SeaWaves Today in History May 24, 2009 1603 - Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 anchors at the mouth of the Saguenay River with Grave du Pont and Pierre de Monts on de Chaste's Bonne Renomme; his first landing in Canada 1607 - Pierre de Gua de Monts c1558-1628 orders colony to return to France when the ship Jonas arrives with the news that his trade license has been revoked; French concern about Dutch competition in the St. Lawrence led to a rethinking about colonization in Acadia 1744 - Joseph Du Pont Duvivier 1707-1760 captures Canseau fishing station with troops from Louisbourg; Canso the closest British settlement to Louisbourg 1819 - Queen Victoria born 1832 - Colonel John By, Royal Engineers, officially opens the Rideau Canal, which now links Ottawa to Kingston, Ontario 1844 - Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the message, "What hath God wrought!" from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opened America's first telegraph line 1847 - Graham Gore sets out from icebound Franklin ships at King William Island NWT to find NW Passage; likely crosses ice to southern end of King William Island and finds passage 1881 - 200 people died when the Canadian ferry Princess Victoria sank near London, Ontario 1883 - Brooklyn Bridge linking Brooklyn and Manhattan opened to traffic. For many years after all US Navy ships were designed to fit under this bridge so as to allow access to the New York Naval Shipyard. Aircraft carrier USS Constellation was the last ship to have this design restriction 1916 - HMS E18 was lost without trace, either mined or sunk by gunfire from a German 'Q' ship in the Baltic. All claims are for 24 May 1916. A torpedo attack by HMS E18 on 23rd May resulted in the bows of the Destroyer V100 being blown off. Even though severely damaged the destroyer managed to limp back to port and E18 made a report by radio by the end of the next day. This was the last contact with E18 1917 - Submarine HMS P512 launched 1917 - Destroyer HMS Winchelsea laid down 1917 - First US convoy to cross North Atlantic during World War I leaves Hampton Roads, VA 1918 - USS Olympia anchors at Murmansk to protect refugees during Russian Revolution 1918 - Minesweeper HMC TR 4 commissioned Port Arthur ON 1918 - Submarine USS O-2 launched 1918 - Submarine HMS L7 launched 1919 - Destroyers USS Gilmer & Meade launched 1919 - Submarine USS R-9 launched 1922 - Soviet submarine A-3 commissioned 1934 - Sloop HMAS Yarra laid down 1935 - Destroyer HMS Faulknor commissioned 1938 - U-103, U-104, U-105, U-106, U-107, U-108, U-109, U-110 ordered 1938 - Torpedo boat FS Baliste commissioned 1939 - Destroyers HMS Inconstant & Ithuriel laid down 1939 - Submarine HMS Seal commissioned 1939 - Submarines HMS P-611, P-612 & P-615 laid down 1939 - First and only use of VAdm Allan McCann's Rescue Chamber to rescue 33 men from sunken USS Squalus 1940 - Destroyers HMCS Restigouche & St Laurent departed Halifax for Devonport 1940 - Royal Navy begins small evacuations today and will continue for two more days from Boulogne, France. This evacuation will lift 5,000 men to Britain 1940 - During operations to support the BEF and French falling back on Dunkirk, French destroyers L'Adroit, Orage, Jaguar and Chacal are lost off the channel ports. HMS Wessex is bombed and sunk off Calais as she supports the defenders 1940 - The newly completed HMS Illustrious, escorted by destroyers HMS Escort, Vanoc & Witherington departed the Clyde at 0300 for acceptance trials. She returned that afternoon 1940 - HMS Ark Royal arrives off Scapa Flow, but fog delays her entry into harbor until 1940. Meanwhile, at 1315 HMS Glorious departed Scapa escorted by HMS Wren, Arrow & Highlander. Her mission is to finally fly off the Hurricanes of 46 Squadron to Norway. For this trip she has embarked only six Sea Gladiators of 802 squadron for aerial defense and six Swordfish of 823 Squadron for A/S duty 1940 - AA cruiser HMS Bonaventure commissioned 1940 - Destroyer FS Chacal bombed & sunk off Boulogne 1940 - Destroyer HMS Wessex bombed & sunk off Calais 1940 - SS Kyma sunk by U-37 at 48.30N, 09.30W 1940 - Corvette HMS Gardenia commissioned 1941 - Corvettes HMCS Matapedia, Barrie & Dauphin arrived Halifax from builders 1941- In the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, the submarine HMS Upholder, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Wanklyn, managed at immense risk to penetrate a heavily escorted Axis convoy and sink a large troopship - the 18,000 ton liner Conte Rosso - bound for North Africa. The attack was made even more difficult by a defect with the submarine's listening gear, forcing her to remain at periscope depth for the entire penetration of the convoy. Upholder then had to endure heavy depth charge retaliation from the escorts, but survived to sink some 100,000 tons of shipping before being lost the following year. Wanklyn received the Victoria Cross 1941 - The newly completed battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood intercepted the German battleship Bismarck and her consort, the cruiser Prinz Eugen, in the Denmark Straits. The two German ships attempted to evade, but the ships were well matched in speed and the British enjoyed a slight positional advantage that allowed them to close the range. Hood opened fire on Prinz Eugen, the leading ship, at 0552 at about 25,000 yards range, whilst Prince of Wales engaged Bismarck. As the range closed, the German ships responded, and Prinz Eugen hit Hood, causing a fire amongst anti-aircraft ammunition lockers on the upper decks. At about 0600, Bismarck's fifth salvo struck Hood, and she exploded in a vast sheet of flame. Of her crew of 1,419, only three survived. Prince of Wales continued the fight alone, but at 0609, Captain Leach decided to break off the engagement - both sides were trading hits, but Prince of Wales seemed to be suffering more, and, with Royal Navy reinforcements headed for the scene, there was no advantage to be gained from further risking the ship 1941 - US Navy Patrol Squadron Fifty Two based at Naval Air Station (NAS) Argentia, Newfoundland, dispatches their eleven PBY-5 Catalinas in the face of strong gales to search for the German battleship Bismarck. Because of the weather, none of the aircraft are able to return to NAS Argentia and they land in Labrador, Quebec and other places in Newfoundland 1941 - U-446 laid down 1941 - U-505, U-702 launched 1941 - U-433, U-752 commissioned 1941 - At 0356, the unescorted Marionga was hit in the stern by one torpedo from U-103 and sank by the stern within four minutes. The ship had been spotted at 1950 on 23 May, but the U-boat had to wait for attacking until darkness. The first two torpedoes fired at 0036 & 0154 missed 1941 - SS Vulcain sunk by U-38 at 09.20N, 15.35W 1941 - The King was graciously pleased to approve of the grant of the Victoria Cross for great valor and resolution in command of His Majesty’s Submarine Upholder to Lieutenant Commander Malcolm David Wanklyn, DSO, Royal Navy. On the evening of 24th May, 1941, whilst on patrol off the coast of Sicily, Lieutenant Commander Wanklyn, in command of His Majesty’s Submarine Upholder, sighted a southbound enemy troop convoy, strongly escorted by Destroyers. The failing light was such that observation by periscope could not be relied on but a surface attack would have been easily seen. Upholder's listening gear was out of action. In spite of these severe handicaps Lieutenant Commander Wanklyn decided to press home his attack at short range 1942 - Corvette HMCS Quebec renamed HMCS Ville de Quebec & placed in commission 1942 - Japanese submarine HIJMS I-21 launches a Yokosuka E14Y1, Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane, Allied Code Name "Glen," to fly a reconnaissance mission over Auckland, New Zealand 1942 - U-558 fires a torpedo at an unarmed US freighter in the Caribbean but it fails to explode and the sub surfaces to sink the ship by gunfire. The crew abandons the freighter but a US Navy PBY Catalina arrives and the sub submerges. The freighter sinks the following morning 1942 - Near Cape Spartivento, submarine ORP Dzik fires a 4 torpedo salvo & damages Italian oil tanker Carnaro (8357 BRT). After the attack, two Italian corvettes dropped over 60 depth charges 1942 - At 1640, the unescorted Hector was hit by a stern torpedo from U-103 and sank quickly 60 miles NW of Grand Cayman Island. The ship had been spotted by the U-boat at 1200 and chased for almost five hours. The cook and the radio officer died. The survivors were soon picked up by American tanker FQ Barstow and landed at Kingston on 26 May 1942 - At 1315, U-502 torpedoed an armed ship devoid of neutrality markings. The Gonçalves Diaz was armed with one 120-mm gun and was identified as Brazilian only after the attack 1943 - Grossadmiral Karl Donitz, the C-in-C of the German Kriegsmarine orders the U-boat operations in the Atlantic to be ceased. The losses had grown too high, and Donitz thinks it's better to wait for the new U-boat designs to come into service. Meanwhile the Navy leadership tries to find out ways of combating the Allied methods of protecting the convoys and hunting the U-boats 1943 - Frigate HMS Byron laid down 1943 - USS PT-165 lost in transit tanker torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-17 100 miles south of Noumea New Caledonia 1943 - USS PT-173 lost in transit tanker torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-17 100 miles south of Noumea New Caledonia 1943 - Submarines HMS Turpin laid down 1943 - Destroyer USS Barton laid down 1943 - Destroyer escorts USS Crowley, Falgout, Lowe, & Rall laid down 1943 - Destroyer USS Barton laid down 1943 - Minesweeper HMS Magic launched 1943 - Minesweepers USS Gadwall, Recruit, Skurry & Spectacle laid down 1943 - Destroyer escort USS Ramsden launched 1943 - Submarines USS Bluefish & Cabrilla commissioned 1943 - Aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill commissioned 1943 - U-441 shot down an RAF 228 Sqn Sunderland. First success of the Flak boats 1943 - U-594 shot down an RAF 228 Sqn Sunderland. The entire aircrew was lost 1944 - Minesweeper HMCS St Joseph commissioned 1944 - Frigate HMCS Thetford Mines commissioned 1944 - USS England sinks Japanese submarine HIJMS RO-116 225 miles NNW of Kavieng, New Ireland Island, Bismarck Archipelago. This is the fourth submarine involved in Operation "NA" sunk by USS England in five days 1944 - Submarine USS Sea Devil commissioned 1944 - Minesweeper USS Pinnacle commissioned 1944 - Frigate HMS Loch Fyne launched 1944 - Minesweeper USS Waxwing laid down 1944 - U-736 shot down an RAF 612 Sqn Wellington. The boat was severely damaged by an RAF 224 Sqn Liberator from just before shooting down the Wellington 1944 - U-921 shot down an RCAF 422 Sqn Sunderland. The U-boat was looking for survivors from U-476 damaged earlier that day by an RAF 210 Sqn Catalina. The aircraft was shot down but not before wounding 3 men, including the Commander, Oblt. Wolfgang Leu. As the boat crash dived Leu got both his wounded men down but did not manage to get down into the tower himself. He slammed the hatch down as the boat dove and was drowned. The boat reached Trondheim, Norway under the command of the I WO on the 26th. (An American submarine commander received the Medal of Honor for the very same act in the Pacific) 1944 - U-1025 launched 1944 - U-876 commissioned 1944 - U-675 sunk west of Alesund, in position 62.27N, 03.04E, by depth charges from an RAF 4 Sqn Sunderland. 51 dead (all hands lost) 1944 - Submarine HMS Upshot launched 1945 - Fast carrier task force aircraft attack airfields in southern Kyushu, Japan 1945 - Off Okinawa, kamikazes are active during the day - - The destroyer escort USS William C Cole comes under attack at 1830 hours when a Nakajima Ki-43, Army Type 1 Fighter Hayabusa, Allied Code Name "Oscar," attempts a suicide run while Cole was NE of Ie Shima and crashed within a few feet of the destroyer escort's starboard beam. The plane passed so close to the ship that one of its wingtips bent a "spoon" of a tube of a torpedo mount which had been trained to starboard. - The high-speed transport USS Sims is attacked by an aircraft that crashed close aboard to starboard spraying the ship with shrapnel which wounded eleven crewmen. - A large support landing craft [LCS (L)] is also damaged 1945 - Mines laid by USAAF B-29 Superfortresses sink a Japanese cargo vessel off Japan 1945 - Corvette HMCS Baddeck departed Sheerness for Canada 1945 - Frigate HMCS Victoriaville commenced tropicalization refit Saint John NB 1948 - Aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent embarks first air wing of 27 Sea Furies, 12 Firefly FR IV's, & 4 Firefly TI Trainer 1951 - Destroyer HMCS Nootka bombarded Chongjin, Korea & other targets including the "Rubber Bridge" 1961 - USS Gurke notices signals from 12 men from Truk who were caught in a storm, drifted at sea for 2 months before being stranded on a island for 1 month. USS Southerland investigated, notified Truk, and provided provisions and supplies to repair their outrigger canoe. The men would be picked up on 7 June by the motor launch Kaselehlia 1963 - Procurement of 41 Sikorsky CHSS-2 Sea Kings for RCN approved 1966 - USS Kitty Hawk port call Subic Bay 1967 - USS Kitty Hawk port call Subic Bay 1967 - Start of Voyageur canoe pageant, with eight provincial teams, two from Yukon and NWT; Centennial canoeists will arrive at Expo '67 in Montreal Sept 4 1968 - USS Enterprise port call Hong Kong 1968 - Soviet submarine K 27 CTL after reactor accident that killed 9 crewmembers. Scuttled near Novaya Zemlya in 1983 1969 - USS Enterprise port call Singapore 1971 - USS Oriskany port call Pearl Harbor 1971 - ROK oiler Poochun lost by grounding 1972 - USS Kitty Hawk port call Subic Bay 1982 - RFA Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad bombed in San Carlos Water. Sir Galahad was hit by a 1000-lb bomb which failed to explode and was later lifted overboard 1990 - Submarine HMS Talent left builder’s yard in Barrow 2002 - Frigate HMCS Toronto visited St John's enroute to Halifax from Operation Apollo 2003 - USNS Capella laid up Baltimore 2004 - Destroyer USS Chung-Hoon delivered at NGSS Pascagoula MS 2004 - Frigates USS Sides & George Philip stricken from NVR & offered for lease to Portugal. A change of government lead to Portugal declining the offer 2005 - TOP Tankers announced it has decided not to proceed with the purchase of 15 dry bulk carriers and two Handymax tankers and related private placement previously announced on April 27, 2005. The Company will not be required to pay any penalties or incur any financial losses as a result of this event, other than certain offering related expenses 2006 - The US Coast Guard suspended its search for a 46-year-old man in the waters near Golden Gate Bridge at 2046. The Coast Guard received the initial call at approximately 1400 from a Golden Gate Bridge Sergeant stating he saw a man, who was fishing off the pier at Point Cavallo, fall into the water. Three small boats from Coast Guard Station Golden Gate, an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station San Francisco, a 87-foot Coast Guard Cutter Pike from Sector San Francisco, and San Francisco Police Department marine units along with a San Francisco Fire Department unit were involved in the search. The Coast Guard searched for over six hours, covering a total of 87 miles, from five miles outside the Golden Gate Bridge to as far north as Angel Island and as far east as Treasure Island 2006 - USCGC Bluebell, a 100-foot Inland Buoy Tender homeported in Portland OR, has won the Golden Swivel Award at this year's West Coast Aids to Navigation Conference 2006 - At just before 2200 Portland Coastguard were alerted by Dorset Police to a possible missing windsurfer who had last been seen in the water near Boscombe Pier in Bournemouth. Various anglers and a security guard had seen the male youth carrying his full length 7 foot dark surfboard enter the water and had not seen him return safely to the shoreline. He was described as about 5' 6" tall, of medium build, and had been last seen in the water at about 2000 2006 - At 2130 Falmouth Coastguard received a mayday call from the fishing vessel Dinish which was taking water and in severe difficulties 170 miles south west of the Scillies with 10 Spanish crew on board 2006 - NOAA announced that the Gulf Coast will have more frequently updated storm tide information this hurricane season thanks to technology upgrades being implemented to the 23 National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) stations along the Gulf Coast 2006 - Admiral Datuk Ilyas Bin HJ Din, Chief of Staff of the Malaysian Navy awarded certificates and insignia to the first Malaysian submarine graduates, who have been training in France since 7 April 2005. He was attended by Admiral Yves Boiffin, head of submarine and strategic sea forces of the French Navy and the directors of ARMARIS, the prime contractor for the Malaysian submarine contract and DCI's NAVFCO branch at a ceremony which took place at the Naval Training Center in Brest 2007 - Cunard Line Hosts Gala Fundraiser Aboard Queen Mary 2 to Benefit New York City Opera & Brooklyn Academy of Music 2007 - UNHCR called attention to 50 illegal immigrants last seen aboard a boat off the south coast of Malta and urged countries in the region to try to find them 2007 - ABG Shipyard Limited has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for acquisition of Vipul Shipyard (Vipul) situated adjacent to the Company's existing shipyard at Magdalla Port, District- Surat, Gujarat 2007 - Tug Joyce L Vanekenvort made notification to the Coast Guard of discharging an estimated 200-300 gallons of diesel fuel into the St. Marys River, during its up-bound transit to Marquette, MI to deliver a load of limestone. The fuel spill is the result of an overflow that occurred after the 835-foot integrated tug and barge completed an internal fuel transfer, near Light 39 in the Middle Neebish channel 2007 - Palestinians claim that fire from an Israel Navy gunship killed a Palestinian fisherman 2007 - Spain has cancelled the permission of a US treasure-hunting company to search for a sunken British warship in the Strait of Gibraltar over suspicions that it has illegally exported a coin treasure found in Spanish waters 2008 - Sri Lanka navy discovered and seized 2,100 liters of diesel packed in 10 hundred and ten liter barrels concealed by the LTTE in the Pallimunai-Erukkampiddi area in Mannar, suspected to have been readied to be transported to uncleared areas 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. 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