13 MARCH 1865 SKIRMISH AT FORT LOWRY We are familiar with inspiring stories of epic battles and heroic sailors, but the day-to-day operations of Civil War gunboats were often less dramatic. The Potomac Flotilla, tasked with protecting Washington, DC, and the Read More
7 MARCH 1960 NAVY ICEBREAKERS The 1950s was a decade of scientific endeavor in such far reaching environments as outer space, the deep ocean, and Antarctica. With respect to the latter, the US Navy cooperated with the International Geophysical Year 1955 Read More
29 FEBRUARY 1844 “PEACEMAKER” DISASTER A series of advancements were made in naval gunnery in the decades before the Civil War. The commonly used material for gun construction at the time was wrought iron, being cheaper and more readily available than Read More
LATE WINTER, 938 AD BATTLE OF THE BACH DANG RIVER In 111 BC the powerful Han dynasty of southern China invaded and conquered the region to their south then called Nam Viet (now northern Vietnam). Hungry for the fertile farmland of Read More
15 FEBRUARY 1918 ENS ALBERT STURTEVANT In the early months of 1917 the United States was still officially neutral in the three-year-old World War that gripped most of Europe. But attacks by German U-boats on American merchant ships were continuing. All Read More
10-11 FEBRUARY 1862 BATTLE OF ELIZABETH CITY (cont. from 8 FEB) Union forces from the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron had driven a Confederate “mosquito fleet” from Roanoke Island, and at 1430 on the afternoon of February 9th, CDR Stephen C. Rowan Read More
7-8 FEBRUARY 1862 CAPTURE OF ROANOKE ISLAND Fortress Monroe, situated at the entrance to Hampton Roads, was one of three forts south of the Mason-Dixon Line that remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War. Confederate lines of communication were thus Read More
2 FEBRUARY 1800 “MY POST IS HERE!” We remember 1787 as the year our founding fathers finalized our Constitution and sent it to the States for ratification. Elsewhere that same year, a son was born to a prominent New Yorker, James Read More
23-27 JANUARY 1929 FLEET PROBLEM IX Between the World Wars, US military planners began to imagine the Pacific as a direction from which a future enemy might emerge. They listed Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, Alaska, and the Panama Canal as potential Read More
19-20 JANUARY 1942 PT-31 Matters had run afoul for LT Edward G. DeLong and the 12-man crew of PT-31 soon after splitting company with PT-34. The fuel strainers of his wing engines clogged, and the center engine failed shortly with an Read More