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[ardarossan]

June 2nd...

2013: Three miles off the coast of Kent, salvage teams on board two barges, the GPS Apollo, and the Boxer, attempt to raise the last surviving WW2 German Dornier Do-17 bomber from it's resting place in 50ft of water  (at around 21:00hrs).

The salvage attempt at the Goodwin Sands was scheduled to take place at midday on Monday 3rd June 2013, but was moved forward when reports said that the conditions (currently bright sunshine and calm waters) were expected to deteriorate over the next 24 hours.

Graphic showing the method which is hoped will lift the last surviving WW2 Dornier Do.17 Bomber.

[ardarossan]

June 3rd...

1787: Three weeks after they leaving England, the town of Santa Cruz on Tenerife in the Canary Islands is the first port of call for the First Fleet, arriving to take on fresh water and vegetables, before continuing their voyage to Australia.

1836: Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (1831-36): When H.M.S. 'Beagle' called at Cape Town, Captain Robert FitzRoy and the young naturalist Charles Darwin visited John Herschel on 3rd June 1836. Later on, Darwin would be influenced by Herschel's writings in developing his theory advanced in The Origin of Species. In the opening lines of that work, Darwin writes that his intent is "to throw some light on the origin of species - that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers", referring to Herschel.

1839  In Humen, China, Lin Tse-hsü destroys 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British merchants, and providing Britain with a casus belli to open hostilities, which would result in the First Opium War.

1880: On June 3rd, Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant transmitted the first wireless telephone message on their newly invented photophone (later given the alternate name radiophone) from the top of the Franklin School in Washington, D.C. to the window of Bell's laboratory, some 213 meters (about 700 ft.) away.
The photophone, which allowed for the transmission of speech on a beam of light, was a precursor to the fibre-optic communication systems which subsequently achieved worldwide popular usage around a century after the principle was first tested by Bell.

1864: On the night of 3rd June in Ossabaw Sound, a Confederate boat force under the command of First Lieutenant Thomas P. Pelot, CSN, succeeded in boarding (the third) U.S.S. 'Water Witch', a wooden-hulled, sidewheel gunboat in the U.S. Navy. In 1864 she was   and capturing  After a brief scuffle 'Water Witch' was captured by the Confederates, and subsequently taken into their navy as C.S.S. 'Water Witch'.

Side-wheel paddle-steamer U.S.S. 'Water Witch' by Bucky Bowles (cropped).

1898: Samuel Plimsoll, aged 74 years, died in Folkestone. He was a British politician and social reformer, and was for some years the honorary president of the National Sailors' and Firemen's Union. However, he is best remembered for having devised the Plimsoll line  - a line on a ship's hull indicating the maximum safe draft, and therefore the minimum freeboard for the vessel in various operating conditions.
Samuel Plimsoll (10th February 1824 – 3rd June 1898) is buried in St Martin's churchyard, Cheriton, Kent.

1911: R.M.S. 'Olympic' arrives at Southampton, to be made ready for her maiden voyage departing in eleven days time. The deep-water dock at Southampton, then known as the "White Star Dock" had been specially constructed to accommodate the new 'Olympic'-class liners, and had opened earlier in 1911.

1942: Codenamed Operation Style, H.M.S. 'Eagle', escorted by the cruiser H.M.S. 'Charybdis' and destroyers H.M.S. 'Antelope', 'Ithuriel', 'Partridge', 'Westcott' and 'Wishart', transports another consignment of Spitfires from Gibraltar to Malta. Of the thirty-two aircraft flown off the carrier, twenty-eight of them arrived safely, with the other four being shot down en route.

1967: Arthur Michell Ransome, aged 83 years young, died at Cheadle Royal Hospital, Greater Manchester.
The English author and journalist, best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. The books remain popular and "Swallows and Amazons" is the basis for a tourist industry around Windermere and Coniston Water, the two lakes Ransome adapted as his fictional North Country lake.
He and his wife Evgenia lie buried in the churchyard of St Paul's Church, Rusland, Cumbria, in the southern Lake District.

     
Arthur Ransome (18th January 1884 - 3rd June 1967), and the dust cover from a first edition of 'Swallows and Amazons' c.1930.

1979: A blowout at the Ixtoc I exploratory oil well being drilled in waters 160 ft deep by the semi-submersible drilling rig Sedco 135-F in the Bay of Campeche in southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m3) of oil to be spilled into the waters. It wouldn't be brought under control until the end of March 1980, resulting in one of largest oil spills in history.

The Ixtoc I oil well blowout, after the platform Sedco 135 burned and sank in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Some say that his knees bend backwards and that he can spin around so fast, he can see the back of his own head. All we know is that he's called 'Neil' and it's his birthday!"
Happy Birthday to Mayhem member 'Neil', aka Neil - Born on this day in 1951.

[ardarossan]

June 3rd...

1959: Whilst Neil Howard-Pritchard was celebrating his eighth birthday, 'crabbing' (with a mussel on the end of a string), from the Fleetwood Lifeboat slipway, another local tike thought it would be funny to drop a crab down the back of the birthday boy's shirt. Unfortunately, young Neil "nearly jumped out of his skin" and fell into the water.

Known for it's strong currents and deep water, young Neil was washed underneath the slipway structure in an instant. Unable to get back out, he easily have drowned, but for a quick acting lifeboatman who waded in to the water and rescued the little fella from his watery prison, before sending him off home to his Mum.

Now older and wiser, the 'little fella' is all grown up and enjoys supporting the RNLI and Fleetwood lifeboat station...

Mayhem's 'Neil' and his model of the 'Grace Paterson Richie', with crew members from the Fleetwood Lifeboat Station and their D-boat.

[Neil]

and where did you get that from andy....................lol...........................actually that photo makes me look half human,
 
cheers.
 
neil.

[ardarossan]

June 4th...

1692: The related naval battles of Barfleur and La Hogue, which began a few days earlier (29th May 1692, NS) in response to a French invasion fleet sailing toward England, finally reach a conclusion at La Hogue on 4th June (NS) with the destruction of twelve French ships of the line, resulting in an Anglo-Dutch victory and lifted the threat of invasion of England.

The Battle at La Hogue (1692) by Adriaen van Diest.

1855: Major Henry C. Wayne aboard the U.S.S. 'Supply', a ship-rigged sailing vessel under the command of then-Lieutenant David Dixon Porter, departs from New York and head for the Mediterranean to procure camels with which to establish the U.S. Camel Corps in the desert west of the Rocky Mountains..

U.S.S. 'Supply' a ship-rigged sailing vessel used as a stores ship.

1914: Laid down in November 1911, SMS 'Markgraf', the third battleship of the four-ship König class was launched at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen on 4th June 1913.
At her launching ceremony, the ship was christened by Frederick II, Grand Duke of Baden, the head of the royal family of Baden, in honour of which the ship had been named. The name 'Markgraf' being a rank of German nobility equivalent to the English Margrave, or Marquess.
The wreck of the 'Margraf is currently a dive-site in Scapa Flow.

SMS 'Markgraf', launched 4th June 1913.

1939: Within sight of the lights of Miami, the MS 'St. Louis', a German transatlantic ocean liner carrying approximately 937 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, is denied permission to land in Florida, after already being turned away from Cuba.
U.S. Coastguard vessels patrolled the waters to make sure that no one jumped to freedom and did not allow the ship to dock in the United States. After an appeal for help from Canada is refused, the ship is forced to return to Europe. It is estimated that more than 200 of the passengers later died in Nazi concentration camps.

The event was the subject of a 1974 book, Voyage of the Damned, by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts. It was adapted for an American film of the same title, released in 1976.

'St. Louis' surrounded by smaller vessels in the port of Havana, June 1939.

1910: Christopher Sydney Cockerell is born at 'Wayside' Cavendish Avenue, Cambridge, UK. He would be educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and later enter Cambridge University where he would study engineering, return later to study Radio and Electronics.
He would become known to the world at large in 1959 as the inventor of the Hovercraft, a project he had proved viable a few years earlier following the successful testing of a proof-of-concept model, made from Balsa wood and a couple of empty food tins.

1940: The evacuation of Dunkirk, codenamed Operation Dynamo comes to an end. The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, described the "miracle of deliverance" during a moving speech to Parliament on the same day the last allied soldier arrived home from France.

At the end of the 10-day operation, hundreds of thousands of retreating allied troops trapped by the German Army were rescued from the beach at Dunkirk by the hastily assembled fleet of 933 boats.

Some of the troops were able to embark from the harbour's protective mole onto 42 British destroyers and other large ships, while others had to wade from the beaches toward the ships, waiting for hours to board, shoulder-deep in water. Some were ferried from the beaches to the larger ships, and thousands were carried back to the United Kingdom by the famous "little ships of Dunkirk" - the smallest of which was the 14 ft 7 inch fishing boat 'Tamzine', now in the Imperial War Museum.

During the evacuation, the Luftwaffe attacked whenever the weather allowed, reducing the town of Dunkirk to rubble and destroying 235 vessels and 106 aircraft. At least 5,000 soldiers lost their lives.

Historic fishing boat 'Tamzine', the smallest known 'little ship' of Dunkirk, on display at Imperial War Museum London.

1942: Only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway, one of the most important naval battles of the Pacific Campaign of World War II, begins with the Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo ordering a strike on Midway Island by much of the Imperial Japanese navy.

1968: A three-day  Dover Seagull purge begins to remove the creatures, regarded as noisy and dirty pest, from the centre of the seaside resort town.
Since the birds had the nerve to move from the world-famous cliffs to nest in the comfort of the chimney pots and roof tops of the town centre some years ago, not only have their droppings been an "embarassment" and caused damage to buildings but the birds have been known to scavenge from rubbish bins and in some cases to attack people.

One theory suggests they were frightened away during the war by explosions in the Channel - another that they have been encouraged in by bird-loving townspeople who are feeding them.
Whatever the reason for the gulls' invasion, today residents and workmen are starting to remove hundreds of nests and eggs on Dover's buildings.

[ardarossan]

June 5th...

1283: Battle of the Gulf of Naples: Roger of Lauria, admiral to King Peter III of Aragon, captures Charles of Salermo.
The naval Battle of the Gulf of Naples took place on 5th June 1284 in the south of the Gulf of Naples, Italy, when an Aragonese-Sicilian galley fleet commanded by Roger of Lauria defeated a Neapolitan galley fleet commanded by Charles of Salerno (later Charles II of Naples) and captured Charles.

1817: The 700-ton side-wheel paddle-steamer 'Frontenac', the first Great Lakes passenger steamship to be launched (September 1816), departs from Kingston on her first trip for the head of Lake Ontatrio on 5th June 1817. The opening route of the 'Frontenac', commanded by Capt. James McKenzie, a retired officer of the Royal Navy, was between Kingston and Queenston, calling at York (now Toronto) and Niagara and other intermediate ports.

The passenger steamboat 'Frontenac' by James Van Cleve (1827).

1829: Following a pursuit that continued throughout much of the day and into the evening, H.M.S. 'Pickle' is engaged by the at close range by the Spanish slave schooner 'Boladora' at around 23:30hrs.

Hoping that her superior size, heavier armament and larger crew might prevail, the action lasted until 00:50hrs of the 6th June when 'Boladora' surrendered, having had her masts shot away and been reduced to a wreck. In view of the darkness, the crew of 'Pickle' (which suffered little damage), waited until daylight before boarding and towing 'Boladora' (with 335 slaves on board) to the Port of Xibarra.

H.M.S. 'Pickle' capturing the armed slave ship 'Boladora' in the early hours of 6th June.

1863: After a successful six months in the Caribbean, the Confederate commerce raider C.S.S. 'Alabama' moved its operations to the islands off Brazil to continue to disrupt U.S. maritime trade. The 'Talisman', captured on this day in 1863,  was one of the twenty-nine ships she seized during this period. The 1200-ton clipper ship was bound from New York to Shanghai in China with a cargo of coal together with four cannon and two steam boilers for gunboats for use against the Taiping Rebellion. As usual, the 'Alabama' took off what she could use and burned the captured vessel.

During her two-year career, 'Alabama' conducted a total of seven expeditionary raids, causing disorder and devastation across the globe for Union merchant shipping. All together, she burned 65 Union vessels of various types, most of them merchant ships.
During all of Alabama's raiding ventures, captured ships' crews and passengers were never harmed, only detained until they could be placed aboard a neutral ship or placed ashore in a friendly or neutral port.

Confederate commerce raider C.S.S. 'Alabama'.

1914: Six days after leaving Liverpool, the R.M.S. 'Aquitania' arrives safely in New York to complete her maiden voyage.
 

R.M.S. Aquitania completes her maiden voyage, arriving in New York, 5th June 1914.

1916: Several days after she participated at the Battle of Jutland, H.M.S. 'Hampshire' , a Devonshire-class armoured cruiser of the Royal Navy, was directed to carry the Secretary of State for War Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, from Scapa Flow on a diplomatic mission to Russia via the port of Arkhangelsk.

Sailing in gale force conditions, 'Hampshire' was approximately 1.5 miles off the mainland of Orkney when an explosion (believed to be caused by a mine laid by German submarine U-75) blew a hole in the cruiser between bows and bridge. She sank by the bows around 15 minutes later. Of over 600 personnel aboard, only 12 men on two Carley floats managed to reach the shore; Kitchener and his staff were lost.

Later, Fritz Joubert Duquesne, a Boer and German spy, claimed to have sabotaged and sunk H.M.S.' Hampshire', killing Kitchener and most of the crew. Allegedly, Duquesne assumed the identity of Russian Duke Boris Zakrevsky and joined Kitchener in Scotland. On route to Russia, Duquesne signaled a German U-boat to alert them that Kitchener’s ship was approaching. He then escaped on a raft just before 'Hampshire' was destroyed.

Her wreck is listed under the Protection of Military Remains Act, though part was later illegally salvaged. A number of films have been made exploring the circumstances of her loss.

H.M.S. 'Hampshire' (c.1903).

1944: In preparation for D-Day, more than 1000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast.

1964: Deep-submergence vehicle (DSV) 'Alvin'. a manned deep-ocean research submersible owned by the United States Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts is commissioned on this day in 1964.
Named to honour the prime mover and creative inspiration for the vehicle, Allyn Vine, 'Alvin' is still in service and with continual modifications has (to date) made over 4,400 dives.

Deep Submergence Vehicle 'Alvin' (DSV-2).

[Rottweiler]

On this day 69 years ago, June 6th 1944 the greatest sea-borne invasion ever was about to start. The Normandy Invasion.
Already in position,off "SWORD" Beach,the British Battleship HMS RAMILLIES,was about to start her bombardment of strategic targets on the mainland,such as the enemy gun battery at Benerville,which was soon knocked out. During the campaign,"Ramillies" fired 1008 15 inch shells,each weighing 1 ton,up to 8 miles inland.This feat will never ever be equalled. She was lucky to escape a torpedo attack,when 3 torpedoes passed down either side of her,whilst she was maneuvering. Had she not been doing so,she would undoubtedly have been hit,but instead they hit a destroyer behind her the "Svenner",which immediately blew up and broke in half.
This "luck" was always to be believed,due to a lucky grass skirt,a PiuPiu,presented to the ship by a Maori Tribe,whilst the ship was in New Zealand earlier in the war,and blessed by them,with the wording of "when this skirt is warn into battle,no harm will befall the ship or crew" Not one loss of life on board occurred,because the Captain,did indeed wear the skirt. The original has long been lost,but a replacement was obtained from the same tribe,from the son of the original presenter.This replica is now in the Royal Marines' Museum at Portsmouth,and is still revered by the surviving members of her crew.

[Rottweiler]

A newsreel film of the event


http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/1944-d-day-greatest-combined-141848096.html

[ardarossan]

June 6th...

1586: Having sacked the port of Santo Domingo and captured the city of Cartagena de Indias (in present-day Colombia), an English expedition fleet led by Francis Drake, captures and burns the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine in Spanish Florida on 6th June 1586.
This was part of Francis Drakes Great Expedition and was the last engagement on the Spanish main before Drake headed north for the Roanoke colony. The expedition also forced the Spanish to abandon any settlements and forts in present-day South Carolina.

1762: British naval forces begin a siege of Havana when they place 12 British ships of the line in the mouth of the harbour entrance channel to block in the Spanish fleet.

The British planned to capture the city of Havana, which at the time was an important Spanish naval base in the Caribbean, by the reduction of the Morro fortress through a formal siege. The commanding position of this fort over the city would then force the Spanish commander to surrender.
However, the plan did not take into account the fact that the fortress was located on a rocky promontory where it was impossible to dig approach trenches and that a large ditch cut into the rock protected the fort on the land side. Consequently, the battle for of Havana would last until the end of August.

The Spanish preparing the Morro Castle and the Boom Defence before the siege, by Dominic Serres the Elder.

1832: Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (1831-36): After checking survey readings in the Abrolhos Shoals off the coast of Salvador, the 'Beagle' returned to Rio de Janeiro on 6th June.
At some time during the next few weeks the ships surgeon, Robert McCormick, resigned his position and headed back to England on the H.M.S. Tyne (a British warship with a crew of 175 men). On British survey ships it was standard practice for the ship's surgeon to collect specimens during a voyage, and McCormick felt his duty was usurped by Charles Darwin. Benjamin Bynoe (formally Assistant Surgeon) was made head surgeon for the rest of the voyage.

1837: After several years use as a convict hulk at Dún Laoghaire, H.M.S. 'Essex', formerly the first U.S.S. 'Essex', is sold at public auction on 6th June 1837 for £1,230.
Whilst serving with the U.S. Navy, the 30-plus gun sailing frigate had participated in the Quasi-War with France, the First Barbary War, and the War of 1812, during which she was captured by the British (in 1814), and taken into the Royal Navy as H.M.S. 'Essex'.

1868: Robert Falcon Scott is born on 6th June 1868, the third child out of six and elder son of John Edward and Hannah (née Cuming) Scott of Stoke Damerel, near Devonport, Devon. Although his father was a brewer and magistrate, there were naval and military traditions in the family.
In accordance with the family's tradition, Robert and his younger brother Archibald were predestined for careers in the armed services. He would go on to join the Royal Navy officer and later become known as the explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901/04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910/13.

1896: With a compass, a sextant, a copy of the Nautical Almanac, oilskins and three sets of oars lashed safely in place, Franky Samuelsen and George Harbo, two Norwegian-born Americans set out from New York City in an 18-foot ship-lap (clinker-built) oak rowboat - built with water-resistant cedar sheathing with a couple of watertight flotation compartments and two rowing benches - at the start of their voyage to become the first people ever to row across an ocean (The North Atlantic).

Franky Samuelsen and George Harbo under way in 'The Fox'.

1944: The Battle of Normandy begins. D-Day, code named Operation Overlord, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.

In support of the D-Day landings, 'Operation Taxable' was creating the impression of a large convoy of ships crossing the narrowest part of the English Channel. To achieve the effect, eighteen small naval vessels steamed towards France at seven knots, and to make their radar response correspond to that created by a large convoy, the Lancasters of No. 617 Sqdn (The Dambusters) circled overhead, continually droping bundles of Window (small metal strips which produced a false echo on the enemy radar screens).

Meticulous timing was necessary, as an error of only four seconds would have been sufficient to make the "convoy" look suspect. As the last Lancaster turned for home its crew had the satisfaction of seeing the German guns open radar-predicted fire on the non-existent 'ghost convoy. Meanwhile the real invasion force was nearing the coast many miles away.

U.S. Army troops wading ashore on Omaha Beach on the morning of 6th June 1944.

[ardarossan]

June 7th...

1494: Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas (at Tordesillas, now in Valladolid province, Spain) which divides the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the two countries along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands (off the west coast of Africa).
This line of demarcation was about halfway between the Cape Verde Islands (already Portuguese) and the islands discovered by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage (claimed for Spain), named in the treaty as Cipangu and Antilia (Cuba and Hispaniola).

1672: The first naval battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Battle of Solebay, takes place on 7th June (28th May Old Style) 1672, as a fleet of 75 ships, 20,738 men and 4,484 cannon of the United Provinces, commanded by Lieutenant-Admirals Michiel de Ruyter, Adriaen Banckert and Willem Joseph van Ghent, surprise a joint Anglo-French fleet of 93 ships, 34,496 men and 6,018 cannon at anchor in Solebay (nowadays Sole Bay), near Southwold in Suffolk, on the east coast of England.

Losses were heavy on both sides and the battle ended inconclusively at sunset. Both sides claimed victory, the Dutch with the more justification as the English-French plan to blockade the Dutch was abandoned.
The fleets met again at the Battle of Schooneveld in 1673.

The skirmish of Michiel Adriaensz de Ruyter against the Duke of York, commanding the 'Royal Prince' during the Battle of Solebay, 7th June 1672, by Willem van de Velde II, 1691..

1692: Port Royal, Jamaica (previously a favoured safe harbour for privateers and pirates), is hit by a catastrophic earthquake at 11:43hrs. The earthquake, followed by a tsunami and fires, is believed to have killed between 1000 and 3000 people. Improper housing, a lack of medicine or clean water would lead to hundreds more people dying of malignant fevers over the next few months. Many viewed the horrific event as God’s punishment for unlawful proceedings by a group of sinful people.

1761: John Rennie (the Elder),is born at Phantassie, near East Linton, East Lothian, Scotland. The son of a farmer, Rennie showed a taste for mechanics at a very early age. He would become a civil engineer designing many bridges, canals, and docks.

The Holyhead Mail Pier Lighthouse at Gwynedd, Wales, built by John Rennie in 1921.

1906: Cunard Line's R.M.S. 'Lusitania' is launched at the John Brown Shipyard, Glasgow (Clydebank), Scotland on 7th June 1906 - eight weeks later than planned because of strikes and eight months after Lord Inverclyde's death.
Princess Louise was invited to name the ship but could not attend, so the honour fell to Lord Inverclyde's widow, Mary. The launch was attended by 600 invited guests and thousands of spectators. 1000 tons of drag chains were attached to the hull by temporary rings to slow it once it entered the water. The wooden supporting structure was held back by cables so that once the ship entered the water it would slip forward out of its support. Six tugs were on hand to capture the hull and move it to the fitting out berth.

R.M.S. 'Lusitania' being launched at the John Brown Shipyard on 7th June 1906.

1940: A converted Farman NC2234 civilian transport aircraft (F-AIRN 'Jules Verne'), operated by French Navy squadron B5, bombs Berlin. It is the first Allied air raid on the German capital during the Second World War and the only such raid to be carried out on Berlin before France falls.
According to one account of this raid, the aircrew threw incendiary bombs out of the passenger entry door. One enraged French airman even went so far as to pull his shoes off and throw them out as well!

1942: The three-day Battle of Midway ends with the U.S. Navy decisively defeating an Imperial Japanese Navy attack against Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet.

The Japanese had invaded two Aleutian islands, Attu and Kiska, and attacked Dutch Harbour as a diversionary ploy to draw U.S. forces away from the key battle at Midway, But the U.S. had broken Japanese military codes and knew about the secret strategy - thus denying Japan an easy victory at Midway.

Midway was Japan's worst naval defeat in 350 years, and the loss of four aircraft carriers during the battle was more than the Japanese Navy could endure. The confrontation would prove to be  a turning point in the Pacific War.

The burning Japanese heavy cruiser 'Mikuma' (on 6th June) after she had been bombed by planes from USS 'Enterprise' (CV-6) and USS 'Hornet' (CV-8) during the Battle of Midway.

1944: United States submarine U.S.S. 'Gudgeon' is officially declared overdue and presumed lost. 'Gudgeon' sailed for her 12th war patrol on 4th April 1944. The submarine stopped off for fuel at Johnston Island on 7th April, and was never seen or heard from again. Some sources suggest 'Gudgeon' was sunk on 18th April 1944 at a known location by the Japanese, southeast of Iwo Jima, whilst others believe the submarine was more likely to have sunk by attack near Maug Islands.

U.S.S. 'Gudgeon' (SS-211), a Tambor-class submarine of the U.S. Navy.

[ardarossan]

June 8th...

793: Vikings raid the abbey on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in Northumbria. The incident is commonly accepted as the beginning of the Scandinavian invasion of England.

A 1:25 scale static model of the Viking Ship Oseberg, from a kit by Billing Boats (B720).

1708: A confrontation known as Wager's Action takes place (as part of the War of Spanish Succession), off Cartagena on 8th June (28th May O.S.) 1708, between a British squadron of four ships under Charles Wager and the Spanish treasure fleet of fourteen merchant ships, a hulk lightly armed, and three escorting warships, commanded by José Fernández de Santillán.
A Spanish ship is captured, another forced to fail, and the 'San Jose' carrying the bulk of the Spanish treasure is destroyed and sinks when her powder magazine explodes.

Action off Cartagena, 28 May 1708. Oil by Samuel Scott.

1871: White Star liner SS 'Atlantic' begins her maiden voyage, sailing from Liverpool bound for New York (via Queenstown) on the 8th June, 1871.
Built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast in 1870, she was powered by a steam engine producing 600 horsepower driving a single propeller, along with four masts rigged for sail. 'Atlantic' was the second ship built for the 'newly born' White Star Line.

Engraving of the White Star Line's steam-ship 'Atlantic'.

1940: The RAF contingent is evacuated from Norway. In the early hours of the 8th June, ten surviving Gloster Gladiators and seven Hawker Hurricanes of No.263 and No.46 Squadrons are embarked upon the aircraft carrier H.M.S. 'Glorious', the first time that either the Hurricanes (without tailhooks) or their pilots have landed on a carrier deck. Despite this, the landings are carried out without undue difficulty.

During the afternoon, whilst making the return journey, the 'Glorious' and her escorting destroyers H.M.S. 'Ardent' and H.M.S. 'Acasta' are sighted (at 15:45hrs) by the German battlecruisers 'Scharnhorst' and 'Gneisenau'. After a gallant struggle, during which the 'Scharnhorst' is damaged by a torpedo from the 'Acasta', all three Royal Navy warships are sunk. A total of 1,519 British personel lose their lives, with just 40 or so survivors - including two of the RAF airmen who landed aboard 'Glorious'.

Royal Navy aircraft-carrier H.M.S. 'Glorious'.

1955: Tim Berners-Lee, is born in southwest London, England, on 8th June 1955, one of four children born to Conway Berners-Lee and Mary Lee Woods - His parents worked on the first commercially-built computer, the Ferranti Mark 1. A keen trainspotter as a child, 'TimBL' would develop an interest and learn about electronics from tinkering with a model railway. From these modest beginnings he would go on to become known as the British computer scientist and engineer who invented the World Wide Web.

1959: Off the northern Florida coast, the U.S.S. 'Barbero' (SS-317), a Balao-class submarine of the U.S. Navy, assisted the United States Post Office Department (predecessor to today's USPS), with their first and only delivery of 'Missile Mail'.
Shortly before noon 'Barbero' fired a Regulus cruise missile towards the Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Mayport, Florida. Twenty-two minutes later the training type missile landed at its target; its training-type warhead having been configured to carry two official mail containers, holding 3000 pieces of mail, consisting entirely of commemorative postal covers.

A piece of 'Missile Mail, post-marked 'USS Barbero 8 June 9.30 am 1959'.

1978: Naomi James breaks the solo round-the-world sailing record by two days with her 53ft yacht 'Express Crusader', when she crossed the finish line in Dartmouth at 09:11hrs BST after almost nine months at sea. The 29-year old also became the first woman to sail solo around the globe via Cape Horn - the classic "Clipper Route".
Naomi James was made a Dame in 1979 in recognition of her achievements. She gave up sailing in 1982 after winning the two thousand mile Round Britain Race (with her husband Rob James), after suffering badly from sea sickness during the voyage.

Naomi James (with husband Rob) greeted by crowds on her arrival at Dartmouth, 8th June 1978.

1992: World Oceans Day, which had been unofficially celebrated every 8th June since its original proposal in 1992 by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008. Since then it has been coordinated internationally by The Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network with greater success and global participation each year.

2004: The first Venus Transit in modern history takes place, the previous one being in 1882. The next transits of Venus will be 10th-11th December 2117, and in December 2125.

2007: Early on the morning of 8th June 2007, Newcastle Port Corporation (New South Wales, Australia) radioed 56 moored ships waiting off the coast to load coal to warn them to move out to sea to escape the State's worst storms in 30 years.
The MV 'Pasha Bulker' (a Panamax bulk carrier of 76,741 metric tons deadweight), along with 10 other ships, did not heed the warning. As the storm hit, the 'Pasha Bulker' could not clear the coast and it grounded at 09:15hrs on Nobbys Beach.

The ship never called for tug assistance, ran aground with a fully operational engine room and still had both anchors stored in the hawsepipes leading some maritime experts to believe that proper precautions were not taken by the ship's captain. [sic]

It was eventually refloated and moved to a safe location offshore on 2nd July 2007, before being towed to Japan for major repairs on 26th July 2007. The 'Pasher Bulker' is currently operating as the 'Drake'.

The MV 'Pasha Bulker' on Nobbys Beach, Newcastle, NSW, 2007.

[ardarossan]

June 9th...

1772: A significant event in the lead-up to the American Revolution occurs on 9th June, when H.M.S. 'Gaspée', a British customs schooner enforcing unpopular trade regulations, is lured across a bar on the northwestern side of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay, by the 'Hannah', a packet boat she was chasing.
Although the crew of 'Gaspée' was unable to free her immediately, the rising tide might have allowed the ship to free herself. However, a band of Providence members of the Sons of Liberty rowed out to confront the ship's crew before this could happen. At the break of dawn on 10th June, they attacked the ship and after removal of the crew, in a final gesture of defiance they burned the 'Gaspée' to the waterline.

The burning of H.M.S. 'Gaspée'.

1834: Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (1831-36): During the first week of June they had surveyed down to Port Famine and then continued along the Strait.
Tierra del Fuego was very misty this time of year, but by 9th June the weather had cleared up quite a bit and the crew had great views of Mount Sarmiento and the glaciers flowing into the sea.
On 10th June the Beagle went through the Magdalen Channel, on through the Cockburn Channel, and past Mt. Skyring. On 11th June 1834 they passed through the East and West Furies, the Tower Rocks, and finally into the Pacific ocean.

1934: Donald Duck, most famous for his semi-intelligible speech and his mischievous and irritable personality, makes his screen debut in a Walt Disney Silly Symphonies cartoon called 'The Wise Little Hen'. Donald's appearance in the cartoon, as created by animator Dick Lundy, is similar to his modern look - his feather and beak colours are the same, as is his blue sailor shirt and hat - but his features are more elongated, his body plumper, and his feet smaller.
The film's release date of 9th June is officially recognised by the Walt Disney Company as Donald Duck's birthday.

1942: Another 32 Spitfires fly to Malta from the deck of aircraft-carrier H.M.S. 'Eagle' as part of Operaton Salient. All the aircraft reached Malta safely, while 'Eagle' and her cruiser and destroyer escorts returned to Gibraltar.

1959: U.S.S. 'George Washington' (SSBN-598), the lead ship of her class of nuclear ballistic missile submarines is launched at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics, Groton, Connecticut on 9th June 1959. Originally laid down as the attack submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589), during construction, she was lengthened by the insertion of a 130 ft-long ballistic missile section and renamed 'George Washington'; another submarine under construction at the time received the original name and hull number. Inside 'George Washington's forward escape hatch, a plaque remained bearing her original name.

Ballistic-missile submarine U.S.S. 'George Washington' slides down the ways during her launching ceremony.

1996: seaQuest DSV, the American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon, comes to an end after it's third series on 9th June 1996. Originally starring film star Roy Scheider as Captain Nathan Bridger, designer and commander (for the first two seasons) of the titular naval submarine seaQuest DSV 4600, the story was set 'the near future' and mixed high drama with realistic scientific fiction. The series, which first aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996, was revamped and renamed 'seaQuest 2032' for the final season.

The 'seaQuest DSV' logo from the NBC television series.

[ardarossan]

June 10th...

1787: After restocking with fresh water and vegetables, the First Fleet departs from Tenerife in the Canary Islands bound for Rio De Janeiro. One of Phillip's officers, Marine Captain Watkin Tench recorded:
"During our short stay we had every day some fresh proof of his Excellency's esteem and attention, and had the honour of dining with him, in a style of equal elegance and splendour".

1805: The First Barbary War (1801–1805), is brought to an end on this day in 1805 when Yusuf Karamanli, wearied of the blockade and raids, signs a treaty ending hostilities between Tripolitania and the United States, thus lifting the threat of an advance on Tripoli proper and ending a scheme to restore his deposed older brother Hamet Karamanli as ruler.

1829: The first Oxford and Cambridge inter-university boat race takes place on 10th June 1829 - Oxford won.
Originally held at Henley, it was briefly moved to a route between Westminster Bridge and Putney.
It has taken place along its current route, between Putney and Mortlake, since 1836, and became an annual event in 1856.
The record time on the current course was set by Cambridge in 1998 at 16mins 19secs.
The only dead heat in the history of the race came in 1877 when both teams completed the race in exactly 24mins 8secs

1871: After Korean shore batteries fired on two American warships on June 1st, 1871, and the Koreans subsequent refusal to provide the commanding American admiral with an official apology, around 650 Americans (including 109 U.S. Marines) under Captain McLane, landed and captured several Han River forts on Kanghwa Island, Korea, killing over 200 Korean troops with a loss of only three dead.
Known as the United States expedition to Korea, the Shinmiyangyo, or simply the Korean Expedition, the conflict, which took place predominantly on and around the Korean island of Ganghwa, marked the first American military action in Korea.
Korea continued to refuse to negotiate with the United States until 1882.

SMS 'Szent István' in the Fažana Strait.

1942: From 10th-12th June Bristol Beaufort torpedo bombers of No.217 Squadron, and Bristol Beaufighters of No.235 Squadron, arrive on Malta to enhance the Royal Air Force's anti-shipping campaign from that island.

A Bristol Beaufort II torpedo bomber in Malta, 1942.

[ardarossan]

June 11th...
 
1666: The Four Days' Battle, a naval battle of the Second Anglo–Dutch War, begins on this day in 1666 with an outnumbered English fleet of 56 ships commanded by George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (who also commanded the Red Squadron), opposing an 84-strong Dutch fleet commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter.
Fought from 11th June to 14 June (1st June to 4 June Old Style) off the Flemish and English coast, it becomes one of the longest and largest naval engagements during the age of sail.
 

The 'Royal Prince' and other Vessels at the Four Days Battle, 11-14 June 1666, by Abraham Storck.

1770: Not long into Captain Cook's northward voyage from from Botany Bay, a mishap occurs just before 23:00hrs when the 'Endeavour' runs aground on a shoal (today called Endeavour Reef) within the Great Barrier Reef system.
The sails were immediately taken down, a kedging anchor set and an unsuccessful attempt was made to drag the ship back to open water. The reef 'Endeavour' struck, rose so steeply from the seabed, that whilst the ship was hard aground, Cook was able to measure depths up to 70 feet less than one ship's length away.
 
1865: The Naval Battle of Riachuelo is fought on the rivulet Riachuelo (Argentina), between the Paraguayan Navy on one side and the Brazilian Navy on the other. The Brazilian victory was crucial for the later success of the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina) in the Paraguayan War.
 
1910: Jacques-Yves Cousteau is born, in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, Gironde, France to Daniel and Élisabeth Cousteau. He had one brother, Pierre-Antoine. Cousteauwould go on to study at the Collège Stanislas in Paris. In 1930, he would enter the École Navale, graduating as a gunnery officer. Follwing an automobile which accident cut short his career in naval aviation, Cousteau would indulge his interest in the sea becoming known as a filmmaker, scientist, author and pioneered marine conservation.
 
1935: Inventor Edwin Armstrong gives the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States at Alpine, New Jersey.
 
1937: Reginald Joseph (R. J.) Mitchell CBE, FRAeS, died on 11th June 1937 at age 42. His ashes were interred at South Stoneham Cemetery, Hampshire four days later.
The legendary British aircraft, born in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, England, joined the Supermarine Aviation Works at Southampton in 1917, becoming Technical Director by 1927. He was so highly regarded that, when Vickers took over Supermarine in 1928, one of the conditions was that Mitchell stay as a designer for the next five years.
 
Between 1920 and 1936, Mitchell designed 24 aircraft including light aircraft, fighters and bombers. As Supermarine was primarily a seaplane manufacturer, this included a number of flying boats, although he is best remembered for his work on a series of racing aircraft, which culminated in the Supermarine S.6B, and the famous Supermarine Spitfire fighter.
 

An R. J. Mitchell designed Supermarine Walrus (serial K5783) from H.M.N.Z.S. 'Leander'.

1944: The U.S.S. 'Missouri' (BB-63) the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, is commissioned with Captain William Callaghan in command. The ship was the third of the Iowa class, but the fourth and final Iowa-class ship commissioned by the U.S. Navy.
 
1959: The worlds first practical hovercraft, the Saunders Roe SR-N1, is unveiled to the public at Cowes, Isle of Wight, at it's official launch in the Solent, off the south coast of England.
 

The official launch of the SR-N1 Hovercraft, marking a new era in transportation, 11th June 1959.

1962: During the night of 11th/12th June,  Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.
Escaping from their cells via the ventilation system, the prisoners elaborate two-year escape plan culminated in them pumping up an inflatable raft, made from more than 50 rubberised raincoats that inmates were assigned, before paddling out into the bay at sometime around 22:00hrs.
The next morning police searched for the escapees on Alcatraz and Angel Island without success. Despite this. the official report on the escape says the prisoners drowned in the bay. However, the U.S. Marshall’s office is still investigating the case, which will remain open on all three escapees until their 100th birthdays.
 

Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, Calif., U.S.A.

[ardarossan]

June 12th...

1653: The naval Battle of the Gabbard, also known as the Battle of Gabbard Bank, the Battle of the North Foreland or the second Battle of Nieuwpoort took place on 12th/13th June 1653 (2nd/3rd June Old Style) during the First Anglo-Dutch War near the Gabbard shoal off the coast of Suffolk, England between fleets of the Commonwealth of England and the United Provinces.

The English fleet had 100 ships commanded by Generals at Sea George Monck and Richard Deane and Admirals John Lawson and William Penn (also joined by Admiral Robert Blake on 13th June). The Dutch had 98 ships under Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp and Vice-admiral Witte de With, divided in five squadrons.

A combination of English line-of-battle tactics, and a lull - which presented the Dutch ships as sitting ducks to the superior guns of the English, resulted in the Dutch being routed. The battle ended with the Dutch losing in total seventeen ships, of which six were sunk and eleven captured. The English lost no ships, but Deane was killed. Tactically this was the worst defeat in Dutch naval history with the exception of the Battle of Lowestoft; strategically the defeat threatened to be disastrous.

The Battle of the Gabbard, 1653.

1770: After initial attempts to free Captain Cook's stricken ship 'Endeavour', from a shoal within the Great Barrier Reef in Australia ended in failure, Cook then ordered that the ship be lightened to help her float off the reef.
Iron and stone ballast, spoiled stores and all but four of the ship's guns were thrown overboard, and the ship's drinking water pumped out. Buoys were attached to the discarded guns with the intention of retrieving them later, but this proved impractical. Every man on board took turns on the pumps, including Cook and Banks.

When, by Cook's reckoning, about 40 to 50 long tons of equipment had been thrown overboard, on the next high tide a second unsuccessful attempt was made to pull the ship free. During the afternoon of 12th June, the longboat carried out two large bower anchors, and block and tackle were rigged to the anchor chains to allow another attempt on the evening high tide. The ship had started to take on water through a hole in her hull. Although the leak would certainly increase once off the reef, Cook decided to risk the attempt and at 22:20hrs the badly damaged ship was floated on the tide and successfully drawn off.

1941: Fourteen Bristol Beaufort torpedo aircraft fly a search from Leuchars and Wick for the German pocket battleship 'Lutzow', which has been sighted off the coast of Norway. Spotting the battleship by moonlight, Flt Sgt Loveitt conducts a successful torpedo attack which forces the 'Lutzow' to return to Kiel in Germany for repairs. Flt Sgt Loveitt was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal for the action.

1942: Operation Harpoon (12th-15th June), and Operation Vigorous (12th-16th June), were a pair of simultaneous Allied convoys sent to supply Malta in the Axis-dominated Mediterranean Sea in mid-June 1942, during the Second World War.
One convoy, Operation Vigorous, sailed from Haifa and Port Said but encountered heavy Axis air and sea opposition, returning to Alexandria on 16th June. The other convoy, Operation Harpoon, travelled to Malta from Gibraltar. Also meeting with fierce Axis opposition, only two of 'Harpoon′s six merchant ships completed the journey, at the cost of several Allied warships.

1953: The SS 'Chusan', a British ocean liner and cruise ship, built for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O)'s Indian and Far East Service, accidentally collides with the freighter 'Prospector', off the Goodwin Sands in the English Channel. The collision tore an 26-foot  breach in her hull, but did not sink her. Resultantly, she was sent back to London for two days of repairs.

P&O liner SS 'Chusan'.

1957: The first run of Sapphire Films television drama series 'The Buccanneers' comes to an end. Starring Robert Shaw as Dan Tempest, the series, aimed at children, followed the adventures of Tempest and his crew of former pirates as they made their way across the seven seas in 'The Sultana'.

A header for 'The Buccaneers' TV series, 1956/57.

[ardarossan]

June 13th...

1665: The Battle of Lowestoft takes place on 13th June (New Style) 1665 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. A fleet of more than a hundred ships of the United Provinces commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam attacked an English fleet of equal size commanded by James Stuart, Duke of York forty miles east of the port of Lowestoft in Suffolk, England.
The Dutch were desperate to prevent a second English blockade of their ports after the first was broken off by the English only for lack of supplies. The leading Dutch politician, Johan de Witt, ordered Van Wassenaer to attack the English aggressively during a period of stable eastern winds which would have given the Dutch the weather gage. Van Wassenaer however, perhaps feeling that his fleet was still too inferior in training and firepower to really challenge the English in full battle, postponed the fight till the wind turned in order to seek a minor confrontation in a defensive leeward position from which he could disengage quickly and return without openly disobeying orders. His attitude would cost him a sixth of his fleet and his life.

The Battle of Lowestoft, 1665, showing HMS Royal Charles and the Eendracht by Hendrik van Minderhout.

1740: The Siege of St. Augustine begins on the 13th June. A military engagement with naval support, it was a part of the much larger conflict known as the War of Jenkins' Ear, between Great Britain and Spain.

1770: As expected, once Captain Cook's ship 'Endeavour' had been drawn off the shoal within the Great Barrier Reef, the leak in the badly damaged ship increased, and all three working pumps had to be continually manned.

The prospects if the ship sank were grim. The vessel was 24 miles from shore and the three ship's boats could not carry the entire crew. Midshipman Jonathon Monkhouse proposed fothering the ship, as he had previously been on a merchant ship which used the technique successfully. He was entrusted with supervising the task, sewing bits of oakum and wool into an old sail, which was then drawn under the ship to allow water pressure to force it into the hole in the hull. The effort succeeded and soon very little water was entering, allowing two of the three pumps to be stopped.

On 13th June, the ship came to a broad watercourse that Cook named the Endeavour River. Attempts were made to enter the river mouth, but strong winds and rain prevented 'Endeavour' from crossing the bar for several days.

Full-size replica of the 'Endeavour' under full sail.

1805: Whilst the Lewis and Clark Expedition was mapping the course of the Missouri River to establish whether a river route to the Pacific Ocean existed, Meriwether Lewis (scouting ahead of the expedition) discovered the Great Falls of the Missouri. Having learned of the "great falls" from the Mandan Indians while wintering at Fort Mandan several months earlier,  Lewis became the first white person to see them on 13th June 1805. Exploring the following day, Lewis discovered Crooked Falls, Rainbow Falls, Colter Falls, and Black Eagle Falls.

1881: Although the expedition ship U.S.S. 'Jeannette'  (originally H.M.S. 'Pandora', a Philomel-class gunvessel of the Royal Navy), under the command of Lt Cdr DeLong was trapped in the arctic ice pack, the expedition had continued to keep full records of meteorology, soundings, astronomical observatoions, positions, etc,  as they drifted northwest, ever-closer to the North Pole itself
Unfortunately, on the night of 12th/13th June, the pressure of the ice finally began to crush 'Jeannette'. DeLong and his men unloaded provisions and equipment onto the ice pack before the ship sank the following morning.

Steam Yacht 'Jeannette' (later U.S.S. 'Jeannette') at Le Havre, France, in 1878.

1942: Convoy OG 85 sails from the UK to Gibraltar on 13th June as part of Operation Pinpoint. The convoy, comprising of freighters 'Empire Shackleton', 'Guido' and 'Lublin', was carrying 32 Spitfires, plus ground crews and pilots. On arrival at Gibraltar, the aircraft were assembled at North Front air strip in preparation fopr transfer to Malta.

1954: Henry George Blogg GC BEM, aged 78, died on this day in 1954. The retired lifeboatman from Cromer on the north coast of Norfolk, England remains the most decorated in RNLI history.

Henry Blogg of the Cromer Lifeboat Station is referred to as 'the greatest of the lifeboatmen. From the rescue of the crew of the 'Pyrin' and then of half of the crew of the 'Fernebo' in 1917, through to his near drowning in the service to the 'English Trader' in 1941, he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution three times and the silver medal four times, the George Cross, the British Empire Medal, and a series of other awards.

When Henry Blogg retired in 1947, after 53 years service and at age 71 (11 years past the usual retiring date), the new lifeboat at Cromer was named after him. He had been coxswain for 38 years of his service during which he had launched 387 times and rescued 873 people. Henry Blogg's nephew Henry 'Shrimp' Davies took over as coxswain of the Cromer Lifeboat.

Henry George Blogg GC BEM
(6th February 1876 - 13th June 1954)

A museum dedicated to the memory of Henry Blogg - 'the greatest of the lifeboatmen' - opened in 2006. It was the first purpose-built RNLI museum to be opened since the Grace Darling museum opened in 1938.
A memorial and bronze bust of Henry Blogg (above) stands on the Cliff Top in North Lodge Park, Cromer.

[ardarossan]

June 14th...

1285: Forces led by Prince Tran Quang Khai of Vietnam's Trần Dynasty destroys most of the invading Mongol naval fleet in a battle at Chuong Duong.

1666: The Four Days' Battle of the Second Anglo–Dutch War, ends in victory for the Dutch fleet commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter following a successful disengagement of the outnumbered English fleet under George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, after both sides had inflicted significant damage on each other and expended much of their ammunition.
The Four Days Battle (1666) became one of the longest and largest naval engagements during the age of sail.

The capture of the English flagship the 'Royal Prince' during the Four Days Battle,
by Willem van de Velde the Younger, c.1666/70.

1777: The Second Continental Congress passes the Flag Resolution which stated: "Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." Flag Day is now observed on 14th June of each year.
The 1777 resolution was most probably meant to define a naval ensign, as in the late 18th century, the notion of national flag did not yet exist, or was only nascent.

The Francis Hopkinson design for the U.S. flag features 13 six-pointed Marian stars arranged in rows, creating an optical effect of the crosses used in the British flag.

1789: The nineteen survivors of the mutiny on HMS Bounty (including captain Lt. William Bligh), reach Timor in the Dutch East Indies, after a 47-day journey in a 23-foot open launch.
Bligh navigated using a quadrant and a pocket watch (but no charts or compass), recording a distance of 3,618 nautical miles from where they were set adrift. During the voyage, they were chased by cannibals in what is now known as Bligh Water, Fiji and passed through the Torres Strait along the way, landing in Kupang. Shortly after reaching Timor, the cook and botanist died. Three other crewmen died in the coming months.

1822: Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables".

1839: The first Henley Regatta was held on 14th June 1839, when a group of citizens offered a Grand Challenge Cup worth 100 guineas for eight-oared amateur crews and the Town Challenge Cup for local four-oared crews. They were inspired by the first Oxford versus Cambridge Boat Race which took place at Henley in 1829 and a handful of matches that took place on the reach in the intervening years.
The regatta became known as Henley Royal Regatta in 1851, when Prince Albert became the first royal patron.

An extremely rare race card from the first Henley Regatta.

1900: The Reichstag (the Parliament of the German Empire) approves a second law that allows the expansion of the German navy.

1911: As the largest ship in the world, and the first in a new class of superliners R.M.S. 'Olympic' commences her maiden voyage from Southampton, calling at Cherbourg and Queenstown, en route to New York. The maiden voyage was captained by Edward Smith who would lose his life the following year in the 'Titanic' disaster. Designer Thomas Andrews was present for the passage to New York (and return), along with a number of engineers, as part of Harland and Wolff's "Guarantee Group" to spot any problems or areas for improvement. Andrews would also lose his life in the 'Titanic disaster'.

R.M.S. 'Olympic' just before leaving Southampton on her maiden voyage, 1911.

1927: Jerome K. (Klapka) Jerome, aged 68, died in Northampton General Hospital, after suffering a paralytic stroke and cerebral haemorrhage a couple of weeks earlier whilst on a motoring tour from Devon to London via Cheltenham and Northampton. He was cremated at Golders Green and his ashes buried at St Mary's Church, Ewelme, Oxfordshire.
Best known for the comic travelogue Three Men in a Boat (1889), the English writer and humorist's other works include the essay collections Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886) and Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow; Three Men on the Bummel, a sequel to Three Men in a Boat; and several other novels.

The original 'Three Men' - from left to right Carl Hentschel, George Wingrave
and Jerome K. Jerome (2nd May 1859 - 14th June 1927).

1936: A contract for 'New Construction G' was issued by the German Navy to the Kriegsmarine Werft in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. The vessel originating from the contract would become the Bismarck-class battleship 'Tirpitz'.

1952: The keel is laid for the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, U.S.S. 'Nautilus' (SSN-571), by Harry S. Truman at General Dynamics' Electric Boat Division in Groton, Connecticut.

1982: At 21:00 hours on 14th June 1982, the commander of the Argentine garrison in Stanley, General Mario Menéndez, surrendered to the Major General Jeremy Moore. The surrender was in conflict with the Argentine Army code stating that a surrender was illegal unless more than 50% of the men were casualties and 75% of the ammunition was spent.
The terms of the surrender document were slightly changed after negotiation by General Menéndez. The phrase unconditional surrender was changed for the term surrender.

The ocean liner SS 'Canberra' and H.M.S. 'Andromeda' (F57) outside Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, just after the unconditional surrender of Argentine forces on 14th June 1982.

The Argentine Junta had falsely claimed that the liner had been crippled during the Battle of San Carlos.
'Canberra' was used to repatriate 4,167 of the 11,313 Argentine prisoners of war, landing them at Puerto Madryn, Argentina.
 

[ardarossan]

June 15th...

1184: The naval Battle of Fimreite is fought on the 15th June 1184 between King Magnus Erlingsson and the Birkebeiner pretender Sverre Sigurdsson, off the coast near the hamlet of Fimreite in the long and narrow Sognefjord in  Norway. Sverre eventually defeated and killed Magnus in the battle, and successfully usurped the Norwegian throne.

1502: Christopher Columbus lands at Carbet on the island of Martinique (Martinica) on the island of Martinique on his fourth voyage. Columbus charted the island in 1493, making the region known to European interests, but it was not until 15th June 1502, on his fourth voyage, that he actually landed, leaving several pigs and goats on the island. However, the Spaniards ignored the island as other parts of the New World were of greater interest to them.

1904: The 235-ft sidewheel paddle-steamer 'General Slocum', was a passenger steamboat built in Brooklyn, New York, in 1891. She was owned by the Knickerbocker Steamship Company and operated in the New York City area as an excursion steamer. During her service history, she was involved in (and survived) a number of mishaps, including multiple groundings and collisions.

However, her 13-year career came to a tragic  end on 15th June 1904, when she caught fire and sank in New York's East River. At the time of the accident she was on a chartered run carrying over 1,400 passengers, mostly women and children, of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church (German Americans from Little Germany, Manhattan) to a church picnic site in Eatons Neck, Long Island. An estimated 1,021 of the people on board either died in the fire or were drowned.
The events surrounding the 'General Slocum' fire have since appeared in a number of books, plays and movies.

Illustration of the 'General Slocum' disaster.

1910: A large, excited and noisy Cardiff crowd cheered as the heavily laden SS 'Terra Nova' left Bute Dock carrying the British Antarctic Expedition. Such was the support in Wales for the expedition that Cardiff was designated the home port of the 'Terra Nova'. Captain Scott, detained by expedition business, sailed later on a faster passenger liner and joined the ship in South Africa.

The 'Terra Nova' sails from Cardiff, Wales, 15th June 1910.

1941: The air defences of Malta are reinforced by Hawker Hurricanes flown off the aircraft carriers H.M.S. 'Ark Royal' and H.M.S. 'Victorious' and of the 47 aircraft despatched, 43 arrive safely. A further 64 aircraft are flown in by the end of the month.

1944: Following a two-day naval bombardment of the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands by fifteen U.S. battleships (firing in the region of 165,000 shells), the Battle of Saipan begins at 07:00 hours when more than 300 LVTs begin landing U.S. Marines on the west coast of the island. By 09:00 hours, around 8,000 troops had landed with cover being provided by eleven fire support ships.
Careful Japanese artillery preparation - placing flags in the lagoon to indicate the range - allowed them to destroy about 20 amphibious tanks, and the Japanese strategically placed barbed wire, artillery, machine gun emplacements, and trenches to maximise the American casualties. However, by nightfall the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions had established a beachhead about 6 mies wide and 0.5 miles deep. The battle would last until 9th July 1944.

Evidence of the battle now forms the The WWII Maritime Heritage Trail, a collection of underwater heritage sites featuring Japanese and U.S. shipwrecks, assault vehicles, and aircraft wrecks from the Battle of Saipan (June-July 1944). The trail has become a popular attraction for swimmers, snorkelers and divers who wish to visit a part of Saipan’s WWII history underwater.

This U.S. LVT (Landing Vehicle Tracked) is part of the Saipan Maritime Heritage Trail.

1966: The Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Mountbatten of Burma, opened the world's first Hovercraft show (Hovershow) at Browndown near Gosport in Hampshire. It was expected to attract up to 4,000 official visitors and was intended to promote export sales of hovercraft. The show got off to a perfect start with news of a £1-million Ministry of Defence order for two new prototypes, a fast patrol boat capable of 75 knots and a logistics support craft.

A Saunders-Roe SR-N3 c.1966.

[ardarossan]

June 16th...

363: Emperor Julian marches back up the Tigris and burns his fleet of supply ships. During the withdrawal Roman forces suffering several attacks from the Persians.
The Roman army starts its retreat northward to Corduene (Armenia). Julian marches back up the Tigris and burns his fleet of supply ships. During the withdrawal Julian's forces suffering several attacks from the Persians.
A second council of war on 16 June 363 decided that the best course of action was to lead the army back to the safety of Roman borders, not through Mesopotamia, but northward to Corduene.

1779: In support of the United States, Spain (already in alliance with France) declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, leading to the Great Siege of Gibraltar.

1795: Occurring from the 16th to 17th June during the French Revolutionary Wars, the First Battle of Groix otherwise known as "Cornwallis' Retreat" was a naval engagement in which a British Royal Navy battle squadron of five ships of the line and two frigates was attacked by a French Navy battlefleet of 12 ships of the line and 11 frigates in the waters off the west coast of Brittany.
Hugely outnumbered, the British commander Vice-Admiral William Cornwallis turned away from the French on 16th June and attempted to escape into open water, the French fleet under Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse in close pursuit. After a full day's chase the British squadron had lost speed due to poorly loaded holds on board two ships, and the French vanguard pulled within range on the morning of 17th June.
Unwilling to abandon his rearguard, Cornwallis counterattacked with the remainder of his squadron and a fierce combat developed, culminating in Cornwallis interposing his flagship H.M.S. 'Royal Sovereign' between the British and French forces.

H.M.S. 'Royal Soverign' in Pymouth, 1805.

1836: The remains of the 'Mary Rose' are discovered by diver and inventor, John Deane after a fishing boat's net caught on the wreck. He recovered timbers, guns, longbows, and other items from the shipwreck but the location of the shipwreck was forgotten after John Deane stopped work on the site of the Mary Rose shipwreck in 1840.

1903: Heading an expedition to conduct scientific experiments at the magnetic North Pole and to complete the route through the Northwest passage, Roald Amundsen sets sail from the Christiania harbour in the Oslofjord with six companions on board the 'Gjøa'.
The 70 ft by 20 ft square-sterned sloop of 45-nrt, originally built by Knut Johannesson Skaale in Rosendal, Norway in 1872 (the same year Amundsen was born), had served for 28 years as a herring fishing boat. Now, specially adapted for the purposes of the expedition, 'Gjøa' was destined to become known as the first vessel to navigate the Northwest passage.

Static model of the 'Goya', the first vessel to navigate the Northwest passage.

1955: On the morning of 16th June, H.M.S. 'Sidon', one of the third group of Royal Navy S-class submarines built by Cammell Laird & Co Limited, Birkenhead, was moored alongside the depot ship H.M.S. 'Maidstone' in Portland Harbour.
Accompanying the the fifty-six officers and crewmen on board were two 21-inch Mark 12 peroxide-powered 'Fancy' torpedoes for testing.
At 08:25 hrs, an explosion in one of the torpedoes burst the number-three torpedo tube it was loaded into and ruptured the forward-most two watertight bulkheads. Fire, toxic gases, and smoke accompanied the blast. The submarine sank around 25-minutes later.

Altogether, 13 men were killed - 12 of them, in the forward compartments died instantly when the torpedo exploded. The thirteenth casualty was the medical officer from the 'Maidstone', who boarded the submarine with the rescue party, but suffocated whilst assisting survivors.

One week later the wreck was raised and towed into a causeway on Chesil Beach. The bodies of the 13 casualties were removed and buried with full honours in the Portland Royal Naval Cemetery overlooking the harbour.

A Court of Inquiry determined the loss of the boat was due to a malfunctioning 'Fancy' torpedo. The torpedo programme was terminated and the torpedoes taken out of use by 1959.
'Sidon' was refloated, then sunk to act as an ASDIC target on 14th June 1957.

Ship's badge of submarine H.M.S. 'Sidon' (P259).

[ardarossan]

June 17th...

1579: On 17th June 1579, Drake landed somewhere north of Spain's northern-most claim at Point Loma, in Alta California. He found a good port, landed, repaired and restocked his vessels, then stayed for a time, keeping friendly relations with the natives. He claimed the land in the name of the Holy Trinity for the English Crown and called it 'Nova Albion' (Latin for "New Britain").

The precise location of the port was carefully guarded to keep it secret from the Spaniards, and several of Drake's maps may have been altered to this end. All first-hand records from the voyage, including logs, paintings and charts, were lost when Whitehall Palace burned in 1698.

Now a National Historic Landmark, the officially recognised location of Drake's New Albion is Drakes Bay, California.

The 'Golden Hind' sailing along the Pacific coast of New Albion (Modern-day California), 1579.

1596: On his third voyage to search for the elusive Northern Sea Route, Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz discovers (and names) the Arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen - The name, meaning “pointed mountains” is from the Dutch spits - pointed, bergen - mountains).

A 1599 map of Arctic exploration by Willem Barentsz. Spitsbergen, here mapped for the first time, is indicated as "Het Nieuwe Land" (Dutch for "the New Land"), centre-left.

1673: One month after leaving St. Ignace with two canoes and five voyageurs of French-Indian ancestry (now recognized as the ethnic group Métis), French explorers Louis Joliet, and Father Jacques Marquette, reach the Mississippi River, from where they will become the first Europeans to make a detailed account of its course, demonstrating that it ran to the Gulf of Mexico.

1770: During the morning of 17th June, Captain Cook's badly damaged ship 'Endeavour' was able to cross bar and enter the mouth of the Endeavour River. Briefly grounding on a sand spit, she was refloated an hour later and warped into the river proper by early afternoon. The ship was promptly beached on the southern bank and careened to make repairs to the hull. Torn sails and rigging were also replaced and the hull scraped free of barnacles.

An examination of the hull showed that a piece of coral the size of a man's fist had sliced clean through the timbers and then broken off. Surrounded by pieces of oakum from the fother, this coral fragment had helped plug the hole in the hull and preserved the ship from sinking on the reef several days earlier.

A 1:64 static scale model of 'Endeavour' from a kit by Caldercraft.

1791: Roberto Cofresí is born in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. He would eventually become known as "El Pirata Cofresí," the most renowned pirate in Puerto Rico. His "steal from the rich, give to the poor" attitude would make him legendary in Puerto Rico and throughout the rest of Latin America, inspiringd countless songs, poems, books and films.

1885: The French Steamer 'Isère', laden with the Statue of Liberty, arrives in the New York port safely. New Yorkers displayed their new-found enthusiasm for the statue, as the French vessel arrived with the crates holding the disassembled statue on board. Two hundred thousand people lined the docks and hundreds of boats put to sea to welcome the 'Isère'.

1940: H.M.T. (formerly R.M.S.) 'Lancastria', a British Cunard liner commandeered by the UK Government for war service, was sunk off the French port of St. Nazaire with the loss of at least 4,000 lives, possibly many more, while taking part in Operation Ariel, the evacuation of British nationals and troops from France, two weeks after the Dunkirk evacuation.
After sustaining three direct hits from Luftwaffe Ju.88's, the ship rolled over and sank within twenty minutes. Over 1,400 tons of fuel oil leaked into the sea and was set partially on fire, possibly by strafing. Many drowned, were choked by the oil or were shot by the strafing German aircraft.

It is the greatest ever loss of life in the sinking of a single British ship, claiming more lives than the combined losses of the R.M.S. 'Titanic' and R.M.S. 'Lusitania'. It had also the highest death toll for UK forces in a single engagement in the whole of World War II.

R.M.S. 'Lancastria'.

1977: Directed by Peter Yates and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name, the adventure movie 'The Deep', is released on June 17th, 1977. Starring Robert Shaw, Jacqueline Bisset, and Nick Nolte, 'The Deep' was well received by the public, and remembered for its opening scene of Jacqueline Bisset swimming underwater wearing a thin, white T-shirt and bikini bottom. 'The Deep' was the ninth highest grossing film of 1977.

Theatrical Poster for 'The Deep' (1977).

[sparkey]

My dad was on the Lancastria and was badly wounded being machine gunned in the water, he died some years later as result of his injuries still a relative young man,sad day for me,regards ,Ray.

[ardarossan]

June 18th

1767: Whilst on a voyage of discovery around the world in command of H.M.S. 'Dolphin' (a 24-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy used as a survey ship from 1764), Captain Samuel Wallis first sights the island of Tahiti, or, as he called it, Otaheite. (Some sources suggest Wallis discovered Tahiti on 17th June, 1767).

A wash drawing (presumably of 'Dolphin') by Samuel Wallis, from the sketchbook he kept during his voyage around the world in command of H.M.S. Dolphin, 1766-1767.

1799: As part of the French Revolutionary Wars, the naval engagement known as The Action of 18 June (1799) was fought off Toulon in the wake of the Mediterranean campaign of 1798. The confrontation began when a frigate squadron under Rear-admiral Perrée, returning to Toulon from Syria, met a 30-ship British fleet under Lord Keith. Three ships of the line and two frigates detached from the British squadron, and a 28-hour running battle ensued. When the British ships overhauled them, the French frigates and brigs had no choice but to surrender, given their opponents' overwhelming strength.

1858: Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin's own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory.

1908: After a journey of 52 days from the port of Kobe, the first Japanese immigrants arrive in Brazil when the 'Kasato Maru' docks at the port of Santos. The 781 Japanese national disembarked the following day, beginning a wave that would continue into the 1950’s and which would bring more than 1.5 million Japanese to Brazilian shores.

Depiction of the first Japanese immigrants sailing towards Santos, aboard 'Kasato Maru', 1908.

1928: Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen disappeared while flying on a rescue mission with Norwegian pilot Leif Dietrichson, French pilot René Guilbaud, and three more Frenchmen, looking for missing members of Nobile's crew, whose new airship 'Italia' had crashed while returning from the North Pole.
Afterwards, a wing-float and bottom gasoline tank from the French Latham 47 flying boat he was in, improvised into a replacement wing-float, was found near the Tromsø coast. It is believed that the plane crashed in fog in the Barents Sea, and that Amundsen was killed in the crash, or died shortly afterwards. His body was never found. The search for Amundsen was called off in September by the Norwegian Government.

During the Heroic Age of Polar Exploration, the Norwegian explorer had been the first to traverse the Northwest Passage (1903–060; he led the Antarctic expedition (1910-12) to discover the South Pole in December 1911; and he was the first expedition leader to (undisputedly) reach the North Pole in 1926.

"Victory awaits him, who has everything in order - luck we call it.  Defeat is definitely due for him, who has neglected to take the necessary precautions - bad luck we call it" - Roald Amundsen (from 'The South Pole').

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen,
(16th July 1872 – c.18th June 1928).

1944: On 16th June 1944, SS 'Albert C. Field', a Canadian cargo ship requisitioned by the British government,  sailed from Penarth as part of Convoy EBC-14 bound for the Normandy beachhead. She was carrying 2,500 tons of munitions and 1,300 bags of mail. On 18th June, when 20 miles south-west of The Needles, the convoy was attacked by German aircraft, and the ship was hit by a torpedo and sank within three minutes. Four of the crew were killed.

1976: The Technicolor war film 'Midway' is released n the U.S., although it is retitled as 'Battle of Midway' for the UK market.
The dramatisation of the battle that turned out to be the turning point of the Pacific Theatre of World War II featured an international cast of superstars including Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, James Shigeta, Pat Morita, Robert Ito and Christina Kokubo, among others.

The soundtrack used Sensurround to augment the physical sensation of engine noise, explosions, crashes and gunfire.

Theatrical Poster for 'Midway' (1976).

[ardarossan]

June 19th...

1667: The Dutch naval action known as The Raid on the Medway, began on this day during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Also known as the Battle of the Medway, the Raid on Chatham or the Battle of Chatham, the assault would go on for five days, from 19th to 24th June (9th to 14th June. O.S.), and see the Dutch fleet, under nominal command of Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, attack the largest English naval ships, laid up in the dockyards of their main naval base Chatham.

The burning of the English fleet off Chatham, 20th June 1667, by Peter van de Velde.

1820: Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS, aged 77, died on 19th June 1820 in Spring Grove House, London.
An English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences, Banks took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage (1768–1771) and the exploration of Botany Bay.

Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of the eucalyptus, the acacia, and the genus named after him, Banksia. Approximately 80 species of plants bear Banks's name.
He also directly fostered several famous voyages, including that of George Vancouver to the northeastern Pacific (Pacific Northwest), and William Bligh's voyages to transplant breadfruit from the South Pacific to the Caribbean islands.

Joseph Banks was buried at St Leonard's Church, Heston.

Joseph Banks (13th February [24th February N.S.] 1743 - 19th June 1820),
As painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1773.

1864: C.S.S. 'Alabama' was a screw sloop-of-war built for the Confederate States Navy in 1862 by John Laird Sons and Company at Birkenhead, England. 'Alabama' served as a successful commerce raider, attacking Union merchant and naval ships over the course of her two-year career, during which she never anchored in a Southern port.
On 19th June 1864, 'Alabama' was sunk in battle by the Mohican-class screw sloop-of-war, U.S.S. 'Kearsarge', at the Battle of Cherbourg outside the port of Cherbourg, France.

U.S.S. 'Kearsarge' sinks Confederate-raider C.S.S. 'Alabama' outside the French port of Cherbourg, 1864 - Painting by Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brage.

1914: (Rear-Admiral Sir) Morgan Charles Morgan-Giles, (DSO, OBE, GM, DL), is born. The eldest son of F. C. Morgan-Giles O.B.E., (Naval Architect and yacht designer) and Ivy Constance Morgan-Giles. Morgan-Giles' childhood was spent idyllically "messing around with boats" at Teignmouth, where his father had his boatyard.

Morgan-Giles' first memory was of his father building a little dingy for his young son (whilst on sick leave from from the Royal Navy with petrol poisoning during WWI).
Due to the war, there was a shortage of good wood, and legend has it that F.C. Morgan Giles couldn't find quite what he wanted to finish her off. His wife came home one day to find the best table in the house had mysteriously vanished but the little boat had a new mahogany transom.

When the boat was completed (she was called 'Pip Emma' and is now in the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth) the three year old Morgan was placed in her and launched out to sea. This started off his lifelong passion for boats and the sea...

'Pip Emma' at Beale Park Boat Show, promoting the National Maritime Museum, Falmouth (June 2010).

1937: Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM, aged 77, died of pneumonia in London. The Scottish author and dramatist is best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. Before his death, he gave the rights to the Peter Pan works to London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, which continues to benefit from them.
J. M. Barrie was buried at Kirriemuir next to his parents and two of his siblings. He left the bulk of his estate (excluding Peter Pan) to his secretary Cynthia Asquith.

1940: At the start of World War II, R.M.S. 'Niagara', an ocean liner operated by the Canadian-Australasian Line was maintaining a service from Auckland, New Zealand, to Suva and Vancouver.
On 19th June 1940, she had just left Auckland when, off Bream Head, Whangarei, she struck a mine laid by the German auxiliary cruiser 'Orion' and sank in 121 metres of water. No lives were lost.
Unbeknown to all but a few, a secret and large consignment of gold from the Bank of England was in the ship's strong room and went down with the ship. The gold was payment from England to the United States, which had not yet entered the war, for munitions in the fight against Germany.

1944: The first day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea (19th-20th June 1944) took place during the United States' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War. The battle was the fifth of five major 'carrier-versus-carrier' engagements between American and Japanese naval forces, and involved elements of the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet as well as ships and land-based aircraft from the Imperial Japanese Navy's Mobile Fleet and nearby island garrisons.

U.S.S. 'Bunker Hill' (CV-17) is near-missed by a Japanese bomb, during the air attacks of 19th June 1944.

[ardarossan]

June 20th...

1597: Stranded in the Arctic since his ship (and expedition) became trapped by ice, Dutch navigator and explorer Willem Barentsz died at sea in a small boat whilst studying charts. It is not known whether Barentsz was buried on the northern island of Novaya Zemlya or at sea.

The Death of Willem Barentsz by Christiaan Julius Lodewyck Portman (c.1836).

1631: The Sack of Baltimore took place on June 20st, 1631, when the village of Baltimore, West Cork, Ireland, was attacked by North African pirates from the North African Barbary Coast. The attack was the biggest single attack by the Barbary pirates on Ireland or Britain. The attack was led by a Dutch captain turned pirate, Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, also known as Murad Reis the Younger. Murad's force was led to the village by a man called Hackett, the captain of a fishing boat he had captured earlier, in exchange for his freedom. Hackett was subsequently hanged from the clifftop outside the village for his conspiracy.

1819: Twenty-seven days after she left port at Savannah, Georgia, the U.S. hybrid sailing ship/sidewheel steamer SS 'Savannah' arrives at Liverpool, England, to become the first steam-propelled vessel in the world to cross the Atlantic Ocean - although most of the journey was made under sail.

'Savannah' was originally built as a sailing packet at the New York shipyard of Fickett & Crockett in 1818. While the ship was still on the slipway, Captain Moses Rogers persuaded a wealthy shipping firm from Savannah, Georgia, to purchase the vessel, convert it to a steamship and gain the prestige of inaugurating the world's first transatlantic steamship service. 'Savannah' was therefore equipped with a steam engine and paddlewheels in addition to her sails.
In spite of her historic voyage, 'Savannah' was not a commercial success as a 'steamship' and was converted back into a sailing ship shortly after returning from her tour of Europe.

A static model of the 'Savannah' - arguably the first steamship to cross the Atlantic.

1837: Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne. Her reign (of 63 years and seven months) would be a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and be marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.

1895: The 61-mile long Kiel Canal (known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal until 1948), crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, was officially opened by Kaiser Wilhelm II on 20th June for transiting from Brunsbüttel to Holtenau.

The German Imperial yacht 'Hohenzollern', with the Kaiser and Kaiserin on board, then led a convoy of 24 ships down the canal to Holtenau for a ceremony the next day. At Holtenau, the canal was named the Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal (after Kaiser Wilhelm I), and Wilhelm II laid the final stone.
The opening of the canal was filmed by British director Birt Acres and surviving footage of this early film is preserved in the Science Museum in London.

The German Imperial yacht 'Hohenzollern'

1914: SS 'Bismarck', built by the Blohm & Voss shipbuilders in Hamburg, Germany, was launched on 20th June by Countess Hanna von Bismarck, the granddaughter of the 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. During the launching ceremony Countess Bismarck had difficulty breaking the bottle of champagne herself and Kaiser Wilhelm II had to assist.
The third and largest member of German HAPAG Line's trio of transatlantic liners, her completion was delayed by World War I.
In 1920 SS 'Bismark' was turned over to Great Britain as compensation for the sinking of the H.M.H.S. 'Britannic'.

The launching of 'Bismarck' on 20th June 1914. She would later become the White Star liner R.M.S. 'Majestic' - at 56,551 gross register tons, she would be largest ship in the world until completion of the SS 'Normandie' in 1935.

1944: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory, which effectively eliminating the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. The air battle was nicknamed the 'Great Marianas Turkey Shoot' by American aviators for the severely disproportional loss ratio inflicted upon Japanese aircraft by American pilots and anti-aircraft gunners.

The carrier Zuikaku (center) and two destroyers under attack by U.S. Navy carrier aircraft, 20th June 20, 1944.

1945: The United States Secretary of State approves the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to America.

1986: The MV 'Kingsabbey' crashes into pier at Southend, creating a 70-foot gap which severs the new pier head from the rest of the pier, destroys the boathouse used by the lifeboat service and caused major structural damage due to the destruction of iron piles and supporting girders. It was reported that a man who was in the pier toilets at the time of the colision only just made it out before they tipped over the edge!

Extending 1.34 miles into the Thames Estuary, 'Sarfend' Pier is the longest pleasure pier in the world.

[ardarossan]

June 20th

2005: Following a successful campaign (launched in 2003) by Paul Gelder, editor of Yachting Monthly magazine, Sir Francis Chichester's record-breaking yacht, 'Gipsy Moth IV' was rescued from her dry-dock 'grave' at Greenwich.
After a £400,000 restoration, 'Gipsy Moth IV' was relaunched on 20th June 2005 - In order for her to circumnaviate the globe for a second time, in observance of the 40th anniversary of Chichester's epic voyage.

In September 2005 'Gipsy Moth IV' embarked on a 21-month educational round-the-world voyage with the Blue Water Round the World Rally, via the trade wind route and the Panama and Suez Canals (not the Capes as had been followed in its first circumnavigation).

The yacht's restoration and the second circumnavigation are described in Paul Gelder's 2007 book, "Gipsy Moth IV: A Legend Sails Again".

A limited edition (250 pieces) model of 'Gipsy Moth IV' - The base is made from mahogany taken from the original keel timber of 'Gipsy Moth IV', with part of any sale going towards maintaining the famous rebuilt yacht.