The retired SEAL and his fellow contractors — carrying a dozen semi-automatic rifles and pistols, along with satellite phones and other gear — had pulled away from a bank when they were stopped by police and detained.
In the South China Sea, Beijing is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves.
The U.S. Navy's triumph at Mobile Bay, combined with victorious Federal ground campaigns in Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia, helped reelect Abraham Lincoln and doomed the Confederacy to defeat.
He would go on to share intelligence with the U.S. Navy, fight in 17 naval battles, rise to the rank of major general, overcome illiteracy, publish a newspaper, win state and congressional offices, serve as a U.S. collector of customs and become master of his master’s plantation house. But first he had to hijack a Confederate steamer.