Maritime History

[GordMay]

September 19

1994 ~ 20,000 U.S. troops land in Haiti

1989 ~ US re-wins America’s Cup in Court of Appeals

1983 ~ St. Kitts and Nevis declares independence from U.K.

1890 ~ Turkish frigate "Ertogrul" burns off of Japan (540 die) *

1559 ~ Seven Spanish ships sinks in storm off Tampa (about 600 die)
What could be the oldest shipwreck ever found in Florida has been discovered in Pensacola Bay. It is thought to be part of De Luna's (Tristán de Luna y Arellano) flotilla of 13 ships that attempted to establish Pensacola in 1559, of which as many as 7 were lost in a hurricane.

* Some Notable Shipwrecks Since 1850: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~gordeon...astership.html

[GordMay]

September 20

1967 ~ British liner “Queen Elizabeth II” launched at Clydebank, Scotland

1797 ~ U.S. frigate “Constitution” (Old Ironsides) launched in Boston

1519 ~ Ferdinand Magellan begins 1st successful circumnavigation of world
Setting sail on September 20, 1519, Magellan began his voyage with a crew of 237 men on five ships (the Santiago, the San Antonio, the Conception, the Trinidad, and the Victoria). On April 27, 1521, Magellan was killed in the Philippine Islands attempting to convert a native chief to Christianity. With only two ships remaining, the crew (under Basque navigator Juan SebastiÁn de Elcano) continued the voyage making it back to Sanl Úcar de Barrameda on September 6, 1522, with only 18 crew members on a single ship (the Victoria).

[GordMay]

September 21

1954 ~ First nuclear submarine, USS “Nautilus”, commissioned
1866 ~ Author H. G. Wells born

[GordMay]

September 23

1857 ~ Russian warship “Leffort” disappears in Finland Gulf (826 die)

1779 ~ John Paul Jones' "Bon Homme Richard" (US) defeats HMS “Serepis” (Br)
The “Richard” engaged the HMS “Serapis” in the North Sea, off Famborough Head, England. Richard was blasted in the initial broadside the two ships exchanged, losing much of her firepower and many of her gunners. Captain Richard Pearson, commanding “Serapis”, called out to Jones, asking if he surrendered. Jones' reply: "I have not yet begun to fight!"
Sharpshooting Marines and seamen in Richard's tops raked Serapis with gunfire, clearing the weather decks. Jones and his crew tenaciously fought on , even though their ship was sinking beneath them. Finally, Capt. Pearson tore down his colors and Serapis surrendered.
Bon Homme Richard sunk the next day and Jones was forced to transfer to Serapis.
More: http://www.jpj.demon.co.uk/jpjlife.htm

[hellosailor]

US flag trivia note:
Interestingly enough, the JPJones "Bon Homme Richard" ensign is still considered to be a formal US battle flag because of that battle. But, historians apparently still argue about exactly what and which flag it was.
(All US flag designs that have been officially used & flown, are considered to still be official and proper for use as US flags, including battle flags.)

[GordMay]

September 24

1990 ~ Supreme Soviet approves switch to free market
1990 ~ West German President Richard von Weizsaecker signs reunification treaty

1966 ~ Hurricane “Inez” named as Tropical Storm (800 miles east of Martinique)
Known as "The Crazy One," Inez carved an erratic path of death and destruction from the Caribbean through Florida, and Mexico in September & October, 1966.
Inez was a Category 2 hurricane when it crashed into the island of Guadeloupe. The torrential rains accompanying the storm caused mudslides and floods all over the island. Twenty-three people lost their lives, and the survivors were faced with the near-total loss of the island’s banana crop.
By September 28, Inez had strengthened and hit the island of Hispaniola with 140-mile-per-hour sustained winds. In the Dominican Republic, the towns of Duverge and Oriedo were totally destroyed; only the town halls in each village were spared. In Haiti, many people lost their lives in flash floods in the mountains that literally washed away the victims.
Two days later, Inez spawned a series of tornadoes in the Bahamas. Fortunately, only one person died from the twisters. The hurricane was still a Category 3 storm when it struck the Florida Keys. Highway 1, running from the Florida mainland to Key West, was completely submerged at several points. Five people died in Florida, including one surfer who did not heed warnings to stay away from the beach.
Inez moved through the Gulf of Mexico over the next week, hitting Tampico on October 10. It finally dissipated the next day.
Overall, the storm caused 293 deaths and $40 million in damages. Minimum central pressure with Inez was recorded at 27.38 inches of Hg, which according to the Saffir-Simpson scale that came out into 1970, was equivalent to a Category Four Hurricane.
Track: http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/at196609.asp

1960 ~ USS “Enterprise” launched (1st nuclear power aircraft carrier)

1952 ~ Underwater volcano explodes under research vessel Kaiyo-maru-5
Myozin-maru-11, a fishing boat, reported seeing a newly created 150-meter long island 42 kilometers south of Tokyo. The volcanic island, created by an underwater cone, was gone within five days, even though submarine seismic activity continued. Two research ships went out to investigate, but as the Kaiyo-maru-5 sailed over a vent, the mountain erupted, killing 22 crew members and 7 scientists.

[GordMay]

September 25

1911 ~ Magazine of French battleship “Liberte” explodes at Toulon Harbor (285 killed)

1836 ~ HMS "Beagle" anchors at St. Michael
More: http://www.aboutdarwin.com/voyage/voyage10.html

1513 ~ Vasco Nunez de Balboa is 1st European to see Pacific Ocean
The Spanish conquistador and explorer, Balboa, was the first European to see (and name) the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean.
More: http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/Americas/Balboa.html

[GordMay]

September 26

2002 ~ Ferry “Joola” sinks off Gambian coast (hundreds die)
By the government's last count, 1,863 people died as the ship was en route to the capital, Dakar, putting the sinking among the worst maritime disasters ever.
More: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...7/ai_n10856443
And:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/africa...rry/index.html

1983 ~ Challenger “Australia II” beats “Liberty” in 25Th America’s Cup
The Australia II, skippered by John Bertrand, faced Dennis Conner sailing the 12-metre Liberty in the ocean off of Newport, Rhode Island. Australia II came from behind to prevail 4 races to 3.
More: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/04/1983acup/
And: http://www.americascup.com/en/acclop...idContent=1851

1958 ~ “Columbia” (U.S.) beats “Sceptre” (England) in 18th America's Cup
More: http://www.americascup.com/en/acclop...idContent=1729

1934 ~ British liner Queen Mary is launched
More: http://www.ocean-liners.com/ships/qm.asp

1580 ~ Francis Drake returns to England with Spanish treasure
English seaman Francis Drake returns to Plymouth, England, in the Golden Hind, becoming the first British navigator to sail the earth.
More: http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomfr...history.com%2F

[GordMay]

September 27

1985 ~ Hurricane “Gloria” makes landfall at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, then Long Island, New York
More: http://www.csc.noaa.gov/crs/cohab/hu...ria/gloria.htm

1953 ~ Super-Typhoon “Tess” ravages Nagoya, Japan

1942 ~ Douglas Munro dies (only U.S. Coast Guardsman with WW II Medal of Honor)

1941 ~ First WW II liberty ship, freighter “Patrick Henry”, launched

1938 ~ British ocean liner "Queen Elizabeth," launches at Clydebank Scotland

1854 ~ Steamship "Arctic" sinks (328 die)
In 1854, the luxury liner “Arctic” collided with a small French steamship (“ Vesta”) and sank off the coast of Newfoundland (Cape Race). At 12:15, the Arctic slammed into the steamer Vesta, an iron-hulled ship piloted by Captain Alphonse Puchesne. Since it was the Arctic that hit the Vesta, the crew of the Arctic initially directed their energy at helping the Vesta. They had not realized that the iron hull of the Vesta had actually done much more damage to the Arctic than vice versa.
Soon, the Arctic released lifeboats, but many capsized in the choppy waters. As the crew of the Arctic discovered that their ship was seriously damaged, Captain Luce decided to try to beach the ship. In doing so, he ran over several of the lifeboats, causing even more people to drown. The Arctic was too far from shore for the attempt to be successful and the action only increased the rate of flooding inside the ship.
General panic then ensued. Desperate Arctic crew members took lifeboats from women and children attempting to escape. When one of the ship’s high-ranking officers tried to stop this, the crew killed him. The final 70 people left on board crowded onto a makeshift raft as the Arctic sank. Reportedly only one member of this group survived.
It was the worst American maritime disaster in the dawning age of steam power:

1694 ~ Hurricane hits Carlisle Bay Barbados; 27 British ships sink and 3,000 die

1290 ~ Earthquake in Gulf of Chili, China, reportedly kills 100,000
Although there is little information available on this earthquake, it reportedly took 100,000 lives.
The deadliest earthquake in history, Shensi, China (1556, January 23), killed 830,000. The death toll was so high because the tremors destroyed a number of high loess cliffs in which millions of peasants lived in artificial caves. Loess, or soft clay, formed over millions of years from silt, blown there from the Gobi Desert.

[GordMay]

September 28

1994 ~ Ferry boat “Estonia” capsizes and sinks in Baltic Sea (909 die)
More: http://www.balticsworldwide.com/news.../msestonia.htm
And: http://www.balticsworldwide.com/news...es/sinking.htm

1970 ~ “Intrepid” (U.S.) beats “Gretel II” (Australia) in 22nd America's Cup

1965 ~ Taal Lake (Luzon, Philippines) Volcano explodes - Lava flows kill at least 350
The Taal Volcano is one of the fifteen decade volcanoes located on the island of Luzon, in the Philippines. Decade volcanoes are volcanoes that erupt every couple of decades. Taal is located only 60 km. away from Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
More: http://www.iml.rwth-aachen.de/Petrographie/taal.html
And: http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Taal_Volcano

1962 Alouette (Canada), 1st Canadian satellite, launched

1920 ~ Chicago Black Sox scandal - 8 White Sox indicted
(threw 1919 World Series)
More: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/proj...ummations.html

1912 ~ SS "Kiche Maru" sinks, in storm, off Japan (1,000 die)

1887 ~ Huang Ho (Yellow) River in China floods (about 1.5 million die)
Hwang Ho or "Yellow River" has been responsible for China's most catastrophic floods. Three thousand miles long, it begins high above sea level in the northern mountain province of Qinghai and ends at the Yellow Sea. Westerners have dubbed it "China's Sorrow," because over the centuries it has killed more people than any other river in the world.
More: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/flood/deluge.html


1850 ~ U.S. Navy abolishes flogging as punishment

1785 ~ Napoleon Bonaparte graduates (at 16 y/o) from the military academy in Paris (42nd in a class of 51)

1538 ~ Barbarossa (Turk) beats Spanish in Battle at Preveza

1528 ~ Spanish fleet sinks in Florida hurricane (about 380 die)

[GordMay]

September 29

1971 ~ Cyclone and tidal wave off Bay of Bengal (Orissa State, India) kills as many as 10,000

1941 ~ Babi Yar Massacre
The Nazi mass murder of nearly 34,000 Jewish men, women, and children begins at Babi Yar, on the outskirts of Kiev in the Nazi-occupied Ukraine.
More: http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/babi_yar.htm

1940 ~ U.S. merchant ship "Booker T Washington" launched at Wilmington Delaware
Captain Hugh Mulzac became the first African American merchant marine naval officer to command an integrated crew during World War II. With its crew of eighteen nationalities, the Booker T. Washington made twenty-two round-trip voyages in five years and carried 18,000 troops to Europe and the Pacific.

1853 ~ Emigrant ship "Annie Jane" sinks off Scotland, drowning 348
The Annie Jane, bound to Canada from Liverpool, was lost on the island of Barra, where out of 334 steerage passengers, only 61 were saved.

1758 ~ Lord Nelson born
Horatio Nelson was born on September 29, 1758, to Catherine (Suckling) Nelson, the wife of Edmund Nelson, rector of Burnham Thorpe, in the county of Norfolk.
More: http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/people/nelson.htm

[GordMay]

September 30

1993 ~ Earthquake (6.4) at Latur, India (28,000 die)

1954 ~ USS “Nautilus” commissioned (first atomic-powered submarine)
More: http://www.ussnautilus.org/history.html

1913 ~ Rudolf Diesel dies (Internal-Combustion Engine Patent Number 608,845)

1887 ~ “Volunteer” (U.S.) beats “Thistle” (Scotland) in 8th America's Cup

1857 ~ US occupies Sand, Baker, Howland and Jarvis Islands

1452 ~ Johann Guttenberg publishes Bible (world’s first “printed” book)

[GordMay]

October 1

1979 ~ U.S. returns Canal Zone to Panama after 75 years
The Panama Canal Zone came into being on May 4, 1904 (“Acquisition Day”), under the terms of the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 by which Panama granted to the United States, in return for annual payments, the sole right to operate and control the canal and about 5 miles (8 km) of land on each side. The canal was constructed between 1904 and 1914. As reorganized in 1951, the administration of the canal and adjoining land was entrusted to two closely related U.S. agencies, the Panama Canal Company (responsible for operating the canal itself) and the Canal Zone government (responsible for civil rule in the zone). The governor of the Canal Zone, appointed by the president of the United States and supervised by the secretary of the army, was ex officio president and director of the Panama Canal Company.
The zone was abolished on Oct. 1, 1979, with the return to Panama of direct civil control under a treaty signed in 1977. By the same treaty a commission under joint American-Panamanian ownership was established to operate the canal until the year 2000, when Panama assumed full control.

1908 ~ Henry Ford introduces Model T car

1893 ~ "Chenier Caminanda” hurricane kills 1,800 (Mississippi)
This Category 4 storm made landfall at Chenier Caminanda, between New Orleans and Port Eads(this island lost about 780 people, hence the hurricane’s unofficial name), Louisiana. With storm surges of up to 16 feet and strong winds, 2,000 lives were lost. There was also $5 million in property losses; shipping was destroyed as were the rice and orange crops. The hurricane then traveled over southeast Mississippi and weakened to a tropical storm by the time it was over Alabama. This was the third deadliest storm known to occur on the Gulf Coast.

1888 ~ First “National Geographic” magazine published

1867 ~ "Das Kapita"( Karl Marx) published

1837 ~ "Racer's" Hurricane (Gulf of Mexico)
Formed in the Caribbean and moved from there, across the Yucatan, and just prior to landfall near the Rio Grande, it turned north, then northeast, then east, and slammed into Perdido Key.

1661 ~ The first Yacht race? England's King Charles vs his brother James
In 1660, after the King’s return from exile in Holland, the Dutch presented him with a sailing vessel of a type known to them as a “jaght”. The King used it frequently. His brother, James, Duke of York, had a similar craft built and the royal brothers would race their respective vessels against each other. It is the English corruption of the original Dutch word “jaght” that has given the English language the word “yacht”.

[hellosailor]

Panama Canal? Wasn't part of the disagreement because the original treaty was for 100 years, and the canal wasn't returned to Panama at all--but returned in order to be promptly handed off to the new management company, which is actually the government of "Communist" China?

There were and are many Americans who feel that since the US effectively created Panama (we played a key role in their war of indepence, effectively creating the country) for the sole purpose of building the Canal, that in response to Panama's demands that the US leave before the lease was up (and that is what they demanded) we should have left--and filled the canal back in before doing so.
Purely as a responsible ecological gesture, to show we weren't a Colonial Power trying to take advantage of them any more.

[GordMay]

October 2

1963 ~ Hurricane Flora devastates Haiti (7,000+ die)
Flora first struck the island of Tobago as a Category 3 hurricane, it crossed the Caribbean Sea and strenghened to a Category 4, when it slammed into the southern part of Haiti. It then struck Cuba, near Guantanamo Bay. Flora then slowed up, stalled over Cuba, and did a 180 degree turn and heading to the northeast into the Atlantic, sparing the East Coast of the US.. Flora (the name was retired) left over 7,000 people dead in Haiti and Cuba, making it one of the five deadliest hurricanes in Atlantic history.

1957 ~ New volcanic island (“Capelinhos”) appears off Fayal (Faial) Island, Azores

1942 ~ "Queen Mary" slices cruiser "Curacao" in half (338 die)
While making a 28-knot zig-zag course in clear weather off the coast of Donegal, Ireland, the luxury liner, and now troop transport Queen Mary, bringing 10,000 Americans to Britain, rams her escort, the cruiser Curacao. The cruiser is literally cut in two and by the time the Queen Mary clears the wreck, the two halves are 100 yards apart. The captain of the Queen Mary, fearing the presence of German submarines, doesn’t even bother to slow down to determine the damage to her escort, let alone pick up survivors. 101 sailors were saved, and 338 lost their lives. After the war, a court of inquiry determined that the cruiser was at fault for not staying out of the way.

1836 ~ Darwin returns to Falmouth England aboard HMS “Beagle”