Classic Motorboats 2024 Wall Calendar

The Navy calendar is a tribute to the men and women who have fought to protect our nation, to deter aggression, and to maintain freedom of the seas. Navy and Marine Corps action over the past 248 years is represented here in full-color paintings. Significant events in naval history are listed in every month. Sales of the calendar benefit the Naval Order of the United States. Anchor’s aweigh!

This 2024 monthly wall calendar features: Large blocks for notes | Superb printing quality | Heavy 100-pound paper | Deluxe 11- by 14-inch size

Images featured in this edition include:
≈ The destroyer Hawkins (DD 873) transits the waters between Corsica and Sardinia during one of a series of Mediterranean deployments with the Sixth Fleet. Destroyer Sailors think of their ships as “workhorses of the Fleet,” and Hawkins’ thirty-plus years of service across the Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Mediterranean give evidence of this proud claim.
≈ A Los Angeles-class attack submarine of Submarine Group Seven at sea, with a Mystic-class rescue submersible stowed in a cradle on her deck. Armed with Harpoon and Tomahawk missiles as well as antisubmarine torpedoes, newer Los Angeles-class submarines can also lay mines. Retractable bowmounted diving planes let them operate under ice.
≈ An embarked combat artist shares his impression of an enemy ship torpedoed and sunk by a surfaced submarine in a night attack. Since radar was only making its first appearances during World War II, this “boat” is being directed by the eyes and optics of her crew.
≈ Many artists in the Far East made a good living painting pictures of naval and merchant ships for sale. An unknown artist did this likeness of Olympia during her 1895-1898 service as flagship of the Asiatic Fleet. In 1898 she flew the flag of Commodore George Dewey during the battle of Manila Bay, and is preserved as a memorial at Philadelphia. U.S. Navy ships were painted white with buff upperworks from the 1890s through 1908 to make crew spaces a bit more livable in those days before air conditioning.
≈ Explosions, flares, and tracers light up the night in the crisscrossing channels of the Rung Sat swamp, the strategic area in Vietnam between Saigon and the South China Sea. An inshore patrol craft (PCF), popularly known as a “Swift boat,” engages Viet Cong ambushers with machine guns, small arms, and an 81mm mortar.
≈ A trick of the atmosphere makes gunfire-support destroyers appear to be blowing smoke rings over the bitterly-contested landing beaches at Peleliu during the Pacific campaign of World War II. Ships’ gunfire and carrier planes backed up assault landings and lent powerful artillery support to troops fighting ashore.
≈ The ammunition ship Firedrake (AE 14) replenishes an aircraft carrier of Task Force 77 in the icy waters off North Korea. Mobile logistics lessons earned during World War II would reemphasize their value off Korea and, later, off Vietnam.
≈ A CH-53 heavy-lift helicopter stands ready aboard USS Dubuque (LPD 8) as plans are formulated for Operation End Sweep, the clearance of mines from North Vietnamese waters after the signing of the Paris accords. Designed as amphibious troop carriers, the size and power of the CH-53 suited it for the new task of airborne minesweeping.
≈ A French fleet, under Admiral Comte de Grasse, defeats Admiral Thomas Graves’ British fleet attempting to relieve Lord Charles Cornwallis’ besieged army at Yorktown near the end of the Revolutionary War. Cut off from reinforcement and supplies, Cornwallis surrenders to the American- French army under General George Washington and General Comte de Rochambeau. De Grasse’s success made Cornwallis’ surrender, and American independence, inevitable.
≈ For more than a quarter-century the A-4 Skyhawk, affectionately called “Heinemann’s hot rod” in tribute to its principal designer, played a key role in Navy and Marine Corps aviation. The Skyhawk proved its worth in Southeast Asia, carrying a major share of combat operations in North and South Vietnam. Nearly three thousand Skyhawks were produced, serving in both U.S. and foreign air forces. Forrestal (CVA 59), the first “super carrier” was not only
the first aircraft carrier built after World War II, it was also the first built specifically to operate jet aircraft.
≈ The double-turreted monitor Onondaga saw Civil War service in the James River, where she supported Federal troops advancing on Richmond. Laid up after Appomattox, she was sold to her builder who, in turn, sold her to the French Navy. This artist’s rendition illustrates the vulnerability of Civil War monitors. With freeboard measured in inches, they worked well on rivers and in coastal waters but were poorly suited to blue-water operations.
≈ The artist portrays a timeless scene: a sailor stands his watch in the hours before morning with moonlight his only company. Perhaps his thoughts turn to loved ones at home as he looks out across the expanse of ocean and listens to the sighing of the wind.

Published by Tide-mark Press © 2023