Category Archives: Maritime History

This Day in History, 1601 – Dutch complete circumnavigation of the world

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On this day in 1601, Olivier van Noort arrived back in Rotterdam, becoming the first Dutchman to circumnavigate the globe. He left in July 1598, with four ships, but arrived back home just over three years later with only one vessel – Mauritius. He also returned with just 45 of the 248 who left with him.

While he was the first Dutchman to circumnavigate the globe, a fair number of other explorers already had. Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage of 1519 to 1522, of course, was the first — though Magellan himself didn’t survive the voyage. Magellan sailed with five ships – Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepción, Victoria, and Santiago – and only Victoria survived, under the leadership of Juan Sebastian Elcano.

Between 1580 and 1589, Martín Ignacio de Loyola circumnavigated the globe in both directions, becoming the first person to do that.

Letters from Battle of Trafalgar, via Caird Library, National Maritime Museum

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The Caird Library Blog, from the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England,  has a nice entry from earlier this month about the letters of young George Perceval, whose first action as an 11-year-old sailor was in the Battle of Trafalgar, on board HMS Orion. Later, as the blog author writes, “The next letter in the collection is written on Christmas Day, and George was PER-1-20Bound Book0105.jpgobviously greatly enjoying his wait for the new ship – the letter starts out in a fair hand, but the section in which he writes that he has ‘drunk all your healths’ shows that he certainly has – and it would appear that the affects are showing in 12 year old George’s handwriting!”

Images of several letters are included, and they’re very high quality. It’s a neat presentation of fascinating manuscript content.

Today in History: Constitution defeats Guerriere; 19 August 1812

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Today, August 19, marks the 197th anniversary of the historic battle between USS Constitution and HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812. This was a critical battle for the early republic; it showed that the startup US Navy could take on, and more importantly defeat, the British Navy – unquestionably the most powerful naval force at the time.

Constitution defeated and burned Guerriere, and took her crew prisoner, in the battle. It was in this battle that Constitution gained the nickname “Old Ironsides”, when a sailor watched British cannonballs bounce off her sides, and exclaimed that she appeared to be made of iron. If you go below deck on Constitution, you can see why they bounced off: that is one SOLID hull.

The Naval Historical Center in Washington, DC, has some information about the battle, and the War of 1812 site has more about the specific battle, too.

I remember a great ballad about the battle, and found the lyrics online along with a really annoying MIDI file of the music, that doesn’t much do it justice. Oh, well. The ballad is still fun.

If you’re in Boston, you might want to attend a commemoration of the event, today. The USS Constitution Museum — next to, but not directly affiliated with, the ship — is having a celebration on Saturday, the 22nd, from 11am to 4pm, too.

Huzzah!