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Author Topic: This Day In 'Boating' History  (Read 206382 times)

ardarossan

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #225 on: March 18, 2013, 08:33:35 pm »

great picture that of the spacemen .thank you .

Hi Dave, Glad to learn that you liked it. I reckon it might make an interesting model too!

Andy
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 18th
« Reply #226 on: March 18, 2013, 08:38:47 pm »

March 18th...

1832: Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (1831-36): On 18th March 1832,  the 'Beagle' set out from All Saints Bay and spent the next two weeks doing sounding measurements at the hazardous Abrolhos Shoals, off the East coast of South America. During this survey Darwin made observations of microscopic tube-like "animals" that coloured the ocean surface brown.

1835: Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (1831-36): On March 18th 1835, whilst the 'Beagle was at Concepcion studying damage done by coast by recent earthquakes. Charles Darwin started out on an Andes expedition (his second of three) with a Spanish speaking guide named Mariano Gonzales, ten mules to carry provisions and an old mare horse, although he had doubts about making it to the top of the Andes due to snow blocking the mountain passes.

1904: H.M.S. 'A1', one of the first operational submarines of the Royal Navy was accidentally sunk in the Solent whilst carrying out a practice attack on H.M.S.'Juno', after being struck on the starboard side of the conning tower by a mail steamer, SS 'Berwick Castle,' which was en route from Southampton to Hamburg.
'A1' sank in only 39 ft of water, but the boat flooded and the entire crew was drowned. A consequence of the incident was that all subsequent Royal Navy submarines were equipped with a watertight hatch at the bottom of the conning tower. The 'A1' was later raised and used as a target.

1915: The main naval assault in the Dardanelles is launched with 18 allied battleships and a supporting array of cruisers and destroyers attacking the Ottoman defences at the narrowest point of the straits (where they are just a mile wide).
Without any support from infantry to occupy and secure the enemy defences as the battleships progressed. The 'ambitious' plan unravelled very quickly.
Minesweepers, manned by civilians and under constant fire of Ottoman shells, retreated, leaving the minefields largely intact.


The French battleship 'Bouvet' (shown in the Dardanelles, above) struck a mine first, causing her to capsize and sink within two minutes. Only some 50 men were rescued from a complement of 710.


H.M.S. 'Irresistible' sustained critical damage from mines, although there was confusion during the battle about the cause of the damage - some blamed torpedoes. The image (above)  showing 'Irresistible' listing in the Dardanelles, was taken from the battleship 'Lord Nelson'. 

H.M.S. 'Ocean' (below) was sent to rescue the 'Irresistible', and was itself struck by an explosion. Both ships eventually sank. Between 150-200 members of 'Irresistable's crew were lost. Most of 'Oceans' 650+ crew survived.


H.M.S. 'Inflexible' (below) was hit by several sheels, and also struck a mine. She had to be beached at the island of Bozcaada (Tenedos) to prevent her sinking. She was recovered later and repaired.


The French battleships 'Suffren' and 'Gaulois' were also damaged during the operation.
The losses prompted the Allies to cease any further attempts to force the straits by naval power alone, and instead opt for the Gallipoli land campaign.

1967: Supertanker 'Torrey Canyon' ran aground on rocks between Land's End and the Scilly Isles, leaking its cargo of oil into the sea. The 974ft tanker, was carrying 100,000+ tons of crude oil, when it hit Pollard's Rock in the Seven Stones reef.


American-owned supertanker 'Torrey-Canyon' aground off Cornwall, March 1967.
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heritorasphodel

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #227 on: March 18, 2013, 09:05:34 pm »

When the Torrey Canyon went aground, lifeboats from St. Mary's and Penlee stood by her.


The St. Mary's boat, Guy and Clare Hunter, was at sea for a total of 54 hours. She was at sea, under the command of Coxswain Matthew Lethbridge, from 9:30 AM on the 18th to 6:35 PM on the 19th, and again from 5:00 PM on the 20th to 7:15 AM on the 21st. The Penlee lifeboat Solomon Browne was at sea for 30 hours, standing by the Torrey Canyon continuously for 24 hours (with a 3 hour journey each way) whilst the St. Mary's boat returned to station.


Andrew
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Capt Podge

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #228 on: March 18, 2013, 10:28:16 pm »

Tuesday, 18th March 1941   'SS Daphne II' (1,970t) on a voyage from London to the Tyne, was sunk by an E Boat off the Humber.
 
 
 
Regards,
 
Ray.
 
 
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 19th
« Reply #229 on: March 19, 2013, 06:39:57 pm »

March 19th...

1687: Having failed to locate the mouth of the Mississippi River by sea, French nobleman and explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, had already led two unsuccessful overland attempts. Unfortunately, his errors in judgment and indecision had created dissention amongst his group. During the third attempt to find the Mississippi on foot, members of his exploration party mutineed and murdered him, near the site of present Navasota, (or possibly Huntsville), Texas, USA.

1796: Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, 1st Baronet (26th February 1723 - 19th March 1796 (9th March O.S.)), the only son of Hugh Palliser and Mary Robinson, was born at Kirk Deighton, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. He entered the navy in 1735 as a midshipman on HMS Aldborough (commanded by his uncle Nicholas Robinson). Palliser would be an officer by the time of, and during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. During the latter he came into a famous dispute with Augustus Keppel over the Battle of Ushant which led to Palliser being court-martialled, although he was subsequently acquitted.
Admiral Palliser died on 19 March 1796 in at his estate in Chalfont St Giles Buckinghamshire, England.


Portrait of Captain Hugh Palliser (1723-1796) - before 1775.

1863: The 'Georgiana', a steamer belonging to the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War was reputed to be the "most powerful" cruiser in the Confederate fleet, although she never had the opportunity to prove herself in battle.
On her maiden voyage from Scotland where she was built, and loaded with a cargo of munitions, medicines and merchandise (then valued at over $1,000,000), she encountered Union Navy ships engaged in a blockade of Charleston, South Carolina. After sustaining damage from the Union vessels, and with no hope for escape, 'Georgiana' was scuttled by her captain approximately three-quarters of a mile from shore, enabling all hands to escape.

1930: German-built ocean liner SS 'Europa' (later 'Liberté'), one of the two most advanced, high speed steam turbine ocean vessels of the day, made her maiden voyage to New York - taking the westbound Blue Riband from her sister ship, the SS 'Bremen', with the average speed of 27.91 knots and a crossing time of 4 days, 17 hours and 6 minutes.
During the voyage many of her passengers were disturbed from the soot coming out of Europa's low funnels. The problem was corrected by raising the funnels by 15 feet, though decreasing her low profile. After they were raised, there were no more complaints.
'Europa' and 'Bremen', were a part of the international competition for the Blue Riband - which 'Bremen' reclaimed from 'Europa' in June 1933. 


SS 'Europa' - Sometime before her maiden voyage.

1932: The Sydney Harbour Bridge is officially opened on Saturday 19th March 1932, after it was 'unofficially' opened a few minutes earlier by a man in military uniform on a horse, slashing the ribbon with his sword and opening it in the name of the people of New South Wales.


Sydney Harbour Bridge, affectionately known as 'The Coathanger'.

1945: The Essex-class aircraft carrier U.S.S. 'Franklin' had manoeuvered to within 50 miles of the Japanese mainland when she came under surprise-attack from a single Japanese aircraft, which dropped out from the cloud-cover and made a low level run on the ship, releasing two semi-armour-piercing bombs.
One bomb struck the flight deck centerline, penetrating to the hangar deck, effecting destruction and igniting fires through the second and third decks, and knocking out the Combat Information Center. The second hit aft, tearing through two decks.

At the time she was struck, 'Franklin' had 31 armed and fueled aircraft on her flight deck, and 22 planes, of which 16 were fueled and five were armed, in the hangar deck. The explosion on the hangar deck ignited the fuel tanks on the aircraft, and exploding gasoline vapour devastated the deck. Only two crewmen survived the fire on the hangar deck. The explosions also jumbled aircraft together on the flight deck above, causing further fires and explosions, including the detonation of 12 "Tiny Tim" air-to-surface rockets.

'Franklin' lay dead in the water, took a 13° starboard list, lost all radio communications, and broiled under the heat from enveloping fires. Many of the crew were blown overboard, driven off by fire, killed or wounded, but the hundreds of officers and enlisted who voluntarily remained saved their ship, which became the most heavily damaged United States carrier to survive the war.
Over 800 crew-members were killed, and an estimated 400+ were injured as a result of the attack.
 


1965: The wreck of the SS 'Georgiana', (by now) valued at over $50,000,000 is discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence, exactly 102 years after its destruction. (See '1863' above).
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 20th
« Reply #230 on: March 20, 2013, 06:44:02 pm »

Mar 20th...
 
1922: The United States Navy's first aircraft carrier U.S.S. 'Langley' (CV-1) is commissioned on this day in 1922. She is also the U.S. Navy's first electrically propelled ship.
 
Originally built as a collier, she was named U.S.S. 'Jupiter' (AC-3) and commissioned in April 1913.
Her conversion to an aircraft carrier "for the purpose of conducting experiments in the new idea of seaborne aviation" was authorised on 11th July 1919.
'Jupiter' was converted at the Navy Yard, Norfolk, Virginia, and on 11th April 1920 she was renamed 'Langley', in honour of Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American astronomer, physicist, aeronautics pioneer and aircraft engineer, and she was given hull classification CV-1.
She was recommissioned on 20th March 1922 with Commander Kenneth Whiting in command and (apparently) fulfilled her new role admirably for several years.
However, by 1936 her career as a carrier had ended and she was converted again. This time into a seaplane tender, with the hull classification AV-3.
U.S.S. 'Langley' (AV-3) fought in World War II, but on 27th February 1942, she was attacked by Japanese dive bombers and so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled by her escorts.
 

U.S.S. 'Jupiter' (AC-1), 1911-1920.
 

U.S.S. 'Langley' (CV-1), 1922-1936.
 

U.S.S. 'Langley' (AV-3), 1937-1942.

Potentially, U.S.S. 'Jupiter'/U.S.S. 'Langley' could make an interesting model, with a single hull sharing three different topsides...
 
 
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 20th..
« Reply #231 on: March 20, 2013, 09:28:30 pm »

March 20th...
 
1602: The Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) is established on 20th March 1602.
The chartered company was founded by traders and burghers from port towns such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Middelburg, and was established when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia.
Considered to have been the first multinational corporation in the world and it was the first company to issue stock, iIt had the States-General's authority in the trade zone between South Africa and Japan to conduct trade, erect fortifications, appoint governors, keep a standing army, and conclude treaties in its name.
 

1616: Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment for allegedly being involved in the main plot against King James I, who was "not favourably disposed toward him".
 
1801: The Caribbean island of St. Bartholomew capitulates to the British under Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth.
 
1912: Three days after Captain Oates sacrificed himself to save his colleagues, the three remaining members of the 'Terra Nova' Antarctic Expedition, Scott, Wilson & Bowers, are halted by a fierce blizzard, just 11 miles south of their next supply point - One Ton Depot.
 
1912: The battlecruiser H.M.S. 'Queen Mary' is launched at Palmer's Shipbuilding, Jarrow-on-Tyne, England. The sole member of her class, 'Queen Mary' was the last battlecruiser built by the Royal Navy before World War I, and shared many features with the Lion-class battlecruisers, including her eight 13.5-inch (343 mm) guns.  She was completed in 1913 and participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight as part of the Grand Fleet in 1914.
 

H.M.S. 'Queen Mary' is launched at Palmer's Shipbuilding, Jarrow-on-Tyne, England.

1912: Launched on 27th October 1908, SS 'Koombana' was an oppulent late Edwardian-era passenger, cargo and mail carrying steamship was built in Glasgow, Scotland, by shipbuilders Alex. Stephen & Sons.
Owned and operated by the Adelaide Steamship Company, 'Koombana' was the first passenger and cargo vessel to be built exclusively for service on the Western Australian coast to develop trade with the north west of the State.
On the morning of Wednesday, 20th March 1912, 'Koombana' left Port Hedland for Broome with a fresh north easterly blowing, followed by the SS 'Bullarra'. Before departing, her master, Captain Allen, had reported a falling barometer and suggested that the voyage may take longer than normal.
Several hours later, both vessels were caught in a tropical storm. 'Bullarra' returned to Port Hedland (via Cossack) minus her smokestack, reporting that the eye of the cyclone had passed directly over. 'was never seen again.lost with approximately 76 passengers and 74 crew.
Other than a small quantity of wreckage, no trace was ever found of Koombana', which was presumed sunk at an unknown location north of Port Hedland, Western Australia, with the loss of approximately 76 passengers and 74 crew.
 

SS 'Koombana' c.1910.

1980: After the anchor chain of the Radio Caroline ship, 'Mi Amigo', broke in a Force 10 storm during the evening of 19th March, she drifted for 10 nautical miles before running aground on the Long Sand Bank. The final broadcast was at 23:58hrs, and then the Sheerness Lifeboat attended and took off the crew. 'Mi Amigo' sank on 20th March, leaving only the 127ft tall mast above the water.
The 'Mi Amigo' was originally built in 1921 as a three-masted cargo schooner 'Margarethe' for German owners. A sale in 1927 saw her renamed 'Olga' and she was lengthened in 1936. During the Second World War, she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine and served as an auxiliary ship between 1941 and 1943. In 1953, the ship was again lengthened to 133 feet 9 inches. In 1959, she was sold for conversion to a floating radio station and was renamed 'Bon Jour'. Subsequently, she was renamed 'Magda Maria' in 1961 and 'Mi Amigo' in 1962. She served, intermittently, as a radio ship, until 1980, when she sank in a gale.
 
For anyone interested in the ship's layout, a Side Elevation & Deck Plans of the ship as she was around 1973, plus reference images and other information can be found at Norman Barrington's website: http://normanb.com
 
   
The 'Pirate-Radio' ship 'Mi Amigo' c.1973-74
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heritorasphodel

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #232 on: March 20, 2013, 10:01:53 pm »

This day in 1824, the Committee of Management was advised by Dr. Manners Sutton, Archbishop of Canterbury, that His Majesty King George IV had most graciously commanded,


'That the Institution be hereafter authorised to take the name of the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck', forming the world's first dedicated rescue service.


On the 5th October 1854 the title was changed to the 'Royal National Life-Boat Institution - founded in 1824 for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck'. The change was partly due to avoid confusion with the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Royal Benevolent Society who also operated some lifeboats.


Although generally written as 'Lifeboat', the title of the RNLI retains the hyphen 'Life-Boat'.


Andrew
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 21st
« Reply #233 on: March 21, 2013, 03:00:59 pm »

March 21st...

1705: The Battle of Cabrita Point, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Marbella, was a naval battle that took place while a combined Spanish-French force besieged Gibraltar on 21st March (10th March O.S.), during the War of Spanish Succession.
The battle was a decisive victory for Sir John Leake commanding an allied fleet of 35 ships (English, Dutch and Portuguese), which effectively ended the Franco-Spanish siege of Gibraltar.


England's Glory - The Raising of the Siege of Gibraltar.

1945: As part of convoy BTC-103, liberty ship SS 'James Eagan Layne' was carrying 4,500 tons of U.S. Army Engineers' equipment from Barry, Wales, to Ghent, in Belgium. She also carried motorboats and lumber as deck cargo.
Sailing 12 miles off Plymouth, she was sighted by German submarine 'U-399' and torpedoed on the starboard side between holds 4 & 5. Although badly damaged, she was taken in tow by tugs 'Flaunt' (W152) and H.M.S. 'Atlas' (W41), and was beached in Whitsand Bay Cornwall. Subsequently she settled on the bottom and was declared a total loss. There were no casualties amongst her crew of 69.


Liberty Ship 'James Eagan Layne' being launched'.

1984: Soviet 'Victor'-class nuclear attack submarine 'K-314' was involved in a collision when she surfaced immediately in front of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. 'Kitty Hawk' (CV-63) in the Sea of Japan.
Neither ship was significantly damaged, although the Soviet submarine could not get underway to proceed home for repairs under her own power. The U.S. Navy stayed on scene for two weeks before the Soviets could send out a sea-going tug to bring her home.

'Kitty Hawk' went to the U.S. Naval Base at Subic Bay in the Philippines for repairs, where a piece of one of 'K-314's' propellers was found embedded in 'Kitty Hawk's' bow, as were some chunks of the Soviet anechoic coating, from scraping along the side of the submarine. The result was something of an "accidental" intelligence coup for the U.S. Navy.


U.S.S. 'Kitty Hawk' (CV-63).

2006: At around 12:35 UTC, as MV 'Hyundai Fortune' sailed west through the Gulf of Aden, near Yemen, en route to Europe via the Suez Canal, an explosion occurred below deck, aft of the accommodation, causing a large number of containers to fall into the ocean and a fire that spread through the stern of the ship.
As efforts to contain the fire failed, all 27 crew members abandoned ship and were rescued by the Dutch frigate HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën.

The fire burned for several days, with around one third of the containers being damaged and/or lost overboard. The listing ship was then towed to Salalah, Oman where 2,249 salvageable containers were offloaded for transhipment to Europe.
After unloading, temporary repairs and renaming, the ship was towed to China where she was rebuilt and refurbished.
The cause of the fire was believed to have been a container loaded with petroleum-based cleaning fluids stowed near the engine room. The shipper failed to indicate the hazardous nature of this shipment to avoid the special handling fees associated with transporting hazardous materials.
The damage and losses were estimated to be $800 million (USD).


Container-ship 'Hyundai Fortune' ablaze in the Gulf of Aden, March 2006.
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Netleyned

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #234 on: March 21, 2013, 03:49:57 pm »

The mast of the James Eagan Layne was still visible above water in the early seventies.
The last time I sailed in Whitsand Bay

Ned
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 22nd
« Reply #235 on: March 22, 2013, 07:34:45 am »

March 22nd...

1500: Pedro Alvares Cabral's 13-ship fleet, which sailed from Lisbon, Portugal, on 9th March to establish trade links with India and purchase valuable spices, reaches Cape Verde, a Portuguese colony situated on the West African coast. As the fleet sailed on towards the equator, it would be heading out into the Atlantic to pick up the trade winds.


1778: Whilst searching for the Northwest passage, and in need of a suitable harbour to make repairs, Captain James Cook sights and names Cape Flattery (in present day Washington State), and unknowingly sails past the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Cape Flattery is the oldest non-Indian place name still appearing on Washington state maps. Captain Cook wrote in his journal:

"... there appeared to be a small opening which flattered us with the hopes of finding an harbour...
...On this account I called the point of land to the north of it Cape Flattery.

1820: United States naval officer, Stephen Decatur, Jr., aged 41, died at his home on Lafayette Square, Washington D.C., from injuries sustained earlier on the same day, whilst in a duel with a rival officer.


Captain Stephen Decatur, USN (1779-1820)
by John Wesley Jarvis (1780-1840).

1915: Following conversion from a tramp steamer, H.M.S. 'Manica', is commissioned, becoming the first kite balloon ship of the Royal Naval Air Service.
Six days after commissioning, 'Manica' left  the UK for the eastern Mediterranean, arriving off Lemnos on 14th April. From the 19th April, her balloon spotters would be put into action directing shells onto various Turkish positions, reporting naval movements and supporting ANZAC operations.


H.M.S. 'Manica' prepares to launch a 'Drachen' type balloon, off Gallipoli, 1915.

1942: A naval engagement known as The Second Battle of Sirte occured in the Mediterranean, north of the Gulf of Sidra and southeast of Malta, when a Royal Navy convoy from Alexendria en route to Malta, engaged and frustrated a much more powerful Regia Marina (Italian Navy) squadron.
Despite the initial British success at warding off the Italian squadron, the battle delayed the convoy's planned arrival before dawn, which exposed it to intense air attacks that sank all four merchant ships and one of the escorting destroyers in the following days.


H.M.S. 'Cleopatra' throws out smoke to shield the convoy as H.M.S. 'Euryalus'
elevates her forward 5.25 inch guns to shell the Italian Fleet.

1960: Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser. The patent is much disputed by Gordon Gould who also claims to have invented the LASER, an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
 
2003: The RMS 'Mülheim', a German cargo ship that was built in Romania, on a voyage from Cork, Ireland to Lübeck, Germany, transporting 2,200 tonnes of scrap car plastic.
The ship ran aground at approximately 05:00 GMT in Gamper Bay, between Land's End and Sennen Cove, during which time there was "moderate visibility and fog patches".

Investigators heard that the chief officer, who had been on watch at the time, had caught his trousers in the lever of his chair, causing him to fall and rendering him unconscious. By the time he regained consciousness, RMS 'Mülheim' was already bearing down on the shoreline.

Although the Sennen Lifeboat and Land's End Coastguard Cliff Team were able to reach the wreck quickly, the six man Polish crew were airlifted to safety by a search and rescue helicopter from R.N.A.S. 'Culdrose', and were treated for shock at the Sennen Cove Lifeboat Station. The vessel was declared a constructive total loss on 24th March 2003.


RMS 'Mülheim' wrecked near Lands End, Cornwall.
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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 22nd
« Reply #236 on: March 22, 2013, 07:29:42 pm »

March 22nd...    U.S.S. 'Iowa' & R/C Coast Battleship No. 4'

1923: Almost twenty-two years after she went into service, U.S.S. 'Iowa', America's first seagoing battleship, was decommissioned at the end of March 1919. The thoroughly-obsolete 'Iowa' was renamed 'Coast Battleship No. 4' a month later in order to free her name for use on a new South Dakota class battleship.

As 'Coast Battleship No. 4' she was converted in to the Navy's pioneer radio-controlled target ship. At the Philadelphia Navy Yard, workers removed the ship's guns, fitted her after boilers to burn oil fuel, sealed compartments, and installed water pumps to slow the sinking process to enable a longer target session when she was struck by gunfire or aircraft bombs. Radio control gear, developed by the well known radio engineer, John Hays Hammond, Jr. was also installed.


The R/C gear installed aboard the former U.S.S. 'Iowa',
as seen in a 1921 edition of Popular Mechanics.

She ran trials off Chesapeake Bay in 1920 with the battleship Ohio serving as control ship. Once underway, the crew left in small boats and she was fully controlled by radio signals. She returned to active service in April 1922 to Hampton Roads, Virginia to take part in gunfire exercises with the minelayer 'Shawmut' as control ship.

In 1923 she went through the Panama Canal to the Pacific Ocean to take part in combined fleet manoeuvres. A party of high-ranking navy officials as well as members of Congress and newspaper correspondents sailed to Panama aboard U.S.S. 'Henderson' to watch the experimental firing.


'Coast Battleship No. 4' was first bombarded by the five-inch secondary batteries of U.S.S. 'Mississippi', at ranges of some 8000 yards. Two further exercises, at longer range, placed her on the receiving end of more than three hundred fourteen-inch shells.


After being hit by nearly three-dozen of these three-quarter ton projectiles, ex-U.S.S. 'Iowa' sank in the Gulf of Panama.


Photo #: NH 73816 - Leaving the Pedro Miguel Lock and entering Miraflores Lake, while transiting the Panama Canal, 10 February 1923.
She was in the Panama area to serve as a radio-controlled target during Fleet gunnery exercises.
Note the lock caisson at right.

Photo #: NH 100447 - Maneuvering under fire by battleship guns, while in use as a radio-controlled target during Fleet gunnery practice off Panama, circa 22 March 1923. The ship was sunk as a result of damage received in this exercise.

Photo #: NH 96027 - Under fire by battleship guns, while in use as a radio-controlled target during Fleet gunnery practice off Panama, 22 March 1923. Note projectiles hitting the water on either side of the target, and the ship's collapsed forward smokestack.The ship was sunk as a result of damage received in this exercise.
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 23rd...
« Reply #237 on: March 23, 2013, 05:28:38 pm »

March 23rd...

1500: As Pedro Alvares Cabral's India-bound fleet of 13 ships puts the Portuguese colony of Cape Verde behind them and sails on towards the equator, a Nau (Carrack) commanded by Vasco de Ataide with 150 men on board disappeared without a trace.


A Portuguese 'Nau' (or Carrack) as depicted on a map made in 1565.

1653: Dutch naval officer Johan van Galen, died from wound fever in Livorno, Italy. He had been mortally wounded ten days earlier during the Battle of Leghorn, when a cannonball smashed his right lower leg. It was amputated below-deck and afterwards, Van Galen continued to direct the battle in which his fleet destroyed part of the English Mediterranean fleet.
Van Galen (1604 - 1653) was given a state burial in the Nieuwe Kerk, in Amsterdam.


The Naval Battle of Leghorn, near Livorno, 14th March 1653.

1672: (March 12th/13th O.S.) An English squadron led by Sir Robert Holmes, sails from Portsmouth and attacks the homeward-bound Dutch Smyrna convoy in the English Channel. This officially sanctioned foray precipitated the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

1791: Under the command of Captain Edward Edwards, H.M.S. 'Pandora', the ship sent to search for the 'Bounty' and it's mutineers, reaches Tahiti on 23rd March 1791. Four of the men from the 'Bounty' came on board 'Pandora' soon after its arrival, and ten more were arrested within a few weeks. These fourteen, mutineers and loyal crew alike, were imprisoned in a makeshift cell on 'Pandora's' deck, which they derisively called "Pandora's Box".

1848; The ship 'John Wickliffe' arrives at Port Chalmers carrying the first Scottish settlers for Dunedin, New Zealand.
The arrival of the ship is celebrated in Otago as the founding day of the province. The ship and its 97 passengers had sailed from Gravesend, England, on 24 November 1847, followed three days later by the 'Philip Laing', which left Greenock, Scotland, with 247 settlers. The first of the Otago Association’s immigrant ships, they brought Scottish settlers escaping both an economic depression and a split between the Church of Scotland and the Free Church Presbyterians.


The 'Philip Laing' sails into Port Chalmers on 15th April 1848, joining the 'John Wickliffe', which had arrived on 23rd March.

1889: The Woolwich Free Ferry opens, linking Woolwich in the London Borough of Greenwich with North Woolwich in the London Borough of Newham, across the River Thames. Planned and constructed by The Metropolitan Board of Works. Ownership of the Metropolitan Board of Works passed to London County Council (LCC) two days before the ferry was opened on 23 March 1889. The first two ships were the paddle steamers 'Gordon' and the 'Duncan' built in 1888 by R.H.Green.  'Gordon' was named after General Gordon (1833-1885), the hero of Khartoum, who was born in Woolwich and studied at the Academy. The 'Duncan' was named after Colonel Francis Duncan (1836-1888), author of 'The History of the Royal Artillery.


The Woolwich Ferry 'Gordon'.

1943: Commissioned as a troop transport in the Second World War, the RMS 'Windsor Castle' was sunk by a torpedo launched from enemy aircraft in 1943 while in the Mediterranean Sea as part of convoy KMF-11.
She was hit by the torpedo at 02:30hrs but did not sink until 5:25 pm, stern first, 110 miles WNW of Algiers, Algeria. Only one crewman, Junior Engineer Officer William Ogilvie Mann, died. 2,699 troops and 289 crew were removed by the destroyers H.M.S. 'Whaddon', H.M.S. 'Eggesford', and H.M.S. 'Douglas'.


Originally built with four funnels, the rebuilt 2-stack 'Windsor Castle' sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, 1943.

1965: Lt. Cdr. John Young and Major Gus Grissom in spacecraft 'Molly Brown', splashed down some 50 nautical miles from U.S.S. 'Intrepid' (CVS-11) after history's first controlled re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere ended the pair's nearly perfect three-orbit flight aboard Gemini 3.
A Navy helicopter lifted the astronauts from the spacecraft and flew them to 'Intrepid' for medical examination and debriefing. Later, 'Intrepid' retrieved 'Molly Brown' and returned the spacecraft and astronauts to Cape Kennedy.


Aircraft carrier U.S.S. 'Intrepid' alongside the Gemini III spacecraft 'Molly Brown'.

2001: The 15-year-old Russian space station 'Mir' is taken out of Earth orbit and brought back into Earth's atmosphere. Pieces of the space station that didn't burn-up during re-entry, fell nto the southern Pacific ocean near Fiji.
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 24th
« Reply #238 on: March 24, 2013, 06:34:00 pm »

March 24th...

1878: Returning to England after a 3-month tour of the West Indies and Bermuda, H.M.S. 'Eurydice', a 26-gun Royal Navy corvette, was caught in a heavy snow storm off the Isle of Wight, capsized and sank. Only two of the ship's 319 crew and trainees survived, most of those who were not carried down with the ship died of exposure in the freezing waters. One of the witnesses to the disaster was a young Winston Churchill, who was living at Ventnor with his family at the time.
The phantom 'Eurydice' has been sighted frequently by sailors over the years since her sinking. Most notably, on October 17th, 1998, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, reportedly saw the three-masted ship off the Isle of Wight while filming for the television series "Crown and Country", and the film crew claimed to have captured its image on film. There is also a story from Commander F. Lipscomb of a royal naval submarine which took evasive action to avoid the ship only for it to disappear.


H.M.S. 'Eurydice' off the coast, with her crew making sail.

1896: Russian physicist Alexander Popov makes the first radio signal transmission in history at a meeting of the Society at St Petersburg University. Popov demonstrated how his work could be used in general for sending and receiving information by radio by transmitting the words “Heinrich Hertz” in Morse code between buildings on the university campus.

1905: Jules Gabriel Verne, aged 77, the French author who pioneered the science fiction genre, died at his home, 44 Boulevard Longueville (now Boulevard Jules-Verne), Amiens, France, while ill with diabetes.

He was born on 8th February 1828 on Île Feydeau, a small island within the town of Nantes, in No. 4 Rue Olivier-de-Clisson, the house of his maternal grandmother Sophie Marie Adelaïde-Julienne Allotte de la Fuÿe. His parents were Pierre Verne, an attorney originally from Provins, and Sophie Allote de la Fuÿe, a Nantes woman from a local family of navigators and shipowners, of distant Scottish descent.

He became known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), which (as with many of his other works) included elements of technology that were fantastic for the day but later became commonplace.

It is intersting to note that many of Verne's predictions were realised by a list of men and women who cited him as the inspiration for their own achievements.
Amongst the many are: Wernher von Braun, Guglielmo Marconi, Pioneering submarine designer Simon Lake; Arctic Explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton; Marine biologist Jacques Cousteau; Polar explorer Richard E. Byrd; Édouard-Alfred Martel; Norbert CasteretYuri Gagarin; aviation pioneers Alberto Santos-Dumont; and Igor Sikorsky often quoted Verne and cited his Robur the Conqueror as the inspiration for his invention of the first successful helicopter.
The rocketry innovators Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard, and Hermann Oberth are all known to have taken their inspiration from Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, and Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders, the astronauts on the Apollo 8 mission, were similarly inspired, with Borman commenting "In a very real sense, Jules Verne is one of the pioneers of the space age." The list goes on...and on...

Jules Verne was buried at Amiens. The house where he lived is now a museum. His work continues to inspire.


1989: The tanker 'Exxon Valdez', en route from Valdez, Alaska to Los Angeles, California, ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The vessel was traveling outside normal shipping lanes in an attempt to avoid ice. Within six hours of the grounding, the 'Exxon Valdez' spilled approximately 10.9 million gallons of its 53 million gallon cargo of Prudhoe Bay crude oil. Eight of the eleven tanks on board were damaged. The oil would eventually impact over 1,100 miles of non-continuous coastline in Alaska.


Tugboats pull the crippled tanker 'Exxon Valde'z towards Naked Island in Prince William Sound, Alaska, 1989.
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - John Harrison (1693 - 1776)
« Reply #239 on: March 24, 2013, 08:33:01 pm »

March 24th... 'John Harrison, a genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time'

1693 & 1776: John Harrison, a self-educated English carpenter and later a clockmaker was born and died on the same day of the month, albeit 83 years apart.

He was born in Foulby, near Wakefield in West Yorkshire, the first of five children in his family. His father worked as a carpenter at the nearby Nostell Priory estate. John Harrison following his father's trade as a carpenter, building and repairing clocks in his spare time. He built his first longcase clock in 1713, at the age of 20. The mechanism was made entirely of wood, which was a natural choice of material for a joiner.
His longcase clocks performed exceptionally well, and elements from them would appear in his a description and drawings for a proposed marine clock to compete for the Longitude Prize.


John Harrison's first 'Sea Clock'

He eventually invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought device in solving the problem of establishing the East-West position or longitude of a ship at sea, thus revolutionising and extending the possibility of safe long distance sea travel in the Age of Sail. The problem was considered so intractable that the British Parliament offered a prize of £20,000 (reasonably comparable to £2.87 million in modern currency) for the solution.
John Harrison, not only solved the problem of longitude, he showed everyone that it could be done by using a watch to calculate longitude. This was to be Harrison's masterpiece, an instrument of beauty, resembling an oversized pocket watch from the period. Unfortunately, the Board of Longitude seemed somewhat reluctant to accept the instrument's capabilities or relinquish the prize.


John Harrison's 'Sea Watch' No.1

Despite the opposition and gross unfairness, Harrison was finally awarded the prestigious and valuable 'longitude prize' when King George III intervened in an effort to rectify the injustice suffered at the hands of the Board of Longitude.

John Harrison died on his eighty-third birthday in Red Lion Square, and is buried in the graveyard of St John's Church, Hampstead along with his second wife Elizabeth and their son William. His tomb was restored in 1879 by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers even though Harrison had never been a member of the Company.

2006: A memorial tablet to John Harrison was unveiled in Westminster Abbey on 24th March 2006, finally recognising him as a worthy companion to his friend George Graham and Thomas Tompion, "The Father of English Watchmaking", who are both buried in the Abbey. The memorial shows a meridian line (line of constant longitude) in two metals to highlight Harrison's most widespread invention, the bimetallic strip thermometer. The strip is engraved with its own longitude of 0 degrees, 7 minutes and 35 seconds West.


John Harrison's Memorial in Westminster Abbey.


Royal Museum Greenwich - John Harrison
The Royal Society - John Harrison
The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers - John Harrison
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison
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Circlip

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #240 on: March 25, 2013, 04:21:17 pm »

Wonder what Harrison would have though to the fact that it is now cheaper to buy a crystal controlled watch and throw it away rather than replace its battery?  <:(
 It should also be noted that it was Harrisons son that received the Balance of the Longitude prize after his fathers death.
 
  Regards Ian.


Ian.  Could you re post this in the separate topic I've started below please. I will then remove this entry to keep this thread on track.

http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,42525.msg429342.html#msg429342


Cheers

Ken
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sparkey

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #241 on: March 25, 2013, 04:33:21 pm »

 %% Great book out called longitude,fantastic read worth a look,Ray. >>:-( >>:-(   




Could you re post this in the separate topic I've started below please. I will then remove this entry to keep this thread on track.

http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,42525.msg429342.html#msg429342


Cheers

Ken



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Netleyned

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #242 on: March 25, 2013, 04:45:58 pm »

 >>:-( >>:-(
Why?


Ned


Could you re post this in the separate topic I've started below please. I will then remove this entry to keep this thread on track.

http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,42525.msg429342.html#msg429342


Cheers

Ken
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sparkey

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #243 on: March 25, 2013, 04:57:35 pm »

 %% I am into clocks and navigation ,Ray <*< <*<


Could you re post this in the separate topic I've started below please. I will then remove this entry to keep this thread on track.

http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,42525.msg429342.html#msg429342


Cheers

Ken





 
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Netleyned

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #244 on: March 25, 2013, 05:09:53 pm »

Yeah, but the smiley is a ticking off
Not a ticking tock   :D :D
Having spent five years on hydro graphic surveys
I have a great respect for the guys who invented the
instruments some of which are still on use today.

Ned


Could you re post this in the separate topic I've started below please. I will then remove this entry to keep this thread on track.

http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,42525.msg429342.html#msg429342


Cheers

Ken


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heritorasphodel

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #245 on: March 25, 2013, 06:32:16 pm »

25th March 1894, the RNLI receives the largest legacy it had ever received, a total of £50,000 from James Stevens of Birmingham. An incredible 20 boats were built from this legacy, all named after the donor.


On 25th March 1901, two of these were called out. At Wexford the James Stevens No.15 (40ft Watson) stood by the local schooner Perseverance, stranded on Raven Point, until she floated free and reached the harbour safely.


At Southend-on-Sea, James Stevens No.9 (38ft Norfolk and Suffolk) stood by the barque Grethe, also aground on the Nore Sand.


Two James Stevens lifeboats have been restored, these being No.10 and No.14. James Stevens No.10 is a self righting pulling and sailing lifeboat and (as far as I know) still operates out of her home station of St. Ives. James Stevens No.14 is a 43' Norfolk and Suffolk Motor, the oldest motor lifeboat still in existence. She also operates out of her home station of Walton-on-the-Naze.


Andrew
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dave301bounty

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #246 on: March 25, 2013, 07:39:47 pm »

Reading and studying Harrison,s Sons book ,was a part of my home university course ,and to get a pass took me 5 years ,but i havent finnished yet  ,as the other chap on site also an horologist its never finnished ,always another clock ,working on a ships master clock now ,been a very long time .but thats it ,, {:-{



Could you re post this in the separate topic I've started below please. I will then remove this entry to keep this thread on track.

http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,42525.msg429342.html#msg429342


Cheers

Ken



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ardarossan

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #247 on: March 25, 2013, 08:59:49 pm »

March 25th... 

421: Venice is founded at the stroke of Midday - While there are no historical records that deal directly with the founding of Venice, the tradionally accepted time and date is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo at the islet of Rialto (Rivoalto, "High Shore"), which is said to have been at the stroke of noon on 25th March 421.


A typical view of modern-day Venice.

1584: Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a Royal patent to explore and colonise Virginia in North America.

1634: On this day settlers from 'The Ark' and 'The Dove' first stepped foot onto Maryland soil, at St. Clement's Island in the Potomac River. The settlers were about 150 in number, hailing from Cowes on the Isle of Wight in England. The colony was granted to Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore two years prior by Charles I of England. In thanksgiving for the safe landing, Jesuit Father Andrew White celebrated mass for the colonists, perhaps for the first time ever in this part of the world. The landing coincided with the Feast of the Annunciation, a holy day honoring Mary, and the start of the new year in England's legal calendar (prior to 1752).


A re-creation of 'The Dove', built in 1978.


1655: Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by the Dutch mathematician, astronomer, physicist and horologist, Christiaan Huygens.
Huygens was inspired by Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's four largest moons in 1610 and his improvements in telescope technology. Christiaan, with the help of his brother Constantijn Huygens, Jr., began building telescopes around 1650. Christiaan Huygens discovered this first observed moon orbiting Saturn with the first telescope they built.


Portrait of Christiaan Huygens,
by Bernard Vaillant.

1807: The Swansea and Mumbles Railway in South Wales, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger carrying railway in the world .
Originally built under an Act of Parliament of 1804 for transportation of quarried materials to and from the Swansea Canal and the harbour at the mouth of the River Tawe, it carried the world's first fare-paying railway passengers on 25th March 1807, in a horse drawn carriage from Swansea, through 'the dunes' to Mumbles, an oyster-harvesting and fishing village on the west of the bay.
At the time of the railway's closure in 1960, it had been the world's longest serving railway and it still holds the record for the highest number of forms of traction of any railway in the world - horse-drawn, sail power, steam power, electric power, petrol and diesel.


Horse-drawn train on the Oystermouth Railway, c.1855.
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dave301bounty

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Re: This Day In 'Boating' History
« Reply #248 on: March 26, 2013, 11:01:30 am »

Strange this ,you spend Time looking at ,,time to play with boats ,time to build ,etc etc ,yet some one dosent want to know or see it ,how it /time was /is measured ,strange  :o
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ardarossan

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This Day In 'Boating' History - March 26th
« Reply #249 on: March 26, 2013, 10:26:59 pm »

March 26th...

1814: Around 10:00hrs, H.M.S. 'Hannibal', 'Hebrus', and 'Sparrow' encountered two French frigates, 'La Sultane' and the L'etoile', as they were returning from a cruise of commerce raiding around the Cape Verde Islands.

H.M.S. 'Hannibal', a 74-gun third rate ship of the line, set off after 'La Sultane', and sent 'Hebrus' and 'Sparrow' after 'L'etoile'.
'Hannibal' met with some 'ineffectual' resistance before capturing 44-gun 'La Sultane' at 15:15hrs on the same day, whilst 'Hebrus' captured 'L'etoile', on the morning of the 27th, after "an arduous chase of one hundred and twenty miles, and a well fought action of two hours and a quarter, in eight fathoms water, under Cape La Hogue."

'L'etoile', a 44-gun Pallas-class frigate was recommissioned in the Royal Navy as H.M.S. 'Topaze'.

In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Hebrus Wh. L'etoile" to the 40 still surviving claimants from the action.

Copy of a letter to the Admiralty-Office, printed in the London Gazette, 29th March 1814, Ref: The capture of 'La Sultane'
Copy of a letter to the Admiralty-Office, printed in the London Gazette, 2nd April 1814, Ref: The capture of L'etoile'


The capture of L'etoile' by H.M.S. 'Hebrus' at Cape Le Hogue.

1839: At a public meeting in the Henley-on-Thames town hall on 26th March 1839, Captain Edmund Gardiner proposed...

"that from the lively interest which had been manifested at the various boat races which have taken place on the Henley reach during the last few years, and the great influx of visitors on such occasions, this meeting is of the opinion that the establishing of an annual regatta, under judicious and respectable management, would not only be productive of the most beneficial results to the town of Henley, but from its peculiar attractions would also be a source of amusement and gratification to the neighbourhood, and the public in general."

The first Henley Regatta took place just over 11 weeks later, on (the afternoon of) 14th June 1839. It has been held annually ever since, except during the two World Wars.

The regatta became known as Henley Royal Regatta since 1851, when Prince Albert became the first royal patron.


An image of the annual Henley Royal Regatta, on the River Thames, England, c.1890's.

1846: Joseph Francis receives U.S. patent no. 3,974 which covers his development of using steam-powered hydraulic presses to stamp large sheets of iron into corrugated shapes to make lifeboat hulls.


An original patent-model for one of Joseph Francis corrugated lifeboats.

1937: Credited with saving the town during the depression, 'Spinach growers' of Crystal City, Texas, erect a statue of 'Popeye' the sailor in front of City Hall, in honour of E. C. Segar, creator of the “Popeye” comic strip.


'Popeye' the sailor statue, in front of City Hall, Crystal City, Texas. U.S.A.

1976: Queen Elizabeth II sends the first royal email, from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment. Although details are limited about what Queen Elizabeth actually typed (or had her people type for her) on the first royal email, it did announce that the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in Malvern was on the Arpanet system, and that the message was made from the base.
 
2010: The Republic of Korea Ship (ROKS) 'Cheonan', a corvette carrying 104 personnel, sank off the country's west coast near Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 seamen.
A South Korean-led official investigation carried out by a team of international experts from South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Sweden presented a summary of its investigation on 20th May 2010, concluding that the warship had been sunk by a North Korean torpedo fired by a  Yeono class miniature submarine.


South Korean Pohang-class corvette ROKS 'Chenoan' (PCC-772).
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