Naval/Maritime History - 20th of August - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History (2024)

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

19th of March

some of the events you will find here,
please use the following link where you will find more details and all other events of this day .....

1279 - Battle of Yamen - Yuan Dynasty defeats Song Dynasty
The naval Battle of Yamen (simplified Chinese: 崖门战役; traditional Chinese: 厓門戰役) (also known as the Naval Battle of Mount Ya; simplified Chinese: 崖山海战; traditional Chinese: 厓山海戰) took place on 19 March 1279 and is considered to be the last standof the Song dynasty against the invading Mongol Yuan dynasty. Although outnumbered 10:1, the Yuan navy delivered a crushing tactical and strategic victory, destroying the Song.
Today, the battle site is located at Yamen, in Xinhui County, Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province, China.

A park in commemoration of the battle in Xinhui, Jiangmen, Guangdong

1687 – Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687) was a 17th century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico and claimed the entire Mississippi River basin for France.

Painting by Theodore Gudin titled La Salle's Expedition to Louisiana in 1684. The ship on the left is La Belle, in the middle is Le Joly, and L'Aimableis to the right. They are at the entrance to Matagorda Bay

1745 – Launch of French Embuscade, (one-off 38-gun design by Pierre Chaillé, with 26 x 8-pounder and 12 x 4-pounder guns) at Le Havre – captured by British Navy in May 1746, becoming HMS Ambuscade.
HMS Ambuscade was a 40-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had formerly been the French ship Embuscade, captured in 1746.
Embuscade was a one-off 38-gun design by Pierre Chaillé, with 26 × 8-pounder and 12 × 4-pounder guns and was launched at Le Havre on 19 March 1745. She was captured in the English Channel by HMS Defiance on 21 April 1746.

1747 – Launch of HMS Greenwich was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.
HMS Greenwich was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built during the War of the Austrian Succession, and went on to see action in the Seven Years' War, during which she was captured by the French and taken into their service under the same name. She was wrecked shortly afterwards.

1760 – Launch of HMS Thunderer, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Woolwich
HMS Thunderer was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 19 March 1760 at Woolwich. She earned a battle honour in a single-ship action off Cadiz with the French ship Achille (64 guns) in 1761, during the Seven Years' War.

1779 - HMS Arethusa (32), Cptn. Samuel Marshall, wrecked off Ushant
Aréthuse was a French frigate, launched in 1757 during the Seven Years' War. She was captured by the Royal Navy in 1759 and became the fifth-rate HMS Arethusa. She remained in Royal Navy service for twenty years until she was wrecked after being badly damaged in battle.

1779 - cutter HMS Drake was registered and established as a sloop
HMS Drake was a 14-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was bought from a commercial builder during the early years of the American War of Independence, and went on to support operations in the English Channel and the Caribbean. At one stage she assisted an attack on a French-held island, an expedition commanded by a young Horatio Nelson. Laid up for a time after the end of the American War of Independence, she returned to service shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. Drake spent most of her time in Caribbean waters, until being declared unfit for service in 1800 and deleted from the navy lists.
Drake continued in the navy until being deleted from the lists by Admiralty order on 3 July 1800. She was subsequently condemned at Jamaica as unfit for service.

1790 - HMS Sirius was the flagship of the First Fleet, which set out from Portsmouth, England, in 1787 to establish the first European colony in New South Wales, Australia. In 1790, the ship was wrecked on the reef, south east of Kingston Pier, in Slaughter Bay, Norfolk Island.
HMS Sirius was the flagship of the First Fleet, which set out from Portsmouth, England, in 1787 to establish the first European colony in New South Wales, Australia. In 1790, the ship was wrecked on the reef, south east of Kingston Pier, in Slaughter Bay, Norfolk Island.

1798 – Launch of HMS Superb, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, and the fourth vessel to bear the name
HMS Superb was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, and the fourth vessel to bear the name. She was launched on 19 March 1798 from Northfleet, and was eventually broken up in 1826. Superb is mostly associated with Richard Goodwin Keats who commanded her as captain from 1801 until his promotion in 1806. She also served as his flagship from early 1808 until she was paid off in 1809.

1799 - the Spanish naval brig Vencejo, which was built c.1797, probably at Port Mahon, was captured by the British
HMS Vincejo (or Vencejo or Vencego, or informally as Vincey Joe), was the Spanish naval brig Vencejo, which was built c.1797, probably at Port Mahon, and that the British captured in 1799. The Royal Navy took her into service and she served in the Mediterranean where she captured a privateer and a French naval brig during the French Revolutionary Wars. After the start of the Napoleonic Wars, the French captured Vencejo in Quiberon Bay in 1804. The French Navy took her into service as Victorine, but then sold her in January 1805. She then served as the French privateer Comte de Regnaud until the British recaptured her in 1810. The Royal Navy did not take her back into service.

1863 – The SS Georgiana, said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, medicines and merchandise then valued at over $1,000,000.
The Georgiana was a steamer belonging to the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Reputed to be the "most powerful" cruiser in the Confederate fleet, she was never used in battle. On her maiden voyage from Scotland, where she was built, she encountered Union Navy ships engaged in a blockade of Charleston, South Carolina, and was heavily damaged before being scuttled by her captain. The wreck was discovered in 1965 and lies in the shallow waters of Charleston's harbor.
Due to the secrecy surrounding the vessel's construction, loading and sailing, there has been much speculation about her intended role, whether as a cruiser, merchantman, or privateer.

Crewmembers of USS Wissahickon by the ship's 11 in (280 mm) Dahlgren gun.

1870 – Launch of HMS Hotspur, a Victorian Royal Navy ironclad ram – a warship armed with guns but whose primary weapon was a ram.
HMS Hotspur was a Victorian Royal Navy ironclad ram – a warship armed with guns but whose primary weapon was a ram.

1874 – Launch of SMS Kaiser, the lead ship of the Kaiser-class ironclads; SMS Deutschland was her sister ship.
SMS Kaiser was the lead ship of the Kaiser-class ironclads; SMS Deutschland was her sister ship. Named for the title "Kaiser" (German: Emperor), held by the leader of the then newly created German Empire, the ship was laid down in the Samuda Brothers shipyard in London in 1871. The ship was launched in March 1874 and commissioned into the German fleet in February 1875. Kaiser mounted a main battery of eight 26 cm (10 in) guns in a central battery amidships.

SMS Kaiser in Constantinople

1917 - Danton – She was torpedoed by U-64, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Robert Moraht, south-west of Sardinia.
The battleship was bound for the Greek island of Corfu to join the Allied blockade of the Strait of Otranto. The ship sank in 45 minutes. 806 men were rescued by the destroyer Massue, but 296, including Captain Delage, went down with the ship
Danton was a semi-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy and the lead ship of her class. She was a technological leap in battleship development for the French Navy, as she was the first ship in the fleet with turbine engines. However, like all battleships of her type, she was completed after the Royal Navy battleship HMS Dreadnought, and as such she was outclassed before she was even commissioned.

Arsenal model of Danton, on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris.

1918 - SS Linz – the Austro-Hungarian steamship struck a mine and quickly sank off Shëngjin, Albania.
970 to 1,003 people (including 413 Italian POWs) were registered as being aboard, but sources stated that also hundreds of unregistered Austro-Hungarian soldiers on leave had boarded her. At least 685 were lost. Other sources put the number of dead from more than 700 to more than 1,000.
SS Linz was an Austro-Hungarian Ocean Liner that hit a mine in the Adriatic Sea 4 miles northwest of the Cape of Rodon, while she was travelling from Fiume, Croatia to Durazzo, Albaniaunder command of Captain Tonello Hugo.

1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew.
Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under her own power. She was the most heavily damaged US carrier to survive the war.
USS Franklin (CV/CVA/CVS-13, AVT-8), nicknamed "Big Ben," was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy, and the fifth US Navy ship to bear the name. Commissioned in January 1944, she served in several campaigns in the Pacific War, earning four battle stars. She was badly damaged by a Japanese air attack in March 1945, with the loss of over 800 of her crew, becoming the most heavily damaged United States aircraft carrier to survive the war. Movie footage of the actual attack was included in the 1949 film Task Force starring Gary Cooper.