SeaWaves Today in History July 10, 2009

 

1911 - Royal Australian Navy was formed. Australia had previously maintained an assortment of minor warships for local maritime defense since the 1850s
1917 - Destroyer USS Fairfax laid down
1917 - Italian Submarines H6-H8, following completion of builders trials on Murray Bay, proceeded Quebec City PQ, took on stores and then escorted by HMCS Acadia, sailed for Halifax
1918 - Destroyers USS Mason, Satterlee, Semmes laid down
1918 - Drifter HMC CD 49 completed by Davie Shipbuilding & Repairing Co. Ltd, Lauzon PQ
1919 - Minesweeper USS Gannet commissioned
1919 - President Wilson personally delivered Treaty of Versailles to Senate and urged ratification
1920 - Destroyers USS Lawrence & Overton launched
1925 - The official news agency of the Soviet Union, TASS, was established
1928 - Heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra commissioned
1928 - Destroyer HMS Active laid down
1930 - Destroyer HMS Keith launched
1932 - Destroyer ORP Burza commissioned
1934 - Destroyer USS Aylwin launched
1934 - USS Houston takes Franklin Delano Roosevelt on first visit of US President to South America
1935 - U-18 laid down
1939 - Destroyer HNLMS Van Galen (ex-HMS Noble) laid down
1940 - At 1426, the Petsamo was hit in the engine room by one torpedo from U-34, broke in two and sank within 20 minutes. Four stokers on watch below were killed. The U-boat had needed six hours to get into a favorable firing position and sank the ship in sight of the Irish Coast
1940 - The Alwaki had joined Convoy OA-179 on 6 Jul 1940. At 1306 on 10 July, the ship was hit by two torpedoes fired by U-61 from just over 200 meters (!) distance. The torpedoes hit the ship, penetrated the hull but did not detonate. The Alwaki was shaken and immediately started to list to port, because a bulkhead could not be closed and was slowly flooded. A British freighter came alongside and took off all 41 crewmembers and ten passengers. They were landed at Cardiff on 15 July. Tug HMS Bandit tried to salvage the ship, but she sank after 22.00 hours 10 miles NE of Cape Wrath. The absence of the explosion led to the erroneous conclusion by the Admiralty that sabotage was the cause of her loss
1940 - U-128 laid down
1940 - Minesweeper HMAS Gouldburn laid down
1940 - In addition to raids on shipping over the channel, the Germans raid dock targets in South Wales. This date becomes the first day of the Battle of Britain for the British
1940 - Darlan asks the Italian Admiralty to join him in a naval attack on Alexandria in order to liberate the French fleet encircled there. He also proposes a French raid on the British colony of Sierra Leone in West Africa and a bombing assault on Gibraltar
1940 - Believing the Italian Fleet has returned to Augusta, 9 Swordfish I aircraft from HMS Eagle attack Augusta. Destroyer Pancaldo is torpedoed, but later refloated and recommissioned. A motor ship is also damaged
1940 - President Roosevelt asked Congress for additional appropriations for defense
1940 - SS Waterloo (1,905 GRT) Canadian bulk canaller was bombed & sunk by Luftwaffe a/c in the North Sea off Great Yarmouth, England, in position 52.53N, 002.19E. Waterloo was transiting alone in ballast along the coast from Yarmouth to the Tyne estuary when she was attacked by level-bombers from high altitude. In an impressive display of bombing accuracy, the small ship was hit by two of six bombs, which struck Number 1 hold just aft of the bridge. The ship was stopped & all twenty crewmembers safely abandoned the ship in her lifeboats. For 15 minutes it appeared as though the ship may stay afloat but then the bulkhead between Number 1 & 2 holds collapsed & the ship went down by the bow in shallow water, struck the bottom, & slowly sank out of sight. The crew rowed to the nearby shore
1941 - U-376, U-586 launched
1941 - U-503, U-578 commissioned
1941 - Minesweeping trawler HMS Fetlar launched
1941 - Submarine HMS Umpire commissioned
1941 - Corvette HMCS Lunenburg launched Lauzon PQ
1942 - The El Capitan had been in Convoy PQ-17 which was dispersed on Admiralty orders in the Barents Sea on 4 Jul 1942. On 8 July she picked up 19 survivors from the John Witherspoon, which had been sunk by U-255 two days earlier. She reached Novaya Zemlya where she joined five other merchantmen and eight escort vessels from the convoy in the Matochkin Strait. Commodore Dowding assembled a small convoy out of them and then proceeded to Murmansk and Archangel. On 9 July, the small convoy was attacked by several German Junkers Ju 88 aircraft of II and III/KG 30 about 65 miles NE of Iokanka. A Ju 88 from II/KG 30 dropped three bombs, which detonated close to the El Capitan in 70°10N/41°40W. The concussion caused the after peak compartment to break open, the bulkhead at #4 hold was ruptured and the starboard side of the engine room was demolished. Holds #4 and #5 began to take water and the ship settled by the stern. Soon it became clear that the ship was in sinking condition and all 37 crewmembers, 11 armed guards and the 19 passengers safely abandoned ship. They were all picked up by armed trawler HMS Lord Austin and taken to Archangel. They were later taken to Glasgow and repatriated on RMS Queen Mary, arriving in Boston on 15 October. The armed trawler tried to scuttle the wreck with gunfire after rescuing the crew but apparently she stayed afloat and was sunk by U-251 with a coup de grâce at 0045 on 10 July
1942 - The Hoosier had been in Convoy PQ-17 which was dispersed on Admiralty orders in the Barents Sea on 4 Jul 1942. She reached Novaya Zemlya where she joined five other merchants and eight escort vessels from the convoy in the Matochkin Strait. Commodore Dowding assembled a small convoy out of them and then proceeded on 7 July to Murmansk and Archangel. On 9 July, the small convoy was attacked by several German Junkers Ju 88 aircraft of II and III/KG 30 about 65 miles NE of Iokanka. The first stick of bombs missed the Hoosier, but the second hit five feet from the boat deck and the third 20 yards away. These explosions damaged the steam pipes and oil lines, sprung some of the hull plates and disabled the engines. The eight officers, 34 crewmen and eleven armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, four .50 cal and two .30 cal guns) abandoned ship in four lifeboats and were picked up by corvette HMS Poppy at 69°45N/39°35E. The commanding officer of corvette HMS La Malouine decided to tow the ship in and put a salvage crew back on board that included the engineers of the vessel. But when U-255 was sighted four miles astern, the corvette expeditiously dropped the tow and recovered the boarding party. HMS Poppy unsuccessfully tried to sink her with gunfire. At 0256 on 10 July, the drifting wreck of the Hoosier was torpedoed by U-376. Another torpedo fired at 0302 missed and the vessel only sunk after a coup de grâce was fired five minutes later
1942 - At 0619, the Benjamin Brewster was hit by two torpedoes from U-67 on the port side about ten seconds apart, while lying at anchor for the night off the coast of Louisiana 60 miles west of Southwest Pass close into shore in about six fathoms of water. One struck at the bridge and the other aft, causing the tanker to immediately burst into flames from bridge forward. Burning oil and gasoline covered the surface of the water for some distance around the vessel. Because the wind kept the flames forward some of the eight officers, 27 men and five armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in and two .30cal guns) were able to leave the ship from the stern with one partially burned lifeboat as the tanker rapidly sank within three minutes. Six officers, 18 crewmen and one armed guard died most of them from burns. Three hours later eight crewmen and three armed guards in the lifeboat made landfall at Grand Isle, Louisiana. A fishing boat spotted their campfire, picked them up and transferred them to a Coast Guard vessel, which took them to Burrwood, Louisiana and thence to the Marine Hospital at New Orleans. Three crewmen and one armed guard were picked up by a Coast Guard vessel and also taken to Burrwood. The Benjamin Brewster laid in 37 feet of water and burned for nine days until the cargo was consumed. The structure above the water was reduced to a molten mass of metal by the intense heat and the tanker was a total loss. The wreck was salved in September 1951 and was broken up
1942 - U-975 laid down
1942 - U-186 commissioned
1942 - Destroyer escort USS Hammann laid down
1942 - Submarine HMS Shakespeare commissioned
1942 - Minesweeping trawler HMS Sir Geraint commissioned
1942 - Destroyer USS Coghlan commissioned
1942 - Diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and Russia renewed
1942 - In the Solomon Islands, USN PBY-5 Catalinas of Patrol Squadron Fourteen based at Noumea, New Caledonia, attempt to bomb Japanese installations on Tulagi and Gavutu Islands but bad weather causes the mission to be aborted. The US Joint Chiefs of Staff change the date of Operation Watchtower, the invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi, from 1 to 7 August
1942 - In the Aleutians, the crew of a VP-41 PBY-5A Catalina spots a crashed Zeke fighter (Mitsubishi A6M2 Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter Model 21), while flying low over the tundra of Akutan Island near their base at NAF Dutch Harbor. The pilot of the fighter had engine problems and attempted to land on what he had assumed was a grass field, not realizing that it was actually a swamp. The "Zeke" had nosed over immediately on landing, breaking the pilot's neck. The aircraft had lain there undiscovered since the Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor in early June. The pilot of the PBY later leads a recovery party to the site to retrieve the aircraft. The "Zeke" was disassembled and then sent under great secrecy to NAS San Diego, California, where it was reassembled and test flown. It was the first example of the "Zeke" to fall in to Allied hands and proved to be one of the more fortuitous finds of the war
1942 - HMS Condor RNAS Arbroath 753 RN Sqn Albacore a/c #N4255 crash North Sea off Scotland during night flying
1943 - During the invasion of Sicily, destroyer USS Maddox was pounded by two 250-pound bombs by a lone JU-88 bomber. One struck the magazine and the other struck the rear No. 5 gun turret. The magazine demolished her stern and then the Maddox rolled over and sank in two minutes, the fastest a US vessel ever gone down in WWII. 210 of her crew went down with the ship and 74 survivors were picked up by a tug nearby. In 1998, the pilot of the JU-88 who sank the Maddox was invited to attend their survivor’s reunion, in which the German ex-pilot was delighted to go to
1943 - U-289, U-315 commissioned
1943 - USS LST-313 sunk by German aircraft off Gela Sicily 
1943 - U-767 launched
1943 - At 1205, the unescorted Alice F. Palmer (Master George Pederson) was struck by a torpedo on port side at the #5 hold. The explosion destroyed the stern, blew off the prop and rudder, flooded the engine room and the #5 hold, put the after gun out of action and broke the ship’s back. With the stern dropping at a 45° angle some of the complement of eight officers, 35 men and 25 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 3in and nine 20mm guns) abandon ship in two lifeboats ten minutes after the attack. The order to abandon ship came about twenty minutes later and the remaining crew left in the other two lifeboats. U-177 surfaced and signaled the men to come alongside. After questioning the crewmen for 20 minutes, the U-boat took a position off the port side of the Alice F. Palmer and began shelling her. About 20 shells were fired and U-177 left with the ship burning. She slowly sank by the stern and disappeared at about 14.00 hours. The four lifeboats became separated as they sailed to Madagascar. Three days later, a British Catalina aircraft picked up the occupants of the #3 boat, in charge of the 2nd mate with the master and the gunnery officer, 60 miles southeast of Madagascar. On 26 July, boat #2 in charge of the Chief mate, with 11 crewmen and 11 armed guards made land at Bazaruto Island, Mozambique. On 29 July, the boat #1 in charge of the Bos'n, with 15 men landed near Lourenco Marques. On 30 July, boat #4 in charge of the 3rd Mate, with 22 men landed on the north shore of Madagascar
1943 - At 1241, U-371 fired torpedoes at Convoy ET-22A about 30 miles east of Bougie and damaged the Matthew Maury and Gulfprince (in station #22). The convoy was about eight hours out of port. Gulfprince was struck by one torpedo on the starboard side at the #7 tank. The torpedo penetrated 20 feet into the empty but non-gas-free tank before exploding. The explosion ripped a 20-foot hole in the side, destroyed the steering engine, brought down the main mast and started fires in the tanks carrying fuel. The engines were secured and the ship listed to starboard. Within minutes the complement of eight officers, 28 crewmen and 27 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) abandoned ship in two lifeboats, three rafts and by jumping overboard. All men were picked up by trawler HMS Sir Gareth and the British SS Empire Commerce, but one of the armed guards later died from burns on board. A salvage crew boarded the vessel and the tugs HMS Weazel & Hudson towed her to Algiers, arriving on 12 July. Rather than declaring the vessel a total loss, the US War Shipping Administration bought her and chartered the tanker to the US Navy for use as a mobile storehouse in North Africa. In March 1945, the tanker was laid up at Taranto and was sold to Italy on 20 Feb 1948 for scrapping. The Matthew Maury was struck by one torpedo in the stern. The explosion blew off the propeller, bent the shaft and flooded the #5 hold. The ship went out of control and gradually lost way. The eight officers, 35 crew men, 28 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) and seven passengers went to their boats stations but did not abandon ship. Two British corvettes stood by and later towed the ship to Bougie. After two days, tugs towed the Matthew Maury to Algiers for temporary repairs. On 22 November, she arrived at Gibraltar and laid there until 19 Aug 1944 when she left for Norfolk, arriving on 8 September. The final repairs were made in Newport News
1943 - At 0051, the Scandinavia was stopped by U-510 off Dutch Guyana. At 0250, she was torpedoed & sunk in accordance with the prize rules in 07°58N/48°06W after the crew had abandoned ship
1943 - Escort carrier USS Gambier Bay laid down
1943 - Submarine HMS Varangian commissioned
1943 - Destroyer escort USS Wintle commissioned
1943 - Destroyers USS Brown & Thompson commissioned
1943 - Frigates HMS Aylmer & Balfour launched
1943 - Patrol vessel HMS Kildwick launched
1943 - Destroyer USS Knapp launched
1943 - Frigate USS Knoxville launched
1943 - Escort carrier USS Manila Bay launched
1943 - USN Seabees report a 3,300-ft airstrip at Segi Point on New Georgia Island available for limited operations; this provides an emergency landing field only 40 NM from Japanese facilities at Munda, New Georgia Island
1943 - Naval gunfire helps Allied troops land on Sicily. It was first extensive use of LSTs and smaller landing craft to deliver heavy equipment over the beach. General Patton lands in the Gulf of Gela on Sicily. General Montgomery lands at Syracuse
1944 - Destroyer USS Benner laid down
1944 - Aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea laid down
1944 - Submarines USS Cutlass & Runner laid down
1944 - Repair ships HMS Moray Firth & Mullion Cove launched
1944 - Minesweeper USS Method commissioned
1945 - USS SC-521 foundered off Santa Cruz Solomon Islands 
1945 - Frigate HMCS Carlplace refit commenced Saint John NB later transferred to Shelburne NS
1945 - Corvettes HMCS Hawkesbury & Parry Sound paid off Sydney NS
1945 - Corvette HMCS Lachute paid off Sorel PQ
1945 - Minesweeper HMCS Spruce Lake launched New Westminster BC
1945 - Frigate HMS Bigbury Bay commissioned
1945 - Minesweeper HMS Rosamund commissioned
1945 - Minesweeping trawler HMS Kurd mined & sunk off Cornwall
1945 - U-530 surrendered to the Argentine Navy at Mar del Plata
1945 - Steam trawler Kned struck a mine probably laid on 18 Aug 1944 by U-218 and sank off Lizard Head
1945 - Destroyer USS Furse commissioned
1945 - In Japan, the USN's Task Force 38, consisting of eight aircraft carriers and six light aircraft carriers under Vice Admiral John S. McCain, launches carrier-based aircraft to attack airfields around Tokyo. Fighter-bombers locate and destroy an estimated 100 degassed aircraft dispersed at sites no closer than 10 miles from any airfield. (The Japanese have decided to hoard their aircraft preparing for the Allied invasion that they believe will occur in October 1945)
1946 - 826 RCN Sqn Firefly TR-1, #MB748 ditched near HMCS Warrior
1951 - Korean Peace Talks begin at Kaesong
1951 - Destroyer HMCS Huron assigned duty as plane guard for HMS Glory
1953 - Destroyer HMCS Cayuga departed Prince Rupert for Kitimat
1953 - Destroyer HMCS Haida sailed from Port Said for Malta having passed through the Suez Canal on the 9th on her way home from Korea 
1954 - Destroyer HMCS Cayuga arrived Kure
1956 - Tug CNAV Saint Charles launched Saint John NB
1956 - Minesweeper HMCS Cowichan (III) laid down at Yarrows Esquimalt BC
1958 - John Diefenbaker and Dwight D. Eisenhower sign agreement to have Canada and the United States set up Joint Committee to guide North American defenses in the event of enemy attack
1961 - HU 21 Sikorsky HO4S helicopter from HMCS Bonaventure ditched off South Carolina 
1962 - Telstar communications satellite launched from Cape Canaveral
1966 - USS Hancock port call Cubi Point
1967 - USS Hancock port call Yokosuka
1973 - Bahamas became independent after three centuries of British colonial rule
1976 - Angolan Navy founded commanded by Augusto Alfredo "Orlog"
1985 - French agents sink 160-foot protest vessel, Rainbow Warrior, owned by Vancouver-based Greenpeace environmental group, with an underwater bomb, killing one crewmember; France's defense minister will resign four months later, after it is reported he knew of the plot; two French secret service agents later plead guilty to manslaughter; Greenpeace protesting French nuclear tests in the South Pacific
Boris N Yeltsin took the oath of office as the first elected president of the Russian Republic
1998 - Maritime Coastal Defense Vessel HMCS Brandon launched Halifax-Dartmouth Industries, Halifax
2005 - At 0150 Clyde Coastguard received a call on VHF Channel 16 from a yacht reporting that they had a made a 999 call to the police to report a fast moving craft at the entrance to Loch Tarbert. Clyde Coastguard maritime rescue coordination center called out the Tarbert Coastguard rescue team. The Tighnabruaich  RNLI inshore lifeboat was also requested to launch, a rescue helicopter was scrambled and ambulance and police units also attended. Clyde Coastguard coordinated the recovery of a twenty-one foot speedboat to the slipway at Loch Tarbert with six persons on the vessel. Once the vessel was bought into the slipway at Loch Tarbert, it was confirmed that there had been three fatalities, and that three people had been evacuated to hospital
2005 - The Coast Guard is working on restoring operations as safely as possible today, and its operational units will be primarily focused on working with other federal, state and local agencies to provide any needed search and rescue support following landfall of Hurricane Dennis.  Damage assessment teams will be entering the impacted areas throughout the day to assess the waterways as quickly as possible, and Coast Guard captains of the ports will start making decisions on waterway openings and closures where safety zones need to be established
2005 - Maersk-Sealand began operating its own depot in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego with the call of Maersk Ferroll
2005 - Military Sealift Command chartered heavy lift ship MV Mighty Servant I to transport former Navy floating drydock Resolute. The World War II-era drydock was leased to Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle. Mighty Servant I will transport Resolute from Norfolk, Va., the 522-foot long drydock's former berth, to Seattle. The two began the journey today and should arrive in Seattle by the end of August
2006 - NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, will travel to Madrid 
2006 - USCG Commandant Admiral Thad Allen delivers remarks at the Excellence in Government Conference on “Leadership Strategy in a Resource Constrained Environment” 
Washington Hilton
2006 - Eager to boost its ambitions of becoming an international energy hub and further reduce traffic through the straits, Ankara is planning to build a new oil pipeline from the Black Sea port of Samsun to Ceyhan that will run parallel to the BTC conduit and is encouraging Russia to join the project
2006 - USCG Captain Robert O’Brien testifies before the House Government Reform Government Management, Finance and Accountability Subcommittee on federal, state and local government information sharing to enhance port security
2006 - The official flag for the 50th anniversary of the sea cadet training center HMCS Acadia is unveiled in Cornwallis. The ceremony started at 0800 on the parade square at the Annapolis Basin Conference Center. In 1956 the Royal Canadian Navy and the Navy League of Canada named Sydney as the location for one of the national summer training centers for sea cadets. It was the original site for HMCS Acadia that has since moved to Cornwallis. For the past 50 years, more than 35,000 young people have attended sea cadet summer training
2006 - Deep Blue Marine Inc and Cross Marine have received the go ahead to recover the sunken vessel known as "The Great White Shark." The wreckage is located in the Florida Keys and in the marine sanctuary in an area wildlife officials have designated a turtle nesting ground
2006 - Sical Logistics Ltd announced that Ennore Port Ltd has chosen the Sical-led consortium to build an iron ore terminal at Ennore port near Chennai in southern India
2006 - Commander Royal Saudi Air Force, Lt. General Prince Abdul Rahman Bin Fahad called on Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Muhammad Afzal Tahir here Monday at Naval Headquarters. 
He remained with the naval chief for some time and discussed matters of bilateral and professional interest
2006 - STX Shipbuilding will build two 74,500 DWT-class petroleum carriers to be delivered to Great Eastern Shipping Co. in late 2008
2006 - Pakistan Navy Ship Tariq has rescued 28 persons stranded in a boat near the coast of Iran. The boat was carrying illegal Pakistani immigrants from Iran to Oman
2006 - Three people injured in the crash of a Russian Black Sea Fleet Tu-134 aircraft 
2006 - USNS Navajo tows the amphibious assault ship Ex-USS Belleau Wood from Pearl Harbor out to open waters for an upcoming sinking exercise (SINKEX) as part of exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2006. Belleau Wood will become an artificial reef near Hawaii. Eight nations are participating in RIMPAC, the world's largest biennial maritime exercise. Conducted in the waters off Hawaii, RIMPAC brings together military forces from Australia, Canada, Chile, Peru, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States
2006 - Cdr Erik Burian relieved Cdr Thomas Stanley as commanding officer of submarine USS Los Angeles at Naval Station Pearl Harbor
2007 - Coast Guard and other local authorities responded to collision between commuter ferries Massachusetts and Laura in Boston about one mile from Long Island Bridge at 0730. No reports of serious injuries. Massachusetts, with 151 people aboard, was inbound to Rowes Wharf from Hingham and Laura, a 101-foot vessel with four people aboard, was outbound from Boston. Coast Guard Station Boston launched two 25-foot rescue boats which arrived on scene within minutes of the collision. Massachusetts safely returned to Rowes Wharf and Laura safely returned to Marine Pier I in Charlestown
2007 - USCG Commandant Admiral Thad W. Allen will deliver remarks at the National Ice Center Symposium on the Coast Guard’s strategy for maritime operations in the Arctic at the US Navy Memorial and Naval Heritage Center
2007 - USCG Commandant Admiral Thad W. Allen will deliver introductory remarks for Secretary Chertoff at the at the NAACP 32nd Annual Armed Services and Veterans Affairs Awards Dinner honoring the USCG and the men and women of the Department of Defense at the Marriott Renaissance Center Detroit
2007 - A USMC V-22 Osprey landed on aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, the first time the 
vertical-takeoff-and-landing tiltrotor had operated from the deck of a foreign warship
2007 - Rear Adm (lower half) (Selectee) James F. Caldwell assigned as deputy commander for global strike and integration US Strategic Command Offutt AFB
2007 - Coast Guard HH 60 rescue helicopter from Air Station Kodiak rescued two people from a crashed-landed airplane in the vicinity of King Salmon at 2221
2007 - Up to fourteen people were injured by an explosion onboard a Barber managed car-carrier drydocked at a Japanese yard. The resultant fire onboard the 5,310-vehicle-capacity Grus (built 1981) was immediately extinguished, but between 13 and 14 people were taken to hospital
2007 - Frigate FGS Lubeck departed Wilhelmshaven to replace Neidersachsen in UNIFL





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