Happy Birthday, Navy
Today marks the 241st birthday of the US Navy when the Continental Congress decided it needed a force to protect the harbors and defend the coasts of the new nation on October 13th, 1775. The first warships were built at Whitehall, New York on October 11th, 1776 under the direction of Benedict Arnold for an assault up Lake Champlain. Arnold built 16 ships and confronted the British at Valcour Island, New York where he delayed the British long enough that they abandoned their plans to invade the colonies from Canada for a year.
From Fox News;
On Oct. 13, 1775, the Continental Congress established an official naval force, hoping a small fleet of boats would be able to offset the seemingly intractable sea power of the British.
The early Navy was not formed to wrest control of the seas from Britain, but instead to wage tactical raids against the transports that supplied British forces in North America. The Continental Congress subsequently purchased, converted, and built a fleet of small ships that included brigs, sloops, and schooners.
These navy ships sailed alone or in pairs, hunting British commerce ships and transports.
The Navy was disbanded after the Revolution, relying on the Revenue Cutter Service (the Coast Guard) for damper security but the Navy was reestablished in 1794 in response to the Barbary pirates, half a world away.
Category: Navy
Happy birthday, shipmates!
And square away that fucking squid lid, Sailor! It ain’t a World War Two movie!
A happy birthday to all my anchor-clanker friends and family.
Fair winds and following seas.
The end of an era, thanks to McGrabass.
HB Squids.
At least you’re not Coast Guard.
*runs*
😀 😀 😀
Happy B-day, Anchor Clankers!!
🙂
Here’s my present to you water people. It’s a little story about a fellow who enlisted in the Navy in 1935. He served for six years. It was a helluva year to get out. He went back home and a few months later… Pearl Harbor. So, back to the Navy he went. He survived the war and, with ten years service under his belt, he returned to the world to stay—sort of. Some 20 years and an academy award later, he put a Navy uniform back on as the star of the TV show McHale’s Navy. That’s right. I’m talking about the old salt, Ernest Borgnine. “When Ernie was promoted to honorary chief … there was never, of all the honors – even Ernie’s academy award – never anything that meant as much to him,” said retired U.S. Navy Capt. Kathi Dugan, one of Borgnine’s closest friends. “He had tears in his eyes.”
He left us back in 2012 and, in his will, he requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society. Borgnine was Navy all the way.
Happy Birthday, water people.
He was a good man, a great actor, an outstanding patriot….and we never have enough of them!
Stand Navy out to sea,
Fight our battle cry;
We’ll never change our course,
So vicious foe steer shy-y-y-y.
Roll out the TNT,
Anchors Aweigh.
Sail on to victory
And sink their bones to Davy Jones, hooray!
Anchors Aweigh, my boys,
Anchors Aweigh.
Farewell to foreign shores,
We sail at break of day-ay-ay-ay.
Through our last night ashore,
Drink to the foam,
Until we meet once more.
Here’s wishing you a happy voyage home.
Blue of the mighty deep:
Gold of God’s great sun.
Let these our colors be
Till all of time be done, done, done, done.
On seven seas we learn
Navy’s stern call:
Faith, courage, service true,
With honor, over honor, over all.
Happy birthday to Sailors everywhere, and Mabus, kindly GFY. Twice.
What you said.
Amen…………then retire, somewhere dank, dark, ugly and smelly! to match the shyty job you have done to the Navy!!
Happy Birthday to all my brothers and sisters of the Navy!
No matter the changes the current fools may make, your traditions will never die and always stand proud.
Mabus sure gave the Navy a hell of a birthday present, didn’t he? Yeah, fuck that guy.
For some of us Army people who might be having a hard time wrapping our heads around why the Navy would get its start on Lake Champlain, a lot of it had to do with some unique terrain features, and the need to move supplies on inland water for lack of roads.
From the St. Lawrence River in Canada, it’s only a short distance to the upper end of Lake Champlain. The lower end of Lake Champlain connected to the upper end of Lake George via a portage controlled by Fort Ticonderoga. The lower end of Lake George is only a short distance to the headwaters of the Hudson River which flows south and eventually winds up at Staten Island where the British had a large concentration of troops.
Fort Ticonderoga would also play a key role in some of this when in May 1775 a militia force of Green Mountain Boys under Ethan Allen captured the fort along with a large cache of artillery which would prove critical in helping jump start the Continental Army.
Another interesting sidebar to the story of the U.S. Navy is that during the Revolutionary War, a lot of the salt water conflict carried out against British shipping was done under letters of marque issued by the Continental Congress. This was done by a fleet of self-financed privateers, the British called them pirates, which eventually captured around 300 British vessels. The deal was that if you captured a British ship, you got to sell it and the stuff it carried.
Happy Birthday!
OS2, USN
Happy Birthday, Navy!
Anyone know if anyone painted the anchor at DLI pink again this year?
Double proud day for me.
First Son’s Birthday and the Navy’s.
It was a Friday that year with a Full moon.
All in all he has not bit, jinxed, or otherwise darkened anyone’s life.
Blessed mine.
Happy Birthday Shipmates Everywhere.
Happy Birthday Navy.
Happy Birthday, Navy!
Semper Fidelis.
Happy Birthday, Navy, and to all who have and continue to serve with pride and distinction. Thank you for your service.
I would love a do-over. Damn, it was a good time.
Happy B’day anchor clankers!
That birthday spanking is really gonna hurt!