Maritime History

[JGarrick]

July 3rd

1567 - Samuel de Champlain, explorer, born
1608 - Champlain founds City of Quebec
1898 - Joshua Slocum completes 1st solo circumnavigation of the globe (he completed the circumnavigation on June 27th, and returned to his point of departure on July 3rd)
1945 - Enlgish yachtsman and 1968 Olympic gold medalist Iain MacDonald-Smith born

[Starbuck]

Stevenson's voyage privides the grist for his travelogue In the South Seas, a wonderful summer read.

[GordMay]

July 5, 1946 - Bikini born

On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Reard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashion, which Reard dubbed the "Bikini" inspired by a news-making U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week.

[gonesail]

Under Captain Raphael Semmes, Alabama spent the next two months capturing and burning ships in the North Atlantic and intercepting American grain ships bound for Europe. Continuing the path of destruction through the West Indies, Alabama sank USS Hatteras along the Texas coast and captured her crew. After a visit to Cape Town, South Africa, Alabama sailed for the East Indies where the ship spent six months cruising, destroying seven more ships

I remember growing up in Mobile, Alabama and seeing the monument to Semmes. Many thought he was a great captain.

[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

[Ferg]

Naval history is fascinating to say the least. I now want to put a bow chaser on Sea-Renity, a four pounder should do!

Oh yeah, I have the Ol’ Girl in her slip, I’m a happy guy and am saving you a beer to repay you for your valuable advice.

Later, eh!

Ferg

[GordMay]

July 7, 1941 ~ U.S. occupies Iceland

U.S. forces land on Iceland to take over its garrisoning from the British. The occupation of Iceland came less than a month after President Franklin D. Roosevelt froze all German and Italian assets in the United States, and expelled those countries' diplomats, in response to the German torpedoing of the American destroyer “Robin Moor”.

Ferg: I noted “Sea-Renity” in her slip, but haven’t yet seen the companionway open.

[GordMay]

July 8, 1853 ~ Commodore Perry sails into Tokyo Bay
Perry leads a squadron of four ships into Tokyo Bay and presented representatives of the Japanese Emperor with the text of a proposed commercial and friendship treaty.
Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan: http://www.history.navy.mil/branches...ds/opening.htm

[GordMay]

July 10, 1992 ~ Court Overturns Captain* Hazelwood’s Conviction (*“Exxon Valdez”)

The Alaska court of appeals overturns the conviction of Joseph Hazelwood, the former captain of the oil tanker Exxon Valdez. Hazelwood, who was found guilty of negligence for his role in the massive oil spill in Prince William Sound in 1989, successfully argued that he was entitled to immunity from prosecution because he had reported the oil spill to authorities 20 minutes after the ship ran aground.
Following his trial and misdemeanor conviction for negligent discharge of oil, Hazelwood briefly worked as an instructor at his alma mater, the Maritime College of the State University of New York in the Bronx, as a lobster fisherman in Long Island Sound, and as a boat transporter. But for the most part, he has earned a living as a maritime consultant and claims adjustor in the employ of the Manhattan law firm, Chalos and Brown, that has represented him in criminal and civil litigation since the spill.
The helmsman of the Exxon Valdez as it approached Bligh Reef was Robert Kagan, a 15-year veteran of the Exxon fleet.
The Exxon Valdez was repaired and renamed Sea River Mediterranean. It still transports oil, but is legally prohibited (by an act of Congress) from entering Prince William Sound.

[GordMay]

July 11, 1951 ~ Alan Freed launches rhythm and blues show (Rock & Roll is born)

Alan Freed starts his new job as the disk jockey of a rhythm and blues show in Cleveland, Dubbing his show "The Moondog House" and himself the "Moondog" (based on his chosen theme song, "The Moondog Symphony").
Freed had to stop using his popular moniker in 1954 when the blind New York City street musician who had recorded "Moondog Symphony" won a court battle that stripped Freed of the ability to use the name. Forced to find a new identity for his show, he decided to rename it Alan Freed's Rock and Roll Party. He copyrighted the phrase "rock and roll" in partnership with black music legend Morris Levy, veteran promoter Lew Platt, and radio station WINS, but the tidal wave of rock and roll soon made his copyright virtually useless.

[GordMay]

July 17, 1996 ~ TWA Flight 800 explodes over Long Island
Shortly after takeoff from New York's Kennedy International Airport, a TWA Boeing 747 jetliner bound for Paris explodes over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 230 people aboard.

July 17, 1944 ~ Port Chicago disaster
Two ammunition ships, the SS Quinault Victory and SS E.A. Bryan, explode while being loaded in Port Chicago, California, killing 332 people on this day in 1944.

July 17, 1938 ~ "Wrong Way" Corrigan crosses the Atlantic
In 1938, Douglas Corrigan bought a 1929 Curtiss Robin aircraft off a trash heap, rebuilt it, and modified it for long-distance flight. In July 1938, Corrigan piloted the single-engine plane nonstop from California to New York. Although the transcontinental flight was far from unprecedented, Corrigan received national attention simply because the press was amazed that his rattletrap aircraft had survived the journey.
Almost immediately after arriving in New York, he filed plans for a transatlantic flight, but aviation authorities deemed it a suicide flight, and he was promptly denied. Instead, they would allow Corrigan to fly back to the West Coast, and on July 17 he took off from Floyd Bennett field, ostentatiously pointed west. However, a few minutes later, he made a 180-degree turn and vanished into a cloudbank to the puzzlement of a few onlookers.
Twenty-eight hours later, Corrigan landed his plane in Dublin, Ireland, stepped out of his plane, and exclaimed, "Just got in from New York. Where am I?" He claimed that he lost his direction in the clouds and that his compass had malfunctioned. The authorities didn't buy the story and suspended his license, but Corrigan stuck to it to the amusement of the public on both sides of the Atlantic. By the time "Wrong Way" Corrigan and his crated plane returned to New York by ship, his license suspension had been lifted, he was a national celebrity, and a mob of autograph seekers met him on the gangway.

[GordMay]

July 19, 1979 ~ Oil tankers collide in Caribbean

Two supertankers, the “Atlantic Empress” and the “Aegean Captain” collide off the island of Little Tobago in the Caribbean Sea, killing 26 crew members and spilling 280,000 tons of crude oil into the sea. At the time, it was the worst oil-tanker accident in history and remains one of the very few times in history when two oil tankers have collided.
After the collision, fires broke out all over the Atlantic Empress and on the bow of the Aegean Captain. The Aegean Captain managed to control the fire and then was towed toward Trinidad; however (on August 3), the Atlantic Empress sank.

[GordMay]

July 21, 365 ~ Tsunami hits Alexandria, Egypt

A powerful earthquake off the coast of Greece caused a tsunami that devastates the city of Alexandria, Egypt. Although there were no measuring tools at the time, scientists now estimate that the quake was actually two tremors in succession, the largest of which is thought to have had a magnitude of 8.0. In Alexandria, approximately 5,000 people lost their lives and 50,000 homes were destroyed. The surrounding villages and towns suffered even greater destruction. Many were virtually wiped off the map. Outside the city, 45,000 people were killed. In addition, the inundation of saltwater rendered farmland useless for years to come. Evidence indicates that the area’s shoreline was permanently changed by the disaster. It was not until 1995 that archaeologists discovered the ruins of the old city off the coast of present-day Alexandria.