Tuesday Tidings is published by the National Maritime Historical Society with support from the US Naval Institute. Interested in joining USNI? Click on the USNI logo to become a member! | | | |
17 June 2025
Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends who share a love for naval history!
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Happy Birthday to the Navy Hospital Corps which, was founded on this date in 1898!
In this edition we note that, once again, the naval history field is not immune from the ongoing “culture wars” that have been intensifying in recent years. On a more positive note, however, with baseball being integral to our culture, we have another Navy/baseball crossover, thanks to Dr. David Kohnen of the Naval War College and Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees.
For this week’s Naval History Book Review, we thank Dr. Charles Kolb for his review of an interesting account of World War II from a British perspective. Speaking of Britain, we have details of a forthcoming conference at Greenwich.
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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. Note that Dr. Winkler will be streaming live from the wardroom of USS Iowa at 8 PM EDT tonight. Feel free to join in! (One of the subjects of tonight’s talk, Adm. James L. Holloway Jr., commanded Iowa during World War II.)
As always, comments and naval history news items are welcome at nmhs@seahistory.org.
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ITEMS OF IMMEDIATE INTEREST | |
Tuesday, 17 June – Battleship Iowa Author Talk
Destroyers at War – The Two Admiral Holloways
With David F. Winkler
5 PM PDT (In Person/Zoom)
Wednesday, 18 June – World War II Museum Author Talk
Armies Afloat: How the Development of Amphibious Operations in Europe Helped Win World War II
With John Curatola, PhD.
4:30-6:30 PM CDT (Virtual/in person)
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Naval Historians Weigh in on Proposed Ship-Naming Changes—
USNI Author argued for Naming Reforms
| | USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO 206) (US Navy photo) | | |
In an article published on June 4 in the Miami Herald following the announcement by Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth of intent to rename the oiler USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO 206), naval historians were asked by reporter Brendan Rascius if it was common practice to change ship names. The responses recalled many examples when ship names were reappropriated for a newer ship class. Cases cited included the renaming of armored cruisers from the Great White Fleet era to the names of US cities to free up previously held state names for battleships. Hence the armored cruiser California became the San Diego, and Tennessee became the Memphis. During World War II, the escort carrier Midway was renamed St. Lo to free up that name for the carrier that is now a museum ship in San Diego. Rascius also reported that seaman’s lore holds that misfortune may follow the rebranded vessel. (It should be noted that San Diego was sunk by a German U-Boat off Rhode Island near the end of World War I, Memphis was taken out by a rogue wave off Santo Domingo in 1916, and St. Lo met her fate at Leyte Gulf in October 1944.)
However, Rascius reported that the motivation for recent ship name changes has little precedent in naval history. “What is not common is renaming ships for overtly ideological reasons,” stated University of Alabama professor John Beeler. Southern Connecticut State University professor Jason Smith added: “renaming ships for political reasons has been virtually unheard of until recently…” He noted the rare precedents of the 2023 renaming of the cruiser USS Chancellorsville and the oceanographic research vessel USNS Maury. The former name celebrated a Confederate victory during the American Civil War, and the latter honored an oceanographer who left the US Navy to serve with the South. In contrast, the Army saw the renaming of many of its bases that had been named to honor Confederate leaders—a means to heal regional divisions as the nation prepared to fight two world wars during the 20th century. In this regard, the Navy was fortunate, as ships are decommissioned after a few decades of service. For example, there is no need to grapple with changing the name of USS Robert E. Lee (SSBN 601), USS Stonewall Jackson (SSBN 634) or USS Buchanan (DDG 14) (Note: the former Buchanan House at USNA is now Farragut House.)
One would like to think that the practice of naming ships should be apolitical. However, it was Adm. Hyman Rickover who reportedly responded to an inquiry about why the Navy shifted the naming of submarines from fish to cities by stating “fish don’t vote.” In an October 2003 Naval Submarine Review article Capt. John O’Connell observed that Rickover also oversaw who was selected to be the sponsor of the submarine—selecting the wives of prominent politicians who had sway over future submarine funding. In his reported retort, Rickover simply reiterated something the Navy had been practicing for much of its existence – the naming of ships for states, cities, and other geographic entities served as a bridge to connect with citizens from those locales (and earn support from those locales for funding sea power). An example: for the George Washington birthday parade in Alexandria, Virginia, there usually is a contingent of sailors from USS Alexandria (SSN 757) taking part. (Alexandria also represents Alexandria, Louisiana—the Navy gets a two-fer!) When deploying overseas, ships named for states and cities represent not only the nation but also serve as ambassadors for those locales. When USS New York (LPD 21) pulls into an overseas port, it is often viewed as an emissary from the Empire State. The Navy is not the only service to pursue this practice. The Air Force has named its B-2 bomber fleet for states, with names such as Spirit of Ohio and Spirit of Indiana. We are not too sure that a nuclear-weapon delivery system captures the spirit of either Ohio or Indiana, but hats off to the Air Force for trying.
What is disturbing about Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s announcement about the DoD’s intent to rename the Harvey Milk is that, in doing so, he is usurping a prerogative of the secretary of the Navy. Over a decade ago Ronald O’Rourke of the Congressional Research Service published an extensive study on ship naming practices that reaffirmed that the secretary of the Navy names ships. That being said, there has been a tendency in recent years of Navy secretaries naming ships to promote agendas of the party in power rather than the interests of the service. Subsequently, James Young wrote a thoughtful piece in 2017 in the Naval Institute’s Proceedings titled: “We Must Change How We Name Ships.”
In it, he argued that ship naming “has become an increasingly partisan exercise for whatever political party holds the White House and thus nominates the Secretary of the Navy.” Though written nearly a decade ago, Young’s concerns remain germane. Sadly, his call for congressional action “to compel the Navy to adopt a transparent system that both reflects the service’s values and restores the public’s trust in an apolitical force” might be a bit of a pipe dream in the current political environment.
| | McMullen Naval History Symposium Still a Go | | |
Tuesday Tidings has learned that the McMullen Naval History Symposium is still set for September 18–19 in the wake of a decision by the US Naval Academy’s legal counsel directing the history department to rescind the acceptance of one the symposium papers due to content that conflicts with current Department of Defense directives on DEI content. Rather than to implement the decision, the chairman of the Naval Academy History Department chose to resign. In his letter dated 3 June to the Provost, Tom McCarthy wrote: “While I keenly understand the difficulties of our moment, vetting speakers and papers is not a good place to be for an American institution of higher education, nor is it tenable in the long-run, if we are to remain true to our values as academics and Americans.”
The National Maritime Historical Society strongly concurs with Dr. McCarthy’s sentiments and strongly urges that the Naval Academy administration reconsider the directive given this has been a long-standing academic forum that has brought great benefits to the institution and to the naval history profession in general.
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Coming in September!
Britain, Conflict, and the Sea Conference
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This conference seeks to explore the ways in which modern Britain has been shaped by ideas and practices of maritime war.
It is an interdisciplinary conference developed in collaboration with and hosted by Royal Museums Greenwich, with generous support from the British Academy.
Understandings of “Britishness” have been bound up with conflict and seafaring for centuries. The sea has served as a barrier, marking the mental borderlines of an “island people” and distinguishing them from European “others.” It has also facilitated the development and projection of British imperial power and capital on a global scale. This conference aims to explore the production, consumption, evolution and impact of these ideas and developments between the Napoleonic Wars and today.
Overarching narratives of the sea in modern British history depict this story in terms of the “rise and fall” of British identification with the sea. The story runs as follows: sea power saved Britain from Napoleonic invasion in 1803–04, and the intense anti-French propaganda and opposition to continental dictatorship developed a new form of “national” awareness during successive wars against France. The imagery of “jack tar” and Lord Nelson reflected the embodiment of the masculine naval ideal.
By the late nineteenth century, the abolition of the Corn Laws and the growth of global trade ushered in the political and economic basis for widespread popular awareness of Britain as a metaphorical “island,” ringed by the warships of the Royal Navy. The popular navalism of the pre-1914 period, and the conditions that supported it, were fundamentally undone by the First World War. The conflict destabilised the Navy’s prominent place within popular culture, and ushered in newfound forms of common identity and aspiration. The aeroplane became the new symbol of technological modernity, and after 1945 the sea receded to the margins of the British consciousness—where it remains to this day.
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to reappraise this account, to widen its parameters, and to ask new questions about modern Britain, conflict, and the sea. A key focus of the event will be upon the interaction between stories about “Britain, Conflict and the Sea,” and the political, economic, and military contexts and practices that those narratives existed within.
The conference will take place in the Lecture Theatre at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich on 12–13 September. Conference point of contact: Dr David Morgan-Owen (david.morgan-owen@kcl.ac.uk)
Read more here>>
| | Hall of Famer David Kohnen? | | Naval Historian David Kohnen at the top of his game in a recent appearance at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Photo courtesy David Kohnen. | | On May 31st, Naval War College historian David Kohnen lectured at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, about the inspired strategy of US Navy admiral William S. Sims in efforts to foster collaboration among multinational naval forces in European waters during the First World War. Sims used baseball to rally support for the collective cause by building a team of ringers then serving in the wartime ranks and then organizing a “world series” for Army and Navy teams to entertain King George V in London. The King signed a baseball that the New York Times later described as the “instrument of surrender” to the Americans by the British. The 4th of July 1918 game also marked the first time that a member of the British royal family acquiesced to give formal recognition of the former colonies in America as the sovereign country we know today as the United States … Kohnen’s remarks were derived from his booklet Remain Cheerful: Baseball, Britannia, and American Independence, which is also available for download at the Naval War College Foundation website here. | | Bobblehead Honors Berra’s Service at D-Day | | | | This past 6 June, the Yankees hosted the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium and the first 18,000 fans to arrive received this commemorative bobblehead marking the 81st anniversary of Berra’s service as a coxswain at Normandy! | | NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS | | |
Sunk by A U-Boat Attacked by Kamikazes: Memoirs of a War at Sea
By John Marsden, Yorkshire and Philadelphia: Pen & Sword Maritime an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd, (2024)
Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, Ph.D.
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The title highlights two events of a detailed biography written by the son of an ordinary British sailor who survived an air raid on the night of 4 May 1941, and lost two members of his family before the Liverpool blitz ended. On 9 June 1941—his eighteenth birthday—Joseph Marsden volunteered for naval service. John Marsden’s “tale of one man’s experiences” is a son’s biography of his father’s service in the Royal Navy during World War II. The reader is not informed about son John’s background or credentials—John appears not to be a professional historian, nor an Australian solicitor, author of 40 books, and a literary giant or a British clinical researcher; or any number of British or American citizens—all named John Marsden.
As a reviewer, I would like to know the son better and commend him for his meticulous research in British archives, his keen eye for detail, and ability to weave his father’s oral history into the historical record and even to add to and correct official documents. John informs us that he conducted an oral history with his father from 2004 to 2010 before moving to lengthy archival research in the Admiralty Papers held in the National Archives, Kew, and images at the Merseyside Museum in Liverpool. The son also sought the assistance of his family’s friends and among his father’s wartime acquaintances, as well as other sons who also wrote about their fathers’ wartime exploits. Joseph was an accomplished storyteller and his son a skilled organizer of the oral components (some running to a half dozen pages or more), which are indicated by double indentations (there is no change of font separating the oral from documentary history.
The published volume is well-organized chronologically in 13 chapters, beginning with Joseph’s birth on 9 June 1923, his childhood through school years, the Liverpool blitz, enlistment, engagements, and final “de-mob” (demobilization = separation) from the Royal Navy in July 1946. In addition, there are 165 endnotes (the chapters on the major combat engagements, 4, 7, and 10, are heavily referenced). A bibliography with only nine published works and 20 unpublished historical sources; a useful index divided into nine topics; two appendices; and 33 monochrome images grouped between pages 112–113, complete the 222-page narrative.
Read full review>>
| | NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | | |
Mariners’ Mirror Podcast
This episode explores how and why maritime infrastructure is critical to our lives as we live them today. To find out more, Dr. Sam Willis spoke with Tim Edmunds, Professor of International Security at the University of Bristol and an advisor for the UK’s National Strategy for Maritime Security, and Erin Bisset, infrastructure superintendent at the Royal Naval Base in Portsmouth.
Listen here>>
| | Call for Papers: International Journal of Naval History | | |
Call for Papers: Trafalgar Chronicle
Publication Date: Fall 2026
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THEME: Navies in the Age of Revolutions, 1775–1848
For the 2026 edition of the Trafalgar Chronicle, New Series 10, the editors seek carefully researched, scholarly articles on Navies in the Age of Revolutions, 1775–1848. We invite essays about naval contributions, roles, and issues in the context of revolutionary political, social, economic, and technological change during the last decades of the Age of Sail.
Additional Topics: We also seek general interest articles with unique perspectives on the maritime and naval history of the Georgian era: biographical portraits, battles at sea, maritime economics, exploration of foreign shores, foreign relations, politics, etc.
Proposal Submission Guidelines: Please submit a proposal/abstract of about 500 words and a paragraph about your background (a biographical sketch) by 1 September 2025. Applicants will be notified of acceptance status by 1 October 2025. Submit all proposals and inquiries to tc.editor@1805Club.org. Detailed author guidelines are available upon request.
Article Guidelines: Articles should range between 3,000 to 5,000 words long in MSWORD (unprotected) following the New Oxford Style Manual. Please include three to six high-resolution illustrations, each in a separate file (jpeg, pdf, or tiff) with a list of captions in a separate file. Articles are due 1 February 2026. They will be edited and, in some cases, submitted to peer review. Articles will be returned to authors for any revisions by 1 April 2026. Revisions are due by 1 May 2026. Publication will be Fall/Autumn 2026. Seaforth Publishing is our publisher.
While we do not pay contributors, each will receive a copy of the Trafalgar Chronicle upon publication. Non-1805 Club members will also receive a free one-year membership. Authors retain copyright to their articles.
Our Contributors: We welcome articles from 1805 Club members and anyone with an interest in the history of the Georgian era sailing navies. Our articles have come from writers of varied backgrounds: historians, journalists, university students, military personnel, preservationists, novelists and enthusiasts of the period. Contact tc.editor@1805Club.org for additional information.
The Trafalgar Chronicle is the scholarly flagship publication of The 1805 Club, a charity registered in England and Wales (number 1202272) with an international membership of scholars and enthusiasts of the Georgian maritime era. The 1805 Club takes its name from the iconic Battle of Trafalgar that gave Nelson his place in history and confirmed the role of the Royal Navy in asserting Britain’s sea power.
| | Brigadier General James L Collins Jr. Book Prize in Military History | | |
The US Commission on Military History proudly announces the submission date for all books
for consideration for the Brigadier General James L. Collins Book Prize in Military History. The
prize entails a $2,000 award to the author, irrespective of nationality, of the best book written in
English on any field of military history published during 2024. The Book Prize Committee,
comprising USCMH members Dr. Edward J. Marolda, (Chair), Dr. Jeffrey Clark, and Dr. John
Hosler, will review the submitted books and select the winner. Topics in all periods and all
aspects of military history (including naval and air warfare) will be considered.
One copy of books for consideration by the Collins Prize Committee must be submitted to each
of the following addresses:
Dr. Edward J. Marolda
15570 Golf Club Drive
Montclair, VA 22015
Dr. Jeffrey Clarke
1011 North Van Dorn Street
Alexandria, VA 22304
Dr. John Hosler
Command and General Staff College
Department of Military History
100 Stimson Avenue
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
Copies must be postmarked no later than 31 December 2025. Upon notification from the
selection committee, the Collins Prize will be presented at the USCMH Annual General Meeting
usually held in early November of the following year. For further information contact the Collins
Prize Committee Chair at: edwardmarolda@yahoo.com
| | UPCOMING NAVAL & MARITIME HISTORY GATHERINGS | | 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: 248 - Marc Leepson - Unlikely War Hero>>
Click here for all Preble Hall Podcasts >>
| DRACHINIFEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | |
NAVY HISTORY MATTERS
Welcome to Navy History Matters, the 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>>
| 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.
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