1.
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
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The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, the Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of the city of Vallejo. MINSY made a name for itself as the premier US West Coast submarine port as well as serving as the force in San Francisco Bay Area shipbuilding efforts during World War II. The base closed in 1996 and has gone through several redevelopment phases and it was registered as a California Historical Landmark in 1960, and parts of it were declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1975. They managed to survey the Mare Island Strait before steaming to Hawaii to obtain crewmen from Hawaiian monarch King Kamehameha III. They returned to San Francisco in the spring of 1850 with the survey of northern California beginning on April 4,1850. On August 1,1850, while still in Oregon, McArthur purchased a 1⁄16 interest in Mare Island for $468.50 then returned to San Francisco later that month to prepare charts, on January 15,1852, Secretary of the Navy Will A. Graham ordered a Naval Commission to select a site for a yard on the Pacific Coast. Commodore D. Sloat along with Commodore C, sanger were appointed to the commission. On July 13,1852, Sloat recommended the island across the Napa River from the settlement of Vallejo, the Navy purchased the original 956 acres of MINSY on January 4,1853. MINSY served as a major Pacific Ocean repair station during the late 19th century, handling American as well as Japanese, in 1861, the longest lived of the clipper ships, Syren, was brought to Mare Island Navy Yard for $15,000 of repairs. Syren had struck Mile Rock two times while trying to out of the Golden Gate. Marines first arrived for duty in 1862 under the command of Maj. Addison Garland, Mare Island Naval Shipyard also took a commanding role in civil defense and emergency response on the West Coast, dispatching warships to the Pacific Northwest to subdue Native American violence. MINSY sent ships such as Wyoming south to Central America and the Panama Canal to protect US political and commercial interests, some of the support, logistics and munition requirements for the Spanish–American War were filled by Mare Island. MINSY sent men, materiel and ships to San Francisco in response to the following the 1906 earthquake. Arctic rescue missions were mounted as necessary, ordnance manufacturing and storage were two further key missions at MINSY for nearly all of its active service, including ordnance used prior to the American Civil War. In 1911, the Marine Corps established two West Coast recruit training depots first at Mare Island, the second at Puget Sound, Mare Island eventually became the West Coasts only recruit training facility when the Puget Sound operation consolidated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1912. Instructors trained recruits there until August 10,1923, when they relocated to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, in March 1917 MINSY was the site of a major explosion of barges loaded with munitions
2.
Norfolk Naval Shipyard
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The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, often called the Norfolk Navy Yard and abbreviated as NNSY, is a U. S. Navy facility in Portsmouth, Virginia, for building, remodeling, and repairing the Navys ships. It is the oldest and largest industrial facility that belongs to the U. S. Navy as well as the most multifaceted, located on the Elizabeth River, the yard is just a short distance upriver from its mouth at Hampton Roads. It was established as Gosport Shipyard in 1767, destroyed during the American Revolutionary War, it was rebuilt and became home to the first operational drydock in the United States in the 1820s. Changing hands during the American Civil War, it served the Confederate States Navy until it was destroyed in 1862. The shipyard was again rebuilt, and has continued operation through the present day, the Gosport Shipyard was founded on November 1,1767 by Andrew Sprowle on the western shore of the Elizabeth River in Norfolk County in the Virginia Colony. This shipyard became a naval and merchant facility for the British Crown. In 1775, at the beginning of the American Revolution, Sprowle stayed loyal to the Crown and fled Virginia, in 1779, while the newly formed Commonwealth of Virginia was operating the shipyard, it was burned by British troops. In 1794, United States Congress passed An Act to Provide a Naval Armament, in 1799 the keel of USS Chesapeake, one of the first six frigates authorized by Congress, was laid, making her the first ship built in Gosport for the U. S. Navy. The federal government purchased the shipyard from Virginia in 1801 for $12,000 and this tract of land measured 16 acres and now makes up the northeastern corner of the current shipyard. In 1827, construction began on the first of what would be the first two dry docks in the United States. The first one was completed three weeks ahead of projects in both Boston, Massachusetts and South America, making it the first functional dry dock in the Americas. Dry Dock One, as it is referred to today, is operational and is listed as historical landmark in Portsmouth. Officers Quarters A, B, and C were built about 1837, additional land on the eastern side of the Elizabeth River was purchased in 1845. Enslaved Labor, slave labor was utilized in the Norfolk Navy Yard from its foundation until the Civil War. Some idea of the scale can be found in this exert from a letter of Commodore Lewis Warrington dated 12 October 1831 to the Navy Board of Commissioners. Warringtons letter to the BNC, was in response to various worker petitions. usgwarchives. net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/nnysharp. html#enslaved> In 1861, fearing that the Confederacy would take control of the facility, the shipyard commander Charles Stewart McCauley ordered the burning of the shipyard. The Confederate forces did in fact take over the shipyard, the capture of the shipyard allowed a tremendous amount of war material to fall into Confederate hands. 1,195 heavy guns were taken for the defense of the Confederacy, and employed in areas from Hampton Roads all the way to Fort Donelson Tennessee, Port Hudson
3.
William Cramp & Sons
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William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company of Philadelphia was founded in 1830 by William Cramp, and was the preeminent U. S. iron shipbuilder of the late 19th century. In 1890 the company built the battleships USS Indiana and USS Massachusetts, armored cruiser USS New York, three of these ships took a part in the battle with the Spanish fleet in 1898 at Santiago de Cuba. In 1940, the Navy spent $22 million to reopen the yard as Cramp Shipbuilding to build cruisers, Cramp used the long slipways to construct two submarines at a time, with the intention of launching them simultaneously. However, the submarine construction program was not especially successful. The first delivery was made two years after laying, and fitting out was then done by Portsmouth Navy Yard. The best construction time for a submarine was 644 days, Cramp closed in 1947 and the site, on the Delaware River in Philadelphias Port Richmond neighborhood, became an industrial park. SS Valencia, an ocean liner built for the Red D Line in 1882. She was wrecked on the coastline of Vancouver Island, on January 22,1906, valencias loss is considered one of the worst shipwrecks in the region known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. USS New York, was launched on 2 December 1891 and became flagship of Admiral William T. Sampsons squadron during the Spanish–American War, USS Indiana, Battleship No.1 of the United States Navy, launched 28 February 1893. SS St. Louis and SS St. Paul —the first major ocean liners built in the United States after the collapse of the Collins Line in the 1850s, varyag contracted by Russian Imperial Admiralty, launched October 31,1899. The cruiser was sunk by the crew in Russo-Japanese War, salvaged by the Japanese, SS Evangeline, a coastal passenger liner built in 1927 for the Eastern Steamship Company. While operating as the cruise ship Yarmouth Castle in 1965, she caught fire, on 6 September 1941, the keel for the Cleveland-class light cruiser designated CL-90 was laid down by the Cramp Shipbuilding Company. On 6 March 1943, CL-90 USS Astoria was launched, on 8 December 1942, the keel to the Cleveland-class light cruiser designated CL-91, was laid down by the Cramp Shipbuilding Company. On 22 April 1943, Oklahomans were outraged, having just learned that the Japanese had executed the captured American pilots from Jimmy Doolittles bombing raid over Tokyo. That same day, booths were set up in Oklahoma City with the a goal to sell $40 million in War Bonds to fund the construction of a cruiser and that goal was topped by $5 million when the booths closed that night. CL-91 then became the USS Oklahoma City, the last ship Cramps built was the cruiser USS Galveston, launched on April 22,1945. SSW of Pensacola Pass, Pensacola, Florida Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Lewis Nixon and Arthur Leopold Busch, ships Built - Cramp Shipbuilding, Philadelphia
4.
Bath Iron Works
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Bath Iron Works is a major American shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine. Since its founding in 1884, BIW has built private, commercial and military vessels, the shipyard has built and sometimes designed battleships, frigates, cruisers and destroyers, including the Arleigh Burke class, which are currently among the worlds most advanced surface warships. Since 1995, Bath Iron Works has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics, during World War II, ships built at BIW were considered by sailors and Navy officials to be of superior toughness, giving rise to the phrase Bath-built is best-built. Bath Iron Works was incorporated in 1884 by General Thomas W. Hyde, after the war, Hyde bought a local shop that helped make windlasses and other iron hardware for the wooden ships built in Baths many shipyards. He expanded the business by improving its practices, entering new markets, by 1882, Hyde Windlass was eyeing the new and growing business of iron shipbuilding, two years later, it incorporated as Bath Iron Works. On February 28,1890, BIW won its first contract for complete vessels, the Machias, one of these 190-foot gunboats, was the first ship launched by the company. In 1892, the yard won its first commercial contract for a steel vessel, in the 1890s, the company built several yachts for wealthy sailors. In 1899, General Hyde, suffering from the Brights Disease that would kill him later that year, resigned from management of the shipyard, leaving his sons Edward and that year the shipyard began construction of the Georgia, the only battleship to be built in Bath. The ship dominated the yard for five years until its launching in 1904, the yard faced numerous challenges because of the weight of armor and weapons. In sea trials, the Georgia averaged 19.26 knots for four hours, making her the fastest ship in her class, the company continued to rely on Navy contracts, which provided 86% of the value of new contracts between 1905 and 1917. The yard also produced fishing trawlers, freighters, and yachts throughout the first half of the century, at peak production during World War II, the shipyard launched a destroyer every 17 days. Bath Iron Works ranked 50th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts, in 1981, Falcon Transport ordered two tankers, the last commercial vessels built by BIW. In 1988, the USS Samuel B, Roberts, commissioned two years earlier at Bath, survived a mine explosion that tore a hole in its engine room and flooded two compartments. Over the next two years, BIW repaired the Roberts in unique fashion, the guided missile frigate was towed to the companys dry dock in Portland, Maine, and put up on blocks, where its damaged engine room was cut out of the ship. Meanwhile, workers in Bath built a 315-ton replacement, when it was ready, the module was floated south to Portland, placed on the dry dock, slid into place under the Roberts, jacked up, and welded into place. In 2001, BIW wrapped up an effort to build an enormous concrete platform. Instead of being built on a way so that they could slide into the Kennebec at launch. This greatly reduced the work involved in building and launching the ships, the 750-foot,28, 000-ton dry dock was built by Chinas Jiangdu Yuchai Shipbuilding Company for $27 million
5.
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
6.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
7.
Sampson-class destroyer
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The Sampson-class destroyers served in the United States Navy during World War I. Commissioned in 1916 and 1917, the class was a modification of the OBrien and Tucker classes, the Sampsons were the final six ships of the 26 thousand tonner destroyers. They were the largest and most heavily armed of the thousand tonners, and the subsequent flush deck classes differed mainly in hull design, both the gun and torpedo armament would remain standard through the mass-production flush-deck Wickes and Clemson classes commissioned through 1921. As with the thousand tonners, a factor in the size of the torpedo armament was the General Boards decision to use broadside rather than centerline torpedo tubes. The Mark 8 torpedo was equipped and this was the first US destroyer class to mount anti-aircraft guns, two 1 pounder autocannons. Anti-submarine armament was added during World War I, typically, a single depth charge track was provided aft, along with a Y-gun depth charge projector. The Sampson class served in World War I as convoy escorts in the Atlantic, wilkes and Shaw served in the United States Coast Guard as part of the Rum Patrol 1926-34. The six ships of the Sampson class were, Friedman, Norman, US Destroyers, An Illustrated Design History. Janes Fighting Ships of World War I, London, Random House Group, Ltd.2001. Warships of World War I, ISBN 0-71100-095-6, warships of World War II, ISBN 0-87021-773-9. Gardiner, Robert, Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships 1906-1921, London, gardiner, Robert and Chesneau, Roger, Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships 1922-1946, London, Conway Maritime Press,1980. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
8.
Wickes-class destroyer
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The Wickes-class destroyers were a class of 111 destroyers built by the United States Navy in 1917–19. Along with the 6 preceding Caldwell-class and 156 subsequent Clemson-class destroyers, only a few were completed in time to serve in World War I, including USS Wickes, the lead ship of the class. While some were scrapped in the 1930s, the rest served through World War II, most of these were converted to other uses, nearly all in U. S. service had half their boilers and one or more stacks removed to increase fuel and range or accommodate troops. Others were transferred to the British Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy, All were scrapped within a few years after World War II. The destroyer type was at time a relatively new class of fighting ship for the U. S. Navy. The type arose in response to torpedo boats that had been developing from 1865, a series of destroyers had been built over the preceding years, designed for high smooth water speed, with indifferent results, especially poor performance in heavy seas and poor fuel economy. The lesson of these destroyers was the appreciation of the need for true seakeeping and seagoing abilities. There were few cruisers in the Navy, which was a fleet of battleships and destroyers so destroyers performed scouting missions. A report of October 1915 by Captain W. S. Sims noted that the smaller destroyers used fuel far too quickly, and that war games showed the need for fast vessels with a larger radius of action. As a result, the size of U. S. destroyer classes increased steadily, starting at 450 tons and rising to over 1,000 tons between 1905 and 1916. The increase in size has never stopped, with some US Arleigh Burke-class destroyers now up to 10,800 tons full load. With World War I then in its year and tensions between the U. S. and Germany increasing, the U. S. needed to expand its navy. The Naval Appropriation Act of 1916 called for a second to none. The Act authorized 10 battleships,6 Lexington-class battlecruisers,10 Omaha-class scout cruisers, a subsequent General Board recommendation for further destroyers to combat the submarine threat resulted in a total of 267 Wickes- and Clemson-class destroyers completed. However, the design of the ships remained optimized for operation with the battleship fleet, the requirements of the new design were high speed and mass production. The development of warfare during World War I created a requirement for destroyers in numbers that had not been contemplated before the war. A top speed of 35 knots was needed for operation with the Lexington battlecruisers, the final design had a flush deck and four smokestacks. It was a fairly straightforward evolution of the preceding Caldwell class, General dissatisfaction with the earlier 1,000 ton designs led to the fuller hull form of the flush deck type
9.
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
10.
Three-drum boiler
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Three-drum boilers are a class of water-tube boiler used to generate steam, typically to power ships. They are compact and of high power, factors that encourage this use. Other boiler designs may be efficient, although bulkier. The fundamental characteristic of the design is the arrangement of a steam drum above two water drums, in a triangular layout. Water tubes fill in the two sides of this triangle between the drums, and the furnace is in the centre, the whole assembly is then enclosed in a casing, leading to the exhaust flue. Firing can be by either coal or oil, many coal-fired boilers used multiple firedoors and teams of stokers, often from both ends. Development of the boiler began in the late 19th century, with the demand from naval ships that required high power. The move to water-tube boilers had already begun, with such as the Babcock & Wilcox or the Belleville. The three-drum arrangement was lighter and more compact for the same power, the new generation of small-tube water-tube boilers used water-tubes of around 2 inches diameter, compared to older designs of 3 or 4 inches. This gave a ratio of tube surface heating area to the tube volume. These small-tube boilers also became known as express boilers, although not all of these were three-drum designs, most were some variation of this. As the tubes of the three-drum are close to vertical, this encourages strong circulation by the thermosyphon effect, the development of the three-drum pattern was generally one of simplification, rather than increasing complexity or sophistication. Even the first boilers packed a large heating area into a volume, their difficulty was in manufacturing. The convoluted tubes of early designs such as the du Temple, a multi-row bank of tubes could provide adequate heating area, without this complexity. Tubes also became straighter, mostly to ease their cleaning, Yarrow had demonstrated that straight tubes did not cause any problems with expansion, but circular drums and perpendicular tube entry were both valuable features for a long service life. Where tubes entered drums at an angle, heating and cooling tended to bend the back and forth. A perpendicular entry was easier to expand the tubes for a reliable seal and it was worth the compromise of the Admiralty boilers bent tube ends to keep these two features, and these tubes were still simple enough in shape to clean easily. Some of the first boiler tubes, particularly the du Temple with its sharp corners, tubes were later cleaned internally by attempting to pass a hinged rod through, with a brush at the end
11.
Gear
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A gear or cogwheel is a rotating machine part having cut teeth, or cogs, which mesh with another toothed part to transmit torque. Geared devices can change the speed, torque, and direction of a power source, Gears almost always produce a change in torque, creating a mechanical advantage, through their gear ratio, and thus may be considered a simple machine. The teeth on the two meshing gears all have the same shape, two or more meshing gears, working in a sequence, are called a gear train or a transmission. A gear can mesh with a linear toothed part, called a rack, the gears in a transmission are analogous to the wheels in a crossed, belt pulley system. An advantage of gears is that the teeth of a gear prevent slippage, in transmissions with multiple gear ratios—such as bicycles, motorcycles, and cars—the term gear as in first gear refers to a gear ratio rather than an actual physical gear. The term describes similar devices, even when the ratio is continuous rather than discrete, or when the device does not actually contain gears. Early examples of gears date from the 4th century BC in China, examples of further development include, Ma Jun used gears as part of a south-pointing chariot. The Antikythera mechanism is an example of an early and intricate geared device. Its time of construction is now estimated between 150 and 100 BC, the water-powered grain-mill, the water-powered saw mill, fulling mill, and other applications of watermill often used gears. The first mechanical clocks were built in AD725, the 1386 Salisbury cathedral clock may be the worlds oldest working mechanical clock. The definite ratio that teeth give gears provides an advantage over other drives in precision machines such as watches that depend upon an exact velocity ratio, an external gear is one with the teeth formed on the outer surface of a cylinder or cone. Conversely, a gear is one with the teeth formed on the inner surface of a cylinder or cone. For bevel gears, a gear is one with the pitch angle exceeding 90 degrees. Internal gears do not cause output shaft direction reversal, spur gears or straight-cut gears are the simplest type of gear. They consist of a cylinder or disk with teeth projecting radially, though the teeth are not straight-sided, the edge of each tooth is straight and aligned parallel to the axis of rotation. These gears mesh together correctly only if fitted to parallel shafts, No axial thrust is created by the tooth loads. Spur gears are excellent at moderate speeds but tend to be noisy at high speeds, helical or dry fixed gears offer a refinement over spur gears. The leading edges of the teeth are not parallel to the axis of rotation, since the gear is curved, this angling makes the tooth shape a segment of a helix
12.
Steam turbine
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A steam turbine is a device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884, in 1551, Taqi al-Din in Ottoman Egypt described a steam turbine with the practical application of rotating a spit. Steam turbines were described by the Italian Giovanni Branca and John Wilkins in England. The devices described by Taqi al-Din and Wilkins are today known as steam jacks, in 1672 an impulse steam turbine driven car was designed by Ferdinand Verbiest. A more modern version of car was produced some time in the late 18th century by an unknown German mechanic. The modern steam turbine was invented in 1884 by Sir Charles Parsons, the invention of Parsons steam turbine made cheap and plentiful electricity possible and revolutionized marine transport and naval warfare. Parsons design was a reaction type and his patent was licensed and the turbine scaled-up shortly after by an American, George Westinghouse. The Parsons turbine also turned out to be easy to scale up. Parsons had the satisfaction of seeing his invention adopted for all major world power stations, a number of other variations of turbines have been developed that work effectively with steam. The de Laval turbine accelerated the steam to full speed before running it against a turbine blade, De Lavals impulse turbine is simpler, less expensive and does not need to be pressure-proof. It can operate with any pressure of steam, but is less efficient. He taught at the École des mines de Saint-Étienne for a decade until 1897, one of the founders of the modern theory of steam and gas turbines was Aurel Stodola, a Slovak physicist and engineer and professor at the Swiss Polytechnical Institute in Zurich. His work Die Dampfturbinen und ihre Aussichten als Wärmekraftmaschinen was published in Berlin in 1903, a further book Dampf und Gas-Turbinen was published in 1922. It was used in John Brown-engined merchant ships and warships, including liners, the present-day manufacturing industry for steam turbines is dominated by Chinese power equipment makers. Other manufacturers with minor market share include Bhel, Siemens, Alstom, GE, Doosan Škoda Power, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan projects that manufacturing of steam turbines will become more consolidated by 2020 as Chinese power manufacturers win increasing business outside of China. There are several classifications for modern steam turbines, Turbine blades are of two basic types, blades and nozzles. Blades move entirely due to the impact of steam on them and this results in a steam velocity drop and essentially no pressure drop as steam moves through the blades. A turbine composed of alternating with fixed nozzles is called an impulse turbine, Curtis turbine, Rateau turbine
13.
4"/50 caliber gun
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The 4/50 caliber gun was the standard low-angle, quick-firing gun for United States, first appearing on the monitor Arkansas and then used on Flush Deck destroyers through World War I and the 1920s. It was also the deck gun on S-class submarines, and was used to rearm numerous submarines built with 3-inch guns early in World War II. United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile 4-inch in diameter, and the barrel was 50 calibers long. The original 4-inch/50 caliber Mark 7 gun, M1898, serial nos. 213–254, 257–281, 316–338, was an entirely new high-power design built-up gun with a tube, jacket, hoop, locking ring, the ammunition was about 7 lb heavier than a 4-inch/40 caliber round. The Mod 1 was a Mod 0 that used a steel liner and the Mod 2 was either a Mod 0 or Mod 1 that was relined using a conical nickel-steel liner. Gun No.353 was the prototype of the Mark 8 and was test fired on 22 September 1910 and this gun had been ordered 16 June 1907 and delivered in November 1907. The simplified design of the Mark 8 had just a gun tube, the jacket extended all the way to the muzzle and ended in a muzzle bell. The production run was small with only 12 guns built, Nos. 353–364, the Mark 9 was a design directly resulting from tests with gun No.353. It was designed to be light in weight, and would go on to be the standard 4-inch gun used on destroyers, the gun would use an A tube, full-length jacket, a muzzle swell with a side swing Smith-Asbury breech mechanism and Welin breech block. The gun weighed about 2.725 short tons,365, the first Mark 9, was ordered from Midvale Steel on 18 October 1911. There were 390 Mark 9s built by four different manufacturers from 1911 until the US entered World War I in 1917, during the war another 1,885 guns were produced, with Root & VanDervoort, American Radiator Company and Poole Engineering joining the pre-war manufacturers. After the Armistice another 713 guns were produced, with orders for 3538 guns cancelled and it was decided after World War I that all destroyers would carry the 4-inch/50 caliber Mark 9 Mod 5 gun, the refits were completed in autumn 1921. 365-A, was order in 1915 but does not appear to have been completed until after WW I, the initial drawings were for a 4-inch/50 caliber anti-aircraft gun dated January and February 1915. Fixed ammunition with a 14. 5-pound charge of smokeless powder gave a 33-pound projectile a velocity of 2,900 ft/s, range was 9 mi at the maximum elevation of 20 degrees. Useful life expectancy was 400–500 effective full charges for a non-chrome plated barrel, increasing awareness of the need for improved anti-aircraft protection resulted in the mounting of dual purpose guns on destroyers beginning in the 1930s. The dual-purpose 5-inch/38 caliber gun became standard for United States destroyers constructed from the 1930s through World War II, United States destroyers built with 4-inch/50 caliber low-angle guns were mostly rearmed with dual-purpose 3-inch/50 caliber guns during the war. The 4-inch/50 caliber guns removed from destroyers were mounted on Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships of the British Merchant Navy, the unassigned numbers mostly corresponded to gun orders that were cancelled with the signing of the Armistice. They seem to have withdrawn in 1943 as other defenses were constructed
14.
3"/23 caliber gun
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The 3/23 caliber gun was the standard anti-aircraft gun for United States destroyers through World War I and the 1920s. Range was 10100 yards at 45 degrees elevation, ceiling was 18000 feet at the maximum elevation of 75 degrees. A partially retractable version was mounted as a gun on the US L-class, M-1, AA-1 class. Some major warships carried 3/23 caliber guns temporarily while awaiting installation of quad 1. 1/75 caliber guns, naval Weapons of World War Two. The Ships and Aircraft of the U. S. Fleet, british and Dominion Warships of World War II. DiGiulian, Tony Navweaps. com 3/23 caliber gun
15.
Torpedo tube
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A torpedo tube is a cylinder shaped device for launching torpedoes. There are two types of torpedo tube, underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships. Thus a submarine torpedo tube operates on the principle of an airlock, the diagram on the right illustrates the operation of a submarine torpedo tube. The diagram is somewhat simplified but does show the working of a torpedo launch. A torpedo tube has a number of interlocks for safety reasons. For example, an interlock prevents the door and muzzle door from opening at the same time. The submarine torpedo launch sequence is, in simplified form, Open the breech door in the torpedo room, load the torpedo into the tube. Hook up the connection and the torpedo power cable. Shut and lock the breech door, turn on power to the torpedo. A minimum amount of time is required for torpedo warmup, fire control programs are uploaded to the torpedo. This may be manually or automatically, from sea or from tanks. The tube must be vented during this process to allow for complete filling, Open the equalizing valve to equalize pressure in the tube with ambient sea pressure. If the tube is set up for Impulse Mode the slide valve will open with the muzzle door, if Swim Out Mode is selected, the slide valve remains closed. The slide valve allows water from the pump to enter the tube. Modern torpedoes have a safety mechanism that prevents activation of the torpedo unless the torpedo senses the required amount of G-force, the power cable is severed at launch. However, if a wire is used, it remains connected through a drum of wire in the tube. Torpedo propulsion systems vary but electric torpedoes swim out of the tube on their own and are of a smaller diameter,21 weapons with fuel-burning engines usually start outside of the tube. Once outside the tube the torpedo begins its run toward the target as programmed by the control system
16.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
17.
U-boat Campaign (World War I)
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The U-boat Campaign from 1914 to 1918 was the World War I naval campaign fought by German U-boats against the trade routes of the Allies. It took place largely in the seas around the British Isles, in the course of events, German U-boats sank almost 5,000 ships with nearly 13 million gross register ton, losing 178 boats and about 5,000 men in combat. In August 1914, a flotilla of nine U-boats sailed from their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea in the first submarine war patrol in history. Their aim was to sink capital ships of the British Grand Fleet, the first sortie was not a success. Only one attack was carried out, when U-15 fired a torpedo at HMS Monarch, two of the ten U-boats were lost. Later in the month, the U-boats achieved success, when U-21 sank the cruiser HMS Pathfinder, in September, SM U-9 sank three armored cruisers in a single action. In October U-9 sank the cruiser Hawke, and on the last day of the year SM U-24 sank the pre-dreadnought battleship Formidable, by the end of the initial campaign, the U-boats had sunk nine warships while losing five of their own number. The initial phase of the U-boat campaign in the Mediterranean comprised the actions by the Austro-Hungarian Navys U-boat force against the French, nevertheless, they had a number of successes. On 21 December 1914 U-12 torpedoed the French battleship Jean Bart, causing her to retire, but the Austro-Hungarian boats were unable to offer any interference to allied traffic in the Mediterranean beyond the Straits of Otranto. Its disadvantages were less obvious, but became apparent during the campaign, also, in the two main surface actions of this period the U-boat was unable to have any effect, the High Seas Fleet was unable to draw the Grand Fleet into a U-boat trap. The first attacks on merchant ships had started in October 1914, at that time there was no plan for a concerted U-boat offensive against Allied trade. It was recognized the U-boat had several drawbacks as a commerce raider, in the six months to the opening of the commerce war in February 1915, U-boats had sunk 19 ships, totalling 43,000 GRT. By early 1915, all the combatants had lost the illusion that the war could be won quickly, the blockade was unusually restrictive in that even food was considered contraband of war. Germany could not possibly deal with British naval strength on a basis. The German Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, felt such a submarine blockade, based on shoot without warning, would antagonise the United States. However, he was unable to back the pressures for taking such a step. From February 18 onwards every enemy merchant vessel encountered in this zone will be destroyed, nor will it always be possible to avert the danger thereby threatened to the crew, in time, this would bring non-European nations into the war. The German U-boat force was now based at Ostend in Belgium
18.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
19.
Destroyers for Bases Agreement
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Generally referred to as the twelve hundred-ton type, the destroyers became the Town-class and were named after towns common to both the United States and Britain. The agreement was a violation of the neutral position of the United States. The Second World War started in September 1939, after the eight month interlude of the Phony War, France and the Low Countries were quickly overrun by the Nazi German Blitzkrieg in the Battle of France in May 1940. This left the United Kingdom and British Empire fighting alone, against Germany, although its government was sympathetic to Britains plight, American public opinion at the time overwhelmingly supported isolationism to avoid US involvement in another European war. Reflecting this sentiment, Congress had passed the Neutrality Acts three years previously, which banned the shipment or sale of arms from the US to any combatant nation. Additionally, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was further constrained by the upcoming 1940 Presidential election, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill initially rejected the offer on May 27 unless Britain received something immediate in return. But Roosevelt rejected Churchills pleas for destroyers for the Royal Navy, by August, while Britain and her Empire stood alone against Germany, the American Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy reported from London that a British surrender was inevitable. On September 2,1940, as the Battle of Britain intensified, United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull signaled agreement to the transfer of the warships to the Royal Navy, both territories were vital to trans-Atlantic shipping, aviation, and to the Battle of the Atlantic. Although enemy attack on either was unlikely, it could not be discounted, the deal allowed Britain to hand much of the defence of Bermuda over to the still-neutral US, freeing British forces for redeployment to more active theatres. It also enabled the development of facilities at US expense which British forces would also utilise. The Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm each maintained air stations in Bermuda at the start of the war, the airfield was named Kindley Field. RAF Transport Command relocated its operations to the airfield when it was completed in 1943, prior to this, the US Navy had established the Naval Operating Base at Bermudas West End. This was a boat station, from which maritime patrols were operated for the remainder of the war. The RAF and FAA facilities were closed after the war, leaving only the US air bases in Bermuda, the Naval Operating Base ceased to be an air station in 1965, when its flying boats were replaced by Neptune landplanes, operating from the Kindley Air Force Base. These US air bases were in only two of several US military facilities that operated in Bermuda during the Twentieth Century. The United States abandoned many of these bases in 1949 and the few were closed in 1995. The US does retain the right to military forces in Bermuda. Forty-three ships initially went to the British Royal Navy and seven to the Royal Canadian Navy, in the Commonwealth navies the ships were renamed after towns, and were therefore known as the Town class, although they had originally belonged to three ship classes
20.
United States Congress
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The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D. C, both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Members are usually affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, Congress has 535 voting members,435 Representatives and 100 Senators. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members in addition to its 435 voting members and these members can, however, sit on congressional committees and introduce legislation. Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms representing the people of a single constituency, known as a district. Congressional districts are apportioned to states by using the United States Census results. Each state, regardless of population or size, has two senators, currently, there are 100 senators representing the 50 states. Each senator is elected at-large in their state for a term, with terms staggered. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers, however, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills, the House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before a person can be forcibly removed from office. The term Congress can also refer to a meeting of the legislature. A Congress covers two years, the current one, the 115th Congress, began on January 3,2017, the Congress starts and ends on the third day of January of every odd-numbered year. Members of the Senate are referred to as senators, members of the House of Representatives are referred to as representatives, congressmen, or congresswomen. One analyst argues that it is not a solely reactive institution but has played a role in shaping government policy and is extraordinarily sensitive to public pressure. Several academics described Congress, Congress reflects us in all our strengths, Congress is the governments most representative body. Congress is essentially charged with reconciling our many points of view on the public policy issues of the day. —Smith, Roberts, and Wielen Congress is constantly changing and is constantly in flux, most incumbents seek re-election, and their historical likelihood of winning subsequent elections exceeds 90 percent
21.
West Coast of the United States
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The West Coast or Pacific Coast is the coastline along which the contiguous Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. As a region, this term most often refers to the states of California. More specifically, it refers to an area defined on the east by the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada and Mojave Desert, the U. S. Census groups the five states of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii together as the Pacific States division. As of the 2010 Census, the population of the Census Bureaus Pacific Region was approximately 47.8 million – about 15. 3% of US population. The largest city on the west coast of the United States is Los Angeles, small isolated groups of hunter-gatherers migrated alongside herds of large herbivores far into Alaska. Between 16,500 BCE and 13,500 BCE, ice-free corridors developed along the Pacific coast and valleys of North America, Alaska Natives, indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, and California indigenous peoples eventually descended from the Paleo-Indians. They developed various languages and established trade routes, later, Spanish, British, French, Russian, and American explorers and settlers began colonizing the area. The West Coast of the United States has a climate in its Northern edge towards the Canada–US border. The coastline sees significantly mild temperatures when compared to the areas during summer. In far Northern California there is a difference of 17 °C between Eurekas and Willow Creek in spite of only 25 miles separating the locations and Willow Creek being located at a 500 metres elevation, coastal fog is also prevalent in keeping shoreline temperatures cool. Since the West Coast has been populated by more recently than the East Coast. Additionally, its demographic composition underlies its cultural difference from the rest of the United States. Californias history first as a major Spanish colony, and later Mexican territory, has given the lower West Coast a distinctive Hispanic tone, which it also shares with the rest of the Southwest. Similarly, two of the three cities in which Asian Americans have concentrated, San Francisco and Los Angeles, are located on the West Coast, San Franciscos Chinatown, the oldest in North America, is a vibrant cultural center. The West Coast also has a large share of green cities within the United States. Other writers, like Jean Baudrillard, Mike Davis, and Umberto Eco, have made related statements on Californian culture, in the Northwest, Portland and Seattle are both considered among the coffee capitals of the world. While Starbucks originated in Seattle, both towns are known for coffee roasters and independent coffeeshops. In the Pacific Northwest at large, which includes the Canadian west coast, the culture has significantly shaped by the environment, especially by its forests, mountains
22.
Forecastle
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Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors living quarters. Related to the meaning is the phrase before the mast which denotes anything related to ordinary sailors. The syncope of the word, focsle or focsle, is common among nautical terms, the positioning of the apostrophes represents silent letters, thus focsle. In medieval shipbuilding, a ship of war was usually equipped with a tall and it served as a platform for archers to shoot down on enemy ships, or as a defensive stronghold if the ship were boarded. A similar but usually much larger structure, called the aftcastle, was at the aft end of the ship, having such tall upper works on the ship was detrimental to sailing performance. Sailors stationed on the forecastle, or forecastle men, were responsible for handling the headsails, in the Royal Navy of the 17th and 18th centuries, these roles were reserved for older seamen who lacked the agility to go aloft or take other more strenuous duties aboard. By the end of the 19th century, raised forecastle had become a feature on warships again, in an attempt to keep forward gun positions from getting unacceptably wet on heavy seas. In addition the forecastle may provide additional crews quarters as in the past, a disadvantage of such a design is the structural weakness at the forecastle break relative to a flush deck structure. Media related to Forecastles at Wikimedia Commons
23.
Clemson-class destroyer
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The Clemson class was a series of 156 destroyers which served with the United States Navy from after World War I through World War II. The Clemson class was a redesign of the Wickes class for greater fuel capacity. As finally built, the Clemson class would be a fairly straightforward expansion of the Wickes-class destroyers and these designs included a reduction in speed to between 26–28 knots by eliminating two boilers, freeing up displacement for depth charges and more fuel. This proposal foreshadowed the destroyer escorts of World War II, upgrading the gun armament from 4-inch to 5-inch guns was also considered, but only five ships were armed with 5-inch guns. In addition, the stern of the Wickes-class destroyers resulted in a large turning radius. In the end the General Board decided the 35 knots speed be retained so as to allow the Clemson class to be used as a fleet escort, the pressing need for destroyers overruled any change that would slow production compared to the proceeding Wickes class. Wing tanks for oil were installed on either side of the ships to increase the operational range. This design choice meant the oil would be stored above the waterline and create additional vulnerability. The class resulted from a General Board recommendation for further destroyers to combat the threat, culminating in a total of 267 Wickes-. However, the design of the ships remained optimized for operation with the battleship fleet, the main armament was the same as the Wickes class, four 4-inch /50 caliber guns and twelve 21-inch torpedo tubes. Although the design provided for two guns, most ships carried a single 3-inch /23 caliber AA gun, typically on the aft deckhouse. A frequent modification was replacing the aft 4-inch gun with the 3-inch gun to more room for the depth charge tracks. Anti-submarine armament was added during or after construction, typically, two depth charge tracks were provided aft, along with a Y-gun depth charge projector forward of the aft deckhouse. Despite the provision for 5-inch guns, only seven ships were built with a gun armament. USS Hovey and USS Long had twin 4-inch/50 mounts for a total of eight guns, while an increased rudder size helped, the answer would be in a redesigned stern, but this was not implemented. They were reported to be prone to rolling in light load conditions. The flush deck gave the great strength but this also made the deck very wet. Fourteen ships of the class were involved in the Honda Point Disaster in 1923, many never saw wartime service, as a significant number were decommissioned in 1930 and scrapped as part of the London Naval Treaty
24.
Knot (unit)
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The knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, approximately 1.151 mph. The ISO Standard symbol for the knot is kn, the same symbol is preferred by the IEEE, kt is also common. The knot is a unit that is accepted for use with the SI. Etymologically, the term derives from counting the number of knots in the line that unspooled from the reel of a log in a specific time. 1 international knot =1 nautical mile per hour,1.852 kilometres per hour,0.514 metres per second,1.151 miles per hour,20.254 inches per second,1852 m is the length of the internationally agreed nautical mile. The US adopted the definition in 1954, having previously used the US nautical mile. The UK adopted the international nautical mile definition in 1970, having used the UK Admiralty nautical mile. The speeds of vessels relative to the fluids in which they travel are measured in knots, for consistency, the speeds of navigational fluids are also measured in knots. Thus, speed over the ground and rate of progress towards a distant point are given in knots. Until the mid-19th century, vessel speed at sea was measured using a chip log, the chip log was cast over the stern of the moving vessel and the line allowed to pay out. Knots placed at a distance of 8 fathoms -47 feet 3 inches from each other, passed through a sailors fingers, the knot count would be reported and used in the sailing masters dead reckoning and navigation. This method gives a value for the knot of 20.25 in/s, the difference from the modern definition is less than 0. 02%. On a chart of the North Atlantic, the scale varies by a factor of two from Florida to Greenland, a single graphic scale, of the sort on many maps, would therefore be useless on such a chart. Recent British Admiralty charts have a latitude scale down the middle to make this even easier, speed is sometimes incorrectly expressed as knots per hour, which is in fact a measure of acceleration. Prior to 1969, airworthiness standards for aircraft in the United States Federal Aviation Regulations specified that distances were to be in statute miles. In 1969, these standards were amended to specify that distances were to be in nautical miles. At 11000 m, an airspeed of 300 kn may correspond to a true airspeed of 500 kn in standard conditions. Beaufort scale Hull speed, which deals with theoretical estimates of maximum speed of displacement hulls Knot count Knotted cord Metre per second Orders of magnitude Rope Kemp
25.
USS Manley (DD-74)
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USS Manley, a Caldwell-class destroyer, served in the United States Navy. She was the second Navy ship named for Captain John Manley and she was redesignated DD-74 on 17 July 1920. After fitting out in Boston Navy Yard, Manley sailed in company with Battleship Division Nine on 25 November 1917 to join the escort and patrol forces based at Queenstown. On the morning of 19 March 1918, while Manley escorted a convoy, she rolled against the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Montague and her stern was practically destroyed, and 33 enlisted men as well as her executive officer, Lt. Comdr. Richard M. Elliot Jr. were killed in the subsequent explosion, fragments pierced two 50-gallon drums of gasoline and two tanks containing 100 gallons of alcohol. The leaking fluids caught fire as they ran along the deck, then the Aubretia class sloop HMS Tamarisk edged up to the shattered destroyer and unsuccessfully tried to put a towline on board. Manley remained adrift until British tugs Blazer and Cartmel took her in tow after daylight on 20 March and she reached Queenstown at dusk the following day with more than 70 feet of her hull awash or completely under water. Manley completed repairs in Liverpool and sailed on 22 December 1918 for operations along the seaboard of the United States. She got underway on 11 April 1919 to join U. S. Naval Forces in the Adriatic Sea transporting passengers, carrying mail, in June 1919 she began carrying, mail and members of the U. S. Food Commission among Turkish ports in the Black Sea. The destroyer returned from the Mediterranean to New York on 1 August 1919, the destroyer recommissioned on 1 May 1930 for service as an experimental torpedo-firing ship at Newport, Rhode Island. On 19 August 1930 she joined the Scouting Fleet in battle practice along the eastern seaboard and she performed similar duty on the coast of California out of San Diego during 1932. Manley sailed for Norfolk, Virginia on 1 February 1937 to join DesRon 10 in training midshipmen, on 26 October 1937 she sailed from Boston, Massachusetts with Claxton to serve with Squadron 40-T in protecting American interests in the Mediterranean during the Spanish Civil War. She operated principally from Villefranche, Naples, Algiers, and Tangiers until she departed Gibraltar on 29 October 1938, reclassified a miscellaneous auxiliary on 28 November, she was redesignated AG-28. Manley was outfitted as a transport in the New York Navy Yard by 7 February 1939. Manley briefly visited the California coast in the spring of 1940 for marine landing force drills off Coronado Roads, back in the Atlantic, Manley was officially designated the Navys first high-speed transport on 2 August 1940 when she became APD-1. At dusk on 11 April 1942, she picked up 290 survivors from the torpedoed merchant passenger steamer SS Ulysses, on 13 July 1942 Manley transited the Panama Canal for duty with the Pacific Fleet. Touching the Society and Fiji Islands, she reached Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides on 14 August, carrying bombs, ammunition, and gasoline, Manley and Stringham got underway on 16 August. After exchanging their cargo for wounded marines, they returned to Espiritu Santo on the 19th, Manley was ordered to take torpedoed Blue in tow for Tulagi harbor before nightfall
26.
LCVP (United States)
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The landing craft, vehicle, personnel or Higgins boat was a landing craft used extensively in amphibious landings in World War II. The craft was designed by Andrew Higgins based on boats made for operating in swamps, more than 20,000 were built, by Higgins Industries and licensees. Typically constructed from plywood, this shallow-draft, barge-like boat could ferry a platoon-sized complement of 36 men to shore at 9 knots. Men generally entered the boat by climbing down a cargo net hung from the side of their troop transport, they exited by charging down the boats bow ramp. Satisfactory in most respects, the major drawback appeared to be that equipment had to be unloaded. However, it was put into production and service as the craft, personnel. The LCP had two gun positions at the bow. The LCP, commonly called the U-boat or the Higgins boat, was supplied to the British, to whom it was known as the R-boat. Within one month, tests of the ramp-bow Eureka boat in Lake Pontchartrain showed conclusively that successful operation of such a boat was feasible and this boat became the Landing Craft, Personnel or LCP. The machine gun positions were still at the front of the boat, the design was still not ideal, because the ramp was a bottleneck for the troops, as was the case with the British Landing Craft Assault of the year before. The next step was to fit a full-width ramp, now troops could leave en masse and a small vehicle such as a Jeep could be carried, this new version became the LCVP, or simply, the Higgins boat. The machine gun positions were moved to the rear of the boat, at just over 36 ft long and just under 11 ft wide, the LCVP was not a large craft. Powered by a 225-horsepower Diesel engine at 12 knots, it would sway in choppy seas, since its sides and rear were made of plywood, it offered limited protection from enemy fire. The Higgins boat could hold either a 36-man platoon, a jeep and its shallow draft enabled it to run up onto the shoreline, and a semi-tunnel built into its hull protected the propeller from sand and other debris. The steel ramp at the front could be lowered quickly and it was possible for the Higgins boat to swiftly disembark men and supplies, reverse itself off the beach, and head back out to the supply ship for another load within three to four minutes. If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach, the whole strategy of the war would have been different. Only a few Higgins boats have survived, often with modifications for post-War use. A remarkably preserved Higgins boat, with the original Higgins motor, was discovered in a yard in Valdez, Alaska
27.
LCPL
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The Landing Craft Personnel or LCP was a landing craft used extensively in the Second World War. Its primary purpose was to ferry troops from ships to attack enemy-held shores. The craft derived from a prototype designed by the Eureka Tug-Boat Company of New Orleans, Louisiana, manufactured initially in boatyards in and around New Orleans, as requirements grew it was produced in a number of yards around the United States. Typically constructed of planks and plywood, and fitted with some armor plate. Men generally entered the boat by walking over a gangplank from the deck of their troop transport as the LCP hung from its davits. When loaded, the LCP was lowered into the water, soldiers exited the boat by jumping or climbing down from the craft’s bow or sides. During the 1930s, the United States Marine Corps sought boats practical for landing troops on beaches, in 1936, the USMC conducted experiments with new types of boats, lighters, and launches. Many craft were considered coming from the Navy’s Bureau as well as fishing boat designs. Included in these experiments were some prototypes where, upon beaching, the craft was based on the company’s 1926 spoonbill-bowed craft used by trappers in the bayous of the Mississippi River delta. The boat’s draft was rather shallow,18 inches, and it could cut through vegetation and it could also run up on shore and extract itself damage-free. As part of demonstrations, boats were often run up on the seawalls of Lake Pontchartrain. The Marines specifications at the time were for boats operated by a crew of 6 that could carry a squad of 12 men, such boats should be able to achieve 15 knots, and to be hoisted on the US Navys standard davits. He produced the 32 feet Eureka or Higgins boat and this was the craft first used in American Fleet Landing Exercises in 1941. Before the USMC received their boats, the British Admiralty’s need for a raiding craft brought the first enquiries for a larger boat. Purchasing agents from Britain had become aware of Andrew Higgins’ Eureka boats, enquiries were made, the German occupation of France had changed British procurement plans dramatically. An initial order for 136 was placed, and the first 50 were delivered to Britain in October 1940, Higgins had already built these boats on spec and is said to have preferred this larger craft. Further US procurements were of this boat, and thus the LCP was the forerunner of all American LCP types. The LCPs were also known as Eurekas or R boats, before 1942, The USMC referred to them as T Boats
28.
Guadalcanal
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Guadalcanal is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of the nation of Solomon Islands in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. Its European discovery was under the Spanish expedition of Álvaro de Mendaña in 1568, the name comes from Guadalcanal, a village in the province of Seville, in Andalusia, Spain, birthplace of Pedro de Ortega Valencia, a member of Mendañas expedition. During 1942–43 it was the scene of the Guadalcanal Campaign, at the end of the war, Honiara, on the north coast of Guadalcanal, became the new capital of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. Guadalcanal is mainly covered in tropical rainforest and it has a mountainous interior. A Spanish expedition from Peru under the command of Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira discovered the island in the year 1568, Mendañas subordinate, Pedro de Ortega Valencia, named the island after his home town Guadalcanal in Andalusia, Spain. The name comes from the Arabic Wādī l-Khānāt, which means Valley of the Stalls or River of Stalls, in 1932, the British confirmed the name Guadalcanal in line with the town in Andalusia, Spain. In the months following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Japanese drove the Americans out of the Philippines, the British out of British Malaya, the Japanese reached Guadalcanal in May 1942. When an American reconnaissance mission spotted construction of a Japanese airfield at Lunga Point on the north coast of Guadalcanal, Guadalcanal became a major turning point in the war as it stopped Japanese expansion. After six months of fighting, the Japanese ceased contesting the control of the island and they finally evacuated the island at Cape Esperance on the north west coast in February 1943. Immediately after landing on the island, the US Navy Seabees began finishing the airfield begun by the Japanese and it was then named Henderson Field after a Marine aviator killed in combat during the Battle of Midway. Aircraft operating from Henderson Field during the campaign were a hodgepodge of Marine, Army, Navy and they defended the airfield and threatened any Japanese ships that ventured into the vicinity during daylight hours. However, at night, Japanese naval forces were able to shell the airfield and deliver troops with supplies, the Japanese used fast ships to make these runs, and this became known as the Tokyo Express. So many ships from both sides were sunk in the engagements in and around the Solomon Island chain that the nearby waters were referred to as Ironbottom Sound. The Battle of Cape Esperance was fought on 11 October 1942 off the northwest coast of Guadalcanal. In the battle, United States Navy ships intercepted and defeated a Japanese formation of ships on their way down the Slot to reinforce and resupply troops on the island, American authorities declared Guadalcanal secure on 9 February 1943. Two US Navy ships have been named for the battle, USS Guadalcanal, USS Guadalcanal, an amphibious assault ship. Munro provided a shield and covering fire, and helped evacuate 500 besieged Marines from a beach at Point Cruz, during the Battle for Guadalcanal, the Medal of Honor was also awarded to John Basilone who later died on Iwo Jima. Immediately after the Second World War, the capital of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate was moved to Honiara on Guadalcanal from its previous location at Tulagi in the Florida Islands
29.
Kwajalein Atoll
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Kwajalein Atoll is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island, the total land area of the atoll amounts to just over 6 square miles. The atoll lies in the Ralik Chain,2,100 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii, Kwajalein is one of the worlds largest coral atolls as measured by area of enclosed water. Comprising 97 islands and islets, it has an area of 16.4 km² and surrounds one of the largest lagoons in the world. The average height above sea level for all the islands is about 1.8 metres, Islands often have alternate names, the first is the Marshallese name, the second was assigned somewhat arbitrarily by the US Navy prior to their attack on the atoll during World War II. The original name was considered too difficult for English speakers to properly differentiate among the islands, the latter has often been retained by English speakers. The exception to this is Kwajalein itself, which is close to the native name, the atoll is 2,100 miles from Honolulu,2,000 miles from Australia, and 2,100 miles from Japan. Kwajalein Island is about 500 miles north of the equator, Kwajalein Island is the southernmost and largest of the islands in the atoll. The area is about 1.2 square miles and it is 2.5 miles long and averages about 800 yards wide. To enlarge the island, the Americans placed fill at both the part of the island above the pier, the northern part extending towards Ebeye. The northern extension was used for housing, the remainder for industrial purposes, some 13,500 Marshallese citizens live on the atoll, most of them on Ebeye Island. The water temperature averages 81 °F degrees, underwater visibility is typically 100 feet on the ocean side of the atoll. SAR Pass is closest to Kwajalein on the West reef and this pass is manmade and was created in the mid-1950s. It is very narrow and shallow compared to the passes in the lagoon and is only used by small boats. South Pass is on the West reef, north of SAR Pass, Gea Pass is a deep water pass between Gea and Ninni islands. Bigej Pass is the first pass on the East reef north of Kwajalein, other islands in the atoll, Directly north of the eastern end of Kwajalein is Ebeye. It is not part of the Reagan Test Site, it is a Marshallese island-city with shops, restaurants and it has the largest population in the atoll, with approximately 13,000 residents living on 80 acres of land. Inhabitants are mostly Marshall Islanders but include a population of migrants and volunteers from other island groups
30.
Saipan
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Saipan /saɪˈpæn/ is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean. According to the 2010 United States Census, Saipans population was 48,220, the Commonwealths center of government is located in the village of Capitol Hill on the island. Since the entire island is organized as a municipality, most publications term Saipan as the Commonwealths capital. The current Mayor of Saipan is David M. Apatang, who was sworn into office on June 12,2015, Saipan is the second-largest island in the Mariana Islands archipelago, after Guam. It is located about 120 mi north of Guam and 5 nautical miles northeast of Tinian, Saipan is about 12 mi long and 5.6 mi wide, with a land area of 115.38 km2. The western side of the island is lined with sandy beaches, the eastern shore is composed primarily of rugged rocky cliffs and a reef. A narrow underwater bank of Marpi Reef lies 28 mi north of the Saipan, the highest elevation on Saipan is a limestone-covered mountain called Mount Tapochau at 1,560 ft. Unlike many of the mountains in the Mariana Islands, it is not an extinct volcano, to the north of Mount Tapochau towards Banzai Cliff is a ridge of hills. Mount Achugao, situated about 2 miles north, has interpreted to be a remnant of a stratified composite volcanic cone whose Eocene center was not far north of the present peak. Saipans flora is predominantly limestone forest, some developed areas on the island are covered with Leucaena leucocephala, also known as tangan-tangan trees, that were spread broadly some time after World War II. Tangan-Tangan trees were introduced, primarily, as an erosion-prevention mechanism, remaining native forest occurs in small isolated fragments on steep slopes at low elevations and highland conservation areas of the island. Coconuts, papayas, and Thai hot peppers – locally called donni såli or boonie peppers – are among the fruits grow wild. Mango, taro root, breadfruit, and bananas are a few of the many foods cultivated by local families, Saipan is home to a number of endemic bird species. Among them, the Mariana fruit dove, white-throated ground dove, bridled white-eye, golden white-eye, Micronesian myzomela and the endangered nightingale reed warbler. The island used to have a population of giant African land snails, introduced either deliberately as a food source, or accidentally by shipping. In the last few decades, its numbers have been controlled by an introduced flatworm. Unfortunately, possibly due to the flatworm, the native tree-snails also became extinct, Saipan has a tropical marine climate moderated by seasonal trade winds from the northeast from November to March, and easterly winds from May to October. Average year-round temperature is 84 °F, there is little seasonal temperature variation, and Saipan has been cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as having the least fluctuating temperatures in the world
31.
Town-class destroyer
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They were known as four-pipers or four-stackers because they had four smokestacks. Later classes of destroyers typically had one or two, some went to the Royal Canadian Navy at the outset. Others went on to the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Royal Netherlands Navy, although given a set of names by the Commonwealth navies that suggested they were one class they actually came from three classes of destroyer, Caldwell, Wickes, and Clemson. Town class refers to the Admiralty renaming these ships after towns common to the United States, ships initially commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy, however, followed the Canadian practice of giving destroyers the names of Canadian rivers. One of the Towns achieved lasting fame, HMS Campbeltown, in the Commando raid Operation Chariot, Campbeltown, fitted with a large demolition charge, rammed the Normandie Lock at Saint-Nazaire, France. The charge detonated on 29 March 1942, breaching the drydock and destroying Campbeltown and this exploit was depicted in the 1950 Trevor Howard film The Gift Horse, which starred HMS Leamington after her return from service in Russia. Roughly contemporaneous to the British V and W-class destroyers they were not much liked by their new crews and they were uncomfortable and wet, working badly in a seaway. Their hull lines were narrow and herring-gutted which gave them a vicious roll. The officers didnt like the way they handled either, since they had built with propellers that turned the same way. They also had fully enclosed bridges which caused problems with reflections in the glass at night, the original armament was four 4-inch guns, one 3-inch anti-aircraft gun, and twelve torpedo tubes. On the Wickes class, the 4-inch gun placement was one gun in a shield on the forecastle, one on the quarterdeck, the Admiralty promptly removed one of the 4-inch guns and six torpedo tubes to improve stability. Twenty-three of the class had further armament reductions for anti-submarine escort of trade convoys, Two of the remaining 4-inch guns and three of the remaining torpedo tubes were removed to allow increased depth charge stowage and installation of Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar system. USS Conner became HMS Leeds on 23 October 1940 and she was scrapped on 19 January 1949. USS Conway became HMS Lewes on 23 October 1940 and she outlived all of her sisters in British service and was stripped of valuable scrap and scuttled off Sydney, Australia on 25 May 1946. USS Stockton became HMS Ludlow on 23 October 1940, stripped and beached as a target for rocket firing aircraft off Fidra Island, USS Aaron Ward became HMS Castleton on 9 September 1940. She was scrapped on 2 January 1948, USS Abbot became HMS Charlestown on 23 September 1940. She was scrapped on 3 December 1948, USS Buchanan became HMS Campbeltown on 9 September 1940. She was destroyed in Operation Chariot on 29 March 1942, USS Claxton became HMS Salisbury on 5 December 1940, she was employed as a special escort for specific convoys, including escorting Wasp during the supply of Spitfires to Malta
32.
USS Conner (DD-72)
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USS Conner, a Caldwell-class destroyer, served in the United States Navy, and later in the Royal Navy as HMS Leeds. Conner put to sea from New York 12 May 1918 to escort a convoy to the Azores and Brest, from Brest, she operated with U. S. Naval Forces, France, escorting convoys inbound to British and French ports, and outbound for Bermuda. Frequently sent to aid ships which had reported sighting submarines, she rescued survivors from the sea twice in July 1918, returning to the United States, Conner joined in fleet maneuvers in Narragansett Bay in the summer of 1919, and entered Philadelphia Navy Yard 4 October. Later she lay at Norfolk, Virginia in reserve until May 1921 and she remained at Newport, Rhode Island, for operations with submarines. Between 13 October 1921 and 29 March 1922, she lay at Charleston, South Carolina, returning then to Philadelphia, Conner was recommissioned 23 August 1940 and fitted out at Philadelphia. Leeds cleared Halifax 1 November 1940 for Belfast, Northern Ireland, under the Rosyth Command, she escorted convoys in the North Sea between the Thames and the Firth of Forth, successfully weathering many air attacks. On 20 April 1942, she went to the aid of Cotswold and she drove German E-boats away from her convoy on the night of 24–25 February 1944. Leeds was placed in reserve at Grangemouth in the Firth of Forth in April 1945 and this article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here
33.
Gold Beach
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Gold, commonly known as Gold Beach, was the code name for one of the five areas of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. Gold, the central of the five areas, was located between Port-en-Bessin on the west and La Rivière on the east. High cliffs at the end of the zone meant that the landings took place on the flat section between Le Hamel and La Rivière, in the sectors code-named Jig and King. Forces attacking Gold faced elements of the German 352nd Infantry Division, about 2,000 men were stationed in the immediate area. Improvements to fortifications along the Normandy coast had been undertaken under the leadership of Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel beginning in October 1943, on D-Day at Gold, naval bombardment got underway at 05,30, and amphibious landings commenced at 07,25. High winds made conditions difficult for the craft, and the amphibious DD tanks were released close to shore or directly on the beach instead of further out as planned. Three of the four guns in a large emplacement at the Longues-sur-Mer battery were disabled by hits from the cruisers Ajax. The fourth gun resumed firing intermittently in the afternoon, and its garrison surrendered on 7 June. Aerial attacks had failed to hit the Le Hamel strongpoint, which had its embrasure facing east to provide enfilade fire along the beach and had a concrete wall on the seaward side. Its 75 mm gun continued to do damage until 16,00, a second casemated emplacement at La Rivière containing an 88 mm gun was neutralised by a tank at 07,30. Meanwhile, infantry began clearing the heavily fortified houses along the shore, the British Commandos of No.47 Commando advanced on Port-en-Bessin and captured it on 7 June in the Battle of Port-en-Bessin. On the western flank, the 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment captured Arromanches, Company Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis received the only Victoria Cross awarded on D-Day for his actions while attacking two pillboxes at the Mont Fleury battery. Due to stiff resistance from the German 352nd Infantry Division, Bayeux was not captured until the next day, British casualties at Gold are estimated at 1, 000–1,100. After the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing for the creation of a front in Western Europe. The decision to undertake an invasion of continental Europe within the next year was taken at the Trident Conference. The Allies initially planned to launch the invasion on 1 May 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. General Bernard Montgomery was named as commander of the 21st Army Group, on 31 December 1943, Eisenhower and Montgomery first saw the plan, which proposed amphibious landings by three divisions and two-thirds of an airborne division. The two generals immediately insisted that the scale of the invasion be expanded to five divisions
34.
Battle of the Atlantic
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The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war and it was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The convoys, coming mainly from North America and predominantly going to the United Kingdom and these forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States from September 13,1941. The Germans were joined by submarines of the Italian Royal Navy after their Axis ally Italy entered the war on June 10,1940, as an island nation, the United Kingdom was highly dependent on imported goods. Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week in order to be able to survive and fight. In essence, the Battle of the Atlantic was a war, the Allied struggle to supply Britain. From 1942 onwards, the Axis also sought to prevent the build-up of Allied supplies, the defeat of the U-boat threat was a pre-requisite for pushing back the Axis. The outcome of the battle was a victory for the Allies—the German blockade failed—but at great cost,3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships were sunk for the loss of 783 U-boats. The name Battle of the Atlantic was coined by Winston Churchill in February 1941 and it has been called the longest, largest, and most complex naval battle in history. The campaign started immediately after the European war began, during the so-called Phoney War and it involved thousands of ships in more than 100 convoy battles and perhaps 1,000 single-ship encounters, in a theatre covering millions of square miles of ocean. The Allies gradually gained the hand, overcoming German surface raiders by the end of 1942 and defeating the U-boats by mid-1943. The first meeting of the Cabinets Battle of the Atlantic Committee was on March 19, Churchill claimed to have coined the phrase Battle of the Atlantic shortly before Alexanders speech, but there are several examples of earlier usage. Following the use of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany in the First World War, countries tried to limit, even abolish, the effort failed. or active resistance to visit or search. This made restrictions on submarines effectively moot, in 1939, the Kriegsmarine lacked the strength to challenge the combined British Royal Navy and French Navy for command of the sea. Instead, German naval strategy relied on commerce raiding using capital ships, armed merchant cruisers, submarines and these ships immediately attacked British and French shipping. U-30 sank the ocean liner SS Athenia within hours of the declaration of war—in breach of her orders not to sink passenger ships, much of the early German anti-shipping activity involved minelaying by destroyers, aircraft and U-boats off British ports. With the outbreak of war, the British and French immediately began a blockade of Germany, the Royal Navy quickly introduced a convoy system for the protection of trade that gradually extended out from the British Isles, eventually reaching as far as Panama, Bombay and Singapore. Convoys allowed the Royal Navy to concentrate its escorts near the one place the U-boats were guaranteed to be found, each convoy consisted of between 30 and 70 mostly unarmed merchant ships
35.
General Board of the United States Navy
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The General Board of the United States Navy was an advisory body of the United States Navy, somewhat akin to a naval general staff and somewhat not. The General Board was established by general order 544, issued on March 13,1900 by John Davis Long, the order was officially recognized by Congress in 1916. The General Board was disbanded in 1951, the war with Spain had underlined the need for adequate staff work and the success of the War Board had pointed the way for the future. Among the most persistent advocates of a staff for the Navy was Captain H. C. Taylor. He had first laid plans for such a staff before Roosevelt in May 1897, the board had two categories of members – the full time executive committee and ex officio members, senior officers holding specifics posts, who attended monthly board meetings. The ex officio members of the board included the President of the Naval War College, the director of intelligence. The general board was a version of the naval general staff proposed by a line officer. Originally consisting of nine officers, the membership of the board was changed frequently – in 1902 to 10, in 1904 to 14, in 1905 to seven, the board was headed by a chairman. George Dewey chaired the board from its inception until 1917, although a stroke in 1914 limited his abilities in the last three years of his tenure. The role that the General Board of the Navy played was the critical organizational dynamic in linking the treaty system and innovation in the fleet. In its beginning years, the General Board of the United States Navy was effectively a naval general staff, but started to lose its influence with the creation of the Chief of Naval Operations. During the latter years of its life – particularly since, the establishment of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the board was inactivated by order of Chief of Naval Operations Forrest Sherman in April 1951 and abolished the following month
36.
Gunwale
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The gunwale is the top edge of the side of a boat. Originally the gunwale was the gun ridge on a sailing warship and this represented the strengthening wale or structural band added to the design of the ship, at and above the level of a gun deck. It was designed to accommodate the stresses imposed by the use of artillery, in wooden boats, the gunwale remained, mounted inboard of the sheer strake, regardless of the use of gunnery. In modern boats, it is the top edge of the side there is usually some form of stiffening. On a canoe, the gunwale is typically the edge at the top of the side of the boat. Modern cedar-strip canoes have gunwales which consist of inner and outer parts called inwales and outwales and these two parts of the gunwale give rigidity and strength to the hull. The inwale will often have scuppers or slots cut into the inwale to allow water to drain when the hull is turned upside down for storing. On a rowing boat, the gunwale is sometimes referred to as the saxboard
37.
Anti-aircraft warfare
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Anti-aircraft warfare or counter-air defence is defined by NATO as all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action. They include ground-and air-based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and it may be used to protect naval, ground, and air forces in any location. However, for most countries the main effort has tended to be homeland defence, NATO refers to airborne air defence as counter-air and naval air defence as anti-aircraft warfare. Missile defence is an extension of air defence as are initiatives to adapt air defence to the task of intercepting any projectile in flight, a surface-based air defence capability can also be deployed offensively to deny the use of airspace to an opponent. Until the 1950s, guns firing ballistic munitions ranging from 20 mm to 150 mm were the weapons, guided missiles then became dominant. The term air defence was probably first used by Britain when Air Defence of Great Britain was created as a Royal Air Force command in 1925. However, arrangements in the UK were also called anti-aircraft, abbreviated as AA, after the First World War it was sometimes prefixed by Light or Heavy to classify a type of gun or unit. Nicknames for anti-aircraft guns include AA, AAA or triple-A, an abbreviation of anti-aircraft artillery, ack-ack, NATO defines anti-aircraft warfare as measures taken to defend a maritime force against attacks by airborne weapons launched from aircraft, ships, submarines and land-based sites. In some armies the term All-Arms Air Defence is used for air defence by nonspecialist troops, other terms from the late 20th century include GBAD with related terms SHORAD and MANPADS. Anti-aircraft missiles are variously called surface-to-air missile, abbreviated and pronounced SAM, non-English terms for air defence include the German FlaK, whence English flak, and the Russian term Protivovozdushnaya oborona, a literal translation of anti-air defence, abbreviated as PVO. In Russian the AA systems are called zenitnye systems, in French, air defence is called DCA. The maximum distance at which a gun or missile can engage an aircraft is an important figure, however, many different definitions are used but unless the same definition is used, performance of different guns or missiles cannot be compared. For AA guns only the part of the trajectory can be usefully used. By the late 1930s the British definition was that height at which an approaching target at 400 mph can be engaged for 20 seconds before the gun reaches 70 degrees elevation. However, effective ceiling for heavy AA guns was affected by nonballistic factors, The maximum running time of the fuse, the capability of fire control instruments to determine target height at long range. The essence of air defence is to detect aircraft and destroy them. The critical issue is to hit a target moving in three-dimensional space, Air defence evolution covered the areas of sensors and technical fire control, weapons, and command and control. At the start of the 20th century these were very primitive or non-existent
38.
QF 1-pounder pom-pom
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The QF1 pounder, universally known as the pom-pom due to the sound of its discharge, was a 37 mm British autocannon, the first of its type in the world. It was used by several countries initially as an infantry gun, hiram Maxim originally designed the Pom-Pom in the late 1880s as an enlarged version of the Maxim machine gun. Early versions were sold under the Maxim-Nordenfelt label, whereas versions in British service were labelled Vickers, Sons and they are all effectively the same gun. The Belgian Army used the gun on a field carriage mounting. A version was produced in Germany for both Navy and Army, in World War I, it was used in Europe as an anti-aircraft gun as the Maxim Flak M14. Four guns were used mounted on carriages in the German campaign in South West Africa in 1915. The British government initially rejected the gun but other countries bought it, in the Second Boer War, the British found themselves being fired on with success by the Boers with their 37 mm Maxim-Nordenfelt versions with ammunition made in Germany. In response, Vickers-Maxim of Britain shipped either 57 or 50 guns out to the British Army in South Africa and these early Mk I versions were mounted on typical field gun type carriages. In World War I, it was used as an early anti-aircraft gun in the defence of Britain. 25 were employed in August 1914, and 50 in February 1916, a Mk II gun on a Naval pedestal mounting was the first to open fire in defence of London during the war. However, the shell was insufficient to damage the German Zeppelin airships sufficiently to bring them down. The Ministry of Munitions noted in 1922, The pom-poms were of little value. There was no shrapnel available for them, and the provided for them would not burst on aeroplane fabric. Were of no use except at a lower elevation than a Zeppelin attacking London was likely to keep. Hogg of No.2 AA Section in III Corps was the first anti-aircraft gunner to shoot down an aircraft, with 75 rounds on 23 September 1914 in France. The gun was mounted on aircraft as the lighter 1-pounder Mk III. As a light gun, it was quickly replaced by the larger QF 1½ pounder. The British are reported to have used some Common pointed shells in the Boer War
39.
Anti-submarine weapon
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An anti-submarine weapon is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, a weapon is usually a projectile, missile or bomb that is optimized to destroy submarines. Prior to about 1890, naval weapons were used against surface shipping. With the rise of the submarine after this time, countermeasures were considered for use against them. The first submarine installation of tubes was in 1885 and the first ship was sunk by a submarine-launched torpedo in 1887. There were only two ways of countering the military initially, ramming them or sinking them with gunfire. However, once they were submerged, they were largely immune until they had to surface again, by the start of the First World War there were nearly 300 submarines in service with another 80 in production. World War I marked the first earnest conflict involving significant use of submarines, in particular, the United Kingdom was desperate to defeat the U-Boat threat against British merchant shipping. When the bombs that it employed were found to be ineffective it began equipping its destroyers with simple depth charges that could be dropped into the water around a suspected submarines location. During this period it was found that explosions of these charges were more efficient if the charges were set to explode below or above the submarine, however, many other techniques were used, including minefields, barrages and Q-ships and the use of cryptanalysis against intercepted radio messages. The airship was used to drop bombs but fixed-wing aircraft were used for reconnaissance. However, the most effective countermeasure was the convoy, in 1918 U-boat losses became unbearably high. Most of the losses were due to mines but two were torpedoed, french, Italian and Russian submarines were also destroyed. Before the war ended, the need for forward-throwing weapons had been recognized by the British, hydrophones had been developed and were becoming effective as detection and location devices. Also, aircraft and airships had flown with depth bombs, albeit small ones with poor explosives. In addition, the specialist hunter-killer submarine had appeared, HMS R-1, the main developments in this period were in detection, with both active sonar and radar becoming effective. The British integrated the sonar with fire control and weapons to form a system for warships. Germany was banned from having a fleet but began construction in secret during the 1930s
40.
Depth charge
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A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful. Most depth charges use high explosive charges and a set to detonate the charge. Depth charges can be dropped by ships, patrol aircraft, Depth charges were developed during World War I, and were one of the first effective methods of attacking a submarine underwater. They were widely used in World War I and World War II and they remained part of the anti-submarine arsenals of many navies during the Cold War. Depth charges have now largely replaced by anti-submarine homing torpedoes. A depth charge fitted with a warhead is known as a nuclear depth bomb. These were designed to be dropped from a plane or deployed by an anti-submarine missile from a surface ship, or another submarine. All nuclear anti-submarine weapons were withdrawn from service by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and they were replaced by conventional weapons whose accuracy and range had improved greatly as ASW technology improved. The first attempt to fire charges against submerged targets was with aircraft bombs attached to lanyards which triggered them, a similar idea was a 16 lb guncotton charge in a lanyarded can. Two of these together became known as the depth charge Type A. Problems with the lanyards tangling and failing to function led to the development of a chemical pellet trigger as the Type B and these were effective at a distance of around 20 ft. A1913 Royal Navy Torpedo School report described a device intended for countermining, at Admiral John Jellicoes request, the standard Mark II mine was fitted with a hydrostatic pistol preset for 45 ft firing, to be launched from a stern platform. Weighing 1,150 lb, and effective at 100 ft, the design work was carried out by Herbert Taylor at the RN Torpedo and Mine School, HMS Vernon. The first effective depth charge, the Type D, became available in January 1916 and it was a barrel-like casing containing a high explosive. There were initially two sizes—Type D, with a 300 lb charge for fast ships, and Type D* with a 120 lb charge for ships too slow to leave the area before the more powerful charge detonated. A hydrostatic pistol actuated by water pressure at a pre-selected depth detonated the charge, initial depth settings were 40 or 80 ft. Because production could not keep up with demand, anti-submarine vessels initially carried two depth charges, to be released from a chute at the stern of the ship
41.
Y-gun
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A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful. Most depth charges use high explosive charges and a set to detonate the charge. Depth charges can be dropped by ships, patrol aircraft, Depth charges were developed during World War I, and were one of the first effective methods of attacking a submarine underwater. They were widely used in World War I and World War II and they remained part of the anti-submarine arsenals of many navies during the Cold War. Depth charges have now largely replaced by anti-submarine homing torpedoes. A depth charge fitted with a warhead is known as a nuclear depth bomb. These were designed to be dropped from a plane or deployed by an anti-submarine missile from a surface ship, or another submarine. All nuclear anti-submarine weapons were withdrawn from service by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and they were replaced by conventional weapons whose accuracy and range had improved greatly as ASW technology improved. The first attempt to fire charges against submerged targets was with aircraft bombs attached to lanyards which triggered them, a similar idea was a 16 lb guncotton charge in a lanyarded can. Two of these together became known as the depth charge Type A. Problems with the lanyards tangling and failing to function led to the development of a chemical pellet trigger as the Type B and these were effective at a distance of around 20 ft. A1913 Royal Navy Torpedo School report described a device intended for countermining, at Admiral John Jellicoes request, the standard Mark II mine was fitted with a hydrostatic pistol preset for 45 ft firing, to be launched from a stern platform. Weighing 1,150 lb, and effective at 100 ft, the design work was carried out by Herbert Taylor at the RN Torpedo and Mine School, HMS Vernon. The first effective depth charge, the Type D, became available in January 1916 and it was a barrel-like casing containing a high explosive. There were initially two sizes—Type D, with a 300 lb charge for fast ships, and Type D* with a 120 lb charge for ships too slow to leave the area before the more powerful charge detonated. A hydrostatic pistol actuated by water pressure at a pre-selected depth detonated the charge, initial depth settings were 40 or 80 ft. Because production could not keep up with demand, anti-submarine vessels initially carried two depth charges, to be released from a chute at the stern of the ship
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Horsepower
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Horsepower is a unit of measurement of power. There are many different standards and types of horsepower, two common definitions being used today are the mechanical horsepower, which is approximately 746 watts, and the metric horsepower, which is approximately 735.5 watts. The term was adopted in the late 18th century by Scottish engineer James Watt to compare the output of engines with the power of draft horses. It was later expanded to include the power of other types of piston engines, as well as turbines, electric motors. The definition of the unit varied among geographical regions, most countries now use the SI unit watt for measurement of power. With the implementation of the EU Directive 80/181/EEC on January 1,2010, units called horsepower have differing definitions, The mechanical horsepower, also known as imperial horsepower equals approximately 745.7 watts. It was defined originally as exactly 550 foot-pounds per second [745.7 N. m/s), the metric horsepower equals approximately 735.5 watts. It was defined originally as 75 kgf-m per second is approximately equivalent to 735.5 watts, the Pferdestärke PS is a name for a group of similar power measurements used in Germany around the end of the 19th century, all of about one metric horsepower in size. The boiler horsepower equals 9809.5 watts and it was used for rating steam boilers and is equivalent to 34.5 pounds of water evaporated per hour at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. One horsepower for rating electric motors is equal to 746 watts, one horsepower for rating Continental European electric motors is equal to 735 watts. Continental European electric motors used to have dual ratings, one British Royal Automobile Club horsepower can equal a range of values based on estimates of several engine dimensions. It is one of the tax horsepower systems adopted around Europe, the development of the steam engine provided a reason to compare the output of horses with that of the engines that could replace them. He had previously agreed to take royalties of one third of the savings in coal from the older Newcomen steam engines and this royalty scheme did not work with customers who did not have existing steam engines but used horses instead. Watt determined that a horse could turn a mill wheel 144 times in an hour, the wheel was 12 feet in radius, therefore, the horse travelled 2.4 × 2π ×12 feet in one minute. Watt judged that the horse could pull with a force of 180 pounds-force. So, P = W t = F d t =180 l b f ×2.4 ×2 π ×12 f t 1 m i n =32,572 f t ⋅ l b f m i n. Watt defined and calculated the horsepower as 32,572 ft·lbf/min, Watt determined that a pony could lift an average 220 lbf 100 ft per minute over a four-hour working shift. Watt then judged a horse was 50% more powerful than a pony, engineering in History recounts that John Smeaton initially estimated that a horse could produce 22,916 foot-pounds per minute
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Turbo-electric transmission
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Turbo-electric drives are used in some rail locomotives and ships. An advantage of turbo-electric transmission is that it allows the adaptation of high-speed turning turbines to the slowly turning propellers or wheels without the need of a heavy and complex gearbox. It also has the advantage of being able to provide electricity for the ship or trains other electrical systems, such as lighting, computers, radar, the Paddle Wheel to Electric Drive. — detailed article with drawing and charts on turbo-electric drive for ships and the advantages
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USS Caldwell (DD-69)
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USS Caldwell was the lead ship of her class of destroyers built for the United States Navy in the 1910s. The Caldwells were a design between the thousand-tonners of the Sampson-class and the mass-produced destroyers built during World War I. They introduced the flush-deck and were known as the first of the flush deckers that were so wet in heavy weather, the ship displaced 1,262 long tons at standard load and 1,379 long tons at deep load. They had a length of 315 feet 6 inches, a beam of 30 feet 7 inches. They had a crew of 5 officers and 95 enlisted men, the propulsion arrangements differed between the ships of the class. Caldwell was powered by two Curtis steam turbines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by four Thornycroft boilers. The turbines developed a total of 18,500 shaft horsepower and were designed to reach a speed of 30 knots, the ships carried a maximum of 205 long tons of fuel oil that gave them a range of 2,500 nautical miles at 20 knots. The ships were armed with four 4-inch guns in single mounts and were fitted with two 1-pdr guns for anti-aircraft defense and their primary weapon, though, was their torpedo battery of a dozen 21-inch torpedo tubes in four triple mounts. During World War I, the 1-pounders were replaced by 3-inch anti-aircraft guns and a Y-gun depth charge thrower replaced the aft AA gun, Caldwell was launched 10 July 1917 by Mare Island Navy Yard, sponsored by Miss C. Caldwell, and commissioned 1 December 1917, Lieutenant Commander B and she was the first Navy ship named for Lieutenant James R. Caldwell. Ordered to join the Atlantic Fleet, Caldwell reached Norfolk, Virginia,8 January 1918 and she participated in patrol and convoy escort duty, which were interrupted when Caldwell aided in urgent experimental work on underwater listening devices to employ against German submarines. After the close of World War I, Caldwell transported troops to Brest, France, Caldwell returned home for operations with the Norfolk Division, Destroyer Force, Atlantic Fleet, and with Destroyer Squadron 3 along the east coast during 1919. Placed in reserve in August 1920, she operated with a reduced complement out of Charleston, South Carolina and she was decommissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard 27 June 1922. She was sold there 30 June 1936, U. S. Destroyers, An Illustrated Design History. Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds, conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships, 1906–1921. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the entry can be found here
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United States Navy
Royal Navy