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11 March 2025
Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends who share a love for naval history!
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Since it is Women’s History Month, we should note that next Monday marks the 108th anniversary of the recruitment of women into the Navy with the creation of the Yeoman (F) program. Dr. Randy Goguen writes about that program and more in From Yeomennettes to Fighter Jets, and she will be the Naval Order’s feature speaker tomorrow evening. See the promo below.
If you happen to be in the UK on 1 May, the Society for Nautical Research is hosting its Anderson Award lecture. Invitation below!
For this week’s Naval History Book Review we feature another review from Dr. Charles Kolb, on an attempt to sink Tirpitz during World War II. Enjoy!
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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.
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NAVAL ORDER OF THE UNITED STATES presents
Dr. Randy Goguen
From Yeomanettes to Fighter Jets: A Century of Women in the US Navy
12 March 2025, 20:00 EDT
Women comprise approximately 21% of today’s United States Navy. Since they first began serving in 1917, generations of Navy women have confronted and transcended significant obstacles to earn the opportunity to serve their country. Today they are forward deployed around the world, they command combatant ships, and they have risen to the highest echelons of Navy leadership. Yet they continue to confront challenges from assumptions and attitudes that remain deeply ingrained in some segments of our society. In her presentation, Dr. Goguen will discuss the long and often contentious process by which women were integrated into the US Navy. That process was shaped by cultural, economic, technological, and political conditions in the civilian sector. As that process unfolded, the decisive force driving progress was exigency: two global wars, Communist expansionism during the Cold War, the end of conscription and the establishment of the all-volunteer force, as well as political pressures posed by social change. She asserts that exigency is the mother of integration. Today’s US Navy cannot meet its mission requirements without women.
About our Speaker: Randy Carol Goguen was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. She received her undergraduate degree in international studies from the College of New Rochelle in New York and earned an MA in international relations from the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, University of Kentucky. She earned a PhD in diplomatic and military history from Temple University in Philadelphia. She served in the enlisted ranks in the US Marine Corps Reserve (1977–1982) and the US Navy Reserve (1983–1987). She was commissioned as an intelligence officer in the US Navy Reserve in 1987, retiring at the rank of commander in 2010 with thirty-two years of service. She served as a history instructor at the US Naval Academy from 1998 to 2000. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 she was mobilized to the Office of Naval Intelligence in Suitland, Maryland. Following her release from active duty, she served as the civilian historian for that organization until her retirement in 2022. She resides in Fairhaven, Maryland. Her first book published as an independent scholar, From Yeomanettes to Fighter Jets: A Century of Women in the U.S. Navy, was released by the Naval Institute Press in March 2024
Watch this NOUS History Presentation here>>
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Anderson Award and Lecture 1 May 2025
You are invited to attend the Society for Nautical Research’s Anderson Award and Lecture at The Queen's House, at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, UK, on Thursday 1st May 2025. The winner of the Anderson for 2024 was James Davey for his book Tempest: The Royal Navy in the Age of Revolutions, and he will be giving the lecture.
The Anderson Committee stated:
The Royal Navy in the French Revolutionary War is not a new subject. It has inspired historians from many traditions. From the patriotic and nationalistic, the conservative and the radical, the history of the Royal Navy provides support for multiple views about naval power, hierarchy and social order in that turbulent time. What Davey has done is to put the naval history firmly into the social and political context of the time. He has done so by sensitively navigating his narrative through the passionately argued disputes of many decades, acknowledging his own perspective, while tackling complex problems and bringing new research to the subject. It can be confidently read by students, specialists and by the interested public, The presentation of the book is up to the high standard for which Yale University Press are known.
The key details for the evening are the same as last year:
Tea and coffee will be served from 5:00 PM in the Undercroft, the space you enter upon arriving at the Queen’s House through the main entrance.
Presentation of Awards followed by the lecture will take place in the Great Hall (where the iconic floor is) at 5:30 PM.
Drinks and canapés will be served in the Undercroft after the lecture, from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM.
The event will conclude at approximately 8:00 PM.
If you wish to attend, please provide your details on the form here so that we can assure you are registered for entry.
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Prequal Published by Naval Institue | |
Photo courtesy Dr. David Winkler | |
The long-awaited prequel to Adm. James Holloway’s 2007 Aircraft Carriers at War has just been published by the Naval Institute Press, six years following the passing of the 20th CNO. In Destroyers at War, Holloway covers his time in the destroyers Ringgold and Bennion as the US Navy pushes west across the Pacific. Edited by Tuesday Tidings co-compiler David Winkler, the book can be purchased here: Destroyers at War | US Naval Institute. | |
NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS | |
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Operation TITLE: Sink The Tirpitz by Glyn L. Evans, Barnsley, South Yorkshire and Philadelphia, PA: Pen & Sword Maritime (2024)
Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, PhD
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The author, Glyn L. Evans, who grew up on the banks of the Mersey River, spent 41 years as a marine cargo insurance underwriter in Manchester, Reading, London, Redhill, Bristol and Birmingham. He was an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and later began writing on maritime subjects for the Journal of the Honorable Company of Master Mariners and the Bulletin of the Liverpool Nautical Research Society, and he has published two other books to date: The Maritime Art of Kenneth D. Shoesmith and CARGOES: A Celebration of the Sea, an anthology of poems by John Masefield. Evans’s interest in Operation TITLE stems from learning about the exploits of Able Seaman Robert Paul Evans (no relation) and the unsuccessful Allied attack on the German battleship Tirpitz during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II.
Operation TITLE: Sink the Tirpitz, xiv + 235 pages, has a brief introduction, and 19 chapters. In addition, there are notes (26 pages, emendations rather than citations to references), a one-page Postscript, a two-page timeline, the author’s acknowledgments (30 individuals, in the main, naval historians and interviewees contacted), a one-page bibliography (12 books and seven files accessed from the National Archives, Kew), a useful nine-page index, and an index to the notes.
His book begins with a rather very brief mention of the recent sinkings of HMS Hood and the German battleship Bismarck, and a few vital statistics on her sister ship, Tirpitz and six RAF sorties against Tirpitz between October 1940 and June 1941. German Operation Weserübung, the seizing of Denmark and Norway, April to June 1940, and the Kriegsmarine’s U-boat and Luftwaffe aircraft-initiated attacks in July 1942 on the Allied Arctic Convoy PQ17 sailing from Reykjavik to Archangel. An order from Adm. Sir Dudley Pound, the First Sea Lord, read “Convoy is to scatter.” Fearing an imminent attack from German surface ships such as Tirpitz, the cruiser escort ships fled west while the merchant ships made for the Soviet Union. Only 11 of 35 merchantmen survived—a huge naval loss, mistake, and embarrassment. In reality, Tirpitz had remained anchored in port in Norway, but the threat prevailed in British thinking.
British naval supremacy was eroding, given the losses of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse in the Far East, the carrier Ark Royal and battleship HMS Bartram in the Atlantic, and battleships HMS Valiant and Queen Elizabeth put out of action in the harbor at Alexandria, Egypt. The Italian Regia Marina accounted for the two latter capital ships using two-man underwater vessels—a feat that the British Admiralty would employ to play “catch-up.” Commanders W. R. Fells and G. M. Sladen, RN, developed an attack submersible school, breathing apparatus, and diving suit, while evolutionary biologist J. E. S. Haldane devised the human torpedo “chariots.”
Read full review>>
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | |
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Naval Order Heritage Night
12 February 2025
Dr. James C. Rentfrow
Director of Navy Museums discusses the Navy Museum under NHHC jurisdiction.
Watch here>>
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Maritime Communities Celebrating Milestones
SAVE THE DATES!
24–27 September 2025 • Buffalo, NY
We are delighted to be holding the 12th Maritime Heritage Conference in Buffalo in September 2025.
The conference brings together organizations and participants that engage in all aspects of maritime heritage. This includes maritime museums, historic lighthouses, tall ships for sail training and youth, small craft, marine art, sailing, naval and maritime scholars, advocacy, and more. It is also a gathering of the leadership of the maritime heritage community. Buffalo will host the first Maritime Heritage Conference to be held in the Great Lakes region.
The 12th Maritime Heritage Conference (MHC) will bring together nautical heritage organizations and individuals for an information-packed conference encompassing a broad array of topics on the banks of Lake Erie at historic Buffalo, New York. Following in the wake of the World Canal Conference, which concludes with a bicentennial celebration of the opening of the Erie Canal, the 12th MHC will use that historic milestone to open a three-day program that invites attendees to consider other historic nautical milestones worthy of broader public attention.
The MHC has earned a reputation for its high take-away value, networking opportunities, and camaraderie. The conference steering committee invites you to become involved as a presenter; both session and individual proposals are encouraged. Don’t miss this opportunity to gather with individuals from all segments of the maritime community.
Call for Papers & Session Proposals
Papers and session topics include, but are not limited to:
• Inland Water Commerce and Seaport Operations (Erie Canal bicentennial!)
• Maritime and Naval History (2025 marks USN/USMC 250th Birthday)
• Maritime Art, Literature, and Music
• Education and Preservation
• Underwater Archaeology
• Trade and Communications
• Maritime Libraries, Archives, and Museums
• Marine Science and Ocean Conservation
• Historic Vessel Restoration
• Maritime Heritage Grant Program
• Maritime Landscapes
• National Marine Sanctuaries
• Small Craft
• Shipbuilding
• Marine Protected Areas
Focus sessions include, but are not limited to:
• Non-Profit administration
• Event Management
• Fundraising
• Media and Publications
• Media and Social Media
Submissions
Individual paper and session proposals should include a 250–400 word abstract and a one-paragraph biography about each presenter.
Please e-mail proposals and other queries to Dr. David Winkler at: MHC@seahistory.org
Deadline for proposals for papers and sessions is 31 May 2025.
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Society for Nautical Research Winter Lecture Series 2024–25
The Society for Nautical Research is delighted to announce the schedule for the forthcoming winter lecture series. These online talks will highlight new and ongoing research being undertaken by members of the society and its affiliations. The series aims to promote research into economic, social, political, military and environmental aspects of nautical history, drawing on British, European and international experience.
The 12-part lecture series will be held fortnightly on Wednesday evenings at 6:30PM (UK) between October 2024 to March 2025. Lectures will only be available online (via Zoom) and will be FREE to paying members of the SNR.
Not yet a member?
Sign up now from as little as £22.50 a year. Get access to exclusive events and talks, quarterly editions of the Mariner’s Mirror, and discounts at affiliated museums and gift shops! https://snr.org.uk/become-a-member/
Dates for your calendar:
12th March 2025: Dr. Jo Stanley (independent scholar), “Diversity at Sea: How sharing historical research can make a difference to the present and future of the maritime industry and public understanding”
19th March 2025: Dr. Cathryn Pearce (University of Portsmouth), “‘Bandied about for a place of refuge’: Extreme Weather, Coastal Shipping, and the Loss of Lord Nelson, 1840”
How to attend the lectures?
Zoom details will be circulated prior to each of the lectures but details can also be found in the “events” section of the members area of the SNR website (Click Here).
For any questions or queries please contact the convener (daisy.turnbull@myport.ac.uk).
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UPCOMING NAVAL & MARITIME HISTORY GATHERINGS | |
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27–30 March 2025: Society for Military History (SMH) Annual Meeting, Mobile, AL
9–11 April 2025: Council of American Maritime Museums Annual Meeting, Pensacola, FL
14 May 2025: Annual Meeting of the US Naval Institute, Annapolis MD, 4 PM (EDT)
22–25 May 2025: Canadian Nautical Research Society Annual Conference Port Hope,
Ontario
18–19 September 2025: McMullen Naval History Symposium, US Naval Academy
24–27 September 2025: Historic Naval Ship Association (HNSA) Symposium/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 interviews 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: 245 - Brian Dickinson: Calm in the Chaos>>
Click here for all Preble Hall Podcasts >>
| DRACHINIFEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | 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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