Ships-of-the-Line

                                                  29 APRIL 1816                                              SHIPS-OF-THE-LINE Until the 16th century, navies, like land forces, relied mostly on hand-to-hand fighting to defeat an enemy.  Tactics required warships to ram or grapple each other, then send across assault troops to attack the enemy’s crew.  Fighting Read More

The Rum War

                                                  23 APRIL 1924                                                  THE RUM WAR On 16 January 1920, the 18th Amendment enacting Prohibition became the law of the land.  But the US Coast Guard, tasked with seaborne anti-smuggling duties, found herself unprepared.  She could muster only 30 sea-going cutters Read More

Conflict of Interest

                                                  20 APRIL 1779                                          CONFLICT OF INTEREST Enlisting sailors into wartime service in the earliest days of our Navy was quite a task.  Navy life was hard and risky, rewards were few, punishments were harsh and frequent, time away from home was Read More

The End of Privateering

                                                  16 APRIL 1856                                      THE END OF PRIVATEERING Against the powerful and threatening Spanish Navy of the 1580s, Queen Elizabeth I of England commissioned civilian sea captains to arm their vessels and raid Spanish shipping.  Such notables as Francis Drake, John Hawkyns, Read More

“ABCD” Cruisers

                                                  12 APRIL 1884                                               “ABCD” CRUISERS By the end of the Civil War such advances as iron plate armor, steam propulsion, and large bore, rifled shell guns had poised our Navy on the cusp of technology.  But sadly, in the following decades Read More

First US Shot of WWI

                                                   6 APRIL 1917                                           FIRST US SHOT OF WWI The US stood by in the summer of 1914 when Serbia, Austro-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France, and Britain were plunged into WWI.  For nearly the next three years we held ourselves neutral, and as Read More