Articles tagged as U.S. Navy | Smithsonian Magazine

After the ship was sunk by a Japanese torpedo, surviving crew members had to battle dehydration, exposure and deadly shark attacks

August 21, 2017

Winston Churchill and FDR aboard the HMS 'Prince of Wales,' Churchill's ship, when the Atlantic Charter was released.

Months Before Pearl Harbor, Churchill and Roosevelt Held a Secret Meeting of Alliance

The two leaders met in a warship off the coast of northern Canada to talk strategy

August 14, 2017

French privateers and the newly reformed U.S. Navy fought in the Quasi War. "Despite these effective U.S. military operations, however, the French seized some 2,000 U.S. vessels during this conflict," writes historian Nathaniel Conley.

This Unremembered US-France ‘Quasi War’ Shaped Early America’s Foreign Relations

America wasn’t officially at war with France between 1798 and 1800, but tell that to the U.S. Navy

July 7, 2017

One of the mine-hunting dolphins being retrained to find vaquita porpoises

Mine-hunting dolphins will help researchers transfer the remaining creatures into marine sanctuaries

July 5, 2017

Cool Finds

A Century After Sinking, This Storied Ship Will Remain Underwater

The McCulloch was the largest cutter of its day and sank in 1917 after colliding with a passenger ship in heavy fog

June 20, 2017

Some of the 3,000 commemorative letters sent in the first Postal Department rocket mail are still around. Some made it into the National Postal Museum's collection.

Mail Delivery By Rocket Never Took Off

Although the Postmaster General was on board with the idea of missile mail, the Navy was ultimately less interested

June 8, 2017

After the ship exploded in New York Harbor in 1944, 136 sailors were classified as missing, but new research suggests some were buried on Long Island

February 15, 2017

Hyman G. Rickover created the U.S. Navy's nuclear program, but remained ambivalent about it throughout his life

Happy(?) Birthday to the Father of the Nuclear Navy

Hyman G. Rickover pushed to nuclearize the Navy’s submarines, but admitted he’d rather ‘sink them all’ to protect humanity

January 27, 2017

A newly promoted group of petty officers stand in formation in Yokosuka, Japan. The blue working uniforms they are wearing will start to be phased out this October.

Aquaflage is so 2010

August 5, 2016

Merchant Mariners aboard a training ship working in the boiler room.

The Merchant Marine Were the Unsung Heroes of World War II

These daring seamen kept the Allied troops armed and fed while at the mercy of German U-boats

May 27, 2016

A New Addition to #MyDaguerreotypeBoyfriend Is the Civil War’s Most Daring Naval Officer

Who is this cool cat, posing for an unusually casual photo for famed photographer Alexander Gardner?

April 2016

Conestoga (AT 54) at San Diego, circa January 1921

With the Discovery of the USS Conestoga, Researchers Have Solved a Mystery That Was Nearly 100 Years Old

Even a century later, the news has brought relief to the families of the sailors who went down with their ship

March 23, 2016

Hospital Apprentices second class Ruth C. Isaacs, Katherine Horton and Inez Patterson (left to right) were the first black WAVES to enter the Hospital Corps School at National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MD. Photographed March 2, 1945.

Cool Finds

Photographs Document Some of the First Black Women to Serve With the U.S. Navy

Black women were not allowed to join WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) until 1944

February 5, 2016

A rendering of the USS Nautilus, the world's first atomic submarine. The real Nautilus is now open to the public, docked in Connecticut so that visitors can walk around inside and explore the torpedoes and living quarters.

Urban Explorations

Step Inside a Famous Submarine

Where to visit historic subs this summer—or ride in a modern one

May 26, 2015

John Paul Jones, an American naval hero during the Revolutionary War, was later known for wooing the women of France.

John Paul Jones and His Romantic Romp Through Paris

After the naval hero gained acclaim in the American Revolution, he met many adorers in the French city

April 21, 2015

A federal judge declares the National Marine Fisheries Service did not do its job to protect dolphins and whales

April 9, 2015

New Research

Here’s Why the Navy Designed a New Diving Suit

New design spurred by a global helium shortage

March 24, 2015

FireCast 2.0 targets the most fire-prone buildings, many of which haven't been inspected in years.

How Data and a Good Algorithm Can Help Predict Where Fires Will Start

The New York City Fire Department is using a tool called FireCast to predict which buildings are most likely to have fires

March 2, 2015

For years now, the U.S. Navy has been looking for a way to fuel fighter jets aboard aircraft carriers out in the open ocean without having to rely on refueling ships.

Fuel from Seawater? What’s the Catch?

Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory recently flew a model plane using a liquid hydrocarbon fuel they sourced from the ocean

December 16, 2014

Newspaper headlines in New York, where people react to the news that Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid in Pakistan.

Robert O’Neill says he is the SEAL who killed bin Laden

November 7, 2014