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23 January 2023
Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends who share a love for naval history!
A recap of the Naval Heritage Night at the Surface Navy Association that featured a panel on the Maersk Alabama is our feature for this edition. In addition, we reposted a Navy Department news release about the Navy implementing recommendations on renaming ships, buildings, and other entities that had honored the Confederacy.
The Western Naval History Association gathering in San Diego is less than a month away. If you can make it to San Diego, the venue USS Midway is worth the trip alone. If not, you can join the conference virtual from around the country! Note that a deadline is approaching for the Charles Dana Gibson Award for best peer-reviewed article in maritime history. The North American Society for Oceanic History is looking for submissions no later than 1 March.
Naval History Book Reviews continues into the new year thanks to a pair of reviews from Captain Richard Dick. The books available for review has been updated with some recent arrivals!
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 | |
27 January 2024 - NMHS Seminar Series, 11 AM (EST) (Virtual)
Exploring Online Research Tools for Ship and Maritime History with Peter McCracken
2 February 2024 - Ramming Speed: Reintroduction of the Ram as a Naval Offensive Weapon
With John V. Quarstein
Noon-1 PM
Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, VA
7 February 2024 - Noon-1 PM, (EST) National Museum of the US Navy, Washington, DC.
Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) discusses diversity and equity with a panel of retired US Navy officers. The conversation will be moderated by NHHC Director’s Action Group Director Kathryn Denise Krepp. Panelists include (left to right): Sinclair M. Harris, Lori E. Chestang, and Gerald A. Collins, Reuben K. Green.
10 February 2024 - Black Americans, the US Navy, and the Civil War
Speaker, Navy Museum Curator Dr. Edward Valentin Jr.
1 PM—2 PM, (EST-in person) Southwest Neighborhood Library, Washington, DC
17–18 February, 2023 – Western Naval History Association Symposium, San Diego, CA
February Naval History magazine look-ahead
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Surface Navy Association (SNA) Commemorates the 15th Anniversary of the Maersk Alabama Hijacking
Recap by Lt. Cdr. Sean P. Walsh, USN (Ret.)
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Maersk Alabama. Photo: PD | |
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This year, the Heritage Night program at the Surface Navy Association’s National Symposium featured a panel discussion of participants involved in the successful rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips, the civilian master of the MV Maersk Alabama, from Somali pirates. For those not familiar with this April 2009 incident, dramatized in the 2013 film Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks, the basic facts are as follows.
The Maersk Alabama is a container ship that had been reflagged from Denmark to the United States to make it eligible to carry US-funded cargo including food aid. While enroute to Mombasa, Kenya, and approximated 240 miles off the Somali coast, it was boarded by four pirates. The crew took action, including swamping the boat the pirates were using, taking control away from the bridge, and most of the crew members locking themselves in a secure space. The pirates did take Captain Phillips hostage and ultimately abandoned ship using one of ship’s lifeboats, taking Captain Phillips with them. At this point the crew took back control of the ship and proceeded to Mombasa.
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Lifeboat from Maersk Alabama on display at National UDT-SEAL Museum in Ft. Pierce, Florida. Photo: PD. | |
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The situation then turned into a hostage rescue mission to get Captain Phillips back alive, and the night’s program told the story from the Navy perspective by the key players. The movie was based on a book by Capt. Phillips, so this presentation differed significantly from the movie.
Rear Adm. Jesse Wilson, USN (Ret.), of RTX, sponsor of the program, first recognized and thanked Capt. Bill Erickson, USN (Ret.), who recently retired as the executive director of the Surface Navy Association (SNA). He also noted the subject of the program echoed current events in the Red Sea.
Admiral Wilson then introduced the moderator of the event, Capt. Frank Castellano, USN (Ret.), who at the time was the commanding officer of USS Bainbridge (DDG 96). He started by introducing Adm. Michelle Howard, USN (Ret.), who was embarked on USS Boxer (LHD 4) as the one-star commander of Expeditionary Strike Group Two and the international anti-piracy Task Force 151. Admiral Howard said that she was not aware of the significance of the event until she returned to the United States from the deployment. She also said that it would not have been successful without the use of modern technology like the Scan Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle. In addition, she recognized the contributions of Naval Aviators including the embarked helicopters and land-based P-3 patrol planes.
Read full article>>
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Navy Completes Work on Naming Commission Recommendations
January 12, 2024
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The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls (CG 62) transits the Indian Ocean during Talisman Sabre, July 22, 2023. US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Ryre Arciaga). | |
WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced that the Department of the Navy completed the renaming of 33 ships, buildings, and streets ahead of the Department of Defense’s 2024 deadline to rename all military property that honored the Confederacy.
“When Secretary Austin directed us to implement the recommendations of the Naming Commission, he instructed us to give proud new names – names that echo with honor, patriotism, and history; names that will inspire generations of service members to defend our democracy and our Constitution.” said Secretary Del Toro. One of the first assets renamed was Maury Hall, an academic building at the United States Naval Academy, named after Matthew Fontaine Maury, considered the father of naval oceanography, who joined the Confederacy.
In February 2023, Secretary Del Toro renamed the building Carter Hall, after former President Jimmy Carter, who graduated from the Naval Academy in 1946, and who was the only president to attend that service academy. In addition to Carter Hall, other renamed installations and platforms included:
- The home of the US Naval Academy’s superintendent, Buchanan House, was renamed Farragut House to honor Union Navy Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, a Civil War hero who became the first American naval officer to be appointed to the rank of rear admiral in 1862.
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Maury Oceanographic Library was renamed to Dr. Walter H. Munk Oceanographic Library at Stennis Space Center. An American physical oceanographer, Dr. Munk was one of the first scientists to bring statistical methods to the analysis of oceanographic data. His work won awards including the National Medal of Science, the Kyoto Prize, and induction to the French Legion of Honor.
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Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville was renamed USS Robert Smalls (CG 62). Robert Smalls was born into slavery in South Carolina. A skilled sailor and was an expert navigator of southern coasts, Smalls was conscripted in 1862 to serve as pilot of the Confederate steamer Planter at Charleston. He executed a daring escape out of the heavily fortified Charleston harbor with his family, other enslaved people, and valuable military cargo onboard, and successfully surrendered Planter to the US Navy.
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Pathfinder-class Oceanographic Survey ship USNS Maury was renamed USNS Marie Tharp (T-AGS 66). This renaming honors Marie Tharp, a pioneering geologist and oceanographic cartographer who created the first scientific maps of the Atlantic Ocean floor and shaped our understanding of plate tectonics and continental drift.
In addition to platforms and building, the Department of the Navy renamed 14 streets across multiple naval installations.
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS | |
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Schnellboote; A Complete Operational History By Lawrence Paterson. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing (2022).
Reviewed by Capt. Richard Dick, USN (Ret.)
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...The Spanish Civil War saw the first employment of the S-boat in combat. Paterson goes on to describe the formation of the first S-boat flotillas and their use in the Norwegian and French campaigns. This set the stage for the best-known operational theater for the S-boats, the English Channel, and the North Sea. The author effectively incorporates German, British, and French memoirs and records to tell the story of five years of fighting in the Narrow Seas. He highlights the S-boats’ glory years of mine and torpedo warfare against British coastal convoys and their escorts and then the seemingly inevitable doom of the German units at the hands of eventually overwhelming Allied air, sea, and intelligence power.
Less familiar to American readers are the stories of the Schnellboote in the Arctic, the Mediterranean, and the Eastern Front. Largely wasted in the Arctic’s cold and mountainous seas, the S-boats were held there to help address Hitler’s obsessive concern with Norway. The craft served more effectively in the Baltic and the Black Seas, as well as the Mediterranean. The small size of the craft enabled Germany to exploit interior lines to transfer assets via Europe’s extensive networks of rivers and canals until Allied airpower disrupted those networks. Schnellboote is a comprehensive, very readable, and authoritative history of this branch of the Kriegsmarine. Highly recommended.
Read full review>>
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The Windfall Battleships: Agincourt, Canada, Erin, Eagle and the Balkan and Latin American Arms Races; By Aidan Dodson, Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword, (2023)
Reviewed by Capt. Richard Dick, USN (Ret.)
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...As World War I approached, British concerns grew over the needs of the Royal Navy against its most powerful opponent, the Imperial German Navy. Additionally, many in government feared that Turkey, heavily courted by Germany, would eventually employ its two new battleships against the Allies. The Turkish public grew angry at the prospect of losing their battleships, since some of the payment for the ships had come from public subscription (although in fact public contributions covered very little of the ships’ cost), anger that supported the Turkish government’s decision to join the Central Powers later in 1914. Nevertheless, His Majesty’s government seized both ships, Sultan Osman I becoming HMS Agincourt and Resadiye becoming HMS Erin. Both ships fought at Jutland and both were scrapped after the war as part of the reductions imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty.
Since Chile remained neutral and was a valued British trading partner, the eventual transfer of the Chilean battleships went much more smoothly. The UK committed to return the ships after the war with appropriate compensation for wear or loss. Almirante Latorre served as HMS Canada, was returned to Chile after the war, and survived all the other windfall battleships to be retired in 1958.
Almirante Cochrane became the most famous of the four, purchased from Chile and completed as the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, eventually being sunk by U-73 in the Mediterranean in 1942.
Dodson tells the story of each ship in detail, particularly their years on the Royal Navy. He describes comprehensively the original designs and their many modifications over the years, and he illustrates the book profusely with photographs, professional drawings, and with his own sketches. Windfall Battleships is an excellent example of naval technical and operational history.
Read full review>>
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | |
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Dr. David A. Smith’s talk on Admiral of the Navy George Dewey at last Wednesday’s Naval Order Heritage Night
Watch here>>
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NAVAL HISTORY CALLS FOR PAPERS | |
CONTEST SUBMISSION DEADLINE | |
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Charles Dana Gibson Award
For the best article on North American maritime history published in a peer-reviewed journal in
2023
Honorarium: $1,000
Closing date for entries/nominations: 1 March 2024
Send copy and complete citation for the article to: NASOHGibsonaward@gmail.com
Selection: Articles will be evaluated by a three-person committee of NASOH members
Announcement of award recipient: TBD.
***The Recipient must be present at the NASOH conference to receive the award.****
NASOH presents the Charles Dana Gibson Award annually to the author of the most significant
article on any aspect of North American maritime history published in a refereed journal during
the previous year.
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UPCOMING NAVAL & MARITIME HISTORY GATHERINGS | |
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17–18 February 2024: Western Naval History Association Symposium, San Diego, CA.
29 February–1 March 2024: Women’s History Symposium, National World War II Museum, New Orleans
18–21 April 2024: Society For Military History Annual Conference Arlington, VA
24–25 April 2024: Council of American Maritime Museums, Constitution Museum, Boston, MA
20–23 June 2024: Joint NASOH/CNRS Conference, St. Catherines, Ontario
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: 221: Interview with Acting SECNAV Thomas Modly, Part 2>>
Click here for all Preble Hall Podcasts >>
| 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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