Old Ironsides.  … ...more

oh you are moving now at a Brisk speed upon the surface of the ocean realm which gives way temporarily to the land as it does in many places within this single sea that rounds the world from this sea in other days men emerged from Wooden Ships having no doubts about the existence of God they thanked him for safe passage with gratitude as great as the waters they had crossed they built colonies in the name of the British crown and in time they founded a new nation stretching from the chill of Canada to the warmer strands of Florida the men of the new nation spoke the English tongue Farms blossomed within the Wilderness and cities Grew From Coastal Villages and Inland clusters and still they further grew to create this world that belongs to the present [Music] generation the great City still faces the sea that gave it birth and [Music] power see the familiar City then in the light of time our own time and the time to come the time that brought us to where we are this very minute strong upon a troubled Earth only as we are strong upon the sea power we have discovered is more than Force military or Naval power is also the ability to build the good life from raw resources of the earth power is at once thought and capability and action such power built an American civilization for free men from mother Europe across the sea the sea one and indivisible a highway for peace a battle sea for war the single realm of [Music] ocean the sea a battlefield since the earliest memories of man but never more so than in the time of our own Nation the S Years War that began in 1756 was World War indeed an amphibious attack brought the fall of Quebec and the conquest of Canada the high water mark of British arms in America and while England struggled on with France her own colonies in America themselves perhaps the freest men on Earth struck out for even more freedom at se Britain had 28 warships with over 500 guns and 5,000 men at ports between Halifax and Florida true to her sea Doctrine she commanded the American Coast keeping her own sea lanes open and closing those of the rebellious colonists the colonial Navy consisted of a few frigs from Individual State navies averaging 125 ft in length they mounted 4 to 12 Pounders four of 13 contemplated frig were destroyed on the stocks to prevent capture others were captured driven ashore or sunk the same for many of the new nation's converted merchantmen and privateers at War's end our America had no more than two ships larger than a schooner it was sad going true enough there was the stirring episode in English Waters off flambro head in 1779 when John Paul Jones doggedly held on to and finally beat a good British man of war carapus American privateers too captured their share of British shipping such as the brig Suki shown entering Newber port and the Drake one of Jones's prizes for all that and other courageous actions that were have found the American tradition it was French sea power anxious to even old scores that turned the tide of war the year 1781 British general Lord Cornwallis out to conquer Virginia mustered 7,000 men just off Chesapeake Bay at a place called Yorktown a despairing Washington found fresh Hope from The New American Republic's first friends the French who sent their Fleet from the West Indies it was to be one of the few times in history when France not England ruled the [Music] waves the French attack on British ships isolated cornwallis's Army which with seaward supply lines closed had no choice but to surrender thus even during its birth the new nation learned never to forget the prime Mandate of survival be strong upon the sea if you would be strong strong upon the earth a new nation forging an uncertain Unity among its several parts taming an unmeasured Wilderness it's back to the Sea across the sea the old world A continuing source of people and trade and danger too still a new nation but older now the wind moves you along before its greatest City the stuff of survival Rubber and Tin aluminum and tungsten lead and uranium manganes to make steel all come from across the wide and Open Sea the new nation growing older needs some 70 vital materials from other shores of the single sea h at a tender age America discovered quickly that even vast distances did not insulate against Troubles of the old world ironically the Americans found themselves fighting France herself in the so-called quazi war France was stopping and impounding neutral ships carrying goods to her perennial enemy England France demanded bribe money even to negotiate American complaints of harassment on the high seas Millions for defense but not one sent for tribute went the cry in America the Friendship of only a dozen years before was forgotten now what the Constitution permitted Congress finally provided the first true American Navy its heart to be the refurbished frig's Constitution United States and constellation and new construction to include 674 gun sloops of War American ships fought French wherever they could find them and gave excellent account of themselves on February 9 1799 in the West Indies constellation under Commodore Thomas truckton beat and captured a good french frigate laner jeant and again off guadaloop constellation defeated the 50 gun Vance during this half War the young United States captured more than 80 French ships proving to herself and to Europe there was something new upon the sea Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute became a lie as the 19th century dawned our new nation was paying 1/5 of its total revenue in Ransom to the Muslim states of Morocco alers Tunis and Tripoli tribute for captured Americans and for merchant ships to ply the Mediterranean but the $2 million was not enough for these barbery Pirates they kept upping the amount war was declared the American Navy sailed forth to avenge indignities and to end the affair unfortunately the frigate Philadelphia ran a ground and was captured by the Pirates under Commodore Edward Preble the Navy attacked the forts of Tripoli these were the days of Daring Do heroic Steven deor braved the harbor itself to destroy Phil [Music] felia the catch Intrepid was loaded with explosives to blow up fortifications in the harbor but it fired prematurely killing the 13 volunteers who took her in Pebble bombarded the forts from the sea until the ruler of Tripoli decided things had gone far enough and the barbery Wars ended they had given the new Nation a spark of Pride and they gave the new Navy Sea Fighters hardened in battle a Litany of Heroes Preble decator Bainbridge across the seas the bitter enemies England and France continued the conflict of centuries running it now raged into full Crescendo with the rise of Napoleon who for all his small size was likened to an elephant because of his prowess on the land Britain was likened to a whale because of her strength at C symbolized most effectively by Admiral Horatio Nelson in one way or another the cataclysmic struggle engulfed most of the Civilized world and much that was not then at traler Nelson ended the French dream of power on the sea at the cost of his life and also there upon the waters ended Napoleon's hope of crushing England America was caught in the middle of the soall Napoleonic Wars our war of 1812 with England was in British eyes but a minor aspect of the gigantic struggle against France the British bottled up our coasts down to the last Inlet to prevent our trading with France even our Coastal shipping was halted at Sea American frigates Yankee designed and Yankee built and very good fought British frigates from the South Pacific to the North Atlantic winning more often than not the most memorable victory was that of constitution old iron sides over gerer Constitution's capture of the War Java stirred another bit of prideful excitement on the other hand HMS Shannon beat and captured our Chesapeake it was also a war of freshwater navies control of the Great Lakes was critical to British Invasion from Canada on Lake Erie Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry fought the British Squadron to the point where he could declare we have met the enemy and they are ours the word sent a shiver of Pride through the new nation and into history it was the war of the rockets red glare and the flag that was still there even though Washington itself was destined for [Music] burning Jackson's victory at New Orleans actually came after the conclusion of peace with England but it did help put Jackson in the white house which in turn put the stamp of the frontier on the American character for the rest of the century the frontier once it was those very Palisades that rise before you above the Hudson once a virtually unknown continent lay behind them the new nation had to be established in fact as well as dream across a vast realm of wilderness how the 13 one-time colonies stretched themselves from the Atlantic Coastline to the shores of the Pacific and across it that is the Epic of this America in the settled East a calming down upon the land as the frontier moved Westward a rural America before the coming of the great cities placed its Mark upon what we are today there was a harsh and rugged Simplicity work to be done and men that could do it an age of uncomplicated faith when God was unmistakably in his heaven the steamboat brought the wonders of the century that was to produce in time electricity Motors and engines the Telegraph and the telephone and urban civilization with its special Joys and special problems those who longed for other places found the frontier outer space enough the land it seemed to all Americans was Without End and without limit an age to go a Roven in Inward and Westward if those were your fancies or outward and seaward across the sweep of wave and wind tall ships stood against the skies Wooden Ships and Iron Men the saying went fix your mind upon them across this ocean of time that separates us from [Music] them along the Connecticut shore of the single ocean that spans all the world the men and the times are remembered in Mystic Seaport picture a ship heading for China and the East carrying whale oil and lumber surely it will bring back to us the tea and the silks the pepper and the coffee and the ginger the porcelain and wondrous Tales of those incredibly Distant Shores fabled places where a man might go before the Mast the port is the gateway to Adventure rig the ships to entrap the trade wind store them to help help men endure the long months and hard labor at Sea build the ship from love as well as skill for the ship must be home and Fortress too a special place for men upon vast and dangerous Seas with time the tall ships drifted away but for all that has happened since they still are a part of what we are under my wings everything prospers not the complete truth perhaps but truth enough for this golden age of American expansion and expansiveness American Wealth multiplied many times making more to protect upon the Seas of the world so the Navy grew a pace from The Battered but exhilarating experience of 182 the Navy protected by reputation and by deed a Seaborn Commerce that Quint tupled between 1815 and 1860 in the late 1840s the Navy sent amphibious forces against a neighbor that is now a friend during the war with Mexico that finally set the American frontier upon the Pacific itself and soon to cross it the Navy as seen by baleful native eyes in a distant Empire opening up as the phrase went Japan to trade with the [Music] west then long smoldering tensions and American Life burst into Flame in America's Great War with herself a war that raged over Homeland sea and [Music] river at Sea it was a war of blockade and counter blockade of running the gauntlet of ships to get materials of War through the north finally isolating the south from vital Arms and Supplies and from the trade that would pay for them the South raiding Northern Commerce at sea for four hours on a memorable day in the history of the sea two Ironclad fighting ships fired upon one another Virginia formerly called meramac mounted three 9-in dalren guns two 6-in rifles in broadside two 7-in rifle pivots top speed 4 knots versus the Monitor perhaps the most original design thus far in Naval architecture so new that 40 Innovations in her could be patented monitor mounted two 11-in dalren smooth bars in revolving turret at Day end Virginia was damaged but repairable monitor hit but not badly hurt the message needed no belaboring War upon the sea was destined to be different the ironclads were here to stay and to this war came other devices that were to shape all war to come the underwater mine the tentative submarine nonetheless Iron Men in wooden ships had their last fling at glory the north occupied one after another the southern ports between Virginia and the Rio Grande bombardments amphibious operations a veritable charge of ships up the Delta to take New Orleans the South with no way to challenge was choked to death at vital coastal points from norol to mobile to galvas against such Superior Force gallantry alone could never suffice and it didn't you sail your boat then through territorial Waters of a strong and United America a nation with the lesson learned strength upon the Earth depends upon strength upon the sea you are moving Northeast now the mainland to Port Long Island of harbard to a place that holds memories of a man and the land he served a man to remember his era gave birth to ours the charge up San Juan Hill the time of Dewey and Manila of the 6-hour battle that made the United States a world power we won the naval war with Spain and the struggle told us much about modern navies we had a lot to learn about accurate firing damage control Global Logistics amphibious operations against a tougher foe the experts reasoned perhaps we we might have lost for America now stood on the threshold of both a new century and A New Perspective the Old Navy easygoing and somewhat complacent even heartwarming in its primitive techniques that smacked of other days gave way to the new the massive steel dreadnots of the new 20th century were more distant from Jones's bonam rad than it was from the G of salus 2300 years before to face new facts of a changing world without discarding the old truths that was the charge to do this to become in his own lifetime a prophet of much honor in every Naval power on Earth Alfred Mahan Captain United States Navy wrote a book that became compulsory reading in the wardroom of every German ship it was translated into Japanese before most Americans had even heard of it it became to the British the very summation of their own history of Triumph upon the sea Britain Mahan wrote was great because her people were great and because her people could see that their Island geography dictated use of the sea they understood that the sea could bring nourishment or destruction according to how they took advantage of the sea and made it work for them Maham saw his his own America in the same position with the same opportunities America too had an energetic talented courageous people with a government that could get things done his Republic also was a kind of Island bounded as it was by the Sea on three sides and friendly countries on its borders America an island but the world's most powerful in its potential she needed however a canal to make one the naval and Commercial power of Atlantic and Pacific she needed bases far from home Shores to refuel and to supply her ships and she got them one by one for by now America had a mighty Global stake to protect her people coming and going to and from the wide earth she needed a Navy second to none and that Navy began to emerge before the eyes of the world during the 14 months following December 197 the Great White Fleet of 16 first line battleships sailed some 46,000 Mi around the world firing the pride of Americans and winning a wide welcome by the time of World War I the great heavy powerful ships of Mammoth guns became too much for the Flesh and Blood eyesight of men too much for their pencil and paper calculations and this was a generation before radar sonar computers and the atom instrumentation gradually closed the gap between men and the great weapons they had forged radio linked the ships of a force one with the other America's Naval role in her 20 months of World War I was largely a convoy operation she landed 2 million soldiers in France and mountains of supplies the German failure at counter block a by ubot attack help to Coster the war back now through the waters of this Hudson that is nobler than the Rind back towards the city upon the water that symbolizes this very Nation upon the world recall a day more than two generations ago when sea power took Wing the day the Navy learned to fly let one remembrance bring others a later day at dunker that free men cannot forget and yet another a day of stern reality when the mighty battleships the proud queens of the American Fleet lay in Ruins elsewhere that day the Navy that had learned to fly survived to fight on at Midway the war at Sea took on an immensity beyond compare with all the sea batt battles that had gone before War always called upon men to give their all but never on such a scale Japan conqueror of a mighty Empire within months thanks to power at Sea fell back before those who could use the Seas even better here upon the broad span of the Pacific Navy fought Navy often within the air alone often far from the opposing fleets that did not meet see a war that could be won as in the greatest naval engagement of all time here in late Gulf because of power that could be brought out from the land across the several oceans of the single sea to far and critical places see in it all confirmation for Captain mahan's enduring dictum to be strong upon the Earth you must first be strong upon the sea hard ahead of you the city upon the sea in a nation upon the sea a nation whose very life finds sustenance in the sea at Harbor's end the open ocean presents the predominant face of this planet Earth a small planet even among those we know of and a troubled one a place where problems will not not be argued away a place to be strong and to stay strong the empires have come and gone the greatness of yester year is a part of what we are today if we heed its lessons the speed of change has left its mark But even this shrinking world is yet as wide as the ocean sees and a lad can still go a romen across the Great [Music] Waters for