Happy Birthday, US Navy

SFS

.
Aug 18, 2015
2,070
Currently Boatless Okinawa
So the Navy is only 28 days older than the Marine Corps? I did not know that.

Still, I'll save my celebration until 10 November.
 
  • Like
Likes: Will Gilmore
Oct 19, 2017
7,745
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
I understand it was originally Ben Franklin's navy. The French gave it to him, not to the US.

Happy birthday.

-Will (Dragonfly)
 
Last edited:
Oct 22, 2014
21,088
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Yeah... Go NAVY!

Thanks @Brian D
The theme for the Navy’s 243rd Birthday is “Forged by the Sea.”
A 13 October 1775 resolution of the Continental Congress established what is now the United States Navy with “a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible despatch, for a cruise of three months….” After the American War of Independence, the U.S. Constitution empowered the new Congress “to provide and maintain a navy.” Acting on this authority, Congress established the Department of the Navy on 30 April 1798.
 
  • Like
Likes: Will Gilmore

Mikem

.
Dec 20, 2009
820
Hunter 466 Bremerton
I have read Six Frigates twice. I learned more about the founding of our Navy in that book than I did at four years at the Naval Academy. Quite a treatise on politics at the time as well. Besides that I found the book riveting...a real page turner.
 
Jun 14, 2010
307
Seafarer 29 Oologah, OK
Found it with a Google image search.

https://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/08/worlds_oldest_commissioned_war.html

You're correct, both pictures are from her bicentennial cruise in 1997. The article gives the date of July 21, 1997 although Wikipedia gives her launch date as Oct. 21 (after two unsuccessful attempts in September).

[Added in edit: Oct. 21 is also the anniversary of Trafalgar. A momentous day in naval history!]
 
Last edited:

SG

.
Feb 11, 2017
1,670
J/Boat J/160 Annapolis
Give me a tall ship and a star to steer her by for I intend to sail in harm’s way.

I like that line.

Mike was that a mix of poetry and John Paul Jones -- all in one line? :^)))

"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way. "
-- John Paul Jones


Sea Fever
BY JOHN MASEFIELD

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.​
 
Jul 7, 2004
8,402
Hunter 30T Cheney, KS
USN has new polices on deployment. IMO, seems only right that if you are in the Navy you should be fit for sea duty. I can't remember how many times I deployed in the Marines. It's part of the job.

Starting October 1, 2018, Sailors who have been non-deployable for 12 consecutive months will be notified of mandatory processing for administrative separation or referral to the Disability Evaluation System (DES), as appropriate. The policy applies to all Sailors, regardless of current duty type (operational or non-operational).
https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=107208
 

Mikem

.
Dec 20, 2009
820
Hunter 466 Bremerton
SG,

It seemed like the right thing to say...a jumble of thoughts from years of reading and years at sea with the world’s greatest Navy