N a v a l O r d e r o f t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s – S a n F r a n c i s c o C o m m a n d e r y Mission: History Studiorum Historiam Praemium Est

Volume 2, Number 1 HHHHHH 3 January 2000 1911: Naval Aviation is Born on San Francisco Bay; Aeroplane Lands on, Takes Off from Pennsylvania Feat Im presses Congress – $25,000 Voted to Develop Navy Aeroplane Program SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 18, 1911-- Eugene Ely, an aviator in the employ of Glenn H. Curtiss, maker of aeroplanes, today landed a flying machine upon a makeshift platform built on USS Penn- sylvania, which was riding at anchor on San Francisco Bay. After discussing his feat with offi- cials and naval officers on board the armored cruiser, Ely climbed on his aeroplane and calmly took off from the ship, landing safely on Crissy Field at THE LANDING SYSTEM HAD IT ALL. The arresting cables were attached to 50-pound sandbags the Army’s Presidio of San Francisco. which were held off the by two longitudinal rails. The C urtiss D-IV airplane had a tailhook — i actually several tailhooks — to snag the cables. At the forward end of the “flight deck,” a canvas Ely’s feat might be called the first barrier was stretched to protect the ship’s superstructure in case the airplane didn’t stop. carrier operation. And though the previ- ous November he took off from a tem- 1944: Japs Splash Pappy – Marine Ace, Wingman porary platform built on the bow of the cruiser USS Birmingham, then in Shot Down over Slot While Leading Raid on Rabaul Hampton Roads, Va., the San Francisco When Marine Corps fighter squad- months later. The Japs did not report landing and takeoff on 18 January 1911 ron VMF-214, the Black Sheep, that he had been captured, so eventu- is regarded by most as the birth of naval landed at Torokina on Empress Au- ally he was presumed dead. Pappy aviation. Many people are surprised gusta Bay on 3 January 1944 follow- was awarded a posthumous Congres- when told this landing on and takeoff ing a raid on Rabaul, its commanding sional Medal of Honor to go with his from the deck of a ship occurred before officer and his wingman were missing. Navy Cross. the first amphibious operation of an The pilots didn’t know whether Boyington was not heard from until airplane. their CO, Major Gregory Boyington, the final days of the war. With Navy Buoyed by public interest in aviation and Captain George Ashmun were and Marine carrier pilots flying over stemming from the Gordon Bennett dead or alive, but they were willing to Japan with little opposition and bomb- Cup air races at Belmont park in New bet that Pappy Boyington would turn ing targets of opportunity while the York and backed by Admiral George up somewhere, sooner or later. He Japanese Cabinet wondered whether Dewey, Captain Washington Irving hadn’t become the war’s top fighter the U.S. had a third atomic bomb, Chambers and two officers, one from ace with 28 kills through lack of re- there was time for observation. the Bureau of Steam Engineering and sourcefulness. Painted on the roof of a tin building in the other from the Bureau of Construc- It would be later. Boyington was a what appeared to be a prison com- tion and Repair, established in 1910 a prisoner of the Japanese and would pound were the words “Pappy Boy- U.S. Navy office “to determine experi- remain one until the war ended 20 ington Here!” (Continued on page 6) (Continued on page 2) Page 2 M i s s i o n : Hi s to r y 3 January 2000 Flying Tigers and Black Sheep: Nothing Bashful about Boyington

(Continued from page 1) only on paper crossing Pappy’s desk. Pappy was born in Coeur D’Alene, The group commander was Lieutenant Idaho, in 1912 and became something Colonel Lawson Sanderson, and Boy- of a local sports star as he progressed ington suggested that he be named CO through school. While attending Uni- of the unit and reform it from flyers in versity of Washington, he was an in- the pilot pool and unassigned replace- tercollegiate wrestling champion. ment pilots. Sanderson liked Pappy, When he got out of school, the coun- and the idea, and told him to go ahead. try was mired in the Great Depression VMF-214’s band of eccentrics was so, in 1936 at age 24, having studied nowhere as bad as has been portrayed. aeronautical engineering, he joined About half had combat experience, the Marine Corps, learned to fly and including five veterans of the Royal became a pilot instructor. Canadian Air Force, and the unit had Promotion in the peacetime Corps its share of newcomers from the failed to keep pace with the growth in States. Assigned to Munda, the squad- Boyington’s tastes, so it was a fairly ron quickly made a name for itself, insolvent Marine who read in early and the name was the Black Sheep. 1941 that a pilot could earn $675 a On VMF-214’s first mission, Boying- month flying for Claire Chennault’s ton shot down five Jap airplanes and TRAINED AS AN AERO NAUTIC AL ENGINEER American Volunteer Group in China, at University of W ashington, Major Gregory before a month was out the unit against Japanese pilots. There was Boyington knew what his airplane could do claimed 47 confirmed kills. also a $500 bonus for every Jap shot and he knew what those of his enem ies could Sometimes the Black Sheep had to down, and Pappy was sure he could do, knowledge that helped him becom e Am er- look for action. On one occasion, fol- do that. ica’s leading ace of W orld W ar II with 28 kills. lowing an uneventful mission, the In a seven-month period in 1941 an unfit place for a Marine. Back in Corsairs were looking for a fight and 1942, the 50-odd pilots who the States, he waited three months for when, in good old American English, called themselves “Flying Tigers” reinstatement in the Corps and then, at a voice inquired over the radio “Major became the single most publicized the old, for a combat pilot, age of 30 Boyington, what is your position.” flying unit of World War II. The he was sent to the South Pacific as a Pappy promptly responded that he shark’s mouth painted on the noses of Major. He flew a tour without seeing was at 20,000 feet over Treasury Is- their P-40s only added to their glam- an enemy plane, broke his ankle, and land. Then he took his squadron to a our. Pappy managed to earn $3,000 in wound up flying a desk. But doing position 26,000 feet over the sunny bonuses during his time with the Ti- administrative work has its rewards. side of Treasury Island. When 30 Jap gers. Boyington knew the CO of VMF- fighters arrived, Boyington downed Following American entry into the 214 had been shot down and the three of them and his pilots accounted war, the AVG became a part of the squadron’s pilots dispersed to other for more. Army Air Corps, in Boyington’s mind units. VMF-214 was a shell, existing By the end of 1943, Boyington had 25 confirmed kills, one shy of the 26 planes shot down by Joe Foss, who was no longer active. On 3 January he led the Black Sheep on a sweep to Rabaul, where they were met by about 60 enemy fighters. Pappy flamed one immediately and then he and wing- man Ashmun dove on a lower forma- tion of Japs, expecting the other Cor- sairs to follow through the clouds. When Boyington looked back, how- ever, it was about 20 Nips following. The two pilots went into a Thatch weave, scissoring to keep each other’s tail clear, but there were too many Jap planes. Ashmun’s F4U began a wide glide to the water, streaming smoke, and Boyington shot two enemy planes BLACK SHEEP SC RAMBLE, probably in response to a coast watcher's warning that a Japanese off his tail, one just as his wingman form ation was approaching U.S. transports in a landing area. Until the Jap base at Rabaul was hit the water. Now Pappy was the neutralized, Am erican ships in the Solom ons were under constant threat of bom bing attacks. (Continued on next page) 3 January 2000 M i s s i o n : Hi s to r y Page 3 Pappy Beats the Odds 1989: Two Libyan MiGs Shot Down; (Continued from previous page) only target and he was at 300 feet Attacked U.S. Force in Mediterranean when his main gas tank, in the fuse- lage between him and the nose of his On Wednesday, 4 January 1989, USS In 1986, there was a fracas between plane, was hit. John F. Kennedy (CV 67) was steam- U.S. and Libyan forces in the Gulf of In Boyington’s words, “The sensa- ing in international waters off the Sidra and two of Qaddafi’s patrol tion was much the same as opening shores of , not far from the boats got sunk. He was losing things the door of a furnace and sticking Gulf of Sidra, and conducting exer- in pairs. He also sent troops to support one's head into the thing. I didn't have cises with Grumman A-6 Intruders. rebels in Chad, but suffered major a chance of trying to gain altitude. I The Intruders were not being intrusive military reverses in 1987, so it was an was fully aware that if I tried to gain — mostly launch and recover exer- unhappy but bellicose dictator whose altitude for a bail-out I would be fried cises. patience Kennedy and her pilots were Nevertheless, Kennedy had an E-2 testing. Hawkeye, also made by Grumman, aloft The radar operators in the Hawkeye to keep an eye on things and an element weren’t too surprised to see a couple of VF-32 was flying combat air patrol of aircraft heading for the A-6s. They (CAP) in Grumman F-14 Tomcats. were identified as Libyan Mikoyan- Libya’s view of the Mediterranean Gurevich MiG-23s and Kennedy re- Sea is that a lot of it is territorial wa- called her Intruders. Two of VF-32’s ters, and this view is elastic enough so Tomcats were vectored in to intercept that it can be stretched to fit special the Libyan planes. cases, especially when a United States The MiG-23s decided to play a THE SHARK’S NO SE m otif for the C urtiss P-40 warship is out there. game of cat and mouse with the was the idea of Tiger pilot Allen C hristm an, a form er staff artist for Associate Press. Eight years earlier, on 19 August American fighters. The U.S. pilots 1981, USS Nimitz (CVN 68) was ac- prefer to approach potentially hostile in a few more seconds.” tually in the Gulf of Sidra, conducting aircraft at an angle, but every time Pappy rolled the Corsair on its back freedom of navigation exercises in they moved off to one side or the and dropped out, his parachute open- waters Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi other, the MiGs moved with them. ing just before he hit the water. That claimed he owned when a pair of Lib- After the second of these moves, Ken- evening, a Jap submarine surfaced yan airplanes, Soviet-made Sukhoi nedy air command gave the Tomcat next to his life raft. SU-22s, made the mistake of firing a pilots permission to fire on the MiGs The Black Sheep, back at Torokina, heat-seeking missile at some Nimitz if they thought they were in danger or didn’t know whether Boyington had aircraft flying CAP. Two Tomcats even felt threatened. been killed, captured, or what. But took on the SU-22s and put them both The Libyan pilots kept up their after the war, having collected his in the Gulf of Sidra. (Continued on page 6) “posthumous” awards, Pappy showed up smiling at a Black Sheep reunion in a bar in San Diego. He had beaten the odds once again.

THE U.S. C ARRIER John F. Kennedy enters the grand harbor at following 1989 exercises in FLYING TIGERS SC RAMBLE to m eet another the Mediterranean. Part of those exercises were for the purpose of dem onstrating freedom of navi- Japanese threat in C hina. gation in international waters, a concept that is anathem a to C ol. Muam m ar al-Q addafi. Page 4 M i s s i o n : Hi s to r y 3 January 2000 1944: Anzio, the Permanent Beachhead Surprise was Com plete, Germ ans React Quickly With Italy Out of the War, Fighting in Italy Tougher The ultimate objective of the Al- lied landings at Anzio, 25 miles south of Rome, on 22 January 1944 was the liberation of the Eternal City. Win- ning Rome, and with it the Vatican, would provide a tremendous boost throughout the free world. Units of the U.S. 88th Infantry D-DAY AT ANZIO . Troops and equipm ent land under a pall of sm oke rising from a burning LC I. Division entered the Piazza Venezia Allied air forces were unable to stop Germ an attacks on the landing force on D-Day, but the invasion in the center of Rome on 4 June and, was otherwise unopposed. Marshall Kesselring would soon have superior forces in opposition. despite scattered German resistance, the city was declared secure two days Benito Mussolini and his fascist gov- slow. The late autumn had brought later. On 6 June, little was heard from ernment and his successor, Field rain, mud and swollen rivers, making Italy, as the world’s attention was Marshall Pietro Badoglio, took Italy life miserable for Allied infantry. focused on Normandy. out of the war. If Mussolini had been Unimaginative leadership didn’t help The Allied invasion of Italy in credited with one thing, it was devel- and a succession of strongly fortified September 1943 followed the suc- opment of his country’s rail system defensive lines stretching from the cessful occupation of Sicily, but Sic- and “making the trains run on time.” Tyrrhenian Sea, across the Apennines ily had not been a complete success, The Germans used those railroads to to the Adriatic made conquest of It- as the bulk of the German forces had rush reinforcements to replace the aly’s boot as tough as chewing been allowed to escape across the now peaceful Italian divisions. leather. Straits of Messina. The landings at Salerno had been By the middle of December, more Sicily did lead to the downfall of met with fierce resistance and pro- than three months following the land- gress up the spiny peninsula was ings, Allied forces had overcome the Barbara Line and the Bernhardt Line and were now up against the Gustave Line, a series of pillboxes, gun em- placements and other impediments running north from the Golfo di Gaeta 25 miles to Cassino and then eastward to the Adriatic. Here, a stalemate ensued, only 60 miles north of Salerno. The Allied Commander, Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander, under General Dwight D. Eisenhower planned an amphibious “leapfrog” operation that would put Allied forces behind the Gustave Line. Unlike similar operations in the Pa- c i f i c , w h e r e c o m m a n d e r s “leapfrogged” around strong points to land at Japanese soft spots, the European commanders fed five U.S. and two British divisions into a A SQ UAD O F INFANTRY wades ashore at Anzio. The landings took the Germ ans com pletely by strongly defended abattoir. surprise, but Allied com m anders had failed to reckon with the Germ an capability to react quickly. The Germans were taken by sur- Also, Allied pilots reported they had destroyed all enem y ground transportation. They had not, but prise, though they reacted quickly. A they were believed. Action at Anzio killed 5,000 and wounded 18,000 U.S. and British soldiers. (Continued on page 5) 3 January 2000 M i s s i o n : Hi s to r y Page 5 End Run to Break Stalem ate Turns into another Stale- assist on one more bombardment run. loading her with wounded. How Taking Rom e Was Political We entered the battle run at 7:45 PM many died, only God could tell. An- Objective, and a Snafu and were trapped by bombers. The other hospital ship steamed seaward, run normally took 45 minutes, but we her cherry red from her flames.” Anzio M ost Costly Operation were unable to maneuver. In the next USS Plunkett (DD 431) escorted For Navy In M editerranean four hours, our destroyer (Plunkett) landing craft to Anzio, arriving on 21 was torpedoed. To my right the Brit- January. She then joined the warships (Continued from page 4) ish cruiser Penelope was sunk. To screening the transports. On 24 Janu- beachhead was achieved, and a my left, the British cruiser Spartan ary, she was at general quarters beachhead it remained for months. went down. We held our breath, when, at about 1740, the ships were Repeated attempts by the 8th British prayed and waited for an end that attacked by German Ju-87 “Stuka” Army and the 5th U.S. Army below didn't come. Ahead, a hospital ship dive bombers and JU-88 twin-engined the Gustave Line to link up with and was burning. All day they had been (Continued on page 7) relieve Anzio failed, partly because of terrible weather, partly because of the weakness of their forces on ac- count of heavy fighting and bad weather, and partly because of poor leadership. At the same time, the forces ashore at Anzio remained under constant fire from German artillery and rifle fire from opposing infantry. There was no place to hide at Anzio and the toll on all forms of troops was frightful. Six female nurses were among those “killed in action.” Company clerks and quartermasters suffered right along with the dogfaces. The action report of one group of quartermasters there at Anzio, the 48th QM Graves Registration Com- pany, tells of its problems: “A ceremony site was selected and the cemetery established 23 January 1944. It was here that the company suffered its largest number of battle casualties, two killed and five wounded. This brought the total number of Purple Heart awards to fourteen. For sixty-six continuous days the company was under artillery fire and bombing attack. During this period Graves Registration personnel were forced to use open graves for protection against shell-burst and fragmentation.” The Anzio landings were not easy on naval forces either. Milton Briggs, a radio man aboard the light cruiser USS Brooklyn, (CL 40) took notes: His grandson, Edward Gardner, com- piled his memoirs, and Briggs had this to say about Anzio: “Anzio was a terrible error. Thou- sands of men, or just boys, died on GO ING BACK FO R MO RE. Nero had built a port at Anzio about 1,900 years before the landings, that beachhead and on the ships. We and Pope Innocent XII had im proved it in the 1690s, but until the fire of Germ an artillery could be were called by the besieged Army to suppressed, the cargo of transports had to be lightered ashore in am phibious landing craft. Page 6 M i s s i o n : Hi s to r y Volume 2, Number 1 Libya’s Col. Qaddafi Keeps Losing M ilitary Assets Two at a Tim e

(Continued from page 3) game, and it was evident that they were being guided by ground com- mand. After the American pilots’ sixth attempt to approach from an angle was thwarted, when the bandits were still a dozen miles distant, the wing leader knew he was in for a fight and felt threatened enough to fire an AIM-7 Sparrow missile at one of the MiGs. His wingman immediately fired a Sparrow of his own at the same target and one MiG-23 was downed. The two pairs of aircraft had been VIEW FRO M STARBO ARD Q UARTER shows canvas barrier stretched to protect superstructure from closing at an enormous combined plane (or pilot from superstructure) in case of m ishap. C ritics were quick to note that the tem porary speed and now the remaining MiG flight deck m asked the warship’s after eight-inch battery flew past the two Tomcats. What the Libyan pilot didn’t know was that the Ely’s Dem onstration Goes for Naught as Focus Switches American flyers knew as much about To Seaplanes and ‘That Universal Airdrom e, the Water’ his Russian airplane as he did. In top secret training exercises at a U.S. Air (Continued from page 1) on Pennsylvania had a tailhook — sev- Force base in the southwestern United mentally the value of aviation to the eral of them. States, a clandestinely obtained MiG- Navy”. At San Francisco, Chambers built 23 had been put through its paces to Without money and without an air- his flight deck over the afterdeck of familiarize Air Force, Marine and plane, Chambers ordered the rigging of Pennsylvania, and over her after eight- Navy pilots with its capabilities. One the temporary deck on Birmingham. inch turret. To bring the airplane to a thing it couldn’t do was out-turn a He then called on Curtiss and bor- halt, cables were rigged across the Tomcat. rowed the services of Ely. On 14 No- deck and attached to 50-pound sand- The VF-32 wing leader bent on vember, Ely, in a Curtiss Model D-IV bags at each end. Longitudinal rails five “Gs” as he turned inside the MiG slid down the inclined “flight deck,” raised the cables so they could be and tailpiped him with a Sidewinder dove off the bow of Birmingham and snagged by hooks installed on the air- — the AIM-9 missile flew right up stayed airborne. plane. The arresting gear was the idea the Libyan plane’s exhaust. The Curtiss D-IV was the latest of Lieutenant Theodore G. Ellyson, And Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi thing in airplanes — cutting edge and who was then undergoing pilot training kept on losing things in pairs. state-of-the-art, to use those deplorable with Curtiss and would become Naval modern-day locutions — and a far cry Aviator No. 1. A canvas barrier was from the Wright Flyer of the Army that stretched across the end of the flight but a new aviation “first” intervened had immortalized Lieutenant Thomas deck to keep the airplane from crashing and Chambers was enthralled. E. Selfridge two years earlier by mak- into the ship’s superstructure. Glen Curtiss flew a pontoon- ing him the first recorded aircraft pas- As noted, Ely landed his airplane, equipped “hydro-aeroplane” off the senger fatality. conversed with a few people, took off waters of San Diego Bay in the world’s The D-IV had a V-8 engine, 23 an hour later and landed back at the first seaplane flight on 26 January. In years before Henry Ford installed one, Presidio of San Francisco. The Con- February, he landed the plane along- and it was five times more powerful gress was sufficiently impressed to side Pennsylvania which was anchored than Wright’s engine. The plane had a appropriate $25,000 for further devel- at San Diego. The plane was hoisted on proper seat for the pilot. Unlike the opment of naval aviation, with Cham- board and later swung back out and Wright Flyer, which used wing warp- bers in charge. onto the water, from which it took off. ing for lateral control, the D-IV had The next step might have been con- Chambers became focused on “that ailerons to bank the machine and assist version of a collier, or at least a barge, universal airdrome, the water,” and in turning. There were wheels instead to an aircraft carrier with a long flight carrier aviation would have to wait of skids, too. And the plane that landed deck uninterrupted by superstructure, another 11 years for USS Langley. Volume 2, Number 1 M i s s i o n : Hi s to r y Page 7 Allied Ships Caught By Stukas, Glide Bom bs Decatur Defeats Endym ion But Delay Caused by Fight Allows British to Catch Him

(Continued from page 8) have thought he had made good his escape. It was not to be. At 2300, Pomone found President, and Tenedos was close behind. After a few broadsides from the fresh Pomone, Decatur, having already suf- fered 24 dead and 55 wounded, saw no alternative to striking his colors, and the British had their American , their greatest prize of the just- concluded war. But they would not be able to show her off to the people at home. A few days after the action, the British squadron ran into a gale and President was dismasted. By the time DAMAGE FRO M O NE 550-PO UND BO MB forced USS Plunkett out of the war for five m onths. The she reached Britain, she was a badly guns of British and Am erican destroyers and cruisers are credited with keeping Germ an defenders damaged hulk, as a result of the at bay for the first few days at Anzio, but it was the Navy’s costliest Mediterranean operation. grounding, the action with Endymion, the dismasting and the fact she was 16 years old. The Admiralty reluctantly sent her to the breakers, but not before having her surveyed and a full set of drawings made. A precise copy was ordered and launched as HMS President in 1824. It was this President, and not Decatur’s, that the showed the people.

1903: U.S., Colom bia Canal Talks Bog, Navy Helps Out U.S. Secretary of State John Hay and Colombian chargé d’affaires Tomás Her- rán signed an agreement under which the United States would build a canal, through the province of Panama. Though the U.S. Senate approved the treaty, it was rejected by the Colombian Senate. Subsequently, the province, sup- SPRING C AME TO ANZIO , and still the landing went on. Unloading LSTs and other ships had ported by the gunboat USS Nashville, becom e safer after Arm y artillery had suppressed Germ an fire from their vaunted 88s and Allied declared its independence. air forces had won control of the sky.

(Continued from page 5) bomb that killed 23, left 28 missing and Was Anzio worth it? In retrospect, bombers. The latter carried glide bombs, wounded more than 50. The hit started one has to ask whether the campaign bombs with stubby wings attached that fires, extensively damaged the ship’s in Italy was “worth it.” British and would coast into a target from a rela- fire control system and armament, and American infantry slogged on until tively safe launch point. put her port engine out of commission. just two days before the 8 May 1945 Plunkett increased speed and ma- By 1821 the fires were extinguished surrender of Germany, but they did neuvered radically, avoiding two glide and Plunkett was able to limp on one keep 24 German divisions, and re- bombs, but she was caught among ship engine to Palermo, but she would be lated support forces, out of the way traffic. At 1757, she took a 550-pound out of the war for five months. of Allied forces in Western Europe. Page 8 M i s s i o n : Hi s to r y 3 January 2000 1815: Decatur Foiled, President Lost in Blockade Run U.S. Ship Defeats British Frigate; Unable to Flee Pursuing Enem y Squadron Early in the , when USS Constitution defeated HMS Java in action off the coast of Brazil, the British Admiralty issued orders that no British frigate was to engage an American frigate single-handed. Such was the regard in which the U.S. ships were held that Captain Sir Philip Bowes Vere Broke wrote: “We must catch one of these great American ships with our squadron, to send her home for a show, that people may see what a great creature it is, and that our have fought very well, though unlucky.” STEPHEN DEC ATUR, FO RCED TO ENGAGE British frigate Endym ion (right), bears up and fires a broadside from President’s starboard guns. This George C . W ales painting is at odds with reports Luck was with Broke in June 1813 of the engagem ent, in that no other ship was visible until President, using chain shot, had cut the when, in HMS Shannon, he caught enem y’s sails and rigging to pieces, leaving Endym ion unable to m aneuver USS Chesapeake and luck was with a ship free, by which time her hull had the British drew nearer. He had an ar- British squadron under Captain John received severe damage. Unfavorable row in his quiver the British had not, Hayes on 15 January 1815 when it winds prevented Decatur from return- however — elaborate shot that upon caught USS President attempting to ing to port, so he continued to sea de- being fired opened up to form flailing run the blockade of New York harbor. spite the damage suffered by Presi- iron choppers of sails and rigging. That engagement, like the Battle of dent. When Decatur finally turned to New Orleans a week earlier, was Hayes had considered the possibil- fight, he had to endure two raking fought after the war had ended with ity that his being forced off station broadsides from Endymion before she the signing of the on might encourage the Americans to drew alongside, but when she did, 24 December 1814. attempt to break out and had arranged President’s guns let fly a hail of de- Despite almost universal failure in his ships to intercept any blockade struction into Hope’s rigging. This ship-to-ship engagements, the British runners as they returned to their sta- action continued for more than two Navy by the end of 1814 ruled the tions. At daybreak on 15 January, hours and by the end Endymion could eastern seaboard and ships of the U.S. President was sighted by Majestic, no longer maneuver. At this point, Navy were blockaded in East Coast Endymion and Tenedos, and they gave with no enemy in sight, Decatur may ports. The squadron in New York, un- chase. (Continued on page 7) der Commodore , con- All morning, Majestic led the pur- sisted of the 44-gun frigate President, suit and President’s damaged hull re- How to Get in Touch two 18-gun sloops, Hornet and Pea- stricted her ordinarily superior speed Mission: History has been asked to provide cock, and two supply brigs, Macedo- so that she could not escape. In the an address for reader communications. E-mail nian and Tom Bowline. may be sent to this address: early afternoon, a wind shift favored [email protected] The British squadron on station off Endymion so she became the British the mouth of the harbor consisted of Mail may be sent by conventional post to: lead ship, and was gaining on the Ric Teague Hayes’ 56-gun razee Majestic, the 42- American, even though Decatur had 2239 Wellesley Street gun frigate Endymion, and the 38-gun every inch of canvas set and had light- Palo Alto, CA 94306 frigates Pomone and Tenedos. ened ship as much as possible. Submissions are not encouraged because of On 14 January, a gale blew the Brit- constraints on the time available for editing. If By the end of the afternoon, such are sent, they should be sent as e-mail ish squadron off station and Decatur Endymion, Captain Henry Hope, was attachments in Microsoft Word 6.0 or as type- decided to make a run for it. That eve- on President’s starboard quarter and written copy, double-spaced, accompanied by a ning, with Macedonian in company, had begun an effective fire with her 3½-inch diskette containing the submission in President headed to sea, only to run Microsoft Word 6.0 for Windows. bow guns. The only way Decatur Quite welcome, however, are suggestions of aground on a channel bar. It took De- could respond was to bear up to bring events for coverage. Please offer suggestions two catur an hour and a half to work his guns to bear, and every time he did so months ahead of the anniversary of an event.