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

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

15th of February

some of the events you will find here,
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1760 - HMS Ramillies (90) driven ashore and wrecked in what is today Ramillies Cove near Salcombe, Devon
HMS Royal Katherine
(HMS Ramilles after 1706) was an 84-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1664 at Woolwich Dockyard. Her launching was conducted by Charles II and attended by Samuel Pepys. Royal Katherine fought in the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars and the War of the Grand Alliance before entering the dockyard at Portsmouth for rebuilding in 1702. She was upgraded to carry 90 guns and served in the War of the Spanish Succession during which she was renamed Ramillies in honour of John Churchill's victory at the Battle of Ramillies. She was rebuilt again in 1742–3 before serving as the flagship of the ill-fated Admiral John Byng in the Seven Years' War. Ramillies was wrecked at Bolt Tail near Hope Cove on 15 February 1760.
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1775 - HMS Halifax schooner (10) wrecked.
HMS Halifax
was a schooner built for merchant service at Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1765 that the British Royal Navy purchased in 1768 for coastal patrol in North America in the years just prior to the American Revolution. She is one of the best documented schooners from early North America.
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1782 - The Action of 15 January 1782
The Action of 15 January 1782 was a minor naval engagement that took place near the island of Jamaica during the American Revolutionary War. A Royal Naval frigate HMS Fox intercepted and engaged two small Spanish Navy frigates.


1783 - Action of 15 February 1783
The Action of 15 February 1783 was a small naval engagement of the American Revolutionary War, involving the 36-gun French Navy frigate Concorde and the Royal Navy 74-gun ship of the line Magnificent. The British were victorious when Concorde was overhauled and captured.


1794 – Launch of HMS Lark, a 16-gun ship sloop of the Cormorant class,
HMS Lark
was a 16-gun ship sloop of the Cormorant class, launched in 1794 at Northfleet. She served primarily in the Caribbean, where she took a number of prizes, some after quite intensive action. Lark foundered off San Domingo in August 1809, with the loss of her captain and almost all her crew.
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1804 - Battle of Pulo Aura
The Battle of Pulo Aura was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, fought on 14 February 1804, in which a large convoy of Honourable East India Company (HEIC) East Indiamen, well-armed merchant ships, intimidated, drove off and chased a powerful French naval squadron. Although the French force was much stronger than the British convoy, Commodore Nathaniel Dance's aggressive tactics persuaded Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Durand Linois to retire after only a brief exchange of shot. Dance then chased the French warships until his convoy was out of danger, whereupon he resumed his passage toward British India. Linois later claimed that the unescorted British merchant fleet was defended by eight ships of the line, a claim criticised by contemporary officers and later historians.
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1809 - HMS Belle Poule (38), Cptn. James Brisbane, captured French frigate Var (26) in the Gulf of Valona, Adriatic
Var was a corvette of the French Navy, launched in 1806 as the name-ship of her class of flutes. She served as a storeship until the British captured her in 1809. She became the transport HMS Chichester, and was wrecked in 1811.
HMS Belle Poule was a Royal Navy fifth rate frigate, formerly Belle Poule, a Virginie-class frigate of the French Navy, which was built by the Crucy family's shipyard at Basse-Indre to a design by Jacques-Noël Sané. She was launched on 17 April 1802, and saw active service in the East, but in 1806 a British squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren captured her off La Palma in the Canary Islands. The Admiralty commissioned her into the Royal Navy as HMS Belle Poule. She was sold in 1816.
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1854 – Launch of French Le Donawerth, a 90-gun Suffren class ship of the line of the French Navy.
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1898 – The battleship USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba.
Of the 374 officers and men aboard, 266 died immediately, another eight died later from their injuries. The ship's sinking precipitated the Spanish–American War.
USS Maine (ACR-1)
was a US Navy ship that sank in Havana Harbor during the Cuban revolt against Spain, an event that became a major political issue in the United States.
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1944 - japanese cruiser Agano (阿賀野), the lead ship of the Agano-class cruisers, sunk by USS Skate
Agano (阿賀野) was the lead ship of the Agano-class cruisers which served with the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. She was named after the Agano River in Fukushima and Niigata prefectures in Japan.
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Japanese light cruiser Agano off Sasebo in October 1942


1982 – The drilling rig Ocean Ranger sinks during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland, killing 84 workers.
Ocean Ranger was a semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit that sank in Canadian waters on 15 February 1982. It was drilling an exploration well on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, 267 kilometres (166 mi) east of St. John's, Newfoundland, for Mobil Oil of Canada, Ltd. (MOCAN) with 84 crew members on board when it sank. There were no survivors.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

16th of February

some of the events you will find here,
please use the following link where you will find more details and all other events of this day .....



1669 – Launch of French Lys, a 70-gun 3-decker ship of the line of the French Navy, designed by Audibert.
The Lys was a 70-gun 3-decker ship of the line of the French Navy, designed by Audibert. She was the first ship of the line to feature suspended lamps instead of candels.


1745 - HMS Weymouth (60), Cptn. Warwick Calmady, grounded and wrecked off English Harbour, Antigua
HMS Weymouth
was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1736 and in service during the War of the Austrian Succession. Initially stationed in the Mediterranean, she was assigned to the Navy's Caribbean fleet in 1740 and participated in Battle of Cartagena de Indias in 1741. Decommissioned later that year, she was restored to active service in the Caribbean in 1744. A navigational error on 16 February 1745 brought her too close to the shore of Antigua, where she was wrecked upon a submerged reef. Three of Weymouth's officers were subsequently found guilty of negligence, with two required to pay substantial fines and the third sentenced to a two-year jail term.
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1782 – Launch of french Dictateur, a 74-gun Pégase-class ship of the line of the French Navy
The Dictateur was a 74-gun Pégase-class ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1782. She served during the last months of the American War of Independence, and survived to see action in the French Revolutionary Wars.
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1798 - Boats of HMS Alfred (74), Cptn. T. Totty, captured Scipion (20) at Basse Terre
HMS Alfred
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 22 October 1778 at Chatham Dockyard.
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1804 – First Barbary War: Lt. Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia.
Lt. Stephen Decatur
, with volunteers from frigate Constitution and schooner Enterprise, enters Tripoli harbor in the ketch Intrepid under the stealth of darkness to burn the captured frigate Philadelphia. Decatur's raid succeeds without American losses.
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1813 – Launch of HMS Grasshopper, a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig sloop
HMS Grasshopper
was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig sloop launched in 1813. She was the second ship of the class to bear the name; the first Grasshopper had been stranded at Texel and surrendered to the Batavian Republic on Christmas Day 1811. The present Grasshopper remained in service until sold in 1832
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1855 – Launch of USS Santee (1855), a wooden-hulled, three-masted sailing frigate of the United States Navy.
USS Santee (1855)
was a wooden-hulled, three-masted sailing frigate of the United States Navy. She was the first U.S. Navy ship to be so named and was one of its last sailing frigates in service. She was acquired by the Union Navy at the start of the American Civil War, outfitted with heavy guns and a crew of 480, and was assigned as a gunboat in the Union blockade of the Confederate States. She later became a training ship for the U.S. Naval Academy.
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1940 – World War II: Altmark Incident: The German tanker Altmark is boarded by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack. 299 British prisoners are freed.
Altmark was a German oil tanker and supply vessel, one of five of a class built between 1937 and 1939. She is best known for her support of the German commerce raider, the "pocket battleship" Admiral Graf Spee and her subsequent involvement in the "Altmark Incident".
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1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
Operation Sandblast
was the code name for the first submerged circumnavigation of the world, executed by the United States Navy nuclear-poweredradar picket submarine USS Triton (SSRN-586) in 1960 under the command of Captain Edward L. Beach. The New York Times described Triton's submerged circumnavigation of the Earth as "a triumph of human prowess and engineering skill, a feat which the United States Navy can rank as one of its bright victories in man's ultimate conquest of the seas."
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1986 – The Soviet liner MS Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
MS Mikhail Lermontov
was an ocean liner owned by the Soviet Union's Baltic Shipping Company, built in 1972 by V.E.B. Mathias-Thesen Werft, Wismar, East Germany. It was later converted into a cruise ship. On 16 February 1986 she collided with rocks near Port Gore in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand, and sank, claiming the life of one of her crew members.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

17th of February

some of the events you will find here,
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1782 - Battle of Sadras - British fleet of 9 ships of the line, under Sir Edward Hughes, engaged a French fleet of 11 ships of the line, under Bailli de Suffren, off the East coast of India.
The Battle of Sadras was the first of five largely indecisive naval battles fought between a British fleet (under Admiral Sir Edward Hughes) and a French fleet (under the Bailli de Suffren) off the east coast of India during the Anglo-French War. Fought on 17 February 1782 near present-day Kalpakkam, the battle was tactically indecisive, but the British fleet suffered the most damage. Under Suffren's protection, French troop transports were able to land at Porto Novo.
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Scale: unknown. A contemporary full hull model of the French 74-gun, two-decker ‘Le Heros’ (1770). This unusually large-scale model is constructed plank on frame using wood, with the addition of horn for the wales. The name ‘Le Heros’ is inscribed on the stern. As is typical with POW models, the masts and bowsprit are slightly over-scaled in height and rake. The deck is complete with numerous fittings including the hammocks stowed in the netting on top of the bulwarks, which has then been covered by a white painted canvas as protection against the weather. Built in 1770, the ‘Le Heros’ was present on the 16 April 1781, as one of the squadron commanded by De Suffren in the action at Porto Praya. On 20 June 1783, it was in action off Cuddalore and later in the year, when in the East Indies in company with the 64 gun ‘Artesian’, it pursued and engaged ‘HMS Hanibal’, 50 guns, compelling it to strike. The ‘Le Horos’ was finally destroyed by Captain Sir W. Sidney Smith at the evacuation of Toulon in 1793.


1783 - The Action of 17 February 1783 was a minor naval engagement fought in between Jamaica & Cuba in the Caribbean sea between a Royal Navy frigate HMS Fox and a Spanish Navy frigate Santa Catalina.


1794 - French naval corvette Vengeur, ex-privateer Marseillaise, was captured during the battle for Martinique in 1794
HMS Avenger
was a 16-gun ship-sloop of the British Royal Navy. Previously she was the French privateer Marseillaise and then naval corvette Vengeur, which the British Army captured during the battle for Martinique in 1794. The Admiralty sold her 1802.


1805 - French frigate Ville de Milan (38), Cptn. Jean-Marie Renaud (Killed in Action), was captured by HMS Cleopatra (32), Cptn. Sir Robert Lawrie, off Bermuda.
HMS Milan
was a 38-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had previously been the Ville de Milan, a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, but served for only a year before being chased down and engaged by the smaller 32-gun frigate HMS Cleopatra. Ville de Milan defeated and captured her opponent, but suffered so much damage that she was forced to surrender without a fight several days later when both ships encountered HMS Leander, a British fourth rate. Milan went on to serve with the Royal Navy for another ten years, before being broken up in 1815, after the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars.
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Battle between Ville de Milan and HMS Cleopatra, depicted in a contemporary print

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1806 – Launch of HMS Racehorse, a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop
HMS Racehorse
was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Hamilton & Breeds and launched in 1806 at Hastings. She served in the Channel, where she captured a small privateer, and in the East Indies, where she participated in the capture of Isle de France (now Mauritius) and the operations around it. She was wrecked in 1822.
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1817- Launch of HMS Melville, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy,
HMS Melville
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 February 1817 at Bombay Dockyard.
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1828 – Launch of HMS Bombay, an 84-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy,
HMS Bombay
was an 84-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 February 1828 at Bombay Dockyard.
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The Bombay on fire 1861 (actually 14 December 1864)


1836 – Launch of French Néréide, a 52-gun frigate of the French Navy.
The Néréide was a 52-gun frigate of the French Navy. She took part in the Battle of Veracruz soon after her commissioning.
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1855 – Launch of French Bretagne, a fast 130-gun three-decker of the French Navy, designed by engineer Jules Marielle.
The Bretagne was a fast 130-gun three-decker of the French Navy, designed by engineer Jules Marielle. Built as a new capital ship meant to improve upon the very successful Océan class while avoiding the weaknesses found on Valmy, she retained most of the Océan design but ended up incorporating the philosophy of "fast ship of the line" pioneered by Napoléon, with a rounded stern and a two-cylinder, 8-boiler steam engine allowing her a speed of 13.5 knots. The propeller could be retracted to streamline the hull when sailing under sail only.
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1864 - USS Housatonic sank by torpedo
The H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
USS Housatonic
was a screw sloop-of-war of the United States Navy, gaining its namesake from the Housatonic River of New England.
Housatonic was launched on 20 November 1861, by the Boston Navy Yard at Charlestown, Massachusetts, sponsored by Miss Jane Coffin Colby and Miss Susan Paters Hudson; and commissioned there on 29 August 1862, with Commander William Rogers Taylor in command. Housatonic was one of four sister ships which included USS Adirondack, USS Ossipee, and USS Juniata. Housatonic is recognized as being the first ship sunk in combat by a submarine when she was attacked and sunk by H.L. Hunley in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.
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1864 painting of H. L. Hunley by Conrad Wise Chapman


1886 – Launch of HMS Anson, the last of six Admiral-class ironclad battleships built for the Royal Navy
HMS Anson
was the last of six Admiral-class ironclad battleships built for the Royal Navy during the 1880s. The ship was completed, except for her armament, in 1887, but had to wait two years for her guns to be installed. She was assigned to the Channel Fleet in mid-1889 as a flagship for the fleet's second-in-command. Two years later, the passenger ship SS Utopia sank with the loss of 562 lives after colliding with Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar. In mid-1893, Anson was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, subsequently returning home in 1900 when she was assigned to the Reserve Fleet. She recommissioned for the Home Fleet in early 1901. Anson was paid off three years later and then sold for scrap in 1909.
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1912 - Launch of SMS Prinzregent Luitpold, the fifth and final vessel of the Kaiser class of battleships of the Imperial German Navy.
SMS Prinzregent Luitpold
was the fifth and final vessel of the Kaiser class of battleships of the Imperial German Navy. Prinzregent Luitpold's keel was laid in October 1910 at the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel. She was launched on 17 February 1912 and was commissioned into the navy on 19 August 1913. The ship was equipped with ten 30.5-centimeter (12.0 in) guns in five twin turrets, and had a top speed of 21.7 knots (40.2 km/h; 25.0 mph).
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1915 - SMS Bremen ("His Majesty's Ship Bremen"), the lead ship of the seven-vessel Bremen class, sunk by russian mine field
SMS Bremen
("His Majesty's Ship Bremen") was the lead ship of the seven-vessel Bremen class, built by the Imperial German Navy. She was built by the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, her namesake city. She was laid down in 1902, launched in July 1903, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in May 1904. Armed with a main battery of ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and two 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes, Bremen was capable of a top speed of 22 knots(41 km/h; 25 mph).
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1917 - SS Athos – torpedoed on 17 February 1917 by U-65, 180 nautical miles (330 km) south east of Malta. The ship sank in 14 minutes, killing 754 of the 1,950 aboard.
SS Athos
was a French cargo-passenger ship of the Messageries Maritimes, launched in 1915, that was sunk in the Mediterranean by the German submarine SM U-65 during World War I.
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1944 – World War II: The Battle of Eniwetok begins: The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
The Battle of Eniwetok was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought between 17 February 1944 and 23 February 1944, on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The invasion of Eniwetok followed the American success in the Battle of Kwajalein to the southeast. Capture of Eniwetok would provide an airfield and harbor to support attacks on the Mariana Islands to the northwest. The operation was officially known as "Operation Catchpole", and was a three-phase operation involving the invasion of the three main islands in the Eniwetok Atoll.
Vice Admiral Raymond Spruance preceded the invasion with Operation Hailstone, a carrier strike against the Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands.[1]:67 This raid destroyed 39 warships and more than 200 planes.
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Landing craft heading for Eniwetok Island on 19 February 1944


1944 – World War II: Operation Hailstone begins: U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk Lagoon, Japan's main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
Operation Hailstone
(Japanese: トラック島空襲, translit. Torakku-tō Kūshū), lit. "the airstrike on Truk Island"), 17–18 February 1944, was a massive United States Navy air and surface attack on Truk Lagoon conducted as part of the American offensive drive against the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) through the Central Pacific Ocean during World War II.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

18th of February

some of the events you will find here,
please use the following link where you will find more details and all other events of this day .....



1637 – Eighty Years' War: The Battle off Lizard Point
Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.

The Battle off Lizard Point was a naval action which took place on 18 February 1637 off the coast of Cornwall, England, during the Eighty Years' War. The Spanish admiral Miguel de Horna, commander of the Armada of Flanders, intercepted an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them, and returned safely to his base in Dunkirk.
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1639 - Action of 18 February 1639
The Action of 18 February 1639 was a naval battle of the Eighty Years' War fought off Dunkirk between a Dutch fleet under the command of Admiral Maarten Tromp and the Spanish Dunkirk Squadron under Miguel de Horna. Horna, who had orders to join with his ships Admiral Antonio de Oquendo's fleet at A Coruña, escorted at the same time a transport convoy carrying 2,000 Walloon soldiers to Spain, where they were needed. The attempt to exit Dunkirk was done in sight of the Dutch blockading squadron of Maarten Tromp. A 4-hour battle ensued and Horna was forced to retreat into Dunkirk leaving behind two of his galleons, whilst another ran aground. Despite his success in stopping the sortie, many of Tromp's ships suffered heavy damage, and the Dutch Admiral was forced to abandon the blockade. Therefore, De Horna, after repairing his squadron, was able to accomplish his mission.
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The naval battle against the Spaniards near Dunkerque, 18 february 1639. Oil and ink on canvas by Willem van de Velde the Elder.


1653 - Start of 3 day Battle of Portland.
English fleet, under Robert Blake, was attacked by a Dutch fleet escorting a large convoy, under Lt.-Admiral Maarten Tromp. Figures are unclear but each fleet had 70-80 warships and whilst the British lost 1-3 warships the Dutch lost 8-12 and 40- 50 merchantmen.

The naval Battle of Portland, or Three Days' Battle took place during 18–20 February 1653 (28 February – 2 March 1653 (Gregorian calendar)),during the First Anglo-Dutch War, when the fleet of the Commonwealth of England under General at Sea Robert Blake was attacked by a fleet of the Dutch Republic under Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp escorting merchant shipping through the English Channel. The battle failed to settle supremacy of the English Channel, although both sides claimed victory, and ultimate control over the Channel would only be decided at the Battle of the Gabbard which allowed the English to blockade the Dutch coast until the Battle of Scheveningen, where Admiral Maarten Tromp would meet his fate at the hands of an English musket ball. As such, it can be considered a slight setback for the English nation and another example of Dutch superiority regarding pure seamanship at the time. It also illustrated England's drive to control the seas, which would ultimately allow it to become the prime maritime power of the world.
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1740 - Birth of Jacques-Noël Sané , a French naval engineer
Jacques-Noël Sané
(18 February 1740, Brest – 22 August 1831, Paris) was a French naval engineer. He was the conceptor of standardised designs for ships of the line and frigates fielded by the French Navy in the 1780s, which served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars and in some cases remained in service into the 1860s. Captured ships of his design were commissioned in the Royal Navy and even copied.
His achievements earned Sané the nickname of "naval Vauban".
Work
Sané was responsible for
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1756 - Launch of HMS Royal George
HMS Royal George
was a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Woolwich Dockyard and launched on 18 February 1756. The largest warship in the world at the time of launching, she saw service during the Seven Years' War including being Admiral Sir Edward Hawke's flagship at the Battle of Quiberon Bay and later taking part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent. She sank undergoing routine maintenance work whilst anchored off Portsmouth on 29 August 1782 with the loss of more than 800 lives, one of the most serious maritime losses to occur in British waters.
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HMS Royal George, right, shown fictitiously at the launch of HMS Cambridge in 1755 by John Cleveley the Elder (1757)

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1766 – A mutiny by captive Malagasy begins at sea on the slave ship Meermin, leading to the ship's destruction on Cape Agulhas in present-day South Africa and the recapture of the instigators.
The Meermin slave mutiny took place in February 1766 and lasted for three weeks. Meermin was one of the Dutch East India Company's fleet of slave ships. Her final voyage was cut short by the mutiny of her cargo of Malagasy people, who had been sold to Dutch East India Company officials on Madagascar to be used as company slaves in its Cape Colony in southern Africa. During the mutiny half the ship's crew and almost 30 Malagasy lost their lives.
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1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.
On February 18, 1797, a fleet of 18 warships under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby invaded and took the Island of Trinidad. Within a few days the last Spanish Governor, Don José María Chacón surrendered the island to Abercromby.
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The Capture of Trinidad, 17 February 1797 by Nicholas Pocock


1800 - The Battle of the Malta Convoy
HMS Alexander (74), Lt. William Harrington (Acting), and HMS Success (32), Cptn. Shuldham Peard, captured Genereux (74) off Malta.

Généreux was a French Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line. After capture she completed her career as part of the Royal Navy as HMS Généreux.
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1801 - HMS Penguin (16), Robert Mansel, engaged a French corvette (24) and two merchantmen (16) in the South Atlantic.
The Dutch brig Komeet was launched in 1789 at Amsterdam. HMS Unicorn captured her on the Irish station in 1795. The British Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Comeet; it renamed her HMS Penguin in 1798. It sold her in 1808.
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1807 - HMS Magpie, a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner, grounded on the coast of France, which led to her capture
HMS Magpie
was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner that William Rowe of Newcastle built and launched on 17 May 1806. Like all her class, she was armed with four 12-pounder carronades and had a crew of 20. She had been in British service for less than a year when she grounded on the coast of France, which led to her capture. She then served in the French navy until 1828, including a few years as a prison ship.
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1817 - HMS Alceste (1806 - 38), Cptn. Murray Maxwell, wrecked off Island of Pulo Leat, China Seas.
HMS Alceste
was built at Rochefort in 1804 for the French Navy as Minerve, an Armide-class frigate. In the spring of 1806, prior to her capture, she engaged HMS Pallas, then under Lord Cochrane. During the duel she ran aground but Cochrane had to abort his attack when French reinforcements appeared.
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1846 - Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft issues the General Order to change Larboard to Port for identification of the left side of a sailing vessel.
Port
and starboard are nautical and aeronautical terms of orientation that deal unambiguously with the structure of vessels and aircraft. Their structures are largely bilaterally symmetrical, meaning they have mirror-image left and right halves if divided long-ways down the middle.
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1858 - It is believed that the HMS Sappho foundered with all hands off the southeast coast of Australia.
HMS Sappho
was a Royal Navy brig that gained public notoriety for causing a diplomatic incident over the slave trade with the United States of America and then went missing off the Australian coast in 1857–58.
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1865 - In order for CSS Charleston, CSS Chicora, and CSS Palmetto State not to be captured by Rear Adm. John A. Dahlgren's squadron during the evacuation of Charleston, S.C., Confederate Capt. John R. Tucker, orders the ships be set afire and blown up.


1874 – Launch of James Craig, a three-masted, iron-hulled barque restored and sailed by the Sydney Heritage Fleet, Sydney, Australia

James Craig is a three-masted, iron-hulled barque restored and sailed by the Sydney Heritage Fleet, Sydney, Australia.
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1915 – Launch of SMS Bayern, the lead ship of the Bayern class of battleships in the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy)
SMS Bayern
was the lead ship of the Bayern class of battleships in the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). The vessel was launched in February 1915 and entered service in July 1916, too late to take part in the Battle of Jutland. Her main armament consisted of eight 38 cm (15 in) guns in four turrets, which was a significant improvement over the preceding König's ten 30.5 cm (12 inch) guns. The ship was to have formed the nucleus for a fourth battle squadron in the High Seas Fleet, along with three of her sister ships. Of the other ships only one—Baden—was completed; the other two were canceled later in the war when production requirements shifted to U-boat construction.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

19th of February

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1694 - HMS Sussex (80), Ad. Sir Francis Wheler, and HMS Cambridge (70) Capt. John WARD, lost in a hurricane off Gibraltar - in total 13 ships were lost with 1,200 casualties in total
HMS Sussex
was an 80-gun third-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, lost in a severe storm on 19 February 1694 off Gibraltar. On board were possibly 10 tons of gold coins. This could now be worth more than $500 million, including the bullion and antiquity values, making it one of the most valuable wrecks ever.
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Model of HMS Sussex, starboard

A wonderful model of the Sussex in scale 1:60 was built by our member @ramonolivenza I was able to see in reality during my visit in Rochefort last year:
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1741 – Launch of HMS Drake, an 8-gun snow-rigged sloop of the Royal Navy,
HMS Drake
was an 8-gun snow-rigged sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1741 as the first of three Drake class sloops constructed for convoy duty during the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear from 1739 to 1742. After limited service off the Channel Islands, she was sailed to Gibraltar where she was wrecked in 1742 while under the temporary command of her first lieutenant.
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1758 - HMS Invincible (74) lost on the Owers.
The Invincible was originally a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy launched in October 1744. Captured on 14 October 1747, she was taken into Royal Navy service as the third rate HMS Invincible.
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1760 - Launch of HMS Bellona, a 74-gun Bellona-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy
HMS Bellona
was a 74-gun Bellona-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. Designed by Sir Thomas Slade, she was a prototype for the iconic 74-gun ships of the latter part of the 18th century. "The design of the Bellona class was never repeated precisely, but Slade experimented slightly with the lines, and the Arrogant, Ramillies, Egmont, and Elizabeth classes were almost identical in size, layout, and structure, and had only slight variations in the shape of the underwater hull. The Culloden class ship of the line was also similar, but slightly larger. Thus over forty ships were near-sisters of the Bellona." Bellona was built at Chatham, starting on 10 May 1758, launched on 19 February 1760, and commissioned three days later. She was the second ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name, and saw service in the Seven Years' War, American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars.
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1794 - British squadron under Commodore Robert Linzee captured Minerve.
Minerve was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. She operated in the Mediterranean during the French Revolutionary Wars. Her crew scuttled her at Saint-Florent to avoid capture when the British invaded Corsica in 1794, but the British managed to raise her and recommissioned her in the Royal Navy as the 38-gun fifth rate HMS St Fiorenzo (also San Fiorenzo).
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1801 - Action of 19 February 1801
HMS Phoebe (36), Cptn. Robert Barlow took French frigate Africaine (44), Cptn. Majendie, off Ceuta in Morocco.

The Action of 19 February 1801 was a minor naval battle fought off Ceuta in Spanish North Africa in February 1801 between frigates of the French and Royal Navies during the French Revolutionary Wars. The engagement formed part of a series of actions fought to prevent the French from resupplying their garrison in Egypt, which had been trapped there without significant reinforcement since the defeat of the French Mediterranean Fleet at the Battle of the Nile two and a half years earlier. The leader of the Egyptian expedition, General Napoleon Bonaparte, had returned to France in 1799 and promised aid to the troops left behind, prompting several expeditions to the region carrying reinforcements.
The frigate Africaine had been sent from Rochefort early in 1801 with more than 400 soldiers for the Egyptian garrison, and by February had reached the Mediterranean Sea, Commodore Saulnier seeking to pass along the North African coast to avoid patrolling Royal Navy warships. On the afternoon of 19 February however the overladen French warship was discovered by the British HMS Phoebe and rapidly chased down and brought to action. In an engagement lasting two hours, the French ship was reduced to a wallowing wreck as broadsides from Phoebe tore through the hull, rigging and the soldiers packed on the decks: by the time Africaine surrendered, 200 men were dead and another 143 wounded. The captured ship was brought into the base at Port Mahon in Menorca and subsequently served in the Royal Navy.
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1804 - Gun-brig HMS Cerbere, Lt. Joseph Patey, wrecked on rocks near Berry Head, Torbey
HMS Cerbere
was the French naval brig Cerbère, ex-Chalier, which the British captured in 1800. She was wrecked in 1804.
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1829 – Launch of HMS Eurotas, a Seringapatam-class frigate
The Seringapatam-class frigates, were a class of British Royal Navy 46-gun sailing frigates. The first vessel of the class was HMS Seringapatam. Seringapatam's design was based on the French frigate Président, which the British had captured in 1806. Seringapatam was originally ordered as a 38-gun frigate, but the re-classification of British warships which took effect in February 1817 raised this rating to 46-gun.
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1860 - transatlantic steamship of the Canadian Allan Line SS Hungarian was wrecked at Cape Sable Island, off Nova Scotia, with the loss of all aboard.
SS Hungarian
was a transatlantic steamship of the Canadian Allan Line that was launched in 1858, completed in 1859 and sank in 1860.
William Denny and Brothers of Dumbarton, Scotland launched her on September 25, 1858. She was powered by a 400 nhp direct-acting steam engine that drove a single screw. She was completed in 1859. Hungarian's maiden voyage began on May 18, 1859 when she left Liverpool for Quebec. She was wrecked in 1860 at Cape Sable Island, off Nova Scotia, with the loss of all aboard.


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Vectorized picture of steamer Hungarian


1901 – Launch of HMS Russell, a Duncan-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy
HMS Russell
was a Duncan-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy commissioned in 1903. Built to counter a group of fast Russian battleships, Russell and her sister ships were capable of steaming at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph), making them the fastest battleships in the world. The Duncan-class battleships were armed with a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and they were broadly similar to the London-class battleships, though of a slightly reduced displacement and thinner armour layout. As such, they reflected a development of the lighter second-class ships of the Canopus-class battleship. Russell was built between her keel laying in March 1899 and her completion in February 1903.
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1915 – World War I: The first naval attack on the Dardanelles begins when a strong Anglo-French task force bombards Ottoman artillery along the coast of Gallipoli.
The Naval Operations in the Dardanelles Campaign (17 February 1915 – 9 January 1916) took place against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Ships of the Royal Navy, French Marine nationale, Imperial Russian Navy (Российский императорский флот) and the Royal Australian Navy, attempted to force the defences of the Dardanelles Straits. The straits are a narrow waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Black Sea, via the Aegean, Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus. The Dardanelles Campaign began as a naval operation but the success of the Ottoman defence led to the Gallipoli Campaign, an attempt to occupy the Gallipoli peninsula with land forces supported by the navies, to open the sea route to Constantinople. The Allies also tried to pass submarines through the Dardanelles to attack Ottoman shipping in the Sea of Marmara.
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1929 - TSS Kanowna, an Australian steamer built during 1902, ran aground and sank
TSS Kanowna
, was an Australian steamer built during 1902. The 6,993-ton, 126-metre (413 ft)[citation needed] long Kanowna was constructed by William Denny and Brothers of Dumbarton, Scotland, and had a twin screw design
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1942 - The Japanese attack Darwin, Australia in the largest attack by a foreign power on that country.
USS Peary (DD 226), as well as an Army transport and freighter sink in the raid, as well as a number of Australian and British vessels.

The Bombing of Darwin, also known as the Battle of Darwin, on 19 February 1942 was the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia. On that day, 242 Japanese aircraft, in two separate raids, attacked the town, ships in Darwin's harbour and the town's two airfields in an attempt to prevent the Allies from using them as bases to contest the invasion of Timor and Java during World War II.
Darwin was lightly defended relative to the size of the attack, and the Japanese inflicted heavy losses upon Allied forces at little cost to themselves. The urban areas of Darwin also suffered some damage from the raids and there were a number of civilian casualties. More than half of Darwin's civilian population left the area permanently, before or immediately after the attack.
The two Japanese air raids were the first, and largest, of more than 100 air raids against Australia during 1942–43.
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1942 – French Surcouf, the largest French cruiser submarine, disappeared
Surcouf was the largest French cruiser submarine. She served in both the French Navy and the Free French Naval Forces during the Second World War. She was lost during the night of 18/19 February 1942 in the Caribbean Sea, possibly after colliding with an American freighter. Surcouf was named after the French privateer Robert Surcouf. She was the largest submarine built until surpassed by the first Japanese I-400-class submarine in 1943.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

20th of February

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1685 – René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle establishes Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.
The French colonization of Texas began with the establishment of a fort in present-day southeastern Texas. It was established in 1685 near Arenosa Creek and Matagorda Bay by explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle. He intended to found the colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River, but inaccurate maps and navigational errors caused his ships to anchor instead 400 miles (640 km) to the west, off the coast of Texas. The colony survived until 1688. The present-day town of Inez is near the fort's site.
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La Salle's Expedition to Louisiana in 1684, painted in 1844 by Theodore Gudin. La Belle is on the left, Le Joly is in the middle, and L'Aimable is grounded in the distance, right.


1745 - HMS Chester (1743 - 50), Cptn. Francis Geary, and HMS Sutherland (1741 - 50) captured privateer Elephant (1740 – 16).
HMS Chester
was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Deptford to the dimensions laid down in the 1741 proposals of the 1719 Establishment, and launched on 18 February 1743.
Chester was sold out of the navy in 1767.
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1815 - USS Constitution (44), Cptn. Charles Stewart, captures HMS Cyane (22), Cptn. Gordon Falcon, and sloop-of-war HMS Levant (20), Hon. George Douglas, east of Madeira.
The capture of HMS Cyane and HMS Levant
was an action which took place at the end of the Anglo-American War of 1812. The British warships HMS Cyane and HMS Levant fought USS Constitution on 20 February 1815 about 100 miles east of Madeira. Following exchanges of broadsides and musket fire, both Cyane and Levant surrendered. The war had actually finished a few days before the action with the ratification of the Treaty of Ghent by both sides, but the combatants were not aware of this.
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Constitution vs. Cyane


1857 - Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) (North German Lloyd), a German shipping company, was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen.
It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Norddeutscher Lloyd
(NDL) (North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was instrumental in the economic development of Bremen and Bremerhaven. On 1 September 1970, the company merged with Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) to form Hapag-Lloyd AG.
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1897 – Launch of HMS Niobe, a ship of the Diadem class of protected cruisers in the Royal Navy
HMS Niobe
was a ship of the Diadem class of protected cruisers in the Royal Navy. She served in the Boer War and was then given to Canada as the second ship of the newly created Naval Service of Canada as HMCS Niobe. The Naval Service of Canada became the Royal Canadian Navy in August 1911. The ship was nearly lost when she went aground off Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia overnight 30–31 July 1911. Repairs were completed at the end of 1912 and the ship returned to service in late 1914. During the First World War, Niobe patrolled the approaches to the St. Lawrence River and then joined the Royal Navy's 4th Cruiser Squadron to patrol off New York City. The cruiser returned to Halifax, Nova Scotia on 17 July 1915 and never put to sea again. Niobe was paid off in September and served as a depot ship in Halifax. Damaged in the 1917 Halifax Explosion, she was sold for scrap and broken up in the 1920s.
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1920 – Death of Robert Peary, American admiral and explorer (b. 1856)
Rear Admiral Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (/ˈpɪəri/; May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and United States Navy officer who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for claiming to have reached the geographic North Pole with his expedition on April 6, 1909.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

21st of February

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1654 – Launch of the Winsby, later renamed HMS Happy Return, a 44-gun fourth-rate frigate of the English Royal Navy,
The Winsby was a 44-gun fourth-rate frigate of the English Royal Navy, originally built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England at Yarmouth, and launched in February 1654. the Winsby was named for the Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Winceby.
After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, she was renamed HMS Happy Return, as her name was incompatible with the restored Stuart monarchy. By 1677 her armament had been increased to 54 guns. Happy Return was captured by the French in 1691 and commissioned as French Third Rate ship of the line 'Heureux Retour' . In April 1708 recaptured by HMS Burford (70), but not re-added to English Navy
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1705 – Birth of Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, English admiral and politician (d. 1781)
Admiral of the Fleet Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, KB, PC (21 February 1705 – 17 October 1781)[1] was a Royal Navy officer. As captain of the third-rate HMS Berwick he took part in the Battle of Toulon in February 1744 during the War of the Austrian Succession. He also captured six ships of a French squadron in the Bay of Biscay in the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747.
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1759 - HMS Vestal (32), Cptn. Samuel Hood, took French frigate Bellona (1758 - 32) in the Channel
HMS Vestal
was one of the four 32-gun Southampton-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1757 and was broken up in 1775.
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1793 - HMS Alligator (1787 - 28), Cptn. William Affleck, captures the French privateer Prend Tout in the North Sea
HMS Alligator
was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was originally ordered during the American War of Independence but was completed too late to see service during the conflict. Instead she had an active career during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
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1814 – Launch of HMS Liverpool, a Royal Navy Endymion-class frigate, reclassified as a fourth rate.
HMS Liverpool
was a Royal Navy Endymion-class frigate, reclassified as a fourth rate. She was built by Wigram, Wells and Green and launched at Woolwich on 21 February 1814. She was built of pitch-pine, which made for speedy construction at the expense of durability.
Her major service was on the East Indies Station from where in 1819 she led the successful punitive campaign against the Al Qasimi, a belligerent naval power based in Ras Al Khaimah which the British considered to be piratical. She was sold in 1822 but continued to operate in the Persian Gulf for an indefinite period thereafter.
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1901 – Launch of HMS Bacchante, a Cressy-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy
HMS Bacchante
was a Cressy-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy around 1900. Upon completion she was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet as flagship of the fleet's cruiser squadron. She was reduced to reserve upon her return home in 1905 before returning to the Mediterranean in 1906. Six years later she returned home and was again placed in reserve. Recommissioned at the start of World War I, Bacchante became flagship of the 7th Cruiser Squadron. She was present at the Battle of Heligoland Bight a few weeks after the war began, but saw no combat.
She was transferred to convoy escort duties in the Bay of Biscay in late 1914 before being sent to Egypt in early 1915. Bacchante was then assigned to support Anzac troops during the Gallipoli Campaign by providing naval gunfire. She covered the landing at Anzac Cove in April as well as several subsequent operations. Returning home in late 1916, she became the flagship of the 9th Cruiser Squadron on convoy escort duties off the African coast in mid-1917. Bacchante remained there for the rest of the war and was reduced to reserve in 1919 before being sold for scrap in 1920.
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1907 - the steamship SS Berlin was driven onto the granite breakwater at the New Waterway ship canal in the Netherlands by large waves and then broke apart. Of 144 people aboard, 128 were lost.
SS Berlin
was a steel ship, which was owned by the Great Eastern Railway and built for use on their ferry service from Harwich and the Hook of Holland, which the company had initiated in 1893.
The Great Eastern Railway ordered three steamships to operate the service. The ships were named Amsterdam, Berlin, and Vienna to publicise some of the rail connections from the Hook of Holland. Berlin was built in 1894 by Earles Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Hull. She had berths for 218 first- and 120 second-class passengers.
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1914 – Launch of SMS Kronprinz, the last battleship of the four-ship König class of the German Imperial Navy.
SMS Kronprinz
was the last battleship of the four-ship König class of the German Imperial Navy. The battleship was laid down in November 1911 and launched on 21 February 1914. She was formally commissioned into the Imperial Navy on 8 November 1914, just over 4 months after the start of World War I. The name Kronprinz (Eng: "Crown Prince") refers to Crown Prince Wilhelm, and in June 1918, the ship was renamed Kronprinz Wilhelm in his honor. The battleship was armed with ten 30.5-centimeter (12.0 in) guns in five twin turrets and could steam at a top speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph).
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SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm launched November 1914. Scuttled at Scapa Flow on on 21 June 1919.


1917 - passenger ship SS Mendi was taking members of the 5th Battalion, South African Native Labour Corps, to France.
At 05:00 hrs, while under the escort of the destroyer HMS Brisk, Mendi was struck and cut almost in half by SS Darro. Of 823 people aboard, 646 were lost.
SS
Mendi was a British 4,230 GRT passenger steamship that was built in 1905 and, as a troopship, sank after collision with great loss of life in 1917.
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More than 800 members of the South African Native Labour Corps were on board the Mendi at the time of the disaster




1939 – Launch of HMS King George V (pennant number 41), the lead ship of the five British King George V-class battleships of the Royal Navy.
HMS King George V
(pennant number 41) was the lead ship of the five British King George V-class battleships of the Royal Navy. Laid down in 1937 and commissioned in 1940, King George V operated during the Second World War in all three major theatres of war, the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific, as well as part of the British Home Fleet and Pacific Fleets. In May 1941, along with HMS Rodney, King George V was involved in the hunt for and pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck , eventually inflicting severe damage which led to the German vessel sinking. On 1 May 1942 the destroyer HMS Punjabi sank after a collision with King George V in foggy conditions. King George V took part in Operation Husky (the allied landings in Sicily) and bombarded the island of Levanzo and the port of Trapani. She also escorted part of the surrendered Italian Fleet, which included the battleships Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio, to Malta. In 1945 King George V took part in operations against the Japanese in the Pacific.
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HMS King George V enters Apra Harbour, Guam with sailors on deck in 1945


1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, Japanese kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea and damage the USS Saratoga.
USS Bismarck Sea (CVE-95)
was a Casablanca class escort carrier of the United States Navy. She was launched on 17 April 1944 by Kaiser Co., Inc., Vancouver, Washington, under a Maritime Commission contract as Alikula Bay; sponsored by Mrs. M. C. Wallgren, wife of Senator Monrad Wallgren; renamed Bismarck Sea on 16 May 1944; transferred to the Navy on 20 May 1944; and commissioned the same day, with Captain J. L. Pratt in command.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

22nd of February


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1512 – Death of Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454 – February 22, 1512)
Amerigo Vespucci
(March 9, 1454 – February 22, 1512) was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator, and cartographer born in the Republic of Florence. He became a naturalized citizen of the Crown of Castile in 1505.
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1744 - Battle of Toulon or Battle of Cape Sicié
The naval Battle of Toulon or Battle of Cape Sicié took place on 22–23 February 1744 (NS) in the Mediterranean off the French coast near Toulon. A combined Franco-Spanish fleet fought off Britain's Mediterranean Fleet. The French fleet, not officially at war with Great Britain, only joined the fighting late, when it was clear that the greatly outnumbered Spanish fleet had gained the advantage over its foe. With the French intervention, the British fleet was forced to withdraw.
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1765 – Launch of HMS Suffolk, a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy,
HMS Suffolk
was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 22 February 1765 at Rotherhithe. She was designed by William Bateley, based on the principles of his earlier HMS Fame, and was the only ship built to her draught.


1797 – A force of 1,400 French soldiers invaded Britain at Fishguard in support of the Society of United Irishmen. They were defeated by 500 British reservists.
The Battle of Fishguard was a military invasion of Great Britain by Revolutionary France during the War of the First Coalition. The brief campaign, on 22–24 February 1797, is the most recent landing on British soil by a hostile foreign force, and thus is often referred to as the "last invasion of Britain".
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1812 - Battle of Pirano
HMS Victorious (74), Cptn. John Talbot, and HMS Weasel (18), John William Andrew, captured French Rivoli (74), Commodore Jean-Baptiste Barré, engaged brig Mercure (16) which blew up, off Venice.

The Battle of Pirano (also known as the Battle of Grado) on 22 February 1812 was a minor naval action of the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars fought between a British and a French ship of the line in the vicinity of the towns of Piran and Grado in Adriatic Sea. The French Rivoli, named for Napoleon's victory 15 years earlier, had been recently completed at Venice. The French naval authorities intended her to bolster French forces in the Adriatic, following a succession of defeats in the preceding year.
To prevent this ship challenging British dominance in the theatre, the Royal Navy ordered a ship of the line from the Mediterranean fleet to intercept and capture Rivoli on her maiden voyage. Captain John Talbot of HMS Victorious arrived off Venice in mid-February and blockaded the port. When Rivoliattempted to escape under cover of fog, Talbot chased her and forced her to surrender in a five-hour battle, Rivoli losing over half her crew wounded or dead.
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The explosion of Mercure in HMS 'Victorious' Taking the 'Rivoli', 22 February 1812 , Thomas Luny, National Maritime Museum


1845 – Launch of French Seine, a fluyt of the French Navy.
Seine was a fluyt of the French Navy. Sent to the Pacific in a time of colonial rivalry with the United Kingdom to both consolidate French positions and diplomatically ease tensions with the British, she ran aground off Balade and was wrecked. The remains of the ship have become a subject of interest for maritime archeology, notably yielding a rare example of a desalination device of the 1840s.
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1892 – Launch of Placilla, a four-masted barque which was built for F. Laeisz, Hamburg, Germany
Placilla was a four-masted barque which was built for F. Laeisz, Hamburg, Germany in 1892. She was sold in 1901 and renamed Optima in 1903. In 1905 she was wrecked on the Haisborough Sands.
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1901 - en route from Hong Kong, passenger ship SS City of Rio de Janeiro sank after striking a submerged reef at the entry to San Francisco Bay, killing more than 135 passengers and crew.
The SS City of Rio de Janeiro was an iron-hulled steam-powered passenger ship, launched in 1878, which sailed between San Francisco and various Asian Pacific ports. On 22 February 1901, the vessel sank after striking a submerged reef at the entry to San Francisco Bay while inward bound from Hong Kong. Of the approximately 220 passengers and crew on board, fewer than 85 people survived the sinking, while 135 others were killed in the catastrophe. The wreck lies in 287 feet (87 m) of water just off the Golden Gate and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as nationally significant.
City of Rio de Janeiro was one of many ships that were lost due to challenging navigational conditions in this area.
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1909 – Launch of HMS Vanguard, one of three St Vincent-class dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy
HMS Vanguard
was one of three St Vincent-class dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She spent her career assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. Aside from participating in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive Action of 19 August several months later, her service during World War I mostly consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.
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1909 – The Great White Fleet returns to Hampton Roads, Va., following its 14-month round-the-world cruise.
The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States

The Great White Fleet was the popular nickname for the powerful United States Navy battle fleet that completed a journey around the globe from 16 December 1907, to 22 February 1909, by order of United States President Theodore Roosevelt. Its mission was to make friendly courtesy visits to numerous countries, while displaying new U.S. naval power to the world.
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1928 – Launch of HMS Sussex, one of the London sub-class of the County-class heavy cruisers in the Royal Navy
HMS Sussex
was one of the London sub-class of the County-class heavy cruisers in the Royal Navy. She was laid down by R. and W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, at Hebburn-on-Tyne on 1 February 1927, launched on 22 February 1928 and completed on 19 March 1929.
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1931 – Launch of Amerigo Vespucci, a tall ship of the Italian Navy (Marina Militare) named after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci.
The Amerigo Vespucci is a tall ship of the Italian Navy (Marina Militare) named after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci. Its home port is LIVORNO, Italy, and it is in use as a school ship.
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Amerigo Vespucci in New York Harbor, 1976

A beautiful model of the Amerigo Vespucci built in scale 1:84 by our member Joachim alias @shipshobbyist you can find here with more photos
https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/...-th-21-st-october-2018.2050/page-7#post-43770

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2015 - Death of Jean Boudriot, architect,
notable historian of naval engineering, author of many mongraphies and the well known volumes of "74-Gun Ship"
Jean Pierre Paul Boudriot
, (20 March 1921 in Dijon — 22 February 2015 in Paris) was a French naval architect and notable historian of weaponry and naval engineering.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

23rd of February

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1737 – Launch of HMS Victory, a 96-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the dimensions of the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Portsmouth Dockyard, and launched on 23 February 1737.
HMS Victory
was a 96-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the dimensions of the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Portsmouth Dockyard, and launched on 23 February 1737.
although commonly misconstrued to be a first rate ship, HMS Victory (1737) is in actuality a second rate due to its broadside being 96 guns a side, this would be most likely be the leader of the Vanguard of a fleet
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1758 – Launch of HMS Shrewsbury, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy
HMS Shrewsbury
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 23 February 1758 at Deptford Dockyard.
In 1783, she was condemned and scuttled.
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1771 - Death of Thomas Slade - Naval architect
Sir Thomas Slade
(1703/4–1771) was an English naval architect, most famous for designing HMS Victory, Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
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1786 – Launch of French La Réunion, a 36-gun French warship launched in 1786.
La Réunion was a 36-gun French warship launched in 1786. During the French Revolutionary War she was stationed at Cherbourgand was successfully employed harassing British merchant shipping in the English Channel until the British captured her off the Cotentin Peninsula during the action of 20 October 1793. Renamed HMS Reunion, she served for three years in the Royal Navyhelping to counter the threat from the new Batavian Navy, before she was wrecked in the Thames Estuary in December 1796.
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1796 – Launch of HMS Cynthia, a ship sloop of unusual design, launched in 1796
HMS Cynthia
was a ship sloop of unusual design, launched in 1796. She took part in one medal-worthy boat action and participated in captures of a number of merchant vessels, was present at two notable occasions, the surrender of the Dutch fleet in the Vlieter Incident and the capture of Alexandria, and her crew participated in two land attacks on forts. She was broken up in 1809.
Design
Wells & Co. of Rotherhithe built Cynthia with a shallow draught and three daggerboards (John Schank's sliding keels) for stability. She was rated for 18 guns but during construction her rating was reduced to sixteen 6-pounder guns; she also carried fourteen half-pound swivels, although the latter were probably replaced by a much smaller number of carronades during her career.
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1805 - HMS Leander (50), Cptn. John Talbot, re-captured HMS Cleopatra and took French frigate Ville de Milan (38), Cptn. Pierre Guillet.
HMS Milan
was a 38-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had previously been the Ville de Milan, a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, but served for only a year before being chased down and engaged by the smaller 32-gun frigate HMS Cleopatra. Ville de Milan defeated and captured her opponent, but suffered so much damage that she was forced to surrender without a fight several days later when both ships encountered HMS Leander, a British fourth rate. Milan went on to serve with the Royal Navy for another ten years, before being broken up in 1815, after the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars.
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1809 - The Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne was a minor naval battle fought off the town of Les Sables-d'Olonne on the Biscay Coast of France between a French Navy squadron of three frigates and a larger British squadron of ships of the line.
The Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne was a minor naval battle fought on 23 February 1809 off the town of Les Sables-d'Olonne on the Biscay Coast of France between a French Navy squadron of three frigates and a larger British squadron of ships of the line. The French squadron had sailed from the port of Lorient on 23 February in an effort to link up with a fleet from Brest under Jean-Baptiste Willaumez, but missed the rendezvous and was pursued by a British blockade squadron under Rear-Admiral Robert Stopford. The French commander, Commodore Pierre Roch Jurien, anchored his squadron under the batteries which protected the town of Les Sables-d'Olonne in the hope of dissuading an attack.
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1855 – Launch of The second USS Niagara, a screw frigate in the United States Navy
The second USS Niagara was a screw frigate in the United States Navy.
Niagara was launched by New York Navy Yard on 23 February 1855; sponsored by Miss Annie C. O'Donnell; and commissioned on 6 April 1857, Captain William L. Hudson in command.
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1892 – Launch of SMS Condor ("His Majesty's Ship Condor"), an unprotected cruiser of the Imperial German Navy.
SMS Condor
("His Majesty's Ship Condor") was an unprotected cruiser of the Imperial German Navy. She was the fourth member of the Bussard class, which included five other vessels. The cruiser's keel was laid down in Hamburg in 1891, she was launched in February 1892, and was commissioned in December of that year. Intended for overseas duty, Condor was armed with a main battery of eight 10.5-centimeter (4.1 in) guns, and could steam at a speed of 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph).
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1901 – Launch of Tsesarevich (Russian: Цесаревич), a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy, built in France at the end of the 19th century
Tsesarevich (Russian: Цесаревич) was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy, built in France at the end of the 19th century. The ship's design formed the basis of the Russian-built Borodino-class battleships. She was based at Port Arthur, northeast China, after entering service and fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Tsesarevich was torpedoed during the surprise attack on Port Arthur and was repaired to become the flagship of Rear Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft in the Battle of the Yellow Sea and was interned in Tsingtau after the battle.
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1942 – World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the coastline near Santa Barbara, California.
The Bombardment of Ellwood during World War II was a naval attack by a Japanese submarine against United States coastal targets near Santa Barbara, California. Though damage was minimal, the event was key in triggering the West Coast invasion scare and influenced the decision to intern Japanese-Americans. The event also marked the first shelling of the North American mainland during the conflict.
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The Ellwood Oil Field and the location of the Japanese attack.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

24th of February

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1780 - Action of 24 February 1780
The Action of 24 February 1780 was a minor naval battle that took place off the island of Madeira during the American Revolutionary war. A French convoy was intercepted and pursued by a British Royal Navy squadron ending with the French 64 gun ship Protée being captured along with three transports.
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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration and name, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Prothee' (1780), a captured French Third Rate, as fitted as a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker. Signed by George White [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1779-1793].


1783 - HMS Pallas, one of the three 36-gun Venus-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy, was burnt to avoid capture
HMS Pallas
was one of the three 36-gun Venus-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1757 and served until her loss in 1783.
At 12.2.1783 she run ashore at Sao Jorge in the Azores due to leaks, so 12 days later she was burnt to avoid capture.
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1802 - Capture of Porcher at Calcutta
Porcher was launched in 1799 at Calcutta. She made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC) from Bengal to England. A French privateer captured her in 1802, which gave rise to a case in French courts about the validity of the capture given the impending Treaty of Amiens. The French courts condemned her in prize and new owners in Bordeaux named her Ville de Bordeaux. The British recaptured her in 1804. Thereafter she traded between England and India as a licensed ship. In 1809 she sailed to England where in 1810 new owners renamed her Cambridge. As Cambridge she made three voyages for the EIC as an extra ship. In 1818 she was again sold with her new owners continuing to sail her to the Far East as a licensed ship. She then made two more voyages to India for the EIC. In 1840 she was sold to an American trading house at Canton, and then to the Qing Dynasty, which purchased her for the Imperial Chinese Navy. The British Royal Navy destroyed her on 27 February 1841 during the Battle of First Bar at the onset of the First Opium War.
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Porcher's (left) magazine detonating after an engagement with a Royal Navy squadron during the First Opium War.


1813 - USS Hornet (20), James Lawrence, sank HMS Peacock (18), Cptn. William Peake (Killed in Action), off the mouth of the Demerara River, Guiana
The sinking of HMS Peacock was a naval action fought off the mouth of the Demerara River, Guyana on 24 February 1813, between the sloop of war USS Hornet and the Cruizer-class brig-sloop HMS Peacock. After an exchange of broadsides, Hornet was able to rake Peacock, forcing her to strike. Peacock was so badly damaged that she sank shortly after surrendering.
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1815 – Launch of HMS Wellesley, a 74-gun third rate, named after the Duke of Wellington,
HMS Wellesley
was a 74-gun third rate, named after the Duke of Wellington, and launched in 1815. She captured Karachi for the British, and participated in the First Opium War, which resulted in Britain gaining control of Hong Kong. Thereafter she served primarily as a training ship before gaining the distinction of being the last British ship of the line to be sunk by enemy action and the only one to have been sunk by an air-raid.
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Wellesley sailing along a rocky coastline


1875 – The SS Gothenburg hits the Great Barrier Reef and sinks off the Australian east coast, killing approximately 100, including a number of high-profile civil servants and dignitaries.
The SS Gothenburg was a steamship that operated along the British and then later the Australian and New Zealand coastlines. In February 1875, she left Darwin, Australia en route to Adelaide when she encountered a cyclone-strength storm off the north Queensland coast. The ship was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef north-west of Holbourne Island on 24 February 1875. Survivors in one of the lifeboats were rescued two days later by Leichhardt, while the occupants of two other lifeboats that managed to reach Holbourne Island were rescued several days later. Twenty-two men survived, while between 98 and 112 others died, including a number of high-profile civil servants and dignitaries.
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SS Gothenburg docked at Port Adelaide wharf after her lengthening in 1873.


1887 – Launch of Spanish Reina Regente was a Reina Regente-class protected cruiser of the Spanish Navy
Reina Regente was a Reina Regente-class protected cruiser of the Spanish Navy. Entering service in 1888, she was lost in 1895 during a storm in the Gulf of Cádiz while she was travelling from Tangier, Morocco to Cádiz, Spain.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

25th of February

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1758 – Launch of HMS Lenox, a 74-gun Dublin-class third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy,
HMS Lenox
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 25 February 1758 at Chatham Dockyard.
She was sunk as a breakwater in 1784.
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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the profile (no waterlines) with some inboard detail, and a superimposed longitudinal half-breadth for Sandwich (1759), a 90-gun Second Rate, three-decker, building at Chatham Dockyard. Reverse: Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the sheer lines with some inboard detail, and a superimposed basic longitudinal half-breadth for (possibly) Lenox (1758), a 70-gun (later 74-gun) Third Rate, two-decker, building at Chatham Dockyard.

The Dublin-class ships of the line were a class of seven 74-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Thomas Slade.
Design
The Dublin-class ships were the first 74-gun ships to be designed for the Royal Navy, and marked the beginning of a more dynamic era of naval design than that in the ultra-conservative Establishment era preceding it.
Slade's draught was approved on 26 August 1755 when the first two orders were transmitted to Deptford Dockyard. The design was some 4½ feet longer than the preceding 70-gun ships of the 1745 Establishment, with the extra length making provision for an additional (14th) pair of 32-pounder guns on the lower deck compared with the 13 pairs of the 70-gun ships. They were nominally ordered as 70-gun ships (although always designed to carry 74), but redesignated as 74-gun during construction.


1781 - The Action of 25 February 1781
was a small naval engagement which was fought off Cape Finisterre between a Spanish naval frigate sixth rate Graña of thirty guns and a Royal Naval fifth rate frigate HMS Cerberus of thirty two guns.

The Action of 25 February 1781 was a small naval engagement which was fought off Cape Finisterre between a Spanish navalfrigate sixth rate Graña of thirty guns and a Royal Naval fifth rate frigate HMS Cerberus of thirty two guns. The British were victorious when Graña surrendered after a hard fight.
On 25 February 1781, whilst cruising twenty leagues off Cape Finisterre, the Royal Naval frigate HMS Cerberus of thirty two guns under Captain Robert Mann sighted the Spanish twenty gun frigate Graña, under Don Nicolás de Medina.
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Captain Robert Mann


1798 - British hired 12-gun cutter HMS Marechel de Coburg (1794) sunk French Privateer 16-gun lugger 'Revanche' (1797)
On the 25th of February 1798, at 7 a.m., Cromer, bearing west-south-west, distant 16 leagues, the British hired armed cutter Marquis-Cobourg, of twelve 4-pounders and 66 men and boys, Lieutenant Charles Webb, alter a nine hours chase and a run of 100 miles, during half the time before a hard sale of wind at west-north-west, came up with the French lugger-privateer Revanche, of 16 guns and 62 men: and to a smart fire from whose musketry and stern-chasers the Cobourg had been exposed for the last two hours of the nine. A spirited action now ensued, during which the lugger made two attempts to board the cutter, but was repulsed. After a two hours' running fight, close alongside, a well-directed broadside from the Cobourg shot away the Revanche's main and mizzen masts by the hoard and also her fore-yard: whereupon the privateer's men called for quarter.


1813 - HMS Linnet (14), Lt. John Tracey, taken by French frigate Gloire (40), Cptn Albin-Réné Roussin, in the Channel.
Linnet was sailing in the western approaches to the Channel on 25 February 1813 in high winds and heavy seas. She sighted a large vessel that proceeded to give chase, and did not identify itself. By 1430 hours, the frigate had gotten close enough to Linnet to identify herself as the Gloire, and to call on Lieutenant John Tracey to surrender. Instead, Tracey managed by adroit sailing to hold off his attacker for over an hour until shots from Gloire did sufficient damage to Linnet's rigging forcing Tracy to surrender. The court martial of Lieutenant Tracy on 31 May 1814 for the loss of his vessel acquitted him, noting his seamanship, courage, judgment, and his attempt to disable the enemy vessel. The Navy subsequently promoted Tracey to the rank of commander.
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Scale: unknown. A contemporary full hull model of the French 40-gun frigate ‘La Gloire’ built plank on frame and mounted on its original wooden marquetry baseboard.


1814 - HMS Eurotas (38), Cptn. John Phillimore, captured Clorinde (42) about 250 miles south of Cape Clear
Clorinde was a 40-gun Pallas-class frigate of the French Navy, designed by Sané. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1814 and renamed her HMS Aurora. After 19 years as a coal hulk she was broken up in 1851.
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Clorinde fighting HMS Eurotas


1843 – Lord George Paulet occupies the Kingdom of Hawaii in the name of Great Britain in the Paulet Affair (1843).
The Paulet affair
was the five-month occupation of the Hawaiian Islands in 1843 by British naval officer Captain Lord George Paulet, of HMS Carysfort.
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Lord George Paulet, instigator of the Paulet Affair


1911 – Launch of The Peking,
a steel-hulled four-masted barque. A so-called Flying P-Liner of the German company F. Laeisz, it was one of the last generation of cargo-carrying windjammers used in the nitrate trade and wheat trade around Cape Horn.

The Peking is a steel-hulled four-masted barque. A so-called Flying P-Liner of the German company F. Laeisz, it was one of the last generation of cargo-carrying windjammers used in the nitrate trade and wheat trade around Cape Horn.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

26th of February

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1606 – The Janszoon voyage of 1605–06 becomes the first European expedition to sight Australia, although it is mistaken as a part of New Guinea.
Willem Janszoon made the first recorded European landing on the Australian continent in 1606, sailing from Bantam, Java, in the Duyfken. As an employee of the Dutch East India Company (Dutch: Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC), Janszoon had been instructed to explore the coast of New Guinea in search of economic opportunities. He had originally arrived in Dutch East Indies from the Netherlands in 1598 and became an officer of the VOC on its establishment in 1602.
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1708 – Launch of HMS Falmouth, a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built for the Royal Navy
HMS Falmouth
was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 18th century. The ship participated in several battles during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–15) and the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739–48).
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1749 – Launch of Spanish Fénix, an 80-gun ship-of-the-line of the Spanish Navy,
Fénix was an 80-gun ship-of-the-line of the Spanish Navy, launched in 1749. In 1759, she was sent to bring the new king, Carlos III, from Naples to Barcelona. When Spain entered the American Revolutionary War in June 1779, Fénix set sail for the English Channel where she was to join a Franco-Spanish fleet of more than 60 ships-of-the-line under Lieutenant General Luis de Córdova y Córdova. The Armada of 1779 was an invasion force of 40,000 troops with orders to capture the British naval base at Portsmouth.
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1795 – French schooner Coureuse captured
HMS Coureuse
was a schooner launched in 1785 or 1788 in the United States and acquired and armed at Lorient in 1794. The British captured her in 1795 and the Royal Navy briefly used her as a dispatch vessel in the Mediterranean. The Admiralty sold her in 1799.
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1815 - HMS St. Lawrence (12) taken by American privateer brig Chasseur (14), Cptn. Thomas Boyle, off Havana.
HMS St Lawrence
was a 14-gun schooner of the Royal Navy. She had been built in 1808 in St. Michaels, Talbot County, Marylandfor Thomas Tennant and sold to Philadelphians in 1810. During the War of 1812 she was the American privateer Atlas. The British captured her in 1813 and renamed her St Lawrence. The American privateer Chasseur recaptured her in 1815, and then HMS Acasta re-recaptured her.
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Chasseur capturing HMS St Lawrence, by Adam Weingartner


1852 - HMS Birkenhead – The troopship struck a rock near Cape Town on 26 February 1852 while ferrying troops to the 8th Xhosa War. The ship sank with the loss of 450 men.
HMS Birkenhead
, also referred to as HM Troopship Birkenhead or Steam Frigate Birkenhead, was one of the first iron-hulled ships built for the Royal Navy. She was designed as a steam frigate, but was converted to a troopship before being commissioned.
She was wrecked on 26 February 1852, while transporting troops to Algoa Bay at Danger Point near Gansbaai, 87 miles (140 kilometres) from Cape Town, South Africa. There were not enough serviceable lifeboats for all the passengers, and the soldiers famously stood firm on board, thereby allowing the women and children to board the boats safely and escape the sinking.
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The Wreck of the Birkenhead (1901) by Charles Dixon.


1861 – Launch of French Ville de Lyon, a Ville de Nantes-class 90-gun ship of the line of the French Navy
Ville de Lyon was a Ville de Nantes-class 90-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
Ville de Lyon conducted trials in 1861 before being put in ordinary in 1862. She took part in the French intervention in Mexico, and upon her return to France, became a schoolship in Brest. She returned to Mexico in 1866 to ferry an infantry regiment back to France.
After the Paris Commune, Ville de Lyon was used as a prison hulk in Brest. Struck in 1879, she was broken up in 1894.
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Launching of the 90-gun ship of the line Ville de Nantes before Napoléon III.


1891 – Launch of HMS Royal Sovereign, the lead ship of the seven ships in her class of pre-dreadnought battleships
HMS Royal Sovereign
was the lead ship of the seven ships in her class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. The ship was commissioned in 1892 and served as the flagship of the Channel Fleet for the next five years. She was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1897 and returned home in 1902, and was briefly assigned as a coast guard ship before she began a lengthy refit in 1903–1904. Royal Sovereign was reduced to reserve in 1905 and was taken out of service in 1909. The ship was sold for scrap four years later and subsequently broken up in Italy.
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1914 – Launch of HMHS Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
HMHS Britannic
(/brɪˈtænɪk/) was the third and final vessel of the White Star Line's Olympic class of steamships and the second to bear the name "Britannic." She was the fleet mate of both the RMS Olympic and the RMS Titanic and was intended to enter service as a transatlantic passenger liner.
Britannic was launched just before the start of the First World War. She was designed to be the safest of the three ships with design changes actioned during construction due to lessons learned from the sinking of the Titanic. She was laid up at her builders, Harland and Wolff, in Belfast for many months before being put to use as a hospital ship in 1915. In 1915 and 1916 she served between the United Kingdom and the Dardanelles. On the morning of 21 November 1916 she was shaken by an explosion caused by a naval mine near the Greek island of Kea and foundered 55 minutes later, killing 30 people.
There were 1,065 people on board; the 1,035 survivors were rescued from the water and lifeboats. Britannic was the largest ship lost in the First World War. The loss of the ship was compensated by the award of SS Bismarck to the White Star Line as part of post-war reparations; she became the RMS Majestic.
The wreck was located and explored by Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1975. The vessel is the largest passenger ship on the sea floor
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Britannic under construction at Harland & Wolff, 1914


1916 - French auxiliary cruiser La Provence was taking troops from France to Salonika when U-35 sank her in the Mediterranean south of Cape Matapan. Nearly 1,000 men were lost
SS La Provence
was an ocean liner and auxiliary cruiser torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea on 26 February 1916. She belonged to the French Compagnie Générale Transatlantique.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

27th of February

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1630 – Birth of Roche Braziliano, Dutch pirate (d. 1671)
Roche Braziliano
(sometimes spelled Rock, Roch, Roc, Roque, Brazilliano, or Brasiliano) (c. 1630 – disappeared c. 1671) was a Dutchpirate born in the town of Groningen. His pirate career lasted from 1654 until his disappearance around 1671. He was first made famous in Alexandre Exquemelin's 1678 book The Buccaneers of America; Exquemelin did not know Braziliano's real name, but historians have found he was probably born as Gerrit Gerritszoon and that he and his parents moved to Dutch-controlled Brazil. He is known as "Roche Braziliano", which in English translates to "Rock the Brazilian", due to his long exile in Brazil.
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1742 – Launch of HMS Wolf, a 14-gun snow-rigged sloop of the Royal Navy, as the first of three Wolf class sloops constructed for action against Spanish privateers during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
HMS Wolf
was a 14-gun snow-rigged sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1742 as the first of three Wolf class sloops constructed for action against Spanish privateers during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
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1780 - storeship HMS Leviathan, ex HMS Northumberland, foundered while returning home from Jamaica.
HMS Northumberland
was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Plymouth Dockyard to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment, and launched on 1 December 1750.
During the Seven Years' War Northumberland was the flagship of Lord Alexander Collville from 1753 to 1762, and under the captaincy of William Adams until 1760 and Nathaniel Bateman from 1760 to 1762. Future explorer James Cook served as ship's master from 1759 to 1761.
Northumberland was later classified as a storeship and was renamed HMS Leviathan on 13 September 1777. She foundered on 27 February 1780 whilst sailing from Jamaica to Britain.
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1804 – Launch of HMS Eagle, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy,
HMS Eagle
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 27 February 1804 at Northfleet.
On 11 November 1804, Glatton, together with Eagle, Majestic, Princess of Orange, Raisonable, Africiane, Inspector, Beaver, and the hired armed vessels Swift and Agnes, shared in the capture of the Upstalsboom, H.L. De Haase, Master.
In 1830 she was reduced to a 50-gun ship, and became a training ship in 1860. She was renamed HMS Eaglet in 1919, when she was the Royal Naval Reserve training centre for North West England. A fire destroyed Eagle in 1926
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1806 - HMS Hydra (38), Cptn. George Mundy, captured French national brig Le Furet (18), Lt. Demay, off Cadiz
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1/36th scale model of Cygne, sister-ship of Furet, on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris.


1809 – Action of 27 February 1809: Captain Bernard Dubourdieu captures HMS Proserpine
The Action of 27 February 1809 was a minor naval engagement during the French Revolutionary Wars. Two 44-gun frigates, Pénélope and Pauline, sortied from Toulon harbour to chase a British frigate, HMS Proserpine, which was conduction surveillance of French movements. First sneaking undetected and later trying to pass herself as a British frigate coming to relieve Proserpine, Pénélope approached within gun range before being identified. With the help of Pauline, she subdued Proserpine and forced her to surrender after a one-hour fight.
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Capture of HMS Proserpine by Pénélope and Pauline. Watercolour by Antoine Roux.

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Proserpine represented after her captured (the mizzen was actually more seriously damaged). Watercolour by Antoine Roux.


1855 – Launch of HMS Victor Emmanuel, a screw-propelled 91-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, originally launched as HMS Repulse, but renamed shortly after being launched.
HMS Victor Emmanuel
was a screw-propelled 91-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, originally launched as HMS Repulse, but renamed shortly after being launched.
Construction and commissioning
Victor Emmanuel was an Agamemnon-class ship of the line, a class originally designed as 80-gun sailing two-deckers. They were re-ordered as screw ships in 1849, and Victor Emmanuel was duly reclassified as a 91-gun ship on 26 March 1852. She was built and launched on 27 February 1855 under the name HMS Repulse, but was renamed Victor Emmanuel on 7 December 1855, in honour of Victor Emmanuel after he visited the ship. She cost a total of £158,086, with £87,597 spent on her hull, and a further £35,588 spent on her machinery.
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1861 – Launch of HMS Black Prince, the third ship of that name to serve with the Royal Navy.
She was the world's second ocean-going, iron-hulled, armoured warship, following her sister ship, HMS Warrior.
HMS Black Prince
was the third ship of that name to serve with the Royal Navy. She was the world's second ocean-going, iron-hulled, armoured warship, following her sister ship, HMS Warrior. For a brief period the two Warrior-class ironclads were the most powerful warships in the world, being virtually impregnable to the naval guns of the time. Rapid advances in naval technology left Black Prince and her sister obsolete within a short time, however, and she spent more time in reserve and training roles than in first-line service.
Black Prince spent her active career with the Channel Fleet and was hulked in 1896, becoming a harbour training ship in Queenstown, Ireland. She was renamed Emerald in 1903 and then Impregnable III in 1910 when she was assigned to the training establishment in Plymouth. The ship was sold for scrap in 1923.
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1869 – Launch of HMS Volage, a Volage-class corvette built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s.
HMS Volage
was a Volage-class corvette built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s. She spent most of her first commission assigned to the Flying Squadron circumnavigating the world and later carried a party of astronomers to the Kerguelen Islands to observe the transit of Venus in 1874. The ship was then assigned as the senior officer's ship in South American waters until she was transferred to the Training Squadron during the 1880s. Volage was paid off in 1899 and sold for scrap in 1904.
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1916 - SS Maloja was an M-class passenger steamship of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was sunk by a mine in the English Channel off Dover with the loss of 155 lives
SS Maloja
was an M-class passenger steamship of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. She was completed in 1911 and worked a regular route between Great Britain and India. In 1916 in the First World War she was sunk by a mine in the English Channel off Dover with the loss of 155 lives.
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1942 - Seaplane tender USS Langley (AV 3), carrying 32 U.S. Army Air Force P-40 aircraft for the defense of Java, is bombed by Japanese naval land attack planes 75 miles south of Tjilatjap, Java. Due to the damage, Langley is shelled and torpedoed by USS Whipple (DD 217).
USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3)
was the United States Navy's first aircraft carrier, converted in 1920 from the collier USS Jupiter (AC-3), and also the US Navy's first turbo-electric-powered ship. Conversion of another collier was planned but canceled when the Washington Naval Treaty required the cancellation of the partially built Lexington-class battlecruisers Lexington and Saratoga, freeing up their hulls for conversion to the aircraft carriers Lexington and Saratoga. Langley was named after Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American aviation pioneer. Following another conversion to a seaplane tender, Langley fought in World War II. On 27 February 1942, she was attacked by nine twin-engine Japanese bombers of the Japanese 21st and 23rd Naval Air Flotillas[2] and so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled by her escorts.
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USS Langley underway, 1927


1942 – Battle of the Java Sea
The Battle of the Java Sea begins, where the 14-ship Allied forces (American, Dutch, British and Australian) attempt to stop the 28-ship Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies colony of Java. The Japanese, during battles over three days, decimates the Allied forces, sinking at least 11 ships, killing more than 3,370 and taking nearly 1,500 prisoners.
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Bombs from a Japanese aircraft falling near the Dutch light cruiser Java in the Gaspar Strait east of Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, on 15 February 1942.


1942 - HNLMS De Ruyter was sunk in the Battle of the Java Sea in 1942. 345 of the crew were killed.
HNLMS De Ruyter
(Dutch: Hr.Ms. De Ruyter) was a unique light cruiser of the Royal Netherlands Navy. She was originally designed as a 5,000-long-ton (5,100 t) ship with a lighter armament due to financial problems and the pacifist movement. Later in the design stage, an extra gun turret was added and the armor was improved. She was the seventh ship of the Dutch Navy to be named after Admiral Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter.
De Ruyter was laid down on 16 September 1933 at the Wilton-Fijenoord dockyard in Schiedam and commissioned on 3 October 1936, commanded by Captain A. C. van der Sande Lacoste. She was sunk in the Battle of the Java Sea in 1942.
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1945 – Launch of HMCS Bonaventure, a Majestic-class aircraft carrier, the third and last aircraft carrier in service with Canada's armed forces.
The aircraft carrier was initially ordered for construction by Britain's Royal Navy as HMS Powerful during the Second World War.

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2004 - SuperFerry 14 – an Islamist terrorist attack resulted in the sinking of the ferry SuperFerry 14 and the deaths of 116 people in the Philippines. It is regarded as the World's deadliest terrorist attack at sea.
The 2004 SuperFerry 14 bombing on February 27, 2004, was a terrorist attack that resulted in the sinking of the ferry SuperFerry 14 and the deaths of 116 people in the Philippines' deadliest terrorist attack and the world's deadliest terrorist attack at sea. Six children less than five years old, and nine children between six and 16 years of age were among the dead or missing, including six students on a championship team sent by schools in northern Mindanao to compete in a journalism contest.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

28th of February

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1758 - HMS Monmouth (64), Cptn. Arthur Gardiner (Killed in Action), and HMS Swiftsure (70), Cptn. Stanhope, took Foudroyant (80) off Toulon.
The Foudroyant was an 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was later captured and served in the Royal Navy as the Third Rate HMS Foudroyant.
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Capture of the Foudroyant by the British Monmouth, 28 February 1758. Painting by Francis Swaine, 1725–1782.


1758 - HMS Montagu and HMS Monarch (74), Cptn. John Montagu, drove ashore French Oriflamme (50) near Cape de Gato
Oriflamme was a 56-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was ordered on 16 February 1743 and built at Toulon Dockyard by engineer-constructor Pierre-Blaise Coulomb, and launched on 30 October 1744. She carried 24 x 18-pounder guns on her lower deck, 26 x 8-pounder guns on her upper deck, and 6 x 4-pounder guns on her quarterdeck (although the latter smaller guns were removed when she was rebuilt at Toulon from August 1756 to July 1757). The ship was named for the long, multi-tailed red banner that was historically the battle standard of the medieval French monarchy.
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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the stern board with one half illustrating the decoration detail, the starboard quarter gallery with decoration, and the figurehead for 'Monarch' (1747), a captured French Third Rate, as taken off prior to fitting as a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker. NMM, Progress Book, volume 2, folio 54, states that 'Monarch' arrived at Portsmouth Dockyard on 29 October 1747 and was docked on 2 June 1748. She was undocked on 3 June 1748 having been surveyed. The Admiralty Order dated 25 November 1747 to survey the ship was cancelled on 5 July 1748. A new Admiralty Order dated 8 July 1748 was sent to survey and cost the repairs. She was re-docked on 13 December 1748 and undocked on 28 March 1749 having undergone small repairs and being fitted.


1760 - Battle of Bishops Court
British squadron, under Cptn. Elliot, defeated a French squadron, under François Thurot (Killed in Action), off the Isle of Man.

The Battle of Bishops Court, also known as The Defeat of Thurot, was a naval engagement that took place 28 February 1760, during the Seven Years' War, between three British ships and three French ships. The French force under famed commander François Thurot were brought to battle in the Irish sea between the Isle of Man and the coast of Ireland at 9 am. After a close-fought action, Thurot's force was battered into submission, with his ships dismasted and reduced to a sinking condition. Thurot was shot through the heart and died during the action. The British took all three French ships, completing victory.
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1778 – Launch of French Courageuse, a 12-pounder Concorde class frigate of the French Navy
Courageuse was a 12-pounder Concorde class frigate of the French Navy. She was launched in 1778. The British captured her in 1799 and thereafter used her as a receiving ship or prison hulk at Malta before breaking her up in 1802.
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1797 - HMS Terpsichore (32), Cptn. Sir Richard Bowen, engaged Santissima Trinidad (136) damaged at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent
HMS Terpsichore
was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built during the last years of the American War of Independence, but did not see action until the French Revolutionary Wars. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, in a career that spanned forty-five years.
Terpsichore was launched in 1785, but was not prepared for active service until the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793. She was initially sent to serve in the West Indies where in 1794 Captain Richard Bowen took command. Bowen commanded Terpsichore until his death in 1797, and several of her most memorable exploits occurred during his captaincy. Terpsichore served mostly in the Mediterranean, capturing three frigates, and in 1797 went as far as to attack the damaged Spanish first rate Santísima Trinidad, as she limped away from the Battle of Cape St Vincent. The Santísima Trinidad mounted 136 guns to Terpsichore's 32, and was the largest warship in the world at time. Terpsichore inflicted several casualties, before abandoning the attack. Terpsichore passed through several commanders after Bowen's death at Tenerife, and went out to the East Indies, where her last commander was Captain William Augustus Montagu. Montagu fought an action with a large French frigate in 1808, and though he was able to outfight her, he was not able to capture her. Terpsichore returned to Britain the following year, and spent the last years of the war laid up in ordinary. She survived in this state until 1830, when she was broken up.
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Model of the Santísima Trinidad at the Museo Naval de Madrid


1799 - Action of 28 February 1799
HMS Sybille (44), Cptn. Edward Cooke (Killed in Action) captured French frigate Forte, Cptn. Beaulieu-Leloup, off Bengal River

The Action of 28 February 1799 was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought off the mouth of the Hooghly River in the Bay of Bengal between the French frigate Forte and the Royal Navy frigate HMS Sybille. Forte was an exceptionally large and powerful ship engaged on a commerce raiding operation against British merchant shipping off the port of Calcutta in British India. To eliminate this threat, Sybille was sent from Madras in pursuit. Acting on information from released prisoners, Edward Cooke, captain of Sybille, was sailing off Balasore when distant gunfire alerted him to the presence of Forte on the evening of 28 February. The French frigate was discovered at anchor in the sandbanks at the mouth of the Hooghly with two recently captured British merchant ships.
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Capture of 'La Forte', 28 February 1799 (Print) (PAD5620)


1804 – Launch of HMS Aeolus was a 32-gun Amphion-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.
HMS Aeolus
was a 32-gun Amphion-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1801 and served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and the War of 1812.
Ordered during the last years of the French Revolutionary Wars, Aeolus was at first engaged in convoy work, before being sent out to the West Indies, where she took part in operations off Saint-Domingue and blockaded the French ships in the harbours. She was involved in the chase of the 74-gun Duquesne after she put to sea, and assisted in her capture. Aeolus returned to operate off the British coast, and was part of Sir Richard Strachan's squadron in late 1805. The squadron encountered part of the fleeing Franco-Spanish fleet that Nelson had decisively defeated two weeks previously at the Battle of Trafalgar, and after bringing them to battle, captured the entire force.
After spending time off Ireland and North America, Aeolus was in the Caribbean in 1809, and took part in the capture of Martinique. Deployed with Captain Philip Broke's squadron after the outbreak of the War of 1812 Aeolus took part in the capture of USS Nautilus, the first ship either side lost in the war, the pursuit of USS Constitution and the capture of the American privateer Snapper. Aeolus was used as a storeship at Quebec after the end of the war, and after returning to Britain was laid up as the Napoleonic Wars drew to a close. She was finally sold in 1817.
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1814 - HMS Anacreon Sloop (16), John Davies, foundered in the Channel.
HMS Anacreon
had an extremely brief career. she was commissioned in early 1813 and was lost within a year.
Career: Commander John Davies supposedly commissioned her in May 1813, but she had apparently already been in service by then. On 9 April 1813 Eleanor Wilhelmina arrived at Yarmouth. Anacreon had detained Eleanor Wilhelmina as she was sailing from North Bergen. Davies then sailed Anacreon for Lisbon on 3 August.
On 1 February 1814 she recaptured the Spanish ship Nostra Senora del Carmen la Sirena. Late in January the French privateer Lion had captured three ships in all and plundered two, which she had permitted to go on to Lisbon. Anacreon had recaptured the third, Nostra Senora..., and then had set off in pursuit of the privateer.
Loss: Anacreon foundered in the Channel on 28 February 1814 during a storm as she was returning from Lisbon. All aboard were lost.
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1844 - An experimental 12-inch gun explodes on board USS Princeton, killing Secretary of State (former Secretary of the Navy) Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas W. Gilmer, and five other dignitaries and injuring 20 people.
The first USS Princeton was a screw steam warship in the United States Navy. Commanded by Captain Robert F. Stockton, Princeton was launched on September 5, 1843.
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1854 - Launch of French Louis XIV, an Océan-class 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy
Louis XIV was an Océan-class 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
Laid down as Tonnant in 1811 at Rochefort, she was renamed Louis-XIV in 1828, still on keel. She was launched only in 1854, and was put in the reserve the next year.
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1890 - British-India Steam Navigation Company ship RMS Quetta on a regular route between Great Britain, India and the Far East.
She was wrecked on the Far North Queensland coast on 28 February 1890. Of 292 people aboard, 134 were lost.
RMS
Quetta was a Royal Mail Ship that was wrecked on the Far North Queensland coast of Australia on 28 February 1890. Quetta's sinking killed 134 of the 292 people on board, making it one of Queensland's biggest maritime catastrophes.
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1893 – Launch of the USS Indiana, the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time
USS Indiana (BB-1)
was the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time. Authorized in 1890 and commissioned five years later, she was a small battleship, though with heavy armor and ordnance. The ship also pioneered the use of an intermediate battery. She was designed for coastal defense and as a result, her decks were not safe from high waves on the open ocean.
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1942 – The Battle of Sunda Strait
The heavy cruiser USS Houston is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed, along with HMAS Perth which lost 375 men.

The Battle of Sunda Strait was a naval battle which occurred during World War II in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java, and Sumatra. On the night of 28 February – 1 March 1942, the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth and the American heavy cruiserUSS Houston faced a major Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) task force. After a fierce battle of several hours duration, both Alliedships were sunk. Five Japanese ships were sunk, three of them by friendly fire.
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USS Houston (CA 30), off San Diego, California, in October 1935, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt on board. She is flying an admiral's four-star flag at her foremast peak, and the Presidential flag at her mainmast peak.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

29th of February

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1812 - HMS Fly (16), Henry Higman, wrecked on the Knobber reef at the eastern end of Anholt Is. in the Kattegat
HMS Fly (1805) was a 16-gun brig-sloop launched in 1805. Due to the pilot's error of judgment she wrecked on 28 February 1812 on the Knobber Reef, a narrow spit of sand and large boulders that extends 4.4 miles (7.1 km) from the eastern end of Anholt Island. Boats from the Baltic Fleet rescued her crew.
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1828 – Launch of Emma, a River Flat along the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, in Manchester.
The Emma was a River Flat launched on 29 February 1828 along the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, in Manchester. Built by the New Quay Company, it was one of the largest cargo vessels to be built alongside the Irwell. The vessel capsized shortly after its launch, causing the deaths of as many as 47 of its estimated 200 passengers. Many others were rescued by bystanders, and treated by surgeons along the river banks. The Emma was eventually righted, and spent the rest of its life working along the River Weaver.


1916 - During the Action German merchant raider SMS Greif (1914) and British armed merchant cruiser RMS Alcantara (1913) sank each other northeast of Shetland. An estimated 187 Germans perished along with 72 Britons.
The Action of 29 February 1916 was a naval engagement fought during the First World War between the United Kingdom and the German Empire. SMS Greif a German commerce raider, broke out into the North Sea and Admiral Sir John Jellicoe dispatched Royal Navy warships to intercept the raider. Four British vessels made contact with the Greif and in the ensuing encounter, the commerce raider and the armed merchant cruiser HMS Alcantara were sunk.
Alcantara_1916.jpg
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

1st of March

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1579 - Sir Francis Drake on Golden Hind captures the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción - nickname Cacafuego ("fireshitter")
Nuestra Señora de la Concepción (Spanish: "Our Lady of the (Immaculate) Conception") was a 120-ton Spanish galleon that sailed the PeruPanama trading route during the 16th century. This ship has earned a place in maritime history not only by virtue of being Sir Francis Drake's most famous prize, but also because of her colourful nickname, Cacafuego ("fireshitter").
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1805 – Launch of Topaze, a Gloire-class 44-gun frigate of the French Navy.
Topaze was a Gloire-class 44-gun frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1809 and she the served with the Royal Navy under the name Jewel, and later Alcmene until she was broken up in 1816.
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1819 – Launch of USS Columbus, a 90-gun ship of the line in the United States Navy.
USS Columbus
was a 90-gun ship of the line in the United States Navy. She was launched on 1 March 1819 by Washington Navy Yard and commissioned on 7 September 1819, Master Commandant J. H. Elton in command.
History
Clearing Norfolk, Virginia on 28 April 1820, Columbus served as flagship for Commodore William Bainbridge in the Mediterraneanuntil returning to Boston on 23 July 1821. Serving as a receiving ship after 1833, she remained at Boston in ordinary until sailing to the Mediterranean on 29 August 1842, as flagship for Commodore Charles W. Morgan. On 24 February 1843, she sailed from Genoa, Italy, and reached Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 29 July to become flagship of the Brazil Squadron, Commodore Daniel Turner. She returned to New York City on 27 May 1844 for repairs.

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The USS Columbus (1819) and a crewman in Edo Bay in 1846.

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Sailmaker's plan of USS Columbus


1865 - Side-wheel steamship USS Harvest Moon, while underway near Georgetown, S.C., with Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren on board, hits a Confederate mine (or "torpedo" in contemporary terms) and sinks with the loss of one of her crew.
The USS Harvest Moon was a steam operated gunboat acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
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USS Harvest Moon in 1864-1865


1873 – Launch of HMS Raleigh, an unarmoured iron or "sheathed" masted frigate completed in 1874
HMS Raleigh
was an unarmoured iron or "sheathed" masted frigate completed in 1874. She was one of a series of three designed by Sir Edward Reed. The other two iron-hulled frigates (the three were not sisters) were HMS Inconstant and HMS Shah. The Controller originally intended to build six of these big frigates, but only three were ordered in view of their high cost. They retained the traditional broadside layout of armament, with a full rig of masts and sails. Although widely believed to be named after Sir Walter Raleigh, the ship was in fact named for George of Raleigh.
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1881 – Launch of SS Servia, also known as RMS Servia, a successful transatlantic passenger and mail steamer of revolutionary design
SS Servia, also known as RMS Servia, was a successful transatlantic passenger and mail steamer of revolutionary design, built by J & G Thomson of Clydebank (later John Brown & Company) and launched in 1881. She was the first large ocean liner to be built of steel instead of iron, and the first Cunard ship to have an electric lighting installation. For these and other reasons, maritime historians often consider Servia to be the first "modern" ocean liner.
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Servia underway


1892 – Launch of HMS Ramillies, a Royal Sovereign-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy,
HMS Ramillies
was a Royal Sovereign-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, named after the Battle of Ramillies. The ship was built by J. & G. Thompson at Clydebank, starting with her keel laying in August 1890. She was launched in March 1892 and commissioned into the Mediterranean Fleet as flagship the following October. She was armed with a main battery of four 13.5-inch guns and a secondary battery of ten 6-inch guns. The ship had a top speed of 16.5 knots.
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1913 – Launch of SMS König, the first of four König-class dreadnought battleships of the Imperial German Navy
SMS König
was the first of four König-class dreadnought battleships of the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) during World War I. König (Eng: "King") was named in honor of King William II of Württemberg. Laid down in October 1911, the ship was launched on 1 March 1913. Final construction on König was completed shortly after the outbreak of World War I; she was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 9 August 1914.
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1942 - Second Battle of the Java Sea
The Second Battle of the Java Sea was the last naval action of the Netherlands East Indies campaign, of 1941–42. It occurred on 1 March 1942, two days after the first Battle of the Java Sea. It saw the end of the last Allied warships operating in the waters around Java, allowing Japanese forces to complete their conquest of the Netherlands East Indies unhindered.
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The Royal Navy heavy cruiser HMS Exeter sinking after the Battle of the Java Sea, 1 March 1942.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

2nd of March

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1740 - Birth of Nicholas Pocock, british naval painter
Nicholas Pocock
(2 March 1740 – 9 March 1821) was a British artist known for his many detailed paintings of naval battles during the age of sail.
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1760 - HMS Tartar's Prize (28), Cptn. Thomas Baillie, wrecked in the Mediterranean.
HMS Tartar's Prize
was a 24-gun sixth-rate of the Royal Navy, which saw active service between 1756 and 1760, during the Seven Years' War.
Originally the French privateer La Marie Victoire, she was captured by HMS Tartar in 1757 and refitted as a privateer hunter. In this role she secured a single victory at sea with the capture of the French vessel La Marquise de Chateaunois. A flimsily built vessel, Tartar's Prize sprang a leak and foundered off the coast of Sardinia in 1760.
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1800 - HMS Nereide (38), Cptn. Frederick Watkins, captured privateer Vengeance (16)
Néréide was a Sybille class 32-gun, copper-hulled, frigate of the French Navy. On 22 December 1797 Phoebe captured her and she was taken into British service as HMS Nereide. The French recaptured her at the Battle of Grand Port, only to lose her again when the British took Isle de France (now Mauritius), in 1810. After the Battle of Grand Port she was in such a poor condition that she was laid up and sold for breaking up in 1816.
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1801 - HMS Cobourg / His Majesty's hired armed vessel Marechal de Cobourg (16), Lt. Wright, captured French privateer lugger Bienvenue (14) and retook two of her prizes.
His Majesty's hired armed vessel Marechal de Cobourg served the British Royal Navy under contract during the French Revolutionary Wars. Contemporary records also referred to her as Marshall de Cobourg, Marshall Cobourg, Marshall Cobourg, Marquis Cobourg, Marquis de Cobourg, Cobourg, Coborg, and Saxe Cobourg. Further adding to the difficulty in tracking her through the records, is that although she was originally a cutter, later the Navy converted her to a brig.
Her contract ran from 16 October 1794 to 2 November 1801. As a cutter she had a burthen of 20268⁄94 tons (bm), and carried twelve 4-pounder guns. As a brig she had a burthen of 210 tons, was armed with 16 guns, and had a crew of 60 men.
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1805 – Launch of HMS Otter, a Royal Navy 16-gun Merlin-class ship sloop
HMS Otter
was a Royal Navy 16-gun Merlin-class ship sloop, launched in 1805 at Hull. She participated in two notable actions in the Indian Ocean and was sold in 1828.
When built, Otter mounted sixteen 32-pounder carronades and two 6-pounder long guns. Under the rating system of the time, she was officially rated at "16 guns". From 1815 she was re-rated to "18 guns", but continued to carry the same armament.
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1808 - HMS Sappho (18), George Langford, captures Danish privateer brig Admiral Yawl (28)
The Action of 2 March 1808 was a minor naval battle between the Royal Navy's 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop HMS Sappho, and the 28-gun, Danish two-decker brig Admiral Yawl, during the Gunboat War. Sappho, under the command of Captain George Langford, discovered and chased Admiral Yawl, which was steering a course in order to cut off several merchant vessels to leeward. After a short engagement Sappho captured the Admiral Yawl, commanded by Jørgen Jørgensen.
Admiral Yawl appears in references under a variety of names including Admiral Yorol and Admiral Juul.
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HMS Sappho capturing the Danish brig Admiral Jawl, Oil on Canvas, 19th century.


1808 - HMS Cerberus (32), Cptn. W. Selby, HMS Circe (32), Cptn. Hugh Pigot, and HMS Camilla (20), Cptn. John Bowen, capture the Island of Marie Galante.
In early 1808 Captain Selby on HMS Cerberus was the commander of the blockading squadron covering Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. He realized that the French privateers were using the batteries on Marie-Galante to shelter themselves and their prizes and decided to remedy the situation. He sent Pigot with 200 seamen and marines from Cerberus, Circe, and Camilla to capture the island. Pigot landed his force early on 2 March some two miles from Grand Bourg and the garrison duly capitulated. The British also captured a number of cannons and some small arms. In 1825 Ulysses shared in the prize money with the other three vessels.
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1810 - Boats of HMS Cornwallis (54), Cptn. William Augustus Montagur, carried Margaritta Louisa (8) off the island of Amblaw
On 1 March HMS Cornwallis chased a Dutch man-of-war brig all day until she took refuge in a small bay on the north side of the island of Amblaw. The wind being light and variable, and night approaching, Montagu sent in Cornwallis's boats, under the command of Lieutenant Henry John Peachy. After rowing all night, they captured the Dutch brig Margaritta Louisa, under Captain De Ruyter on 2 March. Margaritta Louisa was pierced for 14 guns but carried only eight, and a crew of 40 men. Margaritta Louisa had left Surabaya nine days earlier with 20 to 30,000 dollars for Ambonya, and supplies for Ternate. In the boarding, the British had one man seriously wounded and four men lightly wounded; the Dutch lost one man killed and 20 wounded.
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1811 – Argentine War of Independence:
A royalist fleet defeats a small flotilla of revolutionary ships in the Battle of San Nicolás on the River Plate.

The Battle of San Nicolás was a naval engagement on 2 March 1811 on the Paraná River between the Spanish royalists from Montevideo, and the first flotilla created by the revolutionary government of Buenos Aires. It was the first engagement between the two fleets in the River Plate region since the revolution, and a royalist victory.
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1825 – Roberto Cofresí, one of the last successful Caribbean pirates, is defeated in combat and captured by authorities with the Capture of the sloop Anne
The Capture of the sloop Anne was the result of a naval campaign carried out by an alliance between the Spanish Empire forces in Puerto Rico, the Danish government in Saint Thomas and the United States Navy. The powers pursued Roberto Cofresí's pirateflotilla in March 1825 because of the economic losses suffered by the parties to the pirates, as well as diplomatic concerns caused by their use of the flags of Spain and Gran Colombia which menaced the fragile peace between the naval powers. Several of those involved had been attacked by the freebooters. Among the diplomatic concerns caused by Cofresí was a robbery carried out by several of his subordinates, the catalyst of an incident that threatened war between Spain and the United States known as "The Foxardo Affair", eventually leading to the resignation of his rival, pirate hunter David Porter.
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1878 – Launch of His Highness' Ship Glasgow, a royal yacht belonging to the Sultan of Zanzibar.
His Highness' Ship Glasgow
was a royal yacht belonging to the Sultan of Zanzibar. She was built in the style of the British frigateHMS Glasgow which had visited the Sultan in 1873. Glasgow cost the Sultan £32,735 and contained several luxury features but failed to impress the Sultan and she lay at anchor in harbour at Zanzibar Town for much of her career. The vessel was brought out of semi-retirement on 25 August 1896 when she participated in the Anglo-Zanzibar War and was soon sunk by a flotilla of British warships. Glasgow's wreck remained in the harbour, her three masts and funnel projecting from the water, until 1912 when she was broken up for scrap.
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1900 – Launch of Askold (Russian: Аскольд), a protected cruiser built for the Imperial Russian Navy.
Askold (Russian: Аскольд) was a protected cruiser built for the Imperial Russian Navy. She was named after the legendary Varangian Askold. Her thin, narrow hull and maximum speed of 23.8 knots (44.1 km/h) were considered impressive for the time.
Askold had five thin funnels which gave it a unique silhouette for any vessel in the Imperial Russian Navy. This led British sailors to nickname her Packet of Woodbines after the thin cigarettes popular at the time. However, the five funnels also had a symbolic importance, as it was popularly considered that the number of funnels was indicative of performance, and some navies were known to add extra fake funnels to impress dignitaries in less advanced countries.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

3rd of March

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1677 - The action of March 1677 in the West Indies, often called the Battle of Tobago,
between a Dutch fleet under Jacob Binckes and a French force attempting to recapture the island of Tobago.

The action of March 1677 in the West Indies, often called the Battle of Tobago, took place on 3 March 1677 between a Dutch fleet under Jacob Binckes and a French force attempting to recapture the island of Tobago. There was much death and destruction on both sides. One of the Dutch supply ships caught fire and exploded; the fire then quickly spread in the narrow bay causing several ships, among them the French flagship Glorieux, to catch fire and explode in turn which resulted in great loss of life. The French under Vice-Admiral Comte d'Estrées retreated but would make a second attempt at the end of the year with a much stronger fleet.
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1698 – Launch of HMS Dartmouth, a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy
HMS Dartmouth
was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 March 1698 at Southampton.
She was rebuilt according to the 1706 Establishment at Woolwich Dockyard, relaunched on 7 August 1716[2] and formed part of the naval task force sent to Scotland to help subdue the Jacobite rising of 1719. On 8 October 1736, Dartmouth was ordered to be taken to pieces at Woolwich and rebuilt according to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment. She was relaunched on 22 April 1741.
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1756 – Launch of HMS Namur, a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy
HMS Namur
was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Chatham Dockyard to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1750, and launched on 3 March 1756. HMS Namur’s battle honours surpass even those of the more famous HMS Victory.

HMS Namur figurehead, Naval Museum of Halifax, CFB Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

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1764 - Launch of HMS Triumph, a 74-gun third rate Valiant-class ship of the line
HMS Triumph
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 March 1764 at Woolwich.
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1776 - American Revolutionary War: The first amphibious landing of the United States Marine Corps begins the Battle of Nassau
Under the command of Commodore Esek Hopkins and Marine Capt. Samuel Nicholas, the Continental Navy makes the first American amphibious landing operation at New Providence, Bahamas, and captures the forts for much needed ordnance and gunpowder.

The Raid of Nassau (March 1–10, 1776) was a naval operation and amphibious asssault by Colonial forces against the British port of Nassau, Bahamas, during the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence). The battle is considered one of the first engagements of the newly established Continental Navy and the Continental Marines, the respective progenitors of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The action was also the marines' first amphibious landing. It is sometimes known as the "Battle of Nassau".
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1791 – Launch of french Aréthuse, a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, at Brest
Aréthuse was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, built from 1789 following plans by Ozanne.
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1794 – Launch of HMS Diana, a 38-gun Artois-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy.
HMS Diana
was a 38-gun Artois-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1794.
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1799 - HMS Leander, a Portland-class 50-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy, captured
HMS Leander
was a Portland-class 50-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy, launched at Chatham on 1 July 1780. She served on the West Coast of Africa, West Indies, and the Halifax station. During the French Revolutionary Wars she participated in the Battle of the Nile before a French ship captured her. The Russians and Turks recaptured her and returned her to the Royal Navy in 1799. On 23 February 1805, while on the Halifax station, Leander captured the French frigate Ville de Milan and recaptured her prize, HMS Cleopatra. On 25 April 1805 cannon fire from Leander killed an American seaman while Leander was trying to search an American vessel off the US coast for contraband. The resulting "Leander Affair" contributed to the worsening of relations between the United States and Great Britain. In 1813 the Admiralty converted Leander to a hospital ship under the name Hygeia. Hygeia was sold in 1817.
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1801 - The Battle of the West Kay.
The Danish 18-gun brig HDMS Lougen under Lt Cmdr Carl W. Jessen, engages 18-gun British privateer Experiment and 22-gun HMS Arab off the West Kay at the Danish West Indies. The British are forced to flee.

The first Lougen was a brig of 18 guns, launched in 1791. She was active protecting Danish merchant shipping and suppressing pirates in the Mediterranean and in the Caribbean. In March 1801, she fought off the British privateer Experiment and the 22-gun warship HMS Arab in a single action. When the British captured the Danish West Indies in 1801, Lougen was part of the booty. The British later returned her to Denmark where she was broken up in 1802.
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1896 – Launch of HMS Doris, an Eclipse-class protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy
HMS Doris
was an Eclipse-class protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1890s
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1904 – Launch of HMS Argyll, one of six Devonshire-class armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy
HMS Argyll
was one of six Devonshire-class armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She was assigned to the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Channel Fleet upon completion and was transferred to the 5th Cruiser Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet in 1909. Two years later, she was detached to escort the royal yacht during King George V's trip to British India. Argyll was assigned to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron of the reserve Second Fleet in 1913.
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Model of Argyll at the Glasgow Museum of Transport


1907 - Dakota, a steamship built by the Eastern Shipbuilding Company, wrecked
SS
Dakota was a steamship built by the Eastern Shipbuilding Company of Groton, Connecticut for the Great Northern Steamship Company owned by railroad magnate James J. Hill to enhance and promote trade between the United States and Japan.
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1921 - SS Hong Moh struck the White Rocks on Lamock Island near Swatow (Shantou) on the southern coast of China.
She broke in two and sank killing about 1,000 of the 1,100 people aboard.
SS Hong Moh
was a passenger ship that was wrecked on the White Rocks off Lamock Island, Swatow, on 3 March 1921
City of Calcutta
The ship was built by Charles Connell & Company of Scotstoun, and was launched on 8 September 1881 as SS City of Calcutta for George Smith & Sons' City Line. The 3,954 GRT ship was 400 feet (120 m) long, 42 feet 1 inch (12.83 m) in the beam, with a draught of 30 feet 1 inch (9.17 m), and was powered by a triple expansion steam engine.
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1943 - german Doggerbank – On a return trip from Japan to France the auxiliary minelayer was accidentally sunk by U-43 on 3 March 1943.
All but one of the 365 men aboard, 108 crew plus 257 prisoners-of-war, were killed in the sinking and delayed rescue.

The German ship Doggerbank (Schiff 53) was an auxiliary minelayer and blockade runner of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Laid down as the UK merchant vessel Speybank in 1926, the vessel was captured in 1941 by the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis, converted to an auxiliary minelayer for the Kriegsmarine and renamed Doggerbank. After laying mines off the coast of South Africa, it travelled to Japan. On the return trip, it was accidentally sunk by the German submarine U-43, with all but one of the 365 men on board (108 crew plus 257 passengers) lost at sea.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

4th of March

some of the events you will find here,
please use the following link where you will find more details and all other events of this day .....



1653 - Battle of Leghorn.
Dutch fleet of 16 ships, under Commodore Johan van Galen (Mortally wounded), defeated English squadron of 6 ships, under Cptn. Henry Appleton, attempting to break out of blockade at Leghorn and join Cptn. Richard Badiley's 8 ships. 3 ships were captured and 2 destroyed.

The naval Battle of Leghorn took place on 4 March 1653 (14 March Gregorian calendar), during the First Anglo-Dutch War, near Leghorn (Livorno), Italy. It was a victory of a Dutch squadron under Commodore Johan van Galen over an English squadron under Captain Henry Appleton. Afterwards, another English squadron under Captain Richard Badiley, which Appleton had been trying to join up with, reached the scene in time to observe the capture of the last ships of Appleton's squadron, but was outnumbered and forced to return to Porto Longone.
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1679 – Launch of HMS Windsor Castle, a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, built by Thomas Shish at Woolwich Dockyard
HMS Windsor Castle
was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, built by Thomas Shish at Woolwich Dockyard, and launched in 1679.
Windsor Castle commissioned in 1690 under Captain George Churchill and took part in the Battle of Beachy Head on 30 June 1690. In 1692 she was under the command of Captain Peregrine Osborne, and took part in the Battle of Barfleur on 19–24 May 1692. In 1693 she was commanded by Captain John Munden, but was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands in April 1693.
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1760 – Launch of HMS Dragon, a 74-gun Bellona-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy
HMS Dragon
was a 74-gun Bellona-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 4 March 1760 at Deptford Dockyard.
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The bombardment of Morro Castle on Havana - Left to right: HMS Marlborough, HMS Dragon, HMS Cambridge.


1779 - Launch of HMS Serapis, a Royal Navy two-decked, Roebuck-class fifth rate
HMS Serapis
was a Royal Navy two-decked, Roebuck-class fifth rate. Randall & Brent built her at Greenland South Dockyard, Rotherhithe and launched her in 1779. She was armed with 44 guns (twenty 18-pounders, twenty 9-pounders, and four 6-pounders). Serapis was named after the god Serapis in Greek and Egyptian mythology. The Americans captured her during the American Revolutionary War. They transferred her to the French, who commissioned her as a privateer. She was lost off Madagascar in 1781 to a fire.
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1795 - 16-gun French privateer corvette Robert, launched in 1793 at Nantes, captured
Robert was a 16-gun French privateer corvette launched in 1793 at Nantes. The British captured her in 1793 and named her HMS Espion. The French recaptured her in 1794 and took her into service as Espion. The British recaptured her in 1795, but there being another Espion in service by then, the British renamed their capture HMS Spy. She served under that name until the Navy sold her in 1801. She then became a slave ship, whaling ship, and privateer again. The French captured her in mid-1805 and sent her into Guadeloupe.
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1807 - HMS Blanche (38), Cptn. Thomas Lavie, wrecked off Ushant.
HMS Amfitrite
was a 38-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had previously served with the Spanish Navy before she was captured during the Napoleonic Wars and commissioned into the Royal Navy. The Admiralty renamed her HMS Blanche after she had spent just over a year as Amfitrite. She was the only ship in the Navy to bear this specific name, though a number of other ships used the conventional English spelling and were named HMS Amphitrite. Her most notable feat was her capture of Guerrierein 1806. Blanche was wrecked in 1807.
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'The Blanche frigate, lost among the Breakers'


1809 – Launch of HMS Royal Oak, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy,
HMS Royal Oak
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 4 March 1809 at Dudman's yard at Deptford Wharf. Her first commanding officer was Captain Pulteney Malcolm.
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1840 – Launch of the Friedland , an Océan class 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy
The Friedland was an Océan class 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
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Launch of Friedland, by Antoine Chazal.


1908 – Launch of Waldeck-Rousseau, an armored cruiser built for the French Navy in the first decade of the 20th century
Waldeck-Rousseau was an armored cruiser built for the French Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She was the second and final member of the Edgar Quinet class, the last class of armored cruiser to be built by the French Navy. She was laid down at the Arsenal de Lorient in June 1906, launched in March 1908, and commissioned in August 1911. Armed with a main battery of fourteen 194-millimeter (7.6 in) guns, she was more powerful than most other armored cruisers, but she had entered service more than two years after the first battlecruiserHMS Invincible—had rendered the armored cruiser obsolescent. Waldeck-Rousseau nevertheless proved to be a workhorse of the French Mediterranean Fleet.
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1914 - First Battle of Topolobampo
The First Battle of Topolobampo was a bloodless engagement and one of the few naval battles of the Mexican Revolution. The small action occurred off Topolobampo, Mexico and involved three gunboats, two from the Mexican Navy and another which mutinied from the armada and joined the rebel Constitutionalists. It was fought on the morning of March 4, 1914 and was the first battle of the naval campaign in the Gulf of California.
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1916 – Launch of HMS Renown, the lead ship of her class of battlecruisers of the Royal Navy built during the First World War.
HMS Renown
was the lead ship of her class of battlecruisers of the Royal Navy built during the First World War. She was originally laid down as an improved version of the Revenge-class battleships. Her construction was suspended on the outbreak of war on the grounds she would not be ready in a timely manner. Admiral Lord Fisher, upon becoming First Sea Lord, gained approval to restart her construction as a battlecruiser that could be built and enter service quickly. The Director of Naval Construction (DNC), Eustace Tennyson-D'Eyncourt, quickly produced an entirely new design to meet Admiral Lord Fisher's requirements and the builders agreed to deliver the ships in 15 months. They did not quite meet that ambitious goal, but the ship was delivered a few months after the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Renown, and her sister HMS Repulse, were the world's fastest capital ships upon completion.
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1918 - USS Cyclops – On 4 March 1918 the Proteus-class collier left Barbados carrying manganese ore from Brazil. She was due in Baltimore on 13 March but never arrived.
She and 306 people aboard were declared missing, and no wreckage or bodies were ever identified. This is the US Navy's single largest loss of life not directly involving combat.
Her loss was never explained, but one sister ship USS Jason later developed structural faults and two others, Nereus and Proteus, vanished at sea in World War II. Also, Cyclops' starboard engine was out of action, she may have been overloaded, and on 10 March there was a storm off the Virginia Capes.

The USS Cyclops (AC-4) was the second of four Proteus-class colliers built for the United States Navy several years before World War I. Named for the Cyclops, a primordial race of giants from Greek mythology, she was the second U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name. The loss of the ship and 306 crew and passengers without a trace within the area known as the Bermuda Triangle some time after 4 March 1918 remains the single largest loss of life in U.S. Naval history not directly involving combat. As it was wartime, she was thought to have been captured or sunk by a German raider or submarine, because she was carrying 10,800 long tons (11,000 t) of manganese ore used to produce munitions, but German authorities at the time, and subsequently, denied any knowledge of the vessel. The Naval History & Heritage Command has stated she "probably sank in an unexpected storm", but the ultimate cause of the ship's loss is not known.
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1970 – French submarine Eurydice explodes underwater, resulting in the loss of the entire 57-man crew.
Eurydice (S644) was a French submarine, one of nine of the Daphné class.
On 4 March 1970, while diving in calm seas off Cape Camarat in the Mediterranean, 35 miles (56 km) east of Toulon, a geophysical laboratory picked up the shock waves of an underwater explosion. French and Italian search teams found an oil slick and a few bits of debris, including a part that bore the name Eurydice.
The cause of the explosion was never determined. All 57 crew were lost.
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Flore, sister-ship of Eurydice
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

5th of March

some of the events you will find here,
please use the following link where you will find more details and all other events of this day .....



1691 – Launch of French Foudroyant, a First Rank ship of the line of the French Royal Navy, the lead vessel in the two-ship Foudroyant Class (her sister being the Merveilleux).


1800 – 36-gun frigate HMS Phoebe captures the 22-gun privateer Heureux

Heureux was a 22-gun French privateer brig that the British captured in 1800. She served with the Royal Navy as the 22-gun post ship HMS Heureux. She captured numerous French and Spanish privateers and merchant vessels in the Caribbean before she was lost at sea in 1806. Her fate remains a mystery to this day.
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A full hull and rigged model of the Phoebe(1795), a 36-gun frigate.


1844 – Launch of French Descartes, a wooden-hulled paddle frigate of the French Navy.
Descartes was a wooden-hulled paddle frigate of the French Navy. Laid down as Gomer, she was renamed Descartes in 1841 while still on the stocks.
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Steam frigate Descartes off Sevastopol.


1874 – Launch of second USS Intrepid, 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.
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.
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1901 – Launch of HMS Drake, the lead ship of her class of armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy around 1900
HMS Drake
was the lead ship of her class of armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy around 1900. She was assigned to several different cruiser squadrons in home waters upon completion, sometimes as flagship, until 1911 when she became the flagship of the Australia Station. Upon her return home, she was assigned to the 6th Cruiser Squadron of the 2nd Fleet and became the squadron's flagship when the fleet was incorporated into the Grand Fleet upon the outbreak of the First World War.
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1901 – Launch of HMS Montagu and HMS Albemarle, both Duncan-class pre-dreadnought battleships of the British Royal Navy.
HMS Montagu
was a Duncan-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy. Built to counter a group of fast Russian battleships, Montagu and her sister ships were capable of steaming at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph), making them the fastest battleships in the world. The Duncan-class battleships were armed with a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and they were broadly similar to the London-class battleships, though of a slightly reduced displacement and thinner armour layout. As such, they reflected a development of the lighter second-class ships of the Canopus-class battleship. Montagu was built between her keel laying in November 1899 and her completion in July 1903. The ship had a brief career, serving for two years in the Mediterranean Fleet before transferring to the Channel Fleet in early 1905. During wireless telegraphy experiments in May 1906, she ran aground off Lundy Island. Repeated attempts to refloat the ship failed, and she proved to be a total loss. She was ultimately broken up in situ.
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HMS Albemarle


1916 - Ocean liner Príncipe de Asturias ran aground and sank near the island of Sao Sebastiao, Brazil. At least 445 out of 588 aboard were lost.
Príncipe de Asturias was a Spanish ocean liner, owned by the Naviera Pinillos and built at the Russell & Co. (later Lithgows) shipyard in Port Glasgow, in Scotland; being launched in 1914. She was named after the Prince of Asturias, the historical title given to the heir to the Spanish Crown.
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1923 – Launch of Yūbari (夕張) was an experimental light cruiser built between 1922 and 1923 for the Imperial Japanese Navy
Yūbari (夕張) was an experimental light cruiser built between 1922 and 1923 for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Although a test bed for various new designs and technologies, she was commissioned as a front-line warship and participated in numerous combat operations during World War II before she was sunk by the U.S. Navy. Designs pioneered on Yūbari had a major impact on future Japanese warship designs.
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1927 – Launch of Juan Sebastián de Elcano, a training ship for the Royal Spanish Navy. It is a four-masted topsail, steel-hulled barquentine (schooner barque).
Juan Sebastián de Elcano is a training ship for the Royal Spanish Navy. It is a four-masted topsail, steel-hulled barquentine(schooner barque). At 113 metres (371 ft) long, it is the third-largest tall ship in the world, and is the sailing vessel that has sailed the furthest, covering more than 2,000,000 nautical miles (3,700,000 km; 2,300,000 mi) in its history.
It is named after Spanish explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano, captain of Ferdinand Magellan's last exploratory fleet and the man who completed the first circumnavigation of the world. The ship also carries the Elcano coat of arms, which was granted to the family by Emperor Charles I following Elcano's return in 1522 from Magellan's global expedition. The coat of arms is a terraqueous globe with the motto "Primus Circumdedisti Me" (meaning: "First to circumnavigate me").
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