SeaWaves Today in History July 16, 2009 1536 - Jacques Cartier 1491-1557 returns to St. Malo after his second voyage to the New World, an absence of 14 months 1762 - Russian Emperor Peter III (from January to July 1762) died. He ascended the throne after the death of Elizaveta Petrovna and was overthrown by his own wife, Catherine The Great, with the help of the Guards. Imprisoned after the coup he died several days later. As rumors had it, he was killed by one of the officers guarding him. However, the people were told that the former emperor died of hemorrhage. There is no exact day of his death on record 1764 - Formal Russian emperor, from October 1740 until December 1741, Ivan VI died. After the death of Empress Anna Ioannovna the Russian throne went to the newly-born son of her niece Anna Leopoldovna and the Braunschweig Prince Anton. Duke Biron was appointed regent. But the Guards commanded by Fieldmarshal Minich soon arrested Biron and gave regency to the Emperor's mother. The court was displeased with a German clique ruling the roost, and the Guards asked Peter The Great's daughter Elizaveta to head the coup. In December 1941, a company of the Guards arrested the entire Braunschweig family and Elizaveta became the new empress. The remaining years of his life the failed emperor spent in solitary confinement. When Catherine The Great ascended the throne, Lieutenant Vassily Mirovich made an attempt to free him from the Schlisselburg Fortress, but the officers guarding the former emperor killed him, according to a secret instruction. Lieutenant Mirovich was executed some time later 1790 - District of Columbia was established as the seat of the United States Government 1811 - Sloop “Diana” commanded by Captain Vassily Golovnin on a round-the-world voyage which started in 1807, sailed up to a long spit in the eastern part of Kunashir Island. Golovnin and seven members of his crew landed on the island, and its Japanese inhabitants cordially welcomed them and invited to the local fortress. But when they entered it, the Japanese suddenly attacked and seized them. Soon the Russian captives were transferred to the town of Hakodate on Hokkaido Island where they were thrown into dark and damp prison. Only next spring were they put up in a house and allowed to walk outside the fortress walls. Since there was no hope for liberation the inmates decided to flee, but nine days later they were captured on the sea shore and thrown into a heavily guarded prison again. It was only in 1813, after two years and three months in captivity that the Russian sailors managed to return to their motherland 1819 - Russian sloops “Otkrytie” and “Blagonamerenny” commanded by MN Vasiliev & GS Shishmarev set sail to the Arctic seas to find a northern sea route from Bering Strait to the Atlantic, and “Vostok” and “Mirny” commanded by FF Bellingshausen & MP Lazarev embarked on a round-the-world voyage to the Antarctic to find a continent there 1845 - NY Yacht Club holds first regatta 1862 - Congress creates rank of Rear Admiral. David G. Farragut is named the first Rear Admiral 1872 - Roald Amundsen 1872-1928 explorer was born on this day at Borge, Norway, near Oslo. Amundsen was the first to make a ship voyage through Canada's NW Passage (on the Fram, 1903-05), the first to reach the South Pole (Dec 14, 1911), and one of the first to cross the Arctic by air. He died on about June 18, 1928 in the Arctic Ocean 1912 - Rear Admiral Bradley Fiske receives patent for torpedo plane or airborne torpedo 1915 - Submarine HMS E17 launched 1915 - First battleships, USS Ohio, Missouri, and Wisconsin transit Panama Canal 1918 - Russia's Czar Nicholas II, his empress and their five children were executed by the Bolsheviks 1918 - Submarine HMS H25 completed 1918 - Captain Edward Morton (Barrie ON) and his Observer are killed in action during a combat with 12 enemy aircraft. They were flying a DH9 with 98 Squadron RAF 1923 - Submarine USS S-37 commissioned 1927 - Canada at first refuses to join US in building St. Lawrence Seaway from Great Lakes to Atlantic 1931 - Sloop HMS Rochester launched 1934 - Aircraft carrier USS Enterprise laid down 1935 - U-8 launched 1936 - Destroyer HMS Mohawk laid down 1937 - U-54, U-55, U-64, U-65 ordered 1940 - Directive No. 16 is issued by Hitler. "I have decided to begin to prepare for, and if necessary to carry out, an invasion of England." 1940 - Under military pressure Japanese Prime Minister Yonai resigns 1940 - At 1223, the Scottish Minstrel in Convoy HX-55 was hit by one torpedo from U-61 about 130 miles NW of Bloody Foreland. The tanker caught fire and remained afloat after the hit, but sank the next day. Nine crewmembers were lost. The master and 31 crewmembers were picked up by HMS Gardenia & landed at Folkestone 1940 - British Labor MP Hugh Dalton is appointed political head of the Special Operations Executive 1940 - HM S/M Phoenix attacks an escorted tanker off Augusta and is lost to depth charges from Italian torpedo boat Albatros in the Mediterranean 1940 - MTB hull arrived Montreal PQ to become HMC MTB 1 1940 - In the Mediterranean, Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy ships bombarded the Libyan port of Bardia, a key Italian position 1940 - Destroyer HMS Whaddon launched 1940 - Destroyer HMS Dulverton laid down 1940 - Submarine HMS Saracen laid down 1940 - HMS Clyde sinks the Norwegian fishing vessel SF 52 with gunfire east of Alesund, Norway 1940 - Destroyer HMS Imogen collided with light cruiser HMS Glasgow and caught fire and was abandoned off Duncansby Head, Scotland 1940 - HMS Phoenix attacks an escorted tanker off Augusta and is lost to depth charges from Italian torpedo boat Albatros in the Mediterranean 1941 - USS West Point (ex-SS America) sails from New York City enroute to Lisbon, Portugal, carrying German and Italian consular officials and their families. The British have given the ship safe-conduct for the voyage 1941 - Corvette FS Lobelia commissioned 1941 - U-701 commissioned 1941 - U-408 launched 1942 - U-323, U-324, U-325, U-326, U-327, U-328, U-903, U-904, U-1171, and U-1172 ordered 1942 - U-631 commissioned 1942 - At 0934, the unescorted Beaconlight was struck by one torpedo from U-160 on the starboard side between #8 and #9 tanks and five minutes later by a second torpedo on the same side in the engine room. The ship began to sink immediately about ten miles NW of Galera Point, Trinidad. One crewman was lost. 38 crewmen and two British gunners (the ship was armed with one 12pdr aft and two .30cal machine guns on each side of the bridge) abandoned ship in three lifeboats. They were picked up six hours later by the small steam passenger ship Trinidad and landed at Port of Spain the same day. The drifting wreck had to be sunk by the Dutch tug Roode Zee in position 10°58N/61°10W, to prevent her being a menace to navigation. U-160 misidentified the tanker as the Gallia 1942 - At 1543, U-161 attacked Convoy AS-4 about 500 miles north of St Thomas, Virgin Islands and observed two hits on a first ship after 2 minutes 32 seconds and heard a third detonation after 3 minutes 35 seconds. Achilles reported one ship sunk and another possible damaged. In fact, only two torpedoes sank the Fairport. The Fairport in station #12 was struck on the port side in the #4 hold by the first torpedo and in the #1 hold about 12 feet below the waterline by the second. The first blew off the #4 hatch cover and started a fire that incoming seawater quickly extinguished. The other torpedo opened up a large hole 30 feet long by 25 feet wide in the hull. The engines were secured immediately and the gun crew fired one shot to indicate the direction of the torpedoes. Five minutes after the hit, all ten officers, 33 crewmen, 14 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, four .50cal and two .30cal guns) and 66 US Army personnel on board abandoned ship in two lifeboats and five rafts. After ten minutes the vessel sank stern first. USS Kearny picked up all survivors after the destroyer had dropped depth charges and landed in New York on 21 July 1942 - About 0900, the unescorted and unarmed Gertrude was ordered to stop by U-166 about 30 miles northeast of Havana, Cuba. The crew was asked to abandon ship and they left immediately in a 14-foot motorboat. U-166 then sunk the trawler by gunfire or by a scuttling charge. The motorboat with the crew ran out of fuel before reaching shore and drifted for 78 hours before being spotted by a Civil Air Patrol aircraft about three miles south of Alligator Reef Lighthouse. A boat out of Whale Harbor brought the three men ashore 1942 - Corvette HMCS Kitchener arrived Halifax from builder Quebec City PQ 1942 - An unarmed US fishing boat is sunk by gunfire or demolition charges by the German submarine U-166 about 30 miles NE of Havana 1942 - In New Zealand, Vice Admiral Robert L. Ghormley, USN, issues Operation Plan 1-42 identifying the command structure for the upcoming operations in the Solomon Islands. Vice Admiral Frank J. Fletcher commands the Solomons Expeditionary Force; Rear Admiral Leigh Noyes command the Air Support Force consisting of three carrier air groups; Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner commands the Amphibious Force; and Rear Admiral John S. McCain will command the land-based Allied air units as Commander, Air Solomons (ComAirSols) 1942 - Escort carrier HMS Ravager launched 1942 - Destroyer HMS Rapid launched 1942 - Minesweeping trawler HMS Neave launched 1942 - Submarine HMS Saracen launched 1942 - Submarine HMS Unseen launched 1943 - Light cruiser HMS Cleopatra was torpedoed and heavily damaged off Sicily by Italian submarine Dandolo. She was patched up at Malta and left for the United States for permanent repairs in October 1943. Their repairs were completed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in November 1944 1943 - U-366 commissioned 1943 - U-1192 launched 1943 - At 1558, the unescorted Fort Franklin was torpedoed and sunk by U-181 SW of Reunion. Two crewmembers died. The master, 43 crewmembers and nine gunners landed at Manajara, Madagascar 1943 - U-306 shadowed Convoy SL-133 from grid EK79 to EK49 and reported two days later four ships of 27,000 tons sunk and one other ship of 5,000 tons probably sunk. The U-boat attacked two times; the first attack was carried out at 0352, firing five single torpedoes. Trotha reported one ship sunk, one probably sunk and three torpedoes missed due to great distance. In fact, only the Kaipara was torpedoed and damaged at this time. At 0801, the U-boat fired two spreads of two torpedoes and two minutes later the stern torpedo. U-306 observed three hits and could not see the targets anymore, but none of the reported hits are confirmed by Allied reports 1943 - At 2115, the unescorted Richard Caswell was hit by one torpedo from U-513 about 150 miles SE of Florianopolis, Brazil. The torpedo struck on the starboard side at the after end of the engine room, destroying the engines and killing three men on watch below. The most survivors among the eight officers, 34 crewmen, 24 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4-in and nine 20-mm guns) and two passengers on board abandoned ship in three lifeboats and two rafts. The master and a small party stayed on board but ten minutes after the hit a second torpedo struck at the forward end of the engine room. The explosion blew a few men over the side and caused extensive damage to the amidships deck and the superstructure. Just as the ship broke in two and sank after about 15 minutes, the U-boat surfaced and questioned the survivors. The commander told the men that he had lived in Brooklyn for seven years and asked how the Dodgers were doing; the Germans gave them cigarettes and then left the area. In all, the master, two officers and six crewmen were lost. The 26 survivors in two of the boats were picked up on 19 July by the Argentine steam merchant Mexico and landed two days later at Rio Grande, Brazil. On 22 July the 16 survivors in the third lifeboat made landfall at Barra Valha, Brazil. The 18 survivors on the rafts were picked up by seaplane tender USS Barnegat on 22 July and landed three days later at Rio de Janeiro 1943 - U-67 sunk in the Sargasso Sea, in position 30.05N, 44.17W, by depth charges from USN VC-13 Avengers off escort carrier USS Core. 48 dead and 3 survivors 1943 - Frigate HMCS Beacon Hill laid down Esquimalt BC 1943 - Patrol vessel HMS Kilbernie commissioned 1943 - Destroyer USS Stembel commissioned 1943 - Destroyer escort USS Dionne commissioned 1943 - Submarine USS Apogon commissioned 1943 - Destroyer escort USS Vance launched 1943 - Frigate USS El Paso launched 1943 - Sloop HMS Lapwing launched 1943 - Corvette HMS Rushen Castle launched 1944 - USS Crowninshield was commissioned as HMS Chelsea on 9 Sep 1940, and USS Cowell, commissioned as HMS Brighton on 23 Sep 1940, USS Fairfax, commissioned as HMS Richmond on 26 Nov 1940; USS Thomas, commissioned as HMS St Albans on 23 Sep 1940 are transferred to Russia. All four were part of the destroyers-for-bases deal. Chelsea is transferred to Russia as Dzerki, Brighton as Zharki, St. Albans as Dostoinyi and Richmond as Zhivuchi. They will be returned to the Royal Navy in 1949 1944 - Soviet warplanes sink German AA cruiser Niobe (former Dutch Gelderland from 1898) in Kotka harbor and believe that the victim was Väinämöinen 1944 - Submarine USS Bullhead launched 1944 - Destroyer USS Hugh W Hadley launched 1944 - Destroyer USS Fred T Berry laid down 1944 - U-299 commanding officer wounded in an aircraft attack. The boat, part of a defense line off Norway, reached Bergen four days later 1944 - HMS Templar misses the German submarine U-1062 with torpedoes in the Malacca Strait 1945 - Corvette HMCS Amherst paid off Sydney NS 1945 - Corvette HMCS Whitby paid off Sorel PQ 1945 - HMC ML 091, ML 098 & 112 paid off 1945 - The Royal Navy's Task Force 37 under Vice Admiral Henry B. Rawlings RN and composed of a battleship, four aircraft carriers (HMS Formidable, HMS Indefatigable, HMS Implacable and HMS Victorious), eight light cruisers and 18 destroyers, joins the USN's Third Fleet 1945 - First atomic bomb test at Alamogordo NM 1945 - Escort carrier USS Bairoko commissioned 1945 - Destroyer USS Witek laid down 1947 - Destroyer HMCS Micmac collides with SS Yarmouth County off Halifax. 10 sailors and 1 civilian killed on Micmac 1948 - Minesweeper HMCS Lloyd George paid off 1953 - Destroyer HMCS Cayuga arrives Comox BC 1954 - Destroyer HMCS Cayuga departs Kure Japan for Korea 1956 - Patrol/Training craft HMCS Cormorant & Mallard commissioned 1964 - Parliament passes Bill extending Canada's fishing limits to 19.3 km (the 12 mile limit) 1965 - Frigate HMCS La Hulloise paid off 1966 - USS Hancock port call Yokosuka 1969 - Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy - first manned mission to surface of moon 1969 - USS Kitty Hawk port call Subic Bay 1969 - Destroyer HMCS Gatineau departs Halifax for Esquimalt after ASROC conversion 1972 - USS Hancock port call Subic Bay 1979 - Point au Gaul Newfoundland - 135 pothead whales beach themselves for no known reason; rescue workers try to free them, but in vain 1979 - Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq 1980 - Ronald Reagan won Republican presidential nomination at convention in Detroit 1999 - John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died when their single-engine plane, piloted by Kennedy, plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard, Mass 2000 - Families and friends of the victims of the TWA Flight 800 explosion broke ground for a new memorial on the Long Island shore not far from where the plane went down, killing all 230 people on board 2002 - HMCS Oriole arrived Pearl Harbor. Subsequently that evening, overlooking the USS Arizona & USS Missouri memorials, a brief change of command ceremony took place in which LCdr Gary Davis relieved LCdr Scott Crawshaw in command 2005 - At 1025 Falmouth Coastguard received several 999 calls from guests at a wedding reception at St Mawes Castle, reporting they had witnessed a collision between two pleasure vessels and could hear cries for help. Falmouth Coastguard launched the Falmouth RNLI inshore and all weather lifeboats and scrambled the rescue helicopter from RNAS Culdrose and the Portscatho Coastguard Rescue Team. The inshore lifeboat was first on the scene to find both vessels afloat and the lifeboat crew were able to transfer three people from the smaller vessel, one of them critically injured, into the lifeboat and subsequently the injured man was airlifted by the rescue helicopter to Treliske Hospital Truro. He was declared deceased by hospital staff. Both vessels were towed into St Mawes and two people were taken by ambulance to Treliske Hospital with less serious injuries. The two vessels involved in the collision were a 12-foot open boat with three people on board and a 19-foot cabin cruiser with four persons on board 2005 - French Navy frigate Nivose arrived in the port of Durban and went immediately to the Eldock floating dock for general maintenance and repairs 2005 - The Coast Guard's newest patrol boat, Tiger Shark, commissioned by Rear Adm. David Pekoske, commander of Coast Guard First District, at Fort Adams State Park in Newport RI. US Congressman Jim Langevin, representative for the Second District of Rhode Island, will deliver the keynote address at the commissioning ceremony. The Congressman’s mother, Mrs. June Barrett Langevin, a Warwick RI resident, is the cutter’s sponsor. During the commissioning ceremony, Lt j.g. Grant Thomas will assume command of the Tiger Shark. Thomas previously served aboard the 270-foot medium endurance Coast Guard Cutter Bear, a 270-foot medium endurance cutter homeported in Portsmouth VA 2006 - A major land and sea search has been mounted by Solent coastguard after a nine year old girl is reported missing by her guardian 2006 - A man died while diving in waters around the Scapa Flow area of the Orkney Islands. The 61-year-old, who was on holiday in the area, was diving with a group on a sunken navy barge 2006 - Environmental Protection Administration on alert after an Indonesian freighter carrying some 1,000 tonnes of chemicals sank off the coast of Taiwan. The agency set up a contingency group as the 355-tonne Dewibunyu was carrying 1,000 tonnes of ethyl acetate, a solvent widely used in glues and nail polish removers. It went down off Keelung on the 15th. Weather was rough a day after Tropical Storm Bilis moved across the Taiwan Strait. The eight crew on board were rescued by Taiwan's coast guard 2006 - Greek Government sending a navy frigate to Lebanon to help evacuate Greek citizens 2006 - The Navy and the Coast Guard rescued a missing crew member of a trawler during a daring operation conducted in choppy seas off the uninhabited island of Suahili in Lakshadweep. 32 crewmembers of Isabel 111 swam to safety after abandoning the vessel yesterday, one fisherman was listed as missing. A Seaking helicopter of the Navy piloted by Commander I A Manivannan and Commander S Shukhla reached the area and located the fisherman who was drifting away from shore. The rough sea and huge waves made it difficult for the helicopter to hoist the man up. However, the naval personnel persisted and succeeded in winching him up into the helicopter. All 33 fishermen were then airlifted to Kavaratti by the helicopter 2006 - Coast Guard rescued two adults and a dog after their 21-foot pleasure craft became disabled near Anderson Bay in the Port of Valdez 2007 - NOAA fishery research ship Henry B Bigelow commissioned at Norfolk VA 2007 - The Coast Guard helicopter TF-SIF had to make an emergency landing at sea off Hafnarfjördur yesterday while on an exercise. The crew of four was rescued by a Coast Guard boat, but the helicopter was destroyed 2007 - Zelenodolsk Shipyard hold a solemn ceremony of laying down the head frigate of the project 11661 to be built for the Vietnamese Navy 2007 - USCG assisted a fisherman whose boat had run out of fuel near La Push, Wash 2008 - Mexican Navy seized a homemade submarine in the Pacific with a suspected drug shipment on board 2008 - German-Russian undersea gas pipeline joint venture Nord Stream said in a statement that a seabed survey ship owned by Norway's DOF Subsea had discovered a submarine wreck with Soviet markings, adding the vessel was presumed to have sunk during the second world war. The wreck was found in Finland's exclusive economic zone in the Gulf of Finland 2008 - Five people were confirmed killed yesterday in Bonny, Rivers State when militants attacked a naval gun boat guarding oil installations in the volatile Niger Delta Copyright 2009 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. Royal Navy photos are Courtesy of www.oldships.org.uk unless otherwise indicated. To contact us: 418-145 West Keith Rd North Vancouver BC V7M 1L3 Canada Phone: 778-968-7447