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Author Topic: This Day In 'Boating' History  (Read 206409 times)

Capt Podge

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #25 on: December 29, 2012, 01:05:40 am »

Friday, 29th December 1939 
 
The crew of nine of the Grimsby trawler 'Reserche' were landed at Grimsby today. Their vessel was mined yesterday at 20.00, six miles SE of Flamborough Head.
 
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - December 29th
« Reply #26 on: December 29, 2012, 11:35:22 am »

December 29

1782: 1st nautical almanac in U.S. published by Samuel Stearns, Boston

1812: The USS Constitution captures the HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three hour battle.

1837: Canadian militiamen destroyed the Caroline, a U.S. steamboat docked at Buffalo, NY.

1860: HMS Warrior, the first British seagoing seagoing iron-hulled warship,was launched.

1891: Thomas Edison patents the "transmission of signals electrically", i.e. Radio.

1899: H.M.S. Magicienne detained the German Mail Steamer Bundesrat at Durban, amidst mounting suspicion that she was also carrying ammunition amongst her cargo. It was already believed that a number of 'passengers' on board were to be volunteers for service with the Boers

1943: USS Silversides (SS-236) sinks three Japanese ships and damages a fourth off Palau.

1951: Responding to an SOS, The SS Southland and the USS General A.W. Greely arrived to rescue passengers & crew from the SS Flying Enterprise after she developed hull cracks and took on a heavy list to port during a severe storm in the western approaches to the English Channel. Captain Kurt Karlsen remained on board the stricken vessel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Flying_Enterprise

1965: "Thunderball" premieres in UK. It was the first Bond film to be shot in Widescreen Panavision, the first to have over a two-hour run time with approx a quarter of the movie taking place under water, and featured the 'Disco Volante', a luxury yacht that converted into a Hydrofoil.

1998: With reports of 90mph (144km/h) winds and waves of 40ft (12m) high, six sailors died as huge waves smashed into their yachts during the annual race from Sydney Harbour to Hobart on Tasmania. The prestigious 630 nautical mile race had attracted competitors from around the world, but tragedy struck when the 115 yachts taking part encountered severe storms in the notoriously treacherous stretch of sea, which has often been called "Hell on High Water" by sailors.   
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - December 30th
« Reply #27 on: December 30, 2012, 03:46:49 pm »

December 30

1835: HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin sail from New Zealand to Sydney, Australia

1879: Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" was first performed at the Royal Bijou Theatre in Paignton, Devon. The one-off performance was necessary to secure British copyright.

1915: In Cromarty Firth, HMS Natal, a Duke of Edinburgh-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1900s, was sunk by an internal explosion (possibly due to faulty cordite). A number of civilians, and nurses from the nearby hospital ship Drina, were on board at the time.  Losses are listed from 390 to 421.



1941: Admiral Ernest J. King assumes duty as Commander in Chief, of the U.S. Fleet.

1959: The first U.S. ballistic missile submarine, USS George Washington (SSB(N)-598), is commissioned at Groton, CT.

2006: The Indonesian passenger ferry MV Senopati Nusantara sank during a violent storm in the Java Sea. Inconsistant reports suggest that there were around 200 survivors, whilst 400–500 people were thought to have drowned.

2011: The New South Wales boat 'Loki' is proclaimed the winner of the 2011 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - December 31st
« Reply #28 on: December 31, 2012, 08:26:33 am »

December 31

1600: Queen Elizabeth I of England grants a formal charter to the London merchants trading to the East Indies, hoping to break the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade in what is now Indonesia.

1687:  The first group of Huguenots set sail from France as the first of the large scale emigration of Huguenots to the Cape of Good Hope, which took place during 1688 and 1689. In total some 180 Huguenots from France, and 18 Walloons from the present-day Belgium, eventually settled at the Cape of Good Hope

1862: The ironclad ship USS Monitor founders in a storm off Cape Hatteras, NC.

1879: Thomas Edison gave his first public demonstration of incandescent lighting to an audience in Menlo Park, NJ.

1879: Gilbert & Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance" premieres in New York City, in an attempt to overcome the copyright 'piracy' that surrounded their previous production, HMS Pinafore.

1906: On Christmas Eve 1906, engineering professor Reginald Fessenden became the first person to transmit music & voice over radio in a broadcast from Brant Rock, Mass. A second broadcast on New Year's Eve is picked up by shipboard radio-operators as far away as the Caribbean.
 
1915: Thirty hours after SS Persia was torpedoed without warning by U-38 off the coast of Crete (30/12/1915), most of the 167 survivors were picked up by a trawler and taken to Alexandria. 335 lives were lost.

1923: The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.

1941: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz assumes command of U.S. Pacific Fleet.

1942: Commissioning of USS Essex (CV-9), the first of new class of aircraft carriers, at Norfolk, VA.

1964: Donald Campbell (below) breaks the world water speed record, with Bluebird (K7) averaging 276.33mph on Lake Dumbleyung, Perth, Western Australia. With just 9 hours of 1964 remaining, he also becomes the first man to break both the world land and water speed records in the same year.

 

1987: 31 Belgians and Britons are recognised in the New Year's Honours List, for displaying heroism during the rescue operation of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster. Their actions helped to save an estimated 350 passengers when the Herald of Free Enterprise capsized, near Bruges, on
6 March claiming 193 lives.

1999: Control of the Panama Canal (and all adjacent land known as the Panama Canal Zone) reverts to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties.
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - January 1st
« Reply #29 on: January 01, 2013, 08:03:30 am »

January 1st:

1502: Guanabara Bay, the present-day location of Rio de Janeiro (River of January ) is first encountered by a Portuguese expedition under Gaspar de Lemos, captain of a ship in Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet.

1586: Sir Francis Drake launches a surprise attack, and captures the heavily fortified city of Santo Domingo, Hispanola.

1739: French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier, discovers Bouvet Island, an uninhabited subantarctic volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean.

1772: The first traveler's cheques, which could be used in 90 European cities, go on sale in London, Great Britain.

1800: Having been set up in 1602 to profit from the Malukan spice trade, the Dutch East Indies Company dissolves.

1833: The reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

1846: Petty Officer John Shaw Torrington (1825 - 1 January 1846), explorer and Royal Navy stoker is the first known victim of Sir John Franklin's final expedition to find the Northwest Passage, but along with the rest of the crew, mysteriously died early in the trip.

1881: The first attempt to construct a sea-level Panama Canal, begins under the leadership of Ferdinand de Lesseps. The French effort went bankrupt after reportedly spending US$287,000,000, and the project was largely abandoned by 1890. 

1891: America's first federal immigration facility opens on Ellis Island, New York, to cope with what would amount to over 20 million immigrants flooding into the United States. Annie Moore, aged 15, was the first person to pass through.

1894: The Manchester Ship Canal (United Kingdom), opens to traffic five months ahead of it's official opening by Queen Victoria on 21st May 1894.

Stolt Kittiwake between Knutsford & Warrington. Photo by John Eyres

1898: A Lightship replaces whistling buoy at mouth of San Francisco Bay, USA.

1910: Captain David Beatty is promoted to Rear Admiral, and becomes the youngest admiral in the Royal Navy (except for Royal family members), since Horatio Nelson.

1915: British battleship 'HMS Formidable', is sunk about 25 miles off Portland by two torpedoes from the German submarine U-24. 547 men lost their lives, 237 survived.

1944: US submarine USS Herring (SS-233), pursuing a Japanese convoy spotted the previous day, sinks the Japanese aircraft transport 'Nagoya Maru' 220 miles south-southwest of Tokyo Bay. A counterattack by the escorting destroyer 'Ikazuchi' is unsuccessful.

1995: The Draupner Wave (or New Year's Wave) was the first rogue wave to be detected by a measuring instrument, at the Draupner platform in the North Sea off the coast of Norway. Minor damage was inflicted on the platform during the event, which recorded a maximum wave height of 25.6 metres (84 ft)  and peak elevation at 18.5 metres (61 ft).
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ardarossan

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #30 on: January 01, 2013, 07:04:23 pm »

1919: HMS Iolaire (Scottish Gaelic for "Eagle"), an Admiralty yacht carrying soldiers coming home from World War I, hit rocks and sank just off the island of Lewis. Of the 280 aboard, at least 205 men perished.

This was, and is, the worst maritime disaster (for loss of life) in UK waters in peacetime since the wreck of the SS Norge off Rockall in 1904, and the worst peacetime disaster involving a British ship since the Titanic on 15 April 1912. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iolaire

The Iolaire memorial erected in 1958 at Holm, Stornaway
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - January 2nd
« Reply #31 on: January 02, 2013, 08:06:59 am »

January 2nd...

1818: The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded.
 
1861: The USS Brooklyn, a formidable 21-gun sloop-of-war is readied to aid Fort Sumter, S.C.

1879: Thomas Edison begins construction on his first generator.

1879: As HMS Thunderer is carrying out target practice in the Gulf of Ismid, one of her muzzle-loading guns explodes killing seven men and injuring thirty-six. It was eventually concluded that the failure of the gun was caused by imperfect loading (i.e. double-loaded).

1900: Fearing that St. Louis would acquire an injunction to halt the completion of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, Sanitary District trustees broke the temporary dam that kept the Chicago River from flowing into the main channel. Water fills the canal up to the dam at Lockport.

1905: In a crucial turning point of Russo-Japanese War, Port Arthur, the Russian naval base in China, falls to Japanese naval forces under Admiral Heihachiro Togo. It was the first in a series of defeats that turned the tide of the imperial conflict irrevocably against Russia.

1945: Harbour Defence Motor Launch 1335 (ML 1335) is commissioned.

1967: Royal Nayy Destroyer HMS Caprice broke down on her way to resume the Rhodesian oil blockade.

2012: Iran states that it has successfully test-fired two types of long-range missiles (Qader and  Noor), during ten days of naval exercises in the Persian Gulf.
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - January 3rd
« Reply #32 on: January 02, 2013, 10:14:47 pm »

January 3rd...

1840: British naval officer and explorer Sir James Clark Ross, conducts the first open ocean deep-water sounding in 2425 fathoms (14,450 feet) in the south Atlantic ocean. The sounding is taken using the traditional method of lowering a hemp rope over the side of the ship.

1864: The Grafton, a 56 ton schooner sailing out of Sydney during the 1860s, was wrecked in the northern arm of Carnley Harbour, Auckland Island, when her anchor parted in a storm. Having survived the shipwreck, they survived for a further 19 months on the remote island until rescued.

1916: The Japanese get involved in the 'European' theatre when they order three armoured cruisers to guard the Suez Canal.

1941: President Roosevelt announced a $350 million emergency cargo-ship building programe. The ships were built to a standardized, mass produced design. The first of the 'Liberty Ships' was the SS Patrick Henry, launched on Sept. 27, 1941. Of the 2,711 Liberty ships that were built, just two remain. Ref. http://www.liberty-ship.com

Liberty Ship SS John W Brown

1944: USS Turner (DD-648), a Gleaves-class destroyer was ripped apart by a series of internal explosions in the ammunition stowage area, and sank taking 15 officers and 123 men with her. Meanwhile, the injured survivors were taken to the hospital at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, an event which led to the first use of a helicopter in a life-saving role, when a US Coast Guard HNS-1 was used to fly-in two cases of blood plasma (lashed to the helicopter's floats) from New York.

1945: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima and Okinawa in Japan.

1976: On voyage from Runcorn (GB) for Stockholm, MV Capella was caught in a heavy storm off the North Sea. Despite rudder failure, listing and water entering her holds, the captain refused to abandon her. With weather conditions preventing other ships from attempting a successful rescue, at approx 18:00hrs she sank with all hands.

Perihelion Passage: The point in the Earth's orbit when, at 147.5 million km, it is closest to the Sun, on 3 or 4 January.
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Neil

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History - January 3rd
« Reply #33 on: January 02, 2013, 10:49:51 pm »

Perihelion Passage: The point in the Earth's orbit when, at 147.5 million km, it is closest to the Sun, on 3 or 4 January.

now that's worth knowing andy.........might go sunbaking tomorrow {-) {-) {-) {-) {-)
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ardarossan

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #34 on: January 03, 2013, 09:15:46 pm »


now that's worth knowing andy.........might go sunbaking tomorrow {-) {-) {-) {-) {-)

Don't forget your Sun-block! Although it might be better to wait until July 4th when we're furthest away, cos it should be...   Colder?!?   %%
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BrianB6

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #35 on: January 03, 2013, 09:27:51 pm »


now that's worth knowing andy.........might go sunbaking tomorrow {-) {-) {-) {-) {-)
Not down here!  :embarrassed: 41 in Melbourne, 44 in Adelaide.   Total Fire bans in both states.
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - January 4th
« Reply #36 on: January 03, 2013, 11:53:22 pm »

January 4th...

1493: Christopher Columbus leaves the New World for the first time, and heads back to Spain.

1643: Birth of Sir Isaac Newton. British physicist, mathematician and astronomer.

1902: France's Panama Canal Co. offers to sell its interests to the United States and reduces its asking price from $109 million to $40 million.

1903: An elephant named Topsy, is electrocuted by Thomas Edison during the War of Currents campaign.

1910: USS Michigan (BB-27), the first U.S. 'Dreadnought' battleship is commissioned.

1945: USS Ommaney Bay, a Casablanca Class Escort Carrier, suffers irrepairable damage after a Kamikaze attack in the Sulu Sea, Phillipines, and is scuttled by a torpedo fired from the USS Burns.

1947: "Show Boat" closes at the Ziegfeld Theater, New York City after 417 performances.

1958: Sir Edmund Hillary arrives at the South Pole. The first explorer to do so since Captain Scott in 1912.

1967: Donald Campbell was killed on Coniston Water as he attempted to break the '300mph barrier' and his own water speed record in Bluebird K7, the world's first all metal jet-powered hydroplane.
He remains the only person to have broken both the land and water speed records in the same year (1964).

Bluebird motif on the nose of Bluebird K7.

All image rights reserved - john.dart
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raflaunches

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #37 on: January 04, 2013, 11:29:14 am »

My Dad remembers the 4th January 1967 very well as he had been in the RAF for three days at RAF Halton. He was attempting to polish his number one shoes for the first time when the tannoy in the large 16 man rooms announced that Donald Campbell had been killed attempting to increase the water speed record in Bluebird K7 only a few hours earlier. Even back then some of the recruits had no idea who Donald Campbell was and what Bluebird was! A very sad day.


Curiously, it was only a few years back that they believe that they have discovered what caused the crash, after slowing the tape down they were shocked to see that there was no jet efflux on the water surface when Bluebird started its fatal cartwheel indicating that the engine was not working. The design of the boat required the jet engine to be at full power when the Bluebird was sitting on its planing shoes and the loss of power would de-stabilise the bow of the boat lifting it up. Current theory is that either a faulty fuel pump or a blockage in the fuel tank starved the engine of fuel and it cut out at the most critical moment. Campbell knew there was something wrong as the recordings of the time over the radio clearly said: Something's wrong.... I'm loosing her.... she's going.....
When they recovered the wreck a few years back they found the water brake had been deployed in a hope that it would stop the boat, Campbell always feared this kind of thing happening after watching film from the Crusader crash at Lock Ness in 1952.
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - January 5th
« Reply #38 on: January 05, 2013, 08:20:36 am »

January 5th...

1806: Admiral Horatio Nelson's body lies in state in the Painted Hall at the Greenwich Hospital (5th-7th January).

1818: The Black Ball Line ship 'James Monroe' sails from a snowy New York (USA), bound for Liverpool (UK), to become the first common carrier on a dependable schedule. She did this by sailing on the stated time of departure whether her holds were full or not, thus revolutionizing shipping.

1922: Anglo-Irish polar explorer, Ernest Henry Shackleton, dies from a heart attack in the early hours of the morning while his ship, Quest, was moored in South Georgia.

1975:  The Tasman Bridge, a five-lane road bridge crossing the Derwent River, Hobart, Tasmania, was struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra loaded with 10,000 tons of zinc concentrate. The collision caused two pylons and three sections of concrete decking, totaling 127 metres, to fall from the bridge and sink the ship.  Twelve people were killed, including seven crew on board the ship, and five occupants of four cars who were on the bridge as it collapsed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasman_Bridge_disaster

1993: In heavy seas and hurricane force winds, the Liberian-registered oil tanker MV Braer, ran aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of Norwegian Gullfaks crude oil, and creating a slick along 25 miles of coastine. 

M.V.Braer and beach surveyors looking for bird casualties. Photo by RSPB
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heritorasphodel

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #39 on: January 05, 2013, 04:54:43 pm »

5th January 1847, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William Hillary, the founder of the National Institution for the Preservation of Life From Shipwreck, holder of three Gold medals for Gallantry, dies at Woodville, Douglas, Isle of Man after a very active live in the lifeboat service.


At 2.20 AM on 5th January 1881, the 1,238 ton barque Indian Chief ran aground on the Long Sands off Ramsgate, with 29 people aboard. The Ramsgate Lifeboat Bradford was launched at midday, under tow from the steam paddle tug Vulcan. After consultation with the Kentish Knock light vessel, the tug and lifeboat reached the reported area of the wreck shortly after nightfall. With no ship in sight, the crews of the Bradford and the Vulcan remained at sea all night in the worst sea conditions ever faced by the crew. At dawn on the 6th, a single mast could be made out. The towline was cut, and the lifeboat dropped her anchor to windward and she was lowered to the wreck. There were 12 survivors, who had spent the night on the mast. The bodies of the others were floating around the wreck. With great skill, Coxswain Charles Fish manoeuvred the Bradford under the stern of the Indian Chief, where the survivors were recovered. The Bradford then sailed back to the waiting tug and was towed back to Ramsgate, arriving 26 hours after launching. Sadly one of the survivors died in the lifeboat on the way back. For This service, Coxswain Charles Fish was awarded the Gold medal, with his 11 crew receiving the silver medal. Additionally, the Master and crew of the Vulcan were awarded silver medals.


Andrew
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Neil

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #40 on: January 05, 2013, 06:09:16 pm »

this day 30 yars ago the cox, Ian fairclough of Fleetwood Lifeboat won a medal and all the crew given thanks on Vellum, for their attepts at recuing 3 Police officers who went onto the sea at Gynn Square, Blackpool to try rescuing a man who had gone into the sea to rescue his dog..........all four + dog were lost. the seas were mountainous with onshore force 9 winds.
Ferckler as he was nicknamed took the Waveney into her true environment of surf to try rescue but the elements and the backwash of the sea against the sea wall beat him, sadly.
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ardarossan

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #41 on: January 05, 2013, 10:30:43 pm »

It appears that January 5th was/is a busy day for events and trivia...

1781: Richmond, VA, was burned by a British naval expedition led by American defector and British Brigadier General, Benedict Arnold.

1779: Stephen Decatur Jr. born. American Naval Officer, notable for his many naval victories in the early 19th century. (d. 1820)

1809: Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Dardanelles (aka the Treaty of Canak). Its main provision was to decree that no warship of any power should enter the Dardanelles or Bosphorus.

1854: On her maiden voyage, Pacific Mail Steam Ship 'San Francisco', was left helpless in a severe storm when her engine broke down. She sank in the North Atlantic with 300 casualties.

1861: The 'Star of the West', a Union merchant vessel, leaves New York with supplies and 250 troops to relieve the beleaguered Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina.

1875: CDR Edward Lull begins expedition to locate best ship canal route across Panama. Route followed 30 years later.
 
1913: During the First Balkan war, at the naval 'Battle of Lemnos', Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Ottoman fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.

1919: British ships shell the Bolshevik headquarters in Riga.

1922: Sir Anthony Synnot born, Australian Naval Officer (d. 2001)

1943: In the southwest Pacific, USS Helena (CL-50) fired the first proximity fused projectile in combat, and shot down a Japanese twin-engined divebomber.
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - January 6th
« Reply #42 on: January 06, 2013, 09:22:29 am »

January 6th...

1781: In the Battle of Jersey, the British defeat the last attempt by France to invade Jersey. Taking 600 French prisoners who were subsequently sent to England, the British losses amounted to 11 dead and 36 wounded among the regular troops, with four dead and 29 wounded among the militia.

1786: The English East Indiaman ‘Halsewell’, en route from London to Bengal, India with troops and passengers was caught in hurricane-strength blizzards in the English Channel. Driven back along the coast from Cornwall, she met her fate on rocks beneath the steep cliffs of Dorset.

Of the 242 passengers and crew, only 74 were saved, the rest either lost to the sea, overcome by the cold or fell from the cliffs. Included in those that perished, were the Captain, his two daughters, two other women relatives and the wives and daughters of friends and fellow officers.

The tragedy stunned the whole nation. King George III accompanied by other members of the Royal Family traveled to the site of the catastrophe to pay his respects. A memorial poem, written in 1786 (author unknown), titled “Monody on the Death of Captain Pierce,” further fueled the grief and interest of the event.
Years later, the event inspired Charles Dickens to write “The Long Voyage,” a short story that tells the dramatic tale of the ship’s sinking, whilst the painting by William Turner 'The Loss of an East Indiaman' (below), also refers to the Halsewell.
 

1806: Admiral Horatio Nelson's body lies in state in the Painted Hall at the Greenwich Hospital (5th-7th January).

1838: Samuel F.B. Morse gave the first public demonstration of his invention, the telegraph, at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey.

1931: Thomas Edison executed his last patent application.

1983: The Royal Navy arrests a Danish trawler captain at sea for trespassing in British fishing territory. In a gesture designed to challenge the legality of a ban on non-British boats from fishing in UK coastal waters, Euro MP and trawler owner Kent Kirk sailed his ship towards the British coast and put out his nets. The move followed Denmark's refusal to agree to proposals for a new EEC fishing regime.
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ardarossan

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #43 on: January 06, 2013, 06:04:09 pm »

On 6th January 1916, King Edward VII, a Royal Navy pre-dreadnought battleship, was sailing from Scapa Flow to Belfast for a scheduled refit. At 10:47, an explosion occurred under the starboard engine room, causing her to develop an 8 degree list as she took on water.

Attempts to tow the battleship by the collier Princess Melita, and flotilla leader Kempfenfelt were unsuccessful, as King Edward VII settled deeper in the water and the list increased to 15 degrees.

Eventually, as flooding continued and with darkness approaching, the Captain gave the order to abandon ship. The destroyers Musketeer, Fortune and Marne, took off the crew with the loss of only one life (a man fell between the battleship and one of the rescue vessels). Captain Maclachlan was the last man off, boarding the destroyer Nessus.
King Edward VII eventually capsized and sank at 20:10, around nine hours after the explosion.

Although at the time it was not clear whether King Edward VII had hit a naval mine or a been torpedoed,  examination of German records after the war confirmed the presence of a minefield, laid by the German auxiliary cruiser SMS Mowe.

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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - January 7th
« Reply #44 on: January 07, 2013, 01:54:59 pm »

January 7th...

1558: A French force commanded by Francis, Duke of Guise captured the city of Calais from the Kingdom of England, who had ruled it since 1347.

1746: George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith GCB, a British admiral active throughout the Napoleonic Wars, was born at Elphinstone Tower, near Stirling, Scotland. (d.1823)
 
1806: Admiral Horatio Nelson's body lies in state for the third and final day at the Greenwich Hospital (5th-7th January).

1904: The distress signal "CQD" was announced by the Marconi International Marine Communication Company. Two years later "SOS" became the radio distress signal because it was quicker to send by wireless radio.

1914: The first complete Panama Canal passage by a self-propelled, ocean-going vessel occurred when the Alexandre La Valley, an old French crane-boat that had previously been brought from the Atlantic side, emerged from the Pacific locks.

Alexandre La Valley - Panama Canal 1914

1960: The launch and first fully-guided flight of a Polaris A1X-7 missile from Launch Complex LC-29A at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The missile flew 900 nm down the Eastern Test Range.

1976: HMS Andromeda was involved in a collision when the gunboat, Thor, sailed close to the bow, sustaining a hole in its hull.
Less than ten days earlier Andromeda, one of 22 frigates protecting fishery trawlers on the high seas, had been involved in a similar incident with another Icelandic boat, Tyr.
Since November 1975, Iceland had been attempting to enforce a 200 mile exclusion zone for foreign trawlers instead of the 50 miles established in the expired 1973 fishing rights agreement.
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Capt Podge

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #45 on: January 07, 2013, 03:33:00 pm »

Sunday, 7th January 1940   'SS Towneley' (2,888t) steamer, Tyne to Rouen was sunk by a mine near Margate.
 
'SS Cedrington Court' (5,160t) cargo ship, Buenos Aries to Hull with a cargo of wheat, hit a mine and sank NE of the North Goodwin Lightship.
 
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - January 8th
« Reply #46 on: January 08, 2013, 06:42:03 am »

January 8th...

1642: Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer, physicist, mathematician, and philosopher, dies in Tuscany, Italy aged 77. (b. 1564)
As the first person to use a telescope to observe the skies, Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, sunspots and the solar rotation. He also played a major role in the scientific revolution, inventing an improved military compass and various other instruments.

Galileo_s_geometrical_and_military_compass

1806: Ahead of his funeral, Admiral Horatio Nelson, in his coffin, is taken from the Greenwich Hospital and carried upriver aboard a barge. Accompanied by Lord Hood, chief mourner Sir Peter Parker, and the Prince of Wales, the coffin was carried into the Admiralty for the night, attended by Nelson's chaplain, Alexander Scott.

1916: Allied forces begin their withdrawal from the shores of the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, ending a disastrous invasion of the Ottoman Empire. (Jan 8th/9th)

1953: Admiral Sir Hugh Binney died. British naval commander and Governor of Tasmania (b.1883)

1979: At around 1:00 a.m., the tanker Betelgeuse exploded whilst discharging its cargo of oil at the offshore jetty of the Whiddy Island Oil Terminal, Bantry Bay, Ireland. The explosion and resulting fire claimed the lives of 50 people. A further fatality occurred during the salvage operation with the loss of a Dutch diver

2004: The RMS Queen Mary 2, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
At the time of her construction in 2003, she was the the longest, widest, and tallest passenger ship ever built, and with her gross tonnage of 148,528, she was also the largest.

HRH Queen Elizabeth II christening RMS Queen Mary 2 - Southampton 2004

2005: The nuclear submarine USS San Francisco, collides at full speed with an undersea mountain, about 364 nautical miles southeast of Guam. Although the forward ballast tanks were severely damaged, San Francisco struggled to the surface and was eventually repaired. One member of the crewman was killed in the incident and twenty-three others were injured.

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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - January 9th 1806 'Nelson's Funeral'
« Reply #47 on: January 08, 2013, 09:07:16 pm »

1806: Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB, the British naval hero credited with saving Britain from invasion by France, receives a state funeral.
The funeral procession consisting of 32 admirals, over a hundred captains, and an escort of 10,000 soldiers, take the coffin from the Admiralty to St Paul's Cathedral.
After a four-hour service he was interred within a sarcophagus originally carved for Cardinal Wolsey. The sailors charged with folding the flag draping Nelson's coffin and placing it in the grave instead tore it into fragments, with each taking a piece as a memento.


Nelson's titles, as inscribed on his coffin and read out at the funeral by the Garter King at Arms, Sir Isaac Heard, were:

The Most Noble Lord Horatio Nelson, Viscount and Baron Nelson, of the Nile and of Burnham Thorpe in the County of Norfolk, Baron Nelson of the Nile and of Hilborough in the said County, Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Vice Admiral of the White Squadron of the Fleet, Commander in Chief of his Majesty's Ships and Vessels in the Mediterranean, Duke of Bronté in the Kingdom of Sicily, Knight Grand Cross of the Sicilian Order of St Ferdinand and of Merit, Member of the Ottoman Order of the Crescent, Knight Grand Commander of the Order of St Joachim.

He was also Colonel of the Royal Marines and voted a Freeman of Bath, Salisbury, Exeter, Plymouth, Monmouth, Sandwich, Oxford, Hereford, and Worcester. The University of Oxford, in full Congregation, bestowed the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law upon Nelson in 1802.
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - January 9th
« Reply #48 on: January 09, 2013, 08:04:50 am »

January 9th...

1493: Sailing near the Dominican Republic on the return leg of his first voyage to the New World, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sees three "mermaids" (in reality manatees) and describes them as "not half as beautiful as they are painted."


1735: John Jervis was born, Meaford Hall, Staffordshire. 1st Earl of St Vincent Royal Navy, Admiral of the Fleet. He is best known for his victory at the 1797 Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, from which he earned his titles, and as a patron of Horatio Nelson. (d.1823)

1861: In South Carolina, Southern shellfire stops a Union supply ship, Star of the West, from entering Charleston Harbor on her way to relieve the beleaguered Fort Sumter. The incident is considered by some historians to be the "First Shots of the American Civil War".

1909: Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, plants the British flag 97 nautical miles (112 miles) from the South Pole, the furthest anyone had ever reached at that time. For this achievement, Shackleton was knighted by King Edward VII on his return home.

1916: After a disastrous Allied campaign, The Battle of Gallipoli concludes with victory for the Ottoman Empire, as the last British troops are evacuated from the peninsula.

1941: First flight of the Avro Lancaster prototype (BT308), at Manchester's Ringway Airport.

1972: The Seawise University, formerly the RMS Queen Elizabeth, is undergoing refurbishment in Hong Kong Victoria Harbour, when several blazes break out simultaneously throughout the ship.
Completely destroyed by the fire, her fate is underlined as the water sprayed onto her by fireboats causes the burnt wreck to capsize and sink. See also: Wikipaedia - RMS Queen Elizabeth

Former RMS Queen Elizabeth in Hong Kong Harbour

1997: Lone yachtsman, Tony Bullimore, feared drowned after his boat capsized the dangerous Southern Ocean five days earlier, was found safe and well, crouched in the upturned hull of his yacht.
The location of the drifting yacht, the Exide Challenger, had been continually monitored by aircraft from the RAAF, until he was rescued by the naval ship, HMAS Adelaide.
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Capt Podge

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #49 on: January 09, 2013, 05:26:08 pm »

Tuesday, 9th January 1940   'SS Montauban' (4,191t) was on a voyage from the Tyne to Marseilles with a cargo of coal, when she came ashore on the Saltscars near Redcar, there she was battered by heavy seas and broke up. Her remains now lie in 6 metres of water at 54°37'45"N - 01°02'27"W with her bow pointing south.
 
'SS Gowrie' (689t) cargo ship, Hull to Aberdeen was attacked and sunk by enemy aircraft E of Stonehaven.
 
 Thursday, 9th January 1941   'SS Bassano' (4,843t) cargo ship, New York to Hull sunk by U 105, NW of Rockall. One crew member lost.
 
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
 
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