1.
Socotra
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Socotra, also spelled Soqotra, is an island and a small archipelago of four islands in the Arabian Sea. The territory is part of Yemen, and had long been a subdivision of the Aden Governorate, in 2004, it became attached to the Hadhramaut Governorate, which is much closer to the island than Aden. In 2013, the archipelago became its own governorate, the Soqatra Governorate, the island of Socotra constitutes around 95% of the landmass of the archipelago. It lies some 240 kilometres east of the Horn of Africa and 380 kilometres south of the Arabian Peninsula, the island is very isolated and a third of its plant life is found nowhere else on the planet. It has been described as the most alien-looking place on Earth, the island measures 132 kilometres in length and 49.7 kilometres in width. In the notes to his translation of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, huntingford remarks that the name Suqotra is not Greek in origin, but from the Sanskrit dvīpa sukhadhara. Another posited origin of the name is the Arabic suq meaning market, there was initially an Oldowan culture in Socotra. Oldowan stone tools were found in the area around Hadibo by V. A, zhukov, a member of the Russian Complex Expedition in 2008. Socotra appears as Dioskouridou in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, in 2001 a group of Belgian speleologists of the Socotra Karst Project investigated a cave on the island Socotra. There, they came across a number of inscriptions, drawings. Further investigation showed that these had left by sailors who visited the island between the 1st century BC and the 6th century AD. Most of the texts are written in the Indian Brāhmī script and this corpus of nearly 250 texts and drawings thus constitutes one of the main sources for the investigation of Indian Ocean trade networks in that time period. A local tradition holds that the inhabitants were converted to Christianity by Thomas the Apostle in AD52, in the 10th century, the Arab geographer Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani stated that in his time most of the inhabitants were Christians. They were Nestorians but also practised ancient magic rituals despite the warnings of their archbishop and he reported in a letter home that the tribesmen, due to lack of missionaries, had only retained a faint knowledge of Christianity. In 1507, a Portuguese fleet commanded by Tristão da Cunha with Afonso de Albuquerque landed at the capital of Suq. Their objective was to set a base in a place on the route to India. Tomás Fernandes started to build a fortress at Suq, the Forte de São Miguel de Socotorá, however, the infertility of the land led to famine and sickness in the garrison. Thus the Portuguese abandoned the island four years later, as it was not advantageous as a base, the islands passed under the control of the Mahra sultans in 1511, and its inhabitants were completely Islamized during their rule
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Destroyer
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Before World War II, destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for unattended ocean operations, typically a number of destroyers and a single destroyer tender operated together. After the war, the advent of the missile allowed destroyers to take on the surface combatant roles previously filled by battleships. This resulted in larger and more powerful guided missile destroyers more capable of independent operation, the emergence and development of the destroyer was related to the invention of the self-propelled torpedo in the 1860s. A navy now had the potential to destroy an enemy battle fleet using steam launches to launch torpedoes. Fast boats armed with torpedoes were built and called torpedo boats, the first seagoing vessel designed to fire the self-propelled Whitehead torpedo was the 33-ton HMS Lightning in 1876. She was armed with two drop collars to launch these weapons, these were replaced in 1879 by a torpedo tube in the bow. By the 1880s, the type had evolved into small ships of 50–100 tons, in response to this new threat, more heavily gunned picket boats called catchers were built which were used to escort the battle fleet at sea. The anti-torpedo boat origin of this type of ship is retained in its name in other languages, including French, Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Greek, Dutch and, up until the Second World War, Polish. At that time, and even into World War I, the function of destroyers was to protect their own battle fleet from enemy torpedo attacks. The task of escorting merchant convoys was still in the future, an important development came with the construction of HMS Swift in 1884, later redesignated TB81. This was a torpedo boat with four 47 mm quick-firing guns. At 23.75 knots, while still not fast enough to engage torpedo boats reliably. Another forerunner of the torpedo boat destroyer was the Japanese torpedo boat Kotaka, designed to Japanese specifications and ordered from the London Yarrow shipyards in 1885, she was transported in parts to Japan, where she was assembled and launched in 1887. The 165-foot long vessel was armed with four 1-pounder quick-firing guns and six torpedo tubes, reached 19 knots, in her trials in 1889, Kotaka demonstrated that she could exceed the role of coastal defense, and was capable of accompanying larger warships on the high seas. The Yarrow shipyards, builder of the parts for the Kotaka, the first vessel designed for the explicit purpose of hunting and destroying torpedo boats was the torpedo gunboat. Essentially very small cruisers, torpedo gunboats were equipped with torpedo tubes, by the end of the 1890s torpedo gunboats were made obsolete by their more successful contemporaries, the torpedo boat destroyers, which were much faster. The first example of this was HMS Rattlesnake, designed by Nathaniel Barnaby in 1885, the gunboat was armed with torpedoes and designed for hunting and destroying smaller torpedo boats. Exactly 200 feet long and 23 feet in beam, she displaced 550 tons, built of steel, Rattlesnake was un-armoured with the exception of a 3⁄4-inch protective deck
4.
Tanker (ship)
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A tanker is a merchant vessel designed to transport liquids or gases in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, in the United States Navy and Military Sealift Command, any type of tanker used to refuel other ships is called an oiler. Tankers can range in size of capacity from several hundred tons, besides ocean- or seagoing tankers there are also specialized inland-waterway tankers which operate on rivers and canals with an average cargo capacity up to some thousand tons. Before this, technology had not supported the idea of carrying bulk liquids. The market was not geared towards transporting or selling cargo in bulk, therefore most ships carried a wide range of different products in different holds. Liquids were usually loaded in casks—hence the term tonnage, which refers to the volume of the holds in terms of how many tuns or casks of wine could be carried, even potable water, vital for the survival of the crew, was stowed in casks. Carrying bulk liquids in earlier ships posed several problems, The holds, on ships the holds were not sufficiently water. The development of iron and steel hulls solved this problem, loading and discharging, Bulk liquids must be pumped - the development of efficient pumps and piping systems was vital to the development of the tanker. Steam engines were developed as prime-movers for early pumping systems, dedicated cargo handling facilities were now required ashore too - as was a market for receiving a product in that quantity. Casks could be unloaded using ordinary cranes, and the nature of the casks meant that the volume of liquid was always relatively small - therefore keeping the market more stable. The effect was negligible in casks, but could cause capsizing if the tank extended the width of the ship, tankers were first used by the oil industry to transfer refined fuel in bulk from refineries to customers. This would then be stored in tanks ashore, and subdivided for delivery to individual locations. The use of tankers caught on other liquids were also cheaper to transport in bulk, store in dedicated terminals. Even the Guinness brewery used tankers to transport the stout across the Irish Sea, among oil tankers, supertankers are designed for transporting oil around the Horn of Africa from the Middle East. The supertanker Seawise Giant, scrapped in 2010, was 458 meters in length and 69 meters wide, supertankers are one of the three preferred methods for transporting large quantities of oil, along with pipeline transport and rail. Despite being highly regulated, tankers have been involved in environmental disasters resulting from oil spills, see Amoco Cadiz, Braer, Erika, Exxon Valdez, Prestige oil spill and Torrey Canyon for examples of coastal accidents. Many modern tankers are designed for a cargo and a specific route. Draft is typically limited by the depth of water in loading and unloading harbors, cargoes with high vapor pressure at ambient temperatures may require pressurized tanks or vapor recovery systems
5.
Skiff
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The term skiff is used for a number of essentially unrelated styles of small boat. Traditionally these are coastal or river craft used for leisure or fishing and have a one-person or small crew, sailing skiffs have developed into high performance competitive classes. Ship comes from the Old English scip, which has the same Germanic predecessor, an even older root may be found in the Greek σκάφος. The term has been used for a number of styles of craft round the United Kingdom, often small river and they varied from double ended rowing boats to small sailing boats. There are references to skiffs on the River Thames as early as 1812 and 1824 at Oxford. In August 1815, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was taken on an expedition by skiff from Old Windsor to Lechlade by Charles Clairmont and he subsequently settled at Marlow where he regularly rowed his skiff through the locks. Shelley later drowned sailing in a skiff off the coast of Italy and it was also used in the Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott. The Thames skiff became formalised as a design in the early part of the 19th century. It is a round-bottom clinker-built rowing boat that is very common on the River Thames. Although general usage has declined, skiffs are still used for leisure, during the year, skiffing regattas are held in various riverside towns in England—the major event being the Skiff Championships Regatta at Henley. Akin to the skiff is the Yoal or Yole which is a clinker built boat used for fishing in the Orkney, the boat itself is a version of the Norwegian Oselvar which is similar to a skiff in appearance, while the word is cognate with Yawl. The French Yole is a craft similar to the Thames Skiff and is translated as Skiff. In Dutch and German, Skiff also means a single scull, in American usage, the term is used to apply to small sea-going fishing boats. It is referred to historically in literature in Moby-Dick by Herman Melville and The Old Man, the skiff could be powered by sails as well as oars. Originally designed to be powered by rowing, their form has evolved so that they are powered by outboard motors. The design is still in use today for both work and pleasure craft. They can be made of wood or other materials, There is a similar style of craft in Central America and Mexico, generally called a panga. The term skiff has been applied to motorized boats of small size, the skiff with a sail has developed into specific sailing boats bearing the name skiff. In Sydney, Australia, the term was used for a number of racing classes and these were originally heavily crewed and canvassed boats that were relatively short for the canvas and crew carried and were developed from working boats of the time
6.
Maersk Alabama hijacking
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The Maersk Alabama hijacking was a series of maritime events that began with four pirates in the Indian Ocean seizing the cargo ship MV Maersk Alabama 240 nautical miles southeast of Eyl, Somalia. The siege ended after an effort by the U. S. Navy on 12 April 2009. It was the first successful pirate seizure of a ship registered under the American flag since the early 19th century, many news reports referenced the last pirate seizure as being during the Second Barbary War in 1815, although other incidents had occurred as late as 1821. It was the vessel in a week to be attacked by pirates who had previously extorted ransoms in the tens of millions of dollars. The hijacking also inspired the 2013 film Captain Phillips, the ship, originating from Salalah, Oman was bound for Mombasa, Kenya after a stop in Djibouti with a crew of 23, loaded with 17,000 metric tons of cargo. On 8 April 2009, four based on FV Win Far 161 attacked the ship. All four of the pirates were between 17 and 19 years old, according to U. S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the crew members of Maersk Alabama had received anti-piracy training from union training schools, and had drilled aboard the ship a day previously. Their training included the use of arms, anti-terror, basic safety, first aid. As the pirates approached, the crew fired flares. In addition, Perry and 1st A/E Matt Fisher swung the ships rudder, Perry had initially taken main engine control away from the bridge and 1st A/E Matt Fisher had taken control of the steering gear. Perry then shut down all systems and the entire vessel went black. The pirates captured Captain Richard Phillips and several crew members minutes after boarding. Perry tackled the ringleader of the pirates and took him prisoner after a chase in a darkened engine room. Pirate ringleader Abduwali Muse cut his hand trying to keep Perrys knife away from his neck, the pirate was then tied up and his wounds were treated by Second Mate Ken Quinn. Captain Phillips escorted the pirates to a lifeboat to them how to operate it. The ships reached Maersk Alabama early on 9 April, Maersk Alabama was then escorted from the scene to its original destination of Mombasa where Captain Larry D. Aasheim took command of the ship. Phillips had relieved Aasheim nine days earlier, CNN and Fox News quoted sources stating that the pirates strategy was to await the arrival of additional hijacked vessels carrying more pirates and additional hostages to use as human shields. A stand-off began on 9 April between Bainbridge, Halyburton, and the lifeboat from Maersk Alabama, on which they held Phillips hostage
7.
Operation Ocean Shield
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Operation Ocean Shield is NATOs contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa, an anti-piracy initiative in the Indian Ocean, following the earlier Operation Allied Protector. Naval operations began on 17 August 2009 after being approved by the North Atlantic Council, Operation Ocean Shield focuses on protecting the ships of Operation Allied Provider, which are transporting relief supplies as part of the World Food Programmes mission in the region. The initiative also helps strengthen the navies and coast guards of regional states to assist in countering pirate attacks, additionally, China and South Korea have sent warships to participate in the activities. The US Navy has been the largest contributor of ships followed by the Indian Navy, the fleet of ships is on rotation and is led by a designated leadship. The role of leadship is rotated among the countries involved. Current leadship as of October 2015 is Turkish Frigate TCG GEDIZ, on 10 January 2010, Admiral Pereira da Cunha, of the Portuguese Navy held a meeting regarding piracy with the Puntland coast guard. Pirates attacked the Panamanian flagged merchantman MV Almezaan on 25 March, one pirate was killed by Almezaans crew during the boarding and shortly afterwards the Spanish Navy frigate Navarra arrived and launched a helicopter. Warning shots were fired and the pirates surrendered without further conflict. Six pirates were taken prisoner for a time before being released in two skiffs and the mother ship was sunk by gunfire. The small Seychelles Coast Guard patrol boat Topaz engaged in battle with pirates five days later on 30 March. While patrolling just off the coast of Somalia, Topaz encountered a captured dhow, after warning shots were fired, the dhow seemed to ignore the patrol boat and its occupants eventually opened up with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. The Seychellois then engaged and after shooting off 10,000 rounds of machine gun fire, twenty-seven members of the dhows crew were rescued and the Topaz was returning to base when she was attacked by a trawler and two skiffs. Again the Seychellois responded with counter battery and the trawler exploded, one of the skiffs was sunk as well. Pirate casualties are unknown and one member of the crew was wounded. USS Nicholas was attacked by a skiff on 1 April, while in the waters between the Seychelles and Kenya, the Americans returned fire briefly and three pirates surrendered. Nicholas then pursued a mother ship vessel for a while, a team was put on the ship. A little later that day, USS Farragut was also operating in the area and this was following the attempted seizure of the Sierra Leone flagged tanker MV Evita. The crew of the tanker defended their ship with flares and outmaneuvered the pirates, Operation Dawn of Gulf of Aden was launched by Republic of Korea Navy commandos with support from Oman and the United States in January 2011
8.
Piracy
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Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship- or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable items or properties. Those who engage in acts of piracy are called pirates, the earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding. Historic examples include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, a land-based parallel is the ambushing of travelers by bandits and brigands in highways and mountain passes. While the term can include acts committed in the air, on land, or in major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against people traveling on the vessel as the perpetrator. Piracy or pirating is the name of a crime under customary international law. They also use larger vessels, known as ships, to supply the smaller motorboats. The international community is facing challenges in bringing modern pirates to justice. In the 2000s, a number of nations have used their naval forces to protect ships from pirate attacks. The English pirate is derived from the Latin term pirata and that from Greek πειρατής, brigand, in turn from πειράομαι, I attempt, from πεῖρα, attempt, the meaning of the Greek word peiratēs literally is one who attacks. The word is cognate to peril. The term is first attested to c, spelling was not standardised until the eighteenth century, and spellings such as pirrot, pyrate and pyrat were used until this period. It may be reasonable to assume that piracy has existed for as long as the oceans were plied for commerce, the earliest documented instances of piracy are the exploits of the Sea Peoples who threatened the ships sailing in the Aegean and Mediterranean waters in the 14th century BC. In classical antiquity, the Phoenicians, Illyrians and Tyrrhenians were known as pirates, the ancient Greeks condoned piracy as a viable profession, it apparently was widespread and regarded as an entirely honourable way of making a living. References are made to its perfectly normal occurrence many texts including in Homers Iliad and Odyssey, by the era of Classical Greece, piracy was looked upon as a disgrace to have as a profession. In the 3rd century BC, pirate attacks on Olympos brought impoverishment, among some of the most famous ancient pirateering peoples were the Illyrians, a people populating the western Balkan peninsula. Constantly raiding the Adriatic Sea, the Illyrians caused many conflicts with the Roman Republic and it was not until 229 BC when the Romans finally decisively beat the Illyrian fleets that their threat was ended
9.
Somalia
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Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, Somalia has the longest coastline on Africas mainland, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Climatically, hot conditions prevail year-round, with monsoon winds. Somalia has an population of around 12.3 million. Around 85% of its residents are ethnic Somalis, who have inhabited the northern part of the country. Ethnic minorities are largely concentrated in the southern regions, the official languages of Somalia are Somali and Arabic, both of which belong to the Afroasiatic family. Most people in the country are Muslim, with the majority being Sunni, in antiquity, Somalia was an important commercial centre. It is among the most probable locations of the fabled ancient Land of Punt, during the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali empires dominated the regional trade, including the Ajuran Empire, the Adal Sultanate, the Warsangali Sultanate, and the Geledi Sultanate. The toponym Somalia was coined by the Italian explorer Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti, Italian occupation lasted until 1941, yielding to British military administration. British Somaliland would remain a protectorate, while Italian Somaliland in 1949 became a United Nations Trusteeship under Italian administration, in 1960, the two regions united to form the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government. The Supreme Revolutionary Council seized power in 1969 and established the Somali Democratic Republic, led by Mohamed Siad Barre, this government later collapsed in 1991 as the Somali Civil War broke out. Various armed factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum, during this period, due to the absence of a central government, Somalia was a failed state, and residents returned to customary and religious law in most regions. A few autonomous regions, including the Somaliland and Puntland administrations emerged in the north, the early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations. The Transitional National Government was established in 2000, followed by the formation of the Transitional Federal Government in 2004, in 2006, the TFG, assisted by Ethiopian troops, assumed control of most of the nations southern conflict zones from the newly formed Islamic Courts Union. The ICU subsequently splintered into more radical groups such as Al-Shabaab, by mid-2012, the insurgents had lost most of the territory that they had seized. In 2011–2012, a political process providing benchmarks for the establishment of permanent democratic institutions was launched, within this administrative framework a new provisional constitution was passed in August 2012, which reformed Somalia as a federation. Somalia has maintained an informal economy, mainly based on livestock, remittances from Somalis working abroad, Somalia has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic. During the Stone Age, the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished here, the oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BCE
10.
Piracy off the coast of Somalia
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Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been a threat to international shipping since the second phase of the Somali Civil War in the early 21st century. Since 2005, many organizations have expressed concern over the rise in acts of piracy. Piracy impeded the delivery of shipments and increased shipping expenses, costing an estimated $6.6 to $6.9 billion a year in trade in 2011 according to Oceans Beyond Piracy. According to the German Institute for Economic Research, an industry of profiteers also arose around the piracy. Insurance companies significantly increased their profits from the attacks, as the firms hiked rate premiums in response. In response, the fishermen began forming armed groups to stop the foreign ships and they eventually turned to hijacking commercial vessels for ransom as an alternate source of income. The pirates also believed that they were protecting their fishing grounds and exacting justice and this is reflected in the names adopted by some of the pirate networks, such as the National Volunteer Coast Guard, which are testimony to the pirates initial motivations. However, as piracy became more lucrative, other reports have speculated that financial gain became the primary motive for the pirates. Combined Task Force 150, a multinational task force, took on the role of fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia by establishing a Maritime Security Patrol Area within the Gulf of Aden. The increasing threat posed by piracy has also caused concern in India since most of its trade routes pass through the Gulf of Aden. The Indian Navy responded to concerns by deploying warships in the region on October 2008. In September 2008, Russia announced that it too would join international efforts to combat piracy. By the end of 2011, pirates had managed to only four ships off the coast of Somalia,22 fewer than the 26 they had captured in each of the two previous years. They also attempted unsuccessful attacks on 52 other vessels,16 fewer than the year prior, as of October 2016, there were no major vessels or hostages remaining in pirate captivity. According to another source, there were 151 attacks on ships in 2011, compared to 127 in 2010 –, pirates had held 10 vessels and 159 hostages in February 2012. In 2011, pirates earned $146m, an average of $4.87 million per ship, an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 pirates operated. By February 20121,000 had been captured and were going through legal processes in 21 countries. About 25 military vessels from EU and NATO countries, China, Russia, India and Japan patrolled approximately 8.3 million km2 of ocean, on 16 July 2012, the EU launched a new operation, EUCAP Nestor
11.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
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