SeaWaves Today in History September 16, 2008 Mexico - Independence Day. Visiting warships Dress Ship overall. Gun salutes are fired 1620 - Mayflower set sail from Plymouth. She did not land first at Plymouth Rock, but at the tip of Cape Cod on 11 November - she did not reach the rock until 21 December 1630 - The Massachusetts village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston 1638 - France's King Louis XIV was born 1795 - Troops under General Clarke and a naval squadron under Vice-Admiral Elphinstone captured the Cape of Good Hope 1810 - Mexico began its revolt against Spanish rule 1854 - CDR David G. Farragut takes possession of Mare Island, the first US Navy Yard on the Pacific 1914 - The gunboat HMS Dwarf was rammed by the German vessel Nachtigal in an action on the Bimbia River in West Africa 1917 - Navy Department authorizes establishment of 16 naval air stations abroad 1918 - USCGC Seneca's crew attempted to bring the torpedoed British collier Wellington into Brest, France, and 11 of Seneca's crew were lost when Wellington foundered in a gale 1918 - Aircraft carrier HMS Argus commissioned 1918 - Destroyer USS Dorsey commissioned 1919 - American Legion was incorporated by an act of Congress 1920 - Destroyer HMS Broke launched 1922 - Commander Halsey Powell in USS Edsall became the senior officer directing the evacuation of 250,000 Greek refugees from Turkey after war between Greece and Turkey 1925 - Submarine USS S-47 commissioned 1935 - Aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal laid down 1939 - U-13 damaged SS City of Paris 1939 - U-27 sank SS Rudyard Kipling 1939 - U-31, under Kptlt. Habekost, attacked the first convoy in the war when she sank the British steamer Aviemore from OB-4 1939 - U-33 sank SS Arkleside 1939 - Destroyers HMCS St Laurent & Saguenay departed Halifax as escort for Convoy HX-1. HX-1 arrived safely in Liverpool on 30 Sep 39. The last convoy in this series was the 56-ship HX-358, which sailed from New York on 23 May 45 and arrived at Liverpool on 06 Jun 45. With the exception of the UK East Coast convoys, the HX series was the longest continuous running convoy series of the war. Originally, the convoys were split into a slow group that sailed at the prescribed nine knots and a faster (HXF) group of ships that were not capable of the 15 knots required for independent sailing. The HFX convoy delayed sailing by a few days and the two groups would amalgamate before entering the submarine danger zone in the Eastern Atlantic. Eventually, the dwindling number of fast merchant ships and the expanding submarine danger area brought an end to the HFX series, of which there were 17 convoys. HX-300 was the largest convoy with 160 ships while HX-4 was the smallest with only ten ships. In total, ten percent of the HX convoys were attacked while they were in formation. Of the 110 ships sunk, 96 were claimed by U-boats, five by the raider Admiral Scheer, and the remaining 14 were lost to mines, aircraft, collisions, groundings, and storms. They totaled 0.6 percent of the 17,744 ships in the convoys. The worst convoy battle was in March 1943 when HX-229 lost 12 of its 38 ships (31.5%). A further 60 ships were sunk that had straggled out of convoy. Another 36 ships were listed as 'losses out of convoy,' which were ships sunk before the ocean convoy escort arrived, or after detachment from the convoy while on route to their various ports of destination, or after a convoy had been scattered due to attack. This brings the loss rate to 1.1 percent, which was considered sustainable (three percent was considered unsustainable). A further 38 ships were damaged. The HX convoy series is held up as a 'model of success' based on the gross numbers. However, the convoy system relied heavily on evasive routing to prevent losses. Of the HX convoys engaged the actual loss rate for the entire war was 4.85%, which does not include the ships damaged (6.44%). The loss rates up to Mar 43 were 5.92% and 7.45%, respectively. Clearly, the rate of loss from intercepted convoys was unsustainable. This explains the desperation of the Allies at certain periods of the war when German signals could not be deciphered. Convoys HX-70 to HX-74 were all hit in Sep 40 and seven of the 16 HX-107 to HX-117 convoys in Apr 41 were attacked. Admirals Raeder and Doenitz both strong resented Hitler's interference with the anti-shipping campaign when he order U-boats be diverted for the invasion of Norway, and for operations in the Mediterranean Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Without these respites and the benefits of signals intelligence, the rate of loss would have been substantially higher 1939 - Submarine HMS Triad commissioned 1939 - U-95 & U-96 laid down 1939 - The first escorted ship convoy leaves Halifax for Britain to protect against German U-Boat attacks 1939 - US freighter SS Shickshinny is detained by British authorities at Glasgow 1939 - The British restrict shipping as part of a campaign to persuade Eire to support the Allies throughout the war. The restrictions tighten under British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who was enraged by Irish Prime Minister Eamon de Valera's refusal to return the Treaty Ports to British control, i.e., the three Irish ports that the British had returned to Irish control in 1938 1939 - US Naval Attaché in Berlin advises Washington that Admiral Erich Raeder, Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, states that all German U-boat commanders deny sinking the British passenger liner RMS Athenia on 4 September 1940 - Corvette HMS Campion laid down 1940 - Battleship USS New Jersey laid down 1940 - U-135 laid down 1940 - U-99 sank SS Lotos in Convoy SC-3 1940 - President Roosevelt signs Selective Training and Service Act, the first peacetime draft 1940 - Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives 1940 - Italian destroyers Aquilone and Borea are sunk off Bengasi by British bombers 1941 - Corvette FS Commandant Detroyat (ex HMS Coriander) commissioned 1941 - Destroyers USS Butler & Gherardi laid down 1941 - Corvettes HMCS Dunvegan & Morden arrived Halifax from builders in Sorel & Montreal PQ respectively 1941 - U-306, U-417 & U-666 laid down 1941 - U-98 sank SS Jedmoor in Convoy SC-42 1941 - Convoy HX-150, the first to be escorted by the USN leaves Halifax for Europe. Leaving Halifax the convoy will be escorted by the Canadian Navy up to a point south of Newfoundland, where US navy destroyers will take over, giving formal protection. They will take the convoy to a mid-ocean meeting point where the escort will be handed over to the British Western Approaches Command. This is intended to be the pattern for all fast convoys of the HX type in future. The Canadians will continue to escort the slower SC convoys all the way to the mid-ocean meeting point. The east bound convoys are bringing war supplies and many foodstuffs which the British are beginning to accept as their daily diet, such as condensed milk, powdered egg, Spam and baked beans. The escort support from the US will mean that the Royal Navy will be able to divert three escort groups from the North Atlantic to cover Gibraltar and Sierra Leone convoys, US Navy Catalinas, operating, from bases in Iceland, and US Army Flying Fortresses, based in Argentia, are also expected to take on convoy duties. July and August have already seen a dramatic decrease in the number of merchant ships sunk in the Atlantic. During the first half of the year monthly losses averaged 400,000 tons; it has now dropped to little over 100,000 tons per month. There are several reasons for this. For a start, Bletchley Park is now able to read a significant part of the U-boat Enigma traffic. The information from this is passed to the Admiralty's submarine tracking room that can then identify U-boat concentrations. It passes details of these to HQ Western Approaches, the naval command responsible for the Battle of the Atlantic, which can then re-route convoys. Located with the Western Approaches HQ, and under its operational control, is No. 15 Group RAF Coastal Command. Its aircraft range far and wide over the NE Atlantic from their bases in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Iceland. The NW Atlantic is covered by the Royal Canadian Air Force. Both forces still suffer from a lack of very long-range aircraft, which means that the mid-Atlantic, south of Greenland, does not have air cover. Known as the "Black Pit" or "Black Gap", it presents the most dangerous area for convoys. Despite this, improved methods of detecting U-boats, with more and better-trained escort vessels, are helping to reduce losses 1941 - In Iceland, a Danish first officer, Henrik Bjerregaard of the Sessa, has recently recovered sufficiently from an ordeal of 19 days adrift in Arctic waters to tell his story. The Sessa, a former Danish ship flying the Panamanian flag, was transporting provisions from New York to the American ships in Iceland when she was torpedoed by a U-boat. She sank in two minutes. Bjerregaard remembers - "I had no lifebelt, but I grabbed a pole as I was thrown into the water. A seaman joined me, and we hung on for two hours. Then we floated to a lifeboat which was upside down.... we stayed on the lifeboat all night ... Next day a raft from the ship drifted alongside, and as we could not right the boat we jumped on the raft ... After seeing we had a drum of water and tin of biscuits, I cut a sliver off the raft and started to keep a log." "Every day at sunrise I made a notch to mark another day. After the tenth day one man died, and on the 13th two more died ...On the 17th day all our water went ...on the 19th day, as I lay utterly exhausted, I heard a ship's siren and raised myself to see the Stars and Stripes of an American destroyer" 1942 - U-457 sunk in the Barents Sea NE of Murmansk in position 75.05N, 43.15E, by depth charges from destroyer HMS Impulsive. 45 dead (all hands lost) 1942 - Corvettes HMCS Weyburn & Lunenburg departed St. John's for UK with Convoy SC-100 & support of Operation Torch, North African Landings. Lunenburg and Weyburn remained in the UK and were subsequently tasked to support Operation Torch, the North African Landings. Weyburn was sunk on 22 Feb 44. SC-100 arrived in Liverpool on 28 Sep 42 having lost four of its ships. Two ships were sunk by U-617, KptLt. Albrecht Brandi, Knight's Cross, Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, CO, and one ship was sunk by U-596, KptLt. Gunter Jahn, Knight's Cross, CO. A fourth ship sank in a collision. U-617 was a Type VIIC submarine built by Blohm and Voss, at Hamburg. She was commissioned on 09 Apr 42. U-617 conducted nine patrols and compiled a record of 11 ships sunk for a total of 30,389 tons. U-617 was attacked on the night of 12 Sep 43 by a 'Wellington' patrol aircraft from RAF Squadron 179, piloted by SLdr. D. Hodgkinson, RCAF. The submarine was detected by radar and then illuminated with a Leigh Light. Hodgkinson dropped a full six-charge pattern, which damaged the submarine. A second attack was delivered three hours later by a second 'Wellington' aircraft, which was heavily damaged by AA fire from U-617. The submarine KptLt. Brandi grounded the boat on the Spanish coastline and the entire crew of 49 men abandoned the submarine safely. The next morning, RAF 'Hudson' patrol aircraft and FAA 'Swordfish' torpedo-bombers attacked the submarine with rockets. Later, HM Ships Hyacinth and Harlem, plus HMAS Woollongong, shelled the wreck. The crew of U-617 was interned by the Spanish government, which protested the shelling of the grounded submarine as a violation of sovereignty. U-596 was a medium-range Type VIIC submarine built by Blohm and Voss, at Hamburg. She was commissioned on 13 Nov 41. 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-596, 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 by bombs from a USAAF B-24 raid on the port of Salamis. There was one casualty from an unknown number of persons onboard. Albrecht Brandi was born in 1914, at Dortmund. He joined the navy in 1935. His first operation service was as a Watch Officer in the minesweeper M-1. In May 40 he was appointed to command M-1, which he did until Apr 41. At that point, he transferred to the U-boat force. After conversion training, Brandi was selected immediately for command and was sent to sea as a supernumerary officer in the Type VIIC 'Red Devil Boat' U-552, KKpt. Erich TOPP, Knight's Cross, Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, CO (36 ships sunk for 199,000 tons). Brandi was appointed to commission U-617 on 09 Apr 42, at the age of 27. With a entirely novice crew, he conducted seven patrols, mostly in the very hazardous Mediterranean, where he developed a reputation for great daring and fearlessness. U-617 sank 11 ships for a total of 30,389 tons and conducted many other attacks that were frustrated at the last moment by the intense air cover and surface escort forces. He was awarded the Knight's Cross on 21 Jan 43, the 79th presented in the U-boat force. This was followed by the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves on 11 Apr 43, the 22nd awarded in the U-boat force. When U-617 was sunk in the Mediterranean, Brandi was interned in Spain. He escaped from the internment camp and made his way back to Germany by Nov 43. In Dec 43, he was appointed to command the veteran Type VIIC U-380, and conducted one patrol before she was destroyed on 11 Mar 44, in a USAAF bombing raid on Toulon. Next, he was appointed in Apr 44 to command the Type VIIC boat U-967. He was awarded the Knight's Cross with Swords on 09 May 44, the 5th presented in the U-boat force. Brandi conducted one patrol in U-967 before he fell seriously ill and had to be relieved. After a brief convalescence, he was promoted to FKpt. and appointed in Jul 44 as the U-boat Plans Officer for the Eastern Baltic Command. Brandi was awarded the Knight's Cross with Diamonds on 24 Nov 44, only the second such award presented in the U-boat force. In Jan 45 he was appointed Commander of the U-boat Special Forces in Holland. He was detained briefly after the capitulation and was released by Canadian Forces in Sep 45 (an indication he was not an ardent Nazi). After the war he became a successful architect in Dortmund, and did noteworthy work abroad, including Saudi Arabia. He was chairman of the German Architects Association for three years and was an active member of Rotary Club, becoming Governor Westfalen district in 1964. Albrecht Brandi died in Dortmund on 06 Jan 66 after a brief illness. Officers from the Bundesmarine stood an Honor Guard at his funeral and some of his crewmates from U-617 were present. As is the German tradition, FKpt. Reinhard Suhren, the senior surviving member from his 1935 class read his eulogy. His final word were - "Ritter ohne Furcht und Tadel" (Knight without fear or failings). 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 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 sank five ships for a total of 27,572 tons and damaged two ships for a further 14,180 tons. 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. Gunter Jahn was captured by Free French forces in Sep 44 and was detained after the capitulation until 10 Jul 46. He died on 12 Apr 92 1942 - Corvette HMCS Oakville arrived Halifax for repairs to damage 1942 - Lloyds Register of Shipping did a survey & issued a certificate, dated 16 Sep 1942, giving permission for the tugs North Shore & North Lake to be sailed from New Orleans to Norfolk, VA, via inland waters, Gulf of Mexico & the Atlantic coast. Apparently when the civilian crew was sailing North Lake by this route they grounded that tug which resulted in some damage to her steering gear 1942 - Minesweeper USS Nuthatch launched 1942 - Frigate HMS Waveney commissioned 1942 - U-647 & U-648 launched 1942 - U-528 commissioned 1942 - U-558 sank SS Commercial Trader 1942 - U-165 sank SS Joannis & damaged SS Essex Lance & SS Pan York in Convoy SQ-36 1942 - American Liberators bombed U-156 and the survivors of the Laconia 1943 - Corvette HMCS Vancouver completed forecastle extension refit Vancouver BC 1943 - Destroyer HMCS Crescent laid down John Brown & Co Glasgow. Canada was originally to receive all eight ships of the CR program. However only Crescent and Crusader had been delivered by the end of hostilities and the remainder were not taken over. For some unknown reason, these ships retained their UK names in Canadian service 1943 - Frigate HMCS Charlottetown launched Lauzon PQ. Retained same hull number as lost corvette of the same name 1943 - Glen Class tugs ordered for RCN - HMCS Glenfield, Glenvalley, Glenella, Glenkeen, Gleneagle, Glencove & Glenlivet 1943 - Submarine USS Chub laid down 1943 - Destroyer escort USS Underhill laid down 1943 - Destroyer HMS Caprice launched 1943 - Destroyers USS Knapp & Haraden commissioned 1943 - Destroyer escort USS Camp commissioned. Former Combat Fleets of the World editor AD Baker III served on this ship in the Vietnam War 1943 - U-857 & U-995 commissioned 1943 - U-511 sold to Japan and became the RO 500. Surrendered at Maizuru in August 1945. Scuttled in the Gulf of Maizuru by the US Navy on 30 April, 1946 1943 - Enemy Boston-type plane sinks escort vessel Uisko by torpedo. 19 men are lost, only one survives 1943 - Battleship HMS Warspite, providing gunfire support off Salerno, is struck by two German glider bombs and sustains serious damage 1943 - Miniature submarine HMS X-9 is lost while on tow behind HMS Syrtis in the Norwegian Sea. She is believed to have foundered due to a broken 600-foot towrope, which would have caused her to plunge to the bottom. There were no survivors from the 3-man crew. X-9 was one of 6 X-craft being towed to the north of Norway to conduct attacks against Scharnhorst, Lützow and Tirpitz 1943 - A Japanese gunboat mined off Kavieng, New Ireland, Bismarck. Mine laid by submarine USS Silversides in June 1943 - USN PBY Catalina sinks a small Japanese cargo vessel en route to Hansa Bay, New Guinea 1944 - Destroyer HMS Cadiz launched 1944 - Heavy cruiser USS St Paul launched 1944 - Frigate USS Gulfport commissioned 1944 - U-3507 launched 1944 - U-2526 laid down 1944 - U-1014 suffered an accident during its trials at Libau in the Baltic Sea where 2 men were killed and 3 wounded 1944 - U-703 reported missing east of Iceland 1944 - Submarine USS Picuda sinks an army cargo ship in Bashi Channel 1944 - Submarine USS Redfish sinks a fleet tanker 1944 - Submarine USS Sea Devil sinks submarine HIJMS I-364 off Yokosuka 1944 - A Japanese Army cargo ship is sunk by aircraft SW of Mindanao 1944 - A Japanese cargo vessel is sunk by a mine south of Mindanao 1944 - British Eastern Fleet begins 4 days of air strikes on Sigli in northern Sumatra 1944 - Second Quebec Conference (Octagon) attended by US President Franklin D Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) ends. At a press conference concluding this, the eighth summit of the war, President Roosevelt said that after Germany's surrender "the British Empire and the United States will work together" against Japan. Much of the conference was taken up, however, with three different great questions - Anglo-US co-operation on the "atom bomb"; the British prime minister's fear of Russian influence in central Europe after the war; and the plans of the US treasury secretary, Henry Morgenthau, for turning Germany into an "agrarian" country after the war. Sitting on the terrace of the citadel here knows as "the deck", Mr. Churchill called Japan an "evil and barbarous nation". Mr. Churchill has confided to Mr. Roosevelt his fears of the "dangerous spread of Russian influence" in the Balkans, especially Greece and Yugoslavia, and FDR is beginning to agree. The CCS approves Admiral William F Halsey's plan to move the date of the Leyte invasion from 20 December to 20 October. Agreement is also reached on invading Japan; Kyushu will be invaded in October 1945 and Honshu in December 1945 1945 - AA cruiser HMCS Prince Robert represented Canada at Japanese surrender, Capt Wallace Bourchier Creery RCN CO 1945 - USS YMS-341 sunk off Okinawa 1945 - USS YMS-98 sunk off Okinawa 1945 - USS YMS-421 sunk off Okinawa 1945 - USS YMS-472 sunk off Okinawa 1945 - Mobile Floating Dry Dock AFD-13 sunk off Okinawa 1945 - USS SC-632 sunk off Okinawa 1945 - HMC ML 105 paid off 1945 - British accept formal surrender of Hong Kong from the Japanese 1947 - Submarine USS Tiru launched 1950 - UN Forces continue operation of Inchon landing. By Sept 19th Kimpo airfield fell and UN troops reach the Han River 1954 - Minesweeper HMCS Resolute commissioned 1955 - For the first time ever, a ballistic missile is launched from a Soviet submarine. R-11FM ballistic missile was created by OKB-1 (NII-88) design bureau headed by S.P. Korolev on the basis of R-11 operation and tactic missile. A nuclear warhead did not detach itself from the missile in flight then, and it could be launched only when the sub was above water 1958 - USS Grayback fires first operational launch of Regulus II surface to surface guided missile off CA coast; Missile carries first US mail sent by guided missile The Verband deutscher U-Bootfahrer VdU (Union of former German U-boat men) is founded 1966 - USS Franklin D Roosevelt port call Yokosuka 1966 - USS Oriskany helicopters rescue 44-men crew of British merchant ship August Moon near Hong Kong 1968 - USS America port call Yokosuka 1972 - USS Hancock port call Subic Bay 1974 - President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam war deserters and draft-evaders 1975 - USS Oriskany commenced Vietnam deployment with CVW-19 1988 - Hurricane Gilbert hits Mexico and Coast Guard units assist in rescue and evacuation operations on 18-20 of September 1990 - USS O’Brien intercepted the Bahamian-flagged merchant tanker DAIMON, logging the 1,000th intercept since the multinational operations began (averaging 40 intercepts and 4 boardings per day) 1990 - Amphibious ships USS Iwo Jima, Guam, Raleigh and La Moure County, with the remainder of the 4th MEB embarked, arrive in the Gulf of Oman 1995 - Destroyer HMCS Mackenzie sold to Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia. Sunk near Rum Island, off Sidney BC 2003 - 34 USN ships moored in Hampton Roads area ordered to sea to avoid Hurricane Isabel 2004 - Hurricane Ivan plowed into the Gulf Coast with 130 mph wind and a major storm surge; all told, Ivan was blamed for at least 115 deaths, 43 in the US 2005 - Costa Crociere, the number one cruise company in Europe and South America, has announced the name of its new ship, which will join the continent's biggest and most advanced fleet in May 2007. The new ship will be called the "Costa Serena", and her name has been chosen to signify serenity between the people of different nations that the ship will welcome on board. The announcement was made at the same time the first building block for the new vessel was laid, in the dock at Fincantieri's Sestri Ponente shipyards in Genoa. This first block, which is about 55 ft in length and 72 ft wide and weighs around 500 tons, is part of the Costa Serena's aft end section. Like her sister ship Costa Concordia, which is also currently under construction at Sestri Ponente and is due for delivery in July 2006, the Costa Serena will be Italy's largest cruise ship at 112,000 gross tonnage, 951 feet in length, with 1,500 cabins and total guest capacity of 3,780 2005 - Harnessing the economic value of fisheries and other marine resources while ensuring environmental sustainability, will be among the key issues for APEC Oceans Ministers’ consideration when they meet in Bali, Indonesia, on September 16 and 17. The Second APEC Ocean-Related Ministerial Meeting (AOMM2) will bring together Ministers responsible for maritime-related issues to provide guidance on a plan of action for implementation in APEC Member Economies. Working to the theme of "Our Coasts, our Ocean ... An Action Plan for Sustainability," AOMM2 will be co-chaired by Indonesia and Canada. Indonesia’s Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, H.E. Freddy Numberi, highlighted the importance of ensuring the sustainability of our oceans and our coasts. He said that fisheries and other marine industries are important assets for economic growth and prosperity in the region and that action is needed today to protect ocean resources in the future 2005 - Russian polar explorers have chosen a new ice floe for the North Pole-34 drifting station in the Arctic Ocean. "The ice floe is located at 75 degrees north latitude and 120 degrees east longitude," Alexander Danilov, the deputy head of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, said. "It is five kilometers long, five kilometers wide, and some two meters thick." The station will open in two days. The 14 researchers will continue exploring the Central Arctic region, which Russia first began to study back in 1937 at the world's first drifting station, North Pole-1. The new station will replace North Pole-33, which was dismantled in early September. The researchers and equipment were evacuated from the station because the ice floe split into ten fragments 2005 - Three crewmembers and four passengers of a ship that sunk in the Siberian port of Dudinka Friday have been rescued, a local official said. Eight people, including the captain of the Nekrasov, are still missing, Yevgeny Zhurbenko, deputy head of the regional department of the Emergency Situations Ministry, said. "The Nekrasov sank to a depth of six to seven meters," he said, adding that 18 divers were currently searching for survivors. The ship, which sunk because it was overloaded, was carrying 80 metric tons of vegetables and fruit, 20 tons above its capacity, Zhurbenko said. The privately owned cargo-and-passenger ship sunk 10 meters from shore when it was entering port 2005 - Japanese flagged research vessel Kiyo Maru begins a research cruise in the South Atlantic to assess squid (Illex argentinus) juveniles from the summer spawning stock (SDV) and from the southern Patagonian stock (SSP) 2005 - Research submarine NR-1 arrived at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard under tow of MV Carolyn Chouest for a systems upgrades and maintenance 2005 - The coastal container ship Umfolozi has sunk at its berth in the Namibian port of Walvis Bay shortly after colliding with the dredger Ingwenya outside the port. The St Piran Shipping-owned 671-TEU Umfolozi is on charter to Ocean Africa Container Lines for its coastal operation linking South Africa with Namibia and Angola. It sailed from Walvis Bay for Cape Town at 2300 on Friday and ran into the dredger, which was inbound from Richards Bay, about an hour later. There were no injuries on either vessel but Umfolozi began taking on water and returned to port to a berth at the container terminal. Shortly afterwards as the holds flooded the vessel settled on the bottom of the harbor bed leaving the decks and superstructure above the waterline. About 100 tons of fuel oil leaked outside and within the harbor and clean-up operations are underway. The ship was carrying 220 tons of HFO and 115 tonnes of MDO. The 225 containers on the Umfolozi have been lifted off, forcing a revision to schedule 2005 - John J. McMullen, maritime industry icon, former owner of the New Jersey Devils and the Houston Astros, died at the age of 87. McMullen founded John J. McMullen and Associates (JJMA) in 1957, a naval architectural and engineering firm that once occupied the 30th floor of One World Trade Center in Manhattan. At first the firm concentrated on ship containerization and bulk transportation, but it soon became noted for naval engineering and ship design. The company's current emphasis on defense contracts came later. JJMA is the lead naval architect of the winning design for the US Navy's DDX program 2006 - Petty Officer 2nd Class David S. Roddy, 32, of Aberdeen MS died while his unit was conducting combat operations against enemy forces in the Al Anbar province, Iraq. Roddy was assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 2 in Norfolk and was serving with Multi-National Corps – Iraq 2007 - Royal Australian Navy is paying for women sailors to have breast enlargements for purely cosmetic reasons, at a cost to taxpayers of $10,000 an operation 2007 - An Indonesian Navy patrol boat intercepted a Chinese Siong Siong Hay boat when it was poaching in Padaido waters in Biak Numfor district 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. 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