Contributors

January 2014

Hill Goodspeed has worked at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, since 1994, where he serves as historian and artifact collection manager. He is also an adjunct professor ...

The Confederate Ironclad Navy

By William N. Still Jr.

January 2014

Everyone remembers the CSS Virginia, but she was just one of more than 20 ironclad warships that steamed forth to fight for the Rebel cause.

Museum Report - The Large Tug That Fought

By Rich Finzer

January 2014

Alongside the quay at the Port of Oswego, New York, an old warrior stands guard. On her stack, she proudly displays her “kill mark”: the silhouette of a fighter plane ...

Book Reviews

January 2014

Sunk in Kula Gulf: The Final Voyage of the USS Helena and the Incredible Story of Her Survivors in World War IIJohn J. Domagalski. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2012 ...

Historic Fleets - ‘May Her Career Be Triumphant’

By Robert J. Cressman

January 2014

In failing health, Admiral David Glasgow Farragut looked forward to the salubrious effects of a sea voyage. Hearing that Farragut’s physicians had advised him to forsake New York for New ...

Letters from the Precipice of War

By Hill Goodspeed

January 2014

A young naval officer’s correspondence provided an up-close and detailed view of the soon-to-be enemy—Japan—on the eve of World War II.

Operation Blue Nose

By Carl LaVO

January 2014

A young naval officer’s correspondence provided an up-close and detailed view of the soon-to-be enemy—Japan—on the eve of World War II.

Aftermath of Victory: The Perry-Elliott Controversy

By David Curtis Skaggs

January 2014

From the glories of the Battle of Lake Erie there arose a bitter officers’ feud that lasted for decades and split the Old Navy into rival camps.

One-Way Mission of the H. L. Hunley

By Brian Hicks

January 2014

Unconventional, unlikely, and unexpected, the Confederate submarine in her abbreviated career achieved a naval-history milestone 150 years ago.

On Our Scope

January 2014

For many months during World War II, U.S. Navy and Army strategists wrestled with the thorny problems of Rabaul and Truk Atoll, two of Japan’s most formidable bases in the ...

Two Birds with One Hailstone

By Alan P. Rems

January 2014

A pair of mighty bastions blocked the push toward Japan, but Operation Hailstone managed to take out both Truk and Rabaul in a single bold stroke.

Historic Aircraft - The Grasshoppers, Part 1: The Planes

By Norman Polmar

January 2014

The U.S. armed forces procured several thousand light observation/liaison aircraft beginning at the start of World War II. Known colloquially as “grasshoppers,” a few hundred were flown by the Navy ...

Naval History News

January 2014

Piece of the Georgia ResurfacesAn initiative to deepen Savannah’s shipping channel has resulted in the recovery of a piece of the Georgia port’s Civil War past. On 12 November archaeologists ...

Armaments and Innovations - Age of Sail’s Shipboard Machine

By Commander Tyrone G. Martin, U. S. Navy (Retired)

January 2014

A capstan is a vertically mounted drum, powered manually or mechanically, used to raise large weights, such as anchors. Unlike its cousin, the horizontally mounted winch (or windlass), which can ...

In Contact

January 2014

Michener’s Editor Deserves Credit, TooLieutenant Commander David K. Sturges, U.S. Navy Reserve (Retired)David Sears’ vivid feature in the August issue on the creation of the novel and film ...

Looking Back - Striving for Dignity

By Paul Stillwell

January 2014

A few months back, Margarett “Peg” Cooper died 3½ weeks short of her 100th birthday. Her mind remained impressively supple to the end; invariably on top of current events, she ...

Pieces of the Past

January 2014

Here’s an underwater-archaeology version of the classic before-and-after picture pairing, courtesy of 137 years’ worth of concretion on the one side and painstaking, meticulous conservation efforts on the other. One ...