SeaWaves Today in History January 10, 2007 ********************************************************************* January 10 1806 - A ball is held in Quebec to celebrate Nelson's victory over the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar the previous year 1844 - First annual report of newly organized Revenue Marine Bureau transmitted to Congress by Alexander Fraser 1847 - American naval forces occupy Los Angeles 1850 - Plymouth England - Robert McClure & Richard Collinson set sail in the Enterprise and Investigator to search for Franklin expedition; McClure sails into the Beaufort Sea via Bering Strait, to Banks Island 1870 - John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil 1908 - Battleship FS Danton laid down 1912 - The Royal Navy's leading aviation pioneer, Lieutenant Samson, made the first successful take-off from an RN ship, launching his Short seaplane off a ramp in the bows of the battleship HMS Africa. The American Eugene Ely had made the first ever ship-borne take-off 14 months previously, but the Royal Navy now made rapid strides to exploit aviation at sea, a field it was to dominate during the First World War 1914 - Aircraft carrier (ex-battleship) FS Bearn laid down 1917 - Navy places first production order for aerial photographic equipment 1918 - Destroyer HMS Thracian laid down 1919 - HMC TR-24 & TR-31 paid off & returned to RN 1920 - League of Nations was established as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect 1934 - VP-10F flies first non-stop formation flight from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor, arriving 11 Jan 1940 - U-144 laid down 1940 - RAF Bomber Command 4 Group daylight anti-shipping sweep over the North Sea. 77 Sqn, 2 a/c. 102 Sqn, 2 a/c. No enemy shipping sighted 1940 - Four passenger liners depart Sydney, New South Wales, carrying the Australian 16th Brigade bound for Egypt. The ships, escorted by the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia, will rendezvous with the convoy carrying the New Zealand 4th Brigade that sailed from Auckland on 6 January 1941 - Minesweepers HMCS Vegreville, Medicine Hat, Red Deer & Drummondville laid down 1941 - Operation Excess has reached the Strait of Sicily and is attacked by Italian torpedo boats. Escorting cruiser HMS Bonaventure & destroyer HMS Hereward sink Vega. Still to the west of Malta, heavy attacks by German and Italian aircraft are launched. HMS Illustrious is singled out and soon hit six times by thirty Ju87 and Ju88 bombers of the Luftwaffe's elite X Fliegerkorps, a unit specially trained to dive-bomb surface ships. It began with a feint attack by two Italian torpedo bombers, which drew off Illustrious' fighters, leaving her without air protection. She struggles into Malta with 200 casualties, her steering gear smashed. Illustrious was badly damaged, but managed to reach Valletta, where despite continuous further air attack, she was patched up sufficiently to retire to Alexandria for major repairs 1941 - Destroyer HMS Gallant damaged by a mine & taken to Malta and destroyed there during an air raid. Declared a constructive total loss on 5 April 1942 1941 - Appearing before the US House committee on naval affairs, Rear Admiral Towers stated that, in the past year, only 445 planes were obtained by the navy. He attributed the small output to "indecision and vagueness" on the part of the administration. Admiral Towers said that the Navy's goal is 16,000 fighting planes. At present there are 2,590 in use, and, of these, very few are modern 1941 - U-560 launched 1942 - Destroyer HMS Middleton commissioned 1942 - AA cruiser USS San Diego commissioned 1942 - U-92, U-354 launched 1942 - U-513 commissioned 1942 - U-392 laid down 1942 - During heavy weather in the North Atlantic a lookout on U-582 broke his arm 1942 - Soviet submarine M-175 sunk by U-584 in Arctic Ocean 1942 - Landing ship HMAS Kanimbla sails from Melbourne, Victoria, escorting Convoy MS-1 consisting of three ships bound for Singapore and four for the Netherlands East Indies. Meanwhile, the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra sails from Sydney, New South Wales, escorting convoy MS-2 to Singapore 1942 - Submarine USS Pickerel torpedoes & sinks a Japanese gunboat at the mouth of Davao Gulf, off Cape San Augustin, Philippine Islands 1942 - Submarine USS Stingray torpedoes & sinks a Japanese cargo ship in the South China Sea off southern Hainan Island 1942 - Submarine HNLMS O-19 torpedoes & sinks a Japanese army cargo ship & torpedoes a merchant cargo ship at the mouth of the Gulf of Siam 1942 - USN Bureau of Ships orders that the Cleveland-class light cruiser Amsterdam, which is under construction in Camden NJ, be completed as an aircraft carrier (CV). She will be commissioned as USS Independence (CV-22) on 14 January 1943 and be reclassified as a small aircraft carrier (CVL-22) on 15 July 1943. This is the first of nine light cruisers that are completed as small aircraft carriers 1943 - HMCS Surf paid off. Constructive total loss after grounding on Vancouver Island. Only Fisherman’s Reserve vessel lost in the war. Sold Sidney BC 1943 - Destroyers USS Wadsworth, McCord, Killen & Howorth launched 1943 - Destroyer escort USS Pillsbury launched 1943 - Minesweeper HMS Gazelle launched 1943 - Destroyer escorts USS Seid, Smartt, Walter S Brown, William C Miller laid down 1943 - Submarine USS Pogy commissioned 1943 - Submarine USS Argonaut sunk by Japanese destroyers Isokaze and Maikaze escorting a convoy south of St. George's Channel. 105 officers and men died; there were no survivors 1944 - Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt, in a joint announcement, reported that merchant shipping losses due to U-boats were 60 percent less than losses for the preceding year. 1944 - The report of the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission was issued - A Caribbean Research Council had been set up (representing Britain, United States, and the Netherlands); steps had been taken to establish an organization for coordinating and expanding the purchase of imported food; an inter-island distribution system was developed 1944 - Submarine HMS Sanguine laid down 1944 - Escort carrier USS Cape Gloucester laid down 1944 - Destroyer minelayer USS Robert H Smith laid down 1944 - Destroyer escort USS Kenneth M Willett laid down 1944 - Destroyer escort USS Jack Miller launched 1944 - Frigate HMS Trollope commissioned 1944 - Minesweeper USS Defense commissioned 1944 - Destroyer escort USS Strickland commissioned 1944 - U-1273 launched 1944 - The damaged U-277, which had gone aground and stranded in Norwegian waters, was towed free by another vessel 1944 - U-956 assisted the weather reporting ship Hessen, which was experiencing some difficulties 1945 - Heavy cruiser USS Chicago commissioned 1945 - At 1603, SS Blackheath in Convoy KMS-76 (the convoy was combined with OS-102) was torpedoed & damaged by U-870 west of Gibraltar. She was set aground two miles south of Cape Spartel, Algeria, but broke in tow and was declared a total loss. Frigate HMS Ballinderry & sloop HMS Kilbirnie picked up the master, 41 crewmembers & nine gunners. Landed at Gibraltar 1945 - U-510 sailed from Jakarta on her final patrol 1945 - U-3032, U-3527, U-3528 launched 1945 - U-2531, U-4701 commissioned 1946 - The first General Assembly of the United Nations convened in London 1946 - Establishment of first USN nuclear power school at Submarine Base, New London, CT 1946 - Destroyer HMCS Gatineau paid off Esquimalt BC. Gatineau was to become training ship for HMCS Royal Roads Naval College but this plan was abandoned as part of postwar economies. The First Lieutenant, Ron Huntington, later became a Member of the Privy Council, serving in Cabinet and later as Chairman of Ports Canada. While in Cabinet, he had new uniforms designed and put into service for Air, Army & Sea Cadets 1949 - U-926 became the Norwegian submarine KNM Kya. She would serve until 1964 1952 - HMCS Cayuga Shells the Island of Changnin and rescues refugees but is fired upon from the island shortly after noon. Although not hit the shells landed close enough to soak a seaman on the quarterdeck 1959 - The USSR recognizes the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba 1966 - The high-level Indian-Pakistani meeting that had been going on in Tashkent since January 4 finishes and the Indian-Pakistani conflict was regulated through Soviet intermediacy 1967 - USS Franklin D Roosevelt port call Hong Kong 1970 - An expert on Soviet-era intelligence, Mario Scaramella, sent a memo confirming the existence of the missiles to Guido Bertolaso, the head of Protezione Civile, Italy's civil defense agency. The memo read, "a submarine of the November-class detached itself from the Fifth Squadron (Mediterranean) of the Soviet navy with orders ... to place an imprecise number of tactical atomic torpedoes in the Bay of Naples. The submarine was armed with 24 nuclear torpedoes of two different types, for anti-aircraft carrier and anti-submarine use. They were used to mine the area used by the American Sixth Fleet" 1973 - USS Constellation port call Pearl Harbor 1989 - Submarine HMS Ursula laid down 1991 - USS Mississippi diverts a freighter in the N. Red Sea 1991 - 8-ship Amphibious Task Force enters Arabian Gulf to conduct routine operations. Led by USS Nassau, task force carries complement of nearly 10,000 sailors and Marines 1994 - Destroyer HMCS Fraser suffered minor boiler room fire, 4 crewmembers minor injuries 2003 - SS Curtiss activated from RRF to support USMC aviation in Middle East 2003 - 42-foot barge Sea Link Rigger was undergoing maintenance at the Westminster Marine Services Ltd. (WMS) facility on Front Street in New Westminster. Workers were carrying out a variety of repairs on the barge, including repairs to manhole covers that access void spaces in the hull. A supervisor went missing and another worker located him in the bottom of the void space within the hull. The other workers, one by one, entered the compartment to rescue their colleagues, lost consciousness and ultimately four workers died from oxygen deprivation. One WMS employee survived, as did a New Westminster firefighter who was injured in a rescue attempt 2004 - RRF Cape Island & Cape Intrepid activated from Tacoma WA RRF 2005 - The Coast Guard assisted five fishermen aboard a 58-foot fishing vessel in danger of sinking near Ocean Shores, Wash. Coast Guard Group/Air Station Astoria, Ore., received a distress call on VHF Channel 16 at 2207., notifying them that the engine room of the crab vessel Shirley R was flooded with about 2,000 gallons of water. Two 47-foot motor lifeboats from Coast Guard Station Grays Harbor, Wash., and an HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Group/Air Station Astoria launched to assist. The crew of one motor lifeboat transferred crewmembers with two pumps aboard the Shirley R to help control the flooding. The boarding team identified a valve behind the engine as the source of the flooding and stopped the leak. After more than an hour, the two pumps dewatered the vessel. A motor lifeboat took the Shirley R in tow, while the second assisted in escorting it safely into Westport Marina in Grays Harbor 2005 - Minehunter SPS Tajo commissioned at Cartagena, Spain 2005 - Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk received the second of SA's four new marine protection vessels in Cape Town. The 83m-long Sarah Baartman is the biggest of the ships, which were bought to boost government's capacity to protect SA's marine resources from poachers. Sarah Baartman cost $19.5m, while the other three patrol vessels the Lillian Ngoyi, the Ruth First and the Victoria Mxenge cost $10m each, says the environmental affairs and tourism department's marine and coastal management deputy director-general, Horst Kleinschmidt 2005 - Iran will be capable of building and repairing 300,000-ton cargo ships by investing $300 million in the sector, Managing Director of Iran Shipping Industries Complex Offshore (ISICO) Mostafa Karbalaei said. He said at a press conference that the company has undertaken to build two 300,000-ton oil tankers at the cost of $100-120 million each for National Iranian Oil Tanker Company (NIOTC). Karbalaei said that his company has also signed agreement to build six 150,000 square meters capacity tankers at the cost of $200 million each 2005 - Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. announced initiation of a major upgrade of the Victory-class semisubmersible Ocean Endeavor for ultra-deepwater service. The modernized rig will be designed to operate in up to 10,000 ft. of water and will be the most capable of the Company's upgraded Victory-class units. The project is budgeted at $250 million including capitalized overhead and interest, spares, testing and delivery, mobilization to Singapore, and all other associated expenditures. Delivery is expected in approximately two years. The Ocean Endeavor will be fully outfitted for 8,000-ft. moored operations upon delivery and in certain applications will be capable of deploying a 12-point mooring system. In addition, the rig will have increased crew quarters' capacity, over 6,000 tons of operating variable deck load, and more than twice the useable deck space compared to the design of the previously upgraded Ocean Rover and Ocean Baroness. The Endeavor will employ the same Tripsaver(TM) technology that is at work on the Rover and Baroness, which provides for significant drilling efficiencies 2005 - A contract was signed between the Royal Netherlands Navy and Damen Shipyards Gorinchem for the design and construction of a Logistic Support Vessel (LSV). Following a tender procedure the initial award took place at the end of 2004 after which the contract was signed early January. The 65 m long Support Vessel will be based in the Caribbean and will be deployed for the transport of equipment and personnel, mainly within the Netherlands Antilles. A large cargo area is located at main deck level and can accommodate a range of different vehicles, support craft, containers and equipment. Loading and unloading is done my means of an amply seized deck crane. Accommodation is provided for crew and an additional complement of marines. Propulsion is arranged by twin diesel engines driving fixed pitch propellers and giving this versatile vessel a speed in excess of 14 knots. The new vessel will replace the current vessel named Pelikaan. The vessel is expected to be delivered in May 2006 2006 - Euronav's owned fleet is now entirely double hulled after its joint venture subsidiary, Front Tobago Shipping Corporation- in which Euronav holds a 30 percent share- sold the MT Front Tobago to one of the partners in the Joint Venture, Frontline Ltd. The MT Front Tobago was the only remaining single hull vessel in which Euronav owned interest 2006 - Tsakos Energy Navigation Limited (TEN) announced the delivery of the 162,400dwt 1A Ice-Class double-hull crude oil tanker "Arc hangel" from Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea. The vessel is the first in a series of eight 1A ice-class vessels the Company is building and the sixth ice-class vessel to join TEN's existing fleet 2006 - RFA Mounts Bay today set sail from Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde for the first time since she was accepted into the Royal Fleet Auxiliary on 15 December 2005. The ship, a 16,000 tonne military transport vessel, or Landing Ships Dock (Auxiliary), becomes the first of the Bay Class of ships to enter service with the British fleet. The ship was built and outfitted by BAE Systems Naval Ships in Glasgow, and is the 750th to have been built at the Govan shipyard. Outfitting work was also carried out at the company’s Scotstoun yard before sea trials were completed late last year 2006 - Royal Caribbean Cruises announced that Vance Johnston has been named vice president of Corporate Strategy for the global cruise vacation company. Johnston will be responsible for leading the company's strategic planning processes, corporate development activities and other major initiatives, and will report to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Luis Leon 2006 - After a fierce international competition, Blohm + Voss Repair has won the order for classification work on the world's largest cruise ferry with car decks - the M/S Color Fantasy for ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems' Repair Group. The cruise ferry, which is owned by the Norwegian shipping company Color Line, has been plying between Kiel and Oslo since December 2004 2006 - According to survey results, about half of China's marine zones were found to have been polluted last year, especially in the coastal areas. Of the 18 coastal ecological monitoring zones surveyed, six were deemed unhealthy; seven, moderately healthy; and only five, healthy, according to the State Oceanic Administration 2006 - At 0950 Swansea MRCC received a 999 call from a mobile telephone from a man, on a small craft off Port Talbot. He reported that he had lost his colleague overboard and that his craft was in danger of capsizing. Before any other information was passed the call was lost. Many attempts to get back to the man on the mobile telephone failed. Swansea MRCC immediately called out search and rescue resources units to the scene. Port Talbot and Mumbles Coastguard Rescue teams were called as well as the Gower sector manager. Aeronautical RCC Kinloss were contacted to scramble a rescue helicopter and the Port Talbot RNLI inshore lifeboat was requested to launch. VHF broadcasts were made to any shipping in the area and a local vessel, the UKD Dolphin responded and offered assistance. One man was airlifted from the inshore lifeboat after being rescued from the water, and the other man was airlifted from his boat and both were taken to Singleton Hospital, Swansea. Their condition is unknown 2006 - At 1050 a member of the public alerted Brixham MRCC by dialing 999 reporting that he had seen a man fall over the cliff at Maidencombe. Brixham MRCC called out the Teignmouth Coastguard Rescue team and contacted the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Center Kinloss to request a helicopter to be scrambled. Teignmouth RNLI lifeboat was also requested to launch. When units arrived on scene, the man was heard to be shouting and managed to alert rescuers to his position by waving an item of clothing. The winchman from the rescue helicopter was the first person to reach the casualty who was in a precarious position only five meters away from falling down the cliff, only gorse bushes preventing him from falling further. The winchman after his initial assessment reported back to Brixham MRCC that this man was suspected of having severe back injuries. Brixham MRCC called out Torbay and Berry Head Coastguard Rescue teams to go and assist Teignmouth team in what proved to be a difficult extrication of this man from his situation. Once this man had been recovered by the coastguard rescue teams in an operation lasting two and a half hours, he was evacuated to Torbay Hospital by helicopter 2006 - Royal Caribbean's VP of Corporate Communications, Lynn Martenstein; Senior VP of Fleet Operations, Capt. Bill Wright; and company attorney Lanny Davis conduct a teleconference regarding Royal Caribbean's handling of the disappearance of George Smith. Capt. Wright and Mr. Davis will make a statement and then take questions from reporters. Royal Caribbean acted immediately upon learning that Mr. Smith might have gone overboard, notifying Turkish and US law enforcement authorities promptly, cooperating fully with their investigations, and treating Mrs. Hagel Smith and the Smith family with compassion 2006 - GulfMark Offshore announced that it has exercised an option to build a second Aker PSV09 design vessel. This vessel, which will be an identical sister ship to the Aker PSV09 currently under construction in Norway, is a 4,850 DWT diesel electric powered platform supply vessel. The purchase price for this vessel is approximately $30 million, with delivery currently expected during the third quarter of 2007. GulfMark will be the majority investor in a joint venture for the construction of the vessel. GulfMark has elected to purchase 100% of the first Aker PSV09 and has the right to purchase this vessel upon pre-agreed terms 2006 - Two US citizens were rescued at sea today by the crew of cargo vessel Tokai 55 nautical miles northwest of the Dominican Republic, after their vessel was taking on water. Steve Fierce, tug boat Monitor captain, relayed to the US Coast Guard Sector San Juan Joint Rescue Sub Center that they received a May-Day call from 38-foot Catamaran Motion Ease today at 0235. Tokai reported that at the time of the call they were 8.5 nautical miles from the vessel in distress when they started making their way towards the Motion Ease to provide assistance. At 0400 Tokai arrived on scene with the Motion Ease and boarded safely the two-man crew composed of Richard Petersen, a native of New Port Richey, Fla. and Jeffrey Jones, a native from Vista, Calif. Tokai left the Motion Ease at the scene partially submerged and then proceeded with Petersen and Jones to the Turks and Caicos Island of Grand Turks where they arrived safely at around 0900. Peterson and Jones had departed Roadtown, Tortola Saturday and where headed towards Tampa, Fla. The USCG issued a broadcast notice to mariners notifying that the vessel was adrift and considered a hazard to navigation 2006 - USCG medevaced a Columbian crewman with a broken arm from a disabled shrimp boat Monday approximately 30 miles east of South Padre Island, Texas. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Shamal, a 179-foot patrol boat, medevaced the 28-year-old crewman and took him to Station South Padre Island at about 1430. There the local EMS met him and took him to Valley Baptist Hospital for treatment. He was reported to be in stable condition 2006 - Two LPG tankers collided in the northwestern French port of Donges causing 60 tonnes of ship fuel to spill into the Sea. French coastguard said the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) carriers the Happy Bride and the Sigmagas hit each other at 1920 GMT. There were no reported injuries and both vessels had been towed back to port. However, 60 tonnes of bunker fuel oil had been spilt in the collision 2006 - US Navy T-39 Sabreliner crashed in northwest Georgia. There were no survivors. The aircraft had four personnel aboard: a civilian contract pilot, a Navy instructor, a Navy student and an Air Force student 2006 - In a ceremony made in the flight deck of Chilean frigate Almirante Lynch, Squadron commander Captain Marcelo Barbieri Wiedmaier oversees Captain Rolando Varela Peña turning over command to Commander Luis Fernando Sánchez Pérez 2006 - An estimated 350 Military members from three commands attached to Naval Coastal Warfare Group (NCWG) 1 returned to Naval Base Coronado from a scheduled nine-month deployment to the Persian Gulf in support of the global war on terrorism 2006 - The Navy's only floating dry dock, Arco, moored the Los Angeles-class attack submarine, USS Helena, Jan. 10 for routine repairs. Helena was guided to the dock by tugboats and then Arco's crew positioned the submarine using mooring lines to pull the 6,900-ton submarine into the dry dock. Arco averages three submarines a year 2007 - Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad W. Allen will provide keynote remarks on joint service operations and strategic alignment at the 19th annual Surface Navy Association Symposium in Arlington VA 2007 - Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad W. Allen will provide keynote remarks on the Coast Guard’s strategic direction for the Military Strategy Forum of the Center for Strategic and International Studies at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington ============================================================= Sources: Colton Shipping Report, NOAA, MARAD, Marine Digest, Leo Pettipas, Kommersant, Samuel Loring Morison, Frank Pierce Young, Navy Times, Naval Institute Proceedings, www.uboat.net, Andrew Etherington, John Nicholas, US Naval Historical Center, Ministry of Defense, US Coast Guard, Thomas N. Carlson, Jack Arrowsmith, Allan Snowie, Ken Hansen, Andy Barber, John Weiss, Jack McKillop, Bernard de Neumann, Sympatico Today in History, Washington History Link, Lloyds List, Fairplay, New York Times, I-Newswire and other news sources in the public domain. Additions, submissions and corrections are always welcomed. ============================================================= Today in History Archives at: http://www.seawaves.com/newsletters/today_in_history_archive.htm Copyright 2007 Seawaves Publishing Inc ISSN 1710-6966 Photos courtesy of US Naval Historical Center, US Coast Guard Historical Center, Wikipedia Encyclopedia or Naval Museum of Manitoba unless otherwise noted. Images may be subject to copyright. Ask before you right-click.