1.
San Diego
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San Diego is a major city in California, United States. It is in San Diego County, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, approximately 120 miles south of Los Angeles and immediately adjacent to the border with Mexico. With an estimated population of 1,394,928 as of July 1,2015, San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest in California. It is part of the San Diego–Tijuana conurbation, the second-largest transborder agglomeration between the US and a country after Detroit–Windsor, with a population of 4,922,723 people. San Diego has been called the birthplace of California, historically home to the Kumeyaay people, San Diego was the first site visited by Europeans on what is now the West Coast of the United States. Upon landing in San Diego Bay in 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area for Spain, the Presidio and Mission San Diego de Alcalá, founded in 1769, formed the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of the newly independent Mexico, in 1850, California became part of the United States following the Mexican–American War and the admission of California to the union. The city is the seat of San Diego County and is the center of the region as well as the San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. San Diegos main economic engines are military and defense-related activities, tourism, international trade, the presence of the University of California, San Diego, with the affiliated UCSD Medical Center, has helped make the area a center of research in biotechnology. The original inhabitants of the region are now known as the San Dieguito, the area of San Diego has been inhabited by the Kumeyaay people. The first European to visit the region was Portuguese-born explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailing under the flag of Castile, sailing his flagship San Salvador from Navidad, New Spain, Cabrillo claimed the bay for the Spanish Empire in 1542, and named the site San Miguel. In November 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno was sent to map the California coast, in May 1769, Gaspar de Portolà established the Fort Presidio of San Diego on a hill near the San Diego River. It was the first settlement by Europeans in what is now the state of California, in July of the same year, Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded by Franciscan friars under Junípero Serra. By 1797, the mission boasted the largest native population in Alta California, with over 1,400 neophytes living in, Mission San Diego was the southern anchor in California of the historic mission trail El Camino Real. Both the Presidio and the Mission are National Historic Landmarks, in 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain, and San Diego became part of the Mexican territory of Alta California. In 1822, Mexico began attempting to extend its authority over the territory of Alta California. The fort on Presidio Hill was gradually abandoned, while the town of San Diego grew up on the land below Presidio Hill. The Mission was secularized by the Mexican government in 1833, the 432 residents of the town petitioned the governor to form a pueblo, and Juan María Osuna was elected the first alcalde, defeating Pío Pico in the vote
2.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
San Diego Bay
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San Diego Bay is a natural harbor and deepwater port located in San Diego County, California near the U. S. –Mexico border. The highly urbanized land adjacent to the bay includes the city of San Diego and four cities, including National City, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach. Considered to be one of the best natural harbors on the west coast of North America, San Diego Bays commercial port has two container ship facilities and a cruise ship terminal. A second cruise terminal opened in December 2010. The port handles more than 3 million metric tons of cargo yearly, San Diego International Airport is also adjacent to the bay, across Harbor Drive from the Coast Guard Station. The bay is spanned by the San Diego–Coronado Bridge, built in 1969, the bridge curves and rises to a height of 200 feet above the water so that Navy ships can pass under it. The bridge was originally a bridge, however, toll collection was discontinued in 2002. Americas Cup Harbor has several boat yards and marinas for private sailing yachts, numerous resorts, hotels, and the San Diego Convention Center are adjacent to the Bay. Several parks and nature preserves are found at locations along the shoreline. Sightseeing boats depart from the downtown area, commercial sport fishing and whale watching tours depart from Shelter Island. Ten museum ships call San Diego Bay home and they include the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier museum, and the Star of India, the oldest iron-hulled merchant ship afloat and the worlds oldest active sailing ship. In the northern part of the bay there are two islands called Harbor Island and Shelter Island. They were built up from former sand bars and now hold hotels, restaurants, marinas, and public parkland. Small boat sailing is extremely popular, and the bay is lined by dozens of marinas and nine yacht clubs, an inlet of the bay was renamed Americas Cup Harbor to commemorate that occasion. An annual fireworks display called the Big Bay Boom is held on the Fourth of July over the waters of the Bay, fireworks are launched simultaneously from four barges in the Bay as well as from a pier in Imperial Beach. It is one of the largest annual fireworks displays in the United States and is viewed by half a million each year. The Parade of Lights is a parade of more than 80 small boats with holiday decorations, the parade has been held annually since 1972. The parade starts off Shelter Island and proceeds past Harbor Island and Downtown, a one-time special event was the Parade of Flight in February 2011, celebrating the 100th anniversary of naval aviation
5.
Coronado, California
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Coronado, since the 1980s also mistakenly known as Coronado Island, is a resort city located in San Diego County, California, across and around San Diego Bay from downtown San Diego. Its population was 24,697 at the 2010 census, up from 24,100 at the 2000 census and it is part of San Diego County, California. Coronado lies on the combination of an island and a tombolo connected to the mainland called the Silver Strand. Coronado is an island, connected by a tombolo. In 2012, Dr. Stephen Leatherman, Director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research, Coronado is Spanish for crowned one, and thus it is nicknamed The Crown City. Three ships of the United States Navy have been named after the city, Coronado was incorporated as a town on December 11,1890. The land was purchased by Elisha Spurr Babcock, along with Hampton L. Story and their intention was to create a resort community, and in 1886, the Coronado Beach Company was organized. By 1888, they had built the Hotel del Coronado, and they also built a schoolhouse, and formed athletic, boating, and baseball clubs. In 1900, an area just south of the Hotel del Coronado was established by John D. Spreckels. Over the years the tents gave way to cottages, the last of which was torn down in late 1940 or early 1941 and these streetcars became a fixture of the city until their retirement in 1939. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 32.7 square miles,20.5 km² of the city is land and 24.7 square miles of it is water. Geographically, Cornado is not an island and it is a tied island, connected to the mainland by a strip of land called the Silver Strand. This tombolo, along with Coronado and North Island, forms San Diego Bay, originally, Coronado was mostly separated from North Island by a shallow inlet of water called the Spanish Bight, but just like Coronado, North Island was never completely surrounded by water. The development of North Island by the United States Navy prior to and during World War II led to the filling of the bight by July 1944, the Navy still operates Naval Air Station North Island on Coronado. On the southern side of the town is Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, both facilities are part of the larger Naval Base Coronado complex. Though there has been localized development of the coastline, including some minor landfill, in 1969, the San Diego–Coronado Bridge was opened, allowing much faster transit between the cities than bay ferries or driving via State Route 75 along the Silver Strand. The city is currently weighing the options of additional construction on Highway 75 to alleviate congestion as traffic flows to and from San Diego, according to the Köppen climate classification system, Coronado has a semi-arid climate, abbreviated BSk on climate maps. The 2010 United States Census reported that Coronado city had a population of 24,697
6.
Pier
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A pier is a raised structure in a body of water, typically supported by well-spaced piles or pillars. Bridges, buildings, and walkways may all be supported by piers, Piers can range in size and complexity from a simple lightweight wooden structure to major structures extended over 1600 metres. In American English, pier may be synonymous with dock, thus in North America and Australia, where many ports were, until recently, built on the multiple pier model, the term tends to imply a current or former cargo-handling facility. In Europe in contrast, where more often use basins and river-side quays than piers. However, the earliest piers pre-date the Victorian age, Piers can be categorized into different groupings according to the principal purpose. However, there is overlap between these categories. Many piers are floating piers, to ensure that the piers raise and this prevents a situation where lines become overly taut or loose by rising or lowering tides. An overly taut or loose tie-line can damage boats by pulling out of the water or allowing them so much leeway that they bang forcefully against the sides of the pier. Working piers were built for the handling of passengers and cargo onto, working piers themselves fall into two different groups. Longer individual piers are found at ports with large tidal ranges. Such piers provided an alternative to impounded docks where cargo volumes were low, or where specialist bulk cargo was handled. The other form of working pier, often called the pier, was built at ports with smaller tidal ranges. Here the principal advantage was to give a greater available quay length for ships to berth against compared to a linear littoral quayside, typically each pier would carry a single transit shed the length of the pier, with ships berthing bow or stern in to the shore. Some major ports consisted of numbers of such piers lining the foreshore, classic examples being the Hudson River frontage of New York. One example, is in use in Progreso, Yucatán, where a pier extends more than 4 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, making it the longest pier in the world. The Progreso Pier supplies much of the peninsula with transportation for the fishing, many other working piers have been demolished, or remain derelict, but some have been recycled as pleasure piers. The best known example of this is Pier 39 in San Francisco, at Southport and the Tweed River on the Gold Coast in Australia, there are piers that support equipment for a sand bypassing system that maintains the health of sandy beaches and navigation channels. Pleasure piers were first built in Britain during the early 19th century, the earliest structures were Ryde Pier, built in 1813/4, Trinity Chain Pier near Leith, built in 1821, and Brighton Chain Pier, built in 1823
7.
Concrete ship
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Concrete ships are built of steel and ferrocement instead of more traditional materials, such as steel or wood. The advantage of ferrocement construction is that materials are cheap and readily available, while the disadvantages are that construction costs are high. Since the late 1930s, there have also been ferrocement pleasure boats, the oldest known ferrocement watercraft was a dinghy built by Joseph-Louis Lambot in Southern France in 1848. Lambots boat was featured in the Exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1855, beginning in the 1860s, ferrocement barges were built in Europe for use on canals, and around 1896, an Italian engineer, Carlo Gabellini, began building small ships out of ferrocement. The most famous of his ships was the Liguria, between 1908 and 1914, larger ferrocement barges began to be made in Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway, and California. The remains of a British ship of type, the auxiliary coaster Violette, can be seen at Hoo, Kent. On August 2,1917, Nicolay Fougner of Norway launched the first self-propelled ferrocement ship intended for ocean travel and this was an 84-foot vessel of 400 tons named Namsenfjord. The Fougner Concrete Shipbuilding Company, Flushing Bay, New York, reported calculated cost was of $290 per deadweight ton for the Cape Fear, about the same time, the California businessman W. Leslie Comyn took the initiative to build ferrocement ships on his own. He formed the San Francisco Ship Building Company, and hired Alan Macdonald and Victor Poss to design the first American ferrocement ship, Faith was launched March 18,1918. She was used to bulk cargo for trade until 1921. On April 12,1918, President Woodrow Wilson approved the Emergency Fleet Corporation program which oversaw the construction of 24 ferrocement ships for the war, however, when the war ended in November 1918, only 12 ferrocement ships were under construction and none of them had been completed. These 12 ships were completed, but soon sold to private companies who used them for light-trading, storage. Other countries that looked into ferrocement ship construction during this period included Canada, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Sweden, between the world wars, there was little commercial or military interest in concrete ship construction. The reason was that other shipbuilding methods were cheaper and less labor-intensive, however, in 1942, after the U. S. entered World War II, the U. S. military found that its contractors had steel shortages. Consequently, the U. S. government contracted McCloskey & Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to build 24 self-propelled concrete ships, the shipyard was at Hookers Point in Tampa, Florida, and at its peak, it employed 6,000 workers. The U. S. government also contracted with two companies in California for the construction of concrete barge ships, barge ships were large vessels that lacked engines to propel them. Instead, they were towed by tugs, some were fitted with engines and used as mobile canteens and troop carriers. Some of these survive as abandoned wrecks in the Thames Estuary
8.
San Pedro, Los Angeles
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San Pedro is a community within the city of Los Angeles, California. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909, the Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located within San Pedro. The district has grown from being dominated by the industry to become primarily a working class community within the city of Los Angeles. The site, at the end of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The peninsula, including all of San Pedro, was the homeland of the Tongva-Gabrieleño Native American people for thousands of years, in other areas of the Los Angeles Basin archeological sites date back 8, 000–15,000 years. The Tongva believe they have been here since the beginning of time, once called the lords of the ocean, due to their mastery of oceangoing canoes, many Tongva villages covered the coastline. Their first contact with Europeans in 1542 with João Cabrilho, the Portuguese explorer who also was the first to write of them, chowigna and Suangna were two Tongva settlements of many in the peninsula area, which was also a departure point for their rancherias on the Channel Islands. Legend has it that the Native Americans blessed the land of Palos Verdes, the Tongva called the San Pedro area Chaaw. San Pedro was named for St. Peter of Alexandria, a bishop in Alexandria. His feast day is November 24 on the ecclesiastical calendar of Spain. Santa Catalina Island, named after Catherine of Alexandria, was claimed for the Spanish Empire the next day, on her feast day, in 1602–1603, Sebastián Vizcaíno officially surveyed and mapped the California coastline, including San Pedro Bay, for New Spain. The anglicized pronunciation, popularized by the English-speaking people of Midwestern America, is san-PEE-dro, european settlement began in 1769 as part of an effort to populate California, although trade restrictions encouraged more smuggling than regular business. Rancho San Pedro is the site of the first Spanish land grant in Alta California, the land was granted in 1784 by King Carlos III to Juan Jose Dominguez, a retired Spanish soldier who came to California with the Gaspar de Portolà expedition. When New Spain won its independence from the Spanish Empire and Alta California became part of Mexico, the restrictions were lifted. In 1888, the War Department took control of a tract of land next to the bay and this became Fort MacArthur in 1914 and was a coastal defense site for many years. Woodrow Wilson transferred 200 United States Navy ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1919 when tension arose between the United States and Japan over the fate of China. San Diego Bay was considered too shallow for the largest ships, local availability of fuel oil minimized transportation costs, and consistently good weather allowed frequent gunnery exercises off the nearby Channel Islands of California. The heavy cruisers of the Scouting Force were transferred from the Atlantic to San Pedro in response to the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria, by 1934,14 battleships, two aircraft carriers,14 cruisers, and 16 support ships were based at San Pedro
9.
Torpedo
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Historically, it was called an automotive, automobile, locomotive or fish torpedo, colloquially called a fish. The term torpedo was originally employed for a variety of devices, from about 1900, torpedo has been used strictly to designate an underwater self-propelled weapon. Todays torpedoes can be divided into lightweight and heavyweight classes, and into straight-running, autonomous homers and they can be launched from a variety of platforms. The word torpedo comes from the name of a genus of rays in the order Torpediniformes. In naval usage, the American Robert Fulton introduced the name to refer to a gunpowder charge used by his French submarine Nautilus to demonstrate that it could sink warships. The concept of a torpedo existed many centuries before it was successfully developed. In 1275, Hasan al-Rammah described. an egg which moves itself, in modern language, a torpedo is an underwater self-propelled explosive, —but historically, the term also applied to primitive naval mines. These were used on an ad hoc basis during the modern period up to the late 19th century. An early submarine, the Turtle, attempted to lay a bomb with a fuse on the hull of HMS Eagle during the American Revolutionary War. In the early 1800s, the American inventor Robert Fulton, while in France and he coined the term torpedo in reference to the explosive charges he outfitted his submarine Nautilus. However, both the French and the Dutch governments were uninterested in the submarine, Fulton then concentrated on developing the torpedo independent of a submarine deployment. However, the British government refused to purchase the invention, stating they did not wish to introduce into naval warfare a system that would give advantage to weaker maritime nations. Fulton carried out a demonstration for the US government on 20 July 1807. Further development languished as Fulton focused on his steam-boat matters, during the War of 1812, torpedoes were employed in attempts to destroy British vessels and protect American harbors. In fact a submarine deployed torpedo was used in an attempt to destroy HMS Ramillies while in New Londons harbor. Hardy to warn the Americans to cease efforts with the use of any boat in this cruel and unheard-of warfare. Torpedoes were used by the Russian Empire during the Crimean War in 1855 against British warships in the Gulf of Finland and they used an early form of chemical detonator. During the American Civil War, the torpedo was used for what is today called a contact mine
10.
Ship commissioning
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Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its countrys military forces, the ceremonies involved are often rooted in centuries old naval tradition. Ship naming and launching endow a ship hull with her identity, the engineering plant, weapon and electronic systems, galley, and multitudinous other equipment required to transform the new hull into an operating and habitable warship are installed and tested. The prospective commanding officer, ships officers, the petty officers, prior to commissioning, the new ship undergoes sea trials to identify any deficiencies needing correction. USS Monitor, of American Civil War fame, was commissioned less than three weeks after launch, regardless of the type of ship in question, a vessels journey towards commissioning in its nations navy begins with process known as sea trials. Sea trials begin when the ship in question is floated out of its dry dock, after a ship has successfully cleared its sea trial period, it will officially be accepted into service with its nations navy. At this point, the ship in question will undergo a process of degaussing and/or deperming, once a ships sea trials are successfully completed plans for the actual commissioning ceremony will take shape. If the ships ceremony is an affair the Captain may make a speech to the audience. Religious ceremonies, such as blessing the ship or the singing of hymns or songs. Once a ship has been commissioned its final step toward becoming a unit of the navy it now serves is to report to its home port. To decommission a ship is to terminate its career in service in the forces of a nation. Decommissioning of the vessel may also occur due to treaty agreements or for safety reasons, vessels preserved in this manner typically do not relinquish their names to other, more modern ships that may be in the design, planning, or construction phase of the parent nations navy. Prior to its decommissioning, the ship in question will begin the process of decommissioning by going through a preliminary step called inactivation or deactivation. The removed material from a ship usually ends up either rotating to another ship in the class with similar weapons and/or capabilities, or in storage pending a decision on equipments fate. During this time a crew may be thinned out via transfers. When a ship finishes its inactivation, it is then formally decommissioned, often, but not always, ships that are decommissioned end up spending the next few years in a reserve fleet before their ultimate fate is decided. Commissioning in the early United States Navy under sail was attended by no ceremony, thus, the ship was placed in commission. Commissionings were not public affairs, and unlike christening-and-launching ceremonies, were not recorded by newspapers, the first specific reference to commissioning located in naval records is a letter of November 6,1863, from Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles to all navy yards and stations
United States of America
United States Navy
