There’s always something interesting in any week, when looking at maritime and naval history. Let’s see what we find this week!
June 8: USS Vincennes (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), a sloop of war built in 1825-26, returned from a circumnavigation of the world in 1830, the first US Naval vessel to do so. Several years later, Vincennes was assigned duty as the flagship of the US Exploring Expedition (or, US Ex Ex, or Wilkes Expedition) to the South Seas and the Pacific Northwest. The Ex Ex is not well-known today, but it was an exploration on the scale of Lewis & Clark’s 1804-06 expedition across North America, but at sea. Tens of thousands of botanical and biological specimens were collected on the voyage, thus forming the start of the collections at the Smithsonian. Hundreds of islands in the Pacific were explored and charted, and the expedition’s charts of Antarctica are still used today.
June 9: In 1909, the Perry G. Walker, a Great Lakes freighter (ShipIndex), accidentally rammed the closed lower lock doors of the Canadian Soo Locks, in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, causing the doors to fail, and sweeping the Walker, the CP steamer Assiniboia (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), and Pittsburgh Steamship freighter Crescent City (ShipIndex) through the locks. The collision caused major damage to the locks, and water flowed out, completely uncontrolled. Despite the damage, the locks were repaired quickly and reopened two weeks later. As a result of wall failures in 1987, the locks were closed and replaced with a new lock in 1998. The locks are now a Canadian National Historic Site. Commercial traffic today uses the American locks to bypass the St Marys River rapids.
June 11: The Battle of Machias, the first naval engagement in the American Revolutionary War, took place in 1775. Residents of Machias, Maine, banded together to prevent the armed schooner HMS Margaretta from sailing to Boston to support British troops there, after the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April. After an attack by Machias citizens on the British ship while it was at anchor, Margaretta lost her boom and gaff in a sudden jibe, and wasn’t able to maneuver effectively as a result. Locals sailed on two vessels, the Unity and the Falmouth Packet, to successfully attack and overwhelm Margaretta, though with loss of lives on both sides. The Machias band was led by Jeremiah O’Brien, for whom the Liberty ship SS Jeremiah O’Brien (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), now on display in San Francisco, was named.
June 14: In 1789, the survivors of the mutiny on board the HMS Bounty (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), led by Captain William Bligh, arrived in Timor, after one of the most remarkable and famous open-boat voyages ever, of over 3600 nautical miles.
Here’s some activities to consider joining, if you’re (way) down south in the coming weeks:
From June 20 to 22, visit the New Zealand Maritime Museum to join a weekend of heritage boatbuilding work by Māori carvers. Join for crafts, storytelling, and more, during their celebration of Matariki, the Māori New Year. Find more information here.
If you have many (Many! MANY!) thousands of pounds sterling sitting around your house, and still have some holes in your Nelsoniana collection, consider taking a look at what Peter Harrington, the top-flight London bookseller, has to offer you. Consider one of Nelson’s early wills, at £30,000, or a letter written before the battle of Trafalgar, regarding his expectations for the battle, at £100,000, or a weather log kept by Nelson on board HMS Victory, for just £450,000! While nothing at Peter Harrington is inexpensive, you may find some other interesting items in their naval & maritime collection.