Maritime History

[Wukong]

The reason that we (South) lost the War of Northern Aggression is that we ran out of Irish first.

[Starbuck]

"War of Northern Agression." That's good.

[GordMay]

July 6

1988 ~ Explosion on North Sea oil rig “Alpha Piper” (167 die, 62 rescued)
http://www.seacomcanada.com/paeng.htm
http://www.ukooa.co.uk/issues/piperalpha/index.htm

1946 ~ George Walker “Dubya” Bush is born

[hellosailor]

Gord-
"1588 ~ Spanish Armada Driven Off
Off the coast of Gravelines, France, Spain's so-called "Invincible Armada" is defeated by an English naval force "
Now now, that's only a half truth. The Armada was pretty heavily damaged by storms and there's real question of who would have won if the wx had gone differently, as I recall.
In Napolean's words, a good general makes his own luck. You're not going to tell me that Brit was a Druid and a conjurer and he conjurer up the storm as well, are you?<G>

[GordMay]

Well, perhaps this wording might suffer from “the winner writes the history” syndrome, but Spain’s planned invasion (of England) was thwarted. Essentially, this represents a “victory” for the English.
Certainlt, weather played a significant role in the events - including first allowing the Armada to regroup & escape northward, and later punishing them off the coast of Scotland.
Of course Hellosailor is right - a (roughly) 100 word treatment will not describe all the subtleties of a complex series of engagements.
It’s a fascinating tale.

[GordMay]

July 30

1984 ~ Tanker “Alvenus” spills 2.8 million gallons of oil at Cameron La.
1980 ~ Vanuatu (New Hebrides) gains independence from Britain and France.
1870 ~ Staten Island ferry "Westfield" burns, killing 100.
1844 ~ New York Yacht Club organized.

1715 ~ Spanish gold and silver fleet disappears off St. Lucie, Florida.
Spanish salvage operations recovered much of the treasure in the following years, but the remaining riches rested on the ocean floor until its discovery in the 1960's by Kip Wagner et al.
“Pieces of Eight, Recovering the Riches f a Lost Spanish Treasure Fleet” ~ by Kip Wagner as told to L.B. Taylor, Jr.

[GordMay]

July 31

1976 ~ Seychelles Independence Day
1962 ~ Federation of Malaysia formed
1876 ~ U.S.C.G. officers' training school established at New Bedford, Mass.
1498 ~ Christopher Columbus re-discovers* island of Trinidad (on his third voyage)
* When Trinidad was explored by Columbus in 1498, it was already inhabited (for over a 1,000 years) by the Arawaks (Amerindians from South America).
See also: http://www.pantrinbago.com/Amerinidian1.htm.

[GordMay]

August 1

2006 ~ Fidel Castro undergoes (intestinal) surgery, provisionally relinquishes power to Bro’ Raul
More:
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/am...1/cuba.castro/
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/01/us.cuba/


1972 ~ G.W. Bush is suspended from flying with the Air National Guard

1958 ~ U.S. atomic sub USS “Nautilus” 1st dives under North Pole

1943 ~ PT-109 sinks, Lt. John F. Kennedy instrumental in saving crew

1909 ~ British SS Waratah disappears on Sydney to London (300 die)
More info, Goto: http://www.numa.net/expeditions/waratah1.html
and: http://www.numa.net/press/011701.html

1838 ~ Emancipation* of British slaves on Bahamas

1834 ~ Slavery abolished* through out the British Empire

*Emancipation Day is widely celebrated throughout the English-speaking Caribbean or British West Indies on the first Monday in August. (Aug. 7, this year)

1498 ~ Columbus lands on mainland South America (Peninsula of Paria, Isla Santa)
More on Columbus (Cristobal Colon): http://www.nndb.com/people/033/000045895/

[hellosailor]

Gord!
"1964 ~ North Vietnam fires on a U.S. destroyer in Gulf of Tonkin
The official story was that "
How can you post that that way? Even the USN has finally conceded that the entire incident was a FABRICATION used by LBJ the exact same way that Bush found "conclusive' evidence of WMD's in Iraq.
It is nice to say "the official story" but unless this is a mythology thread, it is CRITICAL to say the US conjured up the entire story, and NV in fact did not commit any attack, much less one in international waters.

[GordMay]

Since receiving several irate PM’s, concerning editorial bias in my earlier “History” thread; I’ve tried to eliminate any editorial opinion.
Our “facts” may be someone else’s “dammed lies”.
Since this thread is merely a light fluff piece, I don’t believe complete accuracy & full disclosure are worth offending anyone’s sensibilities.
Perhaps I should avoid any subject that could possibly engender controversy - in which case, there goes my writing career (I’m a “godless, pinko pervert, commie sympathizer” type).

For more info, Goto:

President Johnson's Message to Congress August 5, 1964 :
”Last night I announced to the American people that the North Vietnamese regime had conducted further deliberate attacks against U.S. naval vessels operating in international waters, and I had therefore directed air action against gunboats and supporting facilities used in these hostile operations ...
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/tonkin-g.htm

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (H.J. RES 1145 August 7, 1964):
”Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression ...”
http://www.luminet.net/~tgort/tonkin.htm

From the US NAVAL INSTITUTE
The Secret Side of the Tonkin Gulf Incident:
http://www.usni.org/navalhistory/Art.../NHandrade.htm

From the DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY - NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
USS Maddox (DD-731), 1944-1972 – Actions in the Gulf of Tonkin, August 1964:
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/s...-m/dd731-k.htm

From The National Security Archive:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB132/
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB132/tapes.htm

[hellosailor]

Gord, the real nail in the coffin comes from a link on one of the GWU/NS archive links that you supplied. It is:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/...ss20051201.htm
and it succunctly states:
"Washington, D.C., 1 December 2005 - The largest U.S. intelligence agency, the National Security Agency, today declassified over 140 formerly top secret documents -- histories, chronologies, signals intelligence [SIGINT] reports, and oral history interviews -- on the August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident. Included in the release is a controversial article by Agency historian Robert J. Hanyok on SIGINT and the Tonkin Gulf which confirms what historians have long argued: that there was no second attack on U.S. ships in Tonkin on August 4, 1964."

Simply put, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, as pitched by LBJ to the world, never happened.

(For those who don't want to pursue the links, the first incident was a shore-based attack on PT boats, the famous second incident supposedly was an attack on a US destroyer in international waters.)

Did LBJ misread his intelligence briefings? Perhaps. Perhaps not, since everyone on that destroyer *knew* they had not been attacked. And none of them went public with that news.

Great research, Gord.

[GordMay]

August 5

1962 ~ 1st quasar* located by radio
3C273 was the first quasar ever found, as well as the brightest and closest.
* "quasi-stellar radio source"
More: http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/l...e/quasars.html

1962 ~ Actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her home in Los Angeles

1945 ~ Atom Bomb dropped on Hiroshima (Aug 6th in Japan)

1914 ~ U.S. & Nicaragua sign Bryan-Chamorro treaty
The U.S. acquires the right (for $3 million) to build a canal across Nicaraguan territory, lease the Great and Little Corn Islands, and establish a naval base in the Gulf of Fonseca. The Bryan-Chamorro Treaty gave the United States exclusive rights to build an interoceanic canal across Nicaragua. Because the United States had already built the Panama Canal, however, the terms of the Chamorro-Bryan Treaty served the primary purpose of securing United States interests against potential foreign countries (ie: Germany or Japan) building another canal in Central America. The treaty also transformed Nicaragua into a (near) United States protectorate.

1864 Battle of Mobile Bay
Union Admiral David Farragut leads his flotilla through the Confederate defenses at Mobile, Alabama, to seal one of the last major Southern ports.

1815 ~ Edward J Eyre born (British explorer/governor of Jamaica)

1583 ~ Gilbert claims Newfoundland (1st English colony in North America)
More: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1...s-gilbert.html

[GordMay]

2005 ~ Russian Priz AS-28 mini-submarine is rescued from deep in the Pacific Ocean.
All seven on board, which included six Russian navy seamen and one representative of the company that made the sub, survived. The Priz incident occurred just five years after the Kursk, a Russian nuclear submarine, sank, killing all 118 people on board.

1964 ~ Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

1960 ~ Ivory Coast, Cote d'Ivoore, gains independence from France

1947 ~ Thor Heyerdahl’s “Kon Tiki” raft grounds on reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands.

1942 ~ U.S. forces invade Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands
Operation “Watchtower” was the first battle in the American amphibious campaign to liberate the Pacific from Japanese occupation.

1657 ~ English Admiral Robert Blake dies

[GordMay]

August 8 ~ Not a good date for would-be despots.

1974 ~ President Richard M Nixon announces he'll resign his office 12PM Aug 9
1897 ~ Antonio Canovas del Castillo (PM of Spain) assasinated (69)
1815 ~ Napoleon Bonaparte sails for exile on St. Helena

[GordMay]

August 9

1979 ~ Brighton gets 1st British nude beach

1945 ~ US drops 2nd atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Japan

1842 ~ Canada - U.S. border defined by Webster-Ashburton Treaty
A Treaty between the United States of America and Her Britannic Majesty Relative to Boundaries, Suppression of the Slave-Trade, and Extradition of Criminals, Concluded at Washington, August 9, 1842. With the exception of the Oregon line*, most of the frontier between Canada and the United States was defined by this agreement.
The treaty settled the Northeast Boundary Dispute, which had caused serious conflicts, such as the Aroostook War. Over 7,000 sq mi (18,100 sq km) of the disputed area, including the Aroostook valley, were given to the United States, and several waterways, including the St. Johns River, were opened to free navigation by both countries. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty also settled the disputed position of the U.S.-Canada border in the Great Lakes region. Other clauses provided for cooperation in the suppression of the slave trade and for mutual extradition of criminals.
* US expansionists sought to fix the Oregon border at 54̊ 40? N. In 1846, the Western border was finally resolved at 49̊ N.
Text of the Treaty: http://www.bartleby.com/43/30.html