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7 May 2024


Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends who share a love for naval history!

Today marks the 82nd anniversary of the sinking of the light Japanese carrier Shoho during the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942 from which the words “Scratch one Flattop” entered the naval lexicon. With US naval aviation responsible for the demise of Shoho, it’s fitting to note that tomorrow is celebrated as the birth date for naval aviation. Happy 113th! FLY NAVY! (Tomorrow also marks Victory in Europe (VE) Day!) 


A belated Happy Birthday goes out to Albany’s USS Slater. One of two destroyer escort ship museums (the other being Galveston’s USS Stewart, which turns 81 at the end of May), the Slater turned 80 on 1 May. Thanks to Executive Director Tim Rizzuto and an enthusiastic group of volunteers, Slater is well on her way towards her second century. For more on Slater, click here.


Speaking of destroyer escorts, check out Robert P. Largess’s review of John Rodgaard’s Tailships, which details destroyer escort action against Soviet submarines in the Mediterranean a half century ago. Dave Winkler reviewed eFish, Jeff Jockell’s fictionalized account of events on a salvage tug over three decades ago. Our book list has grown with recent books received from the Naval War College Press, and NHHC has a new monograph on the Great White Fleet (see below). 


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 are welcome at nmhs@seahistory.org.

ITEMS OF IMMEDIATE INTEREST

8 May 2024 – US Naval Institute Annual Meeting


Jack C. Taylor Center, Annapolis, MD



8 May 2024 – Naval Order Heritage Night: Captain Kenneth Whiting, Aviation Pioneer


With Felix Haynes


8–9 PM EDT (ZOOM)



10 May 2024 – Last Days of CSS Virginia


With John Quarstein


Noon–1 PM EDT (in person streaming)

Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, VA



18 May 2024 - Naval Dockyards Society 28th Annual Conference


From Yards to Hards: Preparing Allied naval forces for the 1944 Normandy Landings


The D-Day Story, Portsmouth - Partner and Venue: Clarence Esplanade, Southsea, Portsmouth PO5 3NT



19 May 2024 – The History of Moffett Field


With Capt. Tom Spink, USN (Ret.)


3–4 PM PDT (in person) Mare Island Historical Foundation, CA

FEATURED CONTENT

New NHHC Publication on the Great White Fleet Examines Important Lessons for Current Operations (Courtesy NHHC)

book cover jacket painting showing two women and one man waving at US Navy ship in the water

Naval History and Heritage Command’s latest publication, “A Pacific Effect”: The United States Navy, Naval Engagement, and the World Cruise of the Great White Fleet, analyzes this event to provide worthwhile lessons for today.


This short booklet—sponsored by and with contributed input from the Plans, Policy, and Integration (N5), Office of the Chief of Naval Operations—intentionally uses historical context to support Navy operational planning that continues today. Although the journey occurred more than a century ago, the world cruise of the US Atlantic Fleet remains relevant. “...[I]t demonstrated the need for close cooperation with friendly states to project power over long distances, the enduring importance of fleet readiness to combat effectiveness and diplomacy, the potential of forward deployment as a tool of deterrence, and the utility of operational experimentation for adapting to new methods of warfare.”


By reviewing the circumstances and actions of a younger Navy, NHHC historians Daniel P. M. Curzon and Tyler A. Pitrof encourage readers to consider current situations through a retrospective case study.


In addition to being an interesting read for the general reader, questions offered at the end of each chapter should engage military readers and help them consider how current activity may be comparable to the planners and operators who participated in one of the most historic peacetime US naval operations.


“For the relatively green American navy, the journey provided valuable experience in logistical planning, diplomatic presence operations and engagement, and deliberate operational planning of the most pressing naval warfare tasks. President Theodore Roosevelt used the fleet’s passage to show our nation’s maritime power and to send a global message of friendship,” says Rear Adm. Thomas Moninger, Director of Plans, Policy, and Integration (N5), Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in the book’s forward. “While over a century has passed since the Great White Fleet returned from this unique operation, there is much to learn from it. Today the Navy still operates forward to secure our nation’s interests and to provide a foundation for the international rules-based order that has helped so many nations to prosper.”


Click here to download a 508-compliant PDF version>> 

(If you are interested in downloading and reviewing this for Tuesday Tidings let us know!)

Registrations are open!


The Battle of Midway Dinner, Washington, DC will be held at the Army-Navy Country Club on the evening of 3 June. Vice Admiral John Mustin, the Chief of Navy Reserve, is the guest speaker. His grandfather was embarked in Atlanta during that battle and his story is told in Dr. Winkler’s recently published Witness to Neptune’s Inferno: The Pacific War Diary of Lieutenant Commander Lloyd M. Mustin.

North American Society for Oceanographic History/Canadian Nautical Research Society conference is set for 20–23 June at St. Catharines, Ontario.

 

Located at Brock University, just downstream from Niagara Falls, this year’s conference features strong contingents from Texas A&M, East Carolina University, and the Naval War College! A sampling of the naval history papers include:

 

Testing the Typology: New Analysis of Civil War Blockade Runners

Alexander Owens, East Carolina University


Taking the War North: Confederates on the Great Lakes

John Grady, Independent Scholar

 

The Soldier and The Sailor at Vicksburg: Unprecedented Joint Operations

Dwight Hughes, Independent Scholar

 

Raiders, Rangers, and the Ruffian: An Analysis of Amphibious Operations

Cory van Hees, East Carolina University

 

Wonham’s Wireless War: from Lakehead to Lightship

Jeff Noakes, Canadian War Museum

 

Under Pressure: An Engineering Analysis of British Naval Gun Failure Patterns

James Fowler, East Carolina University

 

A History: F6F-3 Hellcats in the Battle for Saipan

Alex Morrow, East Carolina University

 

The Hough-Type and the Emergency Fleet Corporation

Ian Shoemaker, Independent Scholar

 

“A Female Submarine Diver (1895)”: Exploring the Contributions of Women to the History of Deep-Sea Diving

Lynn Harris, East Carolina University

 

Ruling the Waters, Lands, and People: Water in the History of Central Mexico (15th to 18th Century)

Martin Gabriel (via Zoom), University of Klagenfurt

 

Sea Power as an Essential Tool in Cortesian Conquest, Dorian Record, East Carolina University

 

Mahan and the Masses: Learning and Reading Sea Power in American Popular Culture, 1890-1916, Jason Smith, Southern Connecticut State University

 

The Ho Chi Minh Sea Trail, Mark Fiorey, US Naval War College

 

Publishing Maritime, Naval, Oceanographic, and Marine Environmental History for Diverse Audiences 

Chair: Penelope Hardy, University of Wisconsin

Participants: Katharine Anderson, York University; Benjamin Armstrong, United States Naval Academy; Christine Keiner, Rochester Institute of Technology; Lincoln Paine, University of Maine; and Helen Rozwadowski, University of Connecticut

 

Embracing the Enemy: Acadian Expulsion and the Wreck of the Duke William

Sam Cavell, Southeastern Louisiana University

 

Making Fewer Blunders: Wolfe, Cook, and Jervis at Quebec, 1759

Evan Wilson, US Naval War College 

 

Judges of the Liberty of the Subject? Royal Navy Customs Enforcement in North America in the 1760s

Ryan Mewett, US Naval Academy

 

Blue Jacket Blues: The Lost Recordings of Johnny Cash at the Naval War College—Live in ’75, David Kohnen, US Naval War College

 

That Strange and Very Ancient Custom’: Tattooists in American Sailortowns during the Nineteenth Century

Cori Convertito, Key West Art & Historical Society

 

Bearing Off a Toe of Michael Angelo: Henry Wadsworth in the Mediterranean, 1802–1804

Abigail Mullen, US Naval Academy

 

Apostles of Union: US Naval Officers and the Secession Crisis

Roger Bailey, American Battlefield Trust

 

The American Indictment: Canada’s Search for Nuclear Attack Submarines, and the United States’ Opposition

Ambjörn L. Adomeit, Western University

 

The Coldest Part of The Cold War: Locating the Lomonosov Ridge

Wes Cross, Independent Scholar

 

A Most Improbable Project: Canada’s Victoria Class Submarines in “retrospect”

Paul Mitchell, Canadian Forces College

 

Arnold’s Bay Project: Material Culture and Connections from a Colonial Battlefield in Lake Champlain

Cherilyn Gilligan, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

 

Botanical Perspectives from Vancouver’s Expedition (1791–1795)

Catherine Brooks, Texas A&M University


The BR1 Books for Reference Catalogue- ADM 234/1048 (1968)

Samuel McLean, Independent Scholar

 

Descent into Madness: The Incidence of “Diseases of the Mind” and the North America and West Indies Station, 1790–1818

Brandon W. Lentz, Texas A&M University

NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS

Tailships: The Hunt for Soviet Submarines in the Mediterranean 1970–1973 By Capt. John Rodgaard USN (Ret.) Publisher: Helion and Co. Ltd., #38 of the Europe at War Series (2024)

 

Reviewed by Robert P. Largess

Any weak spots with this book? Only this: it may be too dense with information for the casual reader. Still, lots of wonderful photos and maps. And for anyone with a genuine interest in the areas of ASW, sonar, and Cold War naval history, it will richly repay careful reading, and indeed, much serious study.


Read review>>

eFISH

By Jeff Jockel, JAJ II Publishing (2023)

 

Reviewed by David F. Winkler, Ph.D.

For anyone who served in the surface navy during this era—especially aboard auxiliaries—this book will bring back memories of dining-ins, hail and farewells, inspections, overhauls, mail-buoy watches, non-judicial punishment, and various liberty ports in the Med—“Welcome to Napoli!” For non-Navy veterans, the novel is chock-full of leadership lessons and is a testament to perseverance paying off.


Read full review>>

NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW

See the current List of Naval History Books Available for Review >>

 

Reviewers, authors, and publishers can also see our Guidelines for Naval History Book Reviews >>

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Mariner's Mirror Podcasts


Recent conflict in the Red Sea caused by Houthi attacks on commercial shipping has brought the subject of maritime crime and security into focus. In this episode Dr. Sam Willis speaks with Christian Beuger, Professor of International Relations at the University of Copenhagen, Director of the SafeSeas Network for Maritime Security and author of the important new book Understanding Maritime Security. They discuss historical perspectives on maritime crime including smuggling, pirate attacks and terrorism and highlight just how significant maritime crime and security is to the modern world with over 80% of contemporary global trade transported by sea.


Listen here>>

Kings Maritime History Seminars


9 May 2024 – The Ordered Sea: Naval diplomacy in the Mediterranean, 1815–1911

Erik de Lange, King’s College London


23 May 20 23 May 2024 – The Post-Napoleonic Employment of Former Warships in the British Southern Whale Fishery, 1815–1845

Julie Papworth and Roger Dence, King’s College London


Seminars for 2023–24 will continue as hybrid events, which means that they may be attended in person or online (with the exception of the entirely online event on the 21st of March). As always, attendance is free and open to all. To take part, you must register by visiting the KCL School of Security Studies Events page. Those of you attending online will receive instructions shortly before the event, by email, about how to join. Otherwise, we will meet in person, as usual, in the Dockrill Room, K6.07, at King’s College London. Papers will begin at 17:15 GMT. The King’s Maritime History Seminar is hosted by the Laughton Naval Unit and the Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. It is organized by the British Commission for Maritime History in association with the Society for Nautical Research. For further information contact Dr. Alan James, War Studies, KCL, WC2R 2LS.

PRIZES

International Maritime History Association - Frank Broeze Prize for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in Maritime History


Professor Frank Broeze was one of the leading maritime historians of his generation. In his honor, the International Maritime History Association has instituted the Frank Broeze Prize to be awarded to the author of a doctoral thesis which, in the opinion of the panel, makes the most outstanding contribution to the study of maritime history.


As befitting Frank’s visionary approach to the field, maritime history encompasses all aspects of the historical interaction of human societies and the sea. The panel of judges will therefore consider works that focus on the maritime dimensions of economic, social, cultural, political, technological and environmental history.


The Frank Broeze Prize carries with it a cash award of €500 and reimbursement of the registration fee at the Ninth International Congress of Maritime History in Busan, South Korea, August 2024.


To be considered for this prestigious award, those who have completed a doctoral thesis between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2023 are invited to submit a copy of their thesis for consideration. If the thesis is written in a language other than English, the entrant should provide a summary of their work (minimum 10,000 words) in English.


The judges will apply the following criteria in deciding the winner of the prize:



• Contribution to knowledge and understanding of the maritime past;

• Originality of approach, source material and/or findings;

• Depth and coherence of argument;

• Choice and application of methodology;

• Presentational and stylistic quality.


Eligible candidates should submit their entries, including a letter of support from their supervisor, via e-mail attachment to Prof. Ingo Heidbrink (iheidbri@odu.edu) president of the IMHA, no later than 15 May 2024. The prize will be awarded at the Congress in Busan.

The Australian Naval Institute Commodore Sam Bateman Book Prize

Inaugurated in 2021, the Commodore Sam Bateman Book Prize is awarded annually by the ANI to recognise excellence in books making a major contribution to the study and understanding of naval and maritime matters. The Prize is sponsored by the National Shipbuilding College.


The Prize is named after Commodore Sam Bateman AM RAN (1938–2020), a former ANI Councillor and strategic thinker in recognition of his efforts to raise greater awareness of naval and/or maritime matters and progressing the understanding and value of navies in society.


Award of the Prize

The winner of the ANI Commodore Sam Bateman Book Prize is announced on the second Wednesday of each December. It is awarded in a ceremony in Canberra in March the following the year where the author will be asked to deliver the Commodore Sam Bateman Book Prize Lecture.


Entries are now being received for the 2024 Sam Bateman Book Prize


Entries are to be in the English language and will:



  • Raise the understanding of naval and/or maritime affairs,
  • Have been published from 2 November 2023 to 1 November 2024 and received between 1 April and 1 November 2024, and
  • Be of high literary quality and style


Books can be nominated for consideration by either ANI book reviewers or publishers.


For further information or to submit a book first email books@navalinstitute.com.au for dispatch details.

UPCOMING NAVAL & MARITIME HISTORY GATHERINGS

23–26 May 2024: 75th Annual Conference of the Company of Military Historians, Augusta, ME



3 June 2024: Battle of Midway Dinner, Washington, DC



3–5 June 2024: Warships Resting in Peace, Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland



6 June 2024: 80th Anniversary of D-Day at Museum Dedicated to D-Day Veteran Yogi Berra, Yogi Berra Learning Center and Museum, Little Falls, NJ



20–23 June 2024: Joint NASOH/CNRS Conference, St. Catharines, Ontario



16–19 September 2024: Historic Naval Ship Association (HNSA) Symposium, USS Midway, San Diego



24–28 September 2025: 12th Maritime Heritage Conference, Buffalo, NY

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: 230: Anselm van der Peet on the Netherlands Navy>>


Click here for all Preble Hall Podcasts >>

DRACHINIFEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Click here for the latest episode: 296: The Drydock>>



Click here for the YouTube channel>>

NAVY HISTORY MATTERS

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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