<p>On Oct. 10, 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy opened in Annapolis, Md.</p>
<p>Five years ago: U.S. jets pounded the Afghan capital of Kabul. President Bush unveiled a list of 22 most-wanted terrorists, including Osama bin Laden and associates.</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, what is widely accepted as the first Naval battle conducted by the US Navy, involved a fleet commanded by Gen. Benedict Arnold at Valcour Island in 1776. Arnold came from a seafaring Connecticut family. He shrewdly chose to force the British to attack his inferior forces in a narrow, rocky body of water between the coast and Valcour Island, where the British fleet would have difficulty bringing its superior firepower to bear (and where the inferior seamanship of his unskilled sailors would have a minimal effect.)
Although the American ships under the command of Arnold were largely destroyed, the campaign delayed by one year the British attempt to cut the colonies in half and eventually led to the British military disaster at Saratoga in 1777.</p>
<p>Indeed? Well, you learn something new every day.</p>
<p>Reckon we learned right then to never again let some Army puke run a naval engagement. ;)</p>
<p>The Gen. Benedict Arnold referred to by shogun is the infamous traitor from the Revolutionary War. :(</p>
<p>Arnold concocted a plan in his mind to play a part like that which Gen. Monk had played in the restoration of Charles II. to the British throne. By putting the British in possession of the Hudson river, he would give them all that they had sought to obtain by the campaigns of 1776-'77; and the American cause would thus become so hopeless that an opportunity would be offered for negotiation.</p>
<p>By rendering a cardinal service to the British, he might hope to attain a position of such eminence as to conduct these negotiations, end the war, and restore America to her old allegiance, with her freedom from parliamentary control guaranteed. In order to realize these ambitious dreams, Arnold resorted to the blackest treachery. In July, 1780, he sought and obtained command of West Point in order to surrender it to the enemy. When his scheme was detected by the timely capture of Andre, he fled to the British at New York, a disgraced and hated traitor. Instead of getting control of affairs, like Gen. Monk, he had sold himself cheap, receiving a brigadier-general's place in the British army and a paltry stun of money. In the spring of 1781 he conducted a plundering expedition into Virginia. In September of the same year he was sent to attack New London, in order to divert Washington from his southward march against Cornwallis.</p>
<p>Yep, he did indeed turn out to be quite a scumbag! From American hero to traitor in a few short months.</p>
<p>Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!</p>
<pre><code>This is the transcript of an ACTUAL radio conversation of a US naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995.
Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.
Canadians: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.
Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.
Canadians: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course.
Americans: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES' ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH, THAT'S ONE FIVE DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER-MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.
Canadians: We are a lighthouse. Your call.
</code></pre>
<p>Way too funny. We probably needed Z on the bridge!!!!</p>
<p>Happy Birthday USNA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>I simply would have gone batteries released upon their first refusal. ;)</p>
<p>
[quote]
This is the transcript of an ACTUAL radio conversation of a US naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Internet lore. I remember hearing this joke from my SEANAV instructor as a Plebe in 1988.</p>
<p>Here's the background on the joke:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.snopes.com/military/lighthse.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.snopes.com/military/lighthse.htm</a></p>
<p>I figured it was bogus, but pretty a pretty funny joke!</p>
<p>
[quote]
Interestingly enough, what is widely accepted as the first Naval battle conducted by the US Navy, involved a fleet commanded by Gen. Benedict Arnold at Valcour Island in 1776.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You knew this was coming: :D</p>
<p>The 13 Colonies, having declared their Independence, had only 31 ships comprising the Continental Navy. To add to this, they issued Letters of Marque to privately owned, armed merchant ships and Commissions for privateers, which were outfitted as warships to prey on enemy merchant ships. Merchant seamen who manned these ships contributed to the very birth and founding of our Republic.</p>
<p>The Patriots of Maine Fight at Sea</p>
<p>News of the April 1775 battles at Concord and Lexington reached Machias, Maine just as citizens were anxiously awaiting long-needed supplies from Boston. When the Unity and Polly carrying these supplies arrived, they were accompanied by the British armed schooner Margaretta, under the command of Lieutenant Moore. The escort's job was to see that in exchange for supplies, lumber was taken back to Boston to build barracks for British soldiers.</p>
<p>The British demanded all citizens sign a petition promising to protect British property at all times in exchange for the right to buy supplies. Since many citizens were opposed to aiding the British war effort, they were angered by this.</p>
<p>They decided to strip the two sloops of the supplies and at the same time to capture Captain Ichabod Jones, Lieutenant Moore and his officers after they attended church services. The British fled on the Margaretta as patriots lined the shore demanding she "Surrender to America!" The reply they heard was, "Fire and be damned!"</p>
<p>Jeremiah O'Brien
Forty men, armed with guns, swords, axes, and pitchforks, headed by Jeremiah O'Brien, on the sloop Unity and twenty men under the command of Benjamin Foster on a small schooner pursued the Margaretta. During the chase they put up planks and other objects to defend themselves against the Margaretta's cannon.</p>
<p>On June 12, 1775, near Round Island on Machias Bay the patriots crashed into the Margaretta and engaged in hand to hand combat. The British crew was disheartened when their captain was mortally wounded and lost the one hour long battle. 25 of the combatants were killed or wounded. The victors claimed "four double fortifyed three pounders and fourteen swivels" and some smaller guns.</p>
<p>This was considered the first sea engagement of the Revolution and the start of the merchant marine's war role.</p>
<p>As captain of the privateer Machias Liberty, Jeremiah O'Brien later captured two armed British schooners and delivered his prisoners to George Washington. On the General's recommendation, the government of Massachusetts appointed O'Brien to command his two prizes.</p>
<p>Because of British policy regarding import of gunpowder, the colonists did not have enough to repel the third British charge at Bunker Hill. A survey by George Washington at the time showed army stockpiles were sufficient for 9 rounds per man. By 1777, the privateers and merchantmen brought in over 2 million pounds of gunpowder and saltpeter. A typical New England privateer carried two or three African-Americans who had long found employment in the fishing industry. The General Putnam from New London, Connecticut, had 4 blacks on board; the Aurora had 3. In Salem, Massachusetts, Titus, a slave owned by Mrs. John Cabot, ran a successful business recruiting blacks as privateers.</p>
<p>Privateer John Manley captured the Nancy, supplying the American army with 2,000 muskets, 31 tons of musket shot, 7,000 round-shot for cannon, and other ammunition. Captain Jonathan Haraden from Salem, Massachusetts, who captured 1,000 British cannon, was considered one of the best sea-fighters, successfully taking on three armed British ships at the same time. Privateers captured countless British reinforcements and over 10,000 seamen, keeping them out of the British Navy.</p>
<p>In 1777 George Washington's armies totaled about 11,000 men. At the same time there were 11,000 privateers at sea intercepting British shipping in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and even between Ireland and England.</p>
<p>Oh, and have I ever mentioned that John Paul Jones was a Merchant Mariner before he was the father of the US Navy? ;)</p>
<p>
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Oh, and have I ever mentioned that John Paul Jones was a Merchant Mariner before he was the father of the US Navy?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>John Paul Jones was a merchant mariner and he was also a mercenary.</p>
<p>John Paul was born at Arbigland, Kirkbean, Kirkcudbright, Scotland, 6 July 1747. Apprenticed to a merchant at age 13, he went to sea in the brig Friendship to learn the art of seamanship. At 21, he received his first command, the brig John.</p>
<p>After several successful years as a merchant skipper in the West Indies trade, John Paul emigrated to the British colonies in North America and there added "Jones" to his name. At the outbreak of the American Revolution, Jones was in Virginia. He cast his lot with the rebels, and on 7 December 1775, he was commissioned first lieutenant in the Continental Navy, serving aboard Esek Hopkins' flagship Alfred.</p>
<p>As First Lieutenant in Alfred, he was the first to hoist the Grand Union flag on a Continental warship. On 1 November 1777, he commanded the Ranger, sailing for France. Sailing into Quiberon Bay, France, 14 February 1778, Jones and Admiral La Motte Piquet changed gun salutes the first time that the Stars and Stripes, the flag of the new nation, was officially recognized by a foreign government.</p>
<p>Early in 1779, the French King gave Jones an ancient East Indiaman Duc de Duras, which Jones refitted, repaired, and renamed Bon Homme Richard as a compliment to his patron Benjamin Franklin. Commanding four other ships and two French privateers, he sailed 14 August 1779 to raid English shipping.</p>
<p>On 23 September 1779, his ship engaged the HMS Serapis in the North Sea off Famborough Head, England. Richard was blasted in the initial broadside the two ships exchanged, losing much of her firepower and many of her gunners. Captain Richard Pearson, commanding Serapis, called out to Jones, asking if he surrendered. Jones' reply: "I have not yet begun to fight!"</p>
<p>It was a bloody battle with the two ships literally locked in combat. Sharpshooting Marines and seamen in Richard's tops raked Serapis with gunfire, clearing the weather decks. Jones and his crew tenaciously fought on , even though their ship was sinking beneath them. Finally, Capt. Pearson tore down his colors and Serapis surrendered.</p>
<p>Bon Homme Richard sunk the next day and Jones was forced to transfer to Serapis.</p>
<p>After the American Revolution, Jones served as a Rear Admiral in the service of Empress Catherine of Russia, but returned to Paris in 1790. He died in Paris at the age of 45 on 18 July 1792. He was buried in St. Louis Cemetery, which belonged to the French royal family. Four years later, France's revolutionary government sold the property and the cemetery was forgotten.</p>
<p>In 1845, Col. John H. Sherburne began a campaign to return Jones' remains to the United States. He wrote Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft and requested the body be brought home aboard a ship of the Mediterrean Squadron. Six years later, preliminary arrangements were made, but the plans fell through when several of Jones' Scottish relatives objected. Had they not, another problem would have arisen. Jones was in an unmarked grave and no one knew exactly where that was.</p>
<p>American Ambassador Horace Porter began a systematic search for it in 1899. The burial place and Jones' body was discovered in April 1905. President Theodore Roosevelt sent four cruisers to bring it back to the U.S., and these ships were escorted up the Chesapeake Bay by seven battleships. </p>
<p>On 26 January 1913, the remains of John Paul Jones were laid to rest in the crypt of the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis, Md. Today, a Marine honor guard stands duty whenever the crypt is open to the public.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Today, a Marine honor guard stands duty whenever the crypt is open to the public.
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</p>
<p>No longer true, I'm sorry to say. Now the Midshipmen stand guard.</p>
<p>Nothing against the Mids, mind you, but there is simply something about Marines in that role....</p>
<p>Allow a few additional bites of info on the JPJones issue, notably re: Gen. Horace Porter. Porter was from a privileged family in Huntingdon, PA. His father later became a PA governor. Horace matriculated to Harvard, but received an appointment to, dare I say it, West Point, where he graduated 2nd in his class. He fought in the Civil War, became a close friend and later personal secretary to Ulysses Grant, and was awarded the Medal of Honor, later to become the Congressional Medal of Honor. (Many received this medal in the Civil War, even entire companies. Only later did it become the uniquely prestigious medal recognizing great heroism and awarded by Congress in light of highly specific rules and requirements.)</p>
<p>Porter became ambassador to France about 1898, I believe. While there he invested $30K of his own $$ to successfully locate and exhume Jones' body. I believe it was U.S. military (soldiers or sailors??) from the USS Brooklyn that marched to Paris to retrieve the body and return it to the U.S. I'm not sure of this alleged fact, but was told this was the first military contingent to step on European soil. :confused:</p>
<p>Porter was offered reimbursement by Congress for his expenses which in turn he offered to the U.S.Naval Academy with stipulation that Jones be buried in the under-construction USNA Chapel. </p>
<p>And now we know the REST of the story. That it took a WOOP to get the USN's first great hero back where he belonged, and made a major financial gift in the process. </p>
<p>One must wonder as he wrote that monster check to the USNA if that West Pointer had finally learned, too late, the error of his choice those many years before ... ;)</p>
<p>Anyone know if any other West Pointer has ever become a major philanthropist to Annapolis?</p>
<p>A FOOTNOTE: It is also believed that Porter was the 1st to wear the Medal of Honor on a lavaliere (sp?) as prior to that time the medal had been worn on the recipient's chest. Apparently many European medals were worn about the neck, and the US military would have none of it. When Porter went to Eurpope though, well, when in Paris, do as the French might do ... With Congress taking over it's awarding, etc. it became the neck-worn medal we know today.</p>