Naval historian Robert J. Cressman lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. His The Official Chronology of the United States Navy in World War II received a John Lyman Book Award (1999) and his body of work on U.S. naval aviation history was recognized by the Admiral Arthur W. Radford Award (2008). He is currently editor of the on-line Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. 

Articles by Robert Cressman

Naval History & Heritage Command

That So Small a Vessel . . .

By Robert J. Cressman
April 2010
As British colors snapped in the wind at the main above him, 23-year-old U.S. Navy Lieutenant Andrew Sterett inquired of the yellow-sided polacca that lay within hailing distance on 1 ...
U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE PHOTO ARCHIVE

Cool Courage Under Hot Fire

By Robert J. Cressman
December 2009
Clearly, a fight lay ahead in late July 1864, and Commander J. R. Madison Mullany keenly desired to take part in it. Commanding the sidewheeler Bienville, one of the West ...
National Archives And Records Administration

Triage at Sea

By Robert J. Cressman
October 2009
The smallest things are often the most easily overlooked. That also applies to some of the most diminutive surface ships, PCE(R)s-patrol craft, escort rescue. Only 13 of the vessels were ...
U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE PHOTO ARCHIVE

The Oldest Submarine at Midway

By Robert J. Cressman
August 2009
A powerful Japanese force of four fleet carriers screened by fast battleships, cruisers, and destroyers launched 107 planes early on 4 June 1942, its commander believing that surprise had been ...
National Archives and Records Administration

Lost at Utah

By Robert J. Cressman
June 2009
In his official report on D-Day and the loss of his ship, the USS Corry (DD-463), Lieutenant Commander George D. Hoffman wrote: "It was believed for a long time that ...
BUMED Library and archives

Historic Fleets

By Robert J. Cressman
April 2009
Beef Boat Extraordinaire Logistics. If Napoleon declared that an army travels on its stomach, how much less could a navy keep the sea if its sailors did not eat? Soldiers ...
U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive

Historic Fleets

By Robert J. Cressman
February 2009
Very much a bastard child, the eighth warship in United States service to carry the name Wasp was the result of Washington Naval Treaty limits on tonnage. After construction of ...
Naval Historical Center

Historic Fleets

By Robert J. Cressman
December 2008
A Fine Little Vessel Industrialist John N. Willys' yacht Isabel was on the ways at Bath (Maine) Iron Works when she attracted the Navy's attention as America entered World War ...
NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER

Historic Fleets

By Robert J. Cressman
October 2008
First of Her Breed As technological change transformed submarines from novelty to weapon of war, it naturally followed that more sophisticated "mother ships" would be required to service them. In ...

Historic Fleets

By Robert J. Cressman
August 2008
"Service to other vessels," the USS Medusa's commanding officer asserted in 1939, "is the only justification for [this ship's] existence." History validates the assertion because the Medusa was the ...
NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER

Historic Fleets

By Robert J. Cressman
June 2008
Short-Lived Innovation Her designers envisioned an ocean greyhound, embodying lines "closely resembling those of a finely modeled steam yacht." Fast, safe, reliable, and luxuriously appointed, the triple-screw turbine-powered steamship Great ...