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 former freighter SS Goldenfels, Read More
24 OCTOBER-21 NOVEMBER 1962 QUARANTINE OF CUBA On the 14th of October, 1962, a high-flying Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane photographed what appeared to be a missile base under construction at San Cristobal, Cuba. Shortly it was learned that Soviet Il-28 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
8 SEPTEMBER 1923 DEVIL’S ELBOW DISASTER On the map of California one will notice a prominence north of Santa Barbara at which the coast takes a sharp turn to head nearly east/west for 80 miles. This prominence, bounded by Point Arguello Read More
14 AUGUST 1870 THE PASSING OF FARRAGUT It is hard to overstate the reverence our Navy holds for David Glasgow Farragut. He entered our Navy at age 9 through the influence of his adoptive father, CAPT David Porter, in 1810. He Read More
16 JULY 1863 SHIMONOSEKI INCIDENT Negotiated by Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1854, the Treaty of Kanagawa opened Japan to commerce with the western world. It also polarized traditionalist Japanese factions who wished a return to economic isolationism. One of Read More
17 MAY 1987 ATTACK ON USS STARK On 22 September 1980, years of animosity between Iran and Iraq erupted into a shooting war. Early in that conflict Iranian jets destroyed Iraq’s only Persian Gulf oil terminal, greatly hindering the flow of Read More
28 NOVEMBER 1775 THE CAPTURE OF NANCY As GEN George Washington watched Boston from the Dorchester Heights during the Fall of 1775, he noted how easily the British kept their forces supplied by sea. While Washington’s army scrounged for food, uniforms, Read More
10 NOVEMBER 1822 USS SHARK VS. Caroline Officially, the US government banned American participation in the African slave trade in 1808, although enforcement was not attempted until our Navy began patrolling off West Africa in 1820. Two years later those patrols Read More