A terrifying tale from the Age of Sail. The website of the Penobscot maritime museum was likely being deliberately understated when they wrote: “As one can imagine, wooden ships and fire do not make for a good day at sea.” The fire aboard HMS Queen Charlotte is history that deserves to be remembered.
In August of 1918, as the armies of Europe neared exhaustion, American troops of the 28th “Keystone” division were thrown into a nearly forgotten battle that fully represented the horrors of the War to End All Wars.
Of the vaunted ironclad warships of the US Civil War perhaps the mightiest and most terrifying was the confederate ram Tennessee. On August 5, 1864, she would be put to the test in the largest naval engagement of the war, an engagement that defined the divided loyalties of the War of the Rebellion.