Naval/Maritime History 18th of April - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

[Uwek]

29 June 1813 - HMS Terrror launched in Topsham, Devon.

HMS Terror was a specialized warship and a newly developed bomb vessel constructed for the Royal Navy in 1813. She participated in several battles of the War of 1812, including the Battle of Baltimore with the bombardment of Fort McHenry. (It was at this battle where the "Star-Spangled Banner" was written by Francis Scott Key, which later became the American national anthem.) She was converted into a polar exploration ship two decades later, and participated in George Back's Arctic expedition of 1836–1837, the Ross expedition of 1839 to 1843, and Sir John Franklin's ill-fated attempt to force the Northwest Passage in 1845, during which she was lost with all hands along with HMS Erebus.

On 12 September 2016, the Arctic Research Foundation announced that the wreck of Terror had been found in Nunavut's Terror Bay, off the southwest coast of King William Island. The wreck was discovered 92 km (57 mi) south of the location where the ship was reported abandoned, and some 50 km (31 mi) from the wreck of HMS Erebus, discovered in 2014.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Terror_(1813)

 

[Uwek]

Other events at 29 June:

1621 – Birth of Willem van der Zaan, Dutch Admiral

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

1862 - During the Civil War, the steam sloop USS Susquehanna, commanded by Cmdr. R.B. Hitchcock, captures the blockade-running British steamer HMS Anna near Mobile, Ala.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Susquehanna_(1850)

1950 - Truman authorizes sea blockade of the Korean coast.

1950 - USS Juneau fires first naval shore bombardment of Korean Conflict.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Juneau_(CL-119)

1986 - Richard Branson on the 72 ft powerboat Virgin Atlantic Challenger II smashes the world record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic beating the previous record-holder, the SS United States, which has held the title since 1952 . Although Virgin Challenger II broke the record, the Hales' trustees refused to award the Blue Riband trophy because the boat did not have a commercial maritime purpose and had stopped to refuel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Atlantic_Challenge_Trophy

2002 – Naval clashes between South Korea and North Korea lead to the death of six South Korean sailors and sinking of a North Korean vessel.

The Second Battle of Yeonpyeong (Korean: 제2 연평해전, Je I(2) Yeonpyeong Haejeon) was a confrontation at sea between North Korean and South Korean patrol boats along a disputed maritime boundary near Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea in 2002. This followed a similar confrontation in 1999. Two North Korean patrol boats crossed the contested border and engaged two South Korean Chamsuri-class patrol boats. The North Koreans withdrew before South Korean reinforcements arrived.

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

 

[Uwek]

30 June 1779 - Launch of 74-gun ship HMS Edgar

HMS Edgar was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, that saw service in the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Launched in 1779, she fought in the battles of Cape St Vincent (in 1780) and Copenhagen (in 1801), two of the major naval engagements of the wars.

Edgar also saw service as flagship to two different admirals, and was the scene of a mutiny in 1808. After the end of her active career, she was employed as a prison ship before her 56-year life came to an end in 1835, when she was ordered to be broken up.

Edgar was ordered from Woolwich Dockyard on 25 August 1774. She was built to slightly modified lines of the Arrogant-class, which had been designed by Sir Thomas Slade. The Arrogant class of third rates was a development over Slade's previous Bellona-class, and a further nine ships were ordered from various yards, both Royal and commercial, to the same lines as Edgar. Originally, the Admiralty had intended to order her to be built to the lines of Sir John Williams' Alfred-class, specifically HMS Alexander. Her keel was laid down on 26 August 1776, and she was launched on 30 June 1779.

A list composed in or around 1793, giving details of twelve Royal Navy ships, reveals that Edgar possessed a white figurehead, with details painted in red and black. Of the other eleven ships mentioned, seven had the plain white figureheads as completed by the dockyards, whilst four had painted theirs with a larger palette since being launched.

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


Scene in Plymouth Sound in August 1815, oil on canvas: HMS Bellerophon anchored in Plymouth Sound, with Napoleon Bonaparte aboard.

Design
The Arrogant-class ships were designed as a development of Slade's previous Bellona class, sharing the same basic dimensions. During this period, the original armament was the same across all the ships of the common class, of which the Arrogant-class ships were members. Two ships were ordered on 13 December 1758 to this design (as the same time as the fourth and fifth units of the Bellona class), and a further ten ships were built to a slightly modified version of the Arrogant design from 1773 onwards.

Ships

• HMS Arrogant
• HMS Cornwall
• HMS Edgar
• HMS Goliath
• HMS Zealous
• HMS Audacious
• HMS Elephant
• HMS Bellerophon
• HMS Saturn
• HMS Vanguard
• HMS Excellent
• HMS Illustrious

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrogant-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

30 June 1667

The Battle of Martinique also known as Harman’s Martinican Bonfire was a major naval battle fought in the Caribbean island of Martinique at St Pierre, from 30 June to 7 July 1667 that came towards the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. A French merchantile fleet anchored in the bay led by Joseph de La Barre were attacked by an English fleet led by Admiral Sir John Harman. The English were victorious, virtually wiping out the French fleet in the Caribbean, which contained no naval vessels,[clarification needed] and enabled them to secure their domination and position in the West Indies despite being at the war's end.


The attack on the French ships at Martinique 1667 by Willem van de Velde the Younger

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Martinique_(1667)

 

[Uwek]

30 June 1898

The First Battle of Manzanillo was a series of naval engagements during the Spanish–American War on 30 June 1898 in and outside of the harbor of Manzanillo, Cuba. Three American gunboats were forced to retire after attacking a squadron of Spanish gunboats and auxiliaries.

Background
After the blockade of Santiago, the Spanish attempted to resupply the city by taking in provisions from ports on the southern coast of Cuba that were not blockaded. Aware of the situation, the American consul at Kingston sent word to the military that the Spanish were preparing to send a resupply convoy from that city to the southern coast. To thwart these efforts, on 28 June President McKinley extended the blockade to include the southern coast of Cuba as well as Puerto Rico. In order to enforce the blockade, a flotilla of gunboats and auxiliaries — including the USS Hist, Hornet, and Wompatuck—was sent to patrol the area. The three American vessels began operations by conducting reconnaissance of the area between Santa Cruz and Manzanillo.


USS Hornet 1898

Action at Niguero
While patrolling near the Niguero Bay, the small, 30 long tons (30 t) Spanish gunboat Centinela was sighted, and the Americans decided to engage her. Since Wompatuck had a deep draft, Hornet and Hist moved in close to engage the vessel. Upon nearing her, Centinela opened fire with her two Maxim guns. Spanish troops from the shore also began firing on the Americans but were chased away when their fire was returned. Centinela' aft gun was knocked out, and the vessel then attempted to escape by maneuvering behind a small cay out of the American's line of sight. This effort proved futile though, since the Americans still managed to hit the vessel, which was run aground by her crew. However, Centinela would later be refloated and join the Spanish squadron at Manzanillo.

Action at Manzanillo
The three gunboats then continued towards Manzanillo, where they were spotted by a squadron of Spanish vessels which consisted of the gunboats Guantánamo, Estrella and Delgado Parejo, each one crewed by 19 sailors and officers, plus three armed pontoons. The pontoons were Guardián, crewed by four gunners manning an old Parrott gun, Cuba Española, an old wooden gunboat armed with a Parrott gun and crewed by seven men, and an old sailboat used as a barracks ship. There were also many commercial vessels in port. The Americans opened fire at 15:20, and the Spanish accurately responded, hitting all three of the ships several times. Hist took several hits, including some near its engine room, and Hornet took a disabling shot to its main steam pipe, severely scalding three men, at least one of which died. Contrary to the American reports, Hist did not sink any Spanish boats before Hornet was towed out of action by Wompatuck, which had only been damaged lightly compared to the other American vessels. As Wompatuckbegan to tow Hornet, the Spanish began to fire on those vessels. Starting to take damage and casualties, the Americans decided to withdraw, since their gunboats' armaments were not enough to destroy the rest of the Spanish squadron.

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

 

[Uwek]

30 June 1934 - Launch of german Cruiser Admiral Graf Spee

Admiral Graf Spee was a Deutschland-class "Panzerschiff" (armored ship), nicknamed a "pocket battleship" by the British, which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II. The two sister-ships of her class, Deutschland and Admiral Scheer, were reclassified as heavy cruisers in 1940. The vessel was named after Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the East Asia Squadron that fought the battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands, where he was killed in action, in World War I. She was laid down at the Reichsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven in October 1932 and completed by January 1936. The ship was nominally under the 10,000 long tons (10,000 t) limitation on warship size imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, though with a full load displacement of 16,020 long tons (16,280 t), she significantly exceeded it. Armed with six 28 cm (11 in) guns in two triple gun turrets, Admiral Graf Spee and her sisters were designed to outgun any cruiser fast enough to catch them. Their top speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) left only the few battlecruisers in the Anglo-French navies fast enough and powerful enough to sink them.



The ship conducted five non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in 1936–1938, and participated in the Coronation Review of King George VIin May 1937. Admiral Graf Spee was deployed to the South Atlantic in the weeks before the outbreak of World War II, to be positioned in merchant sea lanes once war was declared. Between September and December 1939, the ship sank nine ships totaling 50,089 gross register tons (GRT), before being confronted by three British cruisers at the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December. Admiral Graf Spee inflicted heavy damage on the British ships, but she too was damaged, and was forced to put into port at Montevideo. Convinced by false reports of superior British naval forces approaching his ship, Hans Langsdorff, the commander of the ship, ordered the vessel to be scuttled. The ship was partially broken up in situ, though part of the ship remains visible above the surface of the water.


Admiral Graf Spee at Spithead in 1937; HMS Hood and Resolution lie in the background

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

 

[trippwj]

Dateline: June 30, 1818. Eastport, District of Maine in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The inhabitants of Moose Island and Eastport assembled under a bright sun and blue sky as General James Miller, representing the President, and Lt. Colonel Henry Sargent, representing the Governor of Massachusetts, met with Lt. R. Gibbon at Fort Sherbrooke. Following the reading of the official orders and exchange of remarks, the British flag was lowered and replaced, after 4 long years of British occupation (naval invasion on July 11, 1814 - fairly significant force assembled) with our own Stars and Stripes, the name of our fort restored to Fort Sullivan, and citizenship restored on the inhabitants (along with our freedom to once more conduct maritime commerce). Following the departure of the remai ing British force on naval ships, festivities and celebrations ensued.

Join with us today as we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the restoration of Eastport to the United States. What a great way to start off the cekebration of Canada Day (July 1st) and our National Independence Day on July 4th.

Hope to see you there!

P.S. Your correspondent on the scene will once more assume the role of Town Crier for the occassion.

 

[Uwek]

1 July 1644

The naval Battle of Colberger Heide (also Kolberger Heide or Colberg Heath) took place on 1 July 1644 during the Torstenson War, off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein. The battle was indecisive, but a minor success for the Dano-Norwegian fleet commanded by Jørgen Vind, assisted by Grabow and King Christian IV, over a Swedish fleet commanded by Klas Fleming, assisted by Ulfsparre and Bjelkenstjerna.

The Dano-Norwegian fleet consisted of 40 ships with about 927 guns, and the Swedish fleet consisted of 34 ships with 1018 guns and 7 fireships.


Christian IV at flagship "Trefoldigheden" (The Trinity) at the battle of Colberger Heide by Danish painter Vilhelm Nikolai Marstrand.

The Dano-Norwegian fleet, coming from the east, and the Swedish fleet, coming from the west, met just north of the island of Fehmarn (Femern). The Swedes turned and sailed south along the west side of Fehmarn, inshore of a shoal, while the Danes followed a little further offshore. The Swedes turned north and swung around before resuming their westward course alongside the Danes. As the battle progressed the fleets turned before the wind, north and then back east south of the island of Langeland. As they approached the island of Lolland the Swedes turned south and eventually ended up in Kiel Bay while the Danes continued south-east, anchoring to the east of Fehmarn.

Casualties
Neither side had lost a ship. Dano-Norwegian casualties were 37 killed and 170 wounded, and Swedish casualties were 32 killed and 69 wounded. Among the Dano-Norwegian casualties were commander Jørgen Vind, who died of his wounds soon after the battle, and the king, whose wounds included the loss of an eye.

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

 

[Uwek]

1 July 1782 - The Raid on Lunenburg (also known as the Sack of Lunenburg) occurred during the American Revolution when the US privateer, Captain Noah Stoddard of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and four other privateer vessels attacked the British settlement at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on 1 July 1782. The raid was the last major privateer attack on a Nova Scotia community during the war.


Brigantine MA Hope (Herbert Woodbury) and Schooner MA Scammell (Noah Stoddard),
Raid on Lunenburg (1782) by A.J. Wright

Lunenburg was defended by militia leaders Colonel John Creighton and Major Dettlieb Christopher Jessen. In Nova Scotia, the assault on Lunenburg was the most spectacular raid of the war. On the morning of 1 July Stoddard led approximately 170 US privateers in four heavily armed vessels and overpowered Lunenburg’s defence, capturing the blockhouses and burning the house of Jessen. The privateers then looted the settlement and kept the militia at bay with the threat of destroying the entire town. The American privateers plundered the town and took three prisoners, including Creighton, who were later released from Boston without a ransom having been paid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Lunenburg,_Nova_Scotia_(1782)

 

[Uwek]

1 July 1911 – Germany despatches the gunship SMS Panther to Morocco, sparking the Agadir Crisis.

Panther became notorious in 1911 when it was deployed to the Moroccan port of Agadir during the "Agadir Crisis" (also called the "Second Moroccan Crisis"). Panther was supposedly sent to protect German citizens in the port. (A German sales representative, Hermann Wilberg, had been sent to Agadir on behalf of the Foreign office, but only arrived three days after Panther.[citation needed]) The ship's actual mission was to apply pressure on the French, as the latter attempted to colonize Morocco, to extract territorial compensation in French Equatorial Africa. This was an example of "gunboat diplomacy". The incident contributed to the international tensions that would lead to the First World War.


The German gunboat SMS Panther (launched 1901) in 1902.

The ship was scrapped in 1931.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Panther
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agadir_Crisis

 

[Uwek]

1 July 1942 - Montevideo Maru

was a Japanese auxiliary ship that was sunk in World War II, resulting in the drowning of a large number of Australian prisoners of war and civilians being transported from Rabaul. Prior to the war, it operated as a passenger and cargo vessel, traveling mainly between Asia and South America.

Ship history
Montevideo Maru was one of three ships (along with Santos Maru and La Plata Maru) of the Osaka Shosen Kaisha (OSK) shipping line built for their trans-Pacific service to South America. The 7,267 ton ship was constructed at the Mitsubishi Zosen Kakoki Kaisha shipyard at Nagasaki, and launched in 1926. At 430 feet (130 metres) in length, and 56 ft (17 m) in the beam, she was powered by two Mitsubishi-Sulzer 6ST60 six-cylinder diesel engines delivering a total of 4,600 horsepower (3,400 kilowatts) and giving her a speed of 14.5 knots (26.9 kilometres per hour; 16.7 miles per hour).



Sinking
On 22 June 1942, some weeks after the fall of Rabaul to the Japanese, a large number of Australian prisoners were embarked from Rabaul's port on Montevideo Maru. Unmarked as a POW ship, she was proceeding without escort to the Chinese island of Hainan, when she was sighted by the American submarine Sturgeon near the northern Philippine coast on 30 June.

Sturgeon pursued, but was unable to fire, as the target was traveling at 17 kn (31 km/h; 20 mph). However, it slowed to about 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) at midnight; according to crewman Yoshiaki Yamaji, it was to rendezvous with an escort of two destroyers. Unaware that it was carrying Allied prisoners of war and civilians, Sturgeon fired four torpedoes at Montevideo Maru before dawn of 1 July, causing the vessel to sink in only 11 minutes. According to Yamaji, Australians in the water sang "Auld Lang Syne" to their trapped mates as the ship sank beneath the waves.

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon;
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,
that loving Breast of thine;
That thou canst never once reflect
On old long syne.

CHORUS:
On old long syne my Jo,
On old long syne,
That thou canst never once reflect,
On old long syne. ​

There were more POWs in the water than crew members. The POWs were holding pieces of wood and using bigger pieces as rafts. They were in groups of 20 to 30 people, probably 100 people in all. They were singing songs. I was particularly impressed when they began singing Auld Lang Syne as a tribute to their dead colleagues. Watching that, I learnt that Australians have big hearts.

— Eyewitness Yoshiaki Yamaji, interviewed Oct. 2003​

The sinking is considered the worst maritime disaster in Australia's history. A nominal list made available by the Japanese government in 2012 revealed that a total of 1054 prisoners (178 non-commissioned officers, 667 soldiers and 209 civilians) died on the Montevideo Maru. Of the ship's total complement, approximately twenty Japanese crew survived, out of an original 88 guards and crew.

Among the missing prisoners was Reverend Syd Beazley of the Methodist Mission, the uncle of former Australian Labor Party opposition leader Kim Beazley. Another was Tom Vernon Garrett, the grandfather of Midnight Oil lead singer and former Australian Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, Peter Garrett. Another individual, Richard Kingsmill Pennefather Moore, had served in the Imperial Camel Corps as a lieutenant and was awarded a Military Cross. His son, William Richard Moore, married Nora Wish Garrett, aunt of Peter Garrett. Also lost were 22 Salvation Army bandsmen, the majority being members of the Brunswick Citadel band. The bandsmen had enlisted together and comprised the majority of the band of the 2/22nd Battalion.


The memorial to the Australians killed in the defence of Rabaul and the sinking of the MV Montevideo Maru on the eastern side of the Australian War Memorial in November 2012


Memorials
A memorial to those who lost their lives was erected at the Repatriation Hospital, Bell Street, Heidelberg, Melbourne, Victoria (Australia). A Montevideo Maru memorial has also been erected near the centre of the Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial in Ballarat, Victoria. A commemoration service was held at the unveiling of the memorial on 7 February 2004.

In late January 2010, Federal Member of Parliament, Stuart Robert, called upon the then Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, to back the search for Montevideo Maru, in the same way that he had supported the search for AHS Centaur.

The song "In the Valley" from the album Earth and Sun and Moon by Australian pop/rock band Midnight Oil opens with the autobiographical line, "My grandfather went down with the Montevideo/The Rising Sun sent him floating to his rest," sung by Peter Garrett.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Montevideo_Maru
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Lang_Syne

 

[Uwek]

1 July 1677

The Battle of Køge Bay was a naval battle between Denmark-Norway and Sweden that took place in bay off Køge 1–2 July 1677 during the Scanian War. The battle was a major success for admiral Niels Juel and is regarded as the greatest naval victory in Danish naval history.

Prelude
After losing control of the Baltic Sea in the Battle of Öland the year before, the Swedish navy wanted it back. The Danish fleet, commanded by Niels Juel, had 1,354 cannons and 6,700 men, while the Swedish fleet, commanded by Henrik Horn, had +1,792 cannons and 9,200 men.

On 20 May, Sjöblad's squadron from Gothenburg had already left, before the rest of the fleet from Stockholm had set sail. This led to the catastrophic defeat at the battle of Möen where Sjöblad's squadron of two ships of the line, six armed merchant ships (classed as frigates) and a few smaller ships (ca 400 cannons in total) fought against the superior firepower of the Danish fleet, which had about: nine ships of the line, four frigates (ca 670 cannons). In the following battle, Sjöblad's own flagship Amarant was captured and the outcome destroyed the initial Swedish plan and eventually led to the future defeat at Koge Bay.

The remaining Swedish fleet had left Dalarö, near Stockholm, on 9 June 1677. On 13 June it was joined by Kalmar, off Öland, and by Andromeda and Gustavus, survivors of Sjöblad's squadron. The Danish fleet had left Copenhagen on 24 June 1677. Lack of wind forced it to anchor off Stevn's Point. At daybreak on 19 June the two fleets sighted each other.


Battle in Køge Bay. Painted by Claus Møinichen.

The battle
At about 8am on 30 June, Horn weighed anchor with a SSW wind and sailed toward the Danish fleet, sending two ships to try to draw Juel out; he in turn sent two ships to attack them. Both sides kept their distance, the Swedes forming a line, followed by the Danes. Juel tried in vain all night to get the weather gauge.

On 1 July at daybreak, despite some of his ships having fallen behind, Juel closed, as did the Swedes, and fighting began at about 5am. Horn sent in fireships but the Danes towed them aside. As the fleets approached the coast near Stevn's Point, Juel bore away a little in the hope that the Swedes would try to stay to windward and run aground.

Indeed, the Swedish warship, Draken, ran aground and Horn had to leave ships behind to protect it as he turned 180 degrees. After the turn, the fleets sailed parallel to each other, but the Swedish fleet had made a gap in their line which Juel utilised to break through, thus isolating several major warships. This was the turning point of the battle, which soon turned into a complete rout.


The Battle of Køge Bay, 1677, by Anton Melbye

The Swedes lost eight war ships, several smaller ships and about 3,000 men. The Danish fleet did not lose any ships, only damages on the ships and approximately 100 men were killed and 275 wounded.


Battle in Koge Bay

Aftermath
This battle is recognized as Denmark-Norway's greatest naval victory, and according to 19th century Danish and Norwegian marine officers, Juel invented the "break-through" tactic, more than a hundred years before the British admiral George Rodney broke the French line in the Battle of the Saintes in the Caribbean sea 1782.

The defeat of the Swedish fleet also gave Denmark-Norway control of the Baltic sea, and thereby the inner supply lines of the Swedish Empire. Admiral Tromp's fleet was ordered to "burn and defile, plunder, kill or abduct the people", with the intention of luring Swedish troops away from Scania and thus relieve the land-bound operations. Although Öland and parts of the coast of Småland were devastated, king Charles XI didn't move any forces from main front in Scania. During the remainder of the war, Denmark completely dominated at sea, even after the Netherlands made peace with Sweden in 1678. The Swedish fleet avoided further confrontations and could no longer maintain the line of communication with Swedish Pomerania; the last Swedish troops, on Rügen capitulated to Brandenburg in December 1678

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Køge_Bay_(1677)

 

[Uwek]

2 July 1813 - HMS Dædalus (40 guns) ex Italian Corona, grounded off Island of Ceylon and sank after being refloated.

French frigate Corona (1807)

Corona was a 40-gun Pallas-class frigate of the Italian Navy. The French built her in Venice in 1807 for the Venetian Navy. The British captured Corona at the Battle of Lissa and took her into the Royal Navy as HMS Daedalus. She grounded and sank off Ceylon in 1813 while escorting a convoy.

Service in Italian Navy

Corona was initially built in Venice for the Venetian Navy of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, using French plans. She was at Venice in 1809.
Under Captain Nicolò Pasqualigo she served as part of the Franco-Italian squadron operating in the Adriatic in 1811 under Commodore Bernard Dubourdieu. On 22 October she entered the port of Lissa and there captured several vessels.

Corona was one of the ships that Dubourdieu lost at Lissa on 13 March 1811 during the battle that resulted in his death. Corona's captain was also wounded and taken prisoner in the battle: in all she lost some 200 men killed and wounded. Following her capture by Active, a fire destroyed much of Corona's upper works and killed members of her crew and five members of the British prize crew before they could extinguish it. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Lissa" to the still living survivors of the battle.


Hortense, sister-ship of Corona


Service in Royal Navy

Her captors took her to Malta and then to Britain where they renamed her HMS Daedalus, Daedalus having just been broken up, and took her into the Royal Navy. She was laid up for a year while her battle damage was repaired. The British considered her weakly built and considered giving her 32-pounder carronades in her battery to reduce the weight of her armament. Instead, they gave her 24-pounder Gover short-barreled guns. In October 1812 she was finally readied for sea under Captain Murray Maxwell, fresh from his own victory in the Adriatic.

Daedalus sailed for the East Indies on 29 January 1813. On 1 July 1813 Daedalus was escorting a number of East Indiamen off Ceylon near Pointe de Galle. Maxwell set a course for Madras that was supposed to take her clear of all shoals. When he believed he was some eight miles off shore he changed course. At 8am on 2 July she grounded on a shoal. Although she hit gently, she had irreparably damaged her bottom. Maxwell and his crew attempted numerous remedies but could not save Daedalus and the Indiamen took off her crew. Within five minutes of Maxwell's departure Daedalus sank. The subsequent court martial ruled that the master, Arthur Webster, had failed to exercise due diligence in that he had failed to take constant depth soundings; the court ordered that he be severely reprimanded.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Corona_(1807)

 

[Uwek]

2 July 1816 – The French frigate Méduse struck the Bank of Arguin and 151 people on board had to be evacuated on an improvised raft, a case immortalised by Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa.

Méduse was a 40-gun Pallas-class frigate of the French Navy, launched in 1810. She took part in the Napoleonic Wars, namely in the late stages of the Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811 and in raids in the Caribbean.



Following the Bourbon Restoration, Méduse was armed en flûte to ferry French officials to the port of Saint-Louis, in Senegal, to formally re-establish French occupation of the colony under the terms of the First Peace of Paris. Through inept navigation by her captain, an émigré given command for political reasons but incompetent as a naval officer, Méduse struck the Bank of Arguin off the coast of present-day Mauritania and became a total loss.

Most of the 400 passengers on board evacuated, with 151 men forced to take refuge on an improvised raft towed by the frigate's launches. The towing proved impractical, however, and the boats soon abandoned the raft and its passengers in the open ocean. Without any means of navigating to shore, the situation aboard the raft rapidly turned disastrous. Dozens were washed into the sea by a storm, while others, drunk from wine, rebelled and were killed by officers. When supplies ran low, several injured men were thrown into the sea, and some of the survivors resorted to cannibalism. After 13 days at sea, the raft was discovered with only 15 men still alive.


Plan du Radeau de la Méduse, au moment de son abandon ("Plan of the Raft of the Medusa at the moment of its abandonment"), frontispiece to Naufrage de la frégate Méduse[7] by Alexandre Corréardand Jean-Baptiste Henri Savigny. Paris 1818, Bibliotheque Nationale.

of the tragedy stirred considerable public emotion, making Méduse one of the most infamous shipwrecks of the Age of Sail. Two survivors, a surgeon and an officer, wrote a widely read book about the incident, and the episode was immortalised when Théodore Géricault painted The Raft of the Medusa, which became an iconic artwork of French Romanticism.


Le Radeau de la Méduse (1818–1819) by Théodore Géricault

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Méduse_(1810)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raft_of_the_Medusa

 

[Uwek]

2 July 1839 – La Amistad (pronounced [la a.misˈtað]; Spanish for Friendship) was a 19th-century two-masted schooner, owned by a Spaniard living in Cuba. It became renowned in 2 nd July 1839 for a slave revolt by Mende captives, who had been enslaved in Sierra Leone, and were being transported from Havana, Cuba to their purchasers' plantations. The African captives took control of the ship, killing some of the crew and ordering the survivors to sail the ship to Africa. The Spanish survivors secretly maneuvered the ship north, and La Amistad was captured off the coast of Long Island by the brig USS Washington. The Mende and La Amistad were interned in Connecticut while federal court proceedings were undertaken for their disposition. The owners of the ship and Spanish government claimed the slaves as property; but the US had banned the African trade and argued that the Mende were legally free.



Because of issues of ownership and jurisdiction, the case gained international attention. Known as United States v. The Amistad (1841), the case was finally decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the Mende, restoring their freedom. It became a symbol in the United States in the movement to abolish slavery.


1840 engraving depicting the Amistad revolt.

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

 

[Uwek]

2 July 1915 – The Battle of Åland Islands,

or the Battle of Gotland, which occurred in July 1915, was a naval battle of World War I between the German Empire and the Russian Empire, assisted by a submarine of the British Baltic Flotilla. It took place in the Baltic Sea off the shores of Gotland, Sweden, a country neutral in World War I.

The battle
On 1 July 1915 a squadron consisting of the armored cruisers Admiral Makarov, Bayan, Oleg, Bogatyr, Rurik and Novik, under Rear Admiral Mikhail Bakhirev in Oleg left their harbours in order to bombard Klaipeda (Memel). While sailing through thick fog Rurik and Novik separated from the main group and later acted independently.


SMS Albatross after running aground during the battle.

On the same day the German mine-laying cruiser SMS Albatross, screened by the armored cruiser SMS Roon, the light cruisers SMS Augsburg and Lübeck, and seven destroyers, under Kommodore Johannes von Karpf, was laying mines off the Åland Islands. After completing his mission, Karpf reported back through the radio. Karpf's message was intercepted and decoded. When Bakhirev became aware of the German squadron's whereabouts, the bombardment of Klaipeda was canceled. The squadron then focused on intercepting the German minelayers with the constant assistance of the naval staff.

In the early morning of 2 July 1915, the Russian squadron spotted and immediately opened fire on Augsburg, Albatross and three torpedo boats. Karpf commanded Roon and Lübeck, which at the time were heading towards Liepāja (Libau), to return to Gotland. At the same time he ordered Albatross to find shelter in Swedish territorial waters. Bogatyr and Oleg managed to catch up with Albatross and opened fire. The flaming Albatross ran aground on the island of Estergorn. Bayan, Oleg and Rurik then attempted to return to their base. A couple of hours later they encountered Roon and Lübeck. A short artillery duel followed. A shortage of shells forced the Russian cruisers to retreat. Fearing a possible arrival of enemy reinforcements the damaged German ships also retreated.

As the German armored cruisers SMS Prinz Adalbert and Prinz Heinrich sailed to reinforce the German squadron, Prinz Adalbert was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS E9 and limped to shore.

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

 

[Uwek]

2 July 1950 - Battle of Chumonchin Chan

The Battle of Chumonchin Chan or the Action of 2 July 1950 was the battle fought between surface combatants during the main phase of the Korean War. It began after an Allied flotilla encountered a Korean People's Navy supply fleet.

Battle
On 2 July 1950, the USS Juneau, HMS Black Swan, and HMS Jamaica were sailing along the coast of the Sea of Japan (East Sea) when they encountered four North Korean torpedo and gunboats that had just finished escorting a flotilla of ten ammunition ships up the coast. The North Korean torpedo boats began an attack on the allied ships.

Before their torpedoes could be fired however, they were met with a salvo of gunfire from the United Nations ships which destroyed three of the torpedo boats. The surviving North Korean craft fled. Later in July, the Juneau encountered the same ammunition ships and destroyed them.


Torpedo boat No.21 on display at the Museum of Victory of the Fatherland Liberation War, Pyongyang. According to North Korean propaganda, this boat received credit for sinking the USS Baltimore. This was despite the fact that the USS Baltimore was not deployed to Korean waters during the war


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

 

[Uwek]

July 3 , 1898

Battle of Santiago de Cuba, concluding naval engagement, near Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, of the Spanish-American War, which sealed the U.S. victory over the Spaniards.

On May 19, 1898, a month after the outbreak of hostilities between the two powers, a Spanish fleet under Admiral Pascual Cervera arrived in Santiago harbour on the southern coast of Cuba. The Spanish fleet was immediately blockaded in harbor by superior U.S. warships from the U.S. squadrons in the Atlantic, under Rear Admiral William T. Sampson and Commodore Winfield S. Schley.

As long as the Spanish stayed within the protection of mines and shore batteries they could not be attacked, but nor could they challenge the U.S. blockade squadron. By July, however, the progress of U.S. land forces in Cuba put Cervera’s ships at risk from the shore. The Spanish admiral decided to attempt a breakout.


USS Brooklyn

On 3 July, four cruisers and two destroyers steamed out of Santiago de Cuba. By chance, the flagship of Admiral William Sampson, commanding the blockade squadron, was off station. As the Spanish warships steamed along the coast, Commodore Winfield Schley led the pursuit on board USS Brooklyn. Cervera’s flagship, Infanta Maria Theresa, gallantly engaged Brooklyn in a delaying action in order to give the other ships a chance to escape, but in vain.

Battered by Brooklyn’s guns, the Spanish flagship ran aground, as did the cruiser Vizcaya, set ablaze after losing an unequal hour-long duel with the battleship USS Texas. The crew of the cruiser Oquendo scuttled their ship, and the two Spanish destroyers were sunk. The only Spanish ship to break the blockade was the cruiser Cristobal Colón. Fleeing westward, this final survivor was chased for 50 miles (80 km) by the swift battleship USS Oregon before it was overhauled. Colón’s captain scuttled his ship in shallow water to avoid futile loss of life.


Cristóbal Colón

To support the operation by land, U.S. troops (including the Rough Riders, a volunteer cavalry regiment led by Theodore Roosevelt) disembarked east of the city and penetrated its outer defenses. Between July 1 and July 3 they took the fortified village of El Caney and completed their assault on San Juan Ridge by capturing its highest point, San Juan Hill. The siege of Santiago de Cuba then began on July 3, the same day as the naval battle.


Cristóbal Colón (left) and Vizcaya


The wreck of Vizcaya after the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.

Two weeks later (July 16), Spain surrendered Santiago de Cuba. The U.S. victory ended the war, suppressed all Spanish naval resistance in the New World, and enhanced the reputation of the U.S. Navy.

Losses: Spanish, 474 dead or wounded, 1,800 captured, all 6 ships lost; U.S., 1 dead, 1 wounded, no ships lost of 8.


https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Santiago-de-Cuba
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Santiago_de_Cuba

 

[Uwek]

July 3, 1810

The Action of 3 July 1810 was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, in which a French frigate squadron under Guy-Victor Duperré attacked and defeated a convoy of Honourable East India Company East Indiamen near the Comoros Islands. During the engagement the British convoy resisted strongly and suffered heavy casualties but two ships were eventually forced to surrender. These were the British flagship HMS Windham, which held off the French squadron to allow the surviving ship Astell to escape, and Ceylon. The engagement was the third successful French attack on an Indian Ocean convoy in just over a year, the French frigates being part of a squadron operating from the Île de France under Commodore Jacques Hamelin.


The French squadron at Grand Port. From left to right: Bellone, Minerve, Victor (background) and Ceylon, detail from Combat de Grand Port, by Pierre-Julien Gilbert

Although a British frigate squadron under Josias Rowley was under orders to eliminate the French raiders, Rowley was distracted by the planned invasion of Île Bonaparte, which began the following week. Combined with limited British resources in the region, this allowed the French frigates significant freedom to attack British interests across the Ocean. The attack on Île Bonaparte was however part of a wider British strategy to seize and capture French raiding bases, and the success of the operation severely limited future French operations as Hamelin's squadron was required for the defence of Île de France. As a result, this was the last successful attack on a British merchant convoy in the Indian Ocean during the Napoleonic Wars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_3_July_1810
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceylon_(1803_ship)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_corvette_Revenant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Minerve_(1809)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Bellone_(1807)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy-Victor_Duperré
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company

 

[Uwek]

July 3, 1940

The Attack on Mers-el-Kébir also known as the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir, was part of Operation Catapult. The operation was a British naval attack on French Navy ships at the base at Mers El Kébir on the coast of French Algeria. The bombardment killed 1,297 French servicemen, sank a battleship and damaged five ships, for a British loss of five aircraft shot down and two crewmen killed.


Battleship Dunkerque, under fire during Operation Catapult Comment - it might be Strasbourg, with two-level bridge. Pibwl (talk) 23:44, 23 September 2008 (UTC).

The combined air-and-sea attack was conducted by the Royal Navy after the Second Armistice at Compiègne between Germany and France on 22 June. The only continental ally of Britain had been replaced by a government administered from Vichy, which inherited the French navy (Marine nationale). Of particular significance to the British were the seven battleships of the Bretagne, Dunkerque and Richelieu classes, the second largest force of capital ships in Europe after the Royal Navy. The British War Cabinet feared already that France would hand the ships to the Kriegsmarine, giving the Axis assistance in the Battle of the Atlantic. Admiral François Darlan, commander of the French Navy, promised the British that the fleet would remain under French control but Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet judged that the fleet was too powerful to risk an Axis take-over.


Diagram of the British attack on Mers-el-Kébir

After the attack at Mers-el-Kébir and the Battle of Dakar, French aircraft raided Gibraltar and the Vichy government severed diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom. The attack created much rancour between France and Britain but also demonstrated to the world that Britain intended to fight on.[2] The attack is controversial and the motives of the British are debated. In 1979, P. M. H. Bell wrote that "The times were desperate; invasion seemed imminent; and the British government simply could not afford to risk the Germans seizing control of the French fleet... The predominant British motive was thus dire necessity and self-preservation".


Blackburn Skuas of No 800 Squadron Fleet Air Arm prepare to take off from HMS Ark Royal


Battleship Bretagne burning fiercely and still under shellfire

The French thought they were acting honourably in terms of their armistice with Nazi Germany and were convinced they would never turn over their fleet to Germany. Vichy France was created on 10 July 1940, one week after the attack and was seen by the British as a puppet state of the Nazi regime. French grievances festered for years over what they considered a betrayal by their ally. On 27 November 1942, the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon foiled Operation Anton, a German attempt to capture the fleet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Mers-el-Kébir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Dunkerque
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Strasbourg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Valiant_(1914)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Resolution_(09)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ark_Royal_(91)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Provence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Bretagne