Canadian Medal of  

          Honor.com

  • Sunday evening's blogs
  • graves, memorials and medals
  • About the Author
  • contact the Author
  • Home
latest blog

Ontario Man earnes Medal of Honor in Spanish America War!

5/24/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
During the Spanish American War of 1898 the USS Cushing was dispatched to Havana as a backup war ship. It was a small vessel designed to fire and test torpedoes and also train torpedo crews. It would be the first US Navy steel hulled vessel and the only one with self Propelled Howell torpedoes. The ship was 138 feet long and only had a crew of 22.

While the Cushing did capture 4 small craft on this mission and even a 20 ton schooner with the aid of another US vessel, it real job was torpedoes. If you look carefully at the base of the mast you can see three men on the Cushing, above, with a long cylinder looking device. This could be one of the Howell torpedoes.

These devices were quite sophisticated for their day. Electricity was not even if most households at the time. Yet this device was state of the art, and designed to be self propelled at speeds up to 25 knots for through the water for up to 400 yards carrying 100 pounds of explosives. It was driven by a 132 lb flywheel that was spun up to 10,000 rmp then ejected, either above or below the waterline. It would not leave a wake so the enemy could not see where it came from.

They were brass encased and 11 feet long, and if it hit you, you would probably have a bad day. There were only 50 of these devices made before a second company started making an improved model. Only 2 are known to exists today. One just found a few months back by Ted. For some reason I can't find his last name.

Picture
This Howell Torpedo is the first of two that are known to exists today and is in a Wa state museum.

The second one was found of the California coast just a few months back, was in two pieces with the warhead being non functional. When it was found a marker was weighted down  beside it for later retrieval by navy experts.

It was raised and cleaned up and may well end up in the same display as the one to the left.

Ted had not signed any documents releasing this to the navy nor apparently sought any sort of a reward... other than a couple of good fish dinners probably. He found it by using dome bionic reader capabilities that could be examined to tell the shape and size and even how far away the object was.

Picture
Ted is of course a male bottleneck Dolphin. And he and his mates, perhaps like the one to the right, have a very interesting internal system that allows them to locate objects along the ocean floor.

The navy first places fakes that imitate know shapes and sizes of items on the floor... or maybe even  under the floor and not only train the mammals to go and find them. but to then return to the ship and touch the front of the bow with their noses to indicate something is found. If nothing is found, they touch the back of the boat.  They are also trained as above noted to then mark the device so that less talents beings (humans) can go and examine or recover them, and thus the find of a few months back.

Now Ted probably had nothing to do with the USS Cushing. But Thorold Ontario born John Everetts did. He signed up for naval service  sometime before the Spanish American War started and had risen to the rank of Gunners Mate 3rd class by February of 1898. As one of the crew while operating in waters off Cuba, he heard the dreaded sound every sailor fears the most... Man Overboard... Man Overboard.  

A gigantic wave swept the surface of the vessel and took an officer overboard. The cries were heard and immediately  two life preservers were thrown out to the man. But they fell short. Another officer hollered out to drop a life boat and  Everetts and another sailor jumped in but the water soon washed the boat over. The officer was not able to be saved, but the two men did managed to save themselves.

Just two months later the President approved the awarding of the Medal of Honor for both men who risked their lives in the attempted rescue.

Picture
There is little about John Everetts found so far other than a brief citation that says that he ... "attempted unsuccessfully to rescue  a drowning shipmate who had fallen overboard."

It is believed that the two men involved in this attempt were the only two on the vessel to get Medals of Honor.

John Everetts continued to serve for an unknown time but it is know that upon release he had received further promotions and was a Chief Petty Officer by the end of his service.

John, pictured at left in his very early years in the US Navy,  died in 1956 at the age of 83  and is buried in a cemetery  in New York City. He is in very good company because in that same cemetery lay 18 other Medal of Honor recipients.

The award granted John his medal was  dated 20 May 1898, 115 years ago Monday of this week.

Picture






On another matter, hopefully you have read about the recent unveiling of a new marker to Rowland Bourke here in Victoria BC. Rowland was awarded a DSO and then a VC and then a French Legion of Honor medal for saving 42 sailors lives during the famous raids at Ostend harbour in 1918. There were two, one in April and one in May...95 years ago this year.

Well just a few hours ago today a service was held at the newly updated Ostend harbour and an old monument to this battle, the actual bow of the HMS Vindictive was updated and as of today's unveiling, mounted at a new location at the very edge of the harbour where the battle took place. The following three images can be found at    http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=BLDJA_20130524_001  You might want to have a look at them. Queen Paola and King Albert 11 officiated and where joined by many dignitaries including the American and Canadian ambassadors to Belgium.

This announcement may be the first of the day in Canada.

Picture
The 40 ton monument was moved to its new location last week and unveiled today at 11 a.m. Belgium time. As you can see, Canada was represented because many Canadians, including Commander Rowland Bourke VC and DSO took part in the battle. At the right are Belgium's Queen Paula and King Albert 11.

Bart

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author;
    Bart Armstrong, C.D.,
    Recipient, Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers 

    Archives

    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly