User:Navy Smart/12 29

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1798 - Secretary of Navy Benjamin Stoddert sends in his first annual report to Congress, requesting naval forces be increased "to make the most powerful nation desire our friendship - the most unprincipled respect our neutrality."
1812 - The frigate Constitution, commanded by William Bainbridge, captures HMS Java off Brazil, the second British frigate captured by Constitution in six months, during the War of 1812.
1942 - USS Wasmuth (DMS 15) eventually sinks, 35 miles off Scotch Cape, the southwest point of Unimak Island, Aleutians, two days after a pair of her depth charges exploded during a gale. USS Ramapo (AO 12) comes alongside in the heavy seas and heroically rescues Wasmuths crew.
1943 - USS Silversides (SS 236) sinks the Japanese transport Tenposan Maru, the army cargo ship Shichisei Maru, and the freighter Ryuto Maru while also damaging the army cargo ship Bichu Maru off Palau.
1944 - USS Fixity (AM 235) is commissioned. Decommissioned after the war, she is later sold for commercial service until she sinks in the Ohio River in the late 1990s. Also on this date, USS Murrelet (AM 372) is launched.