23-24 APRIL 1865 CSS WEBB’S RUN FOR THE SEA The 206-foot sidewheel steamboat William H. Webb started her career as a coastal steamer in New York in 1856. She fell into Confederate hands in 1861 and was converted to a ram Read More
17 APRIL 1943 USCGC SPENCER vs. U-175 Ocean Escort Unit A-3, a multi-national collection of the US Coast Guard cutters SPENCER (WPG-36) and DUANE (WPG-33) along with the British corvette HMS DIANTHUS, the Canadian corvettes CHILLIWACK, ROSTHERN, TRILLIUM and DAUPHIN, and Read More
27 DECEMBER 1917 USS SANTEE Even before the United States entered WWI, our Navy was assisting the British in combating Kaiser Wilhelm II’s U-boats. This effort intensified after US entry in June 1917. At the time, targets for the U-boats were Read More
TODAY IN NAVAL HISTORY 24 OCTOBER-14 NOVEMBER 1995 THE LAST CRUISE OF DIXON At 1600 on the sunny Tuesday afternoon of 24 October 1995 the L.Y. Spear-class submarine tender USS DIXON (AS-37) cast off from middle pier at SubBase Point Read More
6 FEBRUARY 1908 RED ROVER AND SINCE… When early American naval forces fought in distant locales our Navy often had to supply her own hospital facilities. In our earliest days this was accomplished by designating certain of the expeditionary warships as Read More
27 JANUARY-3 FEBRUARY 1943 DAISY CHAIN RESCUE In 1941, months before Pearl Harbor, American freighters crossing the North Atlantic were being torpedoed by German U-boats as Hitler tried to starve England into submission. By May, President Franklin Roosevelt declared an “Unlimited Read More
5 DECEMBER 1940 VANISHING COLLIERS The steam engine revolutionized naval architecture by freeing sea travel from slavery to the wind. But steam engines require a source of heat to make steam, and for decades around the turn of the 20th century Read More
22 NOVEMBER 1941 HMS DEVONSHIRE vs. ATLANTIS One of the Royal Navy’s early successes in WWII was the effort against German surface raiders. Indeed, KMS ATLANTIS had accumulated some impressive statistics by November 1941. Converted from the freighter SS Goldenfels, she Read More
7 APRIL 1966 LOST H-BOMB Considering the pace of Cold War activities in the 1960s, accidents were bound to happen. Such was the case on 17 January 1966 when an Air Force B-52 collided with a KC-135 tanker during an aerial 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