10 OCTOBER 1845 BIRTH OF THE NAVAL ACADEMY In spite of calls from such notables as John Paul Jones, our early Navy resisted establishing a shoreside teaching academy in favor of hands-on midshipman training under actual operating conditions at sea. In Read More
5-9 OCTOBER 1846 CYANE AT GUYAMAS On this afternoon of the Mexican War, CDR Samuel F. Du Pont brought the 20-gun sloop USS Cyane into the seaside harbor of Guyamas on the Sonoran mainland of western Mexico. His and other US Read More
24 SEPTEMBER-24 OCTOBER 1944 LAST CRUISE OF TANG The Balao-class WWII submarine USS TANG (SS-306) had amassed an enviable 18 ship sinkings totaling 120,476 tons, including a tender and two military transports, on her first four patrols. On 24 September 1944, Read More
25 SEPTEMBER 1919 RADM WILLIAM S. BENSON, USN In the years before WWI, the Secretary of the Navy took a more hands-on approach to day-to-day Navy activities. He was assisted by the Chiefs of the eight Bureaus in matters such as Read More
18-23 SEPTEMBER 1863 “TERROR OF THE CHESAPEAKE” John Yates Beall was born New Year’s Day, 1839, on a farm in Walnut Grove, Virginia (now West Virginia). His dreams of studying law seemed to come true when he was admitted to the University of Read More
12 SEPTEMBER 1857 SS CENTRAL AMERICA (cont.) The first waves to crash over the steamer sent panic into the passengers and shipped more water through the portholes. Herndon ordered sail unfurled to hold the ship head-up, but the vicious winds mercilessly shredded the Read More
12 SEPTEMBER 1857 SS CENTRAL AMERICA The US Mail Steamship Line was a government underwritten packet steamer company running the US Mail as well as passengers and cargo between New York and New Orleans in the mid-1800s. After the Mexican War a similar Read More
6 SEPTEMBER 1776 FIRST SUBMARINE The world’s first operational submarine was the brainchild of physician and inventor David Bushnell while a student at Yale College in 1771. During the 1775 British blockade of Boston, he and his brother Ezra gave the idea physical Read More
30 AUGUST 1944 PALAWAN RESCUE On the night of 13 August 1944, USS FLIER’s (SS-250) surface transit of the Balabac Strait off Borneo was suddenly blasted by a deafening explosion. Like her sister, ROBALO (SS-273), two weeks earlier, FLIER had struck Read More
8 JULY 1879-23 MARCH 1882 THE JEANNETTE EXPEDITION One of the less well known but certainly invaluable activities of the US Navy has been meteorologic, oceanographic, and geographic research. Naval expeditions have surveyed the world’s oceans, reached both Poles and explored Read More