Old Weather Forum

1822 - The brig USS Alligator, commanded by Lt. William H. Allen, recaptures several merchant ships from pirates off Matanzas,
Cuba, but Allen dies in battle. Boats from Alligator capture all the pirate vessels except one schooner that manages to escape.



https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... r-iii.html

https://www.geonames.org/4145903/alligator-reef.html

1944 – The ammunition ship USS Mount Hood explodes at Seeadler Harbour, Manus, Admiralty Islands, killing at least 432 and wounding 371.

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... ood-i.html


Underway in Hampton Roads, Virginia, 6 August 1944.


Off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, 16 July 1944. She is painted in camouflage.


Explodes in Seeadler Harbor, Manus, Admiralty Islands, 10 November 1944. Note smoke trails left by fragments ejected by the explosion.


Salvage and rescue work underway on USS Mindanao (ARG-3) shortly after Mount Hood blew up about 350 yards away. Note heavy damage to Mindanao's hull and superstructure, including large holes from fragment impacts. View looks forward from alongside her port quarter. USS Mindanao had 180 crewmen killed and injured by this explosion. She was under repair until 21 December 1944.

The History of Veterans Day

Navy History Matters — Veterans Day

Ask An Archivist Day

1776 - The Continental Navy ship Alfred, commanded by John Paul Jones, along with Continental sloop Providence, commanded by Hoysted Hacker, capture the British transport Mellish, carrying winter uniforms later used by Gen. George Washingtons troops. Three days later, Alfred captures the British brig Hetty off the New England coast.


Alfred, at Philadelphia, 3 December 1775, hoists the Grand Union flag for the first time,
in this painting by W. Nowland Van Powell. (NH 85212-KN)

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... lfred.html

1906 - Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first president to visit a foreign country while in office, traveling to Panama onboard USS Louisiana (BB 19)


President Theodore Roosevelt coming aboard USS Louisiana (BB-L9) at Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1906.


Photographed by E. Muller, 1907.


Underway circa 1910-1914.

Louisiana III (Battleship No. 19) 1906-1920

https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/thre ... post-45248

1836 - Under the command of Lt. Henry H. Bell, the sloop-of-war USS Saint Louis conducts an exploratory expedition along the coast of Florida with four boats and 70 men.

1846 - The fourth USS Boston, an 18-gun sloop of war, was wrecked on Eleuthera Island, Bahamas, during a squall. Although the sloop was a total loss, all hands were saved.
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... on-iv.html

https://www.history.navy.mil/today-in-h ... er-16.html

1776 — The Dutch fort at St. Eustatius, West Indies, salutes the Grand Union flag flying from the Continental Navy brig Andrew Doria, the first salute rendered to an American flag.


Andrew Doria receives a salute from the Dutch fort at St. Eustatius, 16 November 1776, the first rendered
to the American flag by a foreign power, as depicted in this painting by Philips Melville. (NH 92866-KN)

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... ria-i.html

https://www.history.navy.mil/today-in-h ... er-17.html

1854 — A landing party consisting of sailors and Marines from the sloop-of-war Vincennes goes ashore at Okinawa, Japan, to enforce the provisions of the Treaty of Naha signed in July.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorag ... e_0252.jpg


USS Vincennes in Disappointment Bay, Antarctica, during the Wilkes exploring expedition. (NH83178)

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... nes-i.html

https://www.history.navy.mil/today-in-h ... er-20.html

1776 — The Continental Congress authorizes the construction of three 74-gun ships-of-the-line. Only one, America, is ever completed with its prospective commanding officer John Paul Jones. Before it ever puts to sea under the colors of the United States, the Continental Congress presents it to France as a gift to replace the French ship Magnifique, which had run aground in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts.

1856 — In response to Chinese barrier forts firing on U.S. naval vessels attempting to proceed up the Pearl River, China, to retrieve the landing party that went ashore at Canton the previous October, a force of 287 men led by Commander Andrew Foote storms the barrier forts. Supported in their endeavor by fire from the sloops-of-war Levant and Portsmouth, the force marches across rice fields and fords a creek in attacking the first fort, and captures the remaining three forts over the course of two days. The Americans lose 42 men killed and wounded, and Portsmouth and Levant suffer more than 20 hits. However, the Chinese suffer some 400 casualties and, more importantly, lose four modern forts containing some 176 cannon. (20–22 November)

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... evant.html
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... th-ii.html


Portsmouth

Navy Commissions First African American Woman Officers
Mildred H. McAfee, Director of the WAVES welcomed all qualified candidates but Secretary of the Navy William Franklin Knox opposed her plan believing that blacks could not meet the high standards set forth the WAVES. In fact she later recalled in a letter to historian Morris J. MacGregor that she overheard him Knox say that Negroes would be in the WAVES over his dead body. Ironically that is how it happened. James Forrestal succeeded Knox after his fatal heart attack in April 1944. Forrestal concluded that having a segregated Navy was not cost effective and his experiences with Lester Granger, a fellow student at Dartmouth University and other blacks persuaded him to work towards integration.

1858 – Launch of USS Hartford, a sloop-of-war, steamer





https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... tford.html

1822 - USS Alligator, Lt. Robert F Stockton, set on fire and blew up after being stranded on Carysford Reef, off Florida


Remote-Sensing Survey for the Remains of the USS Alligator - Summer 2004

Alligator III (Schooner)

1862 - During the Civil War, the screw steam gunboat USS Monticello destroys two Confederate salt works near Little River, N.C., while
the screw steam gunboat USS Sagamore captures two British blockade runners, schooner Agnes and sloop Ellen, in Indian River, Florida.

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... llo-i.html
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... oat-i.html

Happy Birthday Devil Dogs


USS Missouri (BB-11) — Sailors and Marines of the ship's Rifle Team, posing with a trophy and Krag-Jorgensen rifles, circa 1909.
Note Gun Pointer, First Class, and former-Naval Apprentice marks worn by the men kneeling in the center.
Collection of Chief Quartermaster John Harold, USN. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/thre ... post-46289

1776 - During the American Revolution, the Continental sloop USS Independence, commanded by Capt. John Young, captures the British merchant ship Sam with $20,000 in coin on board.
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... nce-i.html

1812 – Launch of USS Madison, a U.S. Navy corvette (or sloop) built during the War of 1812 for use on the Great Lakes.
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... son-i.html

1864 - The Sassacus class "double-ender" steam gunboat USS Metacomet, commanded by Lt. Cmdr. J.E. Jouett, captures Confederate blockade runner steamer Susanna in the Gulf of Mexico off Campeche Banks. Half her cargo of cotton is thrown overboard in the chase.
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... comet.html

https://www.history.navy.mil/today-in-h ... er-27.html

1864 — An explosion, probably triggered by a Confederate “coal torpedo” (an explosive charge disguised as a lump of coal) planted in its boiler, destroys Greyhound, the headquarters steamer of General Benjamin Butler, on the James River. In addition to Butler, Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter, on board for a conference, narrowly escapes harm.
https://www.history.navy.mil/content/hi ... hound.html

https://www.history.navy.mil/today-in-h ... er-28.html

1800 — The frigate Essex arrives in New York after a cruise of nearly 11 months to the Indian Ocean, during which it becomes the first U.S. warship to go twice around the Cape of Good Hope.
https://www.history.navy.mil/content/hi ... sex-i.html

https://www.history.navy.mil/today-in-h ... er-30.html

1864 — A naval brigade, consisting of some 500 sailors and Marines from ships of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron under Commander George H. Preble, join Union army forces in fighting the Battle of Honey Hill in South Carolina. The landing party’s role is to cut the Charleston-Savannah Railroad, thus assisting the efforts of General William T. Sherman in his march toward Savannah. The naval brigade is not withdrawn until 28 December, after nearly one month of action.

1882 — The U.S. Naval Academy plays its first football game, losing to the Clifton Football Club by a score of 8–0.

1912 — With Lieutenant Theodore G. Ellyson at the controls, the Navy’s first flying boat, the Curtiss C-1, undergoes flight testing at Lake Keuka in Hammondsport, New York. Flying boats play an essential role in naval aviation operations for the next half-century
https://www.geonames.org/5119893/hammondsport.html


Curtiss C-1 Seaplane
Leaving the catapult during barge-mounted catapult tests at the Washington Navy Yard, November 1912.


Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Florida.
Tent Hangars at the Pensacola Flying School, photographed from the watch tower, fall 1915.
Planes in foreground are of Curtiss C-1 type. Other planes appear to be Curtiss "A" types.