This week’s list of maritime events covers 200 years of maritime and naval history, from wars to shipping, and one of the longest continuously-published resources.

March 23: The US Navy has had eight different ships named “Hornet” in its history. In 1815, a brigantine named Hornet (DANFS history, ShipIndex) captured the British sloop Penguin (ShipIndex),  off the island of Tristan da Cunha, in the South Atlantic. Neither vessel had yet heard that the war they were fighting, the War of 1812, had ended a month earlier. “Hornet” and “Wasp” are among the most common names for US Naval ship.  [[HT: see pic of battle at https://www.shipindex.org/vessels/Q5633735]] 

March 24: In 1970, the 1914 tug Eppleton Hall (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) arrived in San Francisco, after a six-month voyage from Newcastle, England. The tug is now an integral part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. 

March 26: Nathaniel Bowditch, author of one of the most important works in navigation ever published, is born in 1773. Bowditch’s first “New American Practical Navigator” appeared in 1802, and is still published, now by the US Government. The 2024 edition is available to all, online, from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

March 28: The Battle of Valparaiso, part of the War of 1812, took place in 1814, off the coast of Valparaiso, Chile. USS Essex (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) and USS Essex Junior (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) battled – and lost – against the better-armed HMS Phoebe (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) and HMS Cherub (Wikipedia, ShipIndex). Essex was captained by David Porter, who captured a whaler called Atlantic, and renamed it Essex Junior. Essex served as HMS Essex until 1837.

March 29: The Ever Given (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), one of the largest container ships in the world, was released from being stuck in – and completely blocking – the Suez Canal, in 2021. The closure of the canal, due to the ship’s grounding, highlighted the critical role of maritime transport in moving goods all around the world. 

For more about these ships, check out ShipIndex.org. And let us know if you have events that you think we should include!

In this installment of maritime history events, we look at oil spills, new technology, and Pacific exploration. If you’ve got an event that you think should be included, let us know in a comment below, or in an email to comments@shipindex.org.

March 16: In 1978, the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) ran aground off the coast of Brittany, France, causing the largest spill of its kind up to that point in time. The Amoco Cadiz was built in Spain, in 1973-75, so it was a fairly new ship when it was forced to put the rudder hard to port to avoid another ship during a gale, and the rudder got stuck. Despite attempts to be pulled to safety by a tug, and dropping anchors, Amoco Cadiz eventually ended up on rocks that pierced the hull and caused the release of all oil and fuel on board. Like the Torrey Canyon disaster almost exactly eleven years earlier, the wreck was bombed to sink the ship and limit additional damage. 

March 18: In 1967, the SS Torrey Canyon (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), a Suezmax oil tanker built at Newport News Shipyard in 1959 (then enlarged in Japan several years later), ran aground off the coast of Cornwall, England, spilling much of its cargo. The British government decided to attempt to burn off the spilt oil, to minimize its impact, and therefore bombed the spill site with large bombs, jet fuel, rockets, and napalm, with limited success.

March 20: The USS Langley (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) was commissioned in 1922, as America’s first aircraft carrier, just 18 years after Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first flight in North Carolina. Jupiter, a collier, or coal-carrying ship, was launched in 1912, decommissioned in 1920, and then recommissioned as Langley (CV-1) two years later, with a wooden deck for airplane movements. Langley also saw service in World War II, but was attacked by a group of Japanese bombers and was damaged so much that the ship needed to be scuttled. 

March 22: The Tonquin (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) arrived at the Columbia River on the US West Coast in 1811. While getting over the treacherous Columbia Bar led to the loss of eight sailors, the crew was able to make it to shore, and soon founded a trading post that would become Astoria, Oregon. Tonquin continued north to trade with native fur trappers. A battle in June 1811, between Tonquin sailors and native Tla-o-qui-aht traders in Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia, led to the deaths of all but four sailors. One of the four, who was badly wounded, remained on board ship while the other three escaped, and then lit a fuse that detonated the ship’s powder magazine, killing as many as 100 natives and destroying the ship. The other three sailors were eventually captured and killed; a native Quinalt man who had served as a translator was the only survivor, and the only one to make it back to Fort Astoria to tell the tale.

For more about these ships, check out ShipIndex.org. And let us know if you have events that you think we should include!

Today we are starting a new feature that we think will help highlight the importance of maritime history in World history: a list of several central and important events that happened this week, at some time in the past. Most posts will focus on an event or a ship or the ships involved in a specific event. If you have an event you think we should include, please let us know, in a comment below or in an email to comments@shipindex.org. Enjoy!

We’re kicking off this feature with one of the most important-but-inconsequential-at-the-moment events in maritime history: the Battle of Hampton Roads, between the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor. While the battle between the two ships had little immediate impact, the importance of the first battle between two ironclads cannot be understated. Read more about it, and other events, below.

March 3: The first US Naval ship built on the West Coast, USS Saginaw (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) was launched on this day in 1859. Given the name Toucey at launch, the ship was renamed Saginaw a few months later. Saginaw sailed from San Francisco Bay a year later, on March 8, 1860, and served in the western Pacific, primarily in China and Japan, before returning to the US West Coast during the Civil War. In the late 1860s, Saginaw charted and explored the Alaskan coast, after it was purchased from Russia. Saginaw was lost in 1870, while visiting Kure Atoll, near Midway, to see if any shipwrecked sailors were on the atoll. All of Saginaw’s crew got to the atoll, and a small group sailed in a small boat for Honolulu, but only one of the sailors survived. The remaining crew were rescued in January 1871. The Saginaw wreck was discovered in 2003. 

March 6: In 1987, the ro-ro ferry Herald of Free Enterprise (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) sank minutes after leaving its dock in Zeebrugge, in Belgium. Investigators determined that the car deck doors had been left open, causing the ferry to sink quickly. Of 539 on board, 193 passengers and crew died.

March 8-9: The Battle of Hampton Roads took place in 1862; it was one of the pivotal battles in naval history, as it was the first battle between two ironclad ships, and presaged the future of naval warfare.The hull of the former USS Merrimack (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), which the Union forces had burned to the waterline, was converted to an ironclad steamer, renamed CSS Virginia (Wikipedia, ShipIndex). On March 8, 1862, Virginia engaged and rammed the USS Cumberland (WP, ShipIndex), in the waters off Hampton Roads, Virginia. USS Congress (wp, ShipIndex), having seen the ramifications of the ramming, grounded in shallow water. After battling with Virginia, Congress eventually surrendered. Overnight, USS Monitor (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) arrived, and Monitor and Virginia battled each other the next morning, as the first naval battle between ironclads got underway. The battle was, however, not decisive, with neither vessel gaining the upper hand. 

After the battle Virginia remained blockaded in Hampton Roads by multiple US Navy vessels, eventually including several additional ironclads. In May 1862, Confederate forces reluctantly sank Virginia to avoid it being taken into Union hands. Six months later, Monitor was directed to join the blockade of Charleston, but sank in a late December storm, with the loss of sixteen sailors, off Cape Hatteras. Monitor’s wreck was discovered in 1973; since 1998 various portions of the ship, including Monitor’s gun turret have been recovered. Many parts of the vessel are now on display at the USS Monitor Center at the Mariners’ Museum, in Newport News, Virginia.

For more about these ships, check out ShipIndex.org. And let us know if you have events that you think we should include!

Here is a very cool combination of early modern historical data and very modern technology. ShipIndex exhibited at the American Historical Association conference in New York City at the very start of 2015, and while there I met Abby Mullen, a graduate student at Northeastern University, studying with William Fowler.

At the conference, I learned that Ms. Mullen has an interest in maritime & naval history, as any right-minded person should, but after the conference I learned she’s done some really cool work in tracking naval battles and the taking of ships by privateers during the Quasi-War of 1798-1800. She took all of the information she’d gathered, and mapped all of it, then put it all online at http://abbymullen.org/projects/Quasi-War/.

As she explains in her description of this image, “This screenshot shows most of the encounters between American and French vessels. Green is a French capture; red is an American; brown is an encounter that did not result in a capture either way.” Note the grey almost-rectangle in the left-center. That’s a separate chart, from the late 18th century, which she has adapted and stretched to reflect our improved geographic knowledge of the region.

Plus, she wrote up how she collected the data, she posted the data on her page, and talked about the challenges of converting historical data — especially the historical map/chart she chose to plot the data upon — to a modern format and with modern specificity. She also highlighted the limitations of the data she collected, and described other activities she’d like to see done, if possible.

This is a great application of historical data in a modern setting. Check it out!

One of my biggest challenges comes in making clear the role of maritime history in American history and life, and in world history and life. In a way, I think vessels are so ubiquitous that they’re not even noticed. But for most of recorded history, news and information (and with it, human connections) used ships to travel long distances. If you look, everywhere you turn you will see a maritime impact.

I noticed that again today, when I went visited the many Mark Twain sites in Elmira, NY. Elmira is not far from where I live, but I don’t go there often. I knew there were connections with Mark Twain, but I did not realize how many. As it turns out, Twain’s wife and family lived in Elmira for many years, and Twain (well, Sam Clemens) regularly spent summers there.

Sam Clemens’ sister-in-law owned an estate about two miles outside of town (and Twain’s father-in-law was the richest man in town and owned the largest house in town), and she built a small rectangular study for Twain in 1874, which he loved and used extensively, writing much of many titles there in the summertime. The study was moved to Elmira College in the 1950s (Twain’s wife attended the college, and the family had many other connections there as well), and is now open for visits in the summertime, and by appointment other times of the year.

Where’s the maritime connection – other than water weaving its way through all of Twain’s work? Sam Clemens met Olivia Langdon through her younger brother, Charles. Many signs told me that Charles and Clemens met on board the steamship Quaker City, in 1867 in the Mediterranean, where they struck up a conversation, and eventually Charles showed Sam a picture of his sister, and Clemens was immediately taken with Charles’ sister. It took some time before they actually met, and then before Olivia accepted Clemens’ marriage proposal, but it all went back to the Quaker City.

Of course, ShipIndex.org has entries on Quaker City – more than 80 of them – and not all are about the ship that Clemens and Langdon sailed together on, but if you want to know more about that ship, I can’t think of a better place to start.

After visiting the sites at Elmira College I stopped at Twain’s gravesite in Woodlawn Cemetery, where he’s buried with his wife’s ashes (she died in Florence, in 1904), those of his children, and his only known grandchild.

In the end, water matters. Whether you’re studying the life of Sam Clemens or the writings of Mark Twain, water had a huge impact on his life. I’d argue it has that impact on the lives of many, many people, and I will keep trying to convince the world of that.