Warship Wednesday 6 May 2026: 50 Years Low and Slow

Posted on by Leave a comment

Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger.

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday 6 May 2026: 50 Years Low and Slow

Historic New England PC047.02.5870.09396

Above we see the class-leading shallow-draft, single-masted armored sloop USS Wilmington (Gunboat No. 8) in Boston Harbor for a naval parade on 2 September 1898, just after the SpanAm War. Note her array of 4″/40 guns, including two forward behind shields, two aft, and two in her portside casemates.

Basically a low-horsepower light cruiser, Wilmington went on to have an amazingly long service life.

Steel Navy’s early gunboats

The first steel-hulled steam warship that was (eventually) rated as a gunboat was the 1,400-ton 16-knot dispatch vessel USS Dolphin, which was authorized by the New Navy Act of 1883. Carrying a three-masted schooner rig, later reduced to two masts, she carried a single 6-inch gun on a 255-foot hull.

USS Dolphin at Galveston, Texas, 1 March 1919. Photographed by Paul Verkin, Galveston. Note that the ship is still wearing pattern camouflage nearly four months after the World War I Armistice. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2007. NH 104949

Then in 1889 came the trio of Yorktown class boats (PG 1, 3-4), which went 1,900 tons and carried six 6-inchers. They also had an armored conning tower, clad in two inches of nickel steel.

Yorktown Class Gunboat USS Concord pictured about to depart Dry Dock No.1 at Mare Island Navy Yard on June 26th 1903.

USS Petrel (PG-2) was a smaller boat, just 867 tons, armed with four 6-inchers and capable of just 11 knots.

USS PETREL (PG-2) (1899-1920) in Japanese waters, during the 1890s. Collection of Shizuo Fukui, copied from Dr. S. Watanabe’s Album. The photo was provided by William H. Davis. NH 42706

USS Bancroft (PG 4 1/2, not kidding) mimicked Petrel but mounted four-inch guns and could gin up 14 knots plus, as a bonus, carried two torpedo tubes.

Bath Iron Works in Maine in 1893 built the twin 15-knot gunboats USS Machias (PG-5) and Castine (PG-6), which went 1,310 tons and 203 feet overall, while mounting eight 4-inchers. These boats carried armor, two inches of it, protecting their casemates. This left them with a 15-foot draft.

USS Machias

The Newport News-built USS Nashville (Gunboat No. 7), at 1,300 tons and 233 feet, was good for 16 knots on a 2,530shp plant and, like the Machias twins, carried eight 4-inch guns while the casemate armor had been upped to 2.5 inches. She was awarded on 22 January 1894 in Newport News’s first Navy contract, and was laid down as Yard No. 7 on 9 August 1894.

Gunsboat USS Nashville PG-7

This sets the stage for our subject.

Meet Wilmington

Wilmington, the only commissioned U.S. Navy warship named for the Delaware city, was ordered specifically to be a shallow draft gunboat, capable of floating in nine feet of water. Running 250 feet overall with a plow bow, she was a beamy girl, at 40 feet.

Line drawing from Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, Vol. 2, 1894. Robb Jensen collection

Displacing 1,397 tons standard (1,689 full) she was powered by six single-ended Hohenstein cylindrical coal-fed boilers pushing twin vertical triple expansion engines powering twin screws, and capable of generating 1,988 horsepower, good for 15.5 knots (light, 13.2 full). While her normal load was 100 tons, when her bunkers were packed with 277 tons, she had a 5,500nm range at 10 knots

Wilmington Olangapo PI dry dock

Wilmington Olangapo PI dry dock

Her main battery consisted of eight single 4″/40 Mark III mounts, the yankee version of the 4″/40 (10.2 cm) QF Mark XI, which was staple when it came to U.S. gunboats from PG-5 through PG-35, as well as secondary batteries on the Iowa (B-4), Puritan (M-1), Columbia (C-12) and New York (ACR-2) classes. Designed to deliver 8-9 rounds per minute, well-trained American crews in the war with Spain found themselves able to pump out as many as 15 rounds per minute when needed in battle.

USS Wilmington (PG-8) getting underway from Port of Spain, Trinidad, 21 January 1899 for Orinoco/Amazon Rivers cruise, giving a good view of her stern pair of 4″/40s. NH 77614

Her secondary armament consisted of six 57mm/50 6-pounder Driggs-Schroeder Mk II anti-boat guns and two 37mm/40 Driggs-Schroeder heavy Mk I 1-pounders.

Crewmen at the six-pounder and one-pounder guns of USS Wilmington (PG-8), circa January 1899, with the latter commonly used for saluting and challenges. Courtesy of Mrs. Chapman C. Todd, 1973.NH 77633

The 1904 Jane’s entry for the class showing the battery arrangement with two 4″/40 guns forward, two rear, and two on each beam, while the 6- and 1-pounders were split between an amidships gundeck with two aloft in the fighting top.

A pair of Colt Gatling guns and a 3-inch field gun were also issued with the intention that they could be dismounted for service ashore. Speaking of which, it was expected that her 175-man crew could provide a reinforced two-platoon (70-man) landing force if called upon, with rifles and marching kit stocked aboard if needed.

Sailors at Musketry Drill, circa 1900-1910. They are armed with M1898 (Krag-Jorgenson) rifles. Note Warrant Officer at left, holding a sword. The sword was abolished in 1905 for landing party duty, but may have continued in use, informally, for drill. Courtesy of Carter Rila, 1986. NH 100833

Her armor plan included a watertight deck with 3/8″ armor on the slopes and 5/16″ on the flats. In addition, her conning tower, casemates, and machinery spaces had a 1-inch belt while she had shields for her deck-mounted 4-inchers.

Our girl was ordered for $280,000, laid down at Newport News as Yard No. 8 on 8 October 1894, just two months behind Nashville, and the two very different gunboats were built side-by-side.

USS Wilmington (PG-8) and USS Nashville (PG-7) ready for launching at Newport News, Virginia, 19 October 1895. Photo by Hart, New York. NH 63204

Miss Anne Grey, daughter of Senator Grey of Delaware, just before christening USS Wilmington (PG-8), at Newport News, Virginia, 19 October 1895. Photo by Hart, New York. NH 63206

Miss Anne Grey, daughter of Senator Grey of Delaware, christening USS Wilmington (PG-8), at Newport News, Virginia, 19 October 1895. Photo by Hart, New York. NH 63208

Wilmington launched at Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., 19 October 1895. Photo by Hart, New York. NH 63202

Wilmington during fitting out with no armament installed. NH 63584

Wilmington would commission on 13 May 1897.

Her first skipper was CDR Chapman Coleman Todd (USNA 1866), late from his post as the Ordnance Officer, Navy Yard, Norfolk. The son of Kentucky steamboat captain, Franklin County sheriff, state legislator, and state penitentiary warden Harry Innes Todd, the younger Todd secured his appointment to Annapolis from Governor John J. Crittenden at age 13 during the Civil War.  He would prove a man of action.

Newport News would build one sister to Wilmington, USS Helena (PG-9), which commissioned on 8 July 1897.

Wilmington and Helena gunboats, Janes 1898

Officers of the USS Helena (PG-9) and HMS Espiegle alongside the Helena in China, 1903-1904. Courtesy of Captain E.B. Larimer, USN, 1931.NH 133

Wilmington conducted sea trials and underwent training off the east coast, and joined the South Atlantic Squadron at Key West.

War (her first)

At the beginning of 1898, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet was split into Northern and South Squadrons with all of the country’s battleships (except USS Oregon), armored cruisers, and monitors (save for Monadnock and Monterey). The South Atlantic Squadron, consisting of the cruiser USS Cincinnati and the gunboats Castine and Wilmington, was meanwhile detailed to cruising north along the coast of South America. Meanwhile, Wilmington’s sister, Helena, was detailed to the two-ship European Squadron along with the Bancroft, lounging at Lisbon.

On 21 April 1898, two months after the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor, Cuba, the United States declared war on Spain.

The blockade began in earnest on the morning of 23 April with USS Puritan, Marblehead, Cincinnati, Wilmington, Foote, and the Revenue Cutter Winslow ordered to the eastward of Havana to blockade Matanzas and Cardenas, and to patrol the coast between the latter and Havana.

A haze gray USS Wilmington. Halftone photo from “War in Cuba”, 1898. Note the gun shields are installed on her 4″/40s. NH 85651

On 4 May, the tug Leyden, with Captain J. H. Dorst, of the U.S. Army, aboard, landed ammunition for the Cuban insurgents near Mariel. Spanish cavalry that attempted to prevent Captain Dorst’s plucky landing were dispersed by a few 4-inch shells from the Wilmington. The next day, Wilmington, along with Newport and the USRC Morrill, captured the French steamer Lafayette while off Havana with a cargo of provisions and 161 passengers.

On 11 May, Todd was made a defato commodore and given a little flotilla including the schooner-rigged gunboat USS Machias (PG-5), the torpedo boats Winslow and Foote, and the armed Revenue Service tug Hudson, tasked with destroying the Spanish gunboats sheltering at Cardenas and bombarding any troops found inside the sheltered bay.

Machias, drawing 15 feet, remained outside Cardenas due to her greater draft, and destroyed the signal station of Cayo Diana, while Wilmington, Foote, and Winslow entered the bay, amidst a dense fog and haze, hoping to make short work of the much inferior Spanish squadron. Hudson held back to tow any prizes.

Opposing the American force was a pair of small 42-ton cañoneras, Ligera and Alerta, armed with a single 42mm Nordenfelt and a 37mm Maxim. The problem was, Ligera was already disbled with a shot through her boiler in a 25 April engagement with Foote. They were augmented by the armed Trasatlántica-company 68-ton tugboat (remolcador) Antonio Lopez, which had been pressed into service, as well as shore batteries.

With the cañoneras hugging the shallows, the heavier Lopez was forced to stand just off the wharf and fight– and she did– taking the leading American warship, Winslow, under fire, beginning an 80-minute artillery duel.

While the Spanish Navy got a bad rap when it comes to remembering the war of 1898, they made a good showing at Cardenas with the little Antonio Lopez taking at least 12 hits from Winslow’s 1-pounder popgun, and in turn fired 135 shells with her single 57mm 6-pounder, riddling Winslow and keeping up her fire until her magazine was empty. Dead in the water and with her XO, Ensign Worth Bagley, and five enlisted killed and her skipper wounded, Winslow had to be towed to safety by Hudson.

The engagement only ended, via DANFS, when “Wilmington and Hudson brought their guns to bear on the Spanish ship and shore batteries, and the combined fire of the three American warships put the Spanish gunboat out of action and caused the shore batteries to slacken fire.”

La batalla de Cárdenas, Museo naval de Madrid, showing the gunboat Antonio Lopez facing off against Wilmington, Winslow, and Foote, at distances made shorter for artistic license.

Engagement off Cardenas, May 11, 1898. Death of Ensign Bagley of the Winslow by Henry Reuterdahl. Left to right: USS Winslow, Hudson, and Wilmington. NH 71837-KN

Battle of Cárdenas USS Wilmington USS Winslow Hudson

Todd, who wrote a chapter about the battle (The Affair at Cardenas) for the book, With Sampson Through the War, noted the results of the battle:

The amount of damage from the guns of the three American vessels engaged could not be determined at the time, apart from the burning of two or three buildings near the location of the gunboats; but a few days later there came on board a Cuban pacifico, who was in Cardenas at the time of the engagement, and who visited the locality where the gunboats were lying the day following the engagement.

He brought the information that both of the large gunboats were riddled and practically destroyed. They could not sink, as they were lying in only six feet of water. This information was undoubtedly correct.

The net results of this attack on Cardenas may be stated as:

1st. The destruction of two Spanish gunboats.

2d. It was the first severe blow struck, which had a great effect upon the swarms of Spanish gunboats surrounding the island of Cuba, rendering their attacks by night much less probable, as shown by experience.

3d. It made feasible the anchorage at Piedras lighthouse for coaling purposes, and it was so used.

4th. It made the Spaniards feel they were not free from attack even though the channels were mined, and forever destroyed their sense of security, no matter how well defended they might be. They now knew that American ships-of-war would take and hold the offensive during the war.

5th. Here was made evident the great advantage of smokeless powder over the ordinary brown powder used by the American ships. The only gun used by the Spaniards, burning brown powder, was the one that fired from the bow of the gunboat moored bows out at the wharf. The others, including field guns observed on the shore and the machine guns on both gunboats, used only smokeless powder, thus making a very poor target for a vessel surrounded, as were the American ships, by clouds of overhanging smoke.

According to Spanish sources, the American bombardment of Cárdenas on 11 May destroyed the English consulate, warehouses, and several houses and buildings, resulting in two fatalities: a volunteer militiaman and a civilian– while a sergeant and seven soldiers were wounded.

Wilmington continued on her blockade service, was credited with seizing two other Spanish ships, dragged for and cut the telegraph line from Santa Cruz and Jucaro, and, oh, yeah, took part in a second, much more successful raid on a Cuban port, Manzanillo (about 80 miles from Santiago, on the south coast of the island), to destroy shipping.

The raid would be led by Wilmington/Todd, joined by sistership Helena, a collection of armed yachts (Hist, Scorpion, Hornet, and Osceola), and the tug Wompatuck (YT-27).

As detailed by DANFS, the Manzanillo raid was textbook:

Accordingly, at 3:00 a.m. on 18 July 1898, the American ships set out from Guayabal and set course for Manzanillo. At 6:45 a.m., the group split up according to plan: Wilmington and Helena made for the north channel; Hist, Hornet, and Wompatuck for the south; Scorpion and Osceola for the central harbor entrance. Fifteen minutes later, the two largest ships entered the harbor with black smoke billowing from their tall funnels and gunners ready at their weapons.

Taking particular care not to damage the city beyond the waterfront, the U.S. gunners directed their gunfire solely at the Spanish ships and took a heavy toll of the steamers congregated there. Spanish supply steamer Purissima Concepcion caught fire alongside a dock and sank at her moorings; gunboat Maria Ponton blew up when her magazines exploded; gunboats Estrella and Delgado Perrado also burned and sank while two transports, Gloria and Jose Garcia, went down as well. Two small gunboats, Guantanamo and Guardian, were driven ashore and shot to pieces.

Beyond the effective range of Spanish shore batteries, the Americans emerged unscathed, leaving columns of smoke to mark the pyres of the enemy’s supply and patrol vessels. The twenty-minute engagement ended with the attackers withdrawing to sea to resume routine patrol duties with the North Atlantic Squadron for the duration of hostilities.

American sources list between eight and nine (five gunboats, three merchant vessels, and one pontoon) successfully destroyed at Manzanillo without suffering any losses, while the NYT that week ran the story, citing at least seven.

Spanish personnel losses were negligible for the raid, typically referred to as the Third Battle of Manzanillo, as the vessels were largely abandoned due to the Americans having superior range, with Spanamwar.com noting, “The casualties among the Spanish squadron were a wounded boatswain, and the garrison suffered two dead and five wounded, and one wounded civilian.”

The war ended just 24 days later in an armistice.

Our gunboat headed home and was drydocked at Boston for repairs and peacetime overseas service.

Wilmington, just after the SpanAm War, Boston Harbor for a naval parade on 2 September 1898, Historic New England PC047.02.2970.10961

Her crew was eligible for the Sampson (West Indies Naval Campaign) Medal with “Wilmington” and “Manzanillo” bars, authorized by Congress in 1901.

Following repairs, the ship departed the Massachusetts coast on 20 October bound for the reestablished South Atlantic Squadron.

Roaming

Wilmington was then sent some 150 miles up Venezuela’s Orinoco River in January 1899 from Barrancas to Ciudad Bolivar, followed by an impressive 1,800-mile trip up the Amazon across the South American continent from Pernambuco, Brazil, to Iquitos, Peru, into May.

The 32-page report prepared by CDR Chapman C. Todd makes for interesting reading, especially when the extensive photos of the trip (taken by one hired professional shutterbug, Mr. F.S. Bassett) are taken into account.

Talk about a time capsule!

USS Wilmington (PG-8) portrait photo of the ship’s officers in January 1899, by the helm. The commanding officer was Commander Chapman C. Todd, seated second from the left. Francis B. Loomis, the U.S. minister to Venezuela, is in civilian dress, and Army Captain Charles Collins, military attaché to Venezuela, is seated on the right. Courtesy of Mrs. Chapman C. Todd, 1973. NH 77638

USS Wilmington (PG-8) crew members on the forecastle of the ship, circa January 1899, while the ship was on an exploratory cruise of the Orinoco River, Venezuela. Note the 6-pounder to the right. NH 77631

Wilmington at anchor at Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, during the ship’s exploratory cruise up the Orinoco River, January 1899. Ciudad Bolivar was the most inland point reached. The river was not navigable by ship shortly beyond this point. NH 77625

Wilmington at anchor in the Orinoco River at Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, during the ship’s exploratory cruise up the Orinoco, January 1899. Note stevedoring on the merchant ship. NH 77626

USS Wilmington, gunboat #8 LOC Detriot LC-DIG-det-4a16361

Gunboat No 8, USS Wilmington, pictured on the Orinoco River, Venezuela. LOC det 4a05681

Ship at anchor during a brief visit to Barrancas, Venezuela, returning downstream from the USS Wilmington’s exploratory cruise up the Orinoco River, January 1899. Barrancas is located near the delta formed by the Orinoco. NH 77629

Ship’s bugler and a rapid-fire gun squad of USS Wilmington, circa January 1899. Crewmen not identified. Description: NH 77613

USS Wilmington (PG-8) saluting the governor of the province at Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, during the ship’s exploratory cruise up the Orinoco River, January 1899. NH 77628

Coal-passers of the ship on deck with mascot (goat), circa January 1899, while the ship was on an exploratory cruise of the Orinoco River, Venezuela. NH 77632

USS Wilmington (PG-8) approaching anchorage at Guanta, Venezuela, in February 1899. Guanta was a village on the north coast of Venezuela. Note laundry drying. NH 77636

USS Wilmington (PG-8)  anchored in Guanta Harbor, Venezuela, circa February 1899. NH 77637

Todd even used unit funds to create cages for living animals collected from the region, with the ship’s doc, Passed Asst. Surgeon Frank Clarendon Cook, responsible for their care. From the report:

In his report to the State Department, Loomis stated that the Wilmington had made a “strong and agreeable impression wherever she went in Venezuela and, as a result of the trip, American prestige has been substantially and handsomely augmented.”

Wilmington would remain on South American station until October 1900, when, in the midst of the Boxer Rebellion and Japanese-European encroachment in Manchuria, she was ordered to China service. She arrived in Manila on 21 January 1901 after a three-month voyage via Gibraltar, the Suez, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean, and for the next 21 years remained in Asiatic waters, alternating between the Philippines and China.

Wilmington and Callao at Canton, China, 1912

As detailed by DANFS:

Ordinary activities included the usual calls and port visits to such places as Hong Kong, Canton, and Swatow. She conducted target practice after constructing her own target rafts and laying out a firing area. On one occasion, Chinese fishermen decided that the raft presented a good perch from which to carry out their piscatorial pursuits. Repeated attempts by the gunboaters to shoo away the fishermen only ended in frustration. Finally, as the ship steamed slowly toward the area, she fired a few blank rounds purposely “over,” and the squatters promptly abandoned their erstwhile fishing vantage point.

USS Wilmington seen at Hong Kong BCC (British Crown Colony), likely during her stint as station ship from 30 June 1912 to 30 June 1914. Note she still has her bow crest. NH 49466

War (again)

Stationed in the Western Pacific during the Great War, Wilmington in 1914 had her secondary battery of 6-pounders, 1-pounders, and Gatling guns replaced with four 47/40-45 Driggs-Schroeder Mk II 3-pounders and a pair of Colt Model 1895 .30-06 machine guns.

In Shanghai, when Congress declared war in April 1917, the Chinese government ordered all U.S. ships to leave in 48 hours or be interned. This left Wilmington on patrol of the Philippines for the duration.

Great Lake Days

Returning to the U.S. for the first time since 1899, Wilmington arrived at Portsmouth on 20 September 1922 after a 15-week cruise via Singapore, Colombo, Bombay, Karachi, Aden, Port Said, Gibraltar, and the Azores, with the last leg under tow by USS Sapelo (AO 11) due to the poor state of her engines.

After a refit, which included changing out her legacy boilers for four new Babcock & Wilcox sets, she was reduced to a Naval Reserve training ship, assigned to the Ninth Naval District, for the states of Kentucky and Ohio, based in Toledo. She arrived on Lake Erie via the Soulanges, Cornwall, and Welland Canals on 1 August 1923.

She would spend the next 18 years in a quiet existence of winter layups and summer training cruises with her assorted reservists, with her deck guns removed to keep from violating the Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 with Canada. Her NRF bluejackets could still drill with small arms and practice stands, seen below.

A 5″/51 gun training stand, which helped drill rammers, loaders, and powdermen. A second stand would be used for training pointers and trainers.

USS Wilmington was taken in the 1920s while operating in the Great Lakes as a training ship. Courtesy of Mr. A.W. Mears, 1967. NH 49465

USS Wilmington (IX-30, ex PG-8) during the 1930s, while serving as a Naval Reserve training ship on the Great Lakes. NH 76514

Wilmington circa 1920s-30s on the Great Lakes. Note that her casemates are empty and deck guns removed. Indiana University Frank M. Hohenberger Photograph Collection Hoh034.000.0003

During this same period, sister Helena, on Asiatic Station since February 1899, was decommissioned there in 1932 and sold for scrap.

Helena & Wilmington, 1929 Janes

(Yet another) War

As the U.S. edged towards its second world war in just 21 years, the old gunboat Wilmington was *redesignated USS Dover (IX-30) on 27 January 1941, and soon got involved in neutrality patrol, rearmed for the first time in 18 years.

*The renaming came as the Navy intended to upcycle the name “Wilmington” to a planned Cleveland-class light cruiser, CL-79, which ultimately entered service as the Independence-class light aircraft carrier USS Cabot (CVL-28). Nonetheless, the Navy did use “Wilmington” for a planned Fargo class, USS Wilmington (CL-111), which was laid down in March 1945, but was suspended in August and later scrapped.

Sporting a single 5″/38 over her stern, our old Wilmington/Dover even clocked in on convoy duty, escorting the five merchant ships and one auxiliary (the 11,000-ton USS Antares (AG-10)) of  HF-24 from Halifax to Boston over Christmas 1942, with 106 men embarked as her crew, sailing under the command of LT Raymond George Brown, USNR.

Sailing via New York and Miami, Wilmington/Dover arrived in Gulfport, Mississippi, on 3 February 1943 to serve the Eighth Naval District as an Armed Guard training ship, moored along with the 187-foot circa 1914 patrol yacht USS Lash (PYc 31), the 183-foot Kil class gunboat USCGC Marita (WYP-175), and the old 261-foot armed freighter USCGC Monomoy (WAG-275).

Dover at Gulfport, May 1944

Dover at Gulfport, May 1944

Dover at Gulfport, May 1944. Note her cased 20mm guns

Dover at Gulfport, May 1944

Besides training Armed Guards at a rate of 585 per week, the ships also served as “floating laboratories for the students in the Basic Engineering School.”

Wilmington/Dover would remain there until 27 November 1944, the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, when she was sent to Alabama Shipbuilding and Drydock Company at Pinto Island in Mobile Bay for two weeks of refurbishment to allow her to transfer to Treasure Island, California, upon the pending disestablishment of the Gulfport Armed Guard base.

She arrived at her last homeport via the Panama Canal on New Year’s Day 1945, LT William Louis Hardy, USNR, in command.

In just her limited time at Treasure Island, Wilmington/Dover gave refresher gunnery training to 84 officers and 3,370 enlisted men in the San Francisco area during 1945.

She was finally decommissioned on 20 December 1945.

Stricken from the Navy List on 8 January 1946, Wilmington/Dover was sold for scrap on 30 December 1946 to the San Francisco Barge Company, and sunk at sea in early 1947.

Epilogue

Little remains of our subject.

Wilmington’s first skipper, CDR Chapman Todd, who commanded her during the SpanAm War and her trips across the rivers of South America, went on to serve as hydrographer of the Navy Department, where he supervised the initial survey of the newly acquired U.S. territories of the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Promoted to captain in 1901, he commanded the cruiser USS Brooklyn on Asiatic station during the Philippine insurrection. He retired from active service in October 1902 with the rank of rear admiral after a naval career that spanned 41 years, counting his time at Annapolis.

RADM Todd passed away in April 1929 at the Naval Hospital in Washington, aged 80, and was buried in Kentucky. At the time of his passing, his son, CDR Chapman Todd, Jr. (USNA 1913), was an officer on the battlewagon USS Florida (BB-30) who would go on to serve in WWII. Besides the two scrapbooks whose images are in the Naval History and Heritage Command’s files, many of which are seen in the above article, the senior Todd’s 1870 Lieutenant’s commission, signed by President Grant, is in the Kentucky state archives– along with his Civil War dress epaulettes. 

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

If you like this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO, has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships, you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Sanitäter!

Posted on by Leave a comment

From the collections of the Imperial War Museum.

Great War-era German sanitäter’s (medical orderly’s) pouch, with contents.

IWM SUR 821

Contents:

Rectangular brown leather pouch, stamped on rear “Frank Lutges & Co. Berlin 1915” containing a roll of adhesive tape, a rectangular Seife soap tin containing a fragment of soap, a round tin of antiseptic ointment, a tube of tartaric acid tablets, an empty tube of charcoal tablets (Dopp. Kohlens.Natron) and empty bottles for tincture of opium, ammonium hydroxide (salmiakgeist), oil of turpentine, and ether/valerian tincture. Contents: pouch, adhesive tape, soap tin, mustard papers in wallet, antiseptic ointment tin, tube of tartaric acid tablets, empty tube of charcoal/soda (?) tablets, and 4 empty bottles: tincture of opium, ammonium hydroxide, oil of turpentine, and ether/valerian tincture.

A German infantry regiment in World War I typically had a regimental aid station (Truppenverbandplatz) serviced by a dedicated medical detachment (Sanitätstrupp) staffed with 4–7 officers and 31–43 enlisted men (Sanitätssoldaten, medics/corpsmen). This team included a medical officer, 4–6 specialized Medical Corpsmen, runners, and stretcher-bearer squads, with dedicated personnel at both company and battalion levels. Once stabilized, wounded and injured would either be returned to their units, sent to the rear for recuperation, or rushed to field hospitals (Feldlazarette) for more care.

Then, as now, the regimental band would double as stretcher bearers during combat.

Another volley in the 380 space…

Posted on by One comment

Featuring a removable chassis system for easy grip frame upgrades and a 14-shot capacity, Ruger has a new LCP Max on the block, powered by Magpul.

The two companies in 2024 brought the innovative RXM 9mm pistol to the market, which uses a serialized Fire Control Insert that is independent of its Enhanced Handgun Grip, or EHG, allowing the flexibility to be easily swapped into different grips. And by different we both size (full, compact, subcompact) and color, all inside the Glock Gen 3 9mm double stack ecosystem.

You can see much of the same potential modularity on the newest Ruger LCP Max. Debuted this week, it uses Magpul’s new EHG .380 grip frame with a Fire Control Insert chassis. It carries a new style slide that mimics the RXM’s aesthetic, and includes a S&W Bodyguard pattern Tritium front sight with a drift-adjustable rear.

And it weighs 11.2 ounces, unloaded, which is about half as much as the Walther PPK, which offers a 7-shot capacity.

the new Ruger LCP Max with the Magpul EHG RG380 grip
The new Ruger LCP Max. Note the Magpul EHG RG380 grip frame with 3/4-scale TSP texture. (Photos: Ruger/Magpul)
the new Ruger LCP Max with the Magpul EHG RG380 grip
Overall length is 5.35 inches with a 2.8-inch barrel. With the extended 13+1 round magazine – new to the platform – height is 4.78 inches. The pistol has a slim, 0.75-inch-wide slide assembly. 
the new Ruger LCP Max with the Magpul EHG RG380 grip
Compared to the standard 10+1 shot LCP Max, seen right, the new Max stands just 0.66 inches higher and is 0.18 inches longer. The weight is less than half an ounce different. 
the new Ruger LCP Max with the Magpul EHG RG380 grip
The newest LCP Max is the first that uses a serialized Fire Control Insert chassis, which can be removed by the user with basic tools. 
the new Ruger LCP Max with the Magpul EHG RG380 grip
At launch, Magpul plans at least three extra colors (black, FDE, olive drab) for the EHG380 grip in addition to Ruger’s standard Stealth Gray. Replacements, sold via Magpul, will be $39. You can bet that other aftermarket grips will also soon be in the works. 

Other standard features include a tabbed trigger safety and a manual safety. It ships with both a flush 10 rounder as well as the extended 13-shot magazine as shown above.

“This launch is just the beginning of what Ruger and Magpul have planned for the LCP Max, underscoring Ruger’s commitment to innovation and consumer choice,” says the company.

The MSRP on the new Ruger LCP Max with the Magpul EHG RG380 grip is $449, which is a $50 bump from the standard LCP Max. I would imagine the price at your local shop to be closer to $375.

We have one inbound for a review, so stay tuned for more on that subject.

German Marines are back and looking sharp

Posted on by Leave a comment

Germany long fielded Marineinfanterie units, especially during the World Wars of the 20th Century, along with ship detachments, the latter coming in very handy during the Kaiser’s colonial period (1884-1918).

German marines of III. Seebataillon in Tsingtao, the Kaiser’s China treaty port, which still has a very good German-style distillery. Bundesarchiv, Bild Bild 116-214-09

German Marines in Peking, 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion. AWM A05904

Disbanded in 1945, the West German Navy (Bundesmarine) reformed a Seebataillon in 1958, which was disbanded in 1993 when the Cold War thawed.

Now the Marines are back, reformed once again in 2014 as a specialist unit tasked with VBSS via a Bordeinsatzkompanie (BEK) and ship/installation ground defense.

Der Teamführer Hauptbootsmann Alexander West gibt seinen Kameraden ein Handzeichen im Rahmen vom Training der Bordeinsatzkompanie (BEK) der Marine in Eckernförde, am 28.08.2017.

With Europe getting increasingly wacky, starting in 2016, the Seebataillon integrated into the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps (Korps Mariniers) for NATO operations and has been getting ready for offensive operations, under a defensive pretext, of course.

German Seebataillon troops use Sea Kings to operate from the Dutch landing ship Rotterdam (L800), May 2022 Bundeswehr Jana Neumann Bundeswehr/Nico Theska

Recently, 200 Marineinfanteristen undertook a simulated CH-53-borne raid near Hanover– the battalion’s largest combined operation since reformation.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

Wir haben Marineinfanteriekräfte des Seebataillons in Celle bei einer Übung begleitet. Sie wurden durch das Ausbildungszentrum Luftbeweglichkeit beübt. Im Schwerpunkt ging es um den luftbeweglichen und abgesetzten Einsatz durch Luftfahrzeuge verschiedener Art und das Gewinnen und Nehmen von Räumen durch die Marineinfanteriekräfte.

“We need highly mobile forces capable of conducting land-based combat in coastal areas,” explains LCDR Timm K., outlining the reason for the current transformation within the Seebataillon. “Previously, the unit provided highly specialized soldiers to the fleet, who, in smaller groups, secured ports and ships, conducted small-scale amphibious landing exercises, and searched civilian vessels for contraband. However, the current threat landscape demands a powerful naval infantry capable of operating on a significantly larger scale.”

Strato-loon Carrier Ops

Posted on by Leave a comment

Some 65 years ago.

The Essex-class training carrier USS Antietam (CVS-36) was in the Gulf of Mexico during Project Strato-lab V, in which the first manned balloon carrier landing was made. The 10 million cubic foot balloon shown below was manned by pilot CDR Malcolm D. Ross, USNR, and flight surgeon LCDR Victor A. Prather, USN.

Note the odd combination of Cold War angled deck and WWII Long Hull bow, the latter complete with AAA tubs. The first U.S. carrier with an angled deck conversion, Antietam never received the latter SCB-125 enclosed Hurricane Bow, making her something of an aberration. USN 1054270

USS Antietam (CVS-36) showing the manned balloon just before take off during project Strato-Lab, April 1961. The low altitude flight was manned by Commander Malcolm D. Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather, MC USN. USN 1054272

Ross and Pranther were using the Navy’s new Mark IV full-pressure suit, which was the basis for NASA’s Project Mercury suits, with the flight a proving ground for the gear.

On 4 May 1965, Ross and Prather ascended to a record altitude of 113,739.9 feet in their 411-foot open-air gondola balloon launched from the deck of Antietam.

As noted by the NHHC:

They reached their maximum altitude two hours and 36 minutes after takeoff. Tragedy marred their achievement, however, when Prather fell from the sling of the recovery helicopter and died on board the carrier after being pulled from the water. Furthermore, the mission was consigned to obscurity when Commander Alan Shepard flew into space the very next day.

Commissioned on 28 January 1945 at Philadelphia, after shake downs and transit to the Pacific, when just three days out of Oahu on her way to the front lines, Antietam received word of the Japanese capitulation and the consequent cessation of hostilities.

She went on to earn two battle stars for service in the Korean War. She was used almost exclusively from April 1957 until her decommissioning in 1963 as a training carrier, first off the East Coast and then off Pensacola. After ten years in mothballs, she was scrapped in 1973 as part of the post-Vietnam wind-down, with many of her parts used to keep sister Lexington in operation another two decades.

Of Golf Premised Gun Competitions…

Posted on by Leave a comment

I love the concept of gun competitions based on golf. Full stop.

I had the honor of attending and competing in SilencerCo’s “Chubbs Peterson Memorial Rifle Golf Tournament” back in 2023 as part of the rollout for the new Scythe series cans.

Noveske recently hosted the Gun Masters as part of the PGL (Pistol Golf League), and it looked like a blast. Just tons of fun.

It also includes this amazing Garage STEN gun in a wooden P90-esque stock:

For reference, the above construction runs like a sewing machine and was crafted by Rat City Arms of Grants Pass and takes Glock double-stack 9mm mags, so yeah, I need it.

Really fighting the urge to build one. Of course, I’d have to do it closed bolt, which loses magic, but still…

Future Fast Frigate…Follies?

Posted on by 2 comments

Whelp, looks like the FFX has been funded, to a degree. You know, the (almost) missile-less gray hull 418-foot National Security Cutter.

Sure, it is not perfect, but it is a better plan than not having a frigate at all, which is what we are doing now. Just wish they at least had 16 VLS cells and some torpedo tubes along with the sensors to use them, that’s all I’m saying…

Via DoW:

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi, is being awarded a $282,885,933 cost-plus-award-fee contract for FF(X) class frigate lead yard support. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and is expected to be completed by April 2028. Fiscal 2026 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $59,092,397 (73%); and fiscal 2026 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $21,500,339 (27%), will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S. Code 3204(a)(2) (unusual and compelling urgency). Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-26-C-2306).

Of course, there is also a push to perhaps buy COTS surface escorts from Japan and/or South Korea, which brings us to the launch this week of the ROK Navy’s fourth FFX Batch-III Frigate, ROKS Jeju (FFG-832).

Jeju is a 3,600-ton-class next-generation frigate, with a full-load displacement of approximately 4,300 tons. The ship is 423 feet long and can reach a maximum speed of 30 knots on a CODEOG plant. She will carry a 5-inch gun (YES!), 16-cell VLS, two triple ASW tubes, 8 TLAM/SLAM-ER equivalents, and a CIWS.

I mean, folks love Hyundai, Kia, LG, and Samsung over here…

Lanchester in the Littoral

Posted on by Leave a comment

A Royal Navy patrol from the Battle-class fleet destroyer HMS Barrosa (D68), aboard a perau, on a coastal patrol in Brunei during the defense of that country from neighboring Indonesia.

Official caption: “Navy patrols hunt arms smugglers in Borneo. April 1964, off the coast of Sarawak, Brunei and Sabah. To assist the Royal Navy’s constant search for arms and ammunition smuggling, the sultan of Brunei provided specially built peraus, small craft that are particularly maneuverable in the narrow channels between mango swamps.”

IWM (A 34819)

The rating in the foreground is armed with a Lanchester “machine carbine,” that curious unlicenced British knockoff of the German C.G. Haenel MP28/II submachine gun. That design, attributed to the famous Hugo Schmeisser, was itself an improvement of the Great War-era Bergmann Maschinenpistole 18, a 9mm blowback-action open bolt burp gun that weighed a hefty 11 pounds, sans ammo.

Lanchester Machine Carbine 9mm MK 1 via Royal Armouries, is basically an unlicensed MP28 with some tweaks

In British service, the Lanchester– so named after the supervisor at the Sterling Armaments Company where it was initially produced during WWII– was a bit lighter (“only” 9.5 pounds) and could use either a purpose-made (though almost impossible to fully load) 50-round stick mag or the common 32-round Sten magazine.

Oh yeah, and it also accepted the outlandishly long 22-inch P07 bayonet. 

The Brit’s Lanchester submachine gun used the 1907 Enfield bayonet and and “They don’t like it up ’em!”

Boatswain of the Royal Australian Navy with a Lanchester during WWII

1943 Devonport Dockyard, Nov 25, 1943, U-536 survivors brought in by crews of HMCS Snowberry, HMS Tweed, and HMCS Calgary. Note the Lanchester SMG

With a whopping 95,469 Lanchesters cranked out by Sterling, Greener (the famous shotgun folks), and Boss (another famous scattergun maker), most went to the Royal Navy and Commonwealth sister services, who kept them in service into the 1970s, when they were phased out in favor of the…Sterling.

Champ and her raiders

Posted on by Leave a comment

70 years ago.

A group of 19 Douglas AD Skyraiders forms the letters “LC” as they fly over their home, the recently recommissioned “Long Hull” Essex-class fleet carrier USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) on 30 April 1956.

U.S. Navy photo from the USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) 1955-1956 cruise book

The aircraft are from  Carrier Air Group 6 (CVG-6), which accompanied “Champ” on a six-month Mediterranean deployment from October 1955 to April 1956, where she carried to AD units (VMA-324 and VA-25) along with a squadron of FJ-3 Fury (VF-33), another of F2H-3 Banshee (VF-62), and one of F9F-8 Cougars (VF-74).

Laid down in drydock by the Norfolk Navy Yard on the Ides of March 1943, the future CV-39 launched on 2 November 1944 and commissioned 3 June 1945, putting her just a skosh too late to the Big Show and had to spend the days immediately after WWII in Magic Carpet duties instead.

Retired to the “Mothball Fleet” by February 1947, Champ was recalled to active duty during Korea and was active off that peninsula with CVG-4 from 11 June to 27 July 1953, averaging 23 helicopter evolutions per day interspersed with as many as 147 combat sorties per day.

Following Korea, she was sent on a series of five different Med cruises and eight shorter Atlantic deployments, and joined in the naval quarantine of Cuba, but her biggest claim to fame was in supporting NASA by recovering Mercury 3 (5 May 1961), Gemini 3 (19 January 1965), and Gemini 5 (29 August 1965).

“Escorting Gemini V to USS Lake Champlain.” USS Dupont was the closest ship for the recovery of Gemini 5. Navy divers from the destroyer recovered the astronauts and transferred them via helicopter to USS Lake Champlain. Painting, Watercolor on Paper; by Luis Llorente; 1965; Unframed Dimensions 30H X 22W Accession #: 88-162-CO

88-162-CT These sketches show the sequence of retrieving the command module – recovery by the UDT team, Gemini 5

Champ was decommissioned in May 1966 and subsequently scrapped in 1972. Although her keel had been laid 29 years prior, she had only spent about 17 of those on active duty.

Her ship’s motto, as befitting her name, was Excelsior.

Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) 30 April 2026: 695 Feet of Glory

Posted on by Leave a comment

Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger.

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) 30 April 2026: 695 Feet of Glory

Official Royal Navy Photograph, from the All-Hands collection at the Naval History and Heritage Command. NH 97044

Above we see a Fleet Air Arm Hawker Sea Fury F.B.11, VR-943, of No.804 Squadron, take to the air of the British Colossus-class light fleet carrier HMS Glory (R62) for a combat mission during the Korean War, circa June 1951. Note the Fury’s invasion stripes to keep UN allies unfamiliar with the type from engaging it, and the “R” tail flash, denoting her as belonging to Glory’s 14th Carrier Air Group.

Completed too late for much combat in WWII, Glory earned her keep off Korea, completing 25 highly active patrols across three tours between April 1951– arriving on station some 75 years ago this week– and May 1953.

The Colossus class

Our girl was one of 16 (planned) “1942 Design Light Fleet Carriers” for the RN. This series, broken up into Colossus and Majestic-class sub-variants, was nifty 19,500-ton, 695-foot-long carriers that the U.S. Navy would have classified at the time as a CVL or light carrier.

They were slower than the fast fleet carriers at just 25 knots with all four 3-drum Admiralty boilers lit and glowing red, but they had long legs (over 14,000 miles at cruising speed), which allowed them to cross the Atlantic escorting convoys, travel to the Pacific to retake lost colonies, or remain on station in the South Atlantic or the Indian Ocean for weeks.

The classes’ 1946 Jane’s entry.

Ditching the full armored decks of the RN’s larger carriers, these light boys only had 10mm mantlets around aircraft torpedo warhead rooms while longitudinal watertight bulkheads covered machinery spaces.

A sort of “pocket” fleet carrier, they could be manned by just 850 crew if needed– not counting their air group personnel and Marine detachment, which could bring her embarked numbers up to 1,300– while still being able to carry 40~ aircraft.

Designed specifically for globetrotting, their 112-foot-wide flight deck and easily dismantled abeam sponsons allowed for passage through the Panama Canal. Meanwhile, special attention was given to operations in tropical conditions, be it Aden or Singapore, with air conditioning standard in many compartments.

Benefitting from late-war sensor technology, they were completed with Type 79B early warning, Type 281B air search, and Type 282 fire control radars, as well as a Type 144 sonar. When it comes to the Type 282, they had as many as six of the UHF-band range-only fire control radar for AAA batteries. Speaking of which, they were designed to carry six quad 40mm/39 2pdr QF Mk VIII pom poms and 32 Oerlikons (11 twin and 10 single).

August 1951. Off Korea. Pom Pom gun action stations in HMS Glory. The gun’s crews closed at instant readiness. A multiple close-range weapon manned by Royal Marines of HMS Glory. Note the Brodie-style helmets, surely quaint even in the early days of the Cold War. IWM (A 31959)

HMS Glory at dock in January 1946, showing public inspection and queues. Note her array of 2-pdr pom poms and 40mm Bofors with Type 282 fire control radars, and her small island with a thin funnel. Photo by Allan Green. State Library Victoria H91.108/2012

This would quickly change, as we shall see.

Meet Glory

Our subject is at least the 13th HMS Glory in the Royal Navy since 1747 and, as such, carried six cherished battle honors forward (Glorious First of June 1794, Calder’s Action 1805, Martinique 1809, Guadeloupe 1810, China 1900, and Dardanelles 1915).

The 12th Glory was formerly the German-built Russian protected cruiser Askold, seized by the British in Kola Bay in May 1918 during the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War and used as a depot ship in Scotland until she was returned to the Soviet Navy for scrapping in 1922.

Askold had five thin funnels, which gave her a unique silhouette for any vessel in the Imperial Russian Navy. This led British sailors to nickname her “Packet of Woodbines” after the thin cigarettes popular at the time.

Our carrier Glory was laid down at Harland & Wolff at Belfast on 27 August 1942, just as the Japanese were being stopped in the Solomons and the Germans were closing in on Stalingrad. However, our new flattop was a slow build-out and wasn’t launched until after the Avalanche Landings in Italy in late 1943.

HMS Glory began her trials in November 1944 and was accepted, allocated for service with the British Pacific Fleet, commissioning on 2 April 1945, just a month out from VE-Day. Still, Glory beat her sisters Ocean, Theseus, Triumph, Venerable, Vengeance, and Warrior into fleet service. Meanwhile, sisters Perseus and Pioneer were completed as aircraft maintenance ships, not true carriers.

HMS Glory underway in coastal waters circa late 1944-early 1945. IWM (A 28925)

Same as above, IWM (A 28926).

Glory’s first skipper was Capt. Anthony Wass Buzzard, DSO, who picked up the suffix after his name as commander of the destroyer HMS Gurkha in the Norway campaign. A regular who shipped out to fight the Kaiser as a 13-year-old Mid in 1915, Buzzard was later gunnery officer aboard the battleship HMS Rodney during the pursuit and sinking of the Bismarck in 1941, with his guns the first to open fire on the German leviathan in her last surface action.

Last Days of the Big Show

Before heading to the Far East to join the BPF’s 11th Aircraft Carrier Squadron, Glory conducted flying trials with her first air wing, a mixture of 18 Barracudas from 837 Naval Air Squadron and 21 Corsairs of 1831 NAS, forming the 16th Carrier Air Group. She also picked up 17 40mm Bofors in place of smaller 20mm cannons.

On 14 May 1945, the ship became operational and departed Portsmouth, bound for Australia by way of the Mediterranean.

Arriving at Fremantle on 16 August 1945, she received word that the Japanese were suing for peace.

HMS Glory arrives at BPF Australia in August 1945 with Barracuda and Corsairs on her deck. IWM (A 30392)

A brand new carrier full of fresh aircraft and crew with nothing to do, Glory achieved a footnote in WWII history by hosting the surrender of 139,000 troops under Japanese Lt. General Imamura and Admiral Jin Icha Kusaka at Rabaul on 6 September (VJ+4), with the surrender party signing the instruments on her deck after a conference in Capt. Buzzard’s cabin. As such, she became the flag of Task Group 111.5, escorted by HM Sloops Hart and Amethyst.

“At sea off Rabaul, New Britain. 6 September 1945. Flight crews prepare Corsair and Barracuda aircraft on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Glory before takeoff. They will circle overhead during the surrender ceremony between Lieutenant General V.A.H. Sturdee, General Officer Commanding First Army, Lt. General H Imamura, commander Eighth Area Army, and Vice Admiral J. Kusaka, commander Southeast Area Fleet.” Note the widespread use of shorts and the general lack of blouses– the tropical uniform of the day. AWM 095778

Same as the above, a Corsair riding the elevator from hangar to flight deck off Rabaul, 6 September 1945, to provide CAP over the surrender. AWM 095740

The conference was held in the captain’s cabin. Left to right: Admiral Jin-Incha Kusaka, Commander Japanese S E Navy; General Imamura, General S E Japanese Army; Lieutenant General V A H Sturdee, GOC First Australian Army; Brigadier E L Sheehan, BGS, First Australian Army; and Captain Wass Buzzard, RN, discussing the immediate occupation of Rabaul by the 11th Australian Division. IWM (A 30501)

The surrender ceremony for 139,000 Japanese in New Britain, New Ireland, the Solomons, and New Guinea, which took place on the flight deck of HMS Glory off Rabaul. The surrender of the Japanese army in the southwest Pacific area was signed by General Imamura, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Army in the region. Here General Imamura is bending over the table reading after Admiral Jin Icha Kusaka signed the treaty for the Japanese Southeastern naval forces. In the background are officers and ratings of HMS GLORY. Note the men stood at ease on either side of the flight deck. Photo by Lt C Trusler, Royal Navy. IWM (A 30499)

Note the RM with the Lancaster SMG ready to the left! General Imamura, Japanese South-Eastern Army Chief, signing the official document for the surrender of 139,000 Japanese in New Britain, New Ireland, the Solomons, and New Guinea. The surrender ceremony took place on the flight deck of HMS GLORY off Rabaul. Lieutenant General Sturdee, GOC First Australian Army, who signed for the Allies, is closely watching the Japanese General from the other side of the table. Admiral Jin Icha Kusaka signed the treaty for the Japanese southeastern naval forces. Photo by Lt C Trusler, Royal Navy. IWM (A 30498)

Lieutenant General Hitoshi Imamura, Commander of the Japanese 8th Area Army, signing the instrument of surrender on board HMS Glory near Rabaul. Vice Admiral Jinichi Kusaka, Commander of the Japanese Southeast Area Fleet, stands by to add his signature to the document. AWM 045213

Gen. Hitoshi Imamura, who surrendered his sword to Sturdee, was tried by an Allied war crimes tribunal and imprisoned until 1954. Finding his punishment to be too light, Imamura built a replica of his prison in his garden and confined himself there until he died in 1968. VADM Kusaka Jinichi died in 1972, aged 83. No war crimes indictments were leveled against him personally, though subordinate officers faced trials at Rabaul for atrocities against Allied prisoners and local populations.

Glory then proceeded to Manila to embark liberated Commonwealth POWs from Japanese camps, with part of the carrier’s hangar turned into a temporary hospital. Many of the men had been captured in Singapore in 1942. She would take these men across the Pacific to Esquimalt/Vancouver in Canada for further repatriation. Over 1,000 men were carried, and the ship made three such trips from October through the end of the year.

9 October 1945, HMS Glory embarks released British and Canadian POWs at Manila. Five members of the RAF who spent three years in captivity in Japan. Left to right: AC1 Melville of Clydebank, Scotland; AC1 Barry of Frindale, Glamorgan; LAC Duncan of Leeds; LAC Parish of Arsett, Essex; and Corporal Painey of Tamworth, Birmingham. Photo by BT Hawk. IWM (A 30943)

British aircraft carrier H.M.S. “Glory” at dock, Vancouver BC, November 1945, sporting Victory Bond signage. Keep in mind that the Crown was broke as a joke for a generation after VJ Day. Photo by James Crookall, Vancouver City Archives. AM640-S1-CVA 260-1539

Same as above, giving a good dockside view, giving a good look at her mast. Note the Canadian Pacific boarding gangway and the building in the Marine Building, a renowned Art Deco skyscraper that was the tallest building in the British Commonwealth when completed in 1930– and had been designed with a zeppelin tower. AM640-S1-: CVA 260-1537

Same as above, photo by William Donn. AM1545-S3-CVA 586-4077

Quiet Interbellum

Her POW Magic Carpet rides completed, Glory remained in the Pacific for the first eight months of 1946 and called on Australia again that January with the larger carriers Indefatigable and Implacable, along with sister Venerable.

HMS Glory (R62) upon her arrival at Melbourne, Australia, on January 23, 1946. Note the dress uniformed RM band on her bow. Photo by Allan Green. State Library Victoria H91.108/2063

Aircraft carriers HMS Implacable (left), HMS Indefatigable (right), and HMS Glory (back right) at Station Pier in Melbourne, Australia, January 1946. Note how well the little 13,000-ton/695-foot light carrier compares to her 32,000-ton/766-foot armored deck big sisters.

Station Pier, Melbourne, Australia, Jan 1946 HMS Indefatigable near opposite Implacable, ahead HMS Glory Victoria State Library

HMS Glory on a visit to Melbourne, 1946. Argus news image. State Library Victoria H98.104/2475

Visit by British aircraft carriers H.M.S. Glory, H.M.S. Indefatigable, H.M.S. Venerable, and H.M.S. Implacable to Melbourne, 1946. State of Victoria Archives

Visit by British aircraft carriers H.M.S. Glory, H.M.S. Indefatigable, H.M.S. Venerable, H.M.S. Implacable to Melbourne, 1946 State of Victoria Archives

HMS Glory leaves Waitematā Harbour with aircraft and vehicles of No. 14 Squadron RNZAF bound for Japan. 8 March 1946. RNZAF Archives

By August 1947, Glory departed for home with her paying off pennant flying via Singapore, Trincomalee, and the Mediterranean, arriving back at Portsmouth in October, where she entered ordinary for the next two years, reactivated in October 1949 and, after a stint at Devonport dockyard, sailed to join the Mediterranean Fleet.

It was in Malta in December 1949 that Princess (future Queen) Elizabeth came aboard Glory on the occasion of the King’s birthday for a visit and inspection.

The parade on the flight deck of HMS Glory was inspected by Princess Elizabeth. IWM (A 31630)

Princess Elizabeth inspects officers and men of the Mediterranean fleet on HMS Glory on the King’s birthday. 14 December 1949, on board the light fleet carrier HMS Glory, at Malta. IWM (A 31626)

In July 1950, she was part of Exercise Bandit, off the island of Skiathos, then went on to receive a very smoky salute from the elderly Turkish battlecruiser Yavuz (ex-SMS Goeben).

July 1950. The cruiser HMS Phoebe entering Marmice Harbor, Turkey, for the Fleet Regatta. HMS Glory in the foreground. Fireflies of 812 on the flight deck of HMS Glory. IWM (A 31691A)

August 1950. HMS Glory, the flagship of the Flag Officer (Air) Mediterranean, Rear Admiral Guy Grantham, CB, CBE, anchored off Tangier during the summer cruise of the Mediterranean Fleet. The bow of the Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci in the foreground. IWM (A 31716)

War! (of the Korean variety)

One of Glory’s sisters, HMS Triumph (R16), was the first British aircraft carrier deployed to the Korean War, dispatched on 29 June 1950. As part of the Royal Navy’s Far Eastern Fleet, she and her 13th Carrier Air Group—equipped 800 Naval Air Squadron equipped with the Supermarine Seafire F.R Mk. 47 and 827 Naval Air Squadron with the Fairey Firefly F.R.Mk.1—conducted the first British carrier strikes against North Korean targets at Pyongyang and Haeju by 3 July.

Another of Glory’s sisters, HMS Theseus (R64), relieved Triumph, carrying 23 Furies from 807 Squadron and 12 Fireflies from 813 Squadron, 17th Carrier Air Group, beginning strikes on North Korean targets on 9 October 1950. All told, Theseus launched 3,500 sorties on 86 days during its seven-month deployment. During the first six months, Theseus’ air wing dropped 829,000 lbs. of explosives and fired 7,317 rockets and “half a million rounds of 20mm ammunition.”

Then Glory clocked in to relieve Theseus, with the 14th CAG’s 804 Squadron (Sea Fury) and 812 Squadron (Firefly) embarked.

Her first tour, 23rd April to 30th September 1951, would cover nine patrol periods, each of about two weeks, in which her Furies and Fireflies would hammer enemy positions in conjunction with American carriers.

She also picked up a U.S. Navy HO3S-1 (Sikorsky H-5 Dragonfly) C-SAR helicopter det, which would put in yeoman service not only for her downed aviators but also for others.

Glory suffered her first loss in the campaign on Saturday, 28 April 1951, when Lt. EPL Edward, FAA, a Sea Fury pilot of 804 Squadron, crashed into the Yellow Sea while on a patrol near Clifford Island. He was listed MPK (missing, presumed killed) and never recovered, one of 254 British personnel considered MIA during the Korean War.

Korea, 1951. Aircraft positioned on the flight deck of HMS Glory following a strike on Korea during the Korean War. AWM P00320.001

A Sea Fury takes off from HMS Glory circa 1951 off Korea. AWM P00320.010

A war photographer apparently shipped aboard in June 1951 and captured some amazing images.

June 1951. Off Korea. A Sea Fury aircraft of 804 Squadron being maneuvered into position on the flight deck of HMS Glory. The aircraft is already bombed up and ready to fly off on another sortie. Note the deck tractor and 60-pound rockets under wings. IWM (A 31912)

June 1951. Off Korea. A Sea Fury aircraft of 804 Squadron, assisted by rockets, takes off from HMS Glory. IWM (A 31910)

June 1951. Off Korea. A Firefly aircraft of 812 Squadron with rocket-assisted take-off leaving the flight deck of HMS Glory for an anti-submarine patrol in Korean waters. IWM (A 31911)

June 1951. Off Korea. HMS Glory’s U.S. Navy Sikorski Dragonfly helicopter landing on the flight deck. This helicopter has been christened “The Thing”. It has saved several of the Glory’s pilots. IWM (A 31916)

June 1951. Off Korea. A Firefly aircraft (FR 5, 812 Squadron), touching down on HMS Glory. The ‘bats’ are watching his charge safely down. His assistant with binoculars is reporting the next aircraft coming in to land. IWM (A 31914)

June 1951. Off Korea. One of HMS Glory’s Sea Fury aircraft of 804 Squadron goes down on the flight deck lift for servicing in readiness for the next day’s strikes. IWM (A 31909)

August 1951. Off Korea. Cleaning the pilot’s windshield is one of the many essential tasks performed by the Pilot’s Mate before takeoff. Leading Airman R Colebrook, of Mitcham, Surrey, is cleaning the windshield of his Sea Fury aircraft in HMS Glory. IWM (A 31960)

August 1951. Off Korea. Naval Airman J Davies of Birmingham loads the cannon of a Sea Fury aircraft with 20mm shells before the next flight takes off from HMS Glory. Note the airman’s sandals and the Firefly in the background. IWM (A 31957)

On 26 September, Glory handed over her station to the arriving Australian Majestic-class near-sister carrier HMAS Sydney (ex-HMS Terrible) and made for Kure, where she spent four days cross-decking her Fireflies and most of the air stores to the Ozzie flattop.

25 September 1951, on board the light fleet carrier HMS Glory, operating in Korean waters shortly before her relief by HMAS Sydney. Sea Fury aircraft of 804 Squadron flying past the carrier’s island before landing after accomplishing their last strike mission of their first Korean deployment. IWM (A 31982)

September 1951. Two aircraft carriers, HMAS Sydney (left) and HMS Glory, side by side in dock. The flight decks of both carriers are packed with aircraft whose wings are folded up. The Sydney is carrying Hawker Sea Fury and Fairey Firefly aircraft of Nos. 805, 808, and 817 Squadrons, 20th Carrier Air Group, RAN Fleet Air Arm. (Original print housed in P run in AWM Archive Store) AWM P01838.005

Glory then sailed for Hong Kong for a four-month refit and much-needed R&R for her crew and squadrons.

Thus refreshed, Glory relived Sydney and began her second tour off Korea on 27th January 1952, and would continue it until 5 May, conducting five patrols.

April 1952. Off Korea. A Stork perched on the wing of an aircraft in HMS Glory. IWM (A 32115)

Glory left the area on 29 April and headed for Sasebo, where she de-ammunitioned. On 1 May, she sailed for Hong Kong and turned over to her sister HMS Ocean on the 3rd. This wrapped the 14th CAG’s war.

When Glory started her third tour (8 November 1952 to 19 May 1953) for a further 11 patrols, she did so with a new air group as the 14th CAG had been disbanded. She also carried an RN helicopter C-SAR det rather than having to go with a loaner from the USN.

From the Small Wars Journal:

When Glory returned in November 1952 to the Korean theatre, she had embarked two independent squadrons, in place of 14th CAG, these being No.801 squadron, flying Sea Furies, and No.821 Squadron flying Fireflies. She rendezvoused with Ocean on 4th November, and participated in exercise Taipan, the defense of Hong Kong, at the end of which, she embarked five Sea Furies, three Fireflies, and two Dragonfly helicopters from Ocean, along with some pilots. The Fireflies were modified for operational work by having HF radio and ASH radar removed, and a fuel tank fitted in place of the radar nacelle. A map box was fitted in place of the pilot’s PPI mounting. A Sten gun was carried, in case of an emergency landing in enemy territory, and the observer had an R/T press-to-transmit switch fitted in the rear cockpit, so he could warn of approaching hostile aircraft. The white spinners were painted grey.

On 6th November, Glory sailed for Sasebo and arrived on the 9th, embarking stores and fuel, before leaving for the operational area the next day.

HMS Glory with Sea Fury FB.IIs of 801 NAS and Firefly AS.5s of 821 NAS (Firefly AS.5) embarked Korea, winter of 1952-53.

HMS Glory and a Town-class cruiser, probably HMS Birmingham, during the Korean War, circa winter 1952-53. A Dragonfly helicopter is approaching the cruiser’s stern. IWM (A 31911)

Across her three tours, Glory lost 22 aircraft destroyed or damaged beyond repair. These included one of the ship’s SAR Dragonfly helicopter and crew on 16 December 1952, when it was caught in a crosswind on the flight deck and, despite a snatch takeoff, it toppled into the sea, taking its two-man crew to the bottom.

She suffered no fewer than 20 Air Crew Casualties during the war:

  • Lieutenant E.P.L. Stephenson, 26 April, 1951.(804 Squadron)
  • Pilot 3 S.W.E. Ford, 5 June, 1951 (812 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant J.H. Sharp, 28 June, 1951 (812 Squadron)
  • Aircrewman G.B. Wells, 28 June 1951 (812 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant R. Williams, 16 July 1951 (812 Squadron)
  • Sub-Lieutenant I.R. Shepley, 16 July 1951 (812 Squadron)
  • Commissioned Pilot T. Sparke, 18 July 1951 (804 Squadron)
  • Sub-Lieutenant R.G.A. Davey, 22 July 1951 (812 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant R.J. Overton, 15 March 1952 (804 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant R. Neville-Jones, 18 November, 1952 (801 Squadra)
  • Lieutenant A.P. Daniels, 16 December 1952, SAR helicopter crew
  • Aircrewman E.R. Ripley, 16 December 1952, SAR helicopter crew
  • Lieutenant P.G. Fogden, 20 December 1952 (821 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant R.E. Barrett, 25 December 1952 (821 Squadron)
  • Sub-Lieutenant B.E. Rayner, 5 January 1953 (801 Squadron)
  • Sub-Lieutenant J.M. Simmonds, 5 January 1953 (801 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant C.A. MacPherson, 11 February 1953 (801 Squadron)
  • Sub-Lieutenant R.D. Bradley, 11 February 1953 (801 Squadron)
  • Lieutenant J.T. McGregor, 25 April 1953 (801 Squadron)
  • Sub-Lieutenant W.J.B. Keates, 25 April 1953 (801 Squadron)

Glory also had one of her aircrew captured, 801 Squadron’s Lieutenant (E)(A/E/)(P) Derek Graham Mather, shot down during an attack on the bridges near Chaeyoung on 5 January 1953.

“We had some secondary targets, one of which was another bridge. I led the second attack in — they were waiting for us. It was a flak trap. I released my bombs, and suddenly there was a bang from a 76mm shell,” noted Mather, who managed to escape his shattered Sea Fury only to be met in the snow by a waiting Chinese patrol.

During her three tours in Korean waters, Glory had spent 530 days at sea and had steamed 157,000 miles. The period included 15 months of war service and 316 days in Korean waters. An impressive 9,064 operational sorties (7,388 offensive and 1,676 defensive) had been flown with 13,070 flights made in total when non-combat missions were logged.

Across those three tours, Glory and her squadrons had expanded:

  • 278 1,000-pound bombs
  • 7,080 500-pound bombs
  • 24,238 60-pound rockets
  • 20 depth charges
  • 1,441,000 20mm shells

Targets destroyed included 712 buildings, 33 road bridges, 37 rail bridges, and 162 railway lines cut.

In recognition of her service, Glory was authorized the battle honor “Korea 1950-53” while her crew and CAG accumulated six DSOs, 20 DSCs, two CBEs, two OBEs, three MBEs, eight BEMs, a Queen’s Commendation (PoW), and 33 Mentions in Despatches.

July 1953. A Sikorsky Dragonfly helicopter, operating from Malta, hovers over HMS Glory when she called in at Malta on her way to the UK. The broken plate gives a pleasing frog skin camo effect. IWM (A 32604)

Throughout the war, Commonwealth-manned Colossus and Majestic-class light carriers endured off the coast– the Admiralty tasking them rather than larger flattops to save money– with Glory being replaced by HMS Ocean and HMAS Sydney, while the Canadian-manned HMCS Warrior transported replacement aircraft from Britain.

In all, FAA and RAN pilots flew at least 25,366 combat sorties from these budget light carriers during the Korean conflict– with Glory alone accounting for 36 percent of these by herself.

Continued Cold War service

By 1954, the Royal Navy had been reduced to 139,000 billets, down from 153,000 seen at the end of the Korean War the year prior, and was targeted to be reduced to just 133,000 by 1955. The signs of things to come!

The number of Glory’s sisters in RN service had greatly decreased. Venerable, renamed Karel Doorman, had been sold to the Netherlands in 1948. Colossus, renamed Arromanches, was sold to France in 1951. Vengeance was lent to the Australians in early 1953. Half-sister ferry carriers Perseus and Pioneer were on the bubble, with the latter slated to be scrapped that year.

This just left Glory, Ocean, Theseus, Triumph, and Warrior in RN service, as listed in Jane’s 1954-55 volume, as seen below.

The Brits still had a very significant carrier force headed into the rest of the Cold War, with the 46,000-ton sisters HMS Ark Royal and Eagle, the twin 33,000-ton armored carriers Implacable and Indefatigable of WWII fame, the 29,000-ton Indomitable, the 32,000-ton Illustrious, the 30,000-ton Victorious (then being refit with an angled flight deck), the four 20,000-ton Hermes class sisters (Hermes, Albion, Bulwark, and Centaur), the 19,000-ton Hercules and Leviathan, plus our five Glory and two ferry carriers (Perseus and Unicorn).

That’s 20 flattops, which are a lot of flattops by any standard!

Taken in hand with Britain’s last battlewagon, HMS Vanguard, still in service as flagship of the Home Fleet, her four mothballed KGVs (Anson, Howe, Duke of York, and King George V), and two laid up monitors (Abercrombie and Roberts), and you could mistake the RN as the world’s second largest fleet in the world at the time.

Silhouettes as per the 1954 Jane’s:

Of course, all was subject to change, and many of the above were laid up or pending disposal or transfer.

Following a post-Korea refit in Rosyth, Glory went back to the Med for another round of flying exercises and flag-showing visits before returning to Portsmouth in February 1954.

Glory in the Grand Harbour, Valletta, Malta, in January 1954

That saw the end of the Glory’s flying as she now became a ferry carrier, making a trip out to the Far East, again dropping off and picking up men and supplies en route, spending a few hours on a mud bank in the Great Bitter Lake on her way out there.

Shortly after her return, she took part in delivering relief supplies in Scotland during the blizzards of January 1955. The remainder of that year was spent in Rosyth before, in May 1956, leaving for Plymouth for a few weeks before she returned to Rosyth in June and was finally Paid Off.

In 1957, all preservation work was stopped, then after being on the disposal list for a time, the tugs arrived on 23 August 1961 to tow her to Inverkeithing to be broken up.

Tugs pulling HMS Glory, Colossus aircraft carrier, to the breakers in Inverkeithing, August 23 1961

By 1960, the RN had drawn down to 102,000 officers and men and had no battleships or monitors and just nine carriers of all types (Ark Royal, Eagle, Hermes, Albion, Bulwark, Centaur, Magnificent, Victorious, and Leviathan), with only about half considered active fleet carriers.

The last of her Glory’s sisters in the Royal Navy, Triumph, was kept around as a repair ship until 1975, then scrapped.

The final vessel of her class sent to the breakers, the third-hand ex-HMS/HMAS Vengeance/ex-NAeL Minas Gerais, was sold for scrap by the Brazilian owners in 2004, torched to man-portable pieces on the beach at Alang.

Of Glory’s WWII and Korean War squadrons, 837 NAS disbanded in 1947, 1831 NAS in 1982, 804 NAS in 1961, 812 NAS in 1956, 821 NAS in 1953, and 801 NAS in 2007, the latter flying Harriers in the Falklands.

Epilogue

The HMS Glory Association continues the ship’s legacy. 

Little remains of our subject.

In the early 1960s, when Glory was being decommissioned, Lord Mountbatten, Chief of the British Defence Forces and Admiral of the Fleet, allowed the ship’s 1944-marked brass bell to be taken by Mr. F C Wilkins CB, a retiree of the RN who had served for 47 years. It, along with its clapper, marlinspike bell rope, plaque, and a WWII flown ensign, now resides in the collection of the Australian War Memorial.

The IWM contains a collection of interviews with past members of Glory’s crew, of which at least 21 are available to listen to online.

Her WWII skipper, RADM Anthony Wass Buzzard DSO, OBE, RN, retired in 1951, capping a 29-year career. He passed away in 1972, at age 69.

The aviator lost as a POW during Korea, Sea Fury driver Derek Graham “Pug” Mather, underwent brutal mistreatment over nine months as a Chinese prisoner, including attempted brainwashing, but was eventually released post-cease fire and returned to service, on Glory— welcomed back aboard by a Royal Marines band– in January 1954. Converting to helicopters, he did an exchange tour with the USN, served aboard the commando carrier HMS Albion, and retired as a captain in 1969 with his last post as Director of the Air Engineering School at HMS Daedalus in RNAS Lee-on-Solent. On retirement, he spent 10 years with Marconi Underwater Systems, then assumed charitable work as a hospital driver and domestic governor of the King William IV Naval Foundation Cottages. Pug passed in 2007, aged 79, leaving two daughters and two sons.

Sadly, the Admiralty’s naval list has not been graced with a “Glory” since 1961.

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

If you like this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO, has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships, you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

« Older Entries