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9 April 2024
Today is the DROP DEAD DATE if you would like to attend the panel discussion Warrior Women: Fighting to Serve, Serving to Fight in person at the Jack C. Taylor Center at the US Naval Institute. If you cannot travel to Annapolis for the April 24 event, you can watch it livestreamed.
Then there is tomorrow evening’s Naval Order History Happenings program on Tailships. No, that was not a typo. Capt. John Rodgaard is going to discuss his latest book about deploying aboard a frigate in the early 1970s that carried towed-arrayed sonars (hence “tailship”) that could listen for Soviet submarines in the Mediterranean below the thermo-layer.
Thursday marks the 124th anniversary of the acquisition of the submarine Holland, the birth date of the US Navy’s Submarine Force! Expect a lot of cake cuttings to occur beneath the waves and elsewhere that day!
For book reviews this week we thank Dr. Satterfield and Captain Dick. We still have a number of titles to our book-for-review opportunity list. Check it out!
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 | |
10 April 2024 - Naval Order Heritage Night With Captain John Rodgaard, USN (Ret.)
To discuss his book: Tailships.
8–9 PM (EDT) (Virtual)
11 April 2024 - Book Talk With Scot Christenson
To discuss his book: Dogs in The Navy
Noon–1 PM (EDT) (In person)
Navy Museum, DC
12 April 2024 - Mariners’ Museum With John V. Quarstein
To discuss “The Ship that Tried to Save the Union—USS Pawnee”
Noon–1 PM (EDT) (In person/Virtual)
Mariners’ Museum, VA
18 April 2024 - National Maritime Awards Dinner
6:00-9:30 PM (EDT) (In person) National Press Club, DC
24 April 2024 - Warrior Women: Fighting to Serve, Serving to Fight
(Registration Deadline 9 April)
2:00–3:15 PM. (In person)
Jack C. Taylor Center, USNI, Annapolis
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From the Society for Military History!
Vandervort Prize
Trent Hone, “From Mobile Fleet to Mobile Force: The Evolution of U.S. Navy Logistics in the Central Pacific during World War II,” Journal of Military History (April 2023): 367–403.
Allan R. Millett Dissertation Research Fellowship Award
Joseph Bienko, Penn State, “Warfare and the Environment in the Seventeenth-Century Atlantic World and Caribbean.”
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS | |
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America’s First Aircraft Carrier: USS Langley and the Dawn of US Naval Aviation By David F. Winkler, Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, (2024)
Reviewed by Dr. John R. Satterfield
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 |  | By 1936, however, naval aviation had not one, but four carrier decks in the fleet. USS Lexington (CV 2) and USS Saratoga (CV 3), both built on hulls originally laid down as battle cruisers, and USS Ranger (CV 4), the first carrier built from the keel up, were in service, and three Yorktown-class carriers, as well as USS Wasp (CV 7) would arrive before Pearl Harbor. Langley, now obsolete, was converted again, this time to a sea plane tender (AV 3). Her flight deck was reduced and used to carry components for PBY Catalina patrol aircraft. She was transferred to the Philippines, joining the Asiatic Fleet, and escaped from the Japanese air attacks on US ground and naval installations, berthing in Darwin, Australia. Just over two months later, while cruising toward the Dutch East Indies to support air defenses, Japanese aircraft attacked AV 3, killing sixteen sailors, and leaving the ship dead in the water and listing. After the crew abandoned ship, other vessels shelled the tender to prevent its capture. Langley went down in the Indian Ocean, seventy-five miles south of Java.
Dr. Winkler’s book, surprisingly the first and only complete history of Langley, is important, not only because the ship receives long overdue credit for its achievements, but also because it incorporates the important stories of the US Navy officers and crew who were present at the creation of naval aviation. Winkler has made a significant contribution to US naval history. In full disclosure, I must add that I have known and worked with Dr. Winkler for more than a decade. He has edited many book reviews I have written for the Naval Historical Foundation and more recently the National Maritime Historical Society. It is a pleasure to read his work for a change, and to assess it as a superlative book.
Read review>>
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The Battle of Tinian By John Grehan and Alexander Nicholl; Philadelphia, PA: Frontline Books, (2023).
Reviewed by Capt. Richard Dick, USN (Ret.)
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As with other volumes in the Images of War series, the photographs are the main emphasis—plentiful, well-chosen, and well-captioned. The authors also include in the text excerpts from several of the medal citations for gallantry won on Tinian, adding both poignancy and color to the narrative.
It might be tempting to dismiss this book as just a collection of pictures strung together with a hasty text. Such an assessment really sells this volume short. The authors have created a competent, well-written, and very well-illustrated overview history of an important but lesser known battle of World War II in the Pacific.
Read full review>>
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | |
USS Thresher (SSN-593) Bow-on view, taken at sea on 24 July 1961. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. | |
USS Thresher: A loss. A legacy.
By Team Submarine Public Affairs
On April 9, 1963, USS Thresher (SSN 593), the lead nuclear-powered attack submarine of her class, sailed from Kittery, Maine, to approximately 220 miles east of Massachusetts to conduct deep-diving tests. She carried 129 men, including her crew and several shipyard personnel.
After a rendezvous with Penguin-class submarine rescue ship USS Skylark (ASR 20), Thresher conducted trials throughout the day, before submerging overnight. The following morning, after reestablishing comms with Skylark, Thresher commenced deep-dive trials.
She dove slowly in a circular pattern beneath Skylark, maintaining communications, and stopping every 100 feet to check system integrity. But as Thresher approached her test depth of 1,300-feet, Skylark received an alarming, partial message. “ … Minor difficulties. Have positive up-angle. Attempting to blow …” Another unclear communique was received that included the number “900.”
No further messages came through. The Navy would eventually establish that Thresher and her crew were lost on 10 April 1963 once the boat descended below crush depth, due to uncontrolled flooding, and imploded under the devastating pressures of the ocean.
Built to hunt and destroy hostile enemy submarines, Thresher was the quietest and fastest submarine of her time. Equipped with the most advanced weapons and detection systems available, no one would have predicted that the boat could have possibly suffered such a fate. Being the first nuclear submarine lost at sea and the deadliest submarine incident in US history, the submarine community, and indeed the entire nation, were devastated by the loss.
Read full article>>
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Overhead view of Thresher's upper rudder, photographed from a deep-sea vehicle deployed from USNS Mizar (T-AGOR-11). Wreck of USS Thresher (SSN-593), 1963. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the National Museum of the US Navy. Click here for more information>> | |
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With tomorrow’s 61st anniversary of the loss of USS Thresher, here is the link to the Naval Historical Foundation’s program on that subject that would generate the highest number of views for its Second Saturday webinar series.
Watch here>>
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Kings Maritime History Seminars
25 April 2024 – Ship of State? Regionalism and Cold War soft power aboard La France
Claire O’Mahony, University of Oxford
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.
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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.
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2024 CNO Naval History Essay Contest
The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) announces the 2024 CNO Naval History Essay Contest and calls for the submission of papers no later than 30 April 2024. The Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) is the lead for the contest, and the US Naval Institute (which has been sponsoring essay contests since 1878) is supporting.
The Challenge
The CNO invites entrants to submit essays that apply lessons from throughout naval history to solving today's Navy challenges. Entrants should consider that today’s era is marked by:
a. Determined and increasingly aggressive efforts by China and Russia to coordinate their respective instruments of power (e.g., economic, political, and military) to compete for commercial, geostrategic, political, and military advantage and access.
b. Chinese and Russian expansion across the spectrum of military operations (competition, crisis, and contingency) and domains (sea, air, land, space, cyberspace, and electromagnetic spectrum).
c. The rise of China as an economic and maritime power and the importance of the maritime domain as well as the need for the US to integrate Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard operations and multi-domain operational concepts and capabilities.
d. The increased importance of navies, sea control, and allies and partners in a globalized world where 90 percent of world trade (by volume) and information travels via the seas or undersea cables.
e. The proliferation of advanced weaponry and the erosion of key US technological advantages that make it difficult for the US to project power to manage crises, deter aggression, and reassure allies and partners.
f. Fundamental strategic and technological shifts and advances that promise to change the character and conduct of naval warfare and challenge the Navy’s ability to adapt conceptually and materially.
The contest seeks submissions from professional historians, midshipmen and cadets, and rising historians. Guidelines for each group below.
2024 CNO Naval History Essay Contest - Professional Historian | US Naval Institute (usni.org)
2024 CNO Naval History Essay Contest - Midshipmen and Cadets | US Naval Institute (usni.org)
2024 CNO Naval History Essay Contest - Rising Historian | US Naval Institute (usni.org)
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The Australian Naval Institute Commodore Sam Bateman Book Prize | |
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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.
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UPCOMING NAVAL & MARITIME HISTORY GATHERINGS | |
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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
8 May 2024: US Naval Institute Annual Meeting, Jack C. Taylor Center, Annapolis, MD
18 May 2024: Naval Dockyards Society 28th Annual Conference
From Yards to Hards: Preparing Allied naval forces for the 1944 Normandy Landing
The D-Day Story, Portsmouth - Partner and Venue: Clarence Esplanade, Southsea, Portsmouth PO5 3NT
23–26 May 2024: 75th Annual Conference of the Company of Military Historians, Augusta, ME
3–5 June 2024: Warships Resting in Peace, Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland
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: 226: Dr. Sarah Kirchberger PLA Navy Part II>>
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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