirror:
Large crowds started to gather early in the day including many people who had travelled to Bristol to see the spectacle. There was a general atmosphere of anticipation as the Royal Emblem was unfurled. The processional route had been cleaned and Temple Street decorated with flags, banners, flowers and ribbons. Boys of the City School and girls of Red Maids were stationed in a neat orderly formation down the entire length of the Exchange. The route was a mass of colour and everybody was out on the streets as it was a public holiday. The atmosphere of gaiety even allowed thoughts to drift away from the problems of political dissension in London.
Prince Albert arrived at 10 a.m. at the Great Western Railway terminus. The royal train, conducted by Brunel himself, had taken two hours and forty minutes from London. There was a guard of honour of members of the police force, soldiers and dragoons and, as the Prince stepped from the train, the band of the Life Guards played works by Labitsky and a selection from the "Ballet of Alma". Two sections of the platform were boarded off for the reception and it was noted by The Bristol Mirror that parts were covered with carpets from the Council House. The Prince Consort, dressed as a private gentleman, was accompanied by his equerry-in-waiting, personal secretary, the Marquess of Exeter, and Lords Wharncliffe, Liverpool, Lincoln and Wellesley.

Launch of Great Britain at Bristol, July 1843


1940 - The Battle of Cape Spada
was a naval battle during the Battle of the Mediterranean in Second World War. It took place on 19 July 1940 in the Mediterranean Sea off Cape Spada, the north-western extremity of Crete.

Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni under attack from HMAS Sydney and destroyer flotilla


1979 - The oil tanker SS Atlantic Empress collides with another oil tanker Aegean Captain, causing the largest ever ship-borne oil spill, 18 miles east of the island of Tobago.
At the time of the collision Atlantic Empress was sailing from Saudi Arabia to Beaumont, Texas, with a cargo of light crude oil owned by Mobil Oil. Aegean Captain was en route to Singapore from Aruba.
In heavy rain and thick fog the two ships did not sight each other until they were 600 yards (550 m) apart. Aegean Captain changed course, but it was too late, and at 7:15 p.m the two ships collided, with the Empresstearing a hole in the Captain's starboard bow. Large fires began on each ship, which were soon beyond the control of the crews, who abandoned their ships.

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

20th of July

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

19 July 1979 - The oil tanker SS Atlantic Empress collides with another oil tanker Aegean Captain, causing the largest ever ship-borne oil spill, 18 miles east of the island of Tobago. At the time of the collision Atlantic Empress was sailing from Saudi Arabia to Beaumont, Texas, with a...

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1765 - launch of 74 gun ship HMS Monarch
HMS Monarch was a 74-gun third rate Ramillies-class ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 20 July 1765 at Deptford Dockyard.

HMS Monarch in the lead, forcing the Passage of the Sound, 30 March 1801, prior to the Battle of Copenhagen


1791 - launch of french 118 gun ship Orient
Orient was an Océan-class 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, famous for her role as flagship of the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798, and for her spectacular destruction that day when her magazines exploded. The event was commemorated by numerous paintings and poems.

The Destruction of L'Orient at the Battle of the Nile, 1 August 1798, painting by George Arnald, on display at the National Maritime Museum.


1801 - HMS Iphigenia (1780) (32) burnt by accident at Alexandria
HMS Ipigenia, an Amazon-class frigate launched in 1780, was armed en flute and was serving as a transport. She had been to Cyprus to fetch water and timber but shortly after her return to Alexandria she was discovered to be on fire. The amount of wood on her made it impossible to put the fire out. There were no casualties. Because Iphigenia served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 8 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, which the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.

1807 – Nicéphore Niépce is awarded a patent by Napoleon for the Pyréolophore,
the world's first internal combustion engine, after it successfully powered a boat upstream on the river Saône in France.
The Pyréolophore (French: [pi.ʁe.ɔ.lɔ.fɔʁ], pea-ray-oh-loh-for) was one of the world's first internal combustion engines. It was invented in the early 19th century in Chalon-sur-Saône, France, by the Niépce brothers: Nicéphore (who went on to invent photography) and Claude. In 1807 the brothers ran a prototype internal combustion engine, and on 20 July 1807 a patent was granted by Napoleon Bonaparte after it had successfully powered a boat upstream on the river Saône.
The Pyréolophore ran on what were believed to be "controlled dust explosions" of various experimental fuels. The fuels included mixtures of Lycopodium powder (the spores of Lycopodium, or clubmoss), finely crushed coal dust, and resin.

1810 - HMS Euryalus a 36 gun frigate of the Apollo-class, Cptn. George Heneage Dundas, engaged a French 74 off Toulon.
On 20 July a French squadron consisting of six sail-of-the line and four frigates exited Toulon. Their objective was to provide cover to a frigate and her convoy that wished to escape from Bandol where it had taken shelter. The light and variable winds made it impossible for Dundas to block the French squadron and the frigate and her convoy from joining up. Furthermore, while Dundas was trying to regroup his squadron, Euryalus and Shearwater were forced to sail across the front of the French force. The wind failed for Dundas, but not the French, making it highly likely that the French would be able to capture Euryalus and Shearwater.
Dundas was able to position Warspite with Conqueror and Ajax astern where they could exchange broadsides with the French ships as they came up one at a time. Then the French tacked and the British line matched them, enabling Euryalus and Shearwater to escape, though not before Shearwater was on the receiving end of three completely ineffectual broadsides from one of the French ships of the line and a frigate. Despite its greater strength, the French force returned to Toulon rather than take on the British squadron.

Scale 1:48. Model made by A.W. Curtis. Buckler's Hard Maritime Museum, Beaulieu, Hampshire, United Kingdom.


1866 - The Battle of Lissa
(sometimes called Battle of Vis) took place on 20 July 1866 in the Adriatic Sea near the Dalmatian island of Lissa ("Vis" in Croatian) and was a decisive victory for an outnumbered Austrian Empireforce over a numerically superior Italian force. It was the first major sea battle between ironclads and one of the last to involve deliberate ramming.
The Italian navy fired roughly 1450 shots during the engagement, but failed to sink any Austrian ship while losing two ironclads. One of the main reasons for this poor performance was internal rivalry between the Italian fleet commanders: for example, Italian Vice Admiral Albini, with his ships, did not engage the enemy during the battle. The engagement was made up of several small battles: the main battle was between seven Austrian and four Italian ironclads and showed the ability of Austrian commander Tegetthoff to divide his more numerous opponents and then destroy the isolated ironclads.

Lissa naval battle, July 20th,1866; the Austrian navy against the Italian fleet. The RN Re d'Italia is sinking after being rammed by Tegetthoff's flagship, the SMS Ferdinand Max.

Die Seeschlacht bei Lissa. Monumentalgemälde von Alexander Kircher (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Wien)

SMS Kaiser at Lissa in the aftermath of the battle, undergoing repairs

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

21st of July

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

19 July 1979 - The oil tanker SS Atlantic Empress collides with another oil tanker Aegean Captain, causing the largest ever ship-borne oil spill, 18 miles east of the island of Tobago. At the time of the collision Atlantic Empress was sailing from Saudi Arabia to Beaumont, Texas, with a...

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1545 - The French invasion of the Isle of Wight occurred during the Italian Wars in July 1545. The invasion was repulsed.
France had a long history of attacking the Isle of Wight, and the 1545 campaign proved to be the last time to date that the French have attempted to take it. Although the French forces, led by Claude d'Annebault, greatly outnumbered those of the English, the battles fought (including the battles of the Solent and Bonchurch) ended without a clear winner. However, as the French were repelled, it could be considered an English victory. Although the operation was inconclusive, the English suffered heavily, including the loss of the carrack Mary Rose in the Battle of the Solent. Details of the conflict have not been very well recorded, and some accounts claim that the French were defeated at each battle rather easily.

A French fleet attacks Bembridge in 1545.


1781 - The Action of 21 July 1781
was a naval skirmish off the harbor of Spanish River, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia (present-day Sydney, Nova Scotia), during the American Revolution. Two French Navy frigates, led by Admiral Latouche Tréville and La Pérouse, engaged a convoy of 18 British ships and their escorts from the Royal Navy. The two French frigates captured two of the British escorts while the remainder of the British convoy escaped.

Naval battle off Cape Breton (Combat Naval A La Hauteur De Louisbourg) by Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy


1812 - HMS Sealark (10), Lt. Thomas Warrand, captured Ville de Caen (16), Cptn. Cocket, off Start Point
HMS Sealark (or Sea Lark) was the American schooner Fly, launched in 1801 or 1811, that HMS Scylla captured in 1811. The Royal Navy took her into service as a 10-gun schooner. She participated in one notable single-ship action in 1812 that in 1847 the Admiralty recognized with a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal. She was sold in 1820.
Sealark's most tumultuous moment came on 21 July 1812. That morning, alerted by a shore signal of the presence of an enemy vessel, Warrand set out and within an hour discovered a large lugger flying English colours but chasing and firing at two West Indiamen sailing up the Channel. Sealark caught up with the lugger and eventually an intense engagement ensued that lasted for an hour and a half before a boarding party from Sealark captured the enemy vessel. She was the Ville de Caen, of sixteen guns and 75 men. She belonged to Saint Malo but was just a day out of the Isle de Bas and had taken nothing; she was the same vessel that had fended off the lugger Sandwich at some earlier date.

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-347033;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S

The engagement was sanguinary. Sealark had seven men killed, and 21 wounded, including Warrand. Ville de Caen had 15 men killed, including her captain, M. Cocket, and 16 wounded. Lloyd's Patriotic Fund awarded Warrand an honour sword worth 50 guineas. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the award of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Sealark 21 July 1812" to the four still surviving claimants from the action.

1850 - The first screw-driven gunboat Von der Tann engaged with ships Heckla and Valkyren
During the First War of Schleswig, 1848-1850 between Denmark and the two duchies, the Schleswig-Holstein navy comprised three paddlewheelers with sail rigging, a schooner and 12 gunboats; their task was to protect the coast against Danish raids.

Von der Tann 1849. Painting by Lüder Arenhold, 1891

Model of Von der Tann


1898 - The Battle of Nipe Bay
1898 was an engagement of the Spanish–American War. The battle was fought in Nipe Bay, Cuba, by four United States Navy warships against the Spanish sloop-of-war Jorge Juan and three gunboats which were supported by forts guarding the harbor.

1907 - SS Columbia was lost after a collision with the lumber schooner San Pedro killing 88 passengers
SS Columbia (1880–1907) was a cargo and passenger steamship that was owned by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company and later the San Francisco and Portland Steamship Company. Columbia was constructed in 1880 by the John Roach & Sons shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania for the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.
On 20 July 1907, Columbia departed San Francisco, California, with 251 passengers and crew for Portland, Oregon under the leadership of Captain Peter Doran. When it became evening, Columbiabecame shrouded in fog about 12 miles (19 km) off Shelter Cove, but Captain Doran refused to slow the ship's speed. Even though the whistle of the steam schooner San Pedro could be heard nearby, neither Doran nor First Officer Hendricksen of San Pedro reduced the speed of either vessel. During this time, the rolling motion of the waves had caused many passengers to retire to their cabins due to seasickness. Fifteen minutes later, San Pedro was seen coming straight for Columbia. Doran finally ordered his ship to be put in full reverse, but it was too late. At 12:22 A.M. on 21 July 1907, San Pedro hit the starboard side of Columbia. Doran shouted at the other ship, "What are you doing man?" and continued his ordered reverse thrust, but the impact damaged the bow of the wooden hulled San Pedro[40]and holed Columbia which started to list to starboard and sink by the bow. Passenger William L. Smith of Vancouver, Washington described the impact as being "soft", while music teacher Otilla Liedelt of San Francisco reported the impact as being severe.

Photograph of SS Columbia under way.


1959 - Launch of NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered merchant ship
NS Savannah was the first nuclear-powered merchant ship. Built in the late 1950s at a cost of $46.9 million, including a $28.3 million nuclear reactor and fuel core, funded by United States government agencies, Savannah was a demonstration project for the potential use of nuclear energy. Launched on July 21, 1959, and named after SS Savannah, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic ocean, she was in service between 1962 and 1972 as one of only four nuclear-powered cargo ships ever built. (Soviet ice-breaker Lenin launched on December 5, 1957, was the first nuclear-powered civil ship.)

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

22nd of July

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

19 July 1979 - The oil tanker SS Atlantic Empress collides with another oil tanker Aegean Captain, causing the largest ever ship-borne oil spill, 18 miles east of the island of Tobago. At the time of the collision Atlantic Empress was sailing from Saudi Arabia to Beaumont, Texas, with a...

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1713 - The Action of 22 July 1713
was a naval battle between Sweden and the Tsardom of Russia which took place on 22 July 1713 near the shallows of Kalbådagrund. It was an indecisive engagement, part of the Great Northern War.

1797 - The Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife
was an amphibious assault by the Royal Navy on the Spanish port city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Launched by Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson on 22 July 1797, the assault was defeated, and on 25 July the remains of the landing party withdrew under a truce, having lost several hundred men. Nelson himself had been wounded in the arm, which was subsequently partially amputated: a stigma that he carried to his grave as a constant reminder of his failure.

The British attack on Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Oil on canvas, 1848.

Sir Horatio Nelson when wounded at Teneriffeby Richard Westall. Oil on canvas.


1805 - The Battle of Cape Finisterre
In the Battle of Cape Finisterre (22 July 1805) off Galicia, Spain, the British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder fought an indecisive naval battle against the combined Franco-Spanish fleet which was returning from the West Indies. Failing to prevent the joining of French Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve's fleet to the squadron of Ferrol and to strike the shattering blow that would have freed Great Britain from the danger of an invasion, Calder was later court-martialled and severely reprimanded for his failure and for avoiding the renewal of the engagement on 23 and 24 July. At the same time, in the aftermath Villeneuve elected not to continue on to Brest, where his fleet could have joined with other French ships to clear the English Channel for an invasion of Great Britain.

'Admiral Sir Robert Calder's action off Cape Finisterre, 23 July 1805'.


1905 - USS Bennington (Gunboat #4) is wrecked by a boiler explosion at San Diego, Calif. One officer and 65 enlisted men die in the explosion, along with numerous crew injuries.
USS Bennington (Gunboat No. 4/PG-43) was a member of the Yorktown class of steel-hulled, twin-screw gunboats in the United States Navy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was the first U.S. Navy ship named in honor of the town of Bennington, Vermont, site of the Battle of Bennington in the American Revolutionary War.

The Bennington, photographed circa 1898 by William H. Rau


1929 - SS Bremen captured Blue Riband
Bremen was to have made her maiden transatlantic crossing in the company of her sister Europa, but Europa suffered a serious fire during fitting-out, so Bremen crossed solo, departing Bremerhaven for New York City under the command of Commodore Leopold Ziegenbein on 16 July 1929. She arrived four days, 17 hours, and 42 minutes later, capturing the westbound Blue Riband from Mauretania with an average speed of 27.83 knots (51.54 km/h).

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

23rd of July

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

22 July 1905 - USS Bennington (Gunboat #4) is wrecked by a boiler explosion at San Diego, Calif. One officer and 65 enlisted men die in the explosion, along with numerous crew injuries. USS Bennington (Gunboat No. 4/PG-43) was a member of the Yorktown class of steel-hulled, twin-screw gunboats...

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1319 - The Battle of Chios
was a naval battle fought off the shore of the eastern Aegean island of Chios between a Latin Christian—mainly Hospitaller * —fleet and a Turkish fleet from the Aydinid emirate. The Christian fleet was resoundingly victorious, but for the Ayinids, who had been engaging in piracy since the collapse of Byzantine power, it was only a temporary setback in their rise to prominence.



1759 - Keel of HMS Victory (100) laid down at Chatham Dockyard
HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, ordered in 1758, laid down on 23 July 1759 and launched on 7 May 1765. She is best known for her role as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. She additionally served as Keppel's flagship at Ushant, Howe's flagship at Cape Spartel and Jervis's flagship at Cape St Vincent. After 1824, she was relegated to the role of harbour ship. In 1922, she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship. She has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012 and is the world's oldest naval ship still in commission.

Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard decoration, sheer lines with inboard detail, decoration and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Victory (1765), a 100-gun First Rate, three-decker. Even though the plan is dated 1830, the plan illustrates the vessel prior to her 1800-3 'Large Repair' at Chatham Dockyard. The plan commemorates the death of Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson despite the plan representing the ship prior to when she was his flagship in 1803. There are also differences in gunport layouts when compared to the plan signed by Thomas Slade in 1759.


1785 - Launch of HMS Audacious
was a 74-gun third rate Arrogant class ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 23 July 1785 at Rotherhithe. She was the first ship to bear the name.

1804 - Launch of HMS Swiftsure
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched from Bucklers Hard on 23 July 1804. She fought at Trafalgar.

1810 - Battle of Silda
(Affæren ved Silden or Affæren ved Stadt) was a naval battle fought on 23 July 1810 between the United Kingdom and Denmark–Norway near the Norwegian island of Silda in Sogn og Fjordane county. The battle occurred during the Gunboat War, itself part of the Napoleonic Wars. In the battle, two British frigates captured or destroyed three or four Dano-Norwegian gunboats. The Danish and British accounts of the battle differ.

English Brig Attacked by Danish-Norwegian gunboat


1943 – The British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sink the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.
The italian submarine Augusta Ascianghi
In the afternoon of July 23, 1943 while patrolling submerged ten miles from Augusta Ascianghi detected a group of enemy cruisers and destroyers. She closed in and launched two torpedoes, one of which at 13:38 struck light cruiser HMS Newfoundland blowing off the rudder and causing casualties, putting the cruiser out of service until 1944. At 15:41 one of the escorts, destroyer HMS Laforey after dodging another torpedo, immediately went after Ascianghi with HMS Eclipse joining in. Ascianghi went through several depth charge attacks, and eventually got seriously damaged and flooded. Ascianghi plummeted below the test depth, and to avoid being destroyed by pressure, she was forced to surface and try fighting it out with her deck gun. But she was immediately fired upon and hit by both ships, causing serious casualties. Abandoned by the survivors, Ascianghi sank at 16:23, with 23 people killed, and 27 survivors.

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

24th of July

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

22 July 1905 - USS Bennington (Gunboat #4) is wrecked by a boiler explosion at San Diego, Calif. One officer and 65 enlisted men die in the explosion, along with numerous crew injuries. USS Bennington (Gunboat No. 4/PG-43) was a member of the Yorktown class of steel-hulled, twin-screw gunboats...

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1684 - Robert de La Salle left La Rochelle with four ships (one is La Belle) to establish a French colony on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the Mississippi River.
On July 24, 1684, La Salle left La Rochelle with four ships: the 36-gun man-of-war Le Joly, the 300-ton storeship L'Aimable, the barque La Belle, and the ketch St. Francois.

La Belle model based on Boudriot drawings and planset


1762 - HMS Chesterfield, launched 1745 (44), Cptn. John Scaife, and four of a convoy, wrecked on Cayo Comsite.

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/81968.html


1823 - The Battle of Lake Maracaibo
also known as the "Naval Battle of the Lake" was fought on 24 July 1823 on Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo between fleets under the commands of Republican Admiral José Prudencio Padilla and royalist Captain Ángel Laborde.

Depiction of the battle from c. 1830


1915 - SS Eastland disaster in harbour of Chicago, 844 people died
The SS Eastland was a passenger ship based in Chicago and used for tours. On July 24, 1915, the ship rolled over onto her side while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew were killed in what was the largest loss of life from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.

The S.S. Eastland, in Cleveland, Ohio, around 1911

On July 24, 1915, Eastland and four other Great Lakes passenger steamers, Theodore Roosevelt, Petoskey, Racine, and Rochester, were chartered to take employees from Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois, to a picnic in Michigan City, Indiana. This was a major event in the lives of the workers, many of whom could not take holidays. Many of the passengers on Eastland were Czech immigrants from Cicero; 220 of them perished.

1945 - USS Underhill (DE-682) is hit and sunk by a Japanese kaiten manned torpedo.
USS Underhill (DE-682) was a Buckley-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy during World War II. Built in 1943, she served in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific until her sinking in a suicide attack by a Japanese Kaiten manned torpedo on 24 July 1945.

Schematic of a Kaiten type 1


1963 – The ship Bluenose II was launched in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
Bluenose II is a replica of the fishing schooner Bluenose, and was built in 1963 as a promotional yacht for Oland Brewery. It became Nova Scotia's sailing ambassador in 1971.

BLUENOSE under full sail.

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

25th of July

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

22 July 1905 - USS Bennington (Gunboat #4) is wrecked by a boiler explosion at San Diego, Calif. One officer and 65 enlisted men die in the explosion, along with numerous crew injuries. USS Bennington (Gunboat No. 4/PG-43) was a member of the Yorktown class of steel-hulled, twin-screw gunboats...

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1666 - The naval St James' Day Battle (also known as the St James' Day Fight), the Battle of the North Foreland and the Battle of Orfordness)
took place on 25 July 1666 — St James' day in the Julian calendar then in use in England (4 August 1666 in the Gregorian calendar), during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. It was fought between fleets of England, commanded jointly by Prince Rupert of the Rhine and George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, and the United Provinces commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter. In the Netherlands, the battle is known as the Two Days' Battle.
This attack follows on the heels of the Four Day Battle of 1-4 June 1666.
The St. James's Day Battle was a British victory that proved that the Royal Navy had not been too badly damaged during the Dutch victory in the Four Days' Battle at the start of June.

Jeronymus van Diest (II) - Het opbrengen van het Engelse admiraalschip de 'Royal Charles'


1609 - The English ship Sea Venture, en route to Virginia, is deliberately driven ashore during a storm at Bermuda to prevent its sinking; the survivors go on to found a new colony there
Sea Venture was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission to the Jamestown Colony, that was wrecked in Bermuda in 1609. She was the 300 ton purpose-built flagship of the London Company and a highly unusual vessel for her day, given that she was the first single timbered, merchantman built in England, and also the first dedicated emigration ship. Sea Venture's wreck is widely thought to have been the inspiration for Shakespeare's play The Tempes

1611 - launch of english ship Prince Royal - the first Three-decker
Prince Royal was a 55-gun royal ship of the English Royal Navy, built by Phineas Pett I at Woolwich and launched in 1610. The ship's fittings were carved by Sebastian Vicars, and painted and gilded by Robert Peake and Paul Isackson between Easter and Michaelmas 1611.

The Prince Royal arriving at Flushing in 1613


She was the first ship of the line with three complete gun decks, although when first completed the upper deck carried no guns in the waist, and was stepped down aft because of the large amount of sheer (the manner in which the decks rose towards the stern and bow). In 1621 a refit saw the removal of this step-down, with all three gun decks now being continuous.

The surrender of Prince Royal at the Four Days Battle, 3 June 1666, by Willem van de Velde the Younger


1803 HMS Vanguard (1787) (74), Cptn. James Walker, and HMS Tartar (32), Cptn. Perkins, captured Duquesne (74) off San Domingo
On 24 July, two French 74s, Duquesne and Duguay Trouin, and the frigate Guerrière put to sea from Cap-Français during a squall in an effort to evade Bellerophon, Elephant, Theseus, Tartar under Captain Perkins, and Vanguard, which were blockading the port. The French ships separated during the night but the British overtook Duquesne the following day and captured her after a short exchange of fire with Vanguard, which lost one man killed and one wounded. The prize was broken up on arrival in England after being damaged running on to the Morant Cays.

1809 - HMS Princess Caroline (74), Cptn. Charles Dudley Pater, and consorts captured four Russian vessels.
HMS Princess Carolina (1807) was a 74-gun third rate, also known as Princess Caroline. She was previously the Danish ship Prindsesse Carolina, but was captured at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. There were plans to rename her HMS Braganza, but this was never carried out and she was sold in 1815.

1894 - The First Sino-Japanese War started (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895)
was fought between Qing dynasty of China and Empire of Japan, primarily for influence over Joseon. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the port of Weihaiwei, the Qing government sued for peace in February 1895.
The war demonstrated the failure of the Qing Empire's attempts to modernize its military and fend off threats to its sovereignty, especially when compared with Japan's successful Meiji Restoration. For the first time, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan; the prestige of the Qing Empire, along with the classical tradition in China, suffered a major blow. The humiliating loss of Korea as a tributary statesparked an unprecedented public outcry. Within China, the defeat was a catalyst for a series of political upheavals led by Sun Yat-sen and Kang Youwei, culminating in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution.
The war is commonly known in China as the War of Jiawu (Chinese: 甲午戰爭; pinyin: Jiǎwǔ Zhànzhēng), referring to the year (1894) as named under the traditional sexagenary system of years. In Japan, it is called the Japan–Qing War (Japanese: 日清戦争 Hepburn: Nisshin sensō). In Korea, where much of the war took place, it is called the Qing–Japan War (Korean: 청일전쟁; Hanja: 淸日戰爭).


1956 - Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sinks the next day, killing 51.
SS Andrea Doria, pronounced [anˈdrɛːa ˈdɔːrja], was an ocean liner for the Italian Line (Società di navigazione Italia) home ported in Genoa, Italy, most famous for her sinking in 1956, when 46 people were killed.
Named after the 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, the ship had a gross register tonnage of 29,100 and a capacity of about 1,200 passengers and 500 crew. For a country attempting to rebuild its economy and reputation after World War II, Andrea Doria was an icon of Italian national pride. Of all Italy's ships at the time, Andrea Doria was the largest, fastest, and supposedly safest. Launched on 16 June 1951, the ship undertook its maiden voyage on 14 January 1953.

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

26th of July

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

Other events on 25 July 1278 - The naval Battle of Algeciras takes place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista resulting in a victory for the Emirate of Granada and the Maranid Dynasty over the Kingdom of Castile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Algeciras_(1278) 1757 - HMS...

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1758 - French and Indian War: The Siege of Louisbourg ends (8 June–26 July 1758) with British forces defeating the French and taking control of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence
The Siege of Louisbourg was a pivotal operation of the Seven Years' War (known in the United States as the French and Indian War) in 1758 that ended the French colonial era in Atlantic Canada and led directly to the loss of Quebec in 1759 and the remainder of French North America the following year.

1789 - The naval Battle of Öland - took place on 26 July 1789 during the Russo-Swedish War (1788–90).
Background
The Swedish battlefleet had spent the winter at Karlskrona which was struck by relapsing fever epidemic during the stay. Epidemic had started from the capture of the Russian ships of line Vladislav during the Battle of Hogland in 1788. From the captured sailors the disease had spread widely into the fleet during its prolonged stay at Sveaborg in 1788 was carried with the fleet to Karlskrona later that year. Fitting ships for the sealing season proceeded very slowly and was greatly hindered by the losses suffered due to the illness to the crews. From December 1788 to September 1789 total of 26,249 were treated for sickness in naval hospitals at Karlskrona alone of whom 5,286 perished while the total death toll of the epidemics is assumed to be around 15,000 lives. By the end of June thousands of soldiers had to be sent from the infantry as reinforcements for the fleet. Regardless of the obstacles Admiral Otto Henrik Nordenskiöld who was responsible for refitting was able to ready fleet of 21 ships of the line and 8 frigates for sailing already for 6 June however without crews.

1806 - The Action of 26 July 1806
was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars fought off the southern coast of the island of Celebes in the Dutch East Indies. During the battle, a small British squadron attacked and defeated a Dutch force defending a valuable convoy, which was also captured. The British force—consisting of the Amazon-Class frigate HMS Greyhound and Cruiser class brig-sloop HMS Harrier under the command of Captain Edward Elphinstone—was initially wary of the Dutch, mistaking the Dutch East Indiaman merchant ship Victoria for a ship of the line. Closer observation revealed the identity of the Dutch vessels the following day and Elphinstone led his frigate against the leading Dutch warship Pallas while Harrier engaged the merchant vessels and forced them to surrender. Only the corvette William escaped, taking no part in the engagement.
The battle was the first in a series of actions by the Royal Navy squadron based at Madras with the intention of eliminating the Dutch squadron maintained at Java. Greyhound had been sent to the Java Sea and the Molucca Islands to reconnoitre the Dutch ports in preparation for a raid on Java by a larger force under Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew later in the year. Elphinstone's success was followed by a second frigate action by Captain Peter Rainier in which the Dutch ship Maria Riggersbergen was captured. In November 1806, Admiral Pellew led the main body of his squadron against the capital of the Dutch East Indies at Batavia and a year later eliminated the last vessels of the Dutch East Indies squadron at Griessie.

1817 - Launch of Leda-Class Frigate HMS Arethusa
HMS Arethusa was a 46-gun Leda-class fifth-rate frigate built for the Royal Navy during the 1810s. The ship was never commissioned and was converted into a lazarette (quarantine ship) in 1836. She was renamed HMS Bacchus in 1844 and was further converted into a coal hulk in 1851–52. The ship was sold for scrap in 1883.
Construction and career -> one ship without career!
Arethusa, the fourth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, was ordered on 22 November 1812, laid down in February 1815 at Pembroke Dockyard, Wales, and launched on 29 July 1817. She sailed for Plymouth Dockyard on 21 August 1817 and was completed for ordinary on 27 September at the cost of £25,923. The ship was never on active duty and was converted for service as a lazarette for Liverpool in April–June 1836. Arethusa was renamed HMS Bacchus on 12 March 1844 to release her name for the large frigate being built and converted into a coal hulk in 1851–52. The ship was sold to Castle & Sons for £1,450 on 14 August 1883 to be broken up.

1820 - Launch of HMS Trafalgar
HMS Trafalgar was ordered as a 98-gun second rate ship of the line, re-rated as a 106-gun first rate ship of the line in February 1817 and launched on 26 July 1820 at Chatham. She was jointly designed by the Surveyors of the Navy at the time, and was the only ship built to her draught.

1824 - Launch of HMS Vengeance
HMS Vengeance was an 84-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 27 July 1824 at Pembroke Dockyard. The Canopus-class ships were all modelled on a captured French ship, the Franklin, which was renamed HMS Canopus in British service. Some of the copies were faster than others, though it was reported that none could beat the original.

1845 – Brunel´s ship SS Great Britain started her Maiden Voyage
On 26 July 1845—seven years after the Great Western Steamship Company had decided to build a second ship, and five years overdue—Great Britain embarked on her maiden voyage, from Liverpool to New York under Captain James Hosken, with 45 passengers. The ship made the passage in 14 days and 21 hours, at an average speed of 9.25 knots (17.13 km/h; 10.64 mph) – almost 1.5 knots (2.8 km/h; 1.7 mph) slower than the prevailing record. She made the return trip in 13½ days, again an unexceptional time.

1932 - schoolship of german Reichsmarine Niobe sank during a white squall, 69 cadets died
The Segelschulschiff Niobe was a tall ship used by the Reichsmarine to train cadets and aspiring NCOs. She sank during a white squall on 26 July 1932, with the loss of 69 lives. At Gammendorfer Strand on Fehmarnisland, within view of the site of the sinking, the Niobe-Denkmal monument was erected.

1945 - HMS Vestal sunk by Kamikaze - the last Royal Navy ship to be lost in the Second World War
HMS Vestal was an Algerine-class minesweeper of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1943 and saw service in the Pacific War against the Empire of Japan. She was critically damaged by Japanese kamikaze aircraft in 1945 and was subsequently scuttled in waters close to Thailand.

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

27th of July

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

Other events on 25 July 1278 - The naval Battle of Algeciras takes place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista resulting in a victory for the Emirate of Granada and the Maranid Dynasty over the Kingdom of Castile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Algeciras_(1278) 1757 - HMS...

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1752 - Saint Louis, a French East Indiaman, launched
She served in the Indian Ocean where she participated in three battles and at least one single-ship action. In 1768, she became a careening hulk in Lorient.
In February 1753, Saint-Louis departed Lorient, bound for the Indian Ocean. She called in at Gorée and Île de France (now Mauritius) before arriving in Pondicherry. She returned via Île de France, Bourbon (now Réunion), and Martinique, returning to Lorient in January 1755.
With the Seven Years' War underway, she was prepared for a new voyage in March 1756, but remained in Lorient harbour, ready to depart, until June. She eventually sailed in December with a 253-man complement and full armament (26 heavy guns out of a total of 54 guns), under Captain Louis de Joannis, to reinforce Aché's Indian Ocean squadron.
On 29 April 1758, she took part in the Battle of Cuddalore, engaging HMS Yarmouth (1745 64 guns) and HMS Cumberland (1710 80 guns three decker). At the battle of Negapatam, her first officer, Langery, had his head shot away by a cannonball.

1770 - the 16 year old boy William Bligh joined HMS Hunter as an able seaman,
the term used because there was no vacancy for a midshipman, and started on this day a naval carreer



1778 - The Battle of Ushant (also called First Battle of Ushant,)
was fought between French and British fleets 100 miles (160 km) west of Ushant, an island at the mouth of the English Channel off the north-westernmost point of France.

1808 - HMS Pickle schooner wrecked on the Chipiona shoal at the entrance to Cadiz as she was entering carrying dispatches. .
HMS Pickle was a topsail schooner of the Royal Navy. She was originally a civilian vessel named Sting, of six guns, that Lord Hugh Seymour purchased to use as a tender on the Jamaica station. Pickle was at the Battle of Trafalgar, and though she was too small to take part in the fighting, Pickle was the first ship to bring the news of Nelson's victory to Great Britain. She also participated in a notable single-ship action when she captured the French privateer Favorite in 1807. Pickle was wrecked in 1808, but without loss of life. In 1995 five replica Baltic packet schooners were constructed at the Grumant & Askold shipyard in Russia. One, named "Alevtina & Tuy", was in 2005 renamed "Schooner Pickle", although not a replica of HMS Pickle, to represent the 1805 vessel for the 200-year Trafalgar celebration. Retaining her adopted name, she is berthed in Hull Marina on the Humber. The vessel, owned by Historic Motor and Sail (https://historicmotorandsail.org.uk) is kept as a representation of the original Pickle and can be seen at ports throughout the East coast of England during the summer months.

Pickle was the first ship to bring the news of Nelson's victory at Trafalgar to Great Britain, arriving at Falmouth on 4 November 1805, after a hard voyage in bad weather.


1862 - American passenger steamer Golden Gate caught fire off the coast of Mexico in 1862 on a voyage from San Francisco to Panama, 204 people died

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

28th of July

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

Other events on 25 July 1278 - The naval Battle of Algeciras takes place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista resulting in a victory for the Emirate of Granada and the Maranid Dynasty over the Kingdom of Castile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Algeciras_(1278) 1757 - HMS...

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1566 - The disaster at Visby - most of danish fleet distroyed in heavy strom
The historical background for the disaster is a battle at sea during the Nordic 7 Years War. On July 26th the Danish-Lübeck fleet had fought the Swedish fleet at the northern tip of Öland. After a furious battle (but with no considerable loss of ships) the Danish-Lübeck fleet headed for Visby to bury a Danish nobleman that had been killed during the battle. It was the commander of the Danish ship “Akilles” – Kristoffer Mogensøn – whose head had been shot off. As a nobleman he had the right to be buried in sacred ground. Gotland was Danish territory at this time. The fleet anchored at the roadstead outside Visby In spite of warnings from the lord of Visborg castle Jens Bille and reservations of several of the fleet commanders.

1588 - Fireship attack on Spanish Armada / Battle of Gravelines
On 27 July, the Armada anchored off Calais in a tightly-packed defensive crescent formation, not far from Dunkirk, where Parma's army, reduced by disease to 16,000, was expected to be waiting, ready to join the fleet in barges sent from ports along the Flemish coast. Communication had proven to be far more difficult than anticipated, and it only now became known that this army had yet to be equipped with sufficient transport or assembled in the port, a process which would take at least six days, while Medina Sidonia waited at anchor; and that Dunkirk was blockaded by a Dutch fleet of thirty flyboats under Lieutenant-Admiral Justinus of Nassau.[41] Parma wanted the Armada to send its light pataches to drive away the Dutch, but Medina Sidonia could not do this because he feared that he might need these ships for his own protection. There was no deep-water port where the fleet might shelter – always acknowledged as a major difficulty for the expedition – and the Spanish found themselves vulnerable as night drew on.

English fireships are launched at the Spanish armada off Calais


1806 - HMS Mars (74), Cptn. Robert Dudley Oliver, captured Rhin (44), Capt. Chesneau, in the Bay of Biscay
HMS Mars was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Mars-class of the Royal Navy, launched on 25 October 1794 at Deptford Dockyard.
The two ships of the Mars class were the first large 74s since the Valiant class of 1759, carrying the heavier armament of 24 pdrs on their upper decks, as opposed to the 18 pdrs of the middling and common classes. The other one was the HMS Centaur, Builder: Woolwich Dockyard and launched 14 March 1797, Fate: Broken up, 1819

Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66532.html#zmt1OLgsfRx13JUj.99

1854 – USS Constellation (1854), the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy, is commissioned
USS Constellation is a sloop-of-war, the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. She was built in 1854, using a small amount of material salvaged from the frigate USS Constellation, which had been disassembled the year before. Despite being a single-gundeck "sloop," she is actually larger than her original frigate build, and more powerfully armed with fewer but much more potent shell-firing guns.
The sloop was launched on 26 August 1854 and commissioned on 28 July 1855 with Captain Charles H. Bell in command. She remained in service for close to a century before finally being retired in 1954. She is now preserved as a museum ship in Baltimore, Maryland, and is a National Historic Landmark.

1914 - pursuit of SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau by british battleships
The pursuit of Goeben and Breslau was a naval action that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea at the outbreak of the First World War when elements of the British Mediterranean Fleet attempted to intercept the German Mittelmeerdivision consisting of the battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiserSMS Breslau. The German ships evaded the British fleet and passed through the Dardanelles to reach Constantinople, where they were eventually handed over to the Ottoman Empire. Renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim and Midili, the former Goeben and Breslau were ordered by their German commander to attack Russian positions, in doing so bringing the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers.

SMS Goeben

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

29th of July

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

28 July 1854 – USS Constellation (1854), the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy, is commissioned USS Constellation is a sloop-of-war, the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. She was built in 1854, using a small amount of material salvaged...

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904 - The Sack of Thessalonica in 904 by Saracen pirates was one of the worst disasters to befall the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century. A Muslim fleet, led by the renegade Leo of Tripoli, and with the imperial capital of Constantinople as its initial target, sailed from Syria. The Muslims were deterred from attacking Constantinople, and instead turned to Thessalonica, totally surprising the Byzantines, whose navy was unable to react in time. The city walls, especially towards the sea, were in disrepair, while the city's two commanders issued conflicting orders.

Illustration of the sack of Thessalonica by the Arab fleet in 904, from the Madrid Skylitzes, fol. 111v, detail.


1710 - HMS Kent (70) captured Superbe (64)
HMS Superb was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. She had previously been Le Superbe, a 56-gun warship of the French Navy, until her capture off Lizard Point by HMS Kent in July 1710. Commissioned into the Royal Navy in September 1710, HMS Superb served throughout Queen Anne's War and the War of the Quadruple Alliance, during which she participated in the destruction of the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape Passaro in 1718. She was broken up in 1732.

1967 - USS Forrestal fire
a fire broke out on board the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. An electrical anomaly had caused the discharge of a Zuni rocket on the flight deck, triggering a chain-reaction of explosions that killed 134 sailors and injured 161. At the time, Forrestal was engaged in combat operations in the Gulf of Tonkin, during the Vietnam War. The ship survived, but with damage exceeding US$72 million, not including the damage to aircraft. Future United States Senator John McCain and future four-star admiral and U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Ronald J. Zlatoper were among the survivors.

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

30th of July

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

28 July 1854 – USS Constellation (1854), the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy, is commissioned USS Constellation is a sloop-of-war, the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. She was built in 1854, using a small amount of material salvaged...

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1711 - The Quebec Expedition, or the Walker Expedition to Quebec started and was ending with a disaster
The Quebec Expedition, or the Walker Expedition to Quebec, was a British attempt to attack Quebec in 1711 in Queen Anne's War, the North American theatre of the War of Spanish Succession. It failed when seven transports and one storeship were wrecked and some 850 soldiers drowned in one of the worst naval disasters in British history.
The expedition was planned by the administration of Robert Harley, chief minister of the crown, and was based on plans originally proposed in 1708. Harley decided to mount the expedition as part of a major shift in British military policy, emphasizing strength at sea. The expedition's leaders, Admiral Hovenden Walker and Brigadier-General John Hill, were chosen for their politics and connections to the crown, and its plans were kept secret even from the Admiralty. Despite the secrecy, French agents were able to discover British intentions and warn authorities in Quebec.
The expedition expected to be fully provisioned in Boston, the capital of colonial Massachusetts, but the city was unprepared when it arrived, and Massachusetts authorities had to scramble to provide even three months' supplies. Admiral Walker also had difficulty acquiring experienced pilots and accurate charts for navigating the waters of the lower Saint Lawrence River.

HMS Swiftshure 1673 - This is a ship portrait viewed from before the port beam.


1768 - Launch of HMS Barfleur
HMS Barfleur was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, designed by Sir Thomas Slade on the lines of the 100-gun ship Royal William, and launched at Chatham Dockyard on 30 July 1768, at a cost of £49,222. In about 1780, she had another eight guns added to her quarterdeck, making her a 98-gun ship; she possessed a crew of approximately 750. Her design class sisters were the Prince George, Princess Royal, and Formidable. She was a ship of long service and many battles.

1782 – Action between the Amazon and HMS Santa Margarita

1790 - Launch of French ship 74 gun Téméraire-class ship of the line Scipion
Scipion was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
In 1792, Scipion took part in operations against Nice, Villefranche and Oneille. In December, she joined the division under Admiral Latouche Tréville, and assisted the damaged Languedoc during the storm of 21 to 23 of that month.
Captured by the British after the surrendering of Toulon by a Royalist cabale, she was commissioned with a crew of French rebels. On 28 November 1793, she caught fire by accident in the harbour of Livorno and exploded, killing 86 including her commanding officer, Captain Degoy

(taken from ancre)

1803 - HMS Calypso (16-gun), run down in a violent hurricane by a heavily laden West Indiaman.
HMS Calypso was a Royal Navy Echo Class ship-sloop. She was built at Deptford between 1781 and 1783, launched on 27 September 1783 and first commissioned on 1 December 1783 for service off Northern Ireland and Scotland. She served in the North Sea, Atlantic, and the West Indies. Calypso was sunk whilst acting as a convoy escort on 30 July 1803 after colliding with a West Indiaman merchant ship during a violent storm.

1808 - HMS Meleager (36), wrecked on Barebush Cay, Jamaica.
HMS Meleager was a 36-gun Perseverance-class fifth-rate frigate Fifth-rate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806 and wrecked on 30 July 1808 off Jamaica. During her brief career she captured two armed vessels and two merchantmen on the Jamaica station. She was named after Meleager, who could have been a Macedonian officer of distinction in the service of Alexander the Great, or a Meleager a character from Greek mythology.

1945 - USS Indianapolis sunk after japanese torpedoes
USS Indianapolis (CL/CA-35) was a Portland-class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy, named for the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. The vessel served as the flagship for the commander of Scouting Force 1 for eight pre-war years, then as flagship for Admiral Raymond Spruance, in 1943 and 1944, while he commanded the Fifth Fleet in battles across the Central Pacific in World War II.

Indianapolis off Mare Island, on 10 July 1945.

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

31st of July

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28 July 1854 – USS Constellation (1854), the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy, is commissioned USS Constellation is a sloop-of-war, the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. She was built in 1854, using a small amount of material salvaged...

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1653 - The Battle of Scheveningen (also known as the Battle of Texel or the Battle of Ter Heijde)
was the final naval battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War. It took place on 31 July 1653 (10 August Gregorian calendar) [a]between the fleets of the Commonwealth of England and the United Provinces. The Dutch fleet suffered a heavy defeat, but achieved their strategic goal in the short term, as the battle led to the raising of the English blockade of the Dutch coast.

The Battle of Scheveningen by Jan Abrahamsz straaten, painted c. 1654, depicts the final battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War

After Jeronymus van Diest

Brederode on the left half with damages after action, all sketches by van de Veldes


1653 - Death of Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp (23 April 1598 – 10 August 1653)
who was an officer and later admiral in the Dutch navy. His first name is also spelled Maerten.



1671 – French Fidele class 54 gun ship Parfait launched
Parfait 54, later 64 guns (designed and built by François Chapelle, launched 31 July 1671 at Toulon) – condemned 1699.

1715 - 11 ships of Spanish treasure fleet sink in a storm off the coast of Florida.
The 1715 Treasure Fleet was a Spanish treasure fleet returning from the New World to Spain. At two in the morning on Wednesday, July 31, 1715, seven days after departing from Havana, Cuba, eleven of the twelve ships of this fleet were lost in a hurricane near present-day Vero Beach, Florida. Because the fleet was carrying silver, it is also known as the 1715 Plate Fleet (plata being the Spanish word for silver). Some artifacts and even coins still wash up on Florida beaches from time to time.

8 Reales Mexican Silver cob full date 1715 recovered from the 1715 fleet.


1782 - parallel Launch of two french Minerve-class frigates, the Minerve and also the Junon both in Toulon
The Minerve class was a type of 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, carrying 18-pounder long guns as their main armament. Six ships of this type were built at Toulon Dockyard, and launched between 1782 and 1794. The frigates served the French Navy briefly during the French Revolutionary Wars. The Royal Navy captured all six between 1793 and 1799 and took them into service, with all but one serving in the Napoleonic Wars, and some thereafter.
The first four frigates were built to a design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb. Jacques Brune Sainte Catherine modified Coulomb's design for the fifth, lengthening it to permit the addition of a 14th pair of gunports on the upper deck. Catherine further redesigned the class for the sixth, final frigate. The French Navy preferred the designs by Jacques-Noël Sané. However, the more rounded hull form of the Minerve-class vessels' found favour with the Royal Navy, leading it to copy the design.

1793 - HMS Boston (32), Cptn. George Courtenay (Killed in Action), engaged French frigate Embuscade (36), Cptn. Jean-Baptiste Bompart, off New Jersey.
The Action of 31 July 1793 was an inconclusive engagement between a British Royal Navy frigate and French frigate off the New Jersey coastline in the first year of the French Revolutionary Wars. The British captain, George Courtenay of HMS Boston, had arrived off New York City on 28 May and deliberately disguised his ship as a French vessel, fooling a French officer into coming aboard and making him a prisoner of war. Courtenay then sent a message into New York, where he knew a French frigate lay at anchor, challenging the French captain to battle within the next three days. The challenge was accepted and widely disseminated throughout the city, so that when Captain Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart of Embuscade sailed out to meet Courtenay on the morning of 31 July, the shore was crowded with thousands of sightseers.

1797 - HMS Artois, first ship of the Artois class and launched 1794 (38) wrecked off La Rochelle

1808 - HMS Imperieuse (38), Cptn. Lord Cochrane, destroyed castle at Mongal.
The Impérieuse was a 40-gun Minerve-class frigate of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1793 and she served first as HMS Imperieuse and then from 1803 as HMS Unite. She became a hospital hulk in 1836 and was broken up in 1858.

1848 – French 90 gun ship Breslaw , Suffren class launched
Breslaw was a 90-gun Suffren-class ship of the line of the French Navy. She was the twenty-second ship in French service named in honour of Louis IX of France.
Started as Achille, the ship was renamed Saint Louis in 1839. She took part in the Crimean War as a troop ship, and served in the French intervention in Mexico in 1862. She was used as a prison hulk for prisoners of the Paris Commune, then as an ammunition store, and was eventually broken up in 1886.

1874 - USS Intrepid is commissioned, the first U.S. warship equipped with torpedoes.
The second USS Intrepid, was a steam-powered torpedo ram commissioned and built in 1874 that had the distinction of being the world's first U.S. Navy ship armed with self-propelled torpedoes. In concept and design she was roughly comparable to the Royal Navy's HMS Polyphemus, although Intrepid was completed more than half a decade earlier. The Intrepid was commissioned by President Ulysses S. Grant's Secretary of Navy George M. Robeson.

1948 – USS Nevada is sunk by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs (as part of post-war tests) and being used for target practice by three other ships.
USS Nevada (BB-36), the second United States Navy ship to be named after the 36th state, was the lead ship of the two Nevada-class battleships. Launched in 1914, Nevada was a leap forward in dreadnoughttechnology; four of her new features would be included on almost every subsequent US battleship: triple gun turrets, oil in place of coal for fuel, geared steam turbines for greater range, and the "all or nothing" armor principle. These features made Nevada, alongside its sister ship Oklahoma, the first US Navy "standard-type" battleships.

1970 – Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
Black Tot Day is the name given to the last day on which the Royal Navy issued sailors with a daily rum ration (the daily tot).
In the 17th century, the daily drink ration for English sailors was a gallon of beer. Due to the difficulty in storing the large quantities of liquid that this required, in 1655 a half pint of rum was made equivalent and became preferred to beer. Over time, drunkenness on board naval vessels increasingly became a problem and the ration was formalised in naval regulations by Admiral Edward Vernon in 1740 and ordered to be mixed with water in a 4:1 water to rum ratio and split into two servings per day.

Measuring out the tot (diorama aboard HMS Belfast)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

1st of August

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

28 July 1854 – USS Constellation (1854), the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy, is commissioned USS Constellation is a sloop-of-war, the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. She was built in 1854, using a small amount of material salvaged...

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

Model of a typical merchantman of the period, showing the cramped conditions that had to be endured


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

Sketch of Gibraltar by an officer of Admiral Rooke's fleet on 1 August 1704


1761 – Launch of Essex class 64 gun third rate HMS Africa
HMS Africa was a 64-gun third rate Essex-class ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1761 and in active service during the latter half of the Seven Years' War against France and Spain.

1778 – Launch of French Magicienne class 32 gun frigate Magicienne
Magicienne was a frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. The British captured her in 1781 and she served with the Royal Navy until her crew burned her in 1810 to prevent her capture after she grounded at Isle de France (now Mauritius). During her service with the Royal Navy she captured several privateers and participated in the Battle of San Domingo.

1798 - The Battle of the Nile (also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay; French: Bataille d'Aboukir)
was a major naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast off the Nile Delta of Egypt from 1 to 3 August 1798. The battle was the climax of a naval campaign that had ranged across the Mediterranean during the previous three months, as a large French convoy sailed from Toulon to Alexandria carrying an expeditionary force under General Napoleon Bonaparte. The British fleet was led in the battle by Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson; they decisively defeated the French under Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers.
Bonaparte sought to invade Egypt as the first step in a campaign against British India, part of a greater effort to drive Britain out of the French Revolutionary Wars. As Bonaparte's fleet crossed the Mediterranean, it was pursued by a British force under Nelson who had been sent from the British fleet in the Tagus to learn the purpose of the French expedition and to defeat it. He chased the French for more than two months, on several occasions missing them only by a matter of hours. Bonaparte was aware of Nelson's pursuit and enforced absolute secrecy about his destination. He was able to capture Malta and then land in Egypt without interception by the British naval forces.

Battle of the Nile, 1 August 1798, Daniel Orme, 1805, National Maritime Museum. Nelson returns on deck after his wound is dressed.


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

Battle of the Nile, August 1st 1798 at 10 pm

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


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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

2nd of August

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

1 August 1761 – Launch of Essex class 64 gun third rate HMS Africa HMS Africa was a 64-gun third rate Essex-class ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1761 and in active service during the latter half of the Seven Years' War against France and Spain. Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the...

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1665 - The Battle of Vågen (also Battle in the Bay of Bergen, or shortened Battle of Bergen)
was a naval battle between a Dutch merchant and treasure fleet and an English flotilla of warships in August 1665 as part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The battle took place in Vågen (meaning "the bay, voe" in Norwegian), the main port area of neutral Bergen, Norway. Due to a delay in orders the Norwegian commanders took the side of the Dutch, contrary to the secret intentions of the King of Norway and Denmark. The battle ended with the defeat of the English fleet, which retreated, much damaged but without losing any ships. The treasure fleet was relieved by the Dutch home fleet seventeen days later.

1795 - HMS Diomede (44) wrecked after striking a sunken rock off Trincomalee
HMS Diomede was a 44-gun fifth rate built by James Martin Hillhouse and launched at Bristol on 18 October 1781. She belonged to the Roebuck class of vessels specially built during the American Revolutionary War for service in the shallow American coastal waters. As a two-decker, she had two complete batteries of guns, one on the upper deck and the other on the lower deck.

1916 – Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of the Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci in Taranto
Leonardo da Vinci was one of three Conte di Cavour-class dreadnoughts built for the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) in the early 1910s. Completed just before the beginning of World War I, the ship saw no action and was sunk by a magazine explosion in 1916 with the loss of 248 officers and enlisted men. The Italians blamed Austro-Hungarian saboteurs for her loss, but it may have been accidental. Leonardo da Vinci was refloated in 1919 and plans were made to repair her. Budgetary constraints did not permit this and her hulk was sold for scrap in 1923.

1917 – windjammer and commerce raider SMS Seeadler wrecked in French Polynesia
SMS Seeadler (Ger: sea eagle) was a three-master windjammer. She was one of the last fighting sailing ships to be used in war when she served as a merchant raider with Imperial Germany in World War I. Built as the US-flagged Pass of Balmaha, she was captured by the German submarine SM U-36, and in 1916 converted to a commerce raider. As Seeadler she had a successful raiding career, capturing and sinking 15 ships in 225 days until she was wrecked, in September 1917, in French Polynesia.

SMS Seeadler by Christopher Rave


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

An official U.S. Navy model


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

Dieses Bild zeigt das Segelschulschiff Greif (ex "Wilhelm Pieck" (DDR)) anlässlich der Hanse Sail 2008.

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

3rd of August

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

1 August 1761 – Launch of Essex class 64 gun third rate HMS Africa HMS Africa was a 64-gun third rate Essex-class ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1761 and in active service during the latter half of the Seven Years' War against France and Spain. Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the...

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

The end of the César, by François Aimé Louis Dumoulin.


1801 - HMS Pomone (44 gun), Cptn. Gower, captured Carriere (44 gun)
Pomone was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, launched in 1785. The British captured her off the Île de Batz during in April 1794 and incorporated her into the Royal Navy. Pomone subsequently had a relatively brief but active career in the British Navy off the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of France before suffering sufficient damage from hitting a rock to warrant being taken out of service and then broken up in 1803.

1804 - US-ships started bombardement of Tripolis harbour
The United States paid tribute to the Barbary States during the Quasi-War to ensure that American merchant ships were not harassed and seized. In 1801, Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli was dissatisfied that the United States was paying him less than they paid Algiers, and he demanded an immediate payment of $250,000. In response, Thomas Jefferson sent a squadron of frigates to protect American merchant ships in the Mediterranean and to pursue peace with the Barbary States.
The first squadron under the command of Richard Dale in President was instructed to escort merchant ships through the Mediterranean and to negotiate with leaders of the Barbary States. A second squadron was assembled under the command of Richard Valentine Morris in Chesapeake. The performance of Morris's squadron was so poor, however, that he was recalled and subsequently dismissed from the Navy in 1803.

Constitution c. 1803–04


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

1861 - Construction of first ironclad USS Monitor authorized
Approval
After the United States received word of the construction of Virginia, Congress appropriated $1.5 million on 3 August 1861 to build one or more armored steamships. It also ordered the creation of a board to inquire into the various designs proposed for armored ships. The Union Navy advertised for proposals for "iron-clad steam vessels of war" on 7 August and Welles appointed three senior officers as the Ironclad Board the following day. Their task was to "examine plans for the completion of iron-clad vessels" and consider its costs.

1918 - hospital ship HMAT Warilda was torpedoed by the German submarine and sunk
HMAT Warilda (His Majesty's Australian Transport) was a 7713-ton vessel, built by William Beardmore and Company in Glasgow as the SS Warilda for the Adelaide Steamship Company. She was designed for the East-West Australian coastal service, but following the start of the First World War, she was converted into a troopship and later, in 1916, she was converted into a hospital ship.
Her identical sister ships, also built by William Beardmore and Company, were SS Wandilla (1912) and SS Willochra (1913).

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

4th of August

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

3 August 1918 - hospital ship HMAT Warilda was torpedoed by the German submarine and sunk HMAT Warilda (His Majesty's Australian Transport) was a 7713-ton vessel, built by William Beardmore and Company in Glasgow as the SS Warilda for the Adelaide Steamship Company. She was designed for the...

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

Philip accepts the Spanish throne as Philip V; November 16, 1700


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


1790 - The Revenue Cutter Service is established by Congress, authorizing the construction of 10 vessels to enforce federal tariff and trade laws and prevent smuggling. The service receives its present name, U.S. Coast Guard, in 1915 under an act of Congress that merges the Revenue Cutter Service with the Life-Saving Service, thereby providing the nation with a single maritime service dedicated to saving life at sea and enforcing the nation's maritime laws.

1804 - Adam Duncan died
Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan (1 July 1731 – 4 August 1804) was a British admiral who defeated the Dutch fleet off Camperdown (north of Haarlem) on 11 October 1797. According to the British, this victory should be considered one of the most significant actions in naval history.



1845 - Cataraqui (also called Cataraque) was a British barque which sank off the south-west coast of King Island in Bass Strait on 4 August 1845. The sinking was Australia's worst ever maritime civil disaster incident, claiming the lives of 400 people. Only 1 passanger and 8 of crew survived.

1898 - During the Spanish-American War, USS Monterey (BM 6) becomes the first monitor to cross the Pacific, reaching Manila Bay, Philippines, from San Francisco, Calif.

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

5th of August

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

3 August 1918 - hospital ship HMAT Warilda was torpedoed by the German submarine and sunk HMAT Warilda (His Majesty's Australian Transport) was a 7713-ton vessel, built by William Beardmore and Company in Glasgow as the SS Warilda for the Adelaide Steamship Company. She was designed for the...

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1777 - Launch of HMS America was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 5 August 1777 at Deptford
She took part in the Battle of the Chesapeake on 5 September 1781, and in 1795 was part of the British fleet at the Battle of Muizenberg.

1781 - The Battle of the Dogger Bank
was a naval battle that took place on 5 August 1781 during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, contemporaneously related to the American Revolutionary War, in the North Sea. It was a bloody encounter between a British squadron under Vice Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, 5th Baronet and a Dutch squadron under Vice Admiral Johan Zoutman, both of which were escorting convoys.

1799 – Death of Admiral of the Fleet Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, KG (8 March 1726 – 5 August 1799)
Admiral of the Fleet Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, KG (8 March 1726 – 5 August 1799) was a British naval officer. After serving throughout the War of the Austrian Succession, he gained a reputation for his role in amphibious operations against the French coast as part of Britain's policy of naval descents during the Seven Years' War. He also took part, as a naval captain, in the decisive British naval victory at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in November 1759.
In North America, Howe is best known for his service during the American Revolutionary War, when he acted as a naval commander and a peace commissioner with the American rebels; he also conducted a successful relief during the Great Siege of Gibraltar in the later stages of the War.
Howe later commanded the victorious British fleet during the Glorious First of June in June 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars.



1816 – The British Admiralty dismisses Francis Ronalds's new invention of the first working electric telegraph as "wholly unnecessary", preferring to continue using the semaphore.

1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge: Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops attempt to take the city, but are driven back by fire from Union gunboats.

1964 – Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow: American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

6th of August

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

3 August 1918 - hospital ship HMAT Warilda was torpedoed by the German submarine and sunk HMAT Warilda (His Majesty's Australian Transport) was a 7713-ton vessel, built by William Beardmore and Company in Glasgow as the SS Warilda for the Adelaide Steamship Company. She was designed for the...

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1622 – Birth of Tjerk Hiddes de Vries, Dutch admiral (d. 1666)
Tjerk Hiddes de Vries (Sexbierum, 6 August 1622 - Flushing, 6 August 1666) was a naval hero and Dutch admiral from the seventeenth century. The French, who could not pronounce his name, called him Kiërkides. His name was also given as Tsjerk, Tierck or Tjerck.
During the Second Anglo-Dutch War Tjerk was appointed full captain on 27 March 1665. He commanded d' Elff Steden in the Battle of Lowestoft, managing with great personal courage to free his ship from an entanglement with several other burning Dutch vessels, set alight by an English fireship. This fight was a severe defeat for the Dutch and those who by their bravery set a contrast to the general incompetence shown during the battle, were hailed as heroes by the populace. Tjerk in a written report severely criticised his fallen supreme commander Van Obdam. The Frisian admiralty board, in need to replace the also killed Lieutenant-Admiral of the Frisian fleet, Auke Stellingwerf, and sensing the public mood, appointed Tjerk Lieutenant-Admiral of Frisia on 29 June 1665. He thus jumped two ranks, not an uncommon occurrence for the Dutch navy in that century.
Normally the Frisian fleet was rather small, but in view of the emergency the province made a strong war effort, building 28 new vessels, Tjerk supervising the formation of the strongest naval force Frisia would ever send out..........



1789 – Launch of Minerve class 40-gun frigate Melpomène of the French Navy,
sistership:

Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plans with stern board outline and some detail, sheer lines with inboard details and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Princess Charlotte (captured 1799), a captured French Frigate, after being fitted for a 38-gun Fifth Rate, Frigate.
Collections - National Maritime Museum


1808 – Launch of French Clorinde , a 40-gun Pallas-class frigate of the French Navy, designed by Sané. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1814 and renamed her HMS Aurora. After 19 years as a coal hulk she was broken up in 1851.

Hand-coloured etching and aquatint showing HMS Eurotas in action with La Clorinde (1808). La Clorinde is shown on the left. She was captured the day after the action by the Dryad and Achates.

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

7th of August

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

3 August 1918 - hospital ship HMAT Warilda was torpedoed by the German submarine and sunk HMAT Warilda (His Majesty's Australian Transport) was a 7713-ton vessel, built by William Beardmore and Company in Glasgow as the SS Warilda for the Adelaide Steamship Company. She was designed for the...

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1761 - Lord Anson in HMY Royal Charlotte yacht hoisted the Union flag
HMY Royal Caroline was a ship-rigged royal yacht. She was ordered in 1749 to replace HMY Carolina as Britain's principal royal yacht. She was built at Deptford Dockyard under the supervision of Master Shipwright John Hollond to a design by Surveyor of the Navy Joseph Allin. She was launched on 29 January 1750 and was broken up 70 years later, in 1820.

1778 - HMS Cerberus (1758 – 28 guns), HMS Juno (1757 - 32), HMS Kingfisher (1770 - 14) and HMS Lark (1762 - 32) abandoned and burnt at Rhode Island to avoid capture. HMS Orpheus (1773 - 32) followed one week later and was also burnt to avoid capture.
HMS Cerberus was a frigate of the Royal Navy built in 1758 and carrying 28 guns. HMS Lark, also a frigate, was built in 1762 and carried 32 guns. Cerberus had been stationed off Rhode Island as part of a blockade of its ports since April 1776, and was joined by Lark in February 1777. Upon the arrival of a large French fleet off Narragansett Bay in late July 1778, the two ships were among the twenty British vessels in the bay which were then tasked to defend British-occupied Newport. Stationed in the northern stretch of the East Passage (separating Aquidneck and Conanicut Islands), the two ships were ordered to Newport, with instructions to not surrender to the enemy. While en route to Newport on August 5, the two ships were sighted by French ships of the line. Rather than engage on a lopsided battle that would have ended in their surrender, the two captains decided to scuttle their ships. Captain Symonds ran Cerberus aground, put the crew ashore, and set fire to the ship, while Captain White did the same with Lark. Two other British frigates, Orpheus and Juno, suffered the same fate. When Lark's gunpowder magazine was reached by the flames, it exploded, sending debris flying for miles around.
The wrecks of all four ships lay essentially undisturbed until the 1970s, when an archaeological team located portions of Lark, Cerberus, and Orpheus. As of 2008, the full extent of the wreck sites has not been established, and only fragmentary evidence of the ships has been recovered.
The site of the wrecks of Cerberus and Lark was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

1788 – Launch of French ship Commerce de Marseille (1788)
The Commerce de Marseille was a 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of the Océan class. She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from chamber of commerce of Marseille.

There is a wonderful monographie / drawing set available, published by the well known Gerard Delacroix, including 34 plates in scale 1:48

Planset review - LE COMMERCE DE MARSEILLE" (1788) 118-guns built by master shipwright Sané - by Gerard Delacroix​

Planset Review: LE COMMERCE DE MARSEILLE (1788) - 118-guns built by master shipwright Sané planset by our member @G. DELACROIX english translation by our member @Gilles Korent The booklet and plates are presented under a hard cover 24 x 34 x 9 cm dressed with an illustrated jacket...
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Building log by our members @Francis Jonet :

COMMERCE de MARSEILLE - Model of an 118-Gun Ship in scale 1:72 / Modéle au 1/72 d'un vaisseau de 118 canons - by Francis JONET​

À la demande de Uwe, j’ouvre ce sujet concernant la construction d’un vaisseau de 118 canons d’après la monographie de Gérard Delacroix « Le commerce de Marseille ». Construction dont la décision fut prise fin 2008 et a débutée par l’adaptation des plans de Gérard. Le travail a véritablement...
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Building log by our member @Michele Padoan :

LE COMMERCE DE MARSEILLE SCALA 1/72​

Buonasera, terminato l'Oriente in un nuovo cantiere, LE COMMERCE DE MARSEILLE in scala 1/72. In pratica si tratta della stessa monografia di Gerad Delacroix. Ho appena terminato il fanale di poppa. Domani inizierò con l'impostarmi il cantiere. Good evening, finished the East in a new...
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Ship History:

Le COMMERCE DE MARSEILLE (1788) - 118 guns ship - leadship of french Commerce de Marseille / Océan class​

Commerce de Marseille was a 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of the Océan class. She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from the chamber of commerce of Marseille. Built on state-of-the-art plans by Sané, she was dubbed the "finest ship of the century". Her...
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1798 - HMS Indefatigable (1784 - 64) Cptn. Sir Edward Pellew, captured Vaillante.
HMS Indefatigable was one of the Ardent class 64-gun third-rate ships-of-the-line designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1761 for the Royal Navy. She was built as a ship-of-the-line, but most of her active service took place after her conversion to a 44-gun razee frigate. She had a long career under several distinguished commanders, serving throughout the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She took some 27 prizes, alone or in company, and the Admiralty authorised the issue of four clasps to the Naval General Service Medal in 1847 to any surviving members of her crews from the respective actions. She was broken up in 1816.