15 MARCH 1910 USS NINÀ The expansion of our fleet during the Civil War necessitated a supporting infrastructure that included a variety of yard craft. In the latter years of that war, our Navy contracted for the construction of nine iron Read More
11 MARCH 1948 KEY WEST CONFERENCE The years following the end of WWII were tumultuous for the US military. The atomic bomb that ended that war fundamentally changed strategic thinking. Why bother with conventional forces when the answer to world conflict Read More
6 MARCH 1823 DEATH OF LT COCKE Piracy was rampant in the Caribbean of the early 19th century. Independence movements in several Spanish New World colonies created the problem, as these new nations often sanctioned privateering against their former Spanish overlords. Read More
28 FEBRUARY 1849 THE FIRST FORTY-NINERS In the frosty chill of the morning of 24 January 1848, a millwright named James T. Marshall walked the length of a newly dug millrace off the American River in the foothills of California’s Sierra Read More
25 FEBRUARY 1863 THE PETERHOF AFFAIR The Union Navy’s blockade of the Confederacy during the Civil War yielded quite a few captures. In disposing of these ships and their cargoes, there emerged a controversy over what to do with the mail Read More
19 FEBRUARY 1945 THE FIGHTING FIELD MUSICIAN Darrell Samuel Cole could see the war clouds on the horizon in the Fall of 1941. Wanting to be ready to fight himself, on 25 August 1941 he enlisted in the United States Marine Read More
12 FEBRUARY 1947 THE KGW-1 “LOON” German technology of WWII was envied by the Allies. In the final months of the war, captured German systems began making their way to the US. One such innovation was the V-1 “buzz bomb,” a Read More
5-7 FEBRUARY 1832 THE FIRST BATTLE OF QUALLAH BATTOO His trading mission scrubbed, Captain Charles Endicott refitted Friendship for sea and departed 4 March 1831 for Salem. His landfall on 16 July was preceded several days by the arrival of another Read More
EARLY FEBRUARY 1831 FRIENDSHIP AND THE SUMATRAN PIRATES Salem, Massachusetts, was one of our busiest seaports in the early days of our young nation. In fact, it was the major port through which the American spice trade was conducted. About the Read More
30-31 JANUARY 1863 BULLS ISLAND INCIDENT (cont.) The morning of 31 January roused CAPT Charles T. Haskell’s Confederates from their rest at the Gibbes house and greeted the arrival of 50 Confederate reinforcements from Fort Moultrie. Suspecting FLAMBEAU would send a Read More