SeaWaves Today in History October 2, 2008 1789 - Secretary Of The Treasury Alexander Hamilton asked collectors of customs to report on expediency of employing boats for the "security of the revenue against contraband" 1799 - Establishment of Washington Navy Yard 1858 - estimated sustained hurricane force winds produced by a tropical cyclone located a short distance offshore were felt in San Diego,” said Christopher Landsea, the co-author of a paper on the 1858 hurricane and a hurricane researcher at NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, Fla. “Extensive damage was done in the city and was described as the severest gale ever felt to that date, nor has it been matched or exceeded in severity since.” Landsea and the lead author, Michael Chenoweth, an independent scholar, published their paper in the November 2004 edition of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. “For years, meteorologists had heard rumors about a San Diego hurricane, but there was not any solid evidence easily found,” said Landsea. “But Mike found newspaper accounts of the hurricane and its damaging effects as well as a first-hand meteorological observations by an Army surgeon named James Mulholland who was stationed at the New San Diego fort in 1858.” Articles from San Francisco’s Daily Alta California and the Los Angeles Star are the only ones that survive, but the Alta carried articles from other newspapers, including the San Diego Herald. One such account begins: “One of the most terrific and violent hurricanes that has ever been noticed by the inhabitants of our quiet city, visited us on Saturday, the 2nd at daylight.” Reports were made of gradually increasing winds, “ominous-looking clouds,” and “impenetrable clouds of dust and sand,” until about 1 p.m., when “it came along in a perfect hurricane, tearing down houses and everything in its way.” As with Atlantic hurricanes, the conditions were right. Coral evidence suggests an El Niño event may have occurred that year, which would have kept ocean waters warmer than usual near California. Warmer waters and a conducive atmosphere allowed the hurricane to sustain Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale Category 1 intensity (wind speed of 72-95 mph) as far north as southern California. Available evidence suggests that the hurricane tracked just offshore from San Diego, without the eye coming inland, but close enough to produce damaging winds along the entire coast from San Diego to Long Beach. The hurricane force winds at San Diego are the first and only documented instance of winds of this strength from a tropical cyclone in the recorded history of the state, Landsea and Chenoweth wrote. Landsea, the developer of the Atlantic Hurricane Database Re-analysis Project, which looks at hurricanes and revises their meteorological statistics when new data are available, notes that if a hurricane similar to the 1858 storm hit San Diego today, damage from such a storm could likely reach several hundred million dollars. “But what this also tells us is that a hurricane has directly affected southern California in recorded history and we should remember that if the conditions are right, the area could get hit again,” Landsea said. “Mike and I hope that emergency managers, residents of the area, business owners, the insurance industry, and decision-makers be made aware of this possibility, as most in southern California may think they are completely safe from hurricanes because they are on the Pacific coast instead of the Atlantic.” 1887 - Fraser River fisherman nets a 12 foot sturgeon, weighing 822 pounds 1895 - US Navy Fleet anchors in Port Angeles harbor, beginning a tradition of annual visits 1901 - The Royal Navy's first submarine, Holland 1, was launched at Barrow in Furness. Today, she is preserved at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport 1917 - Destroyer HMS Vanquisher commissioned 1917 - Light cruiser HMS Carlisle laid down 1918 - Destroyer USS Lea commissioned 1919 - President Wilson suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed 1919 - Destroyer USS Hovey commissioned 1933 - Submarine HMS Seahorse commissioned 1935 - Battlecruiser FS Dunkerque launched 1937 - Light cruiser USS Nashville launched 1939 - Submarine USS Searaven commissioned 1939 - Minesweeper HMCS Cape Beale commissioned. Ex 58 ft fishing vessel built in 1925 at False Creek (Vancouver) BC. Returned to owner April 1994 1939 - Survey ship Acadia recommissioned as training ship HMCS Acadia 1939 - Foreign ministers of countries of the Western Hemisphere agree to establish a neutrality zone around the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North and South America to be enforced by the US Navy 1939 - Graf Spee claims four more merchant ships in the South Atlantic over October before heading into the southern Indian Ocean. To search for her, seven hunting groups are formed in the Atlantic and one in the Indian Ocean. In total the Royal and French Navies deploy three capital ships, four carriers and 16 cruisers 1939 - In Washington, the German ambassador notifies the United States that merchant vessels must submit to visit and search, and that neutral merchant vessels refrain from suspicious actions when sighting German men-of-war and that they stop when summoned to do so. The Maritime Commission and State and Navy Department representatives who meet to contemplate the request consider it proper and should be complied with. The Chief of Naval Operations instructs all planning agencies within the naval establishment to accord precedence to the preparation of ORANGE (Japan) war plans 1940 - Armed yacht HMCS Wolf commissioned 1940 - Armed yacht HMCS Vison arrived Halifax from conversion & arming at Pictou NS 1940 - Destroyer HMS Zetland laid down 1940 - Submarine USS Tuna launched 1940 - U-136 laid down 1940 - U-32 sank SS Kayeson. After attacking Kayeson, the submerged U-32 collided with the ship and sustained damage to her bow 1940 - Destroyer USS Mason recommissioned as HMS Broadwater. Part of the destroyers-for-bases deal 1940 - The Royal Navy completes a sweep of the eastern Mediterranean, during which additional forces are landed on Malta. Destroyers HMS Havock & Hasty sink Italian submarine Berillo off Sollum 1941 - U-598 launched 1941 - U-377, U-590 commissioned 1941 - U-636 & U-821 laid down 1941 - Destroyers USS Fletcher & Radford laid down 1941 - Escort carrier HMS Charger commissioned 1941 - Corvette HMCS Louisburg commissioned 1941 - MTB Nuoli and Sisu attack enemy ships in Suursaari without results 1941 - U-431 sank SS Hatasu in Convoy ON-19 1941 - U-562 sank SS Empire Wave in Convoy ON-19 1941 - U-94 sank SS San Florentino 1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt rejects Japanese Prime Minister Konoye's request to meet and discuss Pacific and Far Eastern questions 1941 - Submarine HMS Surf laid down 1942 - U-550, U-987, U-988 laid down 1942 - Trawler HMS Baffin arrived Halifax to repair defective crankshaft 1942 - Corvette HMCS Weyburn arrived Liverpool UK for fitting of Oerlikon guns 1942 - Cruiser HMS Curacoa engaged in convoy escort duties with RMS Queen Mary. While both ships were zigzagging, the Curacoa crossed the Queen Mary's bow with insufficient clearance. The Queen Mary knifed into her at a speed of 28 knots, cutting the Curacoa in two. Separated by about 100 yards, she sank instantly with 338 casualties. The Queen Mary did not falter or slow down despite the fact of a 40-foot gash in her bow, for fear of German submarines. The convoy behind picked up 26 survivors 1942 - U-175 sank SS Aneroid 1942 - U-175 was attacked twice by a B-18 aircraft (USAAF), but suffered no damage 1942 - U-201 sank SS Alcoa Transport 1942 - U-512 sunk north of Cayenne, in position 06.50N, 52.25W, by depth charges from an American B-18A aircraft (US Army Bomb Sqn 99). 51 dead and 1 survivor. The sole survivor, Matrosengefreiter Franz Machen, spent 10 days on a life raft, which the aircraft dropped to his aid before being rescued by the US destroyer USS Ellis. He survived in part by killing and eating seabirds that attacked him while he lay exposed on the raft 1942 - Royal Navy & US Navy agreed to pool their knowledge in the effort to crack the four-rotor U-boat Enigma codes, as well as Italian and Japanese naval codes 1942 - Soviet minesweeper TSch-57 Udarnik mined close to Sescar Is 1942 - 11 unescorted DB-7s attack a ship in a dock at Le Havre without loss 1942 - USAAF B-17s bomb shipping at Rabaul 1943 - U-1168, U-1169, U-1228 launched 1943 - U-243 commissioned 1943 - Frigates HMS Ekins & Redmill launched 1943 - Frigate USS Peoria launched 1943 - USS LST-203 destroyed grounding near Nanumea Ellice Islands 1943 - LCT(5)-496 sunk in the English Channel 1943 - Destroyer escorts USS Burrows & O'Reilly launched 1943 - Frigate HMCS Antigonish laid down 1943 - Soviet submarine SC-402 sunk by mines at Koffer Gepackt or Konrad Begrusst. All hands lost 1943 - Minesweeper HMS Gozo commissioned 1943 - Frigate USS Brunswick commissioned 1943 - U-168 sank SS Haiching 1943 - U-223 damaged SS Stanmore beyond repair in Convoy MKS-27 1943 - Icebreaker Sisu is damaged by magnetic mine at Melkki sea-lane just off Helsinki 1944 - U-921 missing in the Arctic Ocean NW of Narvik. 51 dead (all hands lost) 1944 - First Canadian Army drives to clear Scheldt estuary and open port of Antwerp to shipping 1944 - Corvette HMCS Kincardine departed Londonderry as part of the escort for the 39-ship Liverpool to New York City convoy ON-257. The convoy arrived safely on 18 Oct 44 1944 - Minesweeper HMCS Kalamalka commissioned 1944 - Submarine USS Irex laid down 1944 - Aircraft carrier HMS Triumph launched 1944 - Submarine HMS Spearhead launched 1944 - Allied troops land on Crete 1944 - US Seventh Air Force B-24s hit shipping west of Chichi Jima Island 1944 - USAAF P-40s attack vessels off Tamoelol 1944 - USAAF P-40s and P-51 Mustangs on armed reconnaissance over southern China attack river traffic and shipping in the Campba Port-Hongay area of French Indochina 1944 - Time Magazine October 2, 1944 - MUTINY ON MARE ISLAND A case without precedent in US Navy history is drawing to a close this week on Yerba Buena Island, San Francisco Bay. Fifty US sailors, all of them Negroes, are being tried for mutiny, for which the punishment may be death. The 50 are ammunition handlers who, a few weeks after the explosion of two ammunition-laden ships at Port Chicago (327 killed) refused to load a ship. On an afternoon in August the ship had arrived at the Naval Ammunition Depot on Mare Island to take on a cargo of explosives. A division of loaders (105 men) - all of whom had been at Port Chicago - were mustered for the job. They fell in, shuffled a few steps, and stopped. All but eleven of them refused to work. The commandant tried persuasion. He sent the chaplain to talk to them. The chaplain pleaded" "Come on, boys, I'll go with you." The Negroes still balked. The commandant and his executive talked to them individually but could persuade only 21 of them to obey orders and go to work. Another division was mustered. It lined up but broke ranks before marching a step. A third division arrived in busses. All but eight of them refused to work. In all, 277 men, all of them Negroes, refused duty. Finally Rear Admiral Carleton H. Wright, commandant of the 12th Naval District, hurried to the depot and made a stern but fatherly speech. Even then 50 held out - the 50 on trial this week 1944 - Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-269 was commissioned at New York. LT Jacob Bursey, USCGR, was her commanding officer. She departed New York for the Southwest Pacific area on 22 October 1944. She operated during the war at Palawan, Philippines. 1945 - Corvettes HMCS Frontenac, Guelph & Owen Sound sold to United Ship Corp of New York. Guelph became mercantile Guelph (Panamanian) & Owen Sound became SS Cadio (Greek) 1952 - Destroyer HMCS Iroquois was firing rounds into the mouth of a tunnel at code name 'PACKAGE ONE' in Korea. At 1600 she ended her firing & turned to depart. A shell from a North Korean artillery shore batteries hit the ship directly below the bridge just aft of "B" gun. 3 crewmembers were lost & several were wounded. Iroquois was operating with USS Marsh at the time 1957 - VF-870 Banshee a/c #126403 lost while carrying out CARQUALS aboard HMCS Bonaventure. In 1964, the a/c was snagged in a trawler's fishing net 130 miles SE of Halifax 1958 - Former French colony of Guinea in West Africa proclaimed its independence 1967 - Destroyer HMCS Chaudiere departed Halifax to assume new duties as training ship in Esquimalt 1969 - Submarine HMCS Grilse paid off & returned to USN at Mare Island Naval Shipyard 1971 - USS Oriskany port call Hong Kong 1971 - USS Enterprise port call Subic Bay 1975 - President Ford welcomed Japan's Emperor Hirohito to the United States 1975 - USS Kitty Hawk port call Subic Bay 1990 - USS Midway Carrier Battle Group deploys from Yokosuka 1992 - A large meeting of former Seehund men in Kiel during 2-4 Oct. Among the guests was Admiral Eberhardt Godt 2002 - Typhoon hits Hokkaido after leaving four dead in Kanto 2003 - Destroyer USS Briscoe decommissioned at Norfolk 2004 - Submarine HMCS Chicoutimi (ex-HMS Upholder) handed over at Faslane 2004 - Destroyer USS Forrest Sherman christened at Pascagoula 2005 - Nineteen people were killed when a small tour boat carrying 47 people flipped over on a lake in upstate New York, the county sheriff told the Glens Falls Post-Star. Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland told the paper the Ethan Allen capsized when another tour boat passed near it and swamped it. The Ethan Allen sank, he said. The 40-foot, glass-enclosed tour boat flipped around 4 p.m. on Lake George about 50 miles north of Albany in the Adirondack Mountains. The weather was clear, calm and in the 70s. Representatives of Shoreline Cruises, which operates the boat, could not immediately be reached for comment. By 1700 all the passengers had been accounted for, Cleveland told the paper. The passengers were part of a senior citizen's cruise on the lake 2005 - A four meter shark has been lurking in the waters between Glen Cairn Beach and Fish Hoek, the South African National Sea Rescue Institute warned. It has already destroyed the surfboard of a surfer at Sunny Cove. The NSRI's Craig Lambinon said life guards at Fish Hoek beach cleared the water on Friday after a shark spotter saw the shark in the area several times. He said the public were asked not to enter the sea between Muizenberg and Simon's Town after aggressive behavior by the shark 2005 - Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa criticized China for sending warships near disputed gas fields in the East China Sea, after a media report said a Chinese ship had pointed a gun at a Japanese patrol plane. The row over China's development of gas fields in the sea dividing the two countries -- and near waters which Japan claims -- is one of several issues that have strained ties between the Asian neighbors. Japan and China failed to resolve the dispute in two days of talks in Tokyo that ended on Saturday, but agreed to meet again this month in Beijing and to discuss a new Japanese proposal that includes the possibility of joint development 2005 - Third officer Morris J. Bourzigard of research vessel Nathaniel Palmer was medevaced by the Chilean Coast Guard after suffering cardiac arrest 49 miles off Felix Light 2005 - Chilean flagged “Mare Australis” with 80 passengers officially inaugurated the Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego 2005/06 cruise season which this summer is scheduled to receive 310 calls and over 100,000 visitors 2006 - Coast Guard Cutter Zephyr from Coronado, Calif., interdicted a Guatemalan fishing vessel 100-miles south of Guatemala and seized approximately 20-pounds of cocaine 2006 - HMAS Ipswich decommissioned 2006 - CMA CGM Group christens the 9,415 TEU CMA CGM Medea at the Terminal de France, Port 2000, in Le Havre 2006 - Mr Richard Austen MBE appointed Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Republic of Panama in succession to Mr James Malcolm OBE who will be retiring from the Diplomatic Service. Mr Austen will take up his appointment in November 2006 2006 - Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group (SNTG), a subsidiary of Stolt-Nielsen S.A., signed an agreement with SLS Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. for four 44,000 deadweight ton (dwt) parcel tankers. The aggregate price for the four ships is expected to be approximately $340 million, with deliveries scheduled to take place between mid 2010 and early 2011 2006 - The Master and owner of UK-registered fishing vessel Success III, KY211, has been ordered to pay a total of £8,000 for fishing illegally within British Fishery Limits. The defendant pleaded guilty yesterday at Grimsby Magistrates Court to using a multiple-rig trawl with a mesh too small for the area of the North Sea in which the vessel was operating, and to failing to give prior notification of the specified gear to be used when fishing in the North Sea Cod Recovery Zone. The trawler was inspected at sea on June 23, 2005 by the Royal Navy's Fisheries Protection Vessel HMS Mersey. The master/owner was fined £2,500 for each offence and ordered to pay costs of £3,000. On the same day, also at Grimsby Magistrates Court, the Master and owners of Dutch beam trawler Elisabeth Christina (TX19) admitted logbook and net offences. The Dutch trawler had been detained by HMS Quorn of the RN Fishery Protection Squadron on 28 September. The skipper was fined £5,000 for the logbook offences. The vessel owners were fined £12,000 for the logbook and net offences, plus £4,250 for the value of the catch. Costs of £3691 were awarded to the Marine Fisheries Agency and the offending cod-ends were forfeit 2007 - Under Secretary of State for Defence, Derek Twigg visits RNAS Culdrose 2007 - Four Philippine navy soldiers and six suspected militants were killed in a clash on a southern Philippine island while two other soldiers were wounded 2007 - Indonesian Navy sent KRI Wiratno, KRI Karapu and KRI KAL, and one Nomad plane, to look for FV Rajawali believed to have sunk in Belang waters Sept 28th with crewmembers 2007 - Commodore Kishore Onkar Thakare takes command of INS Shivaji, the premier engineering training establishment of the Indian Navy located at Lonavla 2007 - Colombian Navy seized 2 tons of cocaine in small packages labeled with the British flag from a truck on the Caribbean coast, said Adm. Roberto Garcia 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. 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