Confederate Navy News

1865 - CSS Shenandoah, commanded by James I. Waddell, encounters the British merchant bark, Barracouta, in the Pacific Ocean and receives the first firm report the Civil War ended in April with the defeat of the Confederacy. Shenandoah rounds Cape Horn in mid-September and arrives at Liverpool in early November, becoming the only Confederate Navy ship to circumnavigate the globe. There she hauls down the Confederate ensign and turns over to the Royal Navy. 1943 - (PT 109), commanded by Lt. j.g. John F. Kennedy, is rammed by the Japanese destroyer, Amagiri, which cuts through the vessel at Blackett Strait near Kolombangara Island. Abandoning ship, Kennedy leads his men to swim to an island some miles away.

1812 - During the War of 1812, Commodore John Rodgers leads a squadron onboard USS President off New York until she battles HMS Belvidera. The first shot of the War of 1812 is fired by USS President during this engagement. 1861 - During the Civil War, the Confederate Navy begins reconstruction of ex-USS Merrimack as the ironclad CSS Virginia at Gosport (Norfolk) Navy Yard, Va. 1898 - During the Spanish-American War, USS Dixie fires on two Spanish gunboats at Maria Aguilar Point, Cuba. 1933 - USS Macon (ZRS 5) is commissioned. Less than two years later, Macon crashes during a storm off Point Sur, Calif., ending the Navy's program of rigid airship operations. 1942 - While on a routine search, a PBY rescues most of the crew of S 27 (SS 132) at Constantine Harbor, Amchitka, Aleutian Islands.

The Virginia-class attack submarine USS Missouri (SSN 780) reached her first major milestone Sept. 27, during her keel authentication ceremony held at the General Dynamics Electric Boat facility in North Kingstown. Caesar S. DeSanto Sr. welded the initials of Rebecca W. Gates onto a plate of steel to symbolize the authentication of the keel. Gates, the wife of Secretary of Defense, Robert M. Gates, is the sponsor for Missouri, the seventh Virginia-class submarine to join the fleet. U.S. Rep.