On October 15, 1863 the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley sank during a test dive in Charleston harbour, South Carolina, killing its inventor Horace L. Hunley and 7 crewmen. The Confederate navy salvaged the submarine and returned it to service (only to sink again in February 1864).
Fortuitously, a Royal Navy task force is heading to the region as part of its annual Operation Cougar deployment.
Navy on standby to rescue Britons in Egypt
THE Royal Navy was on standby last night to evacuate British tourists from Egypt as the country teeters on the brink of civil war.
HMS Illustrious and flotilla of warships were placed on high alert to rescue Britons
With up to 40,000 Britons on holiday in Red Sea resorts, the aircraft carrier Illustrious and a flotilla of warships were placed on high alert to rescue them and other UK nationals should the violence escalate.
The move follows a week of bloodshed in which more than 1,000 people have been killed in clashes between supporters of the deposed Muslim Brotherhood regime and the forces of the interim military government.
Senior officers at the Permanent Joint Headquarters of the Armed Forces in Northwood, Middlesex, whose role is to monitor world events, are poised to react if politicians call for military intervention.
Illustrious, the assault ship Bulwark and a fleet of frigates and support ships are heading towards Gibraltar for a series of war games which is also due to take them through the Red Sea.
A top Naval source told the Sunday Express: “The planning team will be looking at all options and making sure we are ready to evacuate British nationals if it comes to that or in a worst-case scenario intervene to rescue UK citizens taken hostage.
“We have a desk officer who will know where we can fly into, who we can liaise with, where the majority of UK passports live and have at least a dozen local people who we can call on to help us.
“As well as tourists, we have British nationals inside Cairo and other areas and this is now very much a waiting game. It is all about the political decision- making process, based on the intelligence information collated at GCHQ. Our role is to be ready.”
The Government is under growing pressure to warn British tourists to stay away from Egypt amid fears they will become targets in the violence.
The Foreign Office has advised against travel to Sinai, Cairo and Alexandria but given the green light to popular Red Sea destinations such as Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada.
Tens of thousands of Britons are due to fly there this week.
The bloodshed in Egypt has continued, with more than 1,000 killed in clashes.
The US, France, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium have all advised their citizens to avoid Egypt. Thailand is preparing to evacuate 2,000 of its nationals.
Last night Britons in Marsa Alam, near Sharm el-Sheikh, were under virtual curfew. Lawrence Aston, 52, from Bromley, Kent, on holiday with his wife and two sons, said: “We would have gone elsewhere if we’d have known what was going to happen.
“The Foreign Office still say it’s OK to come here but I don’t know how much longer that can last.
“The tour operators are toeing a dangerous line as there’s no way of telling if Westerners could become a target or if this could become a civil war.”
Sally Asling told how her hotel in Hurghada had bolstered security after a protest nearby in which one man was reportedly shot dead.
She said: “It is unsettling how quickly things kick off.”
British tourists say they have little choice but to carry on with their trips as they face up to £600 in cancellation fees.
Yesterday travellers arriving at London Heathrow from Cairo described the scramble to get home.
Jamie Griffiths, 41, a music teacher from Swansea, said: “I was so lucky to get out of there. It was chaos at the airport because there were no police there. My taxi driver had to take loads of detours.”
Egyptian-born Fadia Matta, 62, who lives in the UK, said: “The people are crazy. They have burnt a lot of churches. They have stolen a whole museum. It is very sad.”
British Airways is still flying to Cairo but has adjusted its schedules around curfew times imposed by Egyptian authorities.
It is allowing passengers to change destinations.
A spokeswoman said: “We are keeping the situation in Egypt under constant review.”
Last night MPs called for clearer information for travellers heading to Egypt. Conservative Bill Cash said: “People are the best judges of their own safety but I think they need to be warned specifically of the unpredictability of the situation.”
Labour’s Ann Clwyd said: “I would have thought the travel advice would have been beefed up as anything could happen at any time at any place given the extreme situation in the country.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/18/gibraltar-reef-protest-flotilla-royal-navy-police
HRNM would be a great home for the flag. Phenomenal museum.
Confederate Naval Flag Falls into U.S. Navy Hands – After Nearly 150 Years
DAYTON, Va. (NNS) — A Confederate flag finished a nearly 150-year journey as it traded hands from the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society (HRHS) to Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) during a ceremony at the society’s building in Dayton, Va., July 31. Capt. Henry Hendrix, NHHC’s director, accepted the flag which will be preserved and displayed in one of the U.S. Navy’s museums.
The flag’s journey to Washington, D.C. began during the Civil War in 1865.
It was early morning as Lt. William Ladd rode his horse into a nearly deserted Richmond, Va. The siege of the Petersburg had come to an end after eight months, signifying an end to the war that had divided America. With the Confederate capital of Richmond captured, the last hopes of the rebel army vanished and the army and populace of the city had scattered. It was while investigating the city that Ladd observed a Confederate ship flying their colors.
“I was in the Capitol grounds as early as 5:30 am,” wrote Ladd, in the History of the 13th New Hampshire Regiment. “I saw no flag on the Capitol at that time. After looking about the grounds and vicinity for a few minutes, and realizing I was alone in the city, I rode back towards Rocketts, and when near there met a white Union cavalryman – the first Union soldier I had seen in Richmond that morning. We tied our horses, took a skiff and rowed out to a rebel war ship in the James, and captured two Confederate flags then flying upon her. I pulled down the larger flag, the cavalryman the smaller one, and we rolled them up and tied them to our saddles.”
Unknown to Ladd, the Confederates had previously rigged the ship, Confederate States Ship (CSS) Hampton, to explode, denying the Union Army its capture. Soon after he and the cavalryman left with their captured flags, the ship was rocked by an explosion and slowly sank into the waters of the Potomac.
After the war, Ladd kept the flag in his residence, where it remained for years.
Fast forward to 2011. On a shelf in a Dayton, Va. building belonging to the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society, sat an archival collection box. The vice president of the society was working with volunteers to update their collection registry. As she went through the boxes she made an astounding discovery, a Confederate flag. A handwritten (note?) sewn onto it read, “That of Confed gun boat Hampton burnt in James River at the taking of Richmond. The flag was taken from the burning ship by Liet. Ladd (13th N. Hampshire), Gen. Devens staff.”
“I was surprised and amazed when I saw that we had such a rare, unique article in our collections,” said Nancy Hess, now former vice president of the society.
Her unearthing of the flag started an 18-month hunt for both clues of its origin and, ultimately, a place where the society knew it would receive proper care.
After finding the flag, Hess was curious. She asked a former president of the society about it. She learned that the flag had been a part of their collection for decades but little was known about why the flag was part of their holdings. Hess found some handwritten notes that recorded the flag being added to their collections in the 1960s. The society, which had moved several times since the 1960s, did not have any administrative records of the flag. It was on some inventories from 1982 and there was a photo of the flag taken sometime between 1978 and 1988.
The flag remained a bit of a mystery through the years. According to Hess, she contacted previous members about it, and she learned that the flag was mailed to the society from a law firm settling the estate of a client. When a former society president went to a Massachusetts courthouse to look up the will in 2000, he found no mention of the flag or its disposition. Although the flag was researched by several members of the society, none were able to figure out why the society was given the unique artifact, and several attempts were made to get the flag out of storage and displayed. But the efforts were futile and the flag remained in storage. Finally Hess took action, first writing museums about the flag, asking for someone to take and conserve it. When she unable to find a museum that would conserve and display it, she started calling.
Earlier this year, Hess contacted the U.S. Army Center of Military History. Retired Col. Robert Dalessandro, the director of the center, recommended she contact NHHC’s director, Capt. Henry Hendrix. In March she received the long-awaited call from Hendrix, and an answer to her hopes to find a proper resting place for the flag.
“We were contacted by Mrs. Hess and told the amazing story about the Confederate flag. I couldn’t let this incredible opportunity to recognize our naval heritage slip by, especially during the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. I told her NHHC would indeed be interested in the society’s storied flag,” Hendrix said.
A month later in Dayton, Hess met with Becky Poulliot, executive director of NHHC’s Hampton Roads Naval Museum in Norfolk, Va. Poulliot inspected the flag, listened to the society’s concerns about it and knew she wanted to have it.
“In the museum business, if you are lucky, you occasionally have an opportunity to experience what we call ‘wow’ moments,” Poulliot said. “The minute I saw the ensign from CSS Hampton was one of those moments for a variety of reasons. First, the flag has an authentic provenance of a pivotal point in American history — the fall of Richmond. Secondly, according to our staff research, it is the only known flag in existence that flew from a Maury gunboat. That gunboat was built across the Elizabeth River from our museum. So, it is irreplaceable. Lastly, this ensign fills an important gap regarding the material culture of the Confederate Navy in Hampton Roads.”
As the director accepted the gift, he presented the flag to Poulliot for her to begin the conservation process to make the flag ready to become part of the museum.
“We plan to prominently display it in our Civil War gallery,” Poulliot said. “I assure you that it will stop people in their tracks. They will want to learn more about the Civil War, and how the Confederacy built Maury gunboats. The acceptance of this ensign from CSS Hampton is an honor for our institution.”
The Hampton Roads Naval Museum introduces visitors to more than 234 years of U.S. Naval history in Hampton Roads, Virginia. One of nine officially operated U.S. Navy museums, reporting to the Naval History and Heritage Command, the museum houses a rich collection of authentic uniforms, weaponry, underwater artifacts, detailed ship models and artwork.
The Hampton Roads Naval Museum is located on the second level of Nauticus in Norfolk, Va. Admission is free.
For more information about Naval History and Heritage Command and its museums, visit http://www.history.navy.mil.
For more news from Naval History and Heritage Command, visit http://www.navy.mil/local/navhist/.
For more information about Hampton Roads Naval Museum, visit http://www.history.navy.mil/museums/hrnm/index.html.
“There hasn’t been an official tasking.”
Read into that what you will.
Unofficially? Obviously. It’s called a contingency. But a single MEU still wouldn’t “intervene” in a civil war. It may have some utility in support of evacuation of US citizens, however.
No Plans for U.S. Marines Near Egypt to Intervene in Conflict
USS Kearsarge (LHD-3), left, leads the amphibious dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD-50) and the amphibious transport dock ship USS San Antonio (LPD-17) on June 16, 2013. US Navy Photo
Two amphibious warships in the Red Sea have not been given orders to respond to the growing unrest in Egypt, Navy and Marine Corps officials told USNI News on Friday.
“There hasn’t been an official tasking,” Marine Capt. Eric Flanagan at the Pentagon told USNI News.
“They’re not getting ready to go into Egypt.”
On Thursday, Reuters quoted Marine Corps commandant Gen. James Amos saying the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) were on station in case the situation devolved.
“Egypt is (in) a crisis right now,” Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos told the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. “When that happens, what we owe the senior leadership of our nation are some options.”
Currently the amphibious helicopter carrier USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) and the USS San Antonio (LPD-17) are in the Red Sea following the June Eager Lion exercise between the U.S. and Jordan. The third ship in the ARG — USS Carter Hall (LSD-50 — is near the 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.
“The point that he was making [is that] three navy ships that have the ability to move off the coast and be ready for action,” Flanagan said.A Navy official confirmed to USNI News that the ARG has not received new tasking to respond to the Egyptian crisis.
The ARG is embarked with about 2,200 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (26 MEU) from Camp Lejeune, N.C. The ships departed in March for operations in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
http://news.usni.org/2013/07/12/no-plans-for-u-s-marines-near-egypt-to-intervene-in-conflict
Naval Matters 