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Author Topic: This Day In 'Boating' History  (Read 206402 times)

ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 11th
« Reply #200 on: March 11, 2013, 09:54:51 pm »

March 11th...

1999: The tug 'Sea Victory', towing the listing 440ft bow-section of the broken dry-bulk freighter 'New Carissa', met the U.S. Navy destroyer 'David R. Ray' at the designated scuttling site, somewhere between 250 to 300 miles off the coast of Oregon.
Once the towlines were disconnected, all the non-essential vessels withdrew to a safe distance.

The U.S. Coast Guard transferred the explosives team from the destroyer onto the listing bow-section of the 'New Carissa', and collected them after they had attached 400lbs of high-explosive to the oil-laden hulk.


The remotely-controlled charges were detonated, creating a series of holes in the hull as planned, but after a short while it became apparent that the hull wasn't in any rush to sink.


To accelerate the situation, the hull was further punctured by sixty-nine rounds of gunfire from the 'David R. Ray's' 5-inch (127 mm) deck guns. After 40 minutes, the ship was still afloat with darkness and a storm approaching.


Under the circumstances it might seem odd that the U.S.S. 'Bremerton' (SSN-698), a Los Angeles-class submarine nuclear-powered attack submarine, just happened to be in the vicinity but, fortunately, it was able to bestow the last rites on the perforated bow-section by way of a Mark 48 torpedo.

Within ten minutes, the bow-section slipped below the surface (stern first) and started a two-miles journey to the ocean floor, trapping up to 130,000 gallons of fuel oil within.

That just left the broken stern section to get rid of...   back on the beach...   near Coos Bay Harbour...
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Capt Podge

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #201 on: March 11, 2013, 10:29:37 pm »

Wednesday, 11th March 1942   'SS Horseferry' (951t) cargo ship, Tyne to London with coal, was sunk by an E Boat, NE of Great Yarmouth. Eleven of her crew were lost.
 

Horseferry
 
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
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heritorasphodel

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #202 on: March 11, 2013, 11:22:56 pm »

Norseman,


Yes, that's her on the slipway at Port Erin.


Andrew
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 12th
« Reply #203 on: March 12, 2013, 08:37:04 pm »

March 12th...

1918: British D-class submarine, HMS D3, built by Vickers, Barrow was lost with all hands on 12th March 1918, when she was mistakenly bombed and sunk by a French airship, AT-0, off Fecamp in the English Channel.
AT-0 was patrolling when at 14:20hrs a vessel was spotted to her north east. The airship drew close for recognition purposes and according to her commander, the submarine fired rockets at her. Four 52-kg bombs were dropped by the airship. The submarine disappeared but several minutes later, four men were seen in the water. Attempts were made by the airship to rescue the men but it proved too difficult, so it withdrew to seek a surface vessel to assist. Unfortunately, the men had drowned by the time help arrived. It was clear that D3 was the victim of a serious identification error on the part of the French airship, with identification rockets being mistaken for aggressive gunfire.


H.M.S. D3.

1928: South African fighter ace, Samuel Marcus Kinkead, with 33 victories during WWI, was killed in Calshot, England, as he tried to become the first man to travel at more than five miles a minute in a Supermarine S.5 racing seaplane (N221).
Witnesses thought he was flying very low and very fast when his S.5 dived into moderately deep water near the Calshot Lightship.
Although the RAF Duty Motorboat quickly buoyed the wreck site it took two days for the salvage vessel to find and retrieve the wreckage that had split into two parts.
It was at first thought that Kinkead had been thrown clear of the machine during the crash but his body was found, compressed into the tail. It was quite obvious that Sam Kinkead had died instantly.
The circumstances of his death have never been satisfactorily explained although a verdict of death by misadventure was passed at the inquest. However, flying at over 300 MPH and at no higher than 150 feet Kinkead was never more than half a heart beat from disaster.
Kinkead was buried at All Saints' Church, Fawley – the headstone on his grave reads:

In memory of Flight Lieutenant Samuel Marcus Kinkead DSO DSC DFC who, on 12 March 1928 while flying at Calshot, gave his life in an attempt to break the world's speed record.


Supermarine S.5 Racing Seaplane (N221), Calshot, 1928.

2012: MV 'Shariatpur 1', a double deck ferry carrying an estimated 200+ passengers, capsized and sank in 70 ft of water, after colliding with a cargo ship on the Meghna River, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Although 75 people were rescued or swam ashore, at least 115 were killed, whilst a further 61 people remained unaccounted for when the rescue/recovery operation was called off.

Boats are the main form of transport in Bangladesh's remote rural areas and accidents are common due to lax safety standards and overloading, in a delta nation of 153 million people.

The exact number of passengers on any ferry is often uncertain as passenger lists are not maintained properly and many people buy their tickets when they board.

Naval officials have said more than 95 per cent of Bangladesh's hundreds of thousands of small-and medium-sized boats do not meet minimum safety regulations.


A typical Bangladeshi Ferry on the Meghna River.
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Capt Podge

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #204 on: March 12, 2013, 08:51:18 pm »

Tuesday, 12th March 1940 
 
 'SS Gardenia' (3,745t) steamer, Casablanca to Middlesbrough was sunk by a mine off Cromer.
 

Gardenia
 
 
 
Regards,
 
Ray.

 
 
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Capt Podge

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #205 on: March 13, 2013, 07:31:45 pm »

Tuesday, 13th March 1945   'SS Taber Park' (2,878t) on a voyage from the Tyne to London was lost near Great Yarmouth, the reason was given as a collision with a midget submarine (unconfirmed) She was probably one of the very last ships to sink on that route during the war.
 
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 13th
« Reply #206 on: March 13, 2013, 09:02:06 pm »

March 13th...

1697: The last significant independent Maya stronghold, 'Tayasal', located on an island in Lake Petén Itzá in the northern Petén Basin region of present-day Guatemala, fell to Spanish conquistadors, the final step in the Spanish conquest.
Martín de Urzúa y Arizmendi arrived on the western shore of lake Petén Itzá with his soldiers in February 1697, and once there built a 'galeota', a large and heavily armed oar-powered attack boat. The Itza capital fell in a bloody waterborne assault on 13th March 1697. The Spanish bombardment caused heavy loss of life on the island; many Itza Maya who fled to swim across the lake were killed in the water.

1781: German-born British astronomer, technical expert, and composer, Sir Frederick William Herschel, discovers the planet Uranus.
He also discovered two of its major moons (Titania and Oberon), and two moons of Saturn. In addition, he was the first person to discover the existence of infrared radiation.

1836: Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (1831-36): After being delayed a few days due to poor weather, the Beagle sailed out of King George's Sound on 13th March. Darwin wasn't impressed with the place although he had been on a few inland excursions, and went with Captain FitzRoy to a place called Bald Head where there were curious formations of tree casts made of limestone. A few of the crew members had also attended an aborigine dance around a bonfire.



1969: The 'Apollo 9' spacecraft, with astronauts James McDivitt, David Scott, and Russell Schweickart aboard, 'splashed-down' in the Atlantic recovery area to conclude a successful 10-day Earth-orbital space mission.
Apollo 9, was the third manned mission in the United States 'Apollo' space program and the first flight of the Command/Service Module (CSM) with the Lunar Module (LM). Further tests on the Apollo 10 mission would prepare the LM for its ultimate goal, landing on the Moon.
The splashdown point was 180 miles east of Bahamas and just 4.5 nautical miles from the prime recovery ship, U.S.S. 'Guadalcanal'.


The 'Apollo 9' was the last spacecraft to splash down in the Atlantic Ocean.
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Martin (Admin)

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #207 on: March 13, 2013, 09:16:27 pm »


Very interesting. I was a big fan of the Apollo program.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splashdown_%28spacecraft_landing%29
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 14th
« Reply #208 on: March 14, 2013, 09:01:15 pm »

March 14th...

1500: Five days after leaving Lisbon, en route for Calicut, India, where they hope to establish trading relations, Pedro Alvares Cabral's flotilla of 13-ships pass Gran Canaria, the largest island in the Canary Islands and sail on towards Cape Verde, a Portuguese colony situated on the West African coast, which they should reach in a week or so.


1653: The naval 'Battle of Leghorn' (aka the 'Battle of Livorno'), a part of the 'First Anglo-Dutch War', took place on 14th March, 1653 (4th March Old Style), near Leghorn (Livorno), Italy.
It was a victory of a Dutch fleet under Commodore Johan van Galen over an English squadron under Captain Henry Appleton. Afterward an English fleet under Captain Richard Badiley, which Appleton had been trying to reach, came up but was outnumbered and fled.
The battle gave the Dutch command of the Mediterranean, placing the English trade with the Levant at their mercy, but Commodore Johan van Galen was mortally wounded, dying on 23rd March.


The Battle of Leghorn, 14 March 1653 by Willem van Diest

1757: Admiral John Byng (baptised 29th October 1704 - 14 March 1757) was a Royal Navy officer. After joining the navy at the age of thirteen, he participated at the Battle of Cape Passaro in 1718. Over the next thirty years he built up a reputation as a solid naval officer and received promotion to Vice-Admiral in 1747. Byng is best known for the loss of Minorca in 1756 at the beginning of the Seven Years' War. In practice, his ships badly needed repair and he was relieved of his command before he could see to his ships or secure the extra forces he required. He was court-martialled and found guilty of failing to "do his utmost" to prevent Minorca falling to the French following the Battle of Minorca. He was sentenced to death and shot by firing squad on the forecastle of the H.M.S. 'Monarch' in the Solent on 14th March 1757.

"These 24 hours very squally, with showers of wind and rain; Admiral Byng's Co. as before; at 7 A.M. his Coffin came on board; at 10 A.M. all the Ships' Boats, manned and armed, came to attend his Execution; hard gales, lowered down the lower yards: at noon all hands were called up to attend his execution; he was shot on the larboard side of the Quarter Deck by six Marines, attended by Lieut. Clark, the Marshal, and Mr. Muckings; these gentlemen went ashore after the execution was over". - Captain John Montagu, ship's log - March 14 1757


The Shooting of Admiral John Byng on board the 'Monarque'.

1795: The naval 'Battle of Genoa' was fought off the coast of Genoa, a port city in north-western Italy, between French warships under Rear-Admiral Pierre Martin and British and Neapolitan warships under Vice Admiral William Hotham. The battle ended in a British-Neapolitan victory over the French and the capture of the French ships 'Ça Ira' and 'Censeur' by the British.


Engagement between 'Ça Ira' against H.M.S. 'Bedford'

1915: Cornered off the coast of Chile by the Royal Navy after fleeing the Battle of the Falkland Islands, the German Imperial Navy light cruiser SMS 'Dresden' raises a white flag of surrender, although it's actually a stalling tactic whilst she is being abandoned and scuttled by her crew.


SMS 'Dresden', flying a white flag, moments prior to her scuttling.

1917: The SS 'Faith', the first concrete ship built in the United States, was launched on this day in 1918.
Work began September 1st, 1917, with concrete pouring from October 31st 1917 until  February 26, 1918. Designed by Alan Macdonald and Victor Poss, the steam-ship pulled up to 5000 tons, and measured 336.5 x 44.5 x 22.5 feet - being the largest concrete ship of its time.
The cost of the hull itself was estimated at $450,000, and the early estimate before completion was that it would total $890,000 overall


Concrete ship S.S. 'Faith' completed

1945: The No. 617 Squadron RAF Avro Lancaster of Squadron Leader Calder dropped the first 22,000 lb Grand Slam bomb from 11,965 ft on the Schildesche viaduct. More than 100 yards of the Bielefeld viaduct collapsed through the earthquake bomb effect of the Grand Slam and Tallboy bombs of No. 617 Squadron.
Known officially as the 'Bomb, Medium Capacity, 22,000 lb', it was a scaled-up version of the Tallboy bomb and closer to the original size that the bombs' inventor, Barnes Wallis, had envisaged when he first developed his earthquake bomb idea.
'Grand Slams' and 'Tall Boys', would later be used during attacks on German U-Boat shelters.


A Grand Slam bomb being handled at RAF Woodhall Spa

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Capt Podge

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #209 on: March 14, 2013, 11:29:42 pm »

Friday, 14th March 1941   
                                The tug 'Bullger' (270t) struck a mine and sank, ½ a mile offshore in Druridge Bay, E of Widdrington at 55°16'03"N - 01°33'06"W.
 
 
'SS Artemisia' (6,507t) cargo ship, London to the Tyne, was sunk by German aircraft near Aldeburgh.
 



 
 Saturday, 14th March 1942   'SS Brabo' (3,658t) a Belgian ship, sank in the Tyne entrance after a collision half-way along the North pier. She was carrying a cargo of wood pulp and steel. An elaborate coffer dam of solid copper was being built, to raise the height of the gunwhales when she was battered by heavy seas and the project had to be abandoned. Much of her remains still lie on the sea-bed, but the wreck buoy was removed in 1979.


 
 Wednesday, 14th March 1945   'SS Magne' (1,226t), a Danish merchantman, was sunk by 'U 714' off St Abbs Head at 55°51'12"N - 01°55'24"W.
After the attack on the 'Magne', 'U 714' was on patrol off St Abbs Head, when she was depth charged and sunk at 55°57'00"N - 01°57'00"W, by the 'Natal', a frigate of the South African Navy, on her maiden voyage from the Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson yard on the Tyne to Scapa Flow and hence to Tobermory, Isle of Mull. The 'Natal' was offering assistance to the destroyer 'HMS Wivern', which was standing by the survivors of the 'Magne', when her ASDIC (Sonar) detected the submarine. 'Natal' made two depth-charge runs on this contact after which wreckage and light oil came to the surface and the ASDIC contact vanished. It was assumed and later confirmed that the U-boat had gone straight to the bottom.
 
 
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
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heritorasphodel

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #210 on: March 15, 2013, 08:29:36 am »

14/15 March 1942


A convoy is attacked off the north Norfolk coast by German E-boats. The E-boats themselves then came under attack by destroyers and HMS Vortigern. Three were sunk, with two more damaged, while the Vortigern was also hit by a pair of torpedoes and sunk.


Cromer lifeboat H.F. Bailey launched shortly before 8AM after being notified by a Flag Officer at Great Yarmouth that two vessels had sunk ten miles northeast of Cromer. By 9:45 H.F. Bailey was at the scene but recovered no survivors, only 11 bodies. The Sheringham lifeboat Forester's Centenary had also been called out, recovering one body and finding a barrage balloon. After returning to their stations, the bodies were transferred to a motor boat that took them to Lowestoft.


Both these lifeboats are now in museums near their respective stations.


Andrew
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Capt Podge

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #211 on: March 15, 2013, 09:06:46 pm »

Sunday, 15th March 1942   'SS Athelqueen' (8,780t) tanker, Hull to Port Everglades, United States, sunk by the Italian submarine 'Tazzoli', off the Bahamas.
 
 
 Monday, 15th March 1943   'SS Eugena Chandris' (5,300t) collided with the 'Exmouth' off South Shields at 55°01'08"N - 01°23'43.5"W, when she finally sank it was onto the remains of the 'SS Oslofjord'. Her manifest included 4874 drums of Trichlorethylene, 573 cases of ordinance, aluminium ingots and copper. She lies in 30' of water and underwater swimmers often swim from the 'Chandris' to the 'Oslofjord' without knowing it.
 
 
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
 
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 15th
« Reply #212 on: March 15, 2013, 09:37:21 pm »

March 15th...

1493: The first voyage of Christopher Columbus: Aboard the 'Niña', Columbus returns to Spain from his first voyage to the 'New World'. Although he arrived in Lisbon, Portugal, on the 4th March (to shelter from a storm), the voyage was completed today when he crossed the bar of Saltes and entered the harbour of Palos - from where word of his finding new lands spread rapidly throughout Europe.

1790: Two days after landing at Portsmouth, England, Lt. William Bligh arrives at The Admiralty to report the mutiny on H.M.S. 'Bounty' - 2 years and 11 weeks after departing from English waters in command of the ship bound for Tahiti.
Page one of Lt. William Bligh's notebook (click thumbnail below), logs all of those involved in the mutiny of the H.M.S. 'Bounty', with Fletcher Christian aged 24 years, being top of the list.


H.M.S. 'Bounty' mutineers.

1889: The Samoan Crisis was a confrontation between the United States and Germany (from 1887-1889) over control of the Samoan Islands during the Samoan Civil War. Whilst the situation was being monitored by the British warship H.M.S. 'Calliope', a tense standoff developed (over several months) in Apia harbour, Samoa, with three American warships and three German warships confronting each other.

Despite warnings of an impending cyclone, neither nation was prepared to withdraw to ride out the storm in the relative safety of the open sea. Consequently, when the cyclone struck the result was catastrophic. U.S.S. 'Trenton' and U.S.S. 'Vandalia' were tossed about and smashed into the same reef, whilst U.S.S. 'Nipsic' was thrown high on the beach with internal systems totally wrecked.

Of the German ships, SMS 'Olga' was also thrown high onto the beach where she was wrecked but many of her crew survived, escaping onto higher ground, whilst SMS 'Adler' and SMS 'Eber' were picked up and smashed together near the mouth of the harbour. The U.s. and Germany lost approximately 150 crewmen.

There were also six merchant vessels that had remained in the harbour, which were also wrecked with a combined loss of approx. 200 personel from various nations.

H.M.S. 'Calliope' was the only ship to escape the harbour, and survived the storm. Th storm effectively ended the Samoan Crisis.


German warship 'Adler' wrecked at Apia, Samoa, after the hurricane, March 1889.

1931: SS 'Viking', a wooden-hulled whaling ship, was being used by the film producer Varick Frissell in the making of his 1931 film 'The Viking'.

During the shooting of extra footage for this film, while stuck in the ice about eight miles off Horse Islands, Newfoundland,  the 'Viking' was rocked by an explosion that blew the stern off the vessel.

Somehow, a quantity of Dynamite, being carried on board to add to the sensationalism of giant explosions of icebergs, had been set off, which sank the ship and killed 27 of the 147 on board - including Frissell.


The 'Viking'. The ship was used by Fridtjof Nansen for his first Arctic expedition of 1882.

1957:  A ZPG-2 Airship (Ser. No. 141561), commanded by Commander J. R. Hunt, landed at the Naval Air Station, Key West, Florida, after a flight that began 4th March at South Weymouth, Mass, and circled over the Atlantic Ocean toward Portugal, the African coast and back for a new world record in distance and endurance, covering 9,448 statute miles and remaining airborne 264 hours 12 minutes, without refueling.


U.S. Navy 'ZPG-2' Patrol Airship, built by the Goodyear Aircraft Co., OH.
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 16th
« Reply #213 on: March 16, 2013, 05:28:11 am »

March 16th... The 'Terra Nova' Expedition - Return from the South Pole.

1912: Captain Lawrence Edward Grace "Titus" Oates, of the Inniskilling Dragoons, perished in a blizzard, during the return from the South Pole with the British Antarctic Expedition under the command of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, C.V.O., R.N.

Captain Oates' feet had become so severely frostbitten, he was unable to proceed at the rate required to reach the next pre-laid supply dump on schedule. Aware that his ill-health was compromising his companions' chances of survival, he took matters into his own hands on the morning of 16th March 1912. Foregoing the pain of putting on his boots, he said, "I am just going outside and may be some time." He then walked out of the camp barefoot, to his inevitable death in a severe blizzard. His body was never found.
"A Very Gallant Gentleman"


Captain Lawrence E. G. "Titus" Oates (17th March 1880 - 16th March 1912).
Pictured aboard 'Terra Nova' with some of the expedition's Siberian Ponies.
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 16th
« Reply #214 on: March 16, 2013, 07:32:54 pm »

March 16th...

1521: (16th & 17th March) Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippine archipelago with 150 crew left. When they landed on the island of Homonhon, some members of his expedition became the first Spaniards to reach the Philippine archipelago, but they were not the first Europeans.
Magellan was able to communicate with the native tribes because his Malay interpreter, Enrique, could understand their languages. Enrique was indentured by Magellan in 1511 right after the colonization of Malacca and was at his side during the battles in Africa, during Magellan's disgrace at the King's court in Portugal and during Magellan's successful raising of a fleet.


1774: (Captain) Matthew Flinders was born in Donington, Lincolnshire, England, the son of Matthew Flinders, a surgeon, and his wife Susannah, née Ward. In his own words, he was "induced to go to sea against the wishes of my friends from reading Robinson Crusoe", and at the age of fifteen he joined the Royal Navy (in 1789).
He would become a distinguished navigator and cartographer, and the first person to circumnavigate Australia, identifying it as a continent.

1801: H.M.S. 'Invincible', a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, was lost in a shipwreck off the coast of Norfolk, England. With approximately 650 people on board, she had been sailing from Yarmouth under the flag of Rear-Admiral Thomas Totty in an effort to reach the fleet of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker in the Sound preparing for the upcoming attack on the Danish fleet.
As the ship passed the Norfolk coast, she was caught in heavy wind and stuck on the Hammond Knoll Rock off Happisburgh, where she was pinned for the afternoon before breaking free and  grounding on a sandbank. The effect of wind and waves tore down the masts and began to break up the ship. She remained there until the following day, when she drifted off the sandbank and sank in deep water. The admiral and 195 sailors escaped the wreck, either in one of the ship's boats or were picked up by a passing collier and fishing boat, but over 400 of their shipmates were drowned.


Lines for 'Terrible' (1762); 'Ramillies' (1763); 'Robust' (1764); 'Russell' (1764); 'Invincible' (1765);
'Monarch' (1765); 'Prince of Wales' (1765); 'Magnificent' (1766); 'Marlborough' (1767).

1926: Robert Goddard, an American professor, physicist, and inventor is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket,which he successfully launched on March 16th 1926, at Auburn, Massachusetts. Goddard and his team would launched 34 rockets between 1926 and 1941, achieving altitudes of up to 1.6 miles at speeds reaching 550 mph.

1935: Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Military conscription is reintroduced to expand the Wehrmacht to almost 600,000 members - six times the number permitted by the Treaty.

1940: Fourteen Ju-88 Luftwaffe bombers attacked the British fleet at Scapa Flow and hit H.M.S. 'Norfolk', but twenty-two high explosive bombs fell around some cottages at the Brig O’ Waithe, Stenness, one of which suffered a direct hit. James Isbister, 27, was killed by a piece of shrapnel as he ran to help the occupant. He had the sad distinction of being the first civilian casualty of a German bombing raid on Britain in World War 2.


H.M.S. 'Hood' as seen from H.M.S. 'Rodney' in Scapa Flow later in 1940,
illustrating the size of the anchorage used by the British Home Fleet.

1978: 'Amoco Cadiz' a Liberia-flagged, very large crude carrier (VLCC), owned by Amoco, ran aground on Portsall Rocks, 3.1 miles off the coast of Brittany, France. Violent seas would breakup the ship before any oil could be pumped out of the wreck, resulting in the largest oil spill of its kind in history to that date (and 5th-largest oil spill in history), as it's entire 220,000-ton cargo of crude oil (belonging to Shell) and 4,000 tons of fuel oil was released into the sea.


Amoco Cadiz off the coast of Brittany, France.
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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #215 on: March 16, 2013, 09:27:43 pm »

Sunday, 16th March   'SS Rio Dorado' (4,507t) cargo ship, Tyne to Baltimore, was sunk by the German warship 'Gneisenau', E of Newfoundland. All thirty-nine crew were lost.
 

Rio Dorado
 
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 16th
« Reply #216 on: March 16, 2013, 09:31:16 pm »

March 16th...

1912: SS 'Oceana', a P&O passenger liner and cargo vessel, sank off Beachy Head on the East Sussex coast, after a collision in the Strait of Dover with the 'Pisagua', a 2850-ton German-registered 4 masted steel barque.

'Pisagua' hit 'Oceana' amidships, creating a 40 feet long gash in her side. Nine lives were lost when one of 'Oceana's' lifeboats capsized, but the other 241 passengers and crew were rescued.
'Oceana' sank with almost £747,110-worth of Gold and Silver on board, which was salvaged by divers over the following 10 days.

P&O sued the operators of 'Pisagua' claiming damages for the loss of 'Oceana'. However, judgement was given that 'Pisagua' was not at fault, due to a combination of factors, including that the obligation was on 'Oceana' to give way to 'Pisagua' under the "steam gives way to sail" rule.


SS 'Oceana' (1888-1912). Commissioned by P&O from Harland & Wolff in Belfast.
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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #217 on: March 17, 2013, 03:03:04 am »

MARCH 16TH, 1944

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“All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re
behind us… they can’t get away this time” — Lieutenant General Lewis B.”Chesty” Puller
(when surrounded by 8 enemy divisions)

heritorasphodel

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #218 on: March 17, 2013, 04:22:33 am »

March 17, 1907


Near the Lizard, Cornwall, the 12,000-ton White Star liner Suevic runs aground on the Maenheere reef. Homeward bound from Australia, there are 526 persons aboard. During the rescue operation, lifeboats from the Lizard, Cadgwith, Coverack and Porthleven. Children aboard the Suevic were carried down rope ladders and then dropped into the lifeboats.


In total, Cadgwith's Minnie Moon saved 227; The Lizard's Sir George Back 167; Coverack's Constance Melanie 44; and Porthleven's John Francis White 18, a total of 456.


Andrew
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Neil

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In remembrance
« Reply #219 on: March 17, 2013, 01:14:57 pm »

44 YEARS AGO TONIGHT, the Longhope Lifeboat RNLB TGB set out on a mission to rescue the stricken crew of the Liberian cargo vessel Irene.
 
The weather was attrocious, but she was not alone, for the RNLB Grace Paterson Ritchie was also making her way to the east side of Orkney.
The coxs'n of RNLB TGB radioed for a weather report at 21.30 hours...........and then R/T contact was broken.
Her upturned hull was found later that day and towed into Scrabster harbour by the Thurso lifeboat.
 
All 8 crewmen lost their lives that night in a fruitless call, as the crew of the Irene were in fact rescued by the Orkney Cliff rescue brigade as the lifeboats were making their way to the casualty's possition.
 
Sadly one crew member of TGB was never recovered.
 
Lest we forget the human price of the RNLI and those that give their lives for others.
 
Neil.
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Rottweiler

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #220 on: March 17, 2013, 01:43:43 pm »

 Well said Neil,
and not forgetting that these brave men are volunteers,and seek no reward for their actions,to this day.
Mick F
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Capt Podge

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #221 on: March 17, 2013, 04:04:47 pm »

Monday, 17th March 1941   The yacht 'Molusc' (597t) ex 'Medus' was on Admiralty service off Blyth when she was sunk by German aircraft at 55°06'15"N - 01°26'06"W. She now lies upright in 24 metres of water.
She was built as a luxury yacht for the Guinness family in 1906 and registered as MEDUSA 11, on 12th January 1915, she was hired by the Admiralty as an auxiliary patrol vessel, then again to H.M.Yacht MOLLUSC, in November 1939.
 
 Wednesday, 17th March 1943   'SS Zouave' (4,256t) cargo ship, Pepel to the Tees, was sunk by U 305 in Mid Atlantic.
 
 
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
 

 
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 17th
« Reply #222 on: March 17, 2013, 05:26:27 pm »

March 17th...
 
1776: After George Washington and Henry Knox placed artillery in positions at Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston, Massachusetts, options became extremely limited for the besieged British forces garrisoned within the city.
On March 17th, favourable winds provided an opportunity for the British to withdraw by sea. The troops, who were authorised to burn the town if there were any disturbances while they were marching to their ships, began to move out at 04:00hrs. By 09:00hrs, all ships were underway, effectively ending the 11-month siege.
The fleet departing from Boston included 120 ships, with more than 11,000 people aboard. Of those, 9,906 were British troops, 667 were women, and 553 were children.

1880: (Captain) Lawrence Edward Grace Oates was born in Putney, London, England in 1880, the son of William and Caroline Oates. He had one sister, named Lillian a year older than himself. His uncle was the naturalist and African explorer Frank Oates.
Lawrence would go on to see military service during the Second Boer War in the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons and be recommended for the Victoria Cross. After serving in Ireland, Egypt, and India, he would apply to join Robert Falcon Scott's 'Terra Nova' expedition to the South Pole

1891: Arriving at Gibraltar in rough weather, Captain John McKeague presumed to steer the SS 'Utopia', a transatlantic passenger steamship, towards its "usual" anchorage in the inner harbour, only to discover that it was already occupied by two battleships, H.M.S. 'Anson' and H.M.S. 'Rodney'.
Steering across the bows of 'Anson', he ran onto the ironclad's ram, ripping open a five metre wide hole below the waterline of his vessel. 'Utopia's' holds flooded quickly and she sank in less than twenty minutes.
Out of 880 passengers and crewmembers of Utopia, 562 were dead or missing, plus two sailors from H.M.S. 'Immortalité' who drowned when their boat drifted on the rocks whilst attempting to rescue survivors.
The sinking of 'Utopia' was blamed on "grave error of judgment" of Captain John McKeague. He survived the accident.

The sinking of 'Utopia' in the Bay of Gibraltar. A sketch by a witness, Ms. Georgina Smith.

1907: The biggest rescue in the RNLI's history occurs when the 12,000 tonne liner SS 'Suevic hit the Maenheere Reef near Lizard Point in Cornwall.

(Quote: heritorasphodel, 04:22:33, 17/032013.) "Near the Lizard, Cornwall, the 12,000-ton White Star liner Suevic runs aground on the Maenheere reef. Homeward bound from Australia, there are 526 persons aboard. During the rescue operation, lifeboats from the Lizard, Cadgwith, Coverack and Porthleven. Children aboard the Suevic were carried down rope ladders and then dropped into the lifeboats.

In total, Cadgwith's Minnie Moon saved 227; The Lizard's Sir George Back 167; Coverack's Constance Melanie 44; and Porthleven's John Francis White 18, a total of 456..."


Six silver RNLI medals were later awarded, two to Suevic crew members.
In 2007, the centenary of the biggest rescue in the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's history was marked with the presention of a special certificate to The Lizard lifeboat station.


A postcard image of the White Star liner SS 'Suevic' aground at Lizard Point, 17th March 1907.

1966: In the Mediterranean Sea, off the south coast of Spain, near the small fishing village of Palomares, Deep Submergence Vehicle (DSV) 'Alvin' locates a 1.45 megaton hydrogen bomb, in an uncharted area of the Rio Almanzora canyon on a 70-degree slope at a depth of 2,550 feet. Unfortunately, the bomb was dropped and temporarily lost when the U.S. Navy attempted to bring it to the surface.


Deep Submergence Vehicle (DSV) 'Alvin'

1984: The 130th Cambridge and Oxford Boat Race was postponed less than an hour before it was due to start, after the Cambridge boat ran headlong into a large moored barge used by umpires in the middle of the river, shattering the bow section of the vessel.
The next day the Boat Race went ahead with Oxford crossing the winning line first. They set a new personal best time by completing the race in 16 minutes and 45 seconds, 13 seconds inside their previous record of 1976.
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 17th
« Reply #223 on: March 17, 2013, 07:14:22 pm »

March 17th...

1800: Operating as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Lord Keith, H.M.S. 'Queen Charlotte', a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, was reconnoitring the island of Cabrera when she caught fire at  around 06:00hrs.
The fire was believed to have resulted from loose hay having been accidentally thrown on a match tub. Two or three American vessels lying at anchor off Leghorn went to assist, losing several men in the effort as the vessel's guns exploded in the heat.
Captain A. Todd wrote several accounts of the disaster that he gave to sailors to give to the Admiralty should they survive. He himself perished with his ship. The crew was unable to extinguish the flames and at about 11:00hrs the ship blew up with the loss of 673 officers and men. Lord Keith was not aboard at the time and observed the disaster from the shore.


"The Glorious First of June" by Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg, painted 1795, depicting the engagement on 1st June 1794 between the flagships 'Queen Charlotte' (left) and 'Montagne'. (right)

1959: Whilst conducting operations on and beneath the Arctic ice-pack in the dead of winter, submarine U.S.S. Skate (SSN-578) surfaced at the North Pole to commit the ashes of the famed Australian polar explorer, ornithologist, pilot, soldier, geographer and photographer, Sir (George) Hubert Wilkins MC & Bar (1888-1958), to the Arctic wilderness.


U.S.S. 'Skate' (SSN-578), surfaced through the Arctic ice, 1959.

1966: During an incident during the Gemini VIII mission, NASA decides to let the spacecraft reenter one orbit later so that it would splashdown approximately 800 km east of Okinawa and 1,000 km south of Yokosuka, Japan - an location that could be reached by the secondary recovery forces aboard U.S.S. 'Leonard F. Mason'(DD-852), instead of the primary landing site in the Atlantic.
The mission was notable as it was the first spaceflight for Command Pilot Neil Armstrong, who was now a civilian having resigned his commission in the United States Naval Reserve in 1960.


Accompanied by U.S. Navy divers, Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and David R. Scott sit with their spacecraft hatches open while awaiting the arrival of the recovery ship, the U.S.S. 'Leonard F. Mason' after the successful completion of their mission.
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dave301bounty

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #224 on: March 18, 2013, 07:38:36 pm »

great picture that of the spacemen .thank you .
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