SeaWaves Today in History November 27, 2008 1701 - General-Admiral Fyodor Golovin became the first Russian count. Emperor Leopold I of the Roman Empire conferred this title on him. From 1706 onward Peter the Great conferred this title on Russian noblemen. The first he gave it to the military commander Boris Sheremetev 1705 - Peter the Great issued a decree on the formation of Russia's first marine regiment numbering 1,365 men 1806 - A squadron under Rear Admiral Sir Edward Pellew destroyed a Dutch squadron and a large number of merchant ships at Batavia in the East Indies 1829 - William Hamilton Merritt opens Welland Canal from Port Dalhousie to Port Robinson; engineered by Samuel Keefer; to Port Colborne in 1833; deepened in 1841; enlarged in 1850; replaced by the new Welland Canal, with a depth of nine meters, in 1932 1883 - The schooner Maggie W. Willard with a crew of five men struck on Sea Horse Rock about two miles west of the Crumple Island Station (First District) on the coast of Maine at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. The station crew, who offered assistance, discovered her. Finding the vessel in a very dangerous position and leaking the crew's effects were saved and they were taken to the station. All efforts to get the vessel off failed. That night the schooner drove over the reef and sunk in deep water, becoming a total loss 1905 - Prince Carl of Denmark adopts the name King Haakon VII and swears an oath of allegiance to the Norwegian Constitution before the Storting 1916 - Italian submarines H-1 & H-2 commissioned at Halifax NS 1917 - Sloop HMAS Moresby laid down 1918 - Destroyer USS Tarbell commissioned 1928 - Sloop HMS Culver launched 1932 - Destroyer FS Tartu commissioned 1933 - Soviet submarine SC-107 commissioned 1935 - Destroyer FS L'Audacieux commissioned 1937 - U-41 laid down 1939 - U-48 sank SS Gustaf E Reuter 1939 - Corvette HMS Hollyhock laid down 1939 - Submarine USS Sea Lion commissioned 1939 - Destroyer HMS Kelvin commissioned 1940 - U-150 commissioned 1940 - U-103 sank SS Glenmoor in Convoy OB-248 1940 - U-95 sank SS Irene Maria in Convoy OB-248 1940 - U-104 sank SS Diplomat of Convoy HX-88 1940 - U-104 damaged SS Charles F Meyer in Convoy HX-87 1940 - Corvette HMS Borage laid down 1940 - Canadian Government ship Lisieux (an ex-French schooner) foundered in a gale in the North Atlantic. There were 12 survivors from her crew of 29 men 1940 - HMC MTB grounded off Richibucto NB 1940 - Escort carrier HMS Avenger launched 1940 - Corvette HMS Lavender launched 1940 - Submarine HMS Uproar launched 1940 - Force H, commanded by Vice Admiral Sir James Somerville, was providing cover for a convoy sailing from Gibraltar to Alexandria when the Italian Navy dispatched a powerful force (including 2 battleships and seven heavy cruisers). Although outnumbered, Somerville intercepted the Italians off Cape Spartivento, Sardinia, with the battlecruiser Renown, the carrier Ark Royal, and five cruisers. One cruiser, HMS Berwick, suffered damage in the ensuing action, but the Italians abandoned the operation and the convoy got through safely 1941 - Sloop HMAS Parramatta torpedoed & sunk by U-559 off Tobruk. 24 survivors with 138 men, including all officers, lost their lives 1941 - Destroyers USS Jenkins & La Vallette laid down 1941 - Escort carrier USS Nassau laid down 1941 - At 2203hrs U-96 reached the German tanker and support ship Vessel in the harbor of Vigo. The boat left harbor at 0400hrs.In the Mediterranean, U-557 saw an enemy submarine periscope and heard her engines, but no attacks occurred 1941 - U-652 received supplies from a support ship in Cadiz during the night 1941 - U-598 commissioned 1941 - U-192 laid down 1941 - U-605, U-606 launched 1941 - Chief of Naval Operations sends "war warning" to commanders of Pacific and Asiatic Fleets 1942 - Corvette HMCS The Pas arrived Liverpool NS for refit 1942 - Destroyer escorts USS Bebas, Carlson, Donnell, Griswold, Steele laid down 1942 - Escort carrier HMCS Patroller laid down 1942 - Minesweepers HMS Combatant & Cynthia launched 1942 - Corvette USS Pert launched 1942 - U-608 ran out of fuel when a storm delayed a scheduled refueling rendezvous. The boat drifted until receiving enough fuel from U-521 to cover the distance to the tanker U-460 1942 - U-176 sank SS Polydorus 1942 - U-178 sank SS Jeremiah Wadsworth 1942 - U-508 sank SS Clan Macfayden 1942 - The French Navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis. General de Gaulle broadcast from London a message to the French people stating that the Toulon fleet had scuttled itself to be spared "the supreme shame of seeing French ships become the ships of the enemy." "Patriotic instincts" had swayed the spirits of the crews and their commanders. Four battleships (Provence, Ocean and battlecrusers Dunkerque and Strasbourg), 7 cruisers 16 submarines and 50 other craft lie on the bottom of the harbor 1943 - U-321 launched 1943 - U-238 rescued two pilots from a Wellington aircraft (172 Sqn RAF), which was shot down by U-764 1943 - Aircraft carrier HMS Glory launched 1943 - Corvette HMS Amberly Castle launched 1943 - Minesweepers HMS Liberty, Jewel & Hare laid down 1943 - Aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure (ex-HMS Powerful) laid down Belfast 1943 - Frigates HMCS Kokanee & Runnymede launched at Esquimalt BC & Montreal PQ respectively 1943 - Frigates HMCS Stormont & Outremont commissioned 1943 - Destroyer escorts USS Gary & Merrill commissioned 1943 - Destroyer USS Callaghan commissioned 1943 - Escort carrier USS Kalinin Bay commissioned 1943 - Destroyer escort USS Eugene E Elmore laid down 1943 - Destroyer escorts USS Chaffee, Holder & William T Powell launched 1943 - Frigates HMS Narborough & Torrington launched 1943 - Frigate USS Grand Forks launched 1944 - USS SC-744 sunk by Kamikaze attack in Leyte Gulf 1944 - Corvette HMCS Giffard departed Halifax for refit Liverpool NS 1944 - Escort carrier USS Commencement Bay commissioned 1944 - Minesweepers USS Hilarity & Pochard commissioned 1944 - U-481 sank Soviet minesweeper T-387 1944 - U-3021 launched 1944 - U-2364 laid down 1944 - U-3512 commissioned 1944 - Off Norway, Fleet Air Arm aircraft sink a German prison ship. Of the 2,248 Soviet POWs on board only 415 survive 1945 - Frigates HMCS Saint John & Toronto paid off at Halifax & Shelburne NS respectively 1945 - Frigate HDMS Niels Ebbesen (ex-HMS/HMCS Annan) commissioned 1945 - Light cruiser HMCS Ontario arrived Esquimalt for refit 1947 - U-530 is scuttled NE of Cape Cod by US Navy during exercises 1956 - Minesweeper HMCS Fundy commissioned 1957 - Destroyer HMCS Restigouche damaged while still in hands of builder by collision on St Lawrence River with freighter Manchester Port 1957 - Destroyer HMCS Margaree arrived Esquimalt BC for 2nd Escort Squadron 1961 - US Navy reports first use of its cyclotron at Harvard University to treat a human brain tumor. After three treatments, the tumor of the 2-year old patient shrank by eighty percent 1965 - USS Oriskany port call Subic Bay 1967 - USS Intrepid port call Subic Bay 1970 - Destroyer HMCS Athabaskan launched Lauzon PQ 1990 - DOD announces post-Christmas deployment of USS Theodore Roosevelt and America Carrier Battle Groups with appropriate escorts and embarked airwings 1990 - Khawla Al Zawra was cleared to proceed on after boarding team of Navy personnel determined vessel was not carrying prohibited cargo. DOD updates numbers of intercepts - 4162; boardings - 500; diversions 1993 - Destroyer HMCS Saguenay sold to South Shore Marine Park Society of Lunenburg NS for $1.00. Towed to Lunenburg to later become an artificial reef 2003 - RRF Cape Gibson laid up Oakland CA 2004 - RSS Resolution with a crew of 180 deployed to the Persian Gulf for three months 2004 - Cambodian-registered ship, the 227-ton Baweisum with 11 people aboard went missing near Takeshima Island in the Sea of Japan and the body of a man was recovered near the area by the JCG patrol vessel Daisen 2004 - Patrol Squadron (VP) 9, homeported at Marine Corps Base, Hawaii, aided in a multinational rescue of eight UAE fishermen whose dhow had sunk off the coast of Bahrain 2005 - Parties reached an agreement on the renewal of the Collective Labor Agreement of SMIT Harbor Towage Rotterdam. As a consequence all harbor towage activities shall no longer be disrupted by industrial actions. SMIT Salvage Rotterdam, SMIT Transport Europe and SMIT Heavy Lift Europe negotiations on the renewal of the Collective Labor Agreement for these operating companies have not been successful. A very improved proposal has been rejected 2006 - Lockheed Martin delivered the 100th Aegis Weapon System to the USN during a ceremony in which CNO Adm. Mike Mullen announced that the destroyer receiving the system will be named Wayne E. Meyer, after the retired rear admiral regarded as the “Father of Aegis” 2006 - JDS Mashu, part of Escort Division 8, conducted a replenishment at sea with frigate FGS Schleswig-Holstein, marking Japan's official 700th refueling of a coalition ship since Nov. 2, 2001. For more than five years, Japan has provided fuel for these vessels so coalition ships can conduct operations in the Arabian Sea as part of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Copyright 2008 Shirlaw News Group ISSN 1710-6966 Today in History Archives This information is licensed to the recipient only. Images may be subject to copyright. Ask before you right-click. 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: 778-338-4073 Fax: 778-338-4074 Read our Maritime Mishap Blog Manage your subscription