Maritime History

[GordMay]

June 19, 1864 ~ CSS Alabama Sunk

Confederate raider CSS Alabama was sunk, by the USS Kearsarge, off Cherbourg, France.
More ... http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org12-1.htm

[Wukong]

There is one hell of a story connected to the ships bell of the CSS Alabama. I will try to find the story and post it.

Found it

"Ownership of Ship Wreckage Debated

By Helen O'neill
AP National Writer
Saturday, November 28, 1998; 11:00 a.m. EST

Richard Steinmetz knew exactly what the federal marshals wanted when
they pounded on his door: his nicotine-stained shipwreck treasure, the
Alabama bell.

For years the bell, a relic of the notorious Confederate raider, the CSS
Alabama, sat in his antiques store in New York. In 1990, strapped for
cash and facing heart surgery, Steinmetz put it up for auction.

Then the feds came calling.

``They accused me of stealing government property,'' Steinmetz says,
wheezing in indignation when he recalls the scene. ``I told them they
were stealing if they took it from me.''

Wrong, he was told. The Navy doesn't abandon warships. All of them, even
rusting confederate ones, belong to the United States government.

Never mind that the bell had spent 73 years in the murky depths off the
coast of France, that it had been fished out by an English diver in
1937, that he had traded it for drinking rights at an island pub, where
for years it was rung as last call for locals. War erupted. The pub was
bombed. The bell wound up in an English antiques store, where it was
eventually bought by Steinmetz.

Today it sits in a Washington Navy museum, still black from years of pub
smoke.

Steinmetz, who fought his claim in court unsuccessfully for years,
wasn't the only one left shaking his head at the peculiar brand of
justice that rules the high seas.

There are thousands of shipwrecks around the world and thousands of
treasure hunters searching for them, spinning dreams of gold as they
scour the ocean blue.

[GordMay]

June 22, 1611 ~ Henry Hudson set adrift by mutineers:

Hudson, his son and seven others were set adrift in a small boat. No food or water was provided and they were never seen again. The mutineers were never punished.
http://www.usask.ca/education/ideas/...on/henry_h.htm

[sneuman]

I leafed through this book on the CSS Shenandoah in the bookstore the other day. Looks fascinating:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080...Fencoding=UTF8

[hellosailor]

"Wrong, he was told. The Navy doesn't abandon warships. All of them, even rusting confederate ones, belong to the United States government."

Bizarre, since Confederate property was not US property. Unless, the CSA surrender ceded rights & titles to the US? That I could understand, but I'd sure like to see what docments conveyed that title, or how the court reached those conclusions.

[hellosailor]

So I sstarted hunting on the web:

"[United States Consul to England] Thomas Haines Dudley...was charged with the responsibilty of disposing of four Confederate ships that the British had handed over to the U.S.. ...In January of 1866, an attempt had been made to sail the Shenandoah to the United States, but had failed due to stormy weather. Dudley was authorised to sell the ship, her equipment and stores at auction...The U.S. Government was apparently satisfied with this, as he was then authorised to sell the Tallahassee (Chamelion) and the Sumter."

http://www.csa-dixie.com/liverpool_dixie/sale.htm

If that's correct, the USN had no claim to the bell, as the ship and all her contents had legally been sold off by the US.

Houghton-Mifflin confirm that the ship was legally SOLD by the US before she sunk:
college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/ ships/html/sh_083300_cssshenandoa.htm
"Seized by the U.S. government, she was sold to the Sultan of Zanzibar and renamed El Majidi. She foundered at sea en route from Zanzibar to Bombay."

So the logic here eludes me.

[GordMay]

June 25, 1957 ~ Hurricane Audrey hits Texas and Louisiana
Audrey left $1 billion dollars (2005 USD) in damage and 390-550 fatalities. At the time Hurricane Audrey was the worst for the United States since the Great New England Hurricane of 1938.

[GordMay]

June 26, 1959 ~ St. Lawrence Seaway opened
The seaway, made up of a system of canals, locks, and dredged waterways, extends a distance of nearly 2,500 miles, from the Atlantic Ocean through the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Thunder Bay, Ontario and Duluth, Minnesota, on Lake Superior.

[CaptainK]

Wow Gord.

And all this time, I thought that the St. Lawrance seaway was older than that!!

Thanks for that post Gord.

Who says you can not learn something new every day?

I was there! my Dad took the family from where we lived in Jenkins Minnesota to the big celebration in Duluth. I remember there were war ships and they gave tours and I was facinated as an 8 year old would be. We drove there in the family car, a 52 ford "mainliner" as I recall. I must be turning into an old fart with a story for everthing!

outahere!

[GordMay]

June 28, 1888 ~ Robert Louis Stevenson sets sail for the South Seas

Author* Robert Louis Stevenson and his family depart San Francisco, for their first visit to the South Seas. Stevenson, an adventurous traveler plagued by tuberculosis, was seeking a healthier climate. The family finally settled in Samoa, where Stevenson died in 1894.
* “Treasure Island”, “A Child's Garden of Verse”, “Kidnapped”, and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”.

[markpj23]

Originally Posted by GordMay

June 26, 1959 ~ St. Lawrence Seaway opened

Also a little known fact that on the very next day June 27, 1959 the first Newfie joke was told.... Not all progress is good

[GordMay]

I think the first Newfie joke may have been told in about 1658 ...

[GordMay]

The Vikings visited Newfoundland about a thousand years ago. They established a settlement (now called L'Anse aux Meadows) on the northwestern tip of the island but didn't stay long, likely due to the “warm” welcome given them by the indigenous natives. Almost 500 years after the Vikings sailed away, John Cabot arrived and claimed this part of the north Atlantic for England (there's still some speculation whether he landed in Newfoundland or Nova Scotia). The first white child was born in Newfoundland in 1613. Apparently, it took him 46 years to accomplish anything noteworthy - which occurrence became the basis of the first “Newfie” joke. The exact nature of this noteworthy occurance has been lost to history, as has the resulting joke. It matters not, they're all pretty much the same.

[GordMay]

July 2, 1839 ~ Mutiny on the Amistad slave ship

Early in the morning, Africans on the Cuban schooner Amistad rise up against their captors, killing two crewmembers and seizing control of the ship, which had been transporting them to slavery on a sugar plantation at Puerto Principe, Cuba.
More info’: http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/main/welcome.html