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11 July 2023
Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends who share a love for naval history!
We hope everyone had an enjoyable long Fourth of July weekend as historic ships served as a focal point for many celebrations as illustrated by USS Constitution’s turn-around cruise in Boston harbor. One noted milestone that occurred over that weekend was the centennial of the Naval Research Laboratory. NRL turned 100 on 2 July.
Besides birthdays and anniversaries, early summer has been a celebratory time in the Navy due to graduations and changes of command. Combination covers flying high in the air has long been a tradition at US Naval Academy commencements. In this Tuesday Tidings, Naval War College historian David Kohnen offers his take on graduation “exercises” at that institution.
Speaking of the Naval War College, we note the recent change of command on 23 June, when Rear Adm. Pete Garvin relieved Rear Adm. Shoshana Chatfield to become the 58th president of the Naval War College. Chatfield, who led the Naval War College transition out of the pandemic, will serve as the US Military Representative to the NATO Military Committee—a critical position, given the situation in Ukraine. Gavin previously served as Commander, Naval Education and Training Command at Pensacola. Congratulations to both Rear Admirals Garvin and Chatfield. Unfortunately, an anticipated change of command at the US Naval Academy remains on hold as Vice Adm. Sean Buck awaits relief. Rear Adm. Yvette Davids has been nominated to become the first female Superintendent at Annapolis; however, her nomination, along with over 250 other nominations for senior leadership positions throughout the US military, is being held up by Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who takes issue with DoD policies regarding reproductive health benefits. Stay tuned.
While Rear Admiral Davids awaits her opportunity to move to Annapolis, another move is underway—that of the Navy Department Library. It is quite an undertaking, and the Naval History and Heritage Command provides Tuesday Tidings with a progress report for our lead feature.
Naval History Book Reviews are back. Thank you, Master Chief David Mattingly and Captain Richard Dick, for this week’s installments. We will be updating our book review list next week as we anticipate new arrivals. As always, send your requests to david.winkler@usnwc.edu.
Tuesday Tidings is compiled by Dr. David F. Winkler and Jessie Henderson. As always, comments are welcome at nmhs@seahistory.org.
| ITEMS OF IMMEDIATE INTEREST | |
12 July 2023 - Naval Order of the US Maritime Heritage Lecture Series – Dr. John D. Sherwood, Naval History and Heritage Command
A Global Force for Good: Sea Services Humanitarian Operations in the Twenty-First Century History Happenings - Upcoming and On-going Events — Naval Order
8 p.m. (EDT) (Zoom!)
14 July 2023 - Mariners Museum USS Monitor Legacy Program “Worden in the Mexican War”
With John V. Quarstein
Noon – 1 p.m. (EDT) (in person – virtual)
15 July 2023 - FINAL CALL - US Naval Institute Commo. Dudley W. Knox Naval History Lifetime Achievement Nominations due. Send nominations to navalhistorian@usni.org.
19 July 2023 - National Museum of the US Navy Brown Bag Brief: “The Second Vinson Expansion Act of 1938.”
Featuring Dr. Shawn Woodford
Noon-1 p.m. (via Facebook)
21 July 2023 - USS Midway End of Korean War Commemoration featuring the movie Devotion
(Event SOLD OUT)
22 July 2023 - USS Constitution Museum Movie Night Master and Commander
7 – 10:30 p.m. (EDT) (in person)
28 July 2023 - Mariners Museum USS Monitor Legacy Program “USS Galena: USN’s First Seagoing Ironclad.”
With John V. Quarstein
Noon – 1 p.m. (EDT) (in person – virtual)
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Navy Department Library Historic Relocation Underway
July 5, 2023
WASHINGTON NAVY YARD — The Navy Department Library has commenced its relocation to a refurbished site on the historic Washington Navy Yard. The new Naval History and Research Center, a state-of-the-art, 2-floor structure, seamlessly combines two former ordnance factories and warehouses.
The move, initiated in May and scheduled to complete in August, has necessitated the temporary closure of its doors to the public. According to Navy Librarian Dylan Beazer, the move and the new facility will bring key improvements.
“First, The library staff will be more centrally located in one building. It's currently a challenge working projects with the team seated in different locations, so it will be a better working environment for us. The materials will also be more concentrated in one location, and that allows for ease of access for our patrons.”
Furthermore, addressing concerns about environmental controls, Beazer highlighted the benefits of the new facility.
“This new facility will keep the Navy's books, historical documents, and other items in a long-term stable environment,” he said. “That means we'll spend less time and money on preservation efforts, as they'll stay in better condition for longer. It will also allow the public and Navy historians longer access to the material for research and provide us with room for growth for our future collections. The most important thing is a better environment to control the humidity and temperature, keeping books healthier for longer. The items will also be located together and the facility will give us more room for future growth.”
Read full article>>
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“Graduation Exercises”
By David Kohnen, PhD
This picture was from the yearly Harry Potter lookalike contest during the Naval War College graduation proceedings held in June.
As I have written about in a forthcoming article, which will appear in The Northern Mariner, the Naval War College is at the cultural center of American sea power.
Given my potentially overstated assertions about the Naval War College and its significance in American culture, I have participated in many past graduation rituals. I will admit that, as a student with recent service in Iraq back in 2007, I was very deeply annoyed by the whole graduation ritual at the Naval War College. At that time, my wife and I also had to pack all our stuff and get ready to go off for another seagoing assignment. Thus, we also had to figure out how to keep my dress white uniform clean for the “mandatory fun.”
Indeed, what was once known at the Naval War College as “graduation exercises” also followed the older naval traditions, during which all hands stood in formation. Those qualified to carry the credential for completing the Naval War College had the privilege of sitting in chairs, while all hands had to act as though they were listening to the “Graduation Address” of the President of the Naval War College.
All hands were then dismissed, and a numerical qualification appeared in the service records of those qualified as having completed the Naval War College curriculum. Those who had also qualified in the Army War College also received a similar numerical designation. That was it. The certificates issued to those who completed these courses was very simple and it carried no actual academic purpose, other than to hang on the individual naval officer’s “me wall.” All hands understood their real test for future success remained out over the horizon in the fleet.
Read full article>>
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From Sea History Today
15 July 2021 —
Philadelphia: Birthplace of the Nation’s Navy
Philadelphia claims the title of “birthplace of the US Navy.” As early as 1776 the Continental
Congress leased land along the city’s Front Street docks to support naval defense. On 27 March,
1794, the young country passed the Naval Act, authorizing the purchase of six frigates to become
the core of the US Navy. Naval architect and shipbuilder Joshua Humphreys was appointed
naval constructor; he would design the ships, and oversee their construction, each in a different
port. In addition, Humphreys was hired to build one of the six in his Philadelphia shipyard. That
ship, USS United States, was the first of the six to be launched, on 10 May 1797. She would sail
under the command of Commodore John Barry.
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Engraving of SS United States, launched in Philadelphia in 1797. Drawing by Master William Brady, USN. Image: US Naval History and Heritage Command. | |
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The young government couldn’t depend on private shipyards to build its navy, however; in 1800 it purchased Humphreys’s shipyard and surrounding property, along the Delaware River in Philadelphia’s Southwark district. This spot became the nation’s first naval shipyard. The site would boast other firsts, including the first woman to christen an American naval vessel—remembered as “Miss Watson of Philadelphia,” christening the warship USS Germantown on 22 October, 1846—and the world’s first floating sectional dry dock, an improvement completed in 1851 with a price tag of $830,000. On 18 July 1837 the shipyard launched USS Pennsylvania, designed by Humphreys’s son Samuel. She was the largest sailing warship ever built for the US Navy; the spectacle of the launch of such a great ship drew over 100,000 people (some accounts estimate the crowd to number as much as 200,000) to witness the launch. Specially chartered trains brought in spectators from neighboring cities, and a steamboat brought in 1,000 New Yorkers for this momentous event. Some other notable ships to be launched from this facility include the country’s first battleship, the 74-gun square rigger USS North Carolina in 1820; our first steamer, the paddlewheeler USS Mississippi in 1841; and USS Princeton in 1843, the first screw propeller ship built in the US and the world’s first screw steam warship.
Read full article>>
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Vectors: Heroes, Villains, & Heartbreak on the Bridge of the US Navy
By Thomas Modly, Advantage, Charleston, SC (2023)
Reviewed by Master Chief David Mattingly, USN (Ret.)
...In the end, Modly felt he needed to fly to take control of the situation and flew to Guam at great expense to meet with the affected crew. The TR had been ordered to make an emergency port visit to Guam to try and quarantine the crew and control the infection. However, Modly was met with a less-than-friendly reception. During a speech to the crew, which was recorded and later played by the media, Modly made remarks, which he referred to as “Unfortunately my careless use of a few words and my emotions in the moment helped obscure the message and diminished it…” He describes the situation in Guam and around the ship as a “firestorm.” He lost support in the Pentagon and Congress, and Secretary of Defense Esper asked for his resignation. Modly left office and the Department of the Navy would not have a Senate-confirmed secretary for the remainder of the Trump administration.
If the reader begins reading Vector with an apolitical lens, they will see many leadership issues
that arose after nearly twenty years of fighting the war on terror. At a time when the Pentagon
and the Navy needed strong leadership to rebuild and refocus to meet the emerging threats,
instead, they received leaders who reacted daily to the political theater emerging from the White
House and mass media regardless of whether it was conservative or liberal. I think the book is
worth reading for those who wish to understand the Trump White House and its dealings with
the Pentagon, especially during its initial reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read full review>>
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The Blister Club
By Michael L. Lanning; Stackpole Books, Guilford, CT (2021).
Reviewed by Capt. Richard Dick, USN (Ret.)
...The author also includes accounts of airborne and ground infantry soldiers who evaded or escaped capture. In this context, he describes several of the German atrocities against Allied prisoners, such as the Malmedy massacre in 1944. One of the most interesting chapters deals with the complicated situation facing American fliers shot down over the Balkans, especially those landing in Yugoslavia who were often caught up in the interwoven conflicts between Chetniks (royalist guerillas), partisans (Communist guerillas), Germans, Italians, and eventually Soviets.
Blister Club tells a fascinating story well. It provides enough detail without overwhelming the reader and captures the drama of events very well for a nonfiction work. Although there are a number of books dealing with escape and evasion (e.g., MI-9 by M. R. D. Foot and J. M. Langley, Little Cyclone by Airey Neave, The Shelburne Escape Line by Reanne Hemingway-Douglass) Lanning’s book focuses on the American evader on the ground. Even though the book falls outside our normal remit of maritime and naval history, I recommend it.
Read full review>>
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | |
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NRL Centennial
(July 2, 1923 - July 2, 2023)
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Commissioned July 2, 1923, as the Naval Experimental and Research Laboratory — later shortened to the Naval Research Laboratory (c.1926) — NRL has changed the way the US military fights, improved its capabilities, prevented technological surprise, transferred vital technology to industry, and tilted the world’s balance of power on at least three occasions; with the first US radar, world’s first intelligence satellite, and first operational satellite of the Global Positioning System (GPS).
A Vision Realized
In 1873, the US federal government purchased 90 acres of Bellevue in southwest Washington, DC, and added this land to the adjacent Naval Gun Factory. This land was known as the Bellevue Annex to the Naval Gun Factory until 1923, when the federal government opened the US Naval Research Laboratory on the site. The Laboratory remains on this tract of land to this day.
In a 1915 New York Times article, Thomas Edison suggested that the US government should maintain a “great research laboratory.” With this interview and with the progression of World War I, the idea of a central research facility for the Navy began to take shape.
Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Josephus Daniels seized the opportunity created by Edison's public comments to enlist Edison's support. Edison agreed, serving as the head of a new body of civilian experts—the Naval Consulting Board—to advise the Navy on science and technology.
The Board’s eventual recommendation was “for the establishment of a research and experimental laboratory, whose investment for grounds, buildings, and equipment should total approximately $5,000,000, and which should be located on tidewater of sufficient depth to permit dreadnought [class battleships] to come to the dock ... near, but not in, a large city, so that labor and supplies might be easily obtained.”
Read full article>>
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Museum of The US Navy-Photos!
by John L. Morris
Photos by author
Here are links to photos I took on four visits to the Museum of the United States Navy in Washington, DC, when it was still in full operation. I’m told most of the exhibits have been stored away pending construction of a new museum nearby. My photos are clearly amateurish, sorry, but they do provide a record of what the museum once was. They show mostly inside exhibits, I have hundreds of photos of the outdoor exhibits and plan to publish them here later.
8/31/08: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TLmxqMVpaXw5fhZu8
5/30/09: https://photos.app.goo.gl/hiEpRgnxuDm16jAt9
6/18/09: https://photos.app.goo.gl/yRKqf7sLxLimeEug9
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NAVAL HISTORY CALLS FOR PAPERS | |
UPCOMING NAVAL & MARITIME HISTORY GATHERINGS | |
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25–26 August: Fairwell ECSAA Reunion, Arlington, VA
18–21 September 2023: Historic Naval Ship Association Conference aboard USS Slater
21 September 2023: Navy Memorial Lone Sailor Award Dinner, National Building Museum, Washington, DC
21–22 September 2023: McMullen Naval History Symposium, US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD
22 September 2023 at 1800: Dudley Knox Award ceremony and dinner, US Naval Institute’s Jack C. Taylor Conference Center in Annapolis, Maryland
9 October: US Naval Institute 150th Celebration
17–22 October 2023: Naval Order of the United States Congress, San Diego
25 October 2023: US Naval Institute Conference – Critical Thinking – Our Greatest Weapon to Winning Tomorrow’s War
| Click here to watch Dr. Michael A. Verney’s presentation of his book: A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic. | PREBLE HALL NAVAL HISTORY PODCAST | |
A naval history podcast from Preble Hall – the United States Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland. Preble Hall will interview 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: 193: Admiral Mike Mullen, Part 12: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff>>
Click here for all Preble Hall Podcasts >>
| NAVAL HISTORY & HERITAGE COMMAND H-GRAMS | |
H-Gram 078: 20 March 2023 >> The Revolt of the Admirals, Ship Renaming
| DRACHINIFEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | |
Welcome to Navy History Matters, 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>>
| INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NAVAL HISTORY | |
The International Journal of Naval History (IJNH) provides a preeminent forum for works of naval history, researched and written to demonstrable academic standards, with the goal of stimulating and promoting research into naval history and fostering communication among naval historians at an international level. IJNH welcomes any scholarly historical analysis, focused on any period or geographic region, that explores naval power in its national or cultural context. The journal is independent of any institution and operates under the direction of an international editorial board that represents various genres of naval history.
Click here to read the February 2023 edition and archived issues on the IJNH website >>
| SUPPORTING US NAVAL HISTORY & HERITAGE | |
With the 250th anniversary of the US Navy on the horizon, NMHS seeks your support as we plan to honor those who have provided for our maritime security.
Click here to donate today >>
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