Naval History Blog

January 26th, 1913

The body of John Paul Jones is interred at the U. S. Naval Academy.

        Almost a full century ago, the body of John Paul Jones, recently discovered in a Parisian cemetery, reached its final resting place in an ornate crypt on the campus of the U. S. Naval Academy.  Fifty years after the discovery of his remains, the July 1955 issue of Proceedings printed a an article about the search for and identification of Jones’ body, written by a freelance writer, Dorothy Tooker.  In her article, Tooker told the story of restoring the American naval hero to his rightful tomb, from the challenges of finding his body in Paris, to the task of identifying his remains after they had been discovered in an unmarked coffin.  For John Paul Jones, whose mystery endured almost 113 years after his death, this story of his return to the United States makes a fitting end.

        The breeze blew cold through the tunnel, and the smell of damp from its earthen walls permeated the men’s nostrils.  At the bend in the passageway the grave gentlemen in derby hats halted while workmen dragged an old leaden coffin into the passageway.  It was outmoded, tapered at the foot with a widened, rounded projection at the head, and encrusted with dirt and mold from long burial.   Read the rest of this entry »

January 23rd, 1960

The Bathyscaph Trieste descends to the Marinas Trench.

        On Janury 23rd, 1960, the bathyscaph Trieste, recently acquired by the U. S. Navy, became the first craft to descend to the lowest-known part of the ocean, the Challenger Deep in the Marinas Trench.  This depth-record was the highlight of the Trieste‘s decade-long career, a career that had a great impact on oceanography and deep-sea exploration.  An article written by a former bathyscaph pilot, Lieutenant George W. Martin, USN, about the many accompishments of the Trieste, appeared in the August 1964 issue of Proceedings.  In his article, Martin describes the successes of the Trieste, and explains the future problems to be solved and accomplishments to be made in the field of deep-sea exploration.  He begins his artice with a description of the Trieste‘s final dive, as part of a search for sunken nuclear submarine, Thresher:

       Dive Number 128 of the bathyscaph Trieste was the tenth and last dive made by Trieste in her search for the nuclear submarine Thresher. Read the rest of this entry »

January 19, 1840

Lieutenant Charles Wilkes discovers Antarctic Coast

        On January 19th, 1840, Lt. Charles Wilkes, during an expedition circumnavigating the globe, became the first American to sight the Antarctic Coast, and to discover the existence of an Antarctic continent.  This discovery was the highlight of a four-year surveying expedition which greatly contributed to the scientific and cultural knowledge of the time.  In October 1939, Proceedings published a detailed article about the expedition, excerpted below, written by Captain G. S. Bryan, U. S. Navy.  In his article, Captain Bryan charts the course of Wilkes’ expedition, from beginning to end, and emphasizes not only the profound impact of the expedition and its discoveries, but the character and temperament of the commander responsible for its accomplishments as well:

        The closing months of 1939 and early 1940 mark the one hundredth anniversary of the crowning achievement of the United States Exploring Expedition, or the Wilkes Exploring Expedition as it was later called.  The accomplishments of this expedition under the command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, U. S. Navy, stand perhaps as the greatest achievement in the field of exploration that this country has ever known. Read the rest of this entry »

HL Hunley in its conservation tank at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center, Charleston.

On February 17, 1864, Confederate-built H.L. Hunley became the world’s first successful combat submarine when it attacked and sank the 1240-short ton screw sloop USS Housatonic at the entrance  to the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. H.L. Hunley surfaced briefly to signal a successful mission to comrades on shore with a blue magnesium light, after which it was never seen again. All eight of its crewmen were presumed lost and despite multiple search efforts, the submarine could not be relocated. 

Over 136 years later, on 8 August, 2000, H.L. Hunley was raised from the sea floor using a specially-designed support frame, or truss. A multi-disciplinary team, under Project Director and Head of the NHHC Underwater Archaeology Branch, Dr. Robert Neyland, coordinated Hunley‘s recovery. 

Post recovery, the 40-foot, 17,000 pound truss continued to support the sub in a custom built, 90,000-gallon conservation tank at Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston, SC while it underwent archaeological investigation. During the careful, year long excavation of its interior, H.L. Hunley remained in the same tilted position in which it was found to ensure minimal disturbance of its contents. Conservation of the recovered artifacts is being conducted by professionals from the Warren Lasch Conservation Center and Clemson University. In 2011, after the interior of the hull had been completely excavated, Hunley was re-positioned so that it now sits upright and no longer requires the support of the truss, which will be removed tomorrow morning on 12 January, 2012.   

Throughout its treatment, the submarine has been on display to the public, however, when the truss is removed, visitors finally will be able to have a fully-unobstructed view of the vessel in its conservation tank.

A 3-D animation of the recovery and rotation of H.L. Hunley may be viewed here: Hunley Submarine Rotation

For more information on the H.L. Hunley project, please visit the Friends of the Hunley website: http://www.hunley.org/ 

HL Hunley in its truss at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center, Charleston.

January 1st, 1962

Commissioning  of SEAL Teams ONE and TWO

        January 1st, 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the commissioning of the first Navy SEAL teams.  At the same time of the SEAL commissionings, the Navy also recommissioned Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) 22.  The Navy’s renewed committment to these amphibious forces was commemorated in the February 1965 issue of Proceedings, in an article written by Lieutenant James J. Ritter, U. S. Naval Reserve.  Although Ritter’s article focused mainly on the needs and challenges of UDTs, he also recognized the value and necessity of SEAL training, and the importance of both in the strategic and technological growth of the Navy during the Cold War.

        A significant naval policy change occurred in January 1962 when the Navy recommissioned Underwater Demolition Team 22 and commissioned SEAL (SEaAirLand) Teams ONE and TWO. This reversed the process of reducing the Navy’s UDT and SEAL combat swimmer commands from a high of 30 commissioned teams in 1945, to a low of three commissioned teams from 1956 until 1962.  Read the rest of this entry »

December 26th, 1862

USS Red Rover is commissioned

        The USS Red Rover, the first hospital ship of the U. S. Navy, was commissioned on December 26th, 1862, after a year of service in the Army during the Civil War.  An article in the November 1968 issue of Proceedings, written by W. T. Adams, commemorates the Red Rover’s brief but successful career, which ended in 1865.  Not only was the Red Rover the first ship of her kind, but she also served a variety of capacities for the Union forces during the War, far beyond the demands of an ordinary hospital ship.

        To those familiar with modern standards of naval medical care, it may be difficult to visualize the days when treatment of the shipboard sick and wounded was limited to the surgeon working in a makeshift sickbay—with no hope of better facilities until the ship reached a port which might have a hospital, days or even weeks into the future.  It was a situation that existed in the U. S. Navy, however, until the chaos of the Civil War produced the USS Red Rover, the Navy’s first hospital ship. Read the rest of this entry »

December 12th, 1941

NATS is established.

        A short-lived branch of the U. S. Navy, the Naval Air Transport Service was established in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  Seven years later, in 1948, after a career that spanned both war and peacetime, NATS was merged with a similar branch of the Air Force to form the Military Air Transport Service (MATS).  Not long before the founding of MATS, the October 1948 issue of Proceedings published an article by Lieutenant Commander Beverley L. Britton, U. S. Naval Reserve, about the many humanitarian missions undertaken by NATS.  The many anecdotes shared by Britton demonstrated clearly the truth of his article’s title (“The Navy has a Heart”) by revealing the compassion and readiness of the Navy to provide aid in the most dire of emergencies.

        Last September, in ancient Egypt’s teeming Delta provinces, an outbreak of deadly cholera presented an ominous challenge to that nation’s already overburdened Institute of Public Health.  Public meeting places were closed at once.  Precautionary travel and immigration restrictions were placed in force.  Vaccinations began in surrounding areas.  It was the hope of Egypt’s doctors that prompt action could isolate quickly this disease which kills in a matter of hours. Read the rest of this entry »

December 7th, 1941

The Japanese Attack  Pearl Harbor

        2011 marks the 70-year anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the beginning of American involvement in World War II.  In December 1972, Proceedings published a first-hand retrospective of the event, written by a Naval Academy graduate and professor, who also served as Executive Secretary of the Naval Institute, Captain Joseph K. Taussig, Jr., USN (Ret.).  Taussig’s account, titled “I Remember Pearl Harbor,” not only recalls his own experience aboard the USS Nevada when the attack began, but also draws on the vulnerability of American fleet that day to emphasize the importance of learning from the past for the sake of the future:

        On the morning of 7 December 1941, I was awakened by the Assistant Quartermaster of the Watch of the USS Nevada (BB-36).

        “Mr. Taussig, it’s 0700. You have the forenoon watch, Sir.” Read the rest of this entry »