27 OCTOBER-14 NOVEMBER 1824 FOXARDO AFFAIR (cont.) So often in history, the similar actions of separate individuals are interpreted quite differently in light of the background circumstances. In 1818, GEN Andrew Jackson invaded Spanish Florida with US forces, capturing a Spanish Read More
27 OCTOBER-14 NOVEMBER 1824 FOXARDO AFFAIR With a splash, the anchor of USS BEAGLE hit the water of Foxardo harbor (modern Fajardo), Spanish Puerto Rico. The 3-gun US Navy schooner and her commander, LT Charles T. Platt, were in search of Read More
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
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
29 JUNE 1776 BATTLE OF TURTLE GUT INLET The six-gun civilian brig Nancy headed north from St. Thomas and St. Croix. Her Master, Hugh Montgomery, had shipped a cargo that would bring a handsome profit in his homeport of Philadelphia. Nancy Read More
22 MARCH 1820 ARTICLE 114. DUELING. James Barron and Stephen Decatur enjoyed distinguished careers during the wars with the Barbary pirates. They became not just colleagues, but good friends. Thus, Decatur was disheartened in 1807 when Barron, then in command of 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
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
29 NOVEMBER 1838 USS WOODBURY AND THE PASTRY WAR The Mexican Federalist War of 1835-41 pitted the aristocratic Centralist Mexican rulers against the federalist peasantry of the provinces. Foreign businessmen in Mexico who suffered collateral damages from Centralist Mexican Army operations Read More
24-27 SEPTEMBER 1778 THE LOSS OF RALEIGH On December 13th, 1775, the Continental Congress issued our young nation’s first naval construction authorization, ordering that 13 frigates be built for the Continental Navy. Five of these were to be rated at 32 Read More