Aigues-Mortes is a French commune in the Gard department in the Occitanie region of southern France. The medieval city walls surrounding the city are well preserved; the inhabitants of the commune are known as Aigues-Mortaises. Attested in the Latinized form Aquae Mortuae in 1248; the name comes from the Occitan Aigas Mortas meaning "dead water", or "stagnant water" equivalent to toponymic types in the Morteau Oil dialect cf. Morteau: mortua Aqua and Morteaue: mortua Aqua; the name comes from the Aigues-Mortes marshes and ponds that stretch around the village and the fact that there has never been potable water at Aigues-Mortes. Grau comes from the Occitan grau meaning "pond with extension". Grau du Roy in French means "pond of the King"; the foundation of the city is said to have been by Gaius Marius, around 102BC but there is no documentary evidence to support this. A Roman by the name of Peccius fitted out the first salt marsh and gave his name to the Marsh of Peccais. Salt mining started from the Neolithic period and was continued in the Hellenistic period, but the ancient uses of saline have not resulted in any major archaeological discovery.
It is that any remains were destroyed by modern saline facilities. In 791, Charlemagne erected the Matafère Tower amid the swamps for the safety of fishermen and salt workers; some argue that the signaling and transmission of news was not foreign to the building of this tower, designed to give warning in case of arrival of a fleet, as for the Magne Tower at Nîmes. The purpose of this tower was part of the war plan and spiritual plan which Charlemagne granted at the Benedictine abbey, dedicated to Opus Dei and whose incessant chanting and night, was to designate the convent as Psalmody or Psalmodi; this monastery still existed in 812, as confirmed by an act of endowment made by the Badila from Nîmes at the abbey. At that time, the people lived in reed huts and made their living from fishing and salt production from several small salt marshes along the sea shore; the region was under the rule of the monks from the Abbey of Psalmody. In 1240, Louis IX, who wanted to get rid of the dependency on the Italian maritime republics for transporting troops to the Crusades, focused on the strategic position of his kingdom.
At that time, Marseille belonged to his brother Charles of Anjou, King of Naples, Count of Toulouse, Montpellier, King of Aragon. Louis IX wanted direct access to the Mediterranean Sea, he obtained the town and the surrounding lands by exchange of properties with the monks of the abbey. Residents were exempt from the salt tax, levied so that they can now take the salt unconstrained, he built a road between the marshes and built the Carbonnière Tower to serve as a watchtower and protect access to the city. Saint-Louis built the Constance Tower on the site of the old Matafère Tower, to house the garrison. In 1272, his son and successor, Philip III the Bold, ordered the continuation of the construction of walls to encircle the small town; the work would not be completed for another 30 years. This was the city from which Louis IX twice departed for the Crusades: the Seventh Crusade in 1248 and again for the Eighth Crusade in 1270 for Tunis where he died of dysentery; the year 1270 has been established, mistakenly for many historians, as the last step of a process initiated at the end of the 11th century.
The judgment is hasty because the transfer of crusaders or mercenaries from the harbour of Aigues-Mortes continued after this year. The order given in 1275 to Sir Guillaume de Roussillon by Philip III the Bold and Pope Gregory X after the Council of Lyons in 1274 to reinforce Saint-Jean d'Acre in the East shows that maritime activity continued for a ninth crusade which never took place. There is a popular belief that the sea reached Aigues-Mortes in 1270. In fact, as confirmed by studies of the engineer Charles Leon Dombre, the whole of Aigues-Mortes, including the port itself, was in the Marette pond, the Canal-Viel and Grau Louis, the Canal Viel being the access channel to the sea; the Grau-Louis was at the modern location of La Grande-Motte. At the beginning of the 14th century, Philip the Fair used the fortified site to incarcerate the Templars. Between 8 and 11 November 1307, forty-five of them were put to the question, found guilty, held prisoner in the Tower of Constance. Aigues-Mortes still retained its privileges granted by the kings.
Curiously it was a great Protestant in the person of Jean d'Harambure "the One-Eyed", light horse commander of King Henry IV and former governor of Vendôme who would be appointed governor of Aigues-Mortes and the Carbonnière Tower on 4 September 1607. To do this, he took an oath before the Constable of France Henri de Montmorency, Governor of Languedoc, a Catholic and supported the rival Adrien de Chanmont, the Lord of Berichère; the conflict continued until 1612, Harambure, supported by the pastors of Lower Languedoc and the inhabitants, finished it by a personal appeal to the Queen. He resigned on 27 February 1615 in favour of his son Jean d'Harambure, but King Louis XIII restored him for six years. On 27 July 1616 he resigned again in favour of Gaspard III de Coligny, but not without obtaining a token of appreciation for the judges and consuls of the city. At the beginning of the 15th century, important works were being undertaken to facilitate access to Aigues-Mortes from the sea; the old Grau-Louis, dug for the Crusades, was replaced by the Grau-de-la-Croisette and a port was dug at the base of the Tower of Constance.
It lost its importance from 1481 when Marseille were attached to the kingdom of France. Only the exp
787 Moskva is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. Object 1914 UQ, discovered 20 April 1914 by Grigory Neujmin, was named 787 Moskva, after the capital of Russia, Moscow. Object 1934 FD discovered on 19 March 1934 by C. Jackson was given the sequence number 1317. In 1938, G. N. Neujmin found that asteroid 787 Moskva were, in fact, the same object. Sequence number 1317 was reused for the object 1935 RC discovered on 1 September 1935 by Karl Reinmuth. Photometric observations at the Palmer Divide Observatory in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1999 were used to build a light curve for this object; the asteroid displayed a rotation period of 6.056 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.62 ± 0.01 in magnitude. Lightcurve plot of 787 Moskva, Palmer Divide Observatory, B. D. Warner Asteroid Lightcurve Database, query form Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Google books Asteroids and comets rotation curves, CdR – Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets - – Minor Planet Center 787 Moskva at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site Ephemeris · Observation prediction · Orbital info · Proper elements · Observational info 787 Moskva at the JPL Small-Body Database Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
The Swordfish-class submarine is a class of conventional attack submarines that were built to strengthen the Royal Netherlands Navy. The Dutch government opted for the choice to not replace the two Zwaardvis-class submarines with either more Walrus-class submarines or submarines of a new design. On 24 December 1965 the Royal Netherlands Navy gave Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij the order to build two submarines. At the time of this order the Royal Netherlands Navy believed that these two submarines could make use of nuclear propulsion. Like many other navies around the world the Netherlands got interested in nuclear propulsion after the United States had put USS Nautilus into active service in 1955; the performance of this and succeeding nuclear submarine, such as the Skate-class submarines, were promising at the time. It made the Dutch navy believe that nuclear submarines would play a crucial role in the future and not developing one would mean to be left behind by other navies who were focusing on nuclear submarines.
In addition, the Royal Netherlands Navy was afraid that the diesel-electric Dolfijn-class submarines which had just entered service were no match for nuclear submarines. This would be problematic since the Dolfijn-class submarines were the most modern submarines the Dutch navy had at the time in their inventory. Furthermore, it was a blow to the Dutch navy because their submarine fleet were just getting into the shape the navy had envisioned after the devastating Second World War. Besides Royal Netherlands Navy, Dutch naval experts at the time stressed in numerous articles how important nuclear submarines were and that there would not be such a big technological leap forward again in at least a decade; these kind of statements and recommendations encouraged the Royal Netherlands Navy to start thinking about acquiring nuclear submarines. In the meanwhile the keel laying of the two submarines that the Dutch navy had ordered took place on 14 July 1966. Zwaardvis was assigned building number 320, while Tijgerhaai was assigned building number 321.
The two names were awarded on 7 September. The Royal Netherlands Navy, together with research institute TNO, the Reactor Center of the Netherlands and Nevesbu, devoted itself during this time on nuclear propulsion for submarines. However, the construction of Dutch nuclear submarines would never become a reality. There was not enough money, since the defence budget in this period could not cover the costs of both constructing nuclear submarines and maintaining all the ships in the Dutch fleet at the same time. Furthermore during the negotiations with the United States, it appeared that any nuclear submarines would not be built anytime soon; the United States was not eager about the idea of the Netherlands building nuclear submarines, they rather had the Dutch navy focus on other areas within the NATO alliance, the negotiations therefore stopped in 1969. Paradoxically NATO did support the Dutch nuclear desire, but added that if the Dutch navy did not succeed in the short term two conventional submarines would have to be built.
This is what happened with the Zwaardvis-class submarines being conventional diesel-electric submarines, with their hulls and general arrangement being based on the teardrop design of the last non-nuclear American submarine class, the Barbel class. The Zwaardvis-class submarines were designed by the Royal Netherlands Navy and further worked out by the four biggest Dutch yards at the time, namely RDM, Wilton-Fijenoord, De Schelde and NDSM, by Werkspoor N. V. and N. V. Nederlandsche Vereenigde Scheepsbouw Bureaux. In comparison to the three-cylinder design of the Dolfijn-class submarines, the Zwaardvis-class submarines are based on one cylinder; the reasons why the Royal Netherlands Navy and its partners choose for this design was because it resulted in more space within the submarines, which would give the crew a more spacious accommodation and make it easier to set up machines within the submarines. In addition, the submarines are based on the U. S. Navy Barbel class with the teardrop hull design, which results in the submarines producing less noise.
The propulsion of the Zwaardvis class is different than the Dolfijn-class submarines, for example, it has a single propeller instead of the two propellers the latter has. Furthermore, it has more diesel engines, the batteries require less charging time, it can launch missiles and torpedoes from greater depths, the diving depth has increased and lastly it can stay longer submerged; the introduction of the Zwaardvis-class submarines led to the Royal Netherlands Navy using the Mark 37 torpedoes. In 1988 the Mark 37 torpedoes for the Zwaardvis-class submarines were replaced with the newer Mark 48 torpedoes. In September 1981 the Republic of China ordered two modified Zwaardvis-class submarines, the Chien Lung/Hai Lung class. In 1992 a repeat order for another four boats was turned down by the Netherlands government because of pressure from the People's Republic of China; the two decommissioned Dutch boats and Tijgerhaai, were loaded onto a ship and transported to PSC-Naval Dockyard, Malaysia in anticipation of purchase by the Malaysian Navy in 1997.
However, the Malaysian Navy chose the French Scorpène class instead. As a result, the two boats stayed for a long time in Lumut awaiting a buyer and possible refurbishment. In 2005 a Dutch judge ordered on 17 Augustus 2005 that Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij must start with demolishing the two boats before 1 September 2005, or bring the boats back to the Netherlands before 1 October 2005, else they would have to face penalties, such as a payment penalty. Since Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij went