SeaWaves Today in History March 9, 2008 ********************************************************************* March 9 1451 - Amerigo Vespucci, the explorer for whom the continents of North and South America were named, was born in Florence, Italy. A well-educated businessman involved in foreign trade, Vespucci moved to Seville, Spain, in 1491 and was probably there when Christopher Columbus returned from his first journey of exploration. Vespucci was involved in the financing and outfitting of Columbus’ second and third voyages. Vespucci was a skilled navigator and went on at least two, and possibly four, voyages to Central and South America between 1497 and 1504 on behalf of Spanish or Portuguese investors. Vespucci is credited with being the first explorer to realize that the newly discovered territories were not part of Asia, as Columbus thought, but were part of a "New World." In 1507, Vespucci published a pamphlet entitled "The Four Voyages of Amerigo." This paper led to the suggestion that the new lands be named in his honor. At first, ‘America’ was only meant to apply to South America, which Vespucci explored the coasts of present-day Brazil and Venezuela. Eventually, his name came to be associated with both continents. After his explorations, he lived in Seville and was the Master Navigator of Spain. Amerigo Vespucci died of malaria in 1512 1741 - Admiral Vernon attacks Cartagena (part of the War of Jenkin's Ear) 1798 - Appointment of first surgeon US Navy, George Balfour 1845 - Engineer, ship builder and lieutenant general Nikolay Evlampievich Kuteynikov born 1847 - Commodore David Connor leads successful amphibious assault near Vera Cruz, Mexico 1847 - Cap tags showing the name of the ships are introduced for the first time 1860 - First Japanese ambassador to the United States, Niimi Buzennokami, and his staff arrived in San Francisco 1862 - First battle between ironclads, USS Monitor and CSS Virginia 1885 - This is the final day of the contract signed by Canadian voyageurs to serve on the Nile River. Almost 400 of the rivermen volunteered to move British troops and supplies upriver to the relief of Khartoum. With the fall of the city and the expiration of their agreement, most will return to Canada to resume their lives in the timber trade 1909 - Battleship USS Utah laid down 1910 - Virginia V steamer is launched 1914 - Test of wind tunnel at Washington Navy Yard 1918 - Minesweeper USS Avocet launched 1918 - Submarine HMS H30 launched 1920 - Destroyer USS Tracy commissioned 1921 - Cruiser HMCS Aurora with destroyers HMCS Patrician & Patriot arrived Esquimalt BC 1922 - Virginia V steamer is launched in Seattle 1931 - Heavy cruiser USS Chicago commissioned 1933 - Heavy cruiser USS San Francisco launched 1936 - Destroyer HMS Cossack laid down 1937 - U-52 laid down 1939 - US freighter SS Exmoor is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities 1940 - Admiral Erich Raeder, Commander of the German Navy, tells Hitler that the British and French might occupy Norway & Sweden under the pretext of aiding the Finns and he encourages an invasion of Norway at the earliest time 1940 - US freighter SS Exmoor is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities 1940 - An Anglo-Italian compromise solution to the "Coal Ships Affair" of 7 March is achieved in London. The Italian colliers detained by the British are released & Italy agrees to find an alternative (overland) supply route from the German coalfields 1940 - At 2330, SS Abbotsford was torpedoed by U-14 north of Zeebrugge. 15 minutes later, the U-boat torpedoed & sank SS Akeld NE of Zeebrugge, which was following the other ship. At 2355, Abbotsford was torpedoed again by U-14 7 sank immediately. The master and 17 crewmembers from the Abbotsford were lost. The master and eleven crewmembers from Akeld were lost 1940 - At 0542, the unescorted SS Borthwick was torpedoed & sunk by U-14 north of Zeebrugge. The master and 20 crewmembers were picked up by the Flushing Pilot Boat #9 and landed at Flushing on 10 March 1940 - At 2113, steam trawler Leukos was attacked without warning by U-38 about 12 miles NW of Tory Island. At 2000, the U-boat had spotted six trawlers all with their light set near Tory Island and thought that they were forming a patrol line. He decided to give one of them a warning & fired one shot from its deckgun at the Leukos from a distance of 200 meters. The shot hit the trawler in the engine room and she disappeared in a cloud of steam and smoke. The U-boat waited until the trawler sank after one hour and then continued the patrol. Leukos was reported missing on 12 March, when she failed to arrive in Dublin. On 21 March, a lifeboat bearing the logo of the ship was washed ashore on Scarinish Tiree off the West Coast of Scotland 1940 - U-109 laid down 1940 - U-124 launched 1940 - Minesweeping trawlers HMS Hazel & Juniper commissioned 1940 - Destroyers USS Kearny & Plunkett launched 1941 - Destroyers HMS Southdown & Worcester repel a German attack on Convoy FS-429A 1941 - Portsmouth is bombed by the Luftwaffe 1941 - In a joint report on the role of Coastal Command and the Royal Navy it is decided that "the predominance of the naval element in the existing operational partnership for the production of a sea-borne trade, but preserving the right of direct command of Coastal Groups to their own officers and the C-in-C" 1941 - Minesweeping trawler HMS Gulfoss mined & sunk in the English Channel 1942 - Frigate HMS Exe launched 1942 - Admiral Ernest J. King; Commander-in-Chief of the United States Fleet succeeded Admiral Harold R Stark as Chief of Naval Operations 1942 - The conquest of Java completed by the Japanese 1942 - Anglo-American Caribbean Commission 1942 - Admiral Harold Stark relieves Admiral Ghormley as Commander US Naval Forces in European Waters 1942 - Australian coastwatcher P. Good is executed by the Japanese on Buka Island, north of Bougainville. He had been betrayed by an Australian news broadcast reporting enemy shipping movements 1942 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt again radios MacArthur to leave the Philippines and MacArthur agrees he will leave Corregidor by 15 March. The question is how. The original plan was for MacArthur and party to leave in the submarine USS Permit on 14 March. However, the radio press in the US began broadcasting demands that MacArthur be placed in command of all Allied Forces in Australia and the Japanese, realizing that he will flee, increase the size and frequency of naval patrols in Subic Bay and off Corregidor. A destroyer division is sighted in the southern Philippines heading north at high speed. Tokyo Rose is broadcasting that MacArthur will be captured within a month, and US Navy officers give MacArthur a one-in-five chance. Therefore, It is decided not to wait for the submarine but to leave by motor torpedo (PT) boat as soon as preparations can be completed. The PT boats will take him to Mindanao Island and the party will then board three USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses at Del Monte Field for a flight to Australia 1942 - A Brazilian steamship is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-94 about 130 miles east of Atlantic City 1942 - Submarine USS Swordfish disembarks US High Commissioner to the Philippine Islands Francis B. Sayre and his party at Fremantle 1942 - RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons & Stirlings are dispatched to bomb the port area of Boulogne; only two aircraft bomb the target 1942 - Submarines USS R-17 & R-19 transferred to RN under Lend Lease & renamed HMS P-512 & P-552 respectively. P-512 assigned to Halifax & P-552 to Argentia/St John's for ASW training 1942 - U-619, U-620 launched 1942 - At 1317, the unescorted & unarmed motor tanker Hanseat was hit by two torpedoes from U-126 10 miles NNE of Cape Maysi, Cuba. The first torpedo struck on the starboard side in the bow and tore holes in both sides, the second hit simultaneously in the stern, just ahead of the propeller near the engine room. The tanker immediately settled by the stern, due to the flooding of the engine room. The engines were stopped and distress signals were sent, before the Danish crew abandoned ship in all four lifeboats. A short time later, the U-boat surfaced & started to shell the Hanseat for about two hours. About 200 rounds were fired into the port side, setting the tanker ablaze. One lifeboat had an outboard motor and reached the village of Maysi about seven hours after the attack. The men in the boat immediately left aboard the Cuban motor launch Corsario to rescue the other survivors. In the meantime, the men in the remaining lifeboats sighted the Panamanian motor tanker Pheobus enroute from New York to Caripito, bearing directly toward the burning Hanseat. Brandt hoisted a yellow flag to warn her, because they were only 7 miles away from the wreck and they thought that the U-boat was still in the vicinity. The other tanker came near and Groth spoke to Brandt, inquiring him about the condition of the survivors and offering assistance. Brandt told him to keep on going in order not to endanger his ship by stopping. Groth promised to send help and proceeded on his course. By this time the last sign of smoke from the Hanseat had disappeared, apparently the ship was completely sunk. Two hours after leaving Maysi, the motor launch arrived at the scene and took the three lifeboats in tow to Maysi. The survivors were then transported on the Corsario to Baracoa, Cuba and later by bus to Havana. They were flown to Miami and were then sent by train back to New York, arriving on 24 March 1942 - Submarine USS Swordfish disembarks US High Commissioner to the Philippine Islands Francis B Sayre & his party at Fremantle 1942 - RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons and Stirlings are dispatched to bomb the port area of Boulogne; only two aircraft bomb the target 1942 - Five RAF Bomber Command Hampdens lay mines in the Frisian Islands 1942 - Land-based aircraft attack a Japanese convoy in Huon Gulf with unobserved results 1942 - SS Lily sunk by U-587 at 43.32N, 54.14W 1942 - At 0225, the unescorted Hog Islander SS Cayru was torpedoed by U-94, broke in two & sank 130 miles from New York. All hands on board abandoned ship, but only the lifeboat with the master and 26 other men was found. The other lifeboats with 47 crewmembers and six passengers disappeared 1942 - MS Tyr sunk by U-96 at 43.40N, 61.10W 1943 - Corvette HMCS Wetaskiwin completed refit Liverpool NS 1943 - Submarine HMS Taciturn laid down 1943 - Destroyer escorts USS Foreman, Harveson, Slater & Earl K Olsen laid down 1943 - Destroyer USS Hailey launched 1943 - Destroyer escorts USS Fessenden & Hopping launched 1943 - Escort carrier HMS Nabob launched Tacoma WA 1943 - U-83 is sunk SE of Cartagena, by a British Hudson a/c which drops three depth charges. All 50 of the U-Boat crew are lost 1943 - U-365 launched 1943 - Man was lost overboard from U-653 [Bootsmaat Walter Mayer] 1943 - At 2235, U-405 attacked Convoy SC-121 & observed two hits from starboard on a ship that sank. The ship hit was the Bonneville, which was the ship of the convoy commodore R.C. Birnie in station #81. Among the 36 dead were the master, the commodore and his staff of seven men, several of them froze to death on rafts or in lifeboats. Four of the seven survivors were picked up from a capsized lifeboat by the rescue ship Melrose Abbey & one other man was picked up from a raft by the same vessel. The landing craft HMS LCT-2341 was also lost as the ship sank 1943 - At 2226, SS Malantic in station #102 of convoy SC-121 was torpedoed by U-409. One torpedo struck on the starboard side at the #1 hatch. A violent detonation occurred 15 seconds later, blowing out the wheelhouse windows. The engines were secured and the eight officers, 25 crewmen, 13 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, four 20mm and two .30cal guns) and one passenger abandoned ship in rough seas immediately in the two port lifeboats because the starboard boats were destroyed. The vessel gradually settled by the head and sank during the night. At 0230, British rescue ship Melrose Abbey picked up one man in the water and found the lifeboat of the master with eleven survivors, but one man fell overboard & drowned. He had been keeping the lifeboat secured to the rescue ship. When it was his turn to board, he was so exhausted he lost his balance and fell overboard. One of the ship’s officers went after him and almost lost his own life doing so. When the other lifeboat was found it capsized when it came alongside, drowning several men. In all, three officers, 16 crewmen, five armed guards and the passenger were lost. The survivors were landed at Gourock the next day 1943 - At 2241, U-409 fired torpedoes at Convoy SC-121 south of Iceland and observed a hit on a tanker and assumed a hit on a second ship after a second detonation was heard but not observed. However, only motor tanker Rosewood was hit, caught fire and broke in two. Both sections were scuttled by gunfire by USCGC Bibb on 11 March in 58°30N/20°31W. The master, 32 crewmembers and nine gunners were lost. 1943 - SS Tabor sunk by U-506 at 37.30S, 23.15E 1943 - At 0306, 0307 & 0310, U-510 fired torpedoes at Convoy BT-6 about 200 miles NE of Paramaribo, Dutch Guyana and reported four ships sunk. In fact, Kelvinbank was sunk and George G. Meade, Tabitha Brown and Joseph Rodman Drake were damaged. George G. Meade in station #34, which was designated as rescue ship for this convoy, was hit by one torpedo and was slightly damaged. All eight officers, 33 men and 25 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 3in and five 20mm guns) on board survived. During the next two and one-half hours she picked up 32 survivors from the Kelvinbank. The Liberty ship was later towed to Paramaribo, arriving on 10 March. After some repairs she went to New York, arriving on 2 April, via Trinidad and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After permanent repairs were made, she returned to service. On 9 Jan 1943, the George G. Meade left Bombay for Capetown. On 9 February, she left for Bahia, arriving on 25 February. It was planned to load bauxite at Paramaribo. The only slightly damaged Joseph Rodman Drake arrived at Paramaribo on 10 March. 1943 - Between 0604 & 0611, U-510 fired torpedoes during a second attack at Convoy BT-6 about 175 miles north of Cayenne, French Guyana & again reported four ships sunk. The convoy became unorganized after the first attack because all ships performed evasive maneuvers. In fact, the Mark Hanna & James Smith were damaged with Thomas Ruffin & James K. Polk were damaged and later declared a total loss. James K. Polk in station #23 was struck by one torpedo on the port side amidships. The explosion knocked out all six sides of the #3 deep tank, extensively damaged the #5 double bottom tank, damaged the engine room, wrecked pumps and piping, carried away the radio antenna and sprung the carriages of the two large guns. One of the armed guards was crushed to death by a lifeboat, which was blown from its davits by the explosion. Two crewmembers were injured. The ship began to settle by the stern until only three feet of freeboard remained. The seven officers, 37 crewmen, 18 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, one 3in and four 20mm guns) and three passengers remained on board, until they were taken off by USS PC-592 and taken to Port of Spain. Only the master and seven volunteers stayed and rigged tarpaulins on the foremast and mizzenmast. They sailed the vessel 360 miles until a British tug towed her to Trinidad, arriving on 17 March. The badly damaged vessel was towed to Mobile in December 1945 and declared a total loss. Six deaths reported on Thomas Ruffin. Mark Hanna in station #33 was struck by one torpedo on the port side at the #5 hold. The explosion opened a hole of 40 to 30 foot in the port and several smaller holes in the starboard side. Booms fell, the deck buckled, the hatch cover flew off, the rudder jammed and the shaft broke, but there were no casualties among the 41 crewmembers and 25 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, five 20mm and two .30cal guns). The ship steered towards the also disabled James Smith & the master ordered the men in the two port lifeboats to abandon ship and to return after the collision, but the ships did not collide and the boats drifted away. The 33 men in them were later picked up by the American submarine chaser USS PC-592 and landed at Trinidad on 13 March. The remaining crew helped to get the vessel under tow and arrived in Trinidad on 17 March. On 23 May, the Mark Hanna left Trinidad in tow after temporary repairs, arriving in New Orleans on 12 June for permanent repairs. She returned to service on 29 September. James Smith in station #73 was struck by one torpedo on the port side at the #5 hold. The explosion blew a large section out of the side and bottom of the ship and disabled the steering gear, knocked down the radio antenna and damaged the propeller shaft. Five armed guards and six crewmen sleeping on the tarpaulin cover of the #5 hatch died. The survivors among the eight officers, 34 crewmen and 16 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, one 3in, four .50cal and two .30cal guns) calmly abandoned ship in four lifeboats after the engines were secured. After daybreak two of the boats returned to the vessel and reboarded her, while the occupants in the other boats were picked up by USS PC-592, which later came to the ship, whose bow lay out of the water. On 12 March, the remaining survivors on board were ordered by the commander of the submarine chaser to abandon ship, but the James Smith did not sink and the master, three crewmen and the armed guard officer again reboarded her. They stayed with the ship as rescue tug HMS Zwarte Zee towed her to Trinidad. The men on the submarine chaser were landed at Trinidad on 16 March. The vessel was later towed to New Orleans, where she was repaired and returned to service on 10 Aug 1943 1943 - At 2136, U-530 sank a lone vessel with a torpedo & two coup de grâce. The ship was probably SS Milos, which was reported missing after straggling from Convoy SC-121 1943 - At 2206, SS Puerto Rican was hit by one torpedo from U-586 about 100 miles NE of Iceland. The ship was straggling from Convoy RA-53 since two days due to heavy weather and was at the time of the attack about 25 miles behind the convoy. The torpedo struck on the starboard side aft of the #5 hatch and caused the ship to sink on even keel in 15 minutes. The eight officers, 32 crewmen and 25 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, one 3in, four 20mm, four .50cal and two .30cal guns) tried to abandon ship in the four lifeboats and the rafts in rough seas and 30° below zero weather. They only managed to launch one boat because the others were frozen in their chocks. This boat capsized when the after fall failed to release and all occupants fell into the sea, where most of them quickly froze to death in the 21° water. Eight men eventually swam to a doughnut raft and six later transferred to a large provisioned raft. In the following two days all these men except one froze to death or washed off the raft. The sole survivor, a fireman wearing a lifesaving suit, was picked up on 12 March by HMS St Elstan & landed in Seydisfjordur, Iceland. From there he was taken to a hospital in Reykjavik aboard troop transport USS Gemini, arriving on 16 March. He eventually lost both feet and most of the fingers of both hands 1943 - At 1843 & 1844, U-596 fired torpedoes at Convoy KMS-10 & observed one hit after 1 minute 59 seconds and then heard another detonation after 2 minutes 55 seconds, probably on a more distant ship. A third torpedo detonation and a boiler explosion were also heard. In fact, the first torpedo damaged the Fort Norman & the third the Empire Standard. Fort Norman was a North Sands-class freighter built by West Coast Ship Builders Ltd., at Vancouver, BC She was completed in Oct 42. Fort Norman was one of 90 North Sands-class freighters built in Canada for American order under the Hyde Park Declaration and subsequently provided to Great Britain under the Lend-Lease Agreement. W.H. Cockerline & Co., of London, managed the ship for the British government. Twenty-two of these ships were sunk and another seven were damaged. U-596 was a medium-range Type VIIC submarine built by Blohm and Voss, at Hamburg. She was commissioned on 13 Nov 41, KptLt. Gunther Jahn, CO. U-595 conducted 12 patrols and compiled a record of 13 ships sunk for a total of 41,657 tons and two ships damaged for a further 14,180 tons. U-595, OLtzS. Hans Kolbus, CO, was scuttled on 24 Sep 44, in the Mediterranean, in Skaramanga Bay, in position 37.59N, 023.34E, after being damaged in an air raid by USAAF B-24 bombers on the port of Salamis. There was one casualty among an unknown number of persons onboard. Gunter Jahn was born in 1910, at Hamburg. He joined the navy in 1931. His first operational duty was as a Watch Officer in the light cruiser Nürnberg. In Jan 40, he was sent to the Mine Warfare School at Kiel before being posted in Feb 40 as a Watch Officer in the light cruiser Leipzig. He transferred to the U-boat Force in Mar 41, and, after conversion training, was selected for command. Jahn underwent his U-boat Commander's Course for Jun to Aug 41 and the served until Oct 41 as a supernumerary trainee in the very successful Type VIIC boat U-98, KptLt. Robert Gysae, Knight's Cross, CO (25 ships sunk for 147,000 tons). Jahn was appointed to command U-596 on 13 Nov 41, at the age of 31. During six patrols He was awarded the Knight's Cross on 30 Apr 43, the 91st presented in the U-boat force. In Jul 43, KptLt. Jahn was assigned to the 29th U-Flotilla and in Aug 43 he was made the Commanding Officer of that unit. He was promoted to KKpt. on 01 Nov 43. Jahn was captured by Free French forces in Sep 44 and was detained after the capitulation until 10 Jul 46. He sank five ships for a total of 27,572 tons and damaged two ships for a further 14,180 tons. Gunter Jahn died on 12 Apr 92 1943 - U-83 is sunk SE of Cartagena, by three depth charges from an RAF Hudson British Hudson a/c which drops three depth charges. All 50 of the U-Boat crew are lost 1944 - Light cruiser USS Springfield launched 1944 - Minesweeper USS Ptarmigan laid down 1944 - Destroyer escort USS Dufilho launched 1944 - Submarine HMS Visgoth commissioned 1944 - Minesweeper USS Palisade commissioned 1944 - Escort carrier USS Sargent Bay commissioned 1944 - Submarine USS Spadefish commissioned 1944 - Destroyer USS Wedderburn commissioned 1944 - Destroyer escort USS Richard M Rowell commissioned 1944 - Coast Guard-manned USS Leopold is torpedoed off Iceland. All 13 officers and 148 (out of 186) enlisted men lost 1944 - Frigate HMCS New Waterford arrived Halifax from Esquimalt BC 1944 - USCG-manned destroyer escort USS Leopold, on her second voyage and escorting Convoy CU-16, when she got an acoustic contact about 400 miles south of Iceland and turned to investigate it. But before the destroyer escort reached the U-boat, she was hit at 2200 by a Gnat from U-255 & abandoned. The vessel remained afloat but sank early the next morning. Only 28 survivors were picked up by sister ship USS Joyce 1944 - U-826, U-827, U-1055 launched 1944 - At 0800, U-183 torpedoed storage tanker British Loyalty, which was anchored off the southwest entrance to Addu Atoll. She caught fire & sank to the bottom. The ship was later salved & again used as hulk until she was scuttled on 15 Jan 1946 in position 00.38´12S/73.07´24E 1945 - Destroyer USS Furse launched 1945 - Frigate SAS Natal commissioned 1945 - U-2548 launched 1946 - LST -767 (Coast Guard-manned) damaged in Okinawa hurricane and decommissioned 1946 - Agreement was struck between the RCN and the RCAF, giving the Air Force management of all naval shore-based air-related activities, including support services such as air stores and major aircraft repair, overhaul and maintenance on behalf of the newly-formed Naval air branch. Much of this arrangement was to prove inadequate in short order, and its shortcomings in large part led to the Navy's eventual acquisition of RCAF Station Dartmouth in December of 1948. 1955 - S/Lt (P) John Victor Searle RCN, crashed a Sea Fury fighter in a heavily wooded area approximately one mile from the Shearwater Naval Air Station. S/Lt. Searle was trapped inside the aircraft, which had broken in two upon impact. A RCN 'Bell' two-seat helicopter arrived at the scene of the accident about three minutes after the crash. The pilot, Lt (P) Francis Roger Fink, could not land the helicopter due to the dense bush. The co-pilot, Lt (P) Douglas Albert 'Duke' Muncaster, with disregard for his own safety, jumped down from the helicopter from a height of approximately eight feet as Lt. Fink hovered the aircraft. As Lt. Muncaster ran approximately 50 yards towards the crash site, one of the Sea Fury's fuel tanks exploded and set the wreckage alight. When he arrived, Muncaster saw that the pilot was still alive. He used a rock to break open the canopy and then extricated the pilot. The remaining fuel tank exploded as he was assisting S/Lt. Searle in getting away from the scene. Lt. Fink landed in a nearby clearing, took S/Lt Searle aboard, and delivered him to the door of the Shearwater Infirmary. He then returned and picked up his co-pilot 1973 - USS Coral Sea commenced Vietnam deployment with CVW-15 1991 - Naval forces continue defensive counter-air, surface surveillance, maritime interceptions and minesweeping operations 1992 - Vashon Island residents vociferously object to proposed bridge at public meeting 2004 - Taiwanese Navy received their last locally made Cheng Kung-class frigate, Tian Dan. This ended the Kuang Hua 1 plan - a decade-old policy to build eight frigates to beef up the Taiwanese naval defense capability 2004 - Aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov official transferred from Russia to India today at a ceremony in the White Sea port city of Severodvinsk by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel-General A M Moskovsky to Indian Ambassador Krishnan Raghunath. The ex-Admiral Gorshkov now enters a 52-month refit at Severodvinsk-based SevMash Naval Shipbuilders 2005 - Williamson & Associates, Inc., of Seattle, working with Canadian mining giant Placer Dome, is conducting a survey to characterize sulfide deposits in the Manus Basin off Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. The survey is Placer Dome's initial involvement in the subsea minerals exploration program following a recent agreement with Nautilus Minerals Limited of Australia. Nautilus currently has seven tenements in Papua New Guinea granted or under applications that total some 15,000 square kilometers. These are distributed across three provinces: three in New Ireland Province; three in Milne Bay Province north of Misima; and one in Manus Province. Previous expeditions to the Manus Basin uncovered surprisingly rich deposits on the seafloor for which preliminary analyses averaged close to 13 grams/ton gold, 167 g/t silver, 5 percent copper, and 22 percent zinc from four holes drilled in to the top five meters of the deposit 2005 - Debris from the International Space Station was dumped into the Pacific on Wednesday. “At 1703, the elements of the Progress M-51 ship that had not burnt were sunk in a specially designated area of the Southern Pacific,” the Mission Control Center said. “The ship engines were activated at 1617 GMT for a slowdown. The transport ship carrying almost one tonne of waste from the ISS and spent equipment went off the orbit and ceased to exit an hour and 46 minutes later,” Mission Control said 2005 - Excel Maritime Carriers Ltd announced that it has agreed to acquire a Handymax bulk carrier, MV IDC 2, for a purchase price of $15.5 million. MV IDC 2 (to be renamed "Attractive") is a Handymax bulk carrier of approximately 41,500 dwt, built in 1985 by Mitsubishi Engineering & Shipbuilding Co Ltd. The vessel is expected to be delivered on or about May 6, 2005. MV IDC 2 is the seventh vessel that the Company has agreed to acquire since Christopher Georgakis joined Excel Maritime as CEO in late October 2004 2005 - President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea asked the government to come up with ways to attract private investment for the building of maritime police patrol boats. Roh made the request while being briefed by the Maritime Affairs and Fishery Ministry on this year's policy agenda 2005 - The Halifax-class patrol frigate HMCS Winnipeg is preparing to deploy in early spring for a period of six months to the Arabian Gulf region to operate with the 5th Fleet of the United States Navy in the continuing campaign against terrorism known as Operation Enduring Freedom. The Canadian Forces participation in Operation Enduring Freedom is named Operation Altair. With her crew of about 225 officers and sailors, and her CH-124 Sea King helicopter detachment, HMCS Winnipeg will conduct surveillance patrols and maritime interdiction operations in order to control sea-based activity in the region 2005 - HMP Weare, docked in Portland, will be shut by the end of the year as the Prison Service says necessary renovations are too costly. The government purchased it in 1997 as a temporary overcrowding measure and intended to close it in 2000. Weare, originally a troopship in the Falklands war and then a floating jail in the US, had been heavily criticized in prison service reports. The vessel's seaworthiness certificate is due for renewal next year and "substantial investment" would be necessary to keep the ship operational, a Prison Service spokeswoman said. Last year Anne Owers, the chief inspector of Prisons, criticized conditions on the Weare and said it should be closed down unless a huge amount of money was spent on refurbishment 2005 - Petty Officer First Class Alec Mazur, 35, of Vernon NY died in a non-combat related incident. Mazur was assigned to Underwater Construction Team One (UCT-1), under operational control of Commander, US Naval Forces Central Command 2007 - Exactly 145 years after the historic clash between the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia, the Mariners’ Museum and NOAA will open the doors to one of the premier Civil War attractions across the nation—the USS Monitor Center. This dramatic new $30 million, 63,500-square-foot facility will enthrall families with exciting exhibits, bring students face-to-face with history, house state-of-the-art conservation labs and offer historians rich resources for research. At the heart of the USS Monitor Center is the exhibition—a melding of artifacts, original documents, paintings, personal accounts, interactive displays and environments that will pique all five senses. The strategies, people, technology and science behind the historic circumstances surrounding this story will be displayed in a way the public has never before seen. A full-scale replica will serve a major role in this portion of the Center by allowing visitors to walk on and under the Monitor, experiencing first-hand how simple, yet innovative the warship really was. The Mariners Museum in partnership with NOAA broke ground for the new Center in 2004. The Mariners’ Museum is conducting a $30 million capital campaign for the USS Monitor Center. NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Program has provided $9.5 million in federal funds contributing toward the $20 million that will be raised from public sources 2006 - Israel has ordered four fast response boats from the United States. The Israel Navy has ordered boats that could operate along the coast of the Gaza Strip in search for insurgents and weapons smugglers. The boats were designed to operate in water as shallow as 60 centimeters. Industry sources identified the platform as the Defender-class boats from SAFE Boats International, based in Port Orchard, WA. The aluminum boats would comprise the first port-protection unit of the Israel Navy 2006 - Princess Cruises announced that it will expand its fleet with a sister vessel to the line's popular Tahitian Princess and Pacific Princess. The 680-passenger ship will be named Royal Princess, taking the name of a much-beloved Princess ship, which had long been cruising in Europe and other exotic worldwide destinations. Its new successor will take over a similar deployment when she enters service in spring 2007. The 30,000-ton ship originally entered service in 2001 as a Renaissance vessel (named R8) and is currently cruising as Swan Hellenic's Minerva II. Royal Princess will join its sisters Tahitian Princess and Pacific Princess to give passengers a cruising environment with all the hallmarks of choice for which Princess is known, including a variety of dining and entertainment options and a large number of cabins with private balconies 2006 - TEN, the New York quoted Greek tanker company controlled by the Tsakos family, confirmed it has bought for nine ice class 1A tankers from Western Petroleum for $530 million. The fleet consists of six 53,000-dwt medium range chemical/products carriers delivered by Hyundai Mip o Dockyard last year and three 116,000-dwt coated Aframax products carriers for delivery from Hyundai Heavy Industries in May 2006 - Aker Kvaerner has been awarded a contract with Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd in South Korea for delivery of bow loading systems for three new shuttle tankers able to operate in arctic conditions. Another contract for delivery of two additional systems has also recently been signed with a Norwegian shipowner. The total contract value for the two contracts is approximately NOK 50 million. The equipment will be delivered from Aker Kvaerner's business unit Aker Kvaerner Pusnes in Arendal, Norway 2006 - Former conservative Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco Silva was sworn in as Portugal's new president 2006 - Colombia's navy seized a submarine that may have been used by drug traffickers to haul over 4 tons of cocaine for transshipment to the United States. The 18-meter-long vessel, made of fiberglass, was discovered at sea some 45 km from the Pacific Coast port of Buenaventura, said Adm. Guillermo Barrera, the navy's chief of operations. Three people were arrested and two speedboats seized in the operation, but no drug was found. Adm. Barrera said the submarine brought drug shipments to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where they would be received by speedboats bound for Central America, and then dispatched to the US by land. Drug trafficking by sea has been rampant recent years, as a wide application of radar system has made it hard to smuggle drug by land and air 2007 - Majestic America Line's 436-guest American Queen debuts as flagship of the company's fleet of seven boutique river and coastal cruise ships with departure from New Orleans 2007 - Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell decided to protect the remains of a cargo of 19th Century Cornish mining equipment discovered by local divers off Little Ganinick, Isles of Scilly in 2005 2007 - Sikorsky delivered the 100th MH-60S SEAHAWK(R) helicopter to the US Navy 2007 - Indonesian Ministry of Fishery and Marine Resources expressed concern over continuing illegal sea sand mining activities in Riau 2007 - Indonesian Govt has given names to 92 outer islands located in the sea border region shared by Indonesia and its neighboring countries 2007 - Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry official statement that Ukraine will also in the future continue to make attempts to establish control over navigation- hydrographic facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet by taking legal action “cannot but cause regret” 2007 - Aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal now classified as a helicopter carrier 2007 - MS Silja Serenade, a ferry owned by Estonia's Tallink Silja, narrowly avoided a collision after Swedish cargo ship MS Baltic Pride lost its electricity supply off Finland's Åland Islands 2007 - Diplomatic fallout over 400 mostly Asian illegal immigrants who had drifted for weeks in a ship off the coast of Mauritania has left governments less likely to assist the next group of illegal immigrants that gets into difficulties and raises the prospect of having a humanitarian emergency in which no one will be willing to help 2007 - A Royal Navy CPO found guilty at a court martial in Portsmouth of raping a 24-year-old woman who was drunk at the time. Chief Petty Officer Phillip Coates attacked the female rating on board a warship at sea in the Mediterranean 2007 - Damen Container Feeder 800 for HS Schiffahrt in Haren (Ems), Germany, was launched after being christened by Mrs. Doris Schepers, wife of Hans-Bernd Schepers, one of the partners in HS Schiffahrt ============================================================= Sources: Colton Shipping Report, NOAA, MARAD, Marine Digest, Leo Pettipas, Kommersant, Samuel Loring Morison, Frank Pierce Young, Navy Times, Naval Institute Proceedings, www.uboat.net, Andrew Etherington, John Nicholas, US Naval Historical Center, Ministry of Defense, US Coast Guard, Thomas N. Carlson, Jack Arrowsmith, Allan Snowie, Ken Hansen, Andy Barber, John Weiss, Jack McKillop, Bernard de Neumann, Sympatico Today in History, Washington History Link, Lloyds List, Fairplay, New York Times, I-Newswire and other news sources in the public domain. Additions, submissions and corrections are always welcomed. ============================================================= Today in History Archives at: http://www.seawaves.com/newsletters/today_in_history_archive.htm Copyright 2008 Shirlaw News Group ISSN 1710-6966 Photos courtesy of US Naval Historical Center, US Coast Guard Historical Center, Wikipedia Encyclopedia or Naval Museum of Manitoba unless otherwise noted. Images may be subject to copyright. Ask before you right-click.