Search

In 1844 the USS Yorktown sailed from New York, as part of the U.S. Navy's newly established African Squadron, to interdict slave ships leaving the African coast. Aboard the sloop of war, Master's Mate John C. Lawrence, an educated New Yorker in his early twenties, kept a private journal describing what happened during the extraordinary two-year voyage and his reactions ...

When Nazi Germany struck out from its borders in 1939, the force and efficiency of its land and air forces cut an unstoppable swath through mainland Europe. Only at sea was their new-found might tamed. Afraid to confront the British fleet in battle Hitler kept his most lethal ships hidden, although the Kriegsmarine's superior ships and guns probably would have ...

Though not so well known as the land and air campaigns, the campaign at sea in the 1991 Gulf War was vital in subduing Saddam Hussein's invasion forces and driving them out of Kuwait. U.S. Navy surface ships and submarines launched hundreds of cruise missile attacks ...