Naval/Maritime History - 19th of April - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History (2024)

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

17th of December

some of the events you will find here,
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1691 – Launch of french La Lys, a First Rate ship of the line of the French Royal Navy
The Lys was a First Rank ship of the line of the French Royal Navy, the second vessel in the two-ship Sceptre Class (her sister being the Sceptre).

1717 - HMS Sorlings (1706 - 42) wrecked in a storm on the East Freisland coast, 142 were drowned

1774 – Launch of HMS Nonsuch, a 64-gun Intrepid-class third rate ship of the line
HMS Nonsuch was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 December 1774 at Plymouth. She was broken up in 1802

1782 - Launch of French Temeraire, the lead ship of the 74-gun Téméraire class
Téméraire was the lead ship of the Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

1799 - HMS Glenmore (1796 - 36) and HMS Aimable (1776 - 32) engaged Sirene (1795 - 36) and Bergere (1794 - 18).
On December 17th, the British Glenmore, 36, Captain George Duff, and Aimable, 32, Captain Henry Eaper, with a large convoy, fell in with the French Sirene, 36, Captain J. M. Kenaud, Bergere, 18, Captain Bourdichon, and the Calcutta, East Indiaman, which the French had just captured, off Madeira. The Glenmore mistook the Calcutta for a cut-down ship of the line and stood in chase of her and captured her. Meantime the Aimable pursued the two French warships, and at 1.30 P.M. was out of sight of her consort. She attacked the Bergere, hoping that the Glenmore would come up to her aid; but, when this did not happen and the Sirene wore and stood towards her, she had to draw off. She remained watching the French ships till nightfall, when she rejoined the convoy.

1809 - HMS Sceptre (74), Cptn. Samuel James Ballard, and consorts took Loire (20) and Seine (20) at Anse la Barque, Guadaloupe.
HMS Sceptre was a 74-gun third rate of the Royal Navy, built by Dudman of Deptford after a design by Sir William Rule, and launched in December 1802 at Deptford. She served in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 before being broken up in 1821.

1810 - HMS Rinaldo (1808 - 10), James Anderson, engaged four French privateers near the Owers. One, La Vieux Josephine (1810 - 16) was sunk and a second which had struck escaped after Rinaldo ran foul of the Owers light vessel.
HMS Rinaldo (1808) was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop launched in 1808. She was converted to a packet brig in 1824 and was sold in 1835.
On the 17th Dec. 1810, the Rinaldo, while on her way from Dover to Spithead, induced four lugger privateers to chase her. It was nearly dark when the two foremost overtook her, and, with a volley from their small-arms, hailed her to strike. One being upon each of her quarters, she tacked, and poured a broadside into each; then, wearing, delivered a second broadside into the larger, which thereupon became unmanageable, and shouted that she was sinking. The second lugger, after endeavouring to run the Rinaldo down, was also reduced to call for quarter. While wearing round, and manning her boats, the brig fouled the Owers lightship, and could not for some time clear herself. This gave opportunity for three of the luggers to make off. The one which sank, unhappily with 77 out of a crew of 80, was the Vieille Josephine, 16. No one in the Rinaldo was hurt.

1812 - The brig USS Argus, commanded by Arthur Sinclair, recaptures the American schooner Vancise during the War of 1812. The ship had been abandoned and found derelict by another ship.
The first USS Argus, originally named USS Merrimack, was a brig in the United States Navy commissioned in 1803. She enforced the Embargo Act of 1807 and fought in the First Barbary War – taking part in the blockade of Tripoli and the capture of Derna – and the War of 1812. During the latter inflict, she had been audaciously raiding British merchant shipping in British home waters for a month, when the heavier British Cruizer-class brig-sloop HMS Pelican intercepted her. After a sharp fight during which Argus's captain, Master Commandant William Henry Allen, was mortally wounded, Argus surrendered when the crew of Pelican were about to board.

Argus during the War of 1812

1851 - The Battle of the Tonelero Pass, also known as Passage of the Tonelero, was a battle fought near the cliff of Acevedo, Argentina, between the Argentine Confederation Army and warships of the Brazilian Imperial Navy
The Battle of the Tonelero Pass, also known as Passage of the Tonelero, was a battle fought near the cliff of Acevedo, in the west bank of the Paraná River, Argentina, on 17 December 1851, between the Argentine Confederation Army commanded by Lucio Norberto Mansilla and warships of the Brazilian Imperial Navy led by John Pascoe Grenfell.

1903 – Launch of French République, a pre-dreadnought battleships of the French Navy;
République was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy built in the early 1900s. The lead ship of her class, she had only one sister ship: Patrie. The ship was built by the Arsenal de Brest, laid down in December 1901, launched in September 1902, and commissioned into the fleet in December 1906, the same time as the revolutionary British battleship HMS Dreadnought. Armed with a main battery of four 305 mm (12.0 in) guns, she was outclassed by Dreadnought by the time she entered service.

1915 – SMS Bremen, the lead ship of the seven-vessel Bremen class light cruisers, struck two Russian naval mines and sank with the loss of 250 of her crew.
SMS Bremen ("His Majesty's Ship Bremen")[a] was the lead ship of the seven-vessel Bremen class, built by the Imperial German Navy. She was built by the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, her namesake city. She was laid down in 1902, launched in July 1903, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in May 1904. Armed with a main battery of ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and two 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes, Bremen was capable of a top speed of 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph).

1917 - While underway off Point Loma, Calif., USS F 1 collides with her sister submarine, USS F 3. With her hull torn open amidships, she rapidly sinks and loses 19 crewmen.
USS F-1 (SS-20) was an F-class submarine. She was named Carp when her keel was laid down by Union Iron Works of San Francisco, California, making her the first ship of the United States Navy named for the carp. She was launched on 6 September 1911 sponsored by Ms. J. Tynan, renamed F-1 on 17 November 1911, and commissioned on 19 June 1912, Lieutenant, Junior Grade J.B. Howell in command.

1939 – World War II: Battle of the River Plate: The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo.
Admiral Graf Spee was a Deutschland-class "Panzerschiff" (armored ship), nicknamed a "pocket battleship" by the British, which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II. The two sister-ships of her class, Deutschland and Admiral Scheer, were reclassified as heavy cruisers in 1940. The vessel was named after Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the East Asia Squadron that fought the battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands, where he was killed in action, in World War I. She was laid down at the Reichsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven in October 1932 and completed by January 1936. The ship was nominally under the 10,000 long tons (10,000 t) limitation on warship size imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, though with a full load displacement of 16,020 long tons (16,280 t), she significantly exceeded it. Armed with six 28 cm (11 in) guns in two triple gun turrets, Admiral Graf Spee and her sisters were designed to outgun any cruiser fast enough to catch them. Their top speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) left only the few battlecruisers in the Anglo-French navies fast enough and powerful enough to sink them.

1941 - First Battle of Sirte
The First Battle of Sirte was fought between the British Royal Navy and the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) during the Mediterranean campaign of the Second World War. The engagement, largely uneventful, took place on 17 December 1941, south-east of Malta, in the Gulf of Sirte.
In the following days, two Royal Navy forces based at Malta ran into an Italian minefield off Tripoli and two British battleships were disabled by Italian manned torpedoes at Alexandria. By the end of December, the balance of naval power in the Mediterranean had shifted in favour of the Italian Fleet.

2009 – MV Danny F II sinks off the coast of Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of 44 people and over 28,000 animals.
Danny F II (originally Don Carlos) was a cargo ship built in 1975 as a car carrier. It was renamed Danny F II when rebuilt as a livestock transporter in 1994. The ship capsized and sank off Lebanon on 17 December 2009, carrying 83 people, 10,224 sheep, and 17,932 cattle. Thirty-nine people were rescued and nine human bodies recovered. The other passengers and animals are presumed to have died.