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

[Uwek]

Every calendar day over the year something happened in the past centuries.
In this thread we are remembering historical naval events like battles, casualities, launchings etc.



We hope, that this thread could be interesting for you, and we ask you all to cooperate and share with the members your history knowledge.........

 

[Uwek]

12.th June 1775

The Battle of Machias (June 11–12, 1775) was the first naval engagement of the American Revolutionary War, also known as the Battle of the Margaretta, fought around the port of Machias, Maine.

Following the outbreak of the war, British authorities enlisted Loyalist merchant Ichabod Jones to supply the troops who were under the Siege of Boston. Two of his merchant ships arrived in Machias on June 2, 1775, accompanied by a British armed sloop called the HM Margaretta (sometimes also spelled Margueritta or Marguerite) that was commanded by Midshipman James Moore. The townspeople of Machias disapproved of Jones' intentions and arrested him. They also tried to arrest Moore, but he escaped through the harbor. The townspeople seized one of Jones' ships, armed it alongside a second local ship, and sailed out to meet Moore. After a short confrontation, Moore was fatally wounded, and his vessel and crew were captured.

The people of Machias captured additional British ships, and fought off a large force that tried to take control of the town in the Battle of Machias in 1777. Privateers and others operating out of Machias continued to harass the Royal Navy throughout the war.

More information you can find here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Machias



From the Journal of American Revolution:
THE VILLAGE OF MACHIAS CONFRONTS THE ROYAL NAVY, JUNE 1775
by Michael Cecere

The winter of 1774-75 had been difficult for the colonists nestled near the falls of the Machias River on the far eastern edge of Massachusetts (present day Maine). First settled in 1763, the small village of Machias, just 30 miles from the border of Canada, was a lonely outpost on the rocky coast. Heavily dependent on the export of firewood and lumber to Boston, for which they received food and other provisions to get them through the year, the inhabitants of Machias faced a serious dilemma in the spring of 1775. They had no desire to violate the resolves of the Continental Congress and ship wood to Boston, especially after news of the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord reached Machias, but their food stocks were nearly depleted and the isolated settlers faced famine. In desperation, the inhabitants pleaded with the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in May of 1775 for relief:

We must now inform your honors that the inhabitants of this place exceed one hundred families, some of which are very numerous, and that divine Providence has cut off all our usual resources. A very severe drought last fall prevented our laying in sufficient stores; and had no vessels visited us in the winter, we must have suffered; nor have we this spring been able to procure provisions sufficient for carrying on our business….. We must add, we have no country behind us to lean upon, nor can we make an escape by flight; the wilderness is impervious, and vessels we have none.

To you, therefore, honored gentlemen, we humbly apply for relief. You are our last, our only resource… We cannot take a denial, for, under God, you are all our dependence, and if you neglect us, we are ruined.1

Before the Provincial Congress could reply, two sloops loaded with provisions arrived off Machias on June 2. The ships belonged to Ichabod Jones, a Machias merchant and sea captain who had recently relocated to Boston. He had assured British General Thomas Gage that he could persuade the residents of Machias to send firewood and lumber to Boston for the use of the British army in exchange for the provisions aboard his ships. General Gage approved of the arrangement but as a precaution sent the lightly armed tender, H.M.S. Margaretta, to escort the two sloops to Machias.

The residents of Machias were divided on whether they should deal with Jones and violate the ban on trade with the British. A lively debate ensued and continued for days. The Reverend James Lyons, the chairman of the Machias Committee, recounted that:

On the 3d instant, a paper was handed about for the people to sign, as a prerequisite to their obtaining any provisions, of which we were in great want. The contents of this paper, required the signers to indulge Capt Jones in carrying Lumber to Boston, & to protect him and his property, at all events…On the 6th the people generally assembled at the place appointed, and seemed so averse to the measures proposed, that Capt. Jones privately went down to the Tender [H.M.S. Margaretta] & caused her to move up so near the Town that her Guns would reach the Houses…. The people…considering themselves nearly as prisoners of war…passed a Vote, that Capt Jones might proceed in his Business as usual without molestation, that they would purchase the provisions he brought into the place and pay him according to Contract.

After obtaining this Vote, Capt. Jones immediately ordered his Vessels to the Wharf & distributed his provisions among those only, who voted in favour of his carrying Lumber to Boston. This gave such offence to the aggrieved party that they determined to take Capt. Jones, if possible, & put a final stop to his supplying the Kings troops with anything.2

Benjamin Foster was one of those determined to prevent this violation of the boycott. He hatched a plan to seize Jones and the British officers of the Margaretta while they attended church. The attempt failed when Foster’s armed party was spotted approaching the Meeting House.3 The British officers escaped to the Margaretta, while Captain Jones scurried off into the woods where he was eventually apprehended.



A 1776 nautical chart of Machias Bay; Machias is at the very top. (Boston Public Library)

The commander of the British warship, Midshipman James Moore, vowed to protect Captain Jones and his vessels and threatened to burn the town if necessary.4 This threat was ignored and both of Captain Jones’s sloops were seized by the settlers. James Lyons described what happened next:

Upon this, a party of [settlers] went directly to stripping the sloop that lay at the wharf, and another party went off to take possession of the other sloop which lay below & brought her up nigh a Wharf, and anchored her in the stream. The tender did not fire but weighed her anchors as privately as possible, and in the dusk of the evening fell down & came…within Musket shott of the [second] sloop, which obliged our people to slip their Cable, & run the sloop aground. In the mean time, a considerable number of our people went down in boats and canoes, lined the shore directly opposite to the Tender, and having demanded her to surrender to America, received for answer, ‘fire and be damn’d’: they immediately fired in upon her, which she returned, and a smart engagement ensued.5

Nathaniel Godfrey, a pilot aboard the Margaretta who was pressed into service by the British, described the exchange between the British sailors and the Massachusetts coloniests:

Mr. Moore…was hailed on Shore by the Rebels, once more desiring him to strike to the Sons of Liberty, threatening him with Death if he resisted, upon Mr. Moore’s replying he was not yet ready, they fired a Volley of small Arms, which was returned from the Schooner with Swivels and Small Arms. The Firing continued about an hour and a half, Mr. Moore then cut the Cable, drop’t down Half a Mile lower, & anchored near a Sloop laden with Boards. In the Night they [the colonists] endeavoured to Board us with a Number of Boats & Canoes, but were beat off by a brisk fire from the Swivels & obliged to quit their Boats, four of which in the Morning were left upon the Flats full of holes.6

By daybreak of June 12, the British commander, having re-assessed his situation, abandoned Machias (and Captain Jones) and set sail for the open sea. The Margaretta was peppered by musket fire from the shore as it slowly sailed down the river towards Machias Bay and open water.7 The incident may have ended there, but the determination of Jeremiah O’Brien and Benjamin Foster to capture the Margaretta prompted a daring pursuit by the colonists. James Lyons described what happened:

Our people, seeing [the Margaretta] go off in the morning, determined to follow her. About forty men, armed with guns, swords, axes & pick forks, went in Capt Jones’s sloop, under the command of Capt Jeremiah O Brien: about Twenty, armed in the same manner, & under the command of Capt Benjamin Foster, went in a small Schooner. During the Chase, our people built them breast works of pine boards, and anything they could find in the Vessels, that would screen them from the enemy’s fire. The [Margaretta],upon the first appearance of our people, cut her boats from the stern, & made all the sail she could – but being a very dull sailor, they soon came up with her, and a most obstinate engagement ensued, both sides being determined to conquer or die: but the [Margaretta] was obliged to yield, her Captain [midshipman Moore] was wounded in the breast with two balls, of which wounds he died next morning…. The Battle was fought at the entrance of our harbour, & lasted for over the space of one hour.8

Nathaniel Godfrey, aboard the Margaretta, also described the engagement:

A Sloop & Schooner appeared, we immediately weighed & stood out for the Sea, they coming up with us very fast, we began to fire our Stern Swivels, & small Arms as soon as within reach. When within hail, they again desired us to strike to the Sons of Liberty, promising to treat us well, but if we made any resistance they [would] put us to Death. Mr. Moore seeing there was no possibility of getting clear, [swung]the Vessel too and gave them a Broadside with Swivels & Small Arms in the best manner he was able, and likewise threw some Hand Grenadoes into them; they immediately laid us Onboard, [mortally wounded Mr. Moore and] took possession of the Schooner [carrying] her up to Mechias, in great triumph….9


Unity about to impact the Margueritta. The sizes of the two vessels were backward from the painting, Unity being the larger. Margueritta is shown with carriage guns, but she had none. Painted by Robert Goodier. From Machias History.org.

The bold actions of the people of Machias, which resulted in the loss of a handful of men on both sides and the capture of a British warship and two sloops, was a humiliating defeat for the British navy. Isolated on the Maine coast with virtually no assistance from Massachusetts or the other colonies, the vulnerable and desperate inhabitants of Machias displayed a degree of determination and bravery in just the second naval engagement of the Revolutionary War.10

1 John Howard Ahlin, “Petition from the Residents of Machias to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, 25 May,
1775,” Maine Rubicon: Downeast Settlers during the American Revolution, (Camden, ME: Picton Press, 1966), 15-16.
2 Clark, ed., “James Lyons, Chairman of the Machias Committee, to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, 14 June, 1775,” Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: 1964), 1:676-77.
3 Clark, ed., “Pilot Nathaniel Godfrey’s Report on the Action Between the Schooner Margueritta and the Rebels at Machias, 11 June, 1775,” Naval Documents, 1: 655.
4 Clark, Naval Documents, 1:655
5 Clark, ed., “James Lyons, Chairman of the Machias Committee, to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, 14 June, 1775,” Naval Documents, 1:676-77.
6 Clark, ed., “Pilot Nathaniel Godfrey’s Report on the Action Between the Schooner Margueritta and the Rebels at Machias, 11 June, 1775,” Naval Documents, 1: 655.
7 Clark, Naval Documents, 1:655.
8 Clark, ed., “James Lyons, Chairman of the Machias Committee, to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, 14 June, 1775,” Naval Documents, 1:676-77.
9 Clark, ed., “Pilot Nathaniel Godfrey’s Report…11 June, 1775,” Naval Documents, 1:655-56.
10 A month earlier, on May 12, 1775, a similar naval engagement occurred in Buzzards Bay, off southern Massachusetts with similar results. See Derek W. Beck, “The First Naval Skirmish of the Revolution,” Journal of the American Revolution, October 7, 2013

Further reads:
http://www.awiatsea.com/incidents/1775-06-11 Action at Machias.html
https://worldhistoryproject.org/1775/6/11/battle-of-machias

 

[Uwek]

Some other events happened at 12th June

1653 – First Anglo-Dutch War: The Battle of the Gabbard begins and lasts until June 13.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Gabbard)
1942 - USS Swordfish (SS 193) sinks Japanese freighter Burma Maru northwest of Pulo Wai in the Gulf of Siam.
1943 - TBF aircraft from Composite Squadron Nine (VC 9) based on board USS Bogue (ACV 9) sink German submarine (U 118) west by north of the Canary Islands.
1957 - More than 100 ships from 17 nations take part in the International Naval Review at Hampton Roads, Va. in honor of the 350th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Va.
1970 - After an earthquake in Peru, USS Guam (LPH 9) begins 11 days of relief flights to transport medical teams and supplies, as well as rescue victims.
1993 - USS Cape St. George (CG 71) is commissioned at its homeport of Norfolk Naval Base. The Ticonderoga-class Aegis guided-missile cruiser is the first named for the Battle of Cape St. George when a destroyer squadron led by Capt. Arleigh Burke faced off against a five-ship Japanese destroyer force on Nov. 25, 1943 near New Ireland. DESRON 23 sank three destroyers and damaged a fourth during that World War II battle.

 

[Uwek]

13.th June 1881 -
The sinking of the USS Jeannette - ex. HMS Pandora

The bark-rigged wooden steamship USS Jeannette was a naval exploration vessel which, under the command of George W. De Long, undertook an ill-fated 1879–1881 voyage to the Arctic. After being trapped in the ice and drifting for almost two years, the ship and its crew of 33 were released from the ice, then trapped again, crushed and sunk some 300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi) north of the Siberian coast. The entire crew survived the sinking, but 11 died while sailing towards land in a small cutter. The other 22 reached Siberia, but 9 of them, including De Long, subsequently perished in the wastes of the Lena Delta.



The vessel had begun its active career in 1861 as HMS Pandora, a Royal Navy gunboat. After more than a decade's service off the West African coast and in the Mediterranean, Pandora was retired from duty and sold as a private yacht to a British explorer, Allen Young. Young took her on two voyages to the Arctic, in 1875 and 1876, before selling her to James Gordon Bennett, Jr., proprietor of The New York Herald, who changed her name to Jeannette. Although she sailed to the Arctic under the U.S. flag as USS Jeannette, subject to naval laws and discipline, Bennett remained responsible for the costs of the expedition.

In 2015 a Russian explorer and media celebrity announced that there were plans to raise Jeannette from the seabed, as a gesture of Russian-American friendship.


The ship:

The ship that became USS Jeannette began her life as a Royal Navy gunboat under the name HMS Pandora, built at the Pembroke Naval Dockyards in 1860. She was of wooden construction, 146 feet (45 m) in length and 25 feet (7.6 m) at the beam, with a draught of 25 feet (7.6 m). Her tonnage, calculated by Builder's Measure, was 428 tons, with a displacement of 570 tons. She was rigged as a barque, but her principal means of propulsion was by a steam-driven screw. Her armament was five guns.

The Jeannette Expedition:

The Jeannette Expedition of 1879–81, officially the U.S. Arctic Expedition, was an attempt led by George W. De Long to reach the North Pole by pioneering a route from the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait. The premise was that a temperate current, the Kuro Siwo, flowed northwards into the strait, providing a gateway to the Open Polar Sea and thus to the pole. This theory proved illusory; the expedition's ship, USS Jeannette and its crew of 33, was trapped by ice and drifted for nearly two years before she was crushed and sunk, north of the Siberian coast. De Long then led his 32 men on a perilous journey by sled, dragging the Jeannette's whaleboat and two cutters, eventually switching to these small boats to sail for the Lena Delta in Siberia. During this journey, and in the subsequent weeks of wandering in Siberia before rescue, 20 of the ship's complement died, including De Long.


Map showing the progress of the Jeannette crew after leaving the ship. Dotted lines indicate the routes taken by De Long, Chipp, and Melville after their separation by a storm.

The chief exponent of the theory of a warm-water gateway to the North Pole was the German cartographer August Petermann. He encouraged James Gordon Bennett Jr., the proprietor of the New York Herald, to finance a polar expedition based on the untried Pacific route. Bennett acquired a former Royal Navy gunboat, the Pandora, and changed her name to Jeannette. De Long, whom Bennett chose to lead the expedition, was a serving naval officer with previous Arctic experience. Although essentially a private venture, in which Bennett paid all the bills, the expedition had the full support of the U.S. Government. Before departure the ship was commissioned into the U.S. Navy as USS Jeannette, and sailed under navy laws and discipline.


The Sinking of the Jeannette
The steamship Jeannette begins to sinks in the Arctic Ocean after being crushed by ice floes north of Siberia in June 1881. The ship’s captain, George W. De Long, who died in the aftermath of the sinking, had kept a journal during the two-year-long polar expedition. His wife edited his writings and published them in 1883 in two volumes entitled The Voyage of the Jeannette. The Ship and Ice Journals of George W. De Long, which included wood engravings such as this one.

Before its demise, the expedition discovered new islands — the Ostrova De-Longa — and collected valuable meteorological and oceanographic data. Although Jeannette's fate demolished the widely believed Open Polar Sea theory, the appearance in 1884 of debris from the wreck on the south-west coast of Greenland indicated the existence of an ocean current moving the permanent Arctic ice from east to west. This discovery inspired Fridtjof Nansen to mount his Fram expedition nine years later. A monument to the Jeannette's dead was erected at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, in 1890.

https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Ambler_James_M_1848-1881
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Jeannette_(1878)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Expedition

 

[Uwek]

Some other events happened at 13 th June

1801 - HMS Dreadnought was a Royal Navy 98-gun second rate of the Neptune-class.
This ship of the line was launched at Portsmouth at midday on Saturday, 13 June 1801, after she had spent 13 years on the stocks. She was the first man-of-war launched since the Act of Union 1800 created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and at her head displayed a lion couchant on a scroll bearing the Royal arms as emblazoned on the Standard.

The launch was a spectacle; it was reported that at least 10,000 people witnessed Commissioner Sir Charles Saxton break a bottle of wine over her stem, and that after the launch Sir Charles gave a most sumptuous cold collation to the nobility and officers of distinction.
After the launch, Dreadnought was brought into dock for coppering, and a great number of people went on board to view her. The following day, due to the exertions of Mr Peake, the builder, and the artificers of the dockyard, she was completely coppered in six hours and on Monday morning she went out of dock for rigging and fitting.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sternboard outline with some decoration detail, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Dreadnought' (1801), a 98-gun Second Rate, three-decker, as build at Portsmouth Dockyard. Signed by Henry Peake [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1799-1803].
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/79987.html#cJ68qs4Y19Sj6smD.99

Her active life was not very spectacular, only main event was, that HMS Dreadnought was present at the Battle of Trafalgar, the eighth ship in the lee division to enter battle. She began firing at two o'clock, and forced the surrender of the San Juan Nepomuceno after her Commodore was killed.


Nelson’s Plan of Battle Source: http://bit.ly/2cR2csy

During the battle, Dreadnought lost seven seaman and a further 26 suffered wounds.

Dreadnought was taken out of commission at Portsmouth in 1812. In 1827, she became a lazaretto (quarantine ship) at Milford on Sea and became the second of the ships used by the Seamen's Hospital Society, between 1831 and 1857, as a hospital ship for ex-members of the Merchant Navy or fishing fleet, and their dependents. Dreadnought was broken up in 1857.


This appears to be Cooke's original study of the 'Dreadnought' for the plate he did for the (merchant) Seamen's Hospital Society in 1831, including details of the hull set above it. For two versions of the finished plate see PAD6061 and PAD6149. Compared with the finished plates, the 'Dreadnought' appears perspectivally closer to inland (note the size of the Old Royal Naval College at left in relation to the ship). The plates have also moved the small yacht from the right-hand side (in the drawing) to the port side of the 'Dreadnought'. 'Dreadnought' was the Society's hospital ship off Greenwich from 1827 to 1856 (PvdM 1/05).
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/120311.html#tFPvyjsHEiTDhIKt.99


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dreadnought_(1801)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=D;start=10

 

[Uwek]

Some other events happened at 13 th June

1900 - During the Boxer Rebellion, the International Relief Expedition turns back near Anting, China, and moves to Sanstun after the Tientsin-Peking railroad is cut by the Boxers, whose anti-foreign mantra grew to burning homes and killing foreigners as well as Chinese Christians. In total, 56 Marines and Sailors receive the Medal of Honor for their actions during the Rebellion.

1913 - Lt. j.g. P.N.L. Bellinger sets an American altitude record for seaplanes when he reaches 6,200 feet in a Curtiss (A 3) aircraft.

1939 - USS Saratoga (CV 3) and USS Kanawha (AO 1) complete a two-day underway refueling test off the coast of southern Calif., demonstrating the feasibility of refueling carriers at sea where bases are not available.

1943 - USS Frazier (DD 607) sinks Japanese submarine (I 9), east of Sirius Point, Kiska, Aleutian Islands.

1944 - USS Melvin (DD 680) sinks Japanese submarine (RO 36) between 50 and 75 miles east of Saipan. Also on this date USS Barb (SS 220) sinks Japanese army transport Takashima Maru in the Sea of Okhotsk and survives counter-attacks by destroyer Hatsuharu.

1973 - Collision incident between russian submarine K-56 (Project 675 (also known by the NATO reporting name of Echo II class) nuclear submarine) and the research ship Academician Berg, traveling at 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph). The ship struck K-56 on the starboard side, tearing a four-meter hole through the hull into the first and second compartments. A civilian expert from Leningrad, 16 officers, five warrant officers, and five sailors were killed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-56_(1965)

 

[Uwek]

14th June 1777

The Continental Congress adopts the design of present U.S. flag of 13 stripes and 13 stars.

On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution which stated: “Resolved, That the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.”
The US-Flag Day is now observed on June 14 of each year. A false tradition holds that the new flag was first hoisted in June of 1777 by the Continental Army at the Middlebrook encampment.



The Flag Resolution did not specify any particular arrangement for the stars. The pictured flag shows the thirteen stars arranged in a circle, the so-called Betsy Ross flag. Although the Betsy Ross legend is not taken seriously by many historians, the design itself is the oldest version of any US flag to appear on any physical relic: it is historically referenced in contemporary battlefield paintings by John Trumbull and Charles Willson Peale, which depict the circular star arrangement. Popular designs at the time were varied and most were individually crafted rather than mass-produced. Given the scant archeological and written evidence, it is unknown which design was the most popular at that time.


The 1777 resolution was most probably meant to define a naval ensign. In the late 18th century, the notion of a national flag did not yet exist, or was only nascent. The flag resolution appears between other resolutions from the Marine Committee. On May 10, 1779, Secretary of the Board of War Richard Peters expressed concern "it is not yet settled what is the Standard of the United States." However, the term, "Standard," referred to a national standard for the Army of the United States. Each regiment was to carry the national standard in addition to its regimental standard. The national standard was not a reference to the national or naval flag.

The Flag Resolution did not specify any particular arrangement, number of points, nor orientation for the stars and the arrangement or whether the flag had to have seven red stripes and six white ones or vice versa. The appearance was up to the maker of the flag. Some flag makers arranged the stars into one big star, in a circle or in rows and some replaced a state's star with its initial. One arrangement features 13 five-pointed stars arranged in a circle, with the stars arranged pointing outwards from the circle (as opposed to up), the so-called Betsy Ross flag. This flag, however, is more likely a flag used for celebrations of anniversaries of the nation's birthday. Experts have dated the earliest known example of this flag to be 1792 in a painting by John Trumbull.

Despite the 1777 resolution, the early years of American independence featured many different flags. Most were individually crafted rather than mass-produced. While there are many examples of 13-star arrangements, some of those flags included blue stripes as well as red and white. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, in a letter dated October 3, 1778, to Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, described the American flag as consisting of "13 stripes, alternately red, white, and blue, a small square in the upper angle, next the flag staff, is a blue field, with 13 white stars, denoting a new Constellation." John Paul Jones used a variety of 13-star flags on his U.S. Navy ships including the well-documented 1779 flags of the Serapis and the Alliance. The Serapis flag had three rows of eight-pointed stars with stripes that were red, white, and blue. The flag for the Alliance, however, had five rows of eight-pointed stars with 13 red and white stripes, and the white stripes were on the outer edges. Both flags were documented by the Dutch government in October 1779, making them two of the earliest known flags of 13 stars.



The origin of the stars and stripes design is uncertain. A popular story credits Betsy Ross for sewing the first flag from a pencil sketch by George Washington who personally commissioned her for the job. However, no evidence for this theory exists beyond Ross’ descendants’ much later recollections of what she told her family. Another woman, Rebecca Young, has also been credited as having made the first flag by later generations of her family. Rebecca Young’s daughter was Mary Pickersgill, who made the Star Spangled Banner Flag.

Another popular theory is that the flag was designed by Francis Hopkinson. Hopkinson was the only person to have made such a claim during his own lifetime, when he sent a bill to Congress for his work. He asked for a “Quarter Cask of the Public Wine” as payment initially. The payment was not made, however, because it was determined he had already received a salary as a member of Congress. It should be noted that no one at the time contested his claim to have designed the flag.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_United_States
https://21stcenturycicero.wordpress.com/american-icons/the-flag-resolution-of-1777/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Ross_flag
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Hopkinson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serapis_flag

 

[Uwek]

14.th June 1777
John Paul Jones takes command of the Continental Navy sloop USS Ranger

The ship
The first USS Ranger was a sloop-of-war in the Continental Navy in active service in 1777–1780; she received the second salute to an American fighting vessel by a foreign power (the first salute was received by the USS Andrew Doria when on 16 November 1776 she arrived at St. Eustatius and the Dutch island returned her 11-gun salute). She was captured in 1780, and brought into the Royal Navy as HMS Halifax. She was decommissioned in 1781.



Commander John Paul Jones
Despite his previous successes at sea, Jones's disagreements with those in authority reached a new level upon arrival in Boston on December 16, 1776. While at the port, he began feuding with Commodore Hopkins, as Jones believed that Hopkins was hindering his advancement by talking down his campaign plans. As a result of this and other frustrations, Jones was assigned the smaller command of the newly constructed USS Ranger on June 14, 1777, the same day that the new Stars and Stripes flag was adopted.



After making the necessary preparations, Jones sailed for France on November 1, 1777, with orders to assist the American cause however possible. The American commissioners in France were Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, and they listened to Jones's strategic recommendations. They promised him the command of Indien, a new vessel being constructed for America in Amsterdam. Britain, however, was able to divert L'Indien away from American hands by exerting pressure to ensure its sale to France instead (which had not yet allied with America). Jones was again left without a command, an unpleasant reminder of his stagnation in Boston from late 1776 until early 1777. It is thought that during this time Jones developed his close friendship with Benjamin Franklin, whom he greatly admired.

On February 6, 1778, France signed the Treaty of Alliance with America, formally recognizing the independence of the new American republic. Eight days later, Captain Jones's Ranger became the first American naval vessel to be formally saluted by the French, with a nine-gun salute fired from captain Lamotte-Piquet's flagship. Jones wrote of the event: "I accepted his offer all the more for after all it was a recognition of our independence and in the nation."



On April 10, 1778, Jones finally set sail from Brest, France, for the western coasts of Britain...............

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Ranger_(1777)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Jones
http://www.uss-ranger.org/History.shtml

 

[Uwek]

Some other events happened at 14.th June

1300 - The naval Battle of Ponza took place on 14 June 1300 near the islands of Ponza and Zannone, in the Gulf of Gaeta (north-west of Naples), when a galley fleet commanded by Roger of Lauria defeated an Aragonese-Sicilian galley fleet commanded by Conrad d'Oria.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ponza_(1300)

1667 – ending of The Raid on the Medway (9-14 June 1667), during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in June 1667, was a successful attack conducted by the Dutch navy on English battleships at a time when most were virtually unmanned and unarmed, laid up in the fleet anchorages off Chatham Dockyard and Gillingham in the county of Kent. At the time, the fortress of Upnor Castle and a barrier chain called the "Gillingham Line" were supposed to protect the English ships.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_the_Medway

1673 – 2.nd battle of Schooneveld
The Battles of Schooneveld were two naval battles of the Franco-Dutch War, fought off the coast of the Netherlands on 7 June and 14 June 1673 (New Style; 28 May and 4 June in the Julian calendar then in use in England) between an allied Anglo-French fleet commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine on his flagship the Royal Charles, and the fleet of the United Provinces, commanded by Michiel de Ruyter. The Dutch victories in the two battles, and at the Battle of Texel that followed in August, saved their country from an Anglo-French invasion.


The first battle of Schooneveld, 7 June 1673 by Willem van de Velde, the elder, painted c.1684.

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

1789 – Mutiny on the Bounty: HMS Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,600 mi) journey in an open boat


Fletcher Christian and the mutineers turn Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 others adrift; 1790 painting by Robert Dodd


Map showing Bounty's movements in the Pacific Ocean, 1788–1790
----- Voyage of Bounty to Tahiti and to location of the mutiny, 28 April 1789
----- Course of Bligh's open-boat journey to Coupang, Timor, between 2 May and 14 June 1789
----- Movements of Bounty under Christian after the mutiny, from 28 April 1789 onwards
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_on_the_Bounty

1847 - Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry conducts the second expedition against Tabasco, Mexico, also known as the Battle of Villahermosa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Tabasco

1945 - USS Sea Devil (SS 400) sinks the Japanese transport Wakamiyasan Maru in the Yellow Sea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sea_Devil_(SS-400)

 

[Uwek]

15.th June 1904

SS General Slocum disaster - more than 1.000 people - most of them german settlers - killed

On June 15, 1904, General Slocum caught fire and sank in the East River of New York City. At the time of the accident, she was on a chartered run carrying members of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church (German Americans from Little Germany, Manhattan) to a church picnic. An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board died. The General Slocum disaster was the New York area's worst disaster in terms of loss of life until the September 11, 2001 attacks. It is the worst maritime disaster in the city's history, and the second worst maritime disaster on United States waterways.


The PS General Slocum was a sidewheel passenger steamboat built in Brooklyn, New York, in 1891. During her service history, she was involved in a number of mishaps, including multiple groundings and collisions.

The Disaster

General Slocum worked as a passenger ship, taking people on excursions around New York City. On Wednesday, June 15, 1904, the ship had been chartered for $350 by St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Little Germany district of Manhattan. This was an annual rite for the group, which had made the trip for 17 consecutive years, a period when German settlers moved out of Little Germany for the Upper East and West Sides. Over 1,400 passengers, mostly women and children, boarded General Slocum, which was to sail up the East River and then eastward across the Long Island Sound to Locust Grove, a picnic site in Eatons Neck, Long Island.



The ship got underway at 9:30 am. As it was passing East 90th Street, a fire started in the Lamp Room in the forward section, possibly caused by a discarded cigarette or match. It was fueled by the straw, oily rags, and lamp oil strewn around the room. The first notice of a fire was at 10:00 am; eyewitnesses claimed the initial blaze began in various locations, including a paint locker filled with flammable liquids and a cabin filled with gasoline. Captain Van Schaick was not notified until 10 minutes after the fire was discovered. A 12-year-old boy had tried to warn him earlier, but was not believed.



Although the captain was ultimately responsible for the safety of passengers, the owners had made no effort to maintain or replace the ship's safety equipment. The fire hoses had been allowed to rot, and fell apart when the crew tried to put out the fire. The crew had never practiced a fire drill, and the lifeboats were tied up and inaccessible. (Some claim they were wired and painted in place.)[10] Survivors reported that the life preserverswere useless and fell apart in their hands. Desperate mothers placed life jackets on their children and tossed them into the water, only to watch in horror as their children sank instead of floating. Most of those on board were women and children who, like most Americans of the time, could not swim; victims found that their heavy wool clothing absorbed water and weighed them down in the river.

It has been suggested that the manager of the life preserver manufacturer placed iron bars inside the cork preservers to meet minimum weight requirements at the time. Many of the life preservers had been filled with cheap and less effective granulated cork and brought up to proper weight by the inclusion of the iron weights. Canvas covers, rotted with age, split and scattered the powdered cork. Managers of the company (Nonpareil Cork Works) were indicted but not convicted. The life preservers had been manufactured in 1891 and had hung above the deck, unprotected from the elements, for 13 years.

Captain Van Schaick decided to continue his course rather than run the ship aground or stop at a nearby landing. By going into headwinds and failing to immediately ground the ship, he fanned the fire. Van Schaick later argued he was trying to avoid having the fire spread to riverside buildings and oil tanks. Flammable paint also helped the fire spread out of control.



Some passengers jumped into the river to escape the fire, but the heavy women's clothing of the day made swimming almost impossible and dragged them underwater to drown. Many died when the floors of the overloaded boat collapsed; others were battered by the still-turning paddles as they tried to escape into the water or over the sides.

By the time General Slocum sank in shallow water at North Brother Island, just off the Bronx shore, an estimated 1,021 people had either burned to death or drowned. There were 321 survivors. Five of the 40 crew members died.



The captain lost sight in one eye owing to the fire. Reports indicate that Captain Van Schaick deserted General Slocum as soon as it settled, jumping into a nearby tug, along with several crew. Some say his jacket was hardly rumpled, but other reports stated that he was seriously injured. He was hospitalized at Lebanon Hospital.

Many acts of heroism were committed by the passengers, witnesses, and emergency personnel. Staff and patients from the hospital on North Brother Island participated in the rescue efforts, forming human chains and pulling victims from the water.



There is a very good documentation

This is the story of the great 1904 ship disaster in NY harbor which until 9 / 11 was the largest disaster in NYC history. The ship was carrying mostly women and children for a Sunday school celebration. They were German Americans from Kleinedeutschland or Little Germany on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. About 1021 died. The disaster paralyzed the city and was international news. James Joyce refers to the awful news from New York in Ulysses. The shipping company was found to have improperly installed life boats and to have falsified safety records. Subsequent disasters such as the San Francisco Earthquake, the Triangle Shirt Waist Fire, the Titanic, and two world wars with Germany have eclipsed the fire and sinking of the General Slocum to the point that it is virtually unknown. The video features interviews with the last two living survivors, one who was 99 years old when interviewed and the other 105. The co - producers of Fearful Visitation are Phil Dray and Hank Linhart. The video of Fearful Visitation premiered at the NY Historical Society for the100th commemoration of the disaster. The video was aired on PBS Ch 13, WNET, WSKG, and WMHT. Also by Hank Linhart, Blissville...An Investigation. http://blissvillestories.org/stream-o... This video is about a remote corner of Queens with the remarkable name of Blissville and leads to the discovery of a nearby Romani/Gypsy village in the 1930's.

Here most of the existing photos

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

 

[Uwek]

Other events on 15.th June

1502 – Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Martinique on his fourth voyage.

1542 – Birth of Richard Grenville, English captain and explorer (d. 1591)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Grenville
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Flores_(1591)

1775 - Abraham Whipple takes command of Rhode Island's coastal defense ship Katy and captures at the same day a tender of HMS Rose. In December, Katy is taken into the Continental service and renamed USS Providence.


USS Providence - ex-Katy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Whipple
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Providence_(1775)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Rose_(1757)

BTW: The replica of the HMS Rose was used for the film Master and Commander and named for this time HMS Surprise



1864 - During the Civil War, the side-wheel steamer / timberclad gunboat, USS Lexington, commanded by Lt. George Bache, and a boat crew from the side-wheel steamer, USS Tyler, capture three steamers aiding Confederates off Beulah Landing, Miss.


USS Lexington

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lexington_(1861)
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-l/lex-3.htm

1944 - Following intensive naval gunfire and carrier-based aircraft bombing, Task Force 52 lands the Marines on Saipan, which is the first relatively large and heavily defended land mass in the Central Pacific to be assaulted by US amphibious forces.
The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June to 9 July 1944. The Allied invasion fleet embarking the expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was launched. The U.S. 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, and the Army's 27th Infantry Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Holland Smith, defeated the 43rd Infantry Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito.


LVTs heading for shore on 15 June 1944. USS Birminghamin foreground; the cruiser firing in the distance is USS Indianapolis.

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

1944 - TBFs and FM-2s (VC 9) from USS Solomons (CVE 67) sink German submarine (U 860) in the South Atlantic.

 

[Uwek]

The Action of 16 May 1797 was a naval battle that took place near Tripoli in Ottoman Tripolitania (present-day Libya). The Danish squadron was victorious over a Tripolitan squadron that outnumbered them in terms of the number of vessels. The result was a peace treaty between the Bey of Tripoli and Denmark.

Background
After the newly appointed Bey of Tripoli, Sidi Yussuf, demanded an increased tribute (essentially a bribe to stop Tripolitans preying on Danish merchant ships), and captured two Danish vessels, whose crews he sold into slavery, Denmark sent Captain Lorenz Fisker in the 40-gun frigate Thetis to Tripoli. He had two missions: first, to escort the annual "gift ship" to Algiers, and second, to arrange for the freeing of the two Danish vessels and their crews. He arrived at Tripoli on 30 August 1796, but failed to free the captured sailors, or even to agree a ransom price.


Najaden at Tripoli in 1797, Royal Danish Naval Museum

The Action
The Danes therefore decided to make a second attempt. They sent Captain Steen Andersen Bille in the frigate Najaden 40, under Captain John Hoppe, to Malta, where she arrived on 2 May 1797. There the Danes met up with the brig Sarpen 18, under Captain Charles Christian De Holck. They also hired a xebec of six guns, and put in a Danish crew under Lieutenant Hans Munck (or Munk), of Sarpen. This squadron then sailed from Malta for Tripoli. On 12 May, off the coast of Lampedusa, they met with Fisker and Thetis. Fisker transferred command of Danish forces in the Mediterranean to Bille and sailed for home. Bille's small squadron sailed past the forts guarding Tripoli on 15 May 1797.[1] Among the guns firing on the Danish vessels from the forts were four Danish cannons that the Libyan envoy Abderahman al Bidiri had obtained from the King of Denmark in 1772.

On 16 May Najaden sailed into the harbor and attacked the six armed vessels there. The Tripolitan forces consisted of the 28-gun xebec Meshuda, two other xebecs of similar size and three smaller vessels. Although the Danish cannon fire caused extensive casualties among the Tripolitans, they nevertheless managed to get close to the Danish vessels and almost managed to board Najaden. Hoppe's deft maneuvering forestalled defeat. Although the two smaller Danish ships were more of a hindrance than a help, the Tripolitans retreated after two hours. Danish casualties were one killed and one wounded.

Bille then blockaded the harbor, stopping trade. Subsequent negotiations resulted in a peace treaty on 25 May. Denmark agreed to continue to pay tribute, but at a reduced rate. Bille was also able to buy the freedom of the Danish prisoners.

Aftermath
Bille remained in the Mediterranean until 1801 with a force that the Danish government increased to three frigates and two brigs. After the Danish government recalled him to become the chief of the naval defense, the Danish flotilla remained, continuing to protect Danish shipping for a few more years. Bille went on to command a division of the navy in the Battle of Copenhagen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_16_May_1797

 

[Uwek]

HMS Culloden (1783) was a 74-gun Ganges-class third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 16 June 1783 at Rotherhithe. She took part in some of the most famous battles of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars before she was broken up in 1813.



She particpated in several battles:

• Glorious First of June
• Battle of Cape St Vincent
• Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife
• Battle of the Nile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Culloden_(1783)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

17. June 1815

The Battle of Cape Gata, which took place June 17, 1815, off the south-east coast of Spain, was the first battle of the Second Barbary War. A squadron of vessels, under the command of Stephen Decatur, Jr., met and engaged the flagship of the Algerine Navy, the frigate Meshuda under Admiral Hamidou. After a sharp action, Decatur's squadron was able to capture the Algerine frigate and win a decisive victory over the Algerines.


The so called "Barbary Coast of North Africa"

Background
Stephen Decatur's squadron had left New York on May 20, 1815, with orders to destroy Algerine vessels and bring the Dey of Algiers to terms for attacking American shipping. He reached the Strait of Gibraltar on June 15, 1815 and began his mission. After learning that several Algerine cruisers had crossed the Strait of Gibraltar shortly before he did, Commodore Stephen Decatur, Jr. decided to give them chase and cut them off before they could reach Algiers.


Stephen Decatur Jr

Battle
Commanding a fleet of nine vessels, he encountered the Algerine flagship Mashouda (also spelled 'Mashuda' or 'Meshuda') of forty-six guns off Cape Gata, Spain. Being heavily outnumbered the admiral, Rais Hamidou, decided to try to flee to the port of Algiers, but was overtaken by the American squadron. After receiving damage from the Constellation and the admiral himself being wounded, the Algerines instead decided to change course and try for the safety of a neutral port along the Spanish coast.

The Constellation and the sloop Ontario were able to close in and hammer the Algerine frigate. The Algerines resorted to replying with musket fire at close range, but Decatur was able to get his flagship, the Guerriere, alongside the Algerine frigate. Firing a devastating broadside, the Guerriere crippled the enemy and killed the Algerine admiral. Decatur ceased firing, expecting the Algerine ship to surrender. Instead the Algerines continued to fight hopelessly with muskets as long as they were able. As a result, Decatur had the sloop Epervier fire nine broadsides into the Meshuda with disastrous effect. The bloodied Algerines then struck their colors and ended the battle.

Aftermath
Four hundred and six Algerines were captured, with most being wounded as well as thirty killed. The American losses were remarkably light losing only four dead and ten wounded all on the Guerriere. Most of the American casualties were due to a gun explosion, but a few were due to enemy action. After sending the captured frigate off to Cartagena Decatur continued to cruise towards Algiers, but his squadron encountered another Algerine cruiser off Cape Palos. After engaging and capturing the cruiser Decatur was finally able to make it to Algiers. The loss of the Meshuda and Admiral Hamidou greatly weakened Algerine morale as well as their naval capabilities. Once the American squadron reached Algiers they met no further opposition and by a mere show of force were able to bring the Dey to terms, thus ending the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Cape_Gata
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Decatur
http://skikda.boussaboua.free.fr/algerie_histoire_corsaires_06_hamidou.htm

 

[Uwek]

17 June 1696

The Battle of Dogger Bank is the name of a battle which took place on June 17, 1696 as part of the War of the Grand Alliance. It was a victory for a French force of seven ships over a Dutch force of five ships and the convoy it was escorting.

On this date the French privateer Jean Bart found a Dutch convoy of 112 merchant ships, escorted by five Dutch ships near Dogger Bank.
The French had more warships and more cannons than the Dutch. Furthermore, the French crews were very experienced and led by an exceptional commander, so the outcome of the battle was very predictable. But the French had to hurry, because a large English squadron under admiral John Benbow was aware of the French presence and was looking for them.

The battle started on 19:00 h. when Jean Bart on the Maure attacked the Dutch flagship, the Raadhuis-van-Haarlem. the Dutch fought valiantly for three hours until their captain was killed. Then they surrendered and so did the 4 other ships, one after another.
Jean Bart captured and burned 25 merchant ships until Benbow's squadron of 18 ships approached. The French squadron fled towards Denmark. They remained there until July and then slipped through the allied lines into Dunkirk with 1200 prisoners, on September 27.



In honor Jean Bart more than 27 ships of the French Navy, over a period of 200 years, have borne the name Jean Bart.
These include:
Jean Bart (1788) - 74-gun ship of the line
Jean Bart (1811) - 74-gun ship of the line
Jean Bart (1886) - First class cruiser of 4800 tonnes
Jean Bart (1910) - 23,600 tonne battleship; the first French Dreadnought
Jean Bart (1940) - 50,000 tonne battleship armed with 380mm guns. Although launched in 1940, the ship was not fitted out and completed until 1955, having spent much of World War II in dock at Casablanca; the last French battleship completed
Jean Bart (1988) - Anti-aircraft frigate, still in service with the French Navy
and many smaller naval ships as well as privateers have also borne the name "Jean Bart".


The boyhood of Jean Bart – French chocolate label


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dogger_Bank_(1696)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Bart
https://dawlishchronicles.com/2017/10/27/jean-bart-sea-devil-incarnate/

 

[Uwek]

Other events at the 17 June

1778 - The Action of 17 June 1778 also known as the Fight of Belle Poule and Arethusa
was a minor naval action that took place off the coast of France between British and French frigates. The action was widely celebrated by both France and Great Britain and was the first between the two naval forces during the American Revolutionary War before a formal declaration of war was even announced.

1833 - The ship of the line, USS Delaware, becomes the first warship to enter a public drydock in the United States when secured at Gosport Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Va.

1870 - Under the command of Lt. Willard H. Brownson, six boats from the steam sloop-of-war USS Mohican attack a group of pirates in the Teacapan River, Mexico.

1898 - President William McKinley signs into law a Congressional bill authorizing the establishment of the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps.

1944 - PB4Y-1 aircraft (VB 109) from Eniwetok sinks Japanese submarine RO 117, north-northwest of Truk.

1944 - TBF (VC 95) from USS Croatan (CVE 25) damages German submarine (U 853) in the North Atlantic. On May 6, 1945, USS Atherton (DE 169) and USS Moberly (PF 63) sink (U 853) off Block Island.

2017 - The guided missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) is involved in a collision with the Philippine-flagged merchant vessel ACX Crystal while operating about 56 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka, Japan. Seven Sailors lose their lives and the ship is damaged on her starboard side above and below the waterline.

 

[Uwek]

18 June 1799

Action of 18 June 1799

The Action of 18 June 1799 was a naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars fought off Toulon in the wake of the Mediterranean campaign of 1798. A frigate squadron under Rear-admiral Perrée, returning to Toulon from Syria, met a 30-ship British fleet under Lord Keith. Three ships of the line and two frigates detached from the British squadron, and a 28-hour running battle ensued. When the British ships overhauled them, the French frigates and brigs had no choice but to surrender, given their opponents' overwhelming strength.

Background
In the opening moves of the Mediterranean campaign of 1798, the French Navy's Toulon squadron, under Vice-admiral Brueys, embarked a 40,000-man force and rushed to land them in Egypt. The landing of the Army, under General Bonaparte, proceeded well and the French Army scored successes against the Ottomans and the Mameluks. However, the Royal Navy, under Admiral Nelson, obliterated most of the naval squadron at the Battle of the Nile.

After the crushing losses sustained at Abukir, the French naval forces available to Bonaparte amounted to a number of frigates and the many captured French sailors that Nelson released, being unwilling to feed so many prisoners. Napoleon incorporated the sailors into units for duty on shore, or on a flotilla of xebeks and galleys on the Nile. The frigates, on the other hand, could prove useful in supporting the land forces by blockading besieged enemy fortresses, conducting shore bombardment, and ferrying supplies; furthermore, as their 18-pounder long guns were the equivalent of heavy siege pieces in the Army, their artillery and ammunition could be borrowed for land combat.


Rear-admiral Perrée, commander of the French squadron

With the French campaign in Egypt and Syria shifting its centre of gravity to the east, notably with the Siege of Acre, Rear-admiral Perrée was given command of a squadron of three frigates and two brigs, survivors of the Battle of the Nile, to ferry supplies and artillery for the Army in spite of the Ottoman and British blockades. The squadron comprised the frigates Junon (Commander Pourquier), Courageuse (Captain Trullet) and Alceste (Captain Barré), and the brigs Salamine (Lieutenant Landry) and Alerte (Demay). After they had arrived at Jaffa, the frigates unloaded their cargo, and furthermore shared their ammunition with the army, leaving the frigates with only 15 shots per gun; Junon also landed four of her 18-pounder long guns. The division then established a blockade to complete the Siege of Acre.

On 14 May, two enemy ships of the line and a frigate, under Sidney Smith, chased the frigate squadron, which quickly eluded its pursuers. Despite specific orders not to go to Europe unless it was unavoidable, Perrée conferred with his officers and decided that his low supplies made it necessary for him to return to Toulon, via Lampedusa, where he would replenish his water.

Battle


Captain John Markham who led the British forces from HMS Centaur.

Sixty miles from Toulon, on 17 June 1799, Perrée's division spotted a 30-ship fleet under Lord Keith. A task force of three 74-gun ships of the line and two frigates, all under Captain John Markham on HMS Centaur, separated from the main British body to give chase.

As the wind blew only very weakly from the south-west, the chase lasted all of 28 hours, and it was not until the next evening that the two groups came in contact. Over the course of the chase, the French squadron, sailing to the north-west, lost its cohesion. By the evening, Junon and Alceste sailed together within hailing range of each other, while Courageuse tacked one mile off her flagship; the brigs Salamine and Alerte were respectively four and seven miles ahead of Junon.

At 19:00, Thompson's 74-gun HMS Bellona, closely followed by HMS Captain and two frigates, came within a quarter-mile of Junon. When HMS Bellona opened fire, Junon and Alceste immediately struck.


Model of the HMS Bellona 1760 at NMM

Meanwhile, HMS Centaur had come up on Courageuse and commenced firing on her. After securing the surrender of Junon and Alceste, HMS Bellona turned to Courageuse and soon joined in the action. Threatened by two 74-guns, Courageuse struck.

A while later, HMS Emerald overhauled the brig Salamine and secured her surrender. HMS Captain similarly forced Alerte to strike at 23:30.


HMS Bellona - painting by Geoff Hunt

Aftermath
Perrée, who had been taken prisoner, was exchanged almost immediately. From 6 October to 25 November 1799 Perrée underwent court martial, presided by Vice-admiral Thévenard, for the loss of his ships. The court found that the superior Ottoman and British forces off Syria, the partial disarmament of the frigates, and their low food and water supplies had been legitimate reasons for Perrée to return to Toulon. The court then unanimously honourably acquitted Perrée.

The British took Junon into the Royal Navy as HMS Princess Charlotte. Courageuse was similarly incorporated, but soon became a prison hulk. Alceste became a floating battery. Alerte was commissioned as HMS Minorca. Salamine became HMS Salamine; she served in the Mediterranean, where she captured two privateers. The Royal Navy then disposed of all three vessels in 1802 after the Treaty of Amiens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_18_June_1799
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bellona_(1760)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Junon_(1778)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Centaur_(1797)

 

[Uwek]

other events on 18. June

1629 – Death of Piet Pieterszoon Hein, was a Dutch admiral and privateer for the Dutch Republic during the Eighty Years' War between the United Provinces and Spain. Hein was the first and the last to capture such a large part of a Spanish "silver fleet" from America.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Pieterszoon_Hein

1694 – Battle of Camaret
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Camaret

1812 - The United States declares war on Great Britain for impressment of Sailors and interference with commerce.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_declaration_of_war_upon_the_United_Kingdom

1814 - The sloop of war USS Wasp, commanded by Johnston Blakely, captures and scuttles the British merchant brig Pallas in the eastern Atlantic.

USS Wasp was a sloop-of-war that served in the U.S. Navy in 1814 during the War of 1812. She was the fifth US Navy ship to carry that name. She carried out two successful raiding voyages against British trade during the summer of 1814, in the course of which she fought and defeated three British warships. Wasp was lost, cause unknown, in the Atlantic in early autumn, 1814.



First raiding voyage:
Wasp captured her first vessel, the 207-ton barque Neptune, on 2 June 1814, embarked her crew as prisoners, and burned the prize at sea. On 13 June 1814, she took William, a 91-ton brig, and burned her as well. Wasp encountered the 131-ton armed brig Pallas on 18 June 1814, captured her, apparently without resistance, and scuttled her. Her fourth victim, 171-ton galiot Henrietta, which she took on 23 June 1814, was given up to the prisoners Wasp had thus far taken. On 26 June 1814, Wasp captured and scuttled the 325-ton ship Orange Boven.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Wasp_(1814)

1815 – Battle of Waterloo - not Naval but important
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo

1833 – Launch of HMS Rodney (1833)


Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the 92-gun, two-decker ‘HMS Rodney’ (1833). The hull is built in bread and butter fashion and is complete with stump masts, channels and a detailed representation of the elliptical stern galleries. The whole model is mounted on its original baseboard. The ‘Rodney’ was designed by Sir Robert Seppings, Chief Surveyor of the Navy, and launched at the Pembroke dockyard in 1833. Measuring 205 feet along the gun deck by 54 feet in the beam and a tonnage of 2626, it was the first British two-decked ship to carry 90 guns or more. In 1840 under the command of Robert Maunsell, it took part in operations off the Syrian coast and later, in 1854, in the Black Sea during the Crimean War. In 1860, the ‘Rodney’ was converted to steam with a 500-horsepower engine fitted with its armament reduced to 90 guns. From 1867–70 it was the flagship of the Hon. Sir H. Keppel on the China station, returning to Portsmouth for a further ten years before being broken up in 1880.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66703.html#kEJ7JB8ItVOYlivY.99

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Rodney_(1833)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-344177;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=R

1875 - The side-wheel steamer, USS Saranac wrecks in Seymour Narrows, off Vancouver Island, British Columbia.


Saranac in port in the 1870s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Saranac_(1848)

1908 - Japanese immigration to Brazil begins when 781 people arrive in Santos aboard the ship Kasato-Maru



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Brazilians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasato_Maru
http://www.niten.org.br/2008/santos-printfull.htm

1916 - The Fourth Marine Regiment, commanded by Col. Joseph H. Pendleton, lands with Marine detachments from USS Rhode Island (BB 17), USS New Jersey (BB 16), and USS Salem (SC 1) at Santo Domingo City, Dominican Republic during a revolution. The U.S. assumes control of the Dominican fiscal matters, leads the Guardia Nacional, and keeps the peace. Marine detachments remain in the Dominican Republic until Sept. 16, 1924 when they withdraw.

1944 - USS Bullhead (SS 332) sinks Japanese auxiliary sailing vessel (No. 58) Sakura Maru in Sunda Strait, off Merak. Also on this date, USS Dentuda (SS 335) sinks Japanese guardboats Reiko Maru and Heiwa Maru in East China Sea west of Tokara Gunto.

 

[Uwek]

19 June 1807

The naval Battle of Athos (also known as the Battle of Monte Sancto and the Battle of Lemnos) took place from the 19 to 22 June 1807 and was a key naval battle of the Russo-Turkish War (1806–12, part of the Napoleonic Wars). It was fought a month after the Battle of the Dardanelles.


The Battle of Athos by Alexey Bogolyubov
This painting was made in 1853. Picture illustrate the main navy battle of Russo-Turkish war 1806-1812 - Battle of Athos.

The battle was triggered by Dmitry Senyavin's retreat from the Dardanelles, which he had been blockading since March, towards the Russian naval base at Tenedos. The Ottoman commander, Kapudan Pasha Seyit-Ali, ventured with 9 ships of the line, 5 frigates and 5 other vessels out of the strait into the Aegean Sea. Thereupon Senyavin returned to cut off his retreat and fell upon the Ottoman fleet halfway between Mount Athosand Lemnos. Trying to avoid a battle or distraction from Tenedos, the Turkish fleet went around him on the south side and rushed to the west. Senyavin, leaving the smaller ships to help the fortress, set out to find the enemy, and found him on 19 June in an unsettled situation at anchor between the island of Lemnos and Athos Mountain.

From his previous experience, Senyavin had learned that the Ottomans fought bravely unless their flagship was sunk or taken captive. He therefore ordered Aleksey Greig and other captains of his ships of the line to concentrate their attack on the three Ottoman flagships, whilst other Russian vessels were to prevent Ottoman frigates from delivering help.

The Russians approached in two parallel lines of five ships of the line each, turning north to run alongside the Ottoman line. During the battle 3 Ottoman ships of the line and four frigates - around one third of the Sultan's fleet - were either sunk or forced aground. The rest retired to the safety of the Dardanelles. On the way they scuttled another ship of the line and a frigate near Thasos on 4 July and lost a frigate and a sloopnear Samothrace on about 5 July.

Order of Battle

Imperial Russian Navy

• Rafail 84
• Selafail 74
• Moshtchnyi 74
• Tverdyi 74 (flag)
• Skoryi

Second line:

• Silnyi
• Uriil 84
• Yaroslav 74
• Retvizan 64 (flag 2)
• Sv. Elena 74

750 guns total

Ottoman Turkish Navy

• Masudiya 120 (flag)
• Sadd al-bahr 84 (flag 2) - Captured 1 July
• Anka-yi bahri 84
• Taus i bahri 84
• Tevfik-numa 84
• Bisharet (or Biafaret?) 84 - Aground and scuttled 3 July
• Kilid-i bahri 84
• Sayyad-i bahri 74
• Gulbang-i-Nusrat 74
• Jebel-andaz 74

Frigates:

• Meskeni-ghazi 50
• Bedr-i zafar 50
• Fakih-i zafar 50
• Nessim 50 - Aground and scuttled 3 July
• Iskenderiya 44

Sloops:

• Metelin 32 - Aground and scuttled 3 July
• Rahbar-i alam 28

Others:

• Denyuvet? 32
• Alamat i Nusrat 18
• Melankai? 18

850 guns total


In the morning of 20 June it was revealed that the whole Turkish fleet, running before the wind, was going north to the island of Thassos. A ship of the line and two frigates (the former captain of the ship helped Bey) were cut off their squadron by the Russians. On 21 June Senyavin dispatched rear-admiral Greig with three ships of the line in pursuit of the latter, but the Turks ran their ships ashore and burned them. At dawn of 22 June in the retreating Turkish squadron exploded another ship of the line and a frigate, and two damaged frigates sank off the island of Samothrace. Of the 20 Turkish ships in the Dardanelles, only 12 returned.


Russian Fleet after the Battle of Athos, by Aleksey Bogolyubov (1824-96).

On 23 June Senyavin decided not to pursue the enemy and return to help beleaguered Tenedos. However, due to the wind and calms he arrived there just on 25 June. Turkish troops surrendered, and, leaving all their guns and arms, were transported to the Anatolian coast.

As a result of the battle, the Ottoman Empire lost a combat-capable fleet for more than a decade and signed an armistice with Russia on 12 August.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Athos
http://www.neva.ru/EXPO96/book/chap6-3.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_battle_at_the_Battle_of_Athos

 

[Uwek]

19 June 1810

HMS Minden was a Royal Navy 74-gun Ganges-class third-rate ship of the line, launched on 19 June 1810. She was named after the German town Minden and the Battle of Minden of 1759, a decisive victory of British and Prussian forces over France in the Seven Years' War. The town is about 75 km away from Hanover, from where the House of Hanover comes—the dynasty which ruled the United Kingdom from 1714 until 1901.

Construction
Lovji Nusserwanjee Wadia built Minden in 1810. She was launched from the Duncan Docks in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, and was built of teak



Service history
Minden sailed from Bombay on 8 February 1811 on her first cruise, under the command of Edward Wallis Hoare, and manned by the crew of the Russell. In March she sailed from Madras to take part in the invasion of Java. On 29 July two of her boats, under the command of Lieutenant Edmund Lyons, with only 35 officers and men aboard, attacked and captured the fort covering the harbour of Marrack, to the westward of Batavia. The Naval General Service Medal with the clasp "30 July Boat Service 1811" was issued to survivors of this action in 1848. The Dutch and French forces in Java surrendered in September. Minden then sailed for the UK and escorted convoys to the East Indies, the Cape of Good Hope, South America, and the coast of Africa.

Minden saw service during the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake Bay. Some accounts state that Francis Scott Key was aboard Minden when he wrote the poem "Defense of Fort M'Henry", which became the lyrics for "The Star-Spangled Banner".

In late July 1816 Minden sailed from Plymouth Sound, as part of an Anglo-Dutch fleet that made an attack on Algiers on 27 August. The Naval General Service Medal with the clasp "Algiers" was issued to survivors of this battle in 1848.

Minden then sailed for the East Indies, and was reported to be at Trincomalee in 1819. In July 1830 Minden was at Plymouth. She was commissioned there on 19 March 1836 and sailed for the Tagus joining the British squadron. In 1839 she was at Malta, returning to Plymouth in early 1840.


H.M.S. Minden off Scilly, March 20th 1842 (PAF5998)
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/100825.html#0eJQQh53qQHBCB9p.99

A typhoon destroyed the shore-based Royal Naval Hospital at Hong Kong on 22 July 1841, and Minden was commissioned at Plymouth in December 1841 to serve as a hospital ship there. She was stationed at Hong Kong as a hospital ship from 1842 until she was replaced by HMS Alligator in 1846. Minden then served there as stores ship until sold for scrapping in August 1861.

In memory of the ship, two streets were named after her, Minden Row and Minden Avenue, located behind Signal Hill of Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon, Hong Kong.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Minden_(1810)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges-class_ship_of_the_line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_Dockyard