Detailed Letter on the true First Navy Flag issue, no proper action from a year before!!!

[Click on the images to enlarge, click again to magnify for easier reading. Click on the envelope icon below to comment or request a copy sent via email.]

Fwd: 1976 REBELS UNDER SAIL - Fwd: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History

Post to blog by email...

Begin forwarded message:

From: James Renwick Manship
Date: October 11, 2006 10:52:48 AM EDT
To: RADM Paul Tobin
Subject: 1976 REBELS UNDER SAIL - Fwd: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History

Dear Admiral Tobin,

In my writer's retreat here in the beautiful Blue Ridge, no longer am I in the beach cottage nearly in sight of the finest Navy in the world.

However, in the 8000 volume library here, with walls covered with pictures of sailing ships, I found the 1976 published book:

REBELS UNDER SAIL: The American Navy during the Revolution,

by William M. Fowler, Jr., where the research and writing was funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

On the dust jacket is written, "Fowler describes how a small group of delegates to Congress, led by John Adams and strongly supported by Washington, labored to form a powerful fighting fleet."

On page 29 is written, "...as it related to naval activities, the suggestion made by some historians that Washington somehow had to be convinced of the need to commission vessels seems out of place. He would have been a poor commander not to have employed the weapons at his disposal. He hardly needed to have it pointed out to him that the enemy was totally dependent upon their sea lanes for supplies and this was their most vulnerable point...."

"If he could arm and equip vessels along the North and South shores of Massachusetts Bay, he could intercept these ships and take their valuable cargoes to fill his much depleted magazines."

"Colonel John Glover of the Marblehead regiment, a sea captain and merchant himself, offered the charter of his schooner "Hannah", while the men of the "Webfoot Regiment" eagerly volunteered to sign on." (note 11)

And of course the Liberty Tree flag flew on the first Navy ship commissioned, "Hannah".

In the Introduction are some sage words:

"And so the commemorative bandwagon rolls along at a ponderable rate, but occasionally in a splurge of historical hoopla it runs away with itself. Such may well be the case during America's Bicentennial."

"Naval historians should be especially aware of contracting Bicentennial fever with its alarming symptom of verbal (Ed. Note: ...and "legendary image" Fake Snake inflation) inflation, for in the past one whiff of sea air has carried many away to an ethereal plane where all is glory, romance and John Paul Jones."

"To be sure, the American Revolution was, as Alfred Thayer Mahan would quickly testify, a naval war."

"Compared to the enemy's squadrons, the Continental navy was a puny force. Nevertheless, against overwhelming odds, they ventured to sea, and in their own way, both by victory and defeat, they helped to achieve independence. For that they deserve to be remembered."


Could you ask CDR Eric Berryman or CAPT Brayton Harris (who resurrected the fabricated, albeit well-meaning "Fake Snake" Navy Jack Flag of the Bicentennial) or any of the rest of their team if they had consulted William Fowler who was doing his research for his 1976 book when they re-created the legendary Fake Snake Flag a few years before, or if any of that team had read the book by William Bell Clark, George Washington's Navy, published in Baton Rouge in 1960?

Very respectfully,

James Renwick Manship, Sr.
LCDR, USNR
Director, FirstNavyFlag.US

Begin forwarded message:

From: James Renwick Manship
Date: October 11, 2006 8:07:20 AM EDT
To: RADM Paul Tobin
Subject: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History

Dear Admiral Tobin,

The attached Navy letter with imbedded images of the 1872 Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, and a description of a book by your predecessor, RADM Preble.

I will be interested to see your response.

V/R, James Renwick Manship, (once upon a time, seemingly long, long ago, LCDR, USNR -- keep smiling!)

"Your research on the flag is accurate..." -- Director, Navy History Center

"As I have always said, your research on the flag is accurate..."
-- Rear Admiral Paul Tobin
Director, Navy History Center




In an email of October 11, 2006, the Director of the Navy History Museum, RADM Paul Tobin, USN (retired), comments on an item sent to him about a Congressional Medal of Honor to RADM Paul Tobin, USN, in a.d. 1871, not a.d. 1971, but 100 years before!

That is a fun issue, and about the same time a former Director of Naval History, RADM Preble was making an error about the "Fake Snake" Navy Jack flag in his definitive book on American Flags.

By his a.d. 1880 revision of that book on American flags, RADM Preble insisted that the publisher REMOVE all his writings about the Snake Navy Jack Flag, which was done, BUT... the publisher left the color plate of the American flags that contained an image of the "Fake Snake" Navy Jack... effectively negating the effort of Admiral Preble to correct the record, correct his book and banish the evil snake from the legend and lore of the American Navy.

Let us pray, or "Appeal To Heaven" as is the motto on the true First Navy Flag, that it does not take the current Director of Naval History Admiral Tobin 8 or 9 years to correct the record and remove the "Fake Snake" Navy Jack Flag from the lore and legend of Naval History as it took his predescessor Admiral Preble to try to set the record straight.

Fwd: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History // Navy Birthday Present??

Begin forwarded message:

From: James Renwick Manship <George@WashingtonLIVES.us>

Date: October 11, 2006 11:35:21 AM EDT

To: RADM Paul Tobin <paul.tobin@navy.mil>

Subject: Fwd: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History // Navy Birthday Present??

Dear Admiral Tobin,

As I reviewed by just transmitted email, I see I failed to mention the historical research foremost in the debunking of the myth of the Fake Snake Flag, written by Peter Ansoff, that was published in 2004 in Raven, the journal of the "flag experts".

Then again there is the book published in 1995 by the U. S. Naval Institute, as mentioned below:

Point Paper on Why Yes to Liberty Tree Navy Flag, Why NO to Snake flag

31 Dec 2005

Discussion: The United States Naval Institute Press in 1995 published a book written by Chester G. Hearn titled George Washington’s Schooners (LoC#E271.H43 1995). On page 5, quoted are the orders of the Continental Congress to George Washington...

Back in the Bicentennial days, the well meaning but sadly misinformed crew of officers led by CAPT Brayton Harris with CDR Eric Berryman, did not have the benefit of the 1976 Fowler book, the 1995 Hearn book, or the 2004 Ansoff article.

So, sir, "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country..."

For America's future (building up on our past),

James Renwick Manship, Sr.

Director, FirstNavyFlag.US

SeaManship@FirstNavyFlag.US

LCDR, USNR

Begin forwarded message:

From: James Renwick Manship <George@WashingtonLIVES.us>

Date: October 11, 2006 11:22:47 AM EDT

To: "Tobin, Paul E RADM USN((Ret)) Naval Historical Center, Director" <paul.tobin@navy.mil>

Subject: Re: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's Navy from History // Navy Birthday Present??

Dear Admiral Tobin,

Thank you for your reply.

I am glad to see we are in agreement, to a substantial degree.

My position is that as officers commissioned by Congress, we are leaders of the Navy, not followers of whim or whimsy, and as leaders we have a duty to do what is right, not that which is popular, however popular the current Navy Jack flag may be, it is flying due to historical lack of awareness of the truth.

So the logical corollary is that how ever popular the Fake Snake Navy Jack Flag may be, it is our duty to remove it if it is false, which is amply demonstrated it is "fake" by historical research by men such as Fowler in 1976, Clark in 1960, and RADM Preble in 1880.

I would with pleasure join with you and Ambassador Middendorf to write a letter to the Secretary of the Navy asking for a return to the Union Jack.

I would prefer to compose the letter to suggest to Secretary Winter to pose the option of selecting the Tree of Liberty Navy Flag, or return to the Union Jack.

Might we agree to compose this letter right away, before this years Navy Birthday, so to be a birthday gift of Truth to our beloved best Navy in the world?

For America's future (building up on our past),

James Renwick Manship, Sr.

Director, FirstNavyFlag.US

LCDR, USNR

On Oct 11, 2006, at 10:34 AM, Tobin, Paul E RADM USN((Ret)) Naval Historical Center, Director wrote:

James, Good research on your part. Alas, he is no relation but must

surely be the most famous Navy Paul Tobin.

As I've always said, your research on the Flag is accurate. My view is

that the Navy likes the current flag and would not entertain a move to

change it at this time. I'd eventually like to see us go back to the

Union Jack.

Best, Paul Tobin

-----Original Message-----

From: James Renwick Manship [mailto:George@WashingtonLIVES.us]

Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 8:07

To: Tobin, Paul E RADM USN(Ret) Naval Historical Center, Director

Subject: Congressional Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, lessons for today's

Navy from History

Dear Admiral Tobin,

The attached Navy letter with imbedded images of the 1872 Congressional

Medal of Honor to Paul Tobin, and a description of a book by your

predecessor, RADM Preble.

I will be interested to see your response.

V/R, James Renwick Manship, (once upon a time, seemingly long, long ago,

LCDR, USNR -- keep smiling!)