Naval History Web Enhanced Presents Battle of the Nile
Naval History magazine is proud to present “The Battle of the Nile” as a new addition to the Web Enhanced content available online at www.navalhistory.org. This piece is based on the software release of Interactive Great Battles: The Battle of the Nile (2002, U.S. Naval Institute: $14.95) and features a fully redesigned animated battle map of Admiral Lord Nelson’s victory over Napoleon’s fleet at Aboukir Bay near the mouth of the Nile on 1 August 1798. This animation takes the battle through more than 60 phases called “chapters,” each with a brief description of the action. The animation also features a complete set of DVD-style controls, so the viewer can play, pause, fast forward, rewind, and skip chapters. The high level of detail, information, and viewer control will make this a valuable resource in the study of the Age of Sail. Guest users may view this animation through the first 21 chapters. Naval History subscribers have access to the entire animation.
USS Des Moines Draws Controversy at Hearing
A new battle over an old warship erupted in full force on 19 January 2005 when organization advocates and citizens gathered at a public hearing to discuss the USS Des Moines (CA-134), a heavy cruiser that served in the Cold War, possibly coming to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The hearing, held by the Lakefront Advisory Commission, attracted a crowd exceeding the Downtown Transit Center’s maximum capacity.
Dick Caswell, president of the USS Des Moines Historic Naval Ship Project, said the ship would be used as a site for a museum, for reunions and memorial services, and for dockside “cruises” for children.
“I think [the Des Moines] would be very successful in Milwaukee,” Caswell said in an interview before the hearing.
Caswell, who served on the Des Moines in 1957, said the ship would be placed a half mile northeast of the Milwaukee Art Museum. The ship’s 76-foot width would be facing the museum. Its 716.5-foot length would be next to Veteran’s Park.
“She generally will not block the views unless you’re standing next to the ship and looking at the lake,” Caswell said.
Caswell said the ship would cost $18.5 million, privately raised, to bring here.
“It’s a lot of money, but it will bring a lot of money to Milwaukee,” Caswell said. He said the ship would make $19 million in its first year if it brought in 150,000 visitors.
But some fear the ship’s arrival would wreak havoc on Milwaukee’s lakefront.
“It’d be a big eyesore, it’d be a maintenance nightmare, and it’d be a financial sinkhole,” according to Charles Kamps, president of Preserve Our Parks, who spoke on behalf of the Save Our Lakefront Coalition.
Kamps said comparable ships have lost money. The USS Salem (CA-139), sister ship to the Des Moines, lost $237,000 in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 2003.
Caswell said in an earlier interview that the failure of the Salem could be attributed to her location and poor marketing. He said the USS Cobia (SS-245) in Manitowoc had 56,000 visitors last year, in a town with a population of 44,000.
But Kamps said in order to make money the ship would need to host events such as cocktail parties and wedding receptions.
“It’s not a memorial to have a party boat,” Kamps said.
In addition to blocking views of the lakefront, the ship would also bring harmful contaminants into Lake Michigan, according to Lynn Broaddus, the executive director of Friends of Milwaukee’s Rvers.
Potential contaminants include asbestos, lead, and PCBs, Broaddus said.
In addition, she said dredging, disturbing the lake’s sediment, would drag up dormant contaminants into the water, and the ship would alter wind patterns.
Joseph Lombardi, president of Ocean Technical Services, said the Environmental Protection Agency and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources would test the ship before the public was allowed access.
“There will be no impact environmentally to the lake,” Lombardi said. He also said that most of the ship’s profile would not be seen.
But some, like John Lunz, president of Veterans for an Open Lakefront, said financial obstacles would sink the project.
“I don’t believe it will be financially viable,” Lunz said. He said the Salem expected 90,000 visitors for the 1995 opening year and got 15,000.
“If it weren’t for government grants and/ or donations, these ships would all sink,” Lunz said.
The Lakefront Development Commission was scheduled to discuss the issue further on 9 February.
Bridget Thoreson, Marquette Tribune
Organization Agitates for New Monitor
Civil War history fans want the U.S. Navy to honor the famous ironclad USS Monitor by bestowing her name on a new submarine.
The first of a new class of nuclear-powered attack submarines has been named the USS Virginia (SSN-773). “For the sake of history, tradition and symmetry,” said Cleveland Civil War Roundtable president Mel Maurer, “it would be fitting for a submarine of the Virginia’s class to be named the USS Monitor."
William Vodrey, chair of the Roundtable’s Committee to Honor the Monitor, said, “The original Monitor was one of the most famous ships in American history, but there hasn’t been a warship of that name on active duty in the U.S. Navy since a troop transport, LSV-5, launched late in World War II.”
The Navy plans to build 30 Virginia-class submarines. The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable is leading a grassroots effort to have the Navy name one of them the Monitor, urging other roundtables and their members, and other lovers of history, to write to the President, members of Congress, and the Navy leadership.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson of Princeton University supports the Roundtable’s efforts, saying, “It would be most fitting to name one of the new submarines of the Virginia class the USS Monitor, in honor of the original Monitor that battled the first Virginia to a standstill.”
John Hightower, chairman and chief executive officer of the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia, official repository of the turret, anchor, and other artifacts recovered from the wreck of the original Monitor, also supports the campaign. “We wish you well in your quest,” he said. “It’s a good and worthy one, and we hope it succeeds.”
Naval historical artist William R. McGrath said, “The original Monitor, designed by John Ericsson, propelled the U.S. Navy into the modern era. No longer would wooden ships control the destiny of nations. This ship revolutionized the design of warships for the next 90 years. Clearly, we should honor the original Monitor and carry on our naval heritage by naming one of our newest submarines after her.”
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable, founded in 1957, is one of the oldest such groups in the country. The Committee to Honor the Monitor was established by the Roundtable in April 2004.
New Memorial Will Honor Patrol Warriors
Hundreds of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island patrol squadron (VP) personnel have been lost in patrol operations in the 63 years since such squadrons were first assigned to that base on the Puget Sound in northwest Washington. Fifty- three patrol squadrons (many having gone by several designations) have operated from Whidbey Island over the years. Among the many aircraft that have served in this role are Catalinas, Venturas, Mariners, Privateers, Neptunes, Marlins, and Orions.
The VP-2 Association, a group of some 500 former members of the now disestablished patrol squadron, is sponsoring and creating a memorial to honor those who served at Whidbey Island. The memorial has a single purpose: to recognize the contributions of the men and women of the Whidbey Island patrol squadron community, along with their families, made in more than six decades of service.
A memorial committee has labored to come up with a suitable memorial design, and it has worked extensively with the Oak Harbor, Washington, city council for more than a year to gain the city’s support for the memorial. In 2004, the Oak Harbor city council unanimously approved the design and the placement of the memorial in the city's Veterans Memorial Park.
The memorial design consists of a life- size bronze statue of an airman in flight gear standing in front of a three-section granite wall. On the outside of the center section is a map showing the many deployment and operating sites of the Whidbey Island VP squadrons. The two outer granite panels list the many patrol squadrons that were based at NAS Whidbey Island from 1942 to the present and the names of those who perished in patrol operations.
The statue and granite walls are mounted on a patio surrounded with bricks inscribed in accordance with the wishes of donors who purchase them. Brick sales are the primary means of fund-raising for the memorial, which is scheduled for completion and dedication in the summer of 2006. For more information about donations and brick order forms, visit the memorial Web site at www.patron2.com/files/wpsm.html. For inquiries by mail, write to WPSM Committee, 1376 West Beach Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277, or wpsm@comcast.net.
Captain Victor S. Gulliver, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Librarian Finds Calling in Merchant Marine
Gerald Reminick’s moonlighting changed his life.
A professor of library services at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood, Long Island, Reminick was moonlighting at the Deer Park Library to pay for his kids’ college tuitions a dozen years ago when Matthew Loughran came in seeking research help.
Reminick already was interested in maritime history—in fact, he was writing a biography of a Navy admiral.
But Reminick learned that Loughran had served in World War II as a merchant seaman and had become historian for the North Atlantic Chapter of the American Merchant Marine Veterans. Loughran’s accounts of life and death on board cargo ships and tankers during the war fascinated Reminick, who became determined to tell the story of how the civilian mariners kept the war effort alive.
So, although Reminick still has not found a publisher for his biography of Admiral John Wilcox—who was on board the battleship Washington (BB-56) in 1942 when he was swept overboard to his death—he has had five books on the World War II Merchant Marine printed.
Reminick, 61, noted that only a few authors have focused on merchant ships during the war. “It’s a narrow maritime niche,” he said. “But I just love these guys. And I’ll be very happy writing about their activities in my spare time for the rest of my life.
“They suffered the greatest percentage of casualties of all the services in the war— one out of every 26 died,” Reminick said. He noted that 833 U.S. freighters and tankers were sunk during the war. An estimated 9,300 seamen were killed, with another 12,000 wounded.
When the seamen made it home, “there were no parades and no benefits,” Reminick said. “They missed out on a tremendous amount of benefits like the GI Bill.” It was not until 1988 that Merchant Marine veterans were declared eligible for federal benefits for their war service.
After meeting Loughran, Reminick began soliciting veterans’ stories. Eventually, he compiled 51 accounts that he assembled as an anthology entitled Patriots and Heroes: True Stories of the U.S. Merchant Marine in World War II, which was published in 2000 by Glencannon Press in California (which has published all his books).
Over the next two years, Reminick expanded two of those stories into full-length books. Death’s Railway: A Merchant Mariner on the River Kwai told the story of Stanley Willner, who became a prisoner and was forced to work on the infamous Burma- Siam railroad. Nightmare in Bari: The World War II Liberty Ship Poison Gas Disaster and Cover-up is an account of a destructive 1943 attack by the German air force on the harbor of Bari, Italy.
Last fall, Reminick had another anthology published: No Surrender: True Stories of the U.S. Navy Armed Guard in World War II. It is about Navy sailors stationed on merchant vessels to man the deck guns.
Through his research, Reminick said, “I’ve made some very, very good friends” and has spoken at numerous merchant mariner veterans’ reunions at the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York. He also has been speaking to a lot of junior high school classes, which he finds particularly rewarding. “At that age, a lot of them have trouble even knowing what World War II was about,” he said.
Loughran praises Reminick for filling in gaps in the historical record.
“The Merchant Marine never gets any publicity,” he said. “With him putting all his time into writing all these books, he’s become very knowledgeable and he’s giving us a lot more exposure. I think he’s doing a wonderful job.”
Bill Bleyer