SS Washingtonian was a cargo ship launched in 1913 by the Maryland Steel Company, one of eight sister ships for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company and the largest cargo ship under American registry at the time. During the American occupation of Veracruz in April 1914, the ship was chartered by the Department of the Navy for service as a refrigerated supply ship for the U.S. fleet stationed off the Mexican coast. In January 1915, after a little more than one year of service, Washingtonian collided with the schooner Elizabeth Palmer off the Delaware coast after the cargo ship's captain misjudged the schooner's rapid pace. Washingtonian sank in ten minutes with the loss of a $1,000,000 cargo of raw Hawaiian sugar. In the days after the sinking, the price of sugar in the United States increased almost 9%, partly attributed to the loss of this cargo. Lying under approximately 100 feet (30 m) of water, the wreck is one of the most popular recreational dive sites on the eastern seaboard.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Washingtonian_(1913)
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1302:
Byzantine–Ottoman Wars: The Ottoman sultanate gained its first major victory against the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Bapheus in Bithynia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bapheus
1778:
Anglo-French War: French and British fleets fought to a standoff west of Ushant, which led to political disputes in both countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ushant_(1778)
1916:
British mariner Charles Fryatt was executed at Bruges, Belgium, after a court-martial found him to be a franc-tireur. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fryatt
1953:
An armistice was signed to end hostilities in the Korean War, officially making the Division of Korea indefinite by creating an approximately 4 km (2.5 mi) wide demilitarized zone across the Korean Peninsula. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Demilitarized_Zone
2002:
A Ukrainian Air Force Sukhoi Su-27 aircraft crashed during an aerobatics presentation at an airshow near Lviv, Ukraine, killing 84 people and injuring over 100 others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sknyliv_air_show_disaster
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
baby carrot: 1. A carrot harvested and sold when immature and of a small size. 2. A small piece cut from a larger carrot. 3. The term baby-cut carrot is sometimes used for the second sense, especially to distinguish it from the first sense. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/baby_carrot
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
In a word, the Barbarian is discoverable everywhere in this that he cannot make; that he can befog or destroy, but that he cannot sustain; and of every Barbarian in the decline or peril of every civilisation exactly that has been true. We sit by and watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us: we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile. --Hilaire Belloc https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hilaire_Belloc