New NHHC Director Steps Up
Rear Admiral Samuel Cox, U.S. Navy (Retired), recently assumed the role of director of the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC), following in the footsteps of Navy Captain Jerry Hendrix, whose retirement ceremony was last June. According to an NHHC press release, Cox remarked: “It’s my great honor and privilege to have taken the helm of NHHC. I am acutely aware of the issues and challenges that have faced NHHC over the last several years, and there remains much still to be done. Nevertheless, I am impressed with the recent progress made to protect and preserve our history.”
Cox will lead the way in furthering the organization’s missions of “gathering command histories, command cruise books, deck logs, and select personal papers; analyzing and publishing historic documentaries and studies; providing historic context to emerging contemporary issues; collecting and curating naval artifacts of historic significance; authorizing artifact loans to museums; and managing the Sunken Military Craft Act on behalf of the Navy.”
Michigan Shipwreck Could Be Griffin
Two Michigan treasure hunters, Kevin Dykstra and Fred Monroe, recently announced they may have found the remains of the Griffin, a French sailing ship that disappeared in Lake Michigan in mid-1679. The fate of the 40-foot vessel, which had a carved griffin on her bow, has been the subject of speculation since her disappearance.
Back in 2011, Dykstra and Monroe were using sonar to search for a 19th-century boxcar containing $2 million in Confederate gold coins rumored to be at the bottom of the lake. Instead they found a shipwreck. From their photos of the diving excursion, they observed that the wreck lacked modern signifiers such as cables, a cabin, or a smokestack, and it had what appeared to be a carved griffin on its front.
But archaeologists aren’t convinced from the photos alone, according to CBS News. The griffin-like shape the divers spotted could just be invasive zebra mussels attached to the ship, and the location of the wreck—near the western Michigan coast—isn’t close to Beaver Island, a location the Griffin’s commander had mentioned in his journal. Archaeologists will need to examine the site before any conclusions are drawn.
NOAA Maps Wrecks off San Francisco
Early on the morning of 22 February 1901, the SS City of Rio de Janeiro, an immigrant steamship, hit rocks near the future site of the Golden Gate Bridge in what may be considered San Francisco’s worst maritime disaster. The ship sank almost immediately and 128 of her 210 passengers and crew perished. Launched in 1878, the City of Rio de Janeiro was part of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and carried passengers and cargo back and forth from San Francisco, Honolulu, Yokohama, and Hong Kong. On board for this voyage were Chinese and Japanese immigrants, as well as the U.S. consul general in Hong Kong and his family.
More than 100 years later, as the result of a study by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Maritime Heritage Program, the agency released the first three-dimensional images and sonar maps of the wreck. The project is a two-year study to discover and document shipwrecks in the Gulf of Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and Golden Gate National Recreation Area. To date, NOAA has plotted close to 200 ships, 4 of which were original discoveries.
In November 2014, Hibbard Inshore and Bay Marine Services partnered with NOAA, providing a research vessel, crew, and a high-powered remotely operated vehicle. Using a three-dimensional sonar, NOAA was able to locate and map the City of Rio de Janeiro, which is in 287 feet of water inside the main ship channel, mostly covered in mud. They also mapped the recently discovered SS City of Chester. In a release, Robert Schwemmer, West Coast regional maritime heritage coordinator for NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, remarked: “The level of detail and clarity from the sonar survey is amazing. We now have a much better sense of both wrecks, and of how they not only sank, but what has happened to them since their loss.”
Naval Institute Names Authors of the Year
Charles E. Brodine Jr. has been selected as Naval History’s 2014 Author of the Year for his article “War Visits the Chesapeake” (October, pp. 16–24), which brought the Chesapeake Bay theater—one of the final stops of our War of 1812 bicentennial coverage—to life. In the article, the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) historian described British strategy and the destructive campaign that wreaked havoc in the Chesapeake Bay region.
Brodine’s other War of 1812–themed articles for Naval History include “The War’s Most Challenging Theater” (October 2013, pp. 16–19), “The Cautious Commodore?” (October 2013, pp. 30–35), and “The War’s Pervasive Naval Dimensions” (June 2012, pp. 18–23). He is associate editor of the NHHC’s series The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History and a coauthor of Interpreting Old Ironsides: An Illustrated Guide to the USS Constitution (2007) and Against All Odds: U.S. Sailors in the War of 1812 (2004), both published by the Naval Historical Center.
The Naval Institute Press has selected Bernard Cole as its Author of the Year for his collection of work, The Great Wall at Sea: China’s Navy Enters the Twenty-First Century (First and Second Editions, 2001 and 2010 respectively) and Asian Maritime Strategies: Navigating Troubled Waters (2013). The Great Wall at Sea was selected for the CNO’s Navy Reading Program, “Operate Forward, Recommended Reading.” Captain Cole, U.S. Navy (Retired), teaches at the National War College in Washington, D.C.
Passing of Ace Alex Vraciu
On 29 January, Commander Alexander Vraciu, one of the U.S. Navy’s top World War II fighter aces, passed away at age 96. On 19 June 1944 during the First Battle of the Philippine Sea, then–Lieutenant (junior grade) Vraciu, flying an F6F Hellcat, shot down six Japanese D4Y “Judy” bombers in the span of eight minutes. He finished his Pacific war service with a total of 19 kills, which places him fourth on the list of Navy World War II aces.
After serving as a test pilot and commanding VF-51 after World War II, Vraciu retired from the Navy in 1964 and began a career in banking. Look for David Sears’ account of Vraciu’s Pacific war years in an upcoming issue of Naval History.
Sailors on board the USS Virginia (Battleship No. 13) take a break from duty for some horseplay. This photo was taken circa 1914, before the ship supported the American occupation of Veracruz, which began in April of that year (see “‘Take Veracruz At Once,’” by Jack Sweetman, April 2014, pp. 34–41). From 1 May through early October the Virginia operated out of the Mexican port, with a few weeks’ interlude in Guantanamo Bay for target practice in September. This image is from a collection of albums donated to the Naval Institute that originally belonged to Chief Photographer’s Mate Frank H. Wilson, U.S. Navy (Retired).
The Air War Over Vietnam: A Call for Papers
In recognition that 50 years have passed since the United States first became involved militarily in Southeast Asia, four military-service historical foundations have proposed a series of conferences to explore America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and its consequences. The organizers of the series—the Air Force Historical Foundation, Army Historical Foundation, Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, and Naval Historical Foundation—have proposed the first conference be a symposium on the air element of the conflict and intend for it to be held in the national capital region on 15 and 16 October 2015.
The foundations have issued a call for paper/panel proposals for the conference, which is titled “Violent Skies: The Air War Over Vietnam.” Proposals may be based on either chronological or topical subjects. To propose a symposium presentation, please submit a 250- to 400-word paper abstract and a curriculum vitae or short autobiography to David F. Winkler of the Naval Historical Foundation ([email protected]) no later than 30 April. Panel proposals will be welcomed with a panel objective statement in addition to the paper abstract and C.V./biographies.