SeaWaves Today in History August 21, 2008 1583 - The Delight, with 85 persons aboard, founders on the banks of Sable Island; first Canadian shipwreck on record 1740 - Admiral Edward Vernon, known as "Old Grogram" after the material from which his cloak was made, ordered sailors' rum ration to be served mixed with water. The mixture was quickly named grog after his boat cloak. Vernon, who made his famous and extremely dangerous voyage around Cape Horn to attack totally unsuspecting Spanish ships of the rich annual gold fleet, was a teetotaler who once remarked upon the "swinish drunkenness of the lower deck." Realizing that complete removal of the rum ration, by then a coveted official benefit would outrage his men who would react accordingly, he conceived cutting the rum quantity, then adding water to make up the difference. He also, in an early effort to eliminate the common shipboard disease of scurvy, compelled the addition of lemon or limejuice, thus creating what might arguably be called the first cocktail. Vernon did capture the Spanish gold fleet and all of its vast tonnage of gold and silver, the prize value of which made himself and all his surviving crewmen and officers very wealthy indeed. It also created wholesale uproar amongst the Spanish, and impelled profound practical changes in their colonial activities in Spanish America -- particularly in the Caribbean -- plus more in the English colonies in North America, to the degree that he became an overnight hero of vast proportion in a land he never set foot upon, but to this day celebrates his name. Vernon's attack came about as a direct consequence of what is known as the War of Jenkins' Ear. When Queen Anne's War ended with complete victory to Britain and a treaty that compelled Spain to allow British ships to pick up and deliver cargoes to Spanish colonial ports in the Americas, the Spanish officials in those areas were appalled and angered at the removal of what had long been a monopoly situation which always had been to their personal benefits. In defiance of the treaty provisions, their Garda Costa vessels soon began to harass English vessels generally, a process that over time got to seeing such vessels and cargoes taken and confiscated, their crews imprisoned, and more, until on one occasion, on taking the ship of one Capt. Jenkins, his protest was met by a swift blow that removed an ear, which the Spanish overlord then bagged, handed it back to Jenkins, and told him to take it to his Parliament to show what Spain thought of it and his like. Jenkins did just that, hence the warfare that followed, which Spain again lost. (If one accepts that a "world war" definably involves at least three belligerent nations whose fighting is indeed global, then the War of Jenkins' Ear was No. 2 -- Anne's was the first. Third was the Seven Years' War, fourth was the Napoleonic War, and WWI and WWII were actually Nos. 5 and 6.) In the event, when the almost unbelievable success of Vernon got reported, the Spanish colonial overlords were so frightened that they held back their Garda Costa in pure fear of what might happen to them if caught at sea. In the English colonies of North America, that freed them from the constant worry about Spanish attacks on their shipping, which was their major economic support. It made Vernon their great colonial hero; arguably the first American naval hero, in a manner of speaking, his name was toasted everywhere, and it impelled one Lawrence Washington to name his estate after him. Lawrence was the stepbrother of George, who inherited the estate on the former's death. Today, house and all, it is the premier preserved historic establishment in the US -- Mount Vernon, home of the Father of his County, and its first President 1749 - Edward Cornwallis lands at Chebucto and begins to build a settlement named for its sponsor, Lord Halifax 1800 - US Marine Corps Band gave its first concert in Washington, D.C. 1853 - Beechey Island NWT - Edward Inglefield 1820-1894 Captain of the Royal Navy barque Phoenix rescues all 21 crew of its sister ship Breadalbane, which sank in 15 minutes after her wooden hull was pierced by an ice slab; both ships carrying supplies to Sir Edward Belcher's Arctic expedition; wreck discovered Aug 13, 1980 after three year search by Dr. Joe McInnes 1860 - British and French ships under Sir James Hope landed soldiers and Royal Marines to capture the Taku forts in China 1916 - Submarine HMS G7 completed 1916 - Light cruiser HMS Curlew laid down 1917 - Destroyer HMS Valorous commissioned 1917 - Destroyers HMS Leeds, Verdun launched 1917 - Destroyer USS Conner launched 1917 - Submarine HMS J7 launched 1917 - Flight Sub-Lieutenant Smart, flying a Sopwith Pup fighter, took off from a platform mounted aboard the light cruiser HMS Yarmouth and succeeded in shooting down a German Navy Zeppelin airship off the Danish coast 1918 - Lighter HMCS Arcadia hired 1918 - Destroyers USS Israel & Murray commissioned 1919 - Light cruiser HMS Calcutta commissioned 1920 - Radio station built by US Navy and French Government transmits first wireless message heard around the world. At time it was the most powerful radio station in the world 1924 - Trawler HMCS Thiepval returned Esquimalt BC from Far East 1925 - Destroyer HNLMS Van Ghent laid down 1933 - Destroyer HMS Foxhound laid down 1935 - U-6 launched 1935 - U-9 commissioned 1935 - Destroyer USS Jarvis laid down 1936 - Destroyer USS Cassin commissioned. Cassin is featured in one of the most famous photos of World War II lying in drydock alongside sister USS Downes and forward of USS Pennsylvania after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 1936 - Soviet submarine SC-311 commissioned 1938 - Submarine HMS Undine commissioned 1940 - Submarine HMS Rorqual sank unknown 5000 ton Italian supply ship by torpedo 1940 - U-133 laid down 1940 - U-141 commissioned 1941 - U-174 launched 1941 - U-376, U-455 & U-584 commissioned 1941 - Submarine USS Gato launched 1941 - Minesweeper HMCS Grandmere launched Montreal PQ 1941 - The first of what was to prove many Arctic convoys to ports in northern Russia sailed 1942 - Light cruiser HMS Bermuda commissioned 1942 - U-771, U-853 & 1061 laid down 1942 - U-506 sank SS City of Wellington 1943 - U-596 sank SS Lily, SS Namaz & SS Panikos 1943 - U-1226 launched 1943 - The Allies, while building up for Overload (D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944) established a new troopship convoy route called UT. This was a fast and heavily escorted convoy route averaging 15 knots 1943 - Submarine USS Batfish commissioned 1943 - Destroyer escorts USS Cooner & Bunch commissioned 1943 - Frigates HMS Conn & Cotton launched 1943 - Escort carrier HMS Ruler launched 1943 - Destroyer escorts USS Gary & Greenwood launched 1943 - Corvette HMCS Eyebright completed forecastle extension refit Baltimore MD 1944 - Minesweeper HMCS Quinte completed refit Pictou NS & attached to HMCS Cornwallis as training ship Digby NS 1944 - Corvette HMCS Alberni sunk while streaming south at fourteen knots in fair weather with a NNE wind of five knots but State Four seas for the rendezvous, sweeping by asdic eighty-degrees on either bow, radar operating. "Hands to Dinner" had just been piped. Four minutes later with no asdic warning whatsoever, a torpedo hit her on her port side just aft of the engine room. In less than 10 seconds she was awash from the funnel aft, listing to port & sinking fast. In another twenty seconds she was gone, sinking stern first. Most of the off-watch hands were trapped in their mess decks, & only one stoker escaped from the engine & boiler rooms. Alberni was sunk by U-480 OLtzS Hans-Joachim Förster CO, at 1141, 25 miles SE of St. Catherine's Point, Isle of Wight, 50-18N 00-51W. 59 crewmembers were lost 1944 - Corvette HMCS Asbestos departed Bermuda after workups for St John's & EG C-2 1944 - Frigate HMCS Runnymede arrived Halifax from Bermuda workups 1944 - Submarines HMS Tapir & Votary launched 1944 - Submarine Zeehond launched 1944 - Frigate HMS Loch Katrine launched 1944 - Frigates HMCS Kirkland Lake & Loch Alvie commissioned 1944 - Corvette HMCS Leaside commissioned South Bank-on-Tees 1944 - At 2045, the British destroyer HMS Keppel got a contact on her starboard quarter, while escorting the convoy JW-59 in position 73.01N, 03.57E - Grid AB 5456. Together with HMS Kite and a Swordfish aircraft from the British escort carrier HMS Vindex the U-boat was attacked with hedgehogs and depth charges. They hunted the U-boat throughout the night with their foxers (Anti Gnat devices) streamed, but the hunt was fruitless. At 0640 on 21 August, HMS Kite had slowed down to 6 knots to clear her foxers, which had become twisted around one another. At this vulnerable moment, U-344 fired a spread of three FAT torpedoes at the sloop, misidentified as Dido-class light cruiser by Pietsch. The ship was struck by two torpedoes on the starboard side and heeled over to that side immediately. The stern broke off, floated for a few seconds, and then sank. The bow remained afloat for a minute and then sank at a steep angle. At 0730, HMS Keppel stopped to pick up survivors, while the British sloops HMS Peacock and HMS Mermaid screened the rescue operation. Only 14 of the about 60 survivors in the water could be rescued from the ice cold water, five of them died on board and were later buried at sea. 1944 - In Baie de la Seine off Normandy, corvette HMS Orchis is severely damaged by a mine, beached off Juno Beach at Courseulles-sur-Mer, and subsequently declared a constructive total loss 1944 - U-963 During a crash dive at night (0017) in the Bay of Biscay a man was lost overboard. [Bootsmaat Hans Reiter] 1944 - U-230 ran aground in the Mediterranean in the Toulon roadsteads, France, in position 43.07N, 06.00E. Scuttled during the Allied invasion of southern France. 50 survivors (No casualties) 1944 - U-3514 laid down 1944 - Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-192 was commissioned at New Orleans with LTJG C. J. Stevenson, USCGR, first commanding officer. He was succeeded on 29 November l944 by LTJG Charles W. Shannon, USCG. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area. 1945 - President Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had shipped some $50 billion in aid to America's allies during World War II 1945 - Tug HMCS Murray Stewart paid off 1945 - Destroyer USS Ernest G Small commissioned 1945 - Minesweeper USS Tercel commissioned 1951 - Destroyer HMS Nootka arrived Halifax NS from Korean waters via Suez 1951 - First contract for nuclear-powered submarine awarded 1952 - Destroyer HMCS Kootenay laid down North Vancouver BC 1957 - Minesweeper HMCS Trinity paid off 1959 - President Eisenhower signed an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union 1965 - Launch of Gemini 5, piloted by LCDR Charles Conrad Jr., USN, who completed 120 orbits in almost 8 days at an altitude of 349.8 km. Recovery by helicopter from USS Lake Champlain 1974 - USS Ranger port call Subic Bay 1980 - USS Truxtun rescues 42 Vietnamese refugees and USS Merrill rescues 62 Vietnamese refugees, over 200 miles SE of Saigon 1990 - Command of Operation Sharp Edge shifted from COMSIXTHFLT to CO USS Whidbey Island joined by USS Barnstable County off Liberia 2004 - USNS Gordon laid up Norfolk RRF 2005 - Taiwan detained 20 Chinese fishermen aboard six boats for illegal fishing during the first day of a week-long crackdown 2005 - A North Korean naval boat’s intrusion into the southern waters of the West Sea on Sunday is a disappointing contrast to the unprecedented reconciliatory mood between the two sides created less than a week ago in the pan-national celebrations of the 60th anniversary of liberation. According to the Joint Chief of Staffs, the Northern patrol boat ran about one mile down the Northern Limit Line, the maritime border between the two Koreas, in order to seize a Chinese fishing vessel that was fleeing from illegal operations in Northern waters. Even though it sailed back to the North some 25 minutes after it crossed the NLL, it ignored the South’s warnings to return. The JCS said that the Northern boat informed Southern naval vessels of its intention to cross the sea border to catch the Chinese fishing boat. The Ministry of Defense tried to tone down the violation of the NLL, the third by Northern naval ships this year by simply regarding it as an inevitable incident 2005 - The CP Ships Limited Board of Directors has unanimously recommended that shareholders accept an offer from TUI AG to acquire CP Ships in an all-cash transaction for US $21.50 per share or about $2.0 billion on a fully diluted basis. Including the assumption of net debt of $0.3 billion at 30th June 2005, the transaction has a total value of $2.3 billion. The offer price represents a premium of about 28% over CP Ships average closing share price over the past three months. TUI, the parent of Hapag-Lloyd, plans to combine Hapag-Lloyd and CP Ships to create the world's fifth-largest container shipping company with a fleet of 139 ships (and a further 17 on order) for a capacity of approximately 400,000 TEU on over 100 routes spanning the globe. Before the effects of consolidation the combined shipping business would have had sales of approximately $7.0 billion and EBITDA of $731 million in 2004 2005 - A 56 year-old man was diving at Onamak Point, on the west side of Camano Island, with a friend and never surfaced after the dive. Camano Island Fire Department arrived with two small boats and an air asset was requested from Naval Station Whidbey Island. A Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Group/Air Station Port Angeles was also put on alert. The diver's body has yet to be recovered 2006 - The US Army Corps of Engineers issued a notice stating that the draft environmental impact statement/environmental impact report for the Berth 97/109 Container Terminal Project in the Port of Los Angeles has been completed 2006 - New Tidewater vessel, MV Pat Taylor, named in honor of the late New Orleans businessman, Patrick F. Taylor, christened at the wharf of the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. Mrs. Phyllis M. Taylor, wife of Pat Taylor and current Chairman and CEO of Taylor Energy Company LLC, christened the new 220' platform supply vessel which was built by Quality Shipyards, LLC, a subsidiary of Tidewater located in Houma, La 2006 - Argentine Navy P-3 departs NAS Trelew for Exercise PANAMAX in Panama 2006 - USCGC Cuttyhunk departs Port Angeles for Deepwater modernization Curtis Bay MD 2006 - USCG Commandant Admiral Thad Allen will deliver remarks at the 28th Annual Blacks in Government National Training Conference on “Building Unity Through Excellence” in New York 2006 - A military judge has ordered the Navy to provide defense lawyers with some of its e-mails concerning chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, who's charged with disobeying an order by appearing in uniform at a political event outside the White House. Klingenschmitt says the Navy is punishing him for praying in Jesus' name at the March 30th protest against a Navy policy requiring non-sectarian prayers outside of religious services. The chaplain's lawyer believes the e-mails will show that the admiral who heads the Navy's Mid-Atlantic Region is not impartial and should not have authority over the case. Klingenschmitt's court martial is to begin on September eleventh at the Norfolk Naval Station 2006 - USCG searching for a crewman missing in the Cordova waters south of Point Whitshea, southeast of Hawkins Island in Prince William Sound. Marine Safety Unit in Valdez received a report of an uncorrelated Mayday at 2222 on the 20th. It was relayed by a crewmember aboard the fishing vessel Lady Blackie who overheard the call on VHF channel 72. The mayday call possibly originating from the fishing vessel Bodysnatcher, a 26-foot bow picker working in the area 2006 - Hamburg-based vessel operator ER Schiffahrt has deployed the latest in its series of new super post-Panamax container vessels, the 8,204-TEU ER Toronto. E.R. Schiffahrt, part of the Nordcapital Group, said the addition of Toronto brings its fleet of container ships to 63, with capacity of approximately 287,000 TEUs. The company plans to add 13 vessels with a total of 60,000 TEUs by 2008, all of them built by Hyundai of South Korea. Toronto operates under charter as the CMA CGM Don Giovanni on the French carrier's French Asia Line connecting the Asia-Pacific region with Europe. Toronto is the sixth in a series of new vessels, and E.R. Schiffahrt said it has placed orders for a total of nine ships of this size. All are for long-term chartering, three to Cosco Container Lines and six to CMA CGM 2006 - A Dutch-owned ship, the expected arrival of which has angered environmental groups in Turkey, has been anchored off the Greek island of Samos (Sisam) awaiting notice from The Hague to Turkish authorities confirming that the ship does not contain illegal levels of asbestos, the private Dogan News Agency (DHA) reported. The Otopan, which sails under a Mexican flag, is jointly owned by the Dutch state and the private company Basilisk 2006 - Nearly six years after the deadly terrorist attack on the USS Cole, the Navy has decided that the officer who was skipper of the ship is not qualified for a promotion that had been in limbo since 2002 2006 - Nine Indonesian fishermen repatriated from Papua New Guinea after their release from detention. Indonesian diplomats say they were handed over at the two countries border 2006 - USCGC Matinicus repatriated 65 Dominican migrants to La Romana, Dominican Republic 2006 - Coast Guard crews rescued two men from a 17-foot boat that capsized near the Galveston Jetties. The Coast Guard watchstander at Sector Houston-Galveston received a call from the Galveston Police Department at 2326 on the 20th. The police department reported that they had received a call from a man on Galveston's East Beach. The man stated that he was talking to his buddy on a cell phone, when his friend said that his boat had just capsized about one mile from shore near Galveston's south jetty. A rescue boat crew from Station Galveston, an HH-65C rescue helicopter crew from the Air Station Houston and the Galveston Police Department were dispatched to search for the missing men. At 0123 the helicopter located the men, and safely hoisted them from the water. The men were then transported to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston 2006 - The Valdez crude export terminal has seen a modest decline in the number of crude tankers in recent weeks, as oil companies reduce shipments in light of the problems in Prudhoe Bay oil production, the Valdez terminal manager said Thursday. The Valdez terminal, the crude export facility at the end of the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, will receive four tankers this week 2006 - Petron Corp. is negotiating with a Singaporean company to bring in advanced technology that would determine the exact location of the oil tanker that sank off Guimaras island and siphon off the remaining bunker oil still in the vessel 2006 - The Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) is soliciting bids for the construction of a 154-ft. LOA replacement ferry vessel for the Maine State Ferry Service, Rockland, Maine 2006 - After two more boats were salvaged from the sea on Monday near the stricken city of Fuding in the southeastern coastal province of Fujian, a total of 8 boats sunk by typhoon Saomai have now been hauled out of the water 2006 - Stolt-Nielsen announced that the Supreme Court of the United States has denied a Renewed Application originally submitted to Justice John Paul Stevens that would have kept in place an injunction by a federal district court preventing the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division from bringing charges against the company 2006 - Sea Launch Company successfully delivered the Koreasat 5 communications satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). Early data indicate the spacecraft is accurately positioned and in excellent condition. A Zenit-3SL vehicle lifted off at 2027 PDT (0327 GMT, Aug. 22) from the Odyssey Launch Platform, positioned at 154 degrees West Longitude in the equatorial Pacific. All systems performed nominally throughout flight. The Block DM upper stage inserted the 4,448 kg (9,806 lb) Spacebus 4000 C1 platform to GTO, on its way to a final orbital position of 113 degrees East Longitude. A ground station at Fucino, Italy, acquired the first signal from the satellite shortly after spacecraft separation 2006 - USS Oriole, the last of four decommissioned Osprey-class coastal minehunters is moved into the Corpus Christi Ship Channel with sister Oriole for towing to Beaumont TX 2007 - Minister for Armed Forces Bob Ainsworth visits Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton 2007 - Russia for the first time showcased the MiG-29K deck-based fighter specially developed for the Indian Navy at the 8th international aerospace show 'MAKS-2007', inaugurated today by President Vladimir Putin 2007 - 150 guests were present when the production of the first of two Class 212A submarines for the German Navy was started by Harald Stein, Deputy President of the German Federal Office of Defence Technology and Procurement. The ceremony took place at the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems’ shipyard Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Kiel 2007 - Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen announced the following flag officer assignments: Rear Adm. Bruce W. Clingan assigned as director, Warfare Integration and Assessment Division, N8F, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington. Rear Adm. (lower half) Moira N. Flanders assigned as chairman, Inter-American Defense Board, Washington. Rear Adm. (selectee) Charles W. Martoglio assigned as director for operations, J3, US Pacific Command, Pearl Harbor 2007 - Defence Minister Brendan Nelson has confirmed that the Australian Navy fired on an illegal fishing boat in northern Australian waters 2007 - MV Sanctuary, a former Navy hospital ship left to rot at the port of Baltimore, was auctioned off for $50,000 2017 - Next total solar eclipse visible from North America Copyright 2008 Shirlaw News Group ISSN 1710-6966 Today in History Archives This information is licensed to the recipient only. Images may be subject to copyright. Ask before you right-click. 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