Trafalgar Artifact Sold
The only surviving Union Jack from the Battle of Trafalgar was sold at auction in late October for a world-record sum of $638,102, nearly 40 times its estimated auction price. The huge 11-foot-by-7-foot flag-riddled with shot holes and still smelling of gunpowder 204 years after the historic battle-flew from the jackstaff of HMS Spartiate, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line.
After the battle, the crew presented the flag to Lieutenant James Clephan for his outstanding performance. Press-ganged into the Royal Navy, Clephan, a Scot, had risen through the ranks to eventually become a captain of his own ship-one of only 16 out of about 300,000 sailors to do so. Clephan was made a midshipman in 1801 and rose to lieutenant later that year for distinguishing himself in the successful capture of the French ship Chevrette. At Trafalgar, where he was immediately promoted to first lieutenant after a fearless performance, he was on board the Spartiate, a French ship that had been captured at the Battle of the Nile. He retired in 1840 at the rank of captain and lived in Edinburgh where he died in 1851 at age 83.
The flag, which was sewn from 31 bunting panels by the men of the Spartiate, had remained in his family ever since. For years it was kept in a drawer for preservation, but the banner was very nearly lost in the 1950s when relatives attempted to present it to a Scottish cathedral for display.
Charles Miller, of London auctioneers Charles Miller Ltd, sold the historic flag on Trafalgar Day, 21 October. He said: "We believe it is the only existing flag that flew at Trafalgar. It is one of the most important historical items any collector could expect to handle."
Two Still Missing
The remains of two Japanese submarines designed to attack American cities and the Panama Canal in the waning days of World War II have been discovered off Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands at a depth of 2,600 feet.
The locations of I-201 and I-14 were announced in November by the Undersea Research Laboratory of the University of Hawaii. Together with the discovery four years ago of the sunken I-401, the boats offer a glimpse of major advances in undersea technology that came too late to help Japan but foreshadowed the development of nuclear-powered subs of the 1950s and '60s.
The trio were among five I-class boats seized by the U.S. Navy at the end of the war and taken to Pearl Harbor to unlock their secrets. Afterward, the Navy towed them to deep seas where they were torpedoed in 1946, primarily to keep Soviet scientists from examining them.
The five boats were remarkable in what they were designed to do. I-400 and I-401 were sea-going goliaths-400 feet long with hulls 40 feet high. "These subs were bigger than nuclear subs, the largest diesel subs ever built," said John Wiltsire, acting director of the research lab. "They could launch aircraft, stay submerged, and run 37,500 miles-one-and-a-half times around the globe-without refueling." Manned by 147 crewmen, each displaced 4,762 tons submerged and was equipped with air-breathing snorkels for undersea diesel propulsion, radar detectors, a rubberized hull to deflect enemy radar, and a 12-foot-diameter aircraft hangar opening onto an 85-foot pneumatic catapult. Each boat housed three Aichi M6A1 Seiran float-plane bombers with folding wings and tails. I-14 was slightly smaller and carried two Seirans.
The other two boats-the attack submarines I-201 and I-203-had retractable deck guns and streamlined conning towers and hulls that enabled them to attain submerged speeds of 19 knots, more than double that of American subs.
The intent was for the big I-boats to unleash bacteriological warfare on U.S. cities and torpedo attacks on the Gatun locks of the Panama Canal. Ten sub-launched planes were to drop infected rats and mosquitoes to spread bubonic plague, cholera, dengue fever, and typhus over populated areas of the West Coast. However, the plan was cancelled on 26 March 1945 because the biological bombs were not ready.
The wreckage of I-201 and I-14 was discovered in February 2009 and announced in November, in conjunction with the premier of the National Geographic Channel's documentary film of the discovery mission, "Hunt for the Samurai Subs." Though three of the five I-boats brought to Pearl Harbor have been located, the whereabouts of the other two-I-203 and I-400-remain a mystery.
The last existing Seiran floatplane has been restored and is preserved at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Future in Limbo
An American salvage company that discovered the wreck of the first HMS Victory in May 2008 is seeking permission to raise her remains-including a suspected $1 billion in gold. The wreck lies off Alderney, one of the Channel Islands. More than 1,000 sailors drowned when the British warship, the predecessor to Admiral Lord Nelson's Victory, sank in a storm in 1744.
Greg Stemm, chief executive officer of Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., said the company is in negotiation with the British government and other interested parties. "Hopefully we'll come up with a way forward that includes the excavation of that site," he said. The company has raised two cannon, which confirmed the ship's identity. In September the company reached an agreement with the government, which granted a $160,000 salvage reward of 80 percent of an agreed value of the guns-$200,000.
Odyssey presented a proposal that would have the entire site excavated, the collection conserved, and educational materials developed, with the company taking the entire risk of assembling and funding the project. Further salvage work, however, is likely only to take place if the site can be shown to be at risk, because the government has endorsed an annex of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Convention on the Protection of Underwater Heritage, which bans salvage unless the site is under threat.
The company contributed $75,000 of its salvage award to the National Museum of the Royal Navy to assist in advancing historical, educational, and cultural awareness of Victory's discovery.
Cold War Gallery on Track
The Washington Navy Yard-based Naval Historical Foundation announced in November it is continuing with exhibit design and fabrication for the National Museum of Naval History's Cold War Gallery, set for a partial opening on Veterans Day 2010. The 20,000-square-foot gallery will showcase an important period in maritime history-from 1954 to the fall of the Soviet Union.
The foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports the museum and other projects of the Naval History & Heritage Command, also accepted a substantial pledge from General Dynamics Corporation to support the completion of the Cold War annex. "The pledge represents a major commitment to the Navy's flagship museum, honoring those who served in the sea services during critical period in world history," said retired Admiral Bruce DeMars, the foundation's chairman.
General Dynamics' history as one of the nation's leading defense firms is tied to the Cold War era. The corporation's Electric Boat division produced a significant number of the submarines that "fought" the war, including the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), and later attack submarines of the Los Angeles-class and ballistic-missile submarines of the Ohio class. The exhibit's North Hall will include two major displays: "The Navy in the Nuclear Age" and "Tracking Ivan."
Churchill's Lost Sub Found
A British submarine, lost in action more than 90 years ago in the Baltic Sea was found in late October close to the Estonian island of Hiiumaa. The boat, HMS E18, was part of an eight-sub operation authorized by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill at the outbreak of World War I and never returned from a routine patrol in May 1916. There were no witnesses to her sinking, which claimed the lives of her crew of three officers and 28 enlisted men.
A group researching the operations of the Royal Navy submarine squadron involved in Churchill's endeavor had found over a period of ten years a number of the ships the British boats sunk, but not its Holy Grail. Only one of the eight subs had been lost-E18. Led by Swedish historian-explorer Carl Douglas, the group concentrated on finding the boat. The Swedish survey vessel, the MV Triad, investigating a contact with a remotely operated vehicle, captured photographs showing the 181-foot-long submarine in remarkably good condition. An open hatch suggests E18 was sailing on the surface when she struck a mine.
Naval historian Eric Grove has described Churchill's gambit as the most successful Royal Navy submarine campaign of the war. It forced the Germans to rethink their use of the Baltic and become the first country to introduce the convoy system to protect vital iron ore shipments from Sweden to the Fatherland-all because of only eight submarines.