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12 May 2026
Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends who share a love for naval history!
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MILESTONE ACHIEVED! This past Sunday, USS Nimitz (CVN 68) replaced USS Enterprise (CVN 65) as the longest-serving active status aircraft carrier in US history, surpassing the Big E’s 51-year, six-day record! Thank you, Capt. Todd Creekman, for tracking this.
Best wishes to the US Naval Institute for a successful annual meeting tomorrow at its world headquarters in Annapolis. Of special interest to Tuesday Tidings readers will be the presentation of the Naval History Author of the Year honors by Emily Abdow, editor-in-chief, Naval History, to Dr. Christopher Hemler, Maj, USMCR, who authored two articles during 2025: “A Victory of Cooperation” and “Okinawa and the Triumph of American Naval Power in the Pacific.” An OohRah to Doctor Major Hemler.
We are now 15 days and counting for the combined NASOH/NMHS conclave in New Haven. NASOH has published the program. There is still time to register! NMHS 63rd Annual Meeting - New Haven, CT, 27–29 May 2026 - National Maritime Historical Society.
This week, we offer access to additional naval history content courtesy of our friends at the Society for Nautical Research and the Naval War College, with links to their Topmasts and Naval War College Review publications.
Also this week, we have a first-time review from Linda Collison, who took on a book of imagery from the battle for Guadalcanal. With her father being a Guadalcanal veteran, she took great interest in the subject.
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Tuesday Tidings is compiled by Dr. David F. Winkler and Jessie Henderson as a benefit for members of the National Maritime Historical Society and friends of naval history.
As always, comments and naval history news items are welcome at nmhs@seahistory.org.
| | Tuesday Tidings is published by the National Maritime Historical Society with support from the US Naval Institute. Interested in joining USNI? Click on the USNI logo to become a member! | | |
ITEMS OF IMMEDIATE INTEREST | |
Wednesday, 13 May – USNI Annual Meeting
America’s Navy in a New Strategic Era
4:00–7:30 PM, EST
Annapolis, MD
Wednesday, 13 May – Naval Order History Happenings
The MARAD National Fleet Anchorages
With Dr. Anna Holloway
8–9 PM EDT
Zoom
Thursday, 14 May – Mariners’ Museum – Up Pops Monitor: The Battle of Hampton Roads in Popular Memory
With Dr. Anna Holloway
2–4 PM EST
Newport News, VA
Thursday, 14 May – Tall Ship Providence Sea Story Series
“We were Highball to Highball and they were First to Clink:” John Warner and Negotiating the Incidents at Sea Agreement
With Dr. Dave Winkler
7 PM (in person)
Alexandria, VA
Friday, 15 May – HMS Victory: What’s Happening
With A. J. Noon
10:00–11:00 AM EDT
Zoom
Meeting link: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/356215013121679?p=RJC57dCv2uEiBVaYTx
Meeting ID: 356 215 013 121 679
Passcode: Ke7zL6xd
Friday, 15 May – Mariners’ Museum – Turret Evolutions
With John V. Quarstein
Noon–1 PM EST
Newport News, VA
Sunday, 17 May – NS Savannah open house
10 AM–3 PM EDT (In person)
Baltimore
Wednesday, 20 May – Naval Order Author Lecture
“We were Highball to Highball and they were First to Clink:” John Warner and Negotiating the Incidents at Sea Agreement
With Dr. Dave Winkler
8–9 PM EDT
Zoom
Wednesday-Sunday, 27–31 May – NASOH Conference / NMHS Annual Meeting
New Haven, CT
www.seahistory.org
www.nasoh.org
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Wreckage of US Coast Guard Cutter Tampa Discovered Off Cornwall, United Kingdom
Press Release | 29 April 2026
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WASHINGTON - The wreckage of the Coast Guard Cutter Tampa has been located and confirmed by the British technical-diving team Gasperados. The site lies approximately 50 miles off Newquay, Cornwall, United Kingdom, at a depth exceeding 300 feet in the Atlantic Ocean.
Tampa was lost in 1918 during World War I after being torpedoed by a German submarine in the Bristol Channel. The vessel sank in less than three minutes, resulting in the death of all 131 people aboard—111 Coast Guardsmen, four US Navy personnel, and 16 British Navy personnel and civilians. This remains the largest single American naval combat loss of life in World War I.
“Since 1790, the Coast Guard has defended our nation during every armed conflict in American history, a legacy reflected in the courage and sacrifice of the crew of Coast Guard Cutter Tampa," said Adm. Kevin Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard. “When the Tampa was lost with all hands in 1918, it left an enduring grief in our service. Locating the wreck connects us to their sacrifice and reminds us that devotion to duty endures. We will always remember them. We are proud to carry their spirit forward in defense of the United States.”
In 2023, the Coast Guard Historian’s Office was contacted by the Gasperados Dive Team regarding the Tampa. Over the past three years, the all-volunteer team has been conducting an extensive search for the wreckage.
“We provided the dive team with historical records and technical data to assist in confirming the wreck site,” said Dr. William Thiesen, Coast Guard Atlantic Area Historian. “This included the archival images of the deck fittings, ship’s wheel, bell, weaponry, and archival images of the Tampa.”
The Coast Guard is now developing plans for underwater research and exploration in coordination with its offices of specialized capabilities, historians, cutter forces, robotics and autonomous systems, and dive locker.
Additional information about the Tampa’s legacy can be found here.
| | “Maverick” Act to Restore One F-14D to Flyable Condition | | It’s A Bit of A Fixer Upper! | | Courtesy SavetheGlover.org | | Preservationists are scrambling to preserve an 18th-century Swampscott, MA, farmhouse that once served as the home for Gen. John Glover of American Revolutionary War fame. Why would Tuesday Tidings express interest in farmhouse preservation? Perhaps the title of Patrick K. O’Donnell’s best-seller, The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware, says it all. For more details about the preservation effort, visit: Save the General Glover Farmhouse | Preservation Effort. | | NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS | | |
Images of War: Guadalcanal: The Essential Victory—Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives By Jon Diamond, Yorkshire-Philadelphia: Pen & Sword Military, (2025).
Reviewed by Linda Collison
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America’s first major land-based offensive during World War II was mounted eight months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It began with the landing of US Marines on the beaches of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Gavutu and Tanambogo Islands in the Solomons. Code-named Operation Watchtower (dubbed Operation Shoestring by the Marines), the objective was to take over the airfield the Japanese were building at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal and to drive them off the Solomon Islands. Undersupplied, the Marines dug in and went to work, capturing the airfield, improving it and naming it Henderson Field—the base for the Allies’ “Cactus” air force. After a brutal series of land, air and sea engagements lasting six months, the US Marines and Army succeeded in taking the island—with the help of Coastwatchers, native Solomon guides and scouts, and naval support.
The Guadalcanal Campaign has been well documented from various perspectives. Richard Tregaskis’s contemporary account Guadalcanal Diary (1943) was adapted to the screen that same year. Popular history books and memoirs include: Helmet for My Pillow (1957; Robert Leckie), The Battle for Guadalcanal (1963; Samuel B. Griffith), Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account (1990; Richard B. Frank), and Midnight in the Pacific (2017; Joseph Wheelan). Hollywood’s dramatized perspective of Guadalcanal is seen in the narrative film The Thin Red Line (1998). While a wealth of history about the campaign has been produced, many voices have yet to be heard.
Jon Diamond’s book makes nearly 300 wartime photographs of Guadalcanal available to a general readership in an annotated album. The majority are from the Still Photo Room of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); a few are shared from the author’s personal collection. All are identified, captioned in some detail and presented in five chapters. The author curates a wide range of war images—from portraits and posed shots of high-ranking officers and Navy Cross presentations to many more photographs of the soldiers, engineers, mechanics, pilots and paramedics at work and at war, in life and in death. It is a soldier’s history more than a history of specific engagements and tactical maneuvers.
This curated collection of archived photographs is of value to writers, historians and interested descendants of Guadalcanal veterans wanting to better understand and appreciate their forbears’ wartime experience. Although the author gives a significant amount of information about each image, there are many details to be discovered by the individual viewer. A list of military abbreviations, historical maps, and bibliography are included, but the primary value lies in the images themselves, from the workaday and mundane to the miserable and the horrific. Indeed, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Jon Diamond, a nephrologist and author of numerous books, has an abiding interest in World War II military history. Other books he has written for Pen & Sword’s Images of War series include The Allied Neutralization of Rabaul (2024) and Normandy Beyond the Beaches (2024).
Linda Collison is a retired registered nurse and author. She is currently annotating her father’s wartime Guadalcanal diary and photo album: Harry M. Collison Jr., USMC.
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| NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | |
Proceedings Podcast: EP. 498 – Admiral Spruance: A New Biography of a Naval Strategist
30 April 2026
| | Brigadier General James L. Collins Jr. Book Prize in Military History | | |
The US Commission on Military History proudly announces the submission date for all books for consideration for the Brigadier General James L. Collins Book Prize in Military History. The prize entails a $2,000 award to the author, irrespective of nationality, of the best book written in English on any field of military history published during 2025. The Book Prize Committee, comprised of USCMH members Dr. Edward J. Marolda, (Chair), Dr. Jeffrey Clark, and Dr. John Hosler, will review the submitted books and select the winner. Topics in all periods and all aspects of military history (including naval and air warfare) will be considered.
One copy of books for consideration by the Collins Prize Committee must be submitted to each of the following addresses:
Dr. Edward J. Marolda
15570 Golf Club Drive
Montclair, VA 22015
Dr. Jeffrey Clarke
1011 North Van Dorn Street
Alexandria, VA 22304
Dr. John Hosler
Command and General Staff College
Department of Military History
100 Stimson Avenue
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
Copies must be postmarked no later than 31 December 2026. Upon notification from the selection committee, the Collins Prize will be presented at the USCMH Annual General Meeting usually held in early November of the following year. For further information contact the Collins Prize Committee Chair at: edwardmarolda@yahoo.com
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CNO Essay Contest has been extended until May 30.
Details HERE!
| | Call for Papers: International Journal of Naval History | | UPCOMING NAVAL & MARITIME HISTORY GATHERINGS | | |
18–20 June 2026: Society for Nautical Research (SNR) Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Conference in Liverpool
25–27 June 2026: 13th Royal Canadian Navy History Conference In conjunction with the Canadian Nautical Research Society | CFB Esquimalt, British Columbia
Submit proposals and inquiries to: rcncrnsconference@gmail.com
26–28 June 2026: Cinque Ports Conference, Dover, UK
14–17 September 2026: Historic Naval Ship Association Symposium, Evansville, IN
| PREBLE HALL NAVAL HISTORY PODCAST | |
A naval history podcast from Preble Hall—the United States Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland—featuring interviews with historians, practitioners, military personnel, and other experts on a variety of naval history topics from ancient history to more current events.
Click here for the latest episode: 259 - Dr. Stephen Phillips - A Poisoned Chalice: The US Navy in the Persian Gulf, 1987-1988>>
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NAVY HISTORY MATTERS
Welcome to Navy History Matters, the Naval History and Heritage Command’s biweekly compilation of articles, commentaries, and blogs related to history and heritage. Every other week, they gather the top-interest items from a variety of media and social media sources that link to related content at NHHC’s website, your authoritative source for Navy history.
Click here for most recent article>>
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