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18 April 2023
Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends who share a love for naval history!
Today marks two notable anniversaries: the Doolittle raid against Japan, and Operation Praying Mantis against Iran. The former saw the launching of a squadron of Army B-25 Mitchell medium bombers in 1942, led by Col. Jimmy Doolittle off the flight deck of the USS Hornet on a one-way mission that would be detailed in the book and movie 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, and the latter saw a raid in 1988 against two Iranian militarized oil platforms, following the mining of the frigate Samuel B. Roberts, turn into the largest surface navy engagement fought by the US Navy (with help from the carrier USS Enterprise) since the end of World War II.
Congratulations to the National Maritime Historical Society, which conducted its 60th-anniversary annual meeting this past weekend at The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia. Among the naval history-related activities were tours of the battleship Wisconsin at Nauticus and a tour of the USS Monitor Center at The Mariners’ Museum.
Leading a series of impressive maritime heritage presentations, Howard H. Hoege III, president and CEO of the Mariner’s Museum, spoke on the remarkable turnaround of the decades-old Newport News facility, changing its focus from hosting blockbuster exhibitions to becoming a community service institution. A natural leader, no doubt enhanced through his attendance at West Point and service as an Army Ranger in Iraq, Hoege embraced the honor of being an Army veteran entrusted with the care of one of the Navy’s most precious artifacts: the turret of USS Monitor. “Running your hand across the armor and feeling indentations made by Confederate cannonballs can easily cause you to become emotional,” he noted in lunchtime conversion. The Mariners’ Museum hosts the Batten Conservation Complex, Monitor’s turret, and hundreds of smaller components of the vessel lost off the Outer Banks.
A Big Happening occurred in the nation’s capital with the unveiling of concepts for a new Navy Museum, courtesy of some of this country’s top architectural firms. The Naval History and Heritage Command reporting of the event is our featured content. Another Big Happening this week will be the Council of American Maritime Museums' annual meeting, commencing tomorrow in Astoria, Oregon. Our best wishes for a productive conclave!
No book reviews this week. Instead, in addition to the current list of available books, we are listing books received by the Sea History magazine editorial staff that are seeking reviewers. As always send your requests to david.winkler@usnwc.edu.
Regarding recognition, we tip our cap to Craig Symonds for a recent honor he received in Chicago, and note nominations are being solicited by the US Naval Institute for the Commodore Dudley Knox Award for Lifetime Achievement in the field of naval history.
Finally, for this week’s “In Case You Missed It” we offer a Sea History Today article published one year ago about “When Sailors Die.”
Tuesday Tidings is compiled by Dr. David F. Winkler and Jessie Henderson. As always, comments are welcome at nmhs@seahistory.org.
| ITEMS OF IMMEDIATE INTEREST | |
19 April: Virtual Brown Bag Brief: Collections Talk on Facebook Prime
Noon-1 PM EDT
With Wesley Schwenk who joined the National Museum of the U.S. Navy in the spring of 2019.
Virtual Brown Bag Brief: Collections Talk (navy.mil)
20 April: Empire of Ice and Stone with author Buddy Levy
7 – 9 PM EDT
The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, VA.
Empire of Ice and Stone - The Mariners’ Museum and Park (marinersmuseum.org)
20 April: Movie at the Memorial: Men of Honor
7:30 – 9:30 PM EDT
Navy Memorial, Washington, DC
Events — United States Navy Memorial >>
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SECNAV Unveils Concepts for Planned Navy Museum - April 13, 2023 | |
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro unveiled conceptual renderings from five architecture firms at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy, finalizing the Navy’s Artistic Ideas competition, in an effort to explore the possibilities for the planned Navy museum. | |
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Following the SECNAV’s October announcement of the preferred location for the Navy’s planned museum, Naval History and Heritage Command moved forward with its conceptual development phase and initiated the ideas competition in an effort to explore the full realm of artistic ideas that might be incorporated into a new museum.
The competition sought concepts and ideas for the planned project from a broad range of individuals and architecture firms. Following the initial announcement in December, 80 firms expressed interest in participating; 37 firms then submitted qualifications, and finally, the Navy selected five architecture firms as finalists: Bjarke Ingels Group, DLR Group, Frank Gehry Partners, Perkins & Will and Quinn Evans.
Since January, the firms developed their unique submissions of conceptual ideas to include a museum entrance, an atrium, a ceremonial courtyard, and the incorporation of some of the Navy’s larger artifacts, like a Corsair aircraft, a Swift Boat, and the sail of a submarine.
“We are pleased to display five visions for the future of the National Museum of the US Navy,” said Secretary Del Toro, “while each concept is different, all of them show how we might celebrate our Navy’s accomplishments, honor our veterans and point the way toward the Navy’s future.”
The Navy envisions a future museum that would offer greater public access that could include a new building and the potential renovation of existing historical buildings. The planned museum campus would consist of approximately 270,000 square feet and include about 100,000 square feet of net gallery space.
Read the full article>>
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Pritzker Military Museum & Library Presents Its Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing to Author Dr. Craig L. Symonds | |
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During its annual On War Military History Symposium held last week, the Pritzker Military Museum and Library presented Dr. Craig L. Symonds with the 2023 PMML Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement Military Writing. The Literature Award serves to recognize a living author who has made a significant contribution to the understanding of military history, including military affairs. Dr. Symonds is Professor Emeritus of History at the United States Naval Academy, where he taught for thirty years, including a four-year term as history department chair, and is the author of seventeen books. He is decorated with many awards, including the Academy’s Teacher of the Year Award, Navy Meritorious Service Award, and Researcher of the Year Award.
“We are proud to award the Pritzker Military Museum & Library’s Literature Award to Dr. Symonds,” said Pritzker Military Museum & Library founder Colonel (IL) Jennifer N. Pritzker, IL ARNG (Ret). “While he is already decorated with many awards, including the Academy’s Teacher of the Year Award, Navy Meritorious Service Award, and Researcher of the Year Award, Dr. Symonds’s profound collection of books deserves recognition from the PMML.” Symonds is the author of seventeen books. They include biographies of Civil War figures Joseph E. Johnston (1992), Patrick Cleburne (1997), and Franklin Buchanan (1999), as well as books on the Second World War, including The Battle of Midway (2011), Operation Neptune (2014), and World War II at Sea (2018). His 2005 book, Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History, won the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Prize for Naval History, and his 2008 book, Lincoln and His Admirals: Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy, and the Civil War, won the prestigious Lincoln Prize. His books have been translated into six foreign languages. In 2014 he was awarded the Dudley Knox Medal for lifetime achievement. His newest book is a wartime biography of Admiral Chester Nimitz entitled Nimitz at War, released in 2022.
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USNI SEEKS NOMINATIONS FOR KNOX AWARD | |
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As noted, Prof. Symonds was a 2014 recipient of the Commodore Dudley Knox Medal for Lifetime Achievement. Originally established by the Naval Historical Foundation in 2013, the Knox Award recognizes contributions in scholarship, mentorship, leadership, and/or significant participation in organizations or institutions that promote naval/maritime, and/or military history.
Nominations should include the reason for the nomination and a summary of the achievements of the nominee. Submit your nominations to navalhistorian@usni.org by 15 July 2023. The awardee will be recognized and presented with the Knox Medal at the Naval Institute’s Jack C. Taylor Conference Center on September 21, 2023, following the McMullen Naval History Symposium.
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21 April 2022 — When Sailors Die at Sea
“The sea is the largest cemetery, and its slumberers sleep without a monument. All other graveyards show symbols of distinction between great and small, rich and poor; but in the ocean cemetery, the king, the clown, the prince, and the peasant are alike undistinguishable.”—George Bruce
Benjamin Franklin wrote that “in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” As we in the United States emerge from the annual ritual known as Tax Season, it seemed a fitting time to look at a few of the customs followed when a sailor breathed his last aboard ship in the Age of Sail.
The most common practice after the death of a sailor was to weight the body and wrap it in a shroud—typically a hammock, or a blanket or piece of canvas—and sew it shut. There are numerous accounts in memoirs and literature, as well as a moving scene in the television series Outlander, of the practice of stitching the final stitch in the shroud through the nose of the departed, but it is unclear just how prevalent that practice was. There was an element of superstition involved—it was thought to be a deterrent to keep the departed from escaping trappings of burial and haunting the ship—along with the practical aspect of verifying that the subject was, indeed, dead. Botanist Dr. Charles Peter Thunberg reported in his memoir Travels in Europe, Africa, and Asia, Made Between the Years 1770 and 1779, of an incident at sea in 1774, when illness had spread among the crew:
Five men had been reported dead, all of them had been sewed up in their hammocks, and two had already been thrown overboard, when the third, the instant he was put on the plank, called out, “Master Boatswain, I am alive still!” to which the Boatswain with unreasonable jocularity replied, “You alive, indeed! what, do you pretend to know better than the surgeon?”
Read full article>>
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS | |
NOTE FOR AUTHORS OF VIETNAM NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS: The Capital Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States has been provided a tent on the National Mall for the forthcoming Vietnam Veterans welcome home event to be held in the nation’s capital from 11 to 13 May. To provide historical context for the thousands of veterans expected to attend, the Naval Order seeks authors of sea service Vietnam-themed books to be on hand to autograph books and talk history with those who served in SE Asia. If you are interested in participating, contact Dave Winkler at david.winkler@usnwc.edu. | |
NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | |
NAVAL HISTORICAL ANNIVERSARIES OF NOTE | |
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Doolittle Raid
18 April 1942
Conceived in January 1942 in the wake of the devastating Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the “joint Army-Navy bombing project” was to bomb Japanese industrial centers, to inflict both “material and psychological” damage upon the enemy. Planners hoped that the former would include the destruction of specific targets “with ensuing confusion and retardation of production.” Those who planned the attacks on the Japanese homeland hoped to induce the enemy to recall “combat equipment from other theaters for home defense,” and incite a “fear complex in Japan.” Additionally, it was hoped that the prosecution of the raid would improve the United States’ relationships with its allies and receive a “favorable reaction [on the part] of the American people.”
Originally, the concept called for the use of U.S. Army Air Force bombers to be launched from, and recovered by, an aircraft carrier. Research disclosed the North American B-25 Mitchell to be “best suited to the purpose,” the Martin B-26 Marauder possessing unsuitable handling characteristics and the Douglas B-23 Dragon having too great a wingspan to be comfortably operated from a carrier deck. Tests off the aircraft carrier Hornet (CV-8) off Norfolk, and ashore at Norfolk soon proved that while a B-25 could take off with comparative ease, “landing back on again would be extremely difficult.”
The attack planners decided upon a carrier transporting the B-25s to a point east of Tokyo, whereupon she would launch one pathfinder to proceed ahead and drop incendiaries to blaze a trail for the other bombers that would follow. The planes would then proceed to either the east coast of China or to Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. However, Soviet reluctance to allow the use of Vladivostok as a terminus and the Stalin regime’s unwillingness to provoke Japan compelled the selection of Chinese landing sites. At a secret conference in San Francisco, Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, USAAF, who would lead the attack personally, met with Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., who would command the task force that would take Doolittle’s aircraft to the very gates of the empire. They agreed upon a launch point some 600 miles due east from Tokyo, but, if discovered, Task Force 16 (TF-16) would launch planes at that point and retire.
Read more here>>
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The Doolitte Raid on Tokyo (1942): The US Strikes Back | Battle 360 | History | |
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Operation Praying Mantis
On 18 April 1988, the US Navy launched Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian targets in the Arabian Gulf in retaliation for USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) mining four days earlier, which blew an immense hole in the ship’s hull. Ten Sailors from Samuel B. Roberts sustained severe injuries. Four were seriously burned. Commander Paul X. Rinn was hurt as well. The ship should have sunk, but thanks to an extraordinary damage control effort by all hands of an extremely well-trained crew, Samuel B. Roberts was kept afloat.
The US response was fierce. Operation Praying Mantis was the largest of five major US Navy surface actions since World War II. It was the first, and so far only, time the US Navy has exchanged surface-to-surface missile fire with an enemy, and it resulted in the largest warship sunk by the US Navy since WWII. In the one-day operation, the US Navy destroyed two Iranian surveillance platforms, sank two of their ships, and severely damaged another.
Read more here>>
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ADDITIONAL FEATURED CONTENT | |
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18th-Century American 12-pounder Cannon
by John L. Morris
The cast-iron cannon pictured was one of dozens of cannons deaccessioned by Fort Ticonderoga, NY, at auction ca. 2016. It was purchased by an east-coast militaria dealer, who kept it in storage since the auction. Its condition, given its age of about 250 years spent mostly outdoors, is actually very good, except for the trunnions and vent. The trunnions are extensively corroded, possibly from having been displayed on a wooden carriage while exposed to the elements. The vent is greatly enlarged, which normally results from extensive firing. Recently the cannon was measured to identify the date and country of manufacture. The critical measurements were: Bore diameter 4.6 in., nominal length 87.5 in., kl 16 in. What remains of the trunnions are below the barrel’s centerline, which means it probably predates 1780, when the writings of John Muller convinced most cannon designers to place trunnions on the centerline. The dimensions of the cannon are very close to those of one version of the 12-pounder iron “garrison gun” called out in the English Board of Ordnance regulations of 1764 (length 90 in.). The weight given for the English piece, in hundredweights, is 29-1-0. Conversion to pounds: (29 x 112) + 28 + 0 = 3,276 lbs.
This gun’s profile differs significantly from that of contemporaneous English weapons, which had more “mouldings” (raised rings) than the ex-Ticonderoga piece. Also, English iron guns usually have a very conspicuous royal cypher cast in relief on top of the gun. The most familiar example on surviving specimens is “GR” for George Rex, meaning King George. The only easily visible mark on the Fort Ticonderoga piece is an incised numeral “2” which we know, by its off-center-right location, is probably the last digit in a multi-digit “hundredweight” marking. The overall contour of this cannon is greatly “streamlined” and simple compared to cannons of similar size cast in other countries. Harold Peterson’s classic book Round Shot and Rammers (Stackpole, Harrisburg, 1969) contains good drawings of similar-size cannons of the same timeframe made in Spain, France, Sweden, and England and all have much more complex contours than the Ticonderoga piece. In view of the information above, this gun is likely of American make, and almost certainly predates 1780.
Read full article>>
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NAVAL HISTORY CALLS FOR PAPERS | |
UPCOMING NAVAL & MARITIME HISTORY GATHERINGS | |
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19–21 April 2023 Council of American Maritime Museums (CAMM) Conference, Columbia River Maritime Museum, Astoria, OR
9 May 2023: National Maritime Awards Dinner, National Press Club, Washington, DC
10 May 2023: 150th Annual Meeting of the US Naval Institute, Annapolis, MD
17–20 May 2023: North American Society for Oceanic History Conference, Maritime Museum of San Diego, CA
18–21 September 2023: Historic Naval Ship Association Conference aboard USS Slater
21 September 2023: Navy Memorial Lone Sailor Award Dinner, National Building Museum, Washington, DC
21–22 September 2023: McMullen Naval History Symposium, US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD
17–22 October 2023: Naval Order of the United States Congress, San Diego
| Click here to watch Dr. Michael A. Verney’s presentation of his book: A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic. | 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: 185: Admiral Mike Mullen, Part 8: CNO>>
Click here for all Preble Hall Podcasts >>
| NAVAL HISTORY & HERITAGE COMMAND H-GRAMS | |
H-Gram 078: 20 March 2023 >> The Revolt of the Admirals, Ship Renaming
| 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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