This page features the Online Library's November & December 2003 "What's New?" entries.
For the more recent entries, and links to previous years'
entries, see:
For earlier entries from the year 2003, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the Online Library's digital images, see: How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions. |
We have wrapped up the year with a heap of new subjects, beginning
with the light cruiser Spokane
(CL-120, later CLAA-120), destroyers Conyngham
(Destroyer # 58) and Frank
Knox (DD-742, later DDR-742), and submarines Tarpon
(Submarine # 14, later renamed C-3), and Tarpon
(SS-175). Coverage was also added on the first-named destroyer's
name source, Revolutionary War Captain Gustavus
Conyngham, along with pages on the two small vessels with
which he captured well over sixty British merchantmen and privateers:
the lugger Surprise
(or Surprize) and the cutter Revenge.
While we're on the subject of ship name sources, also joining
the Online Library's ranks was Rear Admiral Edward
D. Taussig (1847-1921), in whose honor a destroyer added
a few weeks back was named.
This reporting period also generated a slew of 1940s and 1950s
vintage auxiliary ships,
attack transports and minecraft, including the oiler Ponchatoula
(AO-148), APAs Leedstown
(APA-56), Presidio
(APA-88), St. Mary's
(APA-126), Oxford
(APA-189), Pondera
(APA-191), Rutland
(APA-192), Tazewell
(APA-209), Natrona
(APA-214), Rawlins
(APA-226), Saint Croix
(APA-231), and Sevier
(APA-233), plus the minesweeper YMS-346
.
Moving back a few decades to our usual fine selection of World
War I's acquired ships and craft, we offer coverage on the transport
Freedom (ID # 3024);
cargo ships Veendijk
(ID # 2515), West
Cressy (ID # 3813) and West
Ekonk (ID # 3313) and patrol vessels Aztec
(SP-590), Vaud J.
(SP-3361), Vencedor
(SP-669); and Venture
(SP-616).
From nearly sixty years before that, there are three "new"
Civil War era ships: Ceres,
Coeur de Lion
and the revenue schooner (and yacht) Henrietta.
Onward into '04!
31 December 2003
Our biggest presentation this week concerns the light cruiser
Little Rock (CL-92),
which was converted to a guided
missile cruiser and fleet flagship in the late 1950s and
is now a museum at Buffalo, New York. These pages also mark the
competion of our efforts to post coverage on the twenty-seven
Cleveland class light cruisers.
"New"destroyers and submarines added during the past
two weeks include Sharkey
(DD-281), Taussig
(DD-746), Stingray
(Submarine # 13, later renamed C-2), and Stingray
(SS-186). Two more World War ships also "joined up":
the short-lived transport Leedstown
(AP-73) and the coastal patrol vessel (ex-yacht) Peridot
(PYc-18).
Plenty of World War I acquired ships and craft were added, including:
transports Finland
(ID # 4543), F.J.
Luckenbach (ID # 2160) and Theodore
Roosevelt (ID # 1487); cargo ships West
Cohas (ID # 3253) and West
Bridge (ID # 2888) (with coverage of the latter's torpedoing in August 1918);
tug Undaunted (ID #
1950, later AT-58, YT-125 and ATO-58); and patrol vessels
Avenger (SP-2646),
Avis (SP-382),
Traveler (SP-122)
and Tuna (SP-664).
There are three more representatives of the Civil War era: gunboats
Stars and Stripes,
Stettin and
Yucca.
Finally, our work on the 1879-1881 Jeannette
Arctic Expedition is now complete, with pages added on three
civilian expedition members: Jerome
J. Collins, William
Dunbar and Raymond
Lee Newcomb; plus the effort's sponsor, newspaper publisher
James Gordon Bennett.
For good measure, we threw in a page on one of Bennett's big
yachts, the Namouna
of 1882.
15 December 2003
The ongoing effort to wrap up our Jeannette
Arctic Expedition project has produced pages on the ship's
engineer, and ultimate leader of her survivors, Chief Engineer
(and later Rear Admiral) George
Melville, plus the two ships named in his honor: the destroyer
tender Melville (AD-2)
and the oceanographic research ship Melville
(AGOR-4). We also added another entry to our hull number
list of U.S. Navy Ships, this one covering Attack
Transports (APA and LPA), as well as coverage on five more
ships of that type: Laurens
(APA-153); Lowndes
(APA-154); Kingsbury
(APA-177); Lauderdale
(APA-179) and Lavaca
(APA-180).
Other new combatant ship entries include the light cruiser Huntington (CL-107);
destroyers Bush (DD-166),
Moody (DD-277),
and Bush (DD-529);
and submarines Octopus
(Submarine # 9), later renamed C-1, and Dolphin
(SS-169).
Newly posted World War II and later auxiliaries and amphibious
ships are Birgit (AKA-24);
Livingston (AP-163,
later AK-222); and Sgt.
George D. Keathley (T-APC-117, later T-AGS-35). From
the World War I era, we gained eleven more vessels. They include
the cargo ships and transports El
Oriente (ID # 4504), El
Sol (ID # 4505) and Vittorio
Emmanuele III (ID # 3095); patrol vessels Akela
(SP-1793), Aurore II
(SP-460), Thetis
(SP-391), and Tillamook
(SP-269); harbor support craft Aurora
(SP-345) and Tinicum
(SP-1113); plus two ships that were considered for Navy use
but not taken over: the freighter West
Arrow and trawler Tide.
The Civil War is represented by the gunboats Penguin
and Princess Royal.
30 November 2003
Opening our report for the first half of November is a multi-page
presentation on General
of the Army Douglas MacArthur, whose long, illustrious (and
controversial) career included critical leadership roles in World
War II, the Occupation of Japan and the Korean War. We also continue
our coverage of the 1879-1881 Jeannette
Arctic Expedition with pages on three more of its participants:
expedition second-in-command Lieutenant
Charles W. Chipp; Lieutenant
John W. Danenhower; and Passed
Assistant Surgeon James M.M. Ambler. While on the subject
of people, coverage was also added on Rear
Admiral Andrew A. Harwood, whose fifty-three years of service
concluded with a tour as Judge Advocate of the Navy in 1870-1871,
and Benjamin Swearer,
a Civil War Sailor who was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Recent
shortfalls in the output of Civil War ships and World War I acquired
ships and craft have been corrected. Most significant among the
earlier category is the unique shallow-draft steam sloop of war
Pawnee. Her new
pages are accompanied by much smaller presentations on the Civil
War era steamers Commodore
Jones, Louisiana,
Mohawk, Mystic, and Niphon.
World War I's biggest new posting is the transport Covington,
whose torpedoing by a German
submarine produced some notably dramatic images. Other "Great
War" contributions include the store ship Sagua;
tugs Takana
and Underwriter;
yachts Talofa
and Tarantula;
and motor boats Resolute,
Teaser, Tech III, Terrier,
Velocipede, and
Virginia.
Our latest cruiser is Fresno
(CL-121). One destroyer, and escort ship, a frigate and three
submarines came on line,
including Tarbell (DD-142),
DeLong (DE-684),
Covington (PF-56),
Cuttlefish (Submarine
# 11, later renamed B-2), Tarantula
(Submarine # 12, later renamed B-3), and Cachalot
(SS-170).
The number of Online Library amphibious ships and auxiliaries
also moved up smartly. New postings in this area include attack
transports Karnes
(APA-175) and Kershaw
(APA-176); landing ship LST-1130;
troopship John Land
(AP-167); troopship and cargo ship Kenmore
(AP-162); and the old collier Ajax,
which transported submarines
B-2 and B-3 out to the Philippines in 1912-1913.
17 November 2003
This page features the Online Library's November and December 2003 "What's New?" entries.
For the more recent entries, and links to previous years'
entries, see:
For earlier entries from the year 2003, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the Online Library's digital images, see: How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions. |
Page made 31 November 2003