Naval History Blog

May 23

1850 Navy sends USS Advance and USS Rescue to attempt rescue of Sir John Franklin’s expedition, lost in Arctic.

1939 USS Squalus (SS-92) sinks off Postsmouth, NH, with loss of 26 lives.

1962 Launch of Aurora 7 (Mercury 7), piloted by LCDR Malcolm Scott Carpenter, USN, who completed 3 orbits in 4 hours, 56 minutes at an altitude up to 166.8 statute miles at 17,549 mph. He was picked up by HSS-2 helicopters from USS Intrepid (CVS-11). The capsule was recovered by USS John R. Pierce (DD-753).

1962 USS Valcour (AVP-55) provides medical care to a merchant seaman from tanker SS Manhattan in the Persian Gulf.

May 24

1917 First U.S. convoy to cross North Atlantic during World War I leaves Hampton Roads, VA

1918 USS Olympia anchors at Kola Inlet, Murmansk, Russia, to protect refugees during Russian Revolution

1939 First and only use of VADM Allan McCann’s Rescue Chamber to rescue 33 men from sunken USS Squalus (SS-192)

1941 Authorization of construction or acquisition of 550,000 tons of auxiliary shipping for Navy

1945 Fast carrier task force aircraft attack airfields in southern Kyushu, Japan

1945 9 US ships damaged by concentrated kamikaze attack off Okinawa

1961 USS Gurke notices signals from 12 men from Truk who were caught in a storm, drifted at sea for 2 months before being stranded on a island for 1 month. USS Southerland investigated, notified Truk, and provided provisions and supplies to repair their outrigger canoe. The men would be picked up on 7 June by the motor launch Kaselehlia.

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The Navy’s first space satellite command, the Navy Astronautics Group, was established on 22 May 1962 at the Pacific Missile Range Headquarters, Point Mugu, Calif., under Commander James C. Quillen, Jr. In addition to its other duties, the new command was given responsibility for operating the Transit Navigational System being developed by the Navy for the Department of Defense.

The Navy Astronatics Group became today’s Naval Satellite Operations Center.

“Fire!” At ten o’clock on the morning of 14 February 1804 as U.S. frigate Constitution lay at anchor off Syracuse, Italy, the cry called the crew to their firefighting stations. Not two hours later, a second cry, “All hands to witness punishment,” called the crew to assemble at the gangway. Commodore Edward Preble and the frigate’s other commissioned officers gathered on the starboard side of the quarterdeck, and an armed Marine guard drew up on the larboard side. Master-at-arms John Burchard then escorted James Wallace, ship’s corporal, to the gangway, where Boatswain John Newton Cannon’s crew stripped the shirt from Wallace’s back and secured his hands and feet between the hammock rail and grating on deck. Surgeon James Wells stood by, ready to interrupt the punishment if the offender passed out during the flogging. On signal, one of Cannon’s mates removed the cat-o-nine-tails from its canvas bag. At Preble’s command, “Boatswain’s mate, do your duty,” the punishment began, and it did not end until Cannon had counted out thirty-six strokes of the cat across Wallace’s bare back.

Wallace’s offence was to have jeopardized the ship by fumigating one of the officers’ cabins with smoldering rope yarns. Naval regulations allowed a commanding officer to order a punishment of a maximum of twelve lashes without a court-martial. Preble rationalized ordering three times that number by finding three crimes in the culprit’s offense: fumigating a part of the ship without orders, neglect of duty, and “suffering the rope Yarns to blaze.” Wallace’s rapid and severe punishment no doubt drove home among the ship’s company the vital lesson that carelessness with fire endangered the ship and every life on board.

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195 years ago today, Commodore Stephen Decatur sailed his squadron of ten ships to the Mediterranean Sea to take part in the Second Barbary War, whose goal was to suppress a growing piracy industry. Decatur was dispatched to Algiers to secure the release of American sailors taken prisoner and held in slavery, to put an end to the payment of tribute (state-to-state extortion), and finally, to procure favorable prize agreements.

Capturing the Algerian fleet flagship MASHOUDA as well as the Algerian brig ESTEDIO in route to Algeria, Decatur secured an amount of levying power with which to bargain with the Dey of Algiers. Upon arrival, Decatur exhibited an early use of gunboat diplomacy on behalf of American interests. A new treaty was agreed to within 48 hours of his arrival, confirming the success of his objectives.

After resolving the disputes in Algiers, Decatur sailed his squadron to Tunis and Tripoli to demand reimbursement for proceeds withheld by those governments in the War of 1812. In a similar fashion, Decatur received all of the demands he asked of them, and promptly sailed home victorious.

For this campaign, he became known as “the Conqueror of the Barbary Pirates.”

In response to the sinking of the White Star ocean liner Titanic after colliding with an iceberg the previous month, on 15 May 1912 the Hydrographic Office recommended that the Navy establish an ice patrol in the vicinity of the steamer lanes in the North Atlantic. The Navy designated USS Birmingham (CL 2) and USS Chester (CL 1) to alternate on the patrol.

Birmingham departed Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 19 May 1912, marking the first American ice patrol. An International Ice Patrol was established in 1914, with the Coast Guard assuming the responsibility for the United Sates.

 Last week the Naval History and  Heritage Command was host to the 2010 National Historical Conference and Naval History Workshop.  This conference brought together those working to preserve and share naval history, allowing talk about how historians, museums, and libraries and archives are getting the job done and to learn from each other.  One of the sessions focused on libraries and archives, highlighting the amazing naval history collections that are available. 

Staff members from the Library of the Marine Corps, Archives and Special Collections; the library at the National Naval Aviation Museum; and the Operational Archives of NHHC shared with attendees some of the interesting items they have in their collections, and why these collections are just as important as the objects held in the museums. 

Libraries and archives tell the stories behind the objects.  The Marine Corps Archives and the NHHC Operational Archives mainly tell the official stories of the US Navy and Marine Corps.  These are the command histories submitted annually, the after action reports, and deck logs.  They also tell the more personal stories through collections of personal papers and diaries of both influential and not so well known Sailors and Marines.  These collections also tell the social history of the organizations through recruiting posters, photographs, and menus from major events. 

Libraries such as the one at the National Naval Aviation Museum help to humanize the objects in the museum and provide the social history aspect of the conflicts and battles.  Collections of photos, diaries, flight log books, maps, and film footage help tell the story of naval aviation to future generations long after those original aviators are gone.

The Navy Department Library helps to tell the scholarly and social history of the Navy.  With over 150,000 volumes of naval history and an extensive manuscript collection there are many stories waiting to be discovered.  We have everything from cruise books to ordnance manuals and most anything in between.

Whether you are looking for the official history or what it felt like to be a part of history, libraries and archives are the place to look.  Call and arrange a visit to one of the historical libraries or archives, and let us help you research and tell your story.

From our recently departed friend and shipmate, Mark L. Hayes.  RIP Shipmate.  You stand relieved.  We have the watch.

The struggle during the American Revolution for the strategic Lake Champlain region began in the early morning hours of 10 May 1775 when Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen led a surprise raid that captured British-garrisoned Fort Ticonderoga, New York. Arnold knew that the patriot’s hold on the fort was precarious as long as the armed sloop Betsy, then at St. Johns on the northern end of the lake, remained under British control. Disciplined red coats from Montreal could sail down the lake in bateaux under the protection of Betsy and overwhelm the green Americans, reversing their important gains. Four days after taking Fort Ticonderoga, Arnold in command of a small schooner captured at Skenesborough, New York, rechristened Liberty, sailed to north end of Lake Champlain.

Liberty dropped anchor thirty miles from St. Johns as the sun began to set on 17 May. Thirty-five Massachusetts militiamen under Arnold’s command rowed ashore in two small bateaux, arriving at dawn the next morning. A British sergeant and twelve men guarding the sloop were armed and ready, but the sudden rush by the Americans convinced them to surrender. Learning that a force of forty red coats was expected at any time from Chambly only twelve miles distant, Arnold quickly made the sloop ready to get underway, taking on board all the stores and provisions available. A northerly wind allowed for a quick departure towing five bateaux and having burned five others, thus leaving no craft of any kind behind.

The small American flotilla soon arrived at Fort Ticonderoga where Arnold armed the sloop with six carriage guns and twelve swivels. She was also rechristened Enterprise, the first of American eight warships to carry that name. Arnold soon took his new command north to Crown Point to guard against any British incursion down the lake. For now, his was the only armed force afloat, and he stood master of Lake Champlain.

Following Arnold’s departure from the region later that summer, Enterprise assisted in convoying the American expedition to Canada under Richard Montgomery. She become part of the fleet that covered the American retreat in 1776 and fought with Benedict Arnold again in the desperate battle of Valcour Bay the following September. Enterprise was one of four ships that survived into 1777, but was burned in the face of British Lt. Gen. John Burgoyne’s march southward, toward eventual defeat at Saratoga in October.

I love getting presents.  This, of course, sounds very greedy, but most honest people will admit they like getting presents, too.  Over the years, the Naval Historical Center/Naval History and Heritage Command has been greatly pampered with the support of the Naval Historical Foundation and in the Navy Art Collection, we feel we have been showered with presents and appreciative attention.

To digress by way of background, as the story goes, many years ago Navy lawyers believed that the Navy could not accept gifts from private individuals and businesses.  Thus, when someone had some nifty historic naval thing, they couldn’t give it directly to the Navy, but the Naval Historical Foundation accepted it, and in this way the Foundation amassed quite a fascinating collection.  Years passed and the Navy lawyers changed their minds and now donors can give directly to the Navy.  (Contributions to the United States Government are deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law!).  For some time now, the folks at the Foundation have gradually been processing out and passing along their collection, and the result for Navy Art has been unexpected delights.

“Bamboo Kain, Newcastle Tribe,” by Alfred Agate, Watercolor, circa 1840, NHHC# 98-89-GJ.

My favorite was the Alfred Agate artworks, mostly resulting from the Wilkes Expedition.  The Foundation donated this in 1998.  I was thrilled to be able to write the NHHC’s online exhibit showcasing this collection and since then we’ve had some interesting contacts about it.  About a year ago, an Australian aborigine/anthropologist working to rediscover his own culture paid us a visit to view the exquisite aboriginal portraits in the collection.  Agate’s original line of work was as a portrait miniaturist, so his portraits are realistic and not patronizing.  For the past few months the drawing of Mt. Shasta, believed to the first non-native artwork depicting this mountain, was included in an exhibit at Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Shasta County CA.

“Attack Of the Galley of Ferdinand I Upon the Galley Of the Turks,” by Jacques Le Lorrain Callot, engraving, circa 1627, NHHC# 98-90-L.

Another extensive gift was the Eberstadt Collection of prints.  This collection was amassed in Germany and brought to the United States after World War I by the Eberstadt family  and gifted to the Foundation in 1937.  The prints cover early shipbuilding, the early development of the naval powers of Europe and significant early European naval actions.  Having this kind of background material to supplement our study of U.S. Naval history is nothing short of a blessing.

“The Battle of Plattsburg,” by Read, Engraving, circa 1820, NHHC# 2008-58-741.

The Foundation has given us a number of paintings, but it seems that it’s the prints that always amaze me.  Late in 2008 they gave us a big brown box with around 2000 semi-sorted prints that mostly deal with U.S. and English naval history.  I call it “The Amazing Box” because of the things we found in it.  Librarians will cry when I tell them that whoever amassed this collection apparently carefully sliced the prints from books of the 18^th and 19^th century.  The Amazing Box has helped fill gaps in our collection for the upcoming War of 1812 anniversaries.

“Beached Rowboat,” by Midshipman James Cooper Hull, Pencil on paper, 1863, NHHC# (TBA).

Another recent transfer was a small portfolio of sketches by Midshipman James Cooper Hull, USNA Class of 1867, done while at the Academy in Newport, RI in 1863.  They seem to be his assignments from drawing class.  It only makes me sigh and wish for return of art education to the Naval Academy and schools in general.  Bravo Zulu, Midshipman Hull!

I could just go on for days about the bounty that our friends at the Naval Historical Foundation have given us.  I will share some more of these fascinating items in future postings, but for now, I just say “THANK YOU!”