This Day in Naval History

(From the Navy News Service)

May 21

1850 - Washington Navy Yard begins work on first castings for the Dahlgren guns. 1917 - USS Ericsson fires first torpedo of war.

1944 - Accidental explosion on board an LST unloading ammunition in West Loch, Pearl Harbor, and the resulting fire and other explosions sink five LSTs.

1964 - The initiation of the standing carrier presence at Yankee Station in the South China Sea.

May 22

1882 - Commodore Shufeldt signs commerce treaty opening Korea to U.S. trade.

1958 - Naval aircraft F4D-1 Sky Ray sets five world speed-to-climb records, May 22-23.

1967 - New York City reaches agreement to purchase Brooklyn Navy Yard, ending 166 years of construction and repair of naval vessels.

1968 - USS Scorpion (SSN 589) is lost with all hands.

May 23

1850 - Navy sends USS Advance and USS Rescue to attempt rescue of Sir John Franklin's expedition, lost in Arctic.

1939 - USS Squalus (SS 92) sinks off Postsmouth, N.H., with loss of 26 lives.

1962 - Launch of Aurora 7 (Mercury 7), piloted by Lt. Cmdr. Malcolm Scott Carpenter who completed three orbits in four hours, 56 minutes, at an altitude up to 166.8 statute miles at 17,549 mph.

1962 - USS Valcour (AVP 55) provides medical care to a merchant seaman from tanker SS Manhattan in the Persian Gulf.