1.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
2.
Virtuti Militari
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The War Order of Virtuti Militari is Polands highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war. It was created in 1792 by Polish King Stanisław II August and is one of the oldest military decorations in the still in use. It is awarded in five classes either for personal heroism or, to commanders, some of the heroic actions recognized by an award of the Virtuti Militari are equivalent to those meriting the British Victoria Cross or the American Medal of Honor. Soon after its introduction, however, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was destroyed in the partitions of Poland, since then, the award has been reintroduced, renamed and banned several times, with its fate closely reflecting the vicissitudes of the Polish people. There have been no new awards since 1989, throughout its history, the War Order of Virtuti Militari has shared its countrys fate, and has been abolished and reintroduced several times. The order was created on 22 June 1792 by King Stanisław II August to commemorate the victorious Battle of Zieleńce. Initially, it comprised two classes, a medal for generals and officers, and a silver one for non-commissioned officers. By August 1792, a statute for the decoration had been drafted, the regulation changed the shape of the decoration from a medal to a cross, which has not changed substantially since then. It also introduced five classes to the order, the first members of the decorations chapter were also its first recipients. For the Polish-Russian War in Defence of the Constitution of 1792, anyone who wore the medal could be demoted and expelled from the army by Polands new authorities. Although on 23 November 1793 the Grodno Sejm reintroduced the decoration, it was banned again on 7 January 1794, at the insistence of Russias Catherine the Great. Only a year later, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth itself shared the fate of its decoration when what remained of the Commonwealth was annexed by its neighbors in the partitions of Poland, King Stanisław II August abdicated the same year. During his reign,526 medals had been granted,440 Silver Medals and Crosses,85 Golden Medals and Crosses, and 1 Commanders Cross. In 1806, Lt. Gen. Prince Józef Poniatowski was promoted to commander-in-chief of all forces of the Duchy of Warsaw, as one of the first recipients of the Virtuti Militari, Poniatowski insisted on the reintroduction of the decoration. The official name of the decoration was changed to the Military Medal of the Duchy of Warsaw, however, soldiers remained faithful to the former name. However, the system was changed and, since then. According to the decree of 10 October 1812, each of the recipients of a Golden or Silver Cross had the right to a salary until promoted to officer or for life. In addition, during the Napoleonic Wars, the present tradition of awarding the soldiers with the Virtuti Militari in front of the unit was established
3.
Museum ship
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A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the number of museum ships that are still operational. Many, if not most, museum ships are also associated with a maritime museum, only a few survive, sometimes because of historical significance, but more often due to luck and circumstance. The restoration and maintenance of museum ships presents problems for historians who are asked for advice, for instance, the rigging of sailing ships has almost never survived, and so the rigging plan must be reconstructed from various sources. Studying the ships also allows historians to analyze how life on and operation of the ships took place, numerous scientific papers have been written on ship restoration and maintenance, and international conferences are held discussing the latest developments. Another consideration is the distinction between a museum ship, and a ship replica. As repairs accumulate over time, less and less of the ship is of the materials. Visitors without historical background are often unable to distinguish between a historical museum ship and a ship replica, which may serve solely as a tourist attraction. Typically the visitor enters via gangplank, wanders around on the deck, then goes below, usually using the original stairways, giving a sense of how the crew got around. The interior features restored but inactivated equipment, enhanced with mementos including old photographs, explanatory displays, pages from the logs, menus. Some add recorded sound effects, audio tours or video displays to enhance the experience, in some cases, the ships radio room has been brought back into use, with volunteers operating amateur radio equipment. Often, the callsign assigned is a variation on the identification of the ship. For example, the submarine USS Cobia, which had the call NBQV, is now on the air as NB9QV. The World War II submarine USS Pampanito, berthed at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, had the wartime call NJVT and is now on the air as NJ6VT, in other cases, such as the USS Missouri, a distinctive call is used. This radio work not only helps restore part of the vessel, a number of the larger museum ships have begun to offer hosting for weddings, meetings, other events, and sleepovers, and on a few ships still seaworthy, cruises. In the United States, this includes the USS Constitutions annual turnaround, a place on the deck is by invitation or lottery only, and highly prized. Many consider the appeal of an interesting old vessel on the city waterfront strong enough that any port city should showcase one or more museum ships. This may even include building a ship at great expense
4.
Grom-class destroyer
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The Grom-class destroyers were two destroyers, built for the Polish Navy by the British company of J. Samuel White, Cowes. They were laid down in 1935 and commissioned in 1937, the two Groms were some of the fastest and most heavily armed destroyers of World War II. The selected design resulted in large and powerful ships, superior to German and Soviet destroyers of the time, the main armament was changed from the 130 mm used on the Wicher-class destroyer to the standard British destroyer calibre of 4.7 inch. However, the guns were not British, but were instead Swedish Bofors 50cal QF M34/36 and they would have been the first major modern warships to be built in Poland. Just before the war broke out, the two destroyers were evacuated to Britain to fight alongside the Royal Navy, grom was lost in this state in 1940. In December 1941 the remaining ship, Błyskawica, had the original 4.7 inch guns replaced by eight 4-inch guns in twin mountings, various other modifications of armaments and sensors were made as the war progressed
5.
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
6.
40 mm Bofors
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The Bofors 40 mm gun, often referred to simply as the Bofors gun, is an anti-aircraft/multi-purpose autocannon designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. It was one of the most popular medium-weight anti-aircraft systems during World War II, a small number of these weapons remain in service to this day, and saw action as late as the Gulf War. In the post-war era the original design was not suitable for action against jet powered aircraft, so Bofors introduced a new model of more power. In spite of sharing almost nothing with the design other than the calibre and the distinctive conical flash hider. Although not as popular as the original L/60 model, the L/70 remains in service to this day, especially as a weapon for light armored vehicles. Bofors itself has been part of BAE Systems AB since March 2005, the Swedish Navy purchased a number of 2 pounder Pom-Poms from Vickers as anti-aircraft guns in 1922. The Navy approached Bofors about the development of a capable replacement. Bofors signed a contract in late 1928, Bofors produced a gun that was a smaller version of a 57 mm semi-automatic gun developed as an anti-torpedo boat weapon in the late 19th century by Finspong. Their first test gun was a re-barreled Nordenfelt version of the Finspong gun, testing of this gun in 1929 demonstrated that a problem existed feeding the weapon in order to maintain a reasonable rate of fire. A mechanism that was enough to handle the stresses of moving the large round was too heavy to move quickly enough to fire rapidly. One attempt to solve this problem used zinc shell cases that burned up when fired and this proved to leave heavy zinc deposits in the barrel, and had to be abandoned. This seemed to be the solution they needed, improving firing rates to a level. During this period Krupp purchased a share of Bofors. Krupp engineers started the process of updating the Bofors factories to use equipment and metallurgy. The prototype was completed and fired in November 1931, and by the middle of the month it was firing strings of two and three rounds. Changes to the mechanism were all that remained, and by the end of the year it was operating at 130 rounds per minute. Continued development was needed to turn it into a suitable for production. Since acceptance trials had been passed the year before, this known as the 40 mm akan M/32
7.
Hotchkiss M1929 machine gun
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In the late 1920s, Hotchkiss proposed a range of anti-aircraft automatic weapons in the 13.2,25 and 37 mm calibres. They were all based on the type of gas-operated action. The 8 mm mle 1914 machine gun had proven extremely reliable during World War I and was still in service, Hotchkiss also advertised the 13.2 mm machine gun as an infantry weapon that could be fitted on conventional tripods and be used against light armour. French infantry commanders that had expressed interest in acquiring light anti-aircraft guns refused to accept the 13.2 mm and they argued that those heavy bullets falling down could be dangerous to friendly troops, and went to larger calibres where self-destructing shells were available. But the 13.2 mm Hotchkiss saw extensive use as a naval gun, the French Air Force used a twin mounting on a tripod carriage, designated as mitrailleuse de 13,2 mm CA mle 1930, for close-range defence of its airfields and other strategic places. Early in World War II, the French and Japanese navies were using twin and quadruple mountings on many of their warships. French warships that were refitted in the USA in 1943, such as the battleship Richelieu or the destroyer Terrible, had their 13.2 mm machine guns replaced by more efficient Oerlikon 20 mm cannons. The Spanish Navy bought this weapon in December 1935 and used it during the Civil War, the Pirotecnia Militar Army Ammunition plant produced its cartridges after 1939. After World War II it was used on the boats of the Guardia di Finanza naval service. The 13.2 mm Hotchkiss was used on the Belgian T15, the Japanese mounted license-produced version of the gun on a number of Type 92 Heavy Armoured Cars which had initially been armed with only a pair of 6. 5mm machine guns. Several self-propelled anti-aircraft combinations were tested in the 1930s, with Citroën-Kegresse or Berliet chassis, the Free French used field-modified self-propelled mountings, with guns recovered from French ships, in North-East Africa in 1942. Belgium France Greece Italy Israel Japan Poland Spain Anti-aircraft 25 mm Hotchkiss anti-aircraft gun, France 1940 larmement terrestre, ETAI,1998, ISBN 978-2-7268-8380-8 Las armas de la guerra civil española, José MAría MANRIQUE, ISBN 84-9734-475-8, pages 394 -398
8.
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
9.
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
10.
QF 4 inch Mk XVI naval gun
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The QF4 inch Mk XVI gun was the standard British Commonwealth naval anti-aircraft and dual-purpose gun of World War II. The Mk XVI superseded the earlier QF4 inch Mk V naval gun on many Royal Naval ships during the late 1930s, the ammunition fired by the Mk V gun and the Mk XVI guns was different. The Mk V ammunition was 44.3 inches long and weighed 56 pounds, while the ammunition fired by the Mk XVI gun was 42.1 inches long and weighed 66.75 pounds. The weight of the high-explosive projectile grew from 31 pounds for the Mk V to 35 pounds for the Mk XVI, there were three variants of the gun produced with differing construction methods. The original Mk XVI had an A tube, jacket to 63.5 inches from the muzzle, the Mk XVI* replaced the A tube with an autofretted loose barrel with a sealing collar at the front of the jacket. The Mk XXI was a version with an autofretted monobloc barrel. The total number of Mk XVI and XVI* guns produced was 2,555 while there were 238 Mk XXI guns produced, of those totals 604 Mk XVI* and 135 of the Mk XXI guns were produced in Canada and 45 of the Mk XVI* were produced in Australia. These guns were mounted on HA/LA Mark XIX twin mountings. QF4 inch Mk V naval gun, Royal Navy anti-aircraft predecessor List of naval anti-aircraft guns List of naval guns On HMCS Haida, Hamilton, Ortario, Naval Museum of Alberta, Canada On HMS Belfast, London. Museum of Naval Firepower, Gosport, Hampshire, UK On ORP Błyskawica, a pair at South African National Museum of Military History, Johannesburg A pair in a turret from INS Haifa, at Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum, Haifa, Israel. Two single guns on HMAS Diamantina, Brisbane, Australia One twin gun at the Marinemuseet, Horten, One twin gun in the Aldhurst military vehicles collection, Surrey England Campbell, John. Naval Weapons of World War Two, handbook for the 4 inch Q. F. Mark XVI* Gun on the H. A, twin Mark XIX And Single Mark XX Mountings. G3821/41 Naval Ordnance Department, Admiralty, July 1941
11.
Oerlikon 20 mm
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The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German 20 mm Becker design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models employed by both Allied and Axis forces during World War II, and many still in use today. During World War I, the German Reinhold Becker developed a 20 mm caliber cannon and this used a 20x70 RB cartridge and had a cyclic rate of fire of 300 rpm. It was used on a scale as an aircraft gun on Luftstreitkräfte warplanes. Because the Treaty of Versailles banned further production of weapons in Germany. SEMAG continued development of the weapon, and in 1924 had produced the SEMAG L, the Oerlikon firm, named after the Zürich suburb where it was based, then acquired all rights to the weapon, plus the manufacturing equipment and the employees of SEMAG. In 1927 the Oerlikon S was added to the product line. This fired a larger cartridge to achieve a muzzle velocity of 830 m/s, at the cost of increased weight. The purpose of development was to improve the performance of the gun as an anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapon. An improved version known as the 1S followed in 1930, three sizes of gun with their different ammunition and barrel length, but very similar mechanisms, continued to be developed in parallel. In 1930 Oerlikon reconsidered the application of its gun in aircraft and introduced the AF and AL, designed to be used in flexible mounts, the 15-round box magazine used by earlier versions of the gun was replaced by drum magazine holding 15 or 30 rounds. In 1935 it made an important step by introducing a series of guns designed to be mounted in or on the wings of fighter aircraft, designated with FF for Flügelfest meaning wing-mounted, these weapons were again available in the three sizes, with designations FF, FFL and FFS. The FF fired a larger cartridge than the AF, 20x72RB. The FF weighed 24 kg and achieved a velocity of 550 to 600 m/s with a rate of fire of 520 rpm. The FFL of 30 kg fired a projectile at a velocity of 675 m/s with a rate of fire of 500 rpm. And the FFS, which weighed 39 kg, delivered a high velocity of 830 m/s at a rate of fire of 470 rpm. Apart from changes to the design of the guns for wing-mounting and remote control, for the FF series drum sizes of 45,60,75 and 100 rounds were available, but most users chose the 60-round drum. The 1930s were a period of global re-armament, and a number of foreign firms took licenses for the Oerlikon family of aircraft cannon
12.
Polish Navy
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The Polish Navy is the military branch of the Polish Armed Forces responsible for naval operations. The current navy consists of 113 ships and about 18,000 commissioned and enlisted personnel, the traditional ship prefix in the Polish Navy is ORP. The Polish Navy is one of the largest navies on the Baltic Sea and it is mostly responsible for Baltic Sea operations. Other duties include search and rescue operations covering parts of the Baltic, as well as hydrographic measurements, the Polish Navy has its roots in naval vessels that were largely used on Polands main rivers in defense of trade and commerce. During the Thirteen Years War, this force of inland ships for the first time saw real open sea combat. At the battle of Vistula Lagoon, a Polish privateer fleet defeated the Teutonic Knights Navy, the Second Peace of Thorn acquired for Poland the strategic naval city of Danzig, and with it the means of maintaining a large fleet on the Baltic. In 1561, following a victory over Russian Naval forces in the Baltic and this led to the development of a privateer port in Puck. Around the start of the 17th century, Poland became ruled by the House of Vasa, Vasa kings attempted to create a proper fleet, but their attempts met with repeated failures, due to lack of funds in the royal treasury. During the reign of Sigismund III of Poland, the most celebrated victory of the Commonwealth Navy took place at the Battle of Oliwa in 1627 against Sweden, the victory over Sweden secured for Poland permanent access to the Atlantic, and laid the foundations for expeditions beyond Europe. The plans for the independent fleet fell through shortly afterwards due to a badly executed alliance with the Habsburgs who in 1629 took over the fleet, the Commission of Royal Ships was created in 1625. This commission, along with the allocation of funds by the Sejm in 1637. Władysław IV Vasa, Sigismunds son and successor who took the throne in 1632, purchased 12 ships, the Fleet, however, was entirely destroyed in 1637 by Denmark, without declaration of war. Support for this navy was weak and it largely withered away by the 1640s, the ships were sold in the years 1641-1643. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, although the dominant force in Central and Eastern Europe during the 16th-18th centuries, the proportionally small Polish coastline and the limited access to the Atlantic never allowed for a massive buildup of naval forces to the level of colonial powers such as England and France. The Partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century brought an end to the independent Polish Navy. Following World War I, the Second Polish Republic on 28 November 1918, by the order of Józef Piłsudski, commander of the Armed Forces of Poland, the token naval force was placed under the command of Captain Bogumił Nowotny as its first chief. The first ships were acquired from a division of the Imperial German Navy, in the 1920s and 1930s the Polish Navy underwent a modernisation program under the leadership of Vice-Admiral Jerzy Świrski and Rear-Admiral Józef Unrug. A number of ships were built in France, the Netherlands
13.
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
14.
Gdynia
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Gdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport of Gdańsk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea. For centuries, Gdynia remained an agricultural and fishing village on the Baltic coast. At the beginning of the 20th-century Gdynia became as a resort town. This also triggered an increase in local population and it was then that the town was given a more cosmopolitan character with modernism being the dominant architectural style and emerged as a city in 1926. The rapid development of Gdynia was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II, although the German troops refrained from deliberate bombing, the newly built port and shipyard were completely destroyed. The population of the city suffered much heavier losses as most of the inhabitants were evicted and expelled, the locals were either displaced to other regions of occupied Poland or sent to Nazi concentration camps throughout Europe. After the war, Gdynia was settled with the inhabitants of Warsaw and lost cities such as Lviv. The city was gradually regenerating itself with its shipyard being rebuilt, in December 1970 the shipyard workers protest against the increase of prices was bloodily repressed. This greatly contributed to the rise of the Solidarity movement in Gdańsk, today the port of Gdynia is a regular stopover on the itinerary of luxurious passenger ships and a new ferry terminal with a civil airport are under realisation. The city won numerous awards in relation to safety, infrastructure, quality of life, in 2013 Gdynia was ranked as Polands best city to live in and topped the rankings in the overarching category of general quality of life. Gdynia is also noted for its access to education. There are prestigious universities such as the Polish Naval Academy located nearby, Gdynia hosts the Gdynia Film Festival, the main Polish film festival, and was the venue for the International Random Film Festival in 2014. Late 10th century, Pomerelia was united with Poland, during the reign of Mieszko II Pomerelia seceded from Poland and became independent. 1116/1121, Bolesław III reunited Pomerelia with Poland,1227, Pomerelia again became an independent Duchy. 1253, First known mention of the name Gdynia, as a Pomeranian fishing village, the first church on this part of the Baltic Sea coast was built there. 1294, Pomerelia was inherited by the future Polish king Przemysł II. and remained as part of Poland until – 1309–1310, The Teutonic Order conquered Pomerelia,1380, The owner of the village which became Gdynia, Peter from Rusocin, gave the village to the Cistercian Order. 1382, Gdynia became property of the Cistercian abbey in Oliva, Pomerelia became part of Royal Prussia, a newly established province of the Kingdom of Poland, and later on of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. 1772, In the First Partition of Poland, Royal Prussia was annexed into the Kingdom of Prussia, Gdynia became known in German as Gdingen, and was expropriated from the Cistercian Order
15.
J. Samuel White
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J. Samuel White was a British shipbuilding firm based in East Cowes, taking its name from John Samuel White. It came to prominence during the Victorian era, during the 20th century it specialised in building destroyers for both the Royal Navy and export customers. In the closing years of the Napoleonic War he began work on what would become the Thetis Yard across the river on the West bank on the salterns and it opened officially on 1 October 1815. White subsequently rebuilt the east bank site which in 1825 became the Falcon Yard, records indicate that by the 1850s Whites docks with its steam sawmills and engine shops, and the mast and block shops, provided work for around 500 craftsmen. J Samuel White expanded still further in 1899, an order in 1911 of six destroyers for the Chilean Navy led to an expansion of the yard and the purchase of a large 80 ton hammerhead crane from Babcock & Wilcox of Renfrew, Scotland. The crane was installed in 1912 and still survives, last used in 2004 and these destroyers were fitted with Whites own design of water-tube boiler, the White-Forster boiler. These were similar to contemporary three-drum boiler designs, but had a number of smaller tubes. With the regular construction of turbines, boilers, steam and diesel engines, the general decline of shipbuilding in Britain led to the launch of the last vessel for the Royal Navy in 1963 and the closure of the shipyard. In 1981 the company ceased trading. Sammy White has built well over two thousand vessels at their various shipyards at East Cowes between 1803 and their closure in 1963. Two White-built destroyers were preserved – ORP Błyskawica and HMS Cavalier, in 1912 the company began constructing aircraft at East Cowes in a Gridiron Shed on the bank of the River Medina with Howard T. Wright as general manager and chief designer. Because of its location on The Isle of Wight the company choose the name Wight Aircraft, the company also manufactured 110 Short Type 184 aircraft designed by Short Brothers. Through 1916-1917 the company developed the Wight Quadruplane prototype fighter and this aircraft was tested at Martlesham Heath from 1917, and was written off in 1918. Massey Shaw Colledge, J. J. Warlow, Ben, Ships of the Royal Navy, The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy. David L. Williams, Whites of Cowes, pictures of some of J. Samuel Whites ships Naval Ships of J. Samuel White Photos of J. Samuel Whites fitting out crane
16.
Cowes
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Cowes is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, the two towns are linked by the Cowes Floating Bridge, a chain ferry. The population was 9,663 in the 2001 census, which doubles during the regatta in early August, the population at the 2011 census was 10,405. Charles Godfrey Lelands 19th century verses describe the towns poetically as The two great Cowes that in loud thunder roar/This on the eastern, that the western shore, Cowes has been seen as a home for international yacht racing since the founding of the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1815. It gives its name to the worlds oldest regular regatta, Cowes Week, much of the towns architecture is still heavily influenced by the style of ornate building that Prince Albert popularised. The name Westcowe was attested in 1413 as the name of one of two sandbanks, on side of the River Medina estuary, so-called after a supposed likeness to cows. The name was transferred to fortifications built during the reign of Henry VIII on the east and west banks of the river to dispel a French invasion. They subsequently gave their names to the towns of Cowes and East Cowes, the towns name has been subject to dispute in the past, sometimes being called Cowes, and then West Cowes. For example, a milestone from the 17th century exists, calling the town Cowes, in 1895 West Cowes Urban District Council applied for permission to change the name of the town to Cowes officially, and this was granted on 21 August 1895. In earlier centuries the two settlements were much smaller and known as East and West Shamblord or Shamelhorde, the East being the more significant settlement, the Isle of Wight was a target of attempted French invasions, and there were notable incursions. Henrician Castles were built in both settlements in the sixteenth century, the west fort in Cowes still survives to this day, albeit without the original Tudor towers, as Cowes Castle. The fort built in East Cowes is believed to have similar but was abandoned c1546. However, seafaring for recreation and sport remained the exception rather than the rule until much later and it was not until the reign of keen sailor George IV that the stage was set for the heyday of Cowes as The Yachting Capital of the World. In 1826 the Royal Yacht Squadron organised a regatta for the first time. This became known as Cowes Regatta and it grew into a four-day event that always ended with a fireworks display. The opium clippers Nina, Eamont and Wild Dayrell were built in Cowes, in Cowes the 18th-century house of Westbourne was home to a collector of customs whose son, born there in 1795, lived to become Dr Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School. Northwood House was the home of the Ward family and it was donated under trust to the town in 1929, the grounds becoming Northwood Park. William George Ward was a friend of the poet Tennyson
17.
Lightning
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Lightning is a sudden electrostatic discharge that occurs during a thunder storm. This discharge occurs between electrically charged regions of a cloud, between two clouds, or between a cloud and the ground. The charged regions in the atmosphere temporarily equalize themselves through this discharge referred to as an if it hits an object on the ground. Lightning causes light in the form of plasma, and sound in the form of thunder, Lightning may be seen and not heard when it occurs at a distance too great for the sound to carry as far as the light from the strike or flash. This article incorporates public domain material from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration document Understanding Lightning, the details of the charging process are still being studied by scientists, but there is general agreement on some of the basic concepts of thunderstorm electrification. The main charging area in a thunderstorm occurs in the part of the storm where air is moving upward rapidly and temperatures range from -15 to -25 Celsius. At that place, the combination of temperature and rapid upward air movement produces a mixture of super-cooled cloud droplets, small ice crystals, the updraft carries the super-cooled cloud droplets and very small ice crystals upward. At the same time, the graupel, which is larger and denser. The differences in the movement of the precipitation cause collisions to occur, when the rising ice crystals collide with graupel, the ice crystals become positively charged and the graupel becomes negatively charged. The updraft carries the positively charged ice crystals upward toward the top of the storm cloud, the larger and denser graupel is either suspended in the middle of the thunderstorm cloud or falls toward the lower part of the storm. The result is that the part of the thunderstorm cloud becomes positively charged while the middle to lower part of the thunderstorm cloud becomes negatively charged. This part of the cloud is called the anvil. While this is the charging process for the thunderstorm cloud. In addition, there is a small but important positive charge buildup near the bottom of the cloud due to the precipitation. Many factors affect the frequency, distribution, strength and physical properties of a lightning flash in a particular region of the world. These factors include ground elevation, latitude, prevailing wind currents, relative humidity, proximity to warm and cold bodies of water, to a certain degree, the ratio between IC, CC and CG lightning may also vary by season in middle latitudes. Lightnings relative unpredictability limits a complete explanation of how or why it occurs, the actual discharge is the final stage of a very complex process. At its peak, a thunderstorm produces three or more strikes to the Earth per minute
18.
Sister ship
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A sister ship is a ship of the same class as or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share an identical hull and superstructure layout, similar displacement. Often, sisters become more differentiated during their service as their equipment are separately altered, for instance, the U. S. warships USS Iowa, USS New Jersey, USS Missouri, and USS Wisconsin are all sister ships, each being an Iowa-class battleship. The most famous ships were the White Star Lines RMS Olympic, RMS Titanic. As with some other liners, the sisters worked as running mates, other sister ships include the Royal Caribbean Internationals Explorer of the Seas and Adventure of the Seas. Half-sister refers to a ship of the class but with some significant differences. Another example is the American Essex-class aircraft carriers of the Second World War that came in long-hull and short-hull versions, for example, the popular TESS-57 standard design built by Tsunishi Shipbuilding are built in Japan, China, and the Philippines. All the ships of this design are classed as sister ships, the International Maritime Organization defined sister ship in IMO resolution MSC/Circ.1158 in 2006. Criteria included these, A sister ship is a built by the same yard from the same plans. The acceptable deviation of lightship displacement should be between 1 and 2% of the displacement of the lead ship, depending on the length of the ship
19.
Thunderbolt
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A thunderbolt or lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of lightning when accompanied by a loud thunderclap. It is the same in other Indo-European traditions, for example the Vedic Vajra, as a divine manifestation the thunderbolt has been a powerful symbol throughout history, and has appeared in many mythologies. Drawing from this association, the thunderbolt is often found in military symbolism. Lightning plays a role in many mythologies, often as the weapon of a sky god, as such, it is an unsurpassed method of dramatic instantaneous retributive destruction, thunderbolts as divine weapons can be found in many mythologies. Indo-European traditions In Hittite mythology, a triple thunderbolt was one symbol of Teshub, Vedic religion the god Indra is the god of lightning. His main weapon is the thunderbolt, in Greek mythology, the thunderbolt is a weapon given to Zeus by the Cyclops. In Celtic mythology, Taranis is the god of thunder, in Irish, in Nordic mythology, Thor is specifically the god of thunder and lightning, wielding Mjolnir. In Turkish mythology, Bayülgen creates the thunderbolts, in Maya mythology, Huracan is sometimes represented as three thunderbolts. In Cherokee mythology, the Ani Hyuntikwalaski cause lightning fire in a sycamore tree. In Ojibway mythology, thunder is created by the Thunderbirds, which can be benevolent and malevolent to human beings. In Igbo mythology, the thunderbolt is the weapon of Amadioha/Amadiora, in Yoruba mythology, the thunderbolt is the weapon of Shango. In Tibetan Buddhism, the Vajra or thunderbolt is symbol of Vajrayana branch, in Paleo-Balkan mythology, Zibelthiurdos, a god recognized as similar to the Greek Zeus as a wielder of lightning and thunderbolts. In Navajo mythology, the twins, Naʼídígishí and Naayééʼ Neizghání, have bows that shoot thunderbolts as arrows. In Chinese mythology, Lei Gong uses thunderbolts as a weapon and his wife, Tian Mu, the name thunderbolt or thunderstone has also been traditionally applied to the fossilised rostra of belemnoids. The origin of these stones was not understood, and thus a mythological explanation of stones created where a lightning struck has arisen. The thunderbolt or lightning bolt continues into the world as a prominent symbol. In iconography The thunderbolt is used as an electrical symbol, a thunderbolt is used in the logo of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. The logo of the Peoples Action Party in Singapore In fiction The thunderbolt is the symbol seen on the chest of the worn by the DC Comics characters Captain Marvel, the Flash
20.
Swan Hunter
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Swan Hunter, formerly known as Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, is a shipbuilding design, engineering, and management company, based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear. At its apex, the company represented the forces of three powerful shipbuilding families, Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson. In 2006 Swan Hunter ceased vessel construction on Tyneside, but continues to provide engineering services. Swan & Hunter was founded by George Burton Hunter, who formed a partnership with the widow of Charles Sheridan Swan under the name in 1880, Swan & Hunter merged with Wigham Richardson, specifically to bid for the important contract to build RMS Mauretania on behalf of Cunard. Their bid was successful, and the new company, Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd, went on to build what was to become, in its day, Mauretania was launched from Wallsend on 20 September 1906 by the Duchess of Roxburghe. The firm expanded rapidly in the part of the twentieth century. In 1966 Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson merged with Smiths Dock Company to form Associated Shipbuilders, following the publication of the Geddes Report recommending rationalisation in British shipbuilding, the Company went on to acquire Clelands Shipbuilding Company and John Readhead & Sons in 1967. Meanwhile, Swan Hunter inherited both the Naval Yard at High Walker on the River Tyne of Vickers-Armstrongs and the Hebburn Yard of Hawthorn Leslie in 1968, in 1973 further expansion came with the purchase of Palmers Dock at Hebburn from Vickers-Armstrongs. Then in 1977, Swan Hunter Group was nationalised as part of British Shipbuilders, the flagship of the Royal Navy, HMS Ark Royal was built at Swan Hunter during this period, entering service in 1985. The Company was privatised again in 1987 but decided to close its Neptune Yard in 1988 and it was then forced to call in the receivers when the UK government awarded the contract for HMS Ocean to Kvaerner Govan in 1993. The Receiver took steps to break up the business, however the main shipyard in Wallsend was bought out from receivership by Jaap Kroese, a Dutch millionaire. The yard subsequently undertook several ad-hoc ship repair and conversion projects for private-sector customers, by July 2006, the costs had risen to £309 million and only one ship had been delivered. As result of this, the second ship RFA Lyme Bay was transferred to BAE Systems Govan in Glasgow for completion, in 2001 Swan Hunter acquired Kvaerners Port Clarence offshore yard at Teesside but then in 2006 sold it to Wilton Engineering Group. He also said that he was looking for a buyer for the land. During this time, The Lyme Bays earlier sister ship, the Largs Bay, was noted as the last ship to be built and fully completed by Swan Hunter. In April 2007, Swan Hunters cranes, along with its floating dock and other equipment, were sold to Bharati Shipyards, the entire plant machinery and equipment from Swan Hunter was dismantled and transported to India over six months to be rebuilt at Bharati Shipyards. Swans performed the design of Pioneering Spirit, provisionally named Pieter Schelte. The basic design of the systems was completed by the end of 2008
21.
Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire
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Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire was a French shipbuilding company of the late 19th and early 20th century. The name translates roughly to English as Workshops and Shipyard of the Loire, ACL was formed in 1881 in Nantes by Jollet Babin to take advantage of the expansion of the French Navy. The River Loire was already a site for shipbuilding, with Dubigeon at Nantes. In 1881 Babin set up his shipyard at Prairie du Lac, near the Dubigeon yard, and the year, in 1882. From the outset ACL focused on building warships for the French Navy, laying down capital ships at the St Nazaire site, closer to deep water, in 1901 ACL took over Normandy-Laporte at Rouen and built a factory for marine boilers and marine steam engines at Saint-Denis near Paris. In 1907 ACL at St Nazaire built two of the six Danton-class battleships, and in 1912 one of the three Bretagne-class battleships for the French Navy, All three ships served in World War I. Before World War II, ACL co-operated with C, Penhoët in building two of France’s four battleships, and had contracts for another, and two aircraft carriers, but these were not completed. Also in the inter-war years ACL diversified into aviation, forming an aircraft manufacturing division in 1925. After World War II and a decline in shipbuilding, ACL developed its link with C, Penhoët, and the two companies merged in 1955 to form Chantiers de lAtlantique. Penhoët in 1936 Jean Bart, a Richelieu-class battleship built in conjunction with C, conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships, 1922-1946. Moore, John E. Janes Fighting Ships of World War I
22.
Length between perpendiculars
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When there is no sternpost, the centerline axis of the rudder stock is used as the aft end of the length between perpendiculars. Measuring to the stern post or rudder stock was believed to give an idea of the ships carrying capacity, as it excluded the small. On some types of vessels this is, for all practical purposes, in a ship with raked stems, naturally that length changes as the draught of the ship changes, therefore it is measured from a defined loaded condition. Keever, John M. American Merchant Seamans Manual, turpin, Edward A. McEwen, William A
23.
Beam (nautical)
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The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point as measured at the ships nominal waterline. The beam is a bearing projected at right-angles from the fore and aft line, Beam may also be used to define the maximum width of a ships hull, or maximum width plus superstructure overhangs. Typical length-to-beam ratios for small sailboats are from 2,1 to 5,1, large ships have widely varying beam ratios, some as large as 20,1. Rowing shells designed for racing may have length to beam ratios as high as 30,1. The beam of many vessels can be calculated using the following formula. Some examples, For a standard 27 ft yacht, the root of 27 is 3,3 squared is 9 plus 1 =10. The beam of many 27 ft monohulls is 10 ft, for a Volvo Open 70 yacht,70.5 to the power of 2/3 =17 plus 1 =18. The beam is often around 18 ft, for a 741 ft long ship, the cube root is 9, and 9 squared is 81, plus 1. The beam will usually be around 82 ft, e. g. Seawaymax, as catamarans have more than one hull, there is a different beam calculation for this kind of vessel. BOC stands for Beam On Centerline and this term in typically used in conjunction with LOA. The ratio of LOA/BOC is used to estimate the stability of multihull vessels, the lower the ratio the greater the boats stability. The BOC for vessels is measured as follows, For a catamaran, carlin – similar to a beam, except running in a fore and aft direction. Keever, John M. American Merchant Seamans Manual, turpin, Edward A. McEwen, William A
24.
Draft (hull)
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Draft determines the minimum depth of water a ship or boat can safely navigate. The draft can also be used to determine the weight of the cargo on board by calculating the displacement of water. A table made by the shows the water displacement for each draft. The density of the water and the content of the bunkers has to be taken into account. The closely related term trim is defined as the difference between the forward and aft drafts, the draft aft is measured in the perpendicular of the stern. The draft forward is measured in the perpendicular of the bow, the scale may use traditional English units or metric units. If the English system is used, the bottom of each marking is the draft in feet, in metric marking schemes, the bottom of each draft mark is the draft in decimeters and each mark is one decimeter high. Larger ships try to maintain a water draft when they are light, in order to make a better sea crossing. In order to achieve this they use sailing ballasts to stabilize the ship, the water draft of a large ship has little direct link with its stability because stability depends solely on the respective positions of the metacenter of the hull and the center of gravity. It is also however, that a light ship has quite high stability which can lead to implying too much rolling of the ship. A fully laden ship can have either a strong or weak stability, the draft of ships can be increased when the ship is in motion in shallow water, a phenomenon known as squat. Draft is a significant factor limiting navigable waterways, especially for large vessels, of course this includes many shallow coastal waters and reefs, but also some major shipping lanes. Panamax class ships—the largest ships able to transit the Panama Canal—do have a limit but are usually limited by beam, or sometimes length overall. However, in the much wider Suez Canal, the factor for Suezmax ships is draft. Some supertankers are able to transit the Suez Canal when unladen or partially laden, canals are not the only draft-limited shipping lanes. A Malaccamax ship has the deepest draft able to transit the very busy, there are only a few ships of this size. A small draft allows pleasure boats to navigate through shallower water and this makes it possible for these boats to access smaller ports, to travel along rivers and even to beach the boat. A large draft ensures a level of stability in strong wind
25.
Displacement (ship)
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The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is the ships weight. The name reflects the fact that it is measured indirectly, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, by Archimedes principle, this is also the weight of the ship. Displacement should not be confused with other measurements of volume or capacity typically used for vessels such as net tonnage, gross tonnage. The process of determining a vessels displacement begins with measuring its draft This is accomplished by means of its draft marks, a merchant vessel has three matching sets, one mark each on the port and starboard sides forward, midships, and astern. These marks allow a ships displacement to be determined to an accuracy of 0. 5%, the draft observed at each set of marks is averaged to find a mean draft. The ships hydrostatic tables show the corresponding volume displaced, to calculate the weight of the displaced water, it is necessary to know its density. Seawater is more dense than water, so a ship will ride higher in salt water than in fresh. The density of water varies with temperature. Devices akin to slide rules have been available since the 1950s to aid in these calculations and it is done today with computers. Displacement is usually measured in units of tonnes or long tons and these bring the ship down to its load draft, colloquially known as the waterline. Full load displacement and loaded displacement have almost identical definitions, full load is defined as the displacement of a vessel when floating at its greatest allowable draft as established by classification societies. Warships have arbitrary full load condition established, deep load condition means full ammunition and stores, with most available fuel capacity used. Light displacement is defined as the weight of the ship excluding cargo, fuel, water, ballast, stores, passengers, crew, normal displacement is the ships displacement with all outfit, and two-thirds supply of stores, ammunition, etc. on board. Standard displacement, also known as Washington displacement, is a term defined by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Naval architecture Hull Hydrodynamics Tonnage Dear, I. C. B, oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea. George, William E. Stability & Trim for the Ships Officer, turpin, Edward A. McEwen, William A. Trim and Stability Information for Drydocking Calculations, conference on the Limitation of Armament,1922. Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States,1922, proceedings of the United States Naval Institute
26.
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
27.
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
28.
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
29.
Caliber (artillery)
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In artillery, caliber or calibre is the internal diameter of a gun barrel, or by extension a relative measure of the length. Rifled barrels introduce ambiguity to measurement of caliber, a rifled bore consists of alternating grooves and lands. The distance across the bore from groove to groove is greater than the distance from land to land, the depth of rifling grooves increases in larger calibers. United States Navy guns typically used rifling depth between one-half and one percent of caliber, projectile bourrelet diameter specification was 0.015 inches less than land to land diameter with a minus manufacturing tolerance so average clearance was about 0.012 inches. Driving band diameter was groove to groove diameter plus 0.02 inches, the length of the barrel is often quoted in calibers. For example, US Naval Rifles 3 in or larger, the effective length of the barrel is divided by the barrel diameter to give a dimensionless quantity.81 As an example, the main guns of the Iowa-class battleships can be referred to as 16/50 caliber. They are 16 inches in diameter and the barrel is 800 inches long, the bore to barrel length ratio is called caliber in naval gunnery,81 but is called length in army artillery. Before World War II, the US Navy used 5/51 caliber as surface-to-surface guns, by the end of World War II, the dual purpose 5/38 caliber was standard naval armament against surface and air targets. All three had a diameter of 5 inches. At sea, a weapon had to perform, without fail, there was no ready replacement, nor one that could be readily supplied. Over time, the terms of pound and bore became confused and blurred, eventually, when the technology existed, the bore came to be the standard measure. For naval rifles, the change was to actual bore. They then began to measure the length of the weapon in calibers. These were a measure of the bore of the barrel versus the rifled bore of the barrel. In other words, a 12/45 is 12×45= the length of the bore of that gun in inches. This explains the differences in both penetration and long range performance of naval rifles over the years. In addition to the improvements in overall performance, the increase in barrel length also allowed, in some circumstances. For example, the American 14/45, as introduced in the New York-class battleships, later improvements to the design, lengthening the rifle itself and also altering the breech, allowed a 1400 lb. projectile and, overall, a greater barrel life
30.
Bofors
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Bofors AB is a Swedish arms manufacturing company. The name has been associated with the industry and artillery manufacturing for more than 350 years. Located in Karlskoga, Sweden, the company originates from the trip hammer mill Boofors. The modern corporate structure was created in 1873 with the foundation of Aktiebolaget Bofors-Gullspång, a leading Swedish steel producer by the early 1870s, Bofors expanded into weapons manufacture when steel produced by the Siemens-Martin process began to be used for gun manufacture. The companys first cannon workshop was opened in 1884, Bofors most famous owner was Alfred Nobel, who owned the company from 1894 until his death in December 1896. Nobel played the key role in reshaping the iron and steel producer to a modern cannon manufacturer. The powder manufacturer AB Bofors Nobelkrut, later an explosives and general producer, was created in 1898 as a wholly owned subsidiary. By 1911, AB Bofors-Gullspång had outcompeted, bought and closed down its Finspång Swedish competitor in cannon manufacture, the companys name was shortened to AB Bofors in 1919. In 1986, a million contract between the Government of India and Swedish arms company Bofors was signed for the supply of 410155 mm field howitzers. In 1987, Swedish Radio alleged that Bofors paid illegal commissions to top Indian politicians, the scandal contributed to the defeat of Rajiv Gandhi in elections three years later. In 1999, Saab AB purchased the Celsius Group, then the parent company of Bofors, in September 2000, United Defense Industries of the United States acquired Bofors Weapons Systems, while Saab retained the missile interests. This automatic cannon is often called the Bofors gun and saw service on both land and sea. It became so known that anti-aircraft guns in general were often referred to as Bofors guns. Another well-known gun made by the company was the Bofors 37 mm anti-tank gun and it was built under licence in Poland and the United States and was also used in a variety of tanks, including the 7TP and M3A3 Stuart
31.
Bofors 40 mm gun
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The Bofors 40 mm gun, often referred to simply as the Bofors gun, is an anti-aircraft/multi-purpose autocannon designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. It was one of the most popular medium-weight anti-aircraft systems during World War II, a small number of these weapons remain in service to this day, and saw action as late as the Gulf War. In the post-war era the original design was not suitable for action against jet powered aircraft, so Bofors introduced a new model of more power. In spite of sharing almost nothing with the design other than the calibre and the distinctive conical flash hider. Although not as popular as the original L/60 model, the L/70 remains in service to this day, especially as a weapon for light armored vehicles. Bofors itself has been part of BAE Systems AB since March 2005, the Swedish Navy purchased a number of 2 pounder Pom-Poms from Vickers as anti-aircraft guns in 1922. The Navy approached Bofors about the development of a capable replacement. Bofors signed a contract in late 1928, Bofors produced a gun that was a smaller version of a 57 mm semi-automatic gun developed as an anti-torpedo boat weapon in the late 19th century by Finspong. Their first test gun was a re-barreled Nordenfelt version of the Finspong gun, testing of this gun in 1929 demonstrated that a problem existed feeding the weapon in order to maintain a reasonable rate of fire. A mechanism that was enough to handle the stresses of moving the large round was too heavy to move quickly enough to fire rapidly. One attempt to solve this problem used zinc shell cases that burned up when fired and this proved to leave heavy zinc deposits in the barrel, and had to be abandoned. This seemed to be the solution they needed, improving firing rates to a level. During this period Krupp purchased a share of Bofors. Krupp engineers started the process of updating the Bofors factories to use equipment and metallurgy. The prototype was completed and fired in November 1931, and by the middle of the month it was firing strings of two and three rounds. Changes to the mechanism were all that remained, and by the end of the year it was operating at 130 rounds per minute. Continued development was needed to turn it into a suitable for production. Since acceptance trials had been passed the year before, this known as the 40 mm akan M/32
32.
Wicher-class destroyer
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Wicher-class destroyers served in the Polish Navy during World War II. Two ships of class were built for the Second Polish Republic by Chantiers Naval Français during the late 1920s. They were modified versions of the Bourrasque-class destroyers built for the French Navy, after the Great War, Polands shoreline was very short and there was no need to create a large naval force. Initially consisting merely of four naval trawlers and two monitors — all inherited from the Kaiserliche Marine — in 1924, the Polish Navy was to start the construction of nine submarines. As Polands greatest possible enemy at that time was perceived to be the Soviet Union, however, due to the economic crisis and the customs war with Germany, this plan had to be abandoned and eventually only three ships were ordered from France. At that time, the government of Władysław Grabski tried to obtain a credit from France. After initial talks, the shipyard presented Poland with a plan for two modified Bourrasque-class destroyers, on April 2,1926 the contract was signed. Additionally, flaws in the projects planning resulted in poorly designed water-resistant chambers and pipelines, also the ships suffered from poor stability due to fuel tanks being located high up on the superstructure just below the bridge. As the shipyard had absolutely no experience in building vessels of this size, some of the flaws were corrected on the insistence of the Polish admiralty, but others could not be resolved. Construction of each ship took four years, almost two more than initially planned. The steam turbines were built in Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire in St. Nazaire, the first ship was launched on July 10,1928, but it was not until July 8,1930, when she was finally commissioned by the Polish Navy in the Cherbourg harbour. She was named ORP Wicher, in accordance with the French tradition of naming destroyers after meteorological phenomena, a week later she arrived at Gdynia and became the first modern ship of the Polish naval forces. The second ship of the class, ORP Burza, was not finished until 1932, ORP Wicher was sunk in the opening days of the Invasion of Poland in 1939. ORP Burza survived the war, became a ship and was eventually scrapped in 1977. Navies in Exile by Divine, A. D, john Murray Publishers Ltd, London,1944 Picture of ORP Wicher and her sister ship side by side at Gdynia harbour
33.
Naval mine
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A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, Naval mines can be used offensively—to hamper enemy shipping movements or lock vessels into a harbour, or defensively—to protect friendly vessels and create safe zones. Mines can be laid in many ways, by purpose-built minelayers, refitted ships, submarines and their flexibility and cost-effectiveness make mines attractive to the less powerful belligerent in asymmetric warfare. The cost of producing and laying a mine is usually anywhere from 0. 5% to 10% of the cost of removing it, parts of some World War II naval minefields still exist because they are too extensive and expensive to clear. It is possible for some of these 1940s-era mines to remain dangerous for many years to come, Mines have been employed as offensive or defensive weapons in rivers, lakes, estuaries, seas, and oceans, but they can also be used as tools of psychological warfare. Offensive mines are placed in enemy waters, outside harbours and across important shipping routes with the aim of sinking both merchant and military vessels. Defensive minefields safeguard key stretches of coast from enemy ships and submarines, forcing them into more easily defended areas, minefields designed for psychological effect are usually placed on trade routes and are used to stop shipping from reaching an enemy nation. They are often spread thinly, to create an impression of minefields existing across large areas, a single mine inserted strategically on a shipping route can stop maritime movements for days while the entire area is swept. International law requires nations to declare when they mine an area, the warnings do not have to be specific, for example, during World War II, Britain declared simply that it had mined the English Channel, North Sea, and French coast. Chinese records tell of naval explosives in the 16th century, used to fight against Japanese pirates and this kind of naval mine was loaded in a wooden box, sealed with putty. General Qi Jiguang made several timed, drifting explosives, to harass Japanese pirate ships, although this is the rotating steel wheellocks first use in naval mines, Jiao Yu had described their use for land mines back in the 14th century. The first plan for a sea mine in the West was by Ralph Rabbards, the Dutch inventor Cornelius Drebbel was employed in the Office of Ordnance by King Charles I of England to make weapons, including a floating petard which proved a failure. Weapons of this type were apparently tried by the English at the Siege of La Rochelle in 1627, American David Bushnell developed the first American naval mine for use against the British in the American War of Independence. It was a watertight keg filled with gunpowder that was floated toward the enemy and it was used on the Delaware River as a drift mine. In 1812 Russian engineer Pavel Shilling exploded a mine using an electrical circuit. Russian naval specialists set more than 1500 naval mines, or infernal machines, designed by Moritz von Jacobi and by Immanuel Nobel, the mining of Vulcan led to the worlds first minesweeping operation. During the next 72 hours,33 mines were swept, the Jacobi mine was designed by German born, Russian engineer Jacobi, in 1853. The mine was tied to the sea bottom by an anchor, a cable connected it to a cell which powered it from the shore
34.
Keel laying
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Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ships construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company, keel laying is one of the four specially-celebrated events in the life of a ship, the others are launching, commissioning, and decommissioning. In earlier times, the event recognized as the keel laying was the placement of the central timber making up the backbone of a vessel. As steel ships replaced wooden ones, the central timber gave way to a steel beam. Modern ships are now built in a series of pre-fabricated. The event recognized as the keel laying is the first joining of modular components and it is now often called keel authentication, and is the ceremonial beginning of the ships life, although modules may have been started months before that stage of construction. Keel-related traditions from the times of wooden ships are said to bring luck to the ship during construction and to the captain, the first milestone in the history of a ship is the generally simple ceremony that marks the laying of the keel. Invitations to the ceremony are issued by officials, and the ceremony is conducted by them. The builder may be the commander of a shipyard or the president of a private company. The ships prospective name, without the USS, is mentioned in the invitation, if known, otherwise her type and number are given, e. g. DD2217
35.
Isle of Wight
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The Isle of Wight /ˈaɪl əv ˈwaɪt/ is a county and the largest and second-most populous island in England. It is located in the English Channel, about 4 miles off the coast of Hampshire, the island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of fields, downland and chines. The island has been home to the poets Swinburne and Tennyson and to Queen Victoria and it has a maritime and industrial tradition including boat building, sail making, the manufacture of flying boats, the hovercraft, and Britains space rockets. The island hosts annual festivals including the Isle of Wight Festival. It has well-conserved wildlife and some of the richest cliffs and quarries for dinosaur fossils in Europe, the Isle was owned by a Norman family until 1293 and was earlier a kingdom in its own right. Rural for most of its history, its Victorian fashionability and the affordability of holidays led to significant urban development during the late 19th. The island was part of Hampshire until 1890 when it became its own administrative county, apart from a shared police force, there is now no administrative link with Hampshire, although a combined local authority with Portsmouth and Southampton is being considered. Until 1995 the island had a governor, the quickest public transport link to the mainland is the hovercraft from Ryde to Southsea, while three ferry and two catamaran services cross the Solent to Southampton, Lymington and Portsmouth. During the Ice Age, sea levels were lower and the Solent was part of a river flowing south east from current day Poole Harbour towards mid-Channel. As sea levels rose, the valley became flooded. The first inhabitants are assumed to have been hunter-gatherers migrating by land during the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age period, as the ice age began to recede. From the Neolithic era onwards, there are indications that the island had wide trading links, with a port at Bouldnor, evidence of Bronze Age tin trading, caesar reported that the Belgae took the Isle of Wight in about 85 BC and gave its name as Vectis. The Roman historian Suetonius mentions that the island was captured by the commander Vespasian, the Romans built no towns or roads on the island, but the remains of at least seven Roman villas have been found, indicating the prosperity of local agriculture. During the Dark Ages the island was settled by Jutes as the kingdom of Wihtwara under King Arwald. In 685 it was invaded by Caedwalla, who tried to replace the inhabitants with his own followers and it suffered especially from Viking raids, and was often used as a winter base by Viking raiders when they were unable to reach Normandy. Later, both Earl Tostig and his brother Harold Godwinson held manors on the island, the Norman Conquest of 1066 created the position of Lord of the Isle of Wight, the island being given by William the Conqueror to his kinsman William FitzOsbern. Carisbrooke Priory and the fort of Carisbrooke Castle were then founded, allegiance was sworn to FitzOsbern rather than the king, the Lordship was subsequently granted to the de Redvers family by Henry I, after his succession in 1100. For nearly 200 years the island was a semi-independent feudal fiefdom, the final private owner was the Countess Isabella de Fortibus, who, on her deathbed in 1293, was persuaded to sell it to Edward I
36.
Ship naming and launching
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Ceremonial ship launching is the process of transferring a vessel to the water. It is a tradition in many cultures, dating back thousands of years. It has been observed as a celebration and a solemn blessing. The process also involves many traditions intended to invite good luck, such as christening by breaking a bottle of champagne over the bow as the ship is named aloud. There are three methods of conveying a new ship from building site to water, only two of which are called launching. The oldest, most familiar, and most widely used is the launch, in which the vessel slides down an inclined slipway. With the side launch, the ship enters the water broadside and this method came into use in the 19th-century on inland waters, rivers, and lakes, and was more widely adopted during World War II. The third method is float-out, used for ships that are built in basins or dry docks and then floated by admitting water into the dock. In all cases, heavy chains are attached to the ship, normally, ways are arranged perpendicular to the shore line and the ship is built with its stern facing the water. The barricades support the two launch ways, the vessel is built upon temporary cribbing that is arranged to give access to the hulls outer bottom and to allow the launchways to be erected under the complete hull. When it is time to prepare for launching, a pair of standing ways is erected under the hull, the surface of the ways is greased. A pair of sliding ways is placed on top, under the hull, the weight of the hull is then transferred from the build cribbing onto the launch cradle. On launching, the vessel slides backwards down the slipway on the ways until it floats by itself, some slipways are built so that the vessel is side-on to the water and is launched sideways. This is done where the limitations of the channel would not allow lengthwise launching. The Great Eastern designed by Brunel was built this way as were many landing craft during World War II and this method requires many more sets of ways to support the weight of the ship. Sometimes ships are launched using a series of inflated tubes underneath the hull and this procedure has the advantages of requiring less permanent infrastructure, risk, and cost. The airbags provide support to the hull of the ship and aid its launching motion into the water and these airbags are usually cylindrical in shape with hemispherical heads at both ends. The Xiao Qinghe shipyard launched a tank barge with marine airbags on January 20,1981, egyptians, Greeks, and Romans called on their gods to protect seamen
37.
Sea trials
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A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft. It is also referred to as a cruise by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, sea trials are conducted to measure a vessel’s performance and general seaworthiness. Testing of a speed, maneuverability, equipment and safety features are usually conducted. Usually in attendance are technical representatives from the builder, governing and certification officials, successful sea trials subsequently lead to a vessel’s certification for commissioning and acceptance by its owner. Although sea trials are commonly thought to be conducted only on new-built vessels, in new vessels, they are used to determine conformance to construction specifications. On commissioned vessels, they are used to confirm the impact of any modifications. Sea trials can also refer to a short test trip undertaken by a buyer of a new or used vessel as one determining factor in whether to purchase the vessel. Sea trials are fairly standardized using technical bulletins published by ITTC, SNAME, BMT and they involve demonstrations and tests of the ships systems and performance. The ships heading is adjusted to have the wind and tide as close to bow-on as possible, the vessel is allowed to come to speed and the speed is continuously recorded using differential GPS. The trial will be executed with different speeds including service and maximum speed, the ship is then turned through 180° and the procedure is followed again. This reduces the impact of wind and tide, the final Trials Speed is determined by averaging all of the measured speeds during each of the runs. This process may be repeated in various sea states, the trial begins once the order to Execute Crash Stop is given. At this point the propulsion machinery is set to full-astern and the helm is put hard-over to either port or starboard, the speed, position and heading are continuously recorded using differential GPS. The final time to stop track line, drift and advance are all calculated, the trial may be repeated at various starting speeds. The fuel flow, exhaust and cooling temperatures and ships speed are all recorded. Maneuvering trials involve a number of trials to determine the maneuverability and these include a direct and reverse spiral manoeuvres, zig-zag, and lateral thruster use. Seakeeping trials were used exclusively for passenger ships but now used in a variety of vessels, involves measurements of ship motions in various sea states followed by a series of analyses to determine comfort levels, likelihood of sea sickness and hull damage
38.
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
39.
ORP Grom (1936)
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ORP Grom was the lead ship of her class of destroyers serving in the Polish Navy during World War II. She was named after the Polish word for Thunderbolt, while her sister ship ORP Błyskawica translates to lightning, Grom was thought of as a large destroyer, similar to flotilla leaders. She and sister ship ORP Błyskawica were to support the outdated French-built Wicher, as Poland had only one major seaport, the main task of the Polish naval forces was to secure supplies shipment to and from allied countries. Because of that, the Grom class was designed to both the role of shore defence and convoy escort and was supposed to be stronger than single enemy destroyers. The ship had a range of 3,500 nautical miles at 15 knots. Grom was ordered from the British J. Samuel White shipyard in Cowes and was laid down in 1935, the destroyer was commissioned in 1937. On 1 September 1939, Polish destroyers met the British destroyers Wanderer, the British ships led the Polish flotilla to Leith, and in the night the Polish destroyers came to Rosyth. However, no convoys were organized to help Poland during the Polish Defensive War. During her operations in the Norwegian Campaign, Grom was ranked by the German soldiers as probably the most hated of all the Allied ships deployed to the area. This hatred was founded on the fact that Grom took an intense interest in all movements on shore and was reputed to spend hours lurking the coast in order harass German forces. It is worth noting that this posture caused Grom to inflict heavy damage. On 4 May 1940, Grom carried out turned out to be the last of her many naval gunfire support missions in the Narvik area in the Rombaken fjord. She was attacked by a Heinkel He 111 bomber from Kampfgeschwader 100, the wreck was never raised and it was not until 6 October 1986 that it was explored by divers for the first time
40.
Baltic Sea
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The Baltic Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by Scandinavia, Finland, the Baltic countries, and the North European Plain. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, the sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. The Baltic Sea is connected by waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea Canal. Traffic history Historically, the Kingdom of Denmark collected Sound Dues from ships at the border between the ocean and the land-locked Baltic Sea and they were collected in the Øresund at Kronborg castle near Helsingør, in the Great Belt at Nyborg. In the Little Belt, the site of intake was moved to Fredericia, the narrowest part of Little Belt is the Middelfart Sund near Middelfart. Oceanography Geographers widely agree that the physical border of the Baltic is a line drawn through the southern Danish islands, Drogden-Sill. The Drogden Sill is situated north of Køge Bugt and connects Dragør in the south of Copenhagen to Malmö, it is used by the Øresund Bridge, including the Drogden Tunnel. By this definition, the Danish Straits are part of the entrance, but the Bay of Mecklenburg, another usual border is the line between Falsterbo, Sweden and Stevns Klint, Denmark, as this is the southern border of Øresund. Its also the border between the shallow southern Øresund and notably deeper water, hydrography and biology Drogden Sill sets a limit to Øresund and Darss Sill, and a limit to the Belt Sea. The shallow sills are obstacles to the flow of salt water from the Kattegat into the basins around Bornholm. The Kattegat and the southwestern Baltic Sea are well oxygenated and have a rich biology, the remainder of the Sea is brackish, poor in oxygen and in species. While Tacitus called it Mare Suebicum after the Germanic people called the Suebi, the origin of the latter name is speculative. Adam of Bremen himself compared the sea with a belt, stating that it is so named because it stretches through the land as a belt and he might also have been influenced by the name of a legendary island mentioned in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder. Pliny mentions an island named Baltia with reference to accounts of Pytheas and it is possible that Pliny refers to an island named Basilia in On the Ocean by Pytheas. Baltia also might be derived from belt and mean near belt of sea, meanwhile, others have suggested that the name of the island originates from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair. This root and its meaning were retained in both Lithuanian and Latvian. On this basis, a related hypothesis holds that the name originated from this Indo-European root via a Baltic language such as Lithuanian, yet another explanation is that the name originally meant enclosed sea, bay as opposed to open sea. Some Swedish historians believe the name derives from the god Balder of Nordic mythology, in the Middle Ages the sea was known by variety of names
41.
Funnel cap
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A cowl is a usually hood-shaped covering used to increase the draft of a chimney and prevent backflow. The cowl, usually made of galvanized iron, is fitted to the pot to prevent wind blowing the smoke back down into the room below. Undoubtedly named after the resemblance of many designs to the garment worn by monks. When using a fire to heat a room the smoke rises through a flue to a chimney pot on the roof. Under normal conditions the air from the fire will rise up the chimney emitting the smoke with it. In strong winds the pressure of the wind may overwhelm the updraft, smoke will then fill the room it is intended to heat posing a health and fire risk, causing discomfort and dirtying furnishings in its path. When raw coal rather than smokeless fuel is burnt, the amount of smoke may be considerable, a secondary function is to prevent birds and squirrels from nesting in the chimney. They often also act as a guard to keep rain from going down the chimney. A metal wire mesh is sometimes added as a spark arrestor, wooden cowls were used on oasts to prevent the ingress of rain into kilns, and create a flow of air through the kiln. A H-style cap is a chimney top constructed from chimney pipes shaped like the letter H and it is an age-old method to regulate draft in situations where prevailing winds or turbulence cause downdraft and backpuffing. Although the H-cap has an advantage over most other downdraft caps. It is found mainly in use but has been gaining popularity again for its energy saving functionality. The H-cap stabilizes the draft rather than increasing it, other downdraft caps are based on the Venturi effect, solving downdraft problems by increasing the updraft constantly resulting in much higher fuel consumption. Cowls are also used where flues are no longer in use and therefore need to be capped off for protection against ingress of precipitation, such cowls are designed to afford protection to the flue while still allowing a degree of ventilation. Chimney Davies Brothers & Co Ltd,1910 Catalogue Wolverhampton History, accessed April 2007 Chimney Cowl at English Heritage thesaurus
42.
Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
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The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German 20 mm Becker design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models employed by both Allied and Axis forces during World War II, and many still in use today. During World War I, the German Reinhold Becker developed a 20 mm caliber cannon and this used a 20x70 RB cartridge and had a cyclic rate of fire of 300 rpm. It was used on a scale as an aircraft gun on Luftstreitkräfte warplanes. Because the Treaty of Versailles banned further production of weapons in Germany. SEMAG continued development of the weapon, and in 1924 had produced the SEMAG L, the Oerlikon firm, named after the Zürich suburb where it was based, then acquired all rights to the weapon, plus the manufacturing equipment and the employees of SEMAG. In 1927 the Oerlikon S was added to the product line. This fired a larger cartridge to achieve a muzzle velocity of 830 m/s, at the cost of increased weight. The purpose of development was to improve the performance of the gun as an anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapon. An improved version known as the 1S followed in 1930, three sizes of gun with their different ammunition and barrel length, but very similar mechanisms, continued to be developed in parallel. In 1930 Oerlikon reconsidered the application of its gun in aircraft and introduced the AF and AL, designed to be used in flexible mounts, the 15-round box magazine used by earlier versions of the gun was replaced by drum magazine holding 15 or 30 rounds. In 1935 it made an important step by introducing a series of guns designed to be mounted in or on the wings of fighter aircraft, designated with FF for Flügelfest meaning wing-mounted, these weapons were again available in the three sizes, with designations FF, FFL and FFS. The FF fired a larger cartridge than the AF, 20x72RB. The FF weighed 24 kg and achieved a velocity of 550 to 600 m/s with a rate of fire of 520 rpm. The FFL of 30 kg fired a projectile at a velocity of 675 m/s with a rate of fire of 500 rpm. And the FFS, which weighed 39 kg, delivered a high velocity of 830 m/s at a rate of fire of 470 rpm. Apart from changes to the design of the guns for wing-mounting and remote control, for the FF series drum sizes of 45,60,75 and 100 rounds were available, but most users chose the 60-round drum. The 1930s were a period of global re-armament, and a number of foreign firms took licenses for the Oerlikon family of aircraft cannon
43.
ORP Burza
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ORP Burza was a Wicher-class destroyer of the Polish Navy which saw action in World War II. ORP Burza was ordered on 2 April 1926 from the French shipyard Chantiers Naval Francais together with her sister ship Wicher and she entered service in 1932, and her first commander became kmdr Bolesław Sokołowski. On 30 August 1939 the Polish destroyers ORP Burza, Błyskawica and Grom were ordered to execute the Peking Plan, on 1 September 1939, Polish destroyers met the British destroyers HMS Wanderer and Wallace. The British ships led the Polish ships to Leith, and at night the Polish destroyers arrived at Rosyth, Burza assisted British forces off Norway in April 1940, and in the English Channel in May,1940. On the 4th May ORP Burza came alongside the Resolution and took Polish survivors on board from the sinking of ORP Grom earlier that day, at 16.20 the Allied vessels opened fire on enemy armoured column at Sangatte Hill, west of Calais. Ten minutes later they were attacked by 27 German airplanes which hit, then the entire enemy air group concentrated on the Polish destroyer. The AA guns jammed due to shrapnel hits, three bombs exploded in the water and they caused boiler damage and loss of speed. The Admiral, when shown the forepeak apologised not realising how badly damaged the Burza was, after major repairs in Portsmouth, the Burza escorted convoy HX-217 as part of Escort Group B-6. While attached to Escort Group B-3, Burza escorted convoys ONS-167, HX-228, Burza was detached from ONS-167 to defend Convoy ON-166. While attached to Support Group 8, Burza escorted convoy SC-145, in 1944, Burza became a training ship, and in 1945 she became a submarine tender for Polish submarines. The Polish crew left the ship in 1946, when Burza was transferred to the Royal Navy, in 1951, the ship was returned to the Polish Navy and towed to Gdynia in July. Burza was overhauled and entered service in 1955, in 1960, she became a museum ship. After Błyskawica replaced her in role, she was scrapped in 1977. Antoni Doroszkowski kpt. mar Jan Tchórznicki kmdr ppor, history of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume I The Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1943. Janes Fighting Ships of World War II, rohwer, J. & Hummelchen, G. Chronology of the War at Sea 1939-1945
44.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
45.
Peking Plan
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They were ordered to travel to British ports and assist the British Royal Navy in the event of a war with Nazi Germany. The plan was successful and allowed the ships to avoid certain destruction or capture in the German invasion, the plan was created in order to remove the Destroyer Division of the Polish Navy from the Baltic Sea operation theatre. Also, the Danish straits were well within range of the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe. Although Śmigły-Rydz resisted the idea at first, he finally agreed, part of Śmigły-Rydzs reason for doing so was the idea of a Romanian Bridgehead. It was hoped the Polish forces could hold out in the southeast of the country, near the border with Romania. Munitions and arms could be delivered from the west via Romanian ports, the Polish Navy would then be able to escort the ships delivering the supplies to Romanian ports. The order was delivered in sealed envelopes to the ships, on 29 August, the fleet received the signal Peking, Peking, Peking from the Polish Commander-in-Chief, Marshall Śmigły-Rydz, Execute Peking. At 1255 hours, the received the signal via signal flags or radio from the signal tower at Oksywie. The respective captains of the ships opened the envelopes and departed at 1415 under the command of Komandor porucznik Roman Stankiewicz, Błyskawica was commanded by Komandor porucznik Włodzimierz Kodrębski, Burza by Komandor podporucznik Stanisław Nahorski and Grom by Komandor porucznik Włodzimierz Hulewicz. The ships traveled without any problems through the Baltic, entering Øresund after midnight, in the passage they encountered the German light cruiser Königsberg and a destroyer, but as the war had not yet started there was no combat. The Polish ships then passed through the Kattegat and Skagerrak, the ships entered the North Sea, and at 0925 on 1 September learned about the German invasion of Poland. At 1258, they encountered the Royal Navy destroyers HMS Wanderer and Wallace, at 17,37, they docked in Leith, the port of Edinburgh. The Peking Plan generated controversy in Poland, but it proved to be a wise decision, the ships served alongside the Royal Navy for the remainder of the war, and ORP Burza and ORP Błyskawica survived the war. Orzeł incident Plan Worek Polish Navy order of battle in 1939 Jerzy Pertek, Wielkie dni małej floty, poznańskie, Poznań1976, OCLC69482799, ISBN 83-210-0542-X Adrian Carton De Wiart, Happy Odyssey Jonathan Cape, London,1950
46.
Leith
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Leith /ˈliːθ/, Scottish Gaelic, Lìte, is a district to the north of the city of Edinburgh at the mouth of the Water of Leith. The earliest surviving references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of Holyrood Abbey in 1128. The medieval settlements of Leith had grown into a burgh by 1833, historically part of Midlothian, Leith is sited on the coast of the Firth of Forth and lies within the council area of the City of Edinburgh. The port remains one of its most valuable enterprises, handling over 1.5 million tonnes of cargo a year in 2003, previous to the bridge being built in the late 15th century, Leith had settlements on either side of the river, lacking an easy crossing. South Leith was larger and was controlled by the lairds of Restalrig and it was based on trade and had many merchants houses and warehouses. This was where ships offloaded their cargoes at The Shore where they were collected by Edinburgh merchants, leithers were explicitly forbidden by statute to participate directly in the trade at the port, to ensure that landed goods were not sold elsewhere. North Leith was smaller but proportionately richer, coming under the jurisdiction of Holyrood Abbey and it was effectively a fishing village consisting of one street, now Sandport Street and Quayside Lane. Burgage plots ran down to the river from each house and this has traditionally been the shipbuilding side of Leith with several wet and dry docks built over time. The first dry dock in Scotland was built here in 1720, a small peninsula of land on the east bank also came under the same jurisdiction on what is now Sheriff Brae/Sheriff Bank. The first bridge to both banks of the river was built in 1493 by Abbot Bellenden, who controlled the church at North Leith. The bridge was a bridge, the revenue supplementing the churchs income. Reputedly Leiths oldest building, it was demolished in 1780 to allow ships to sail further upstream, the earliest evidence of settlement in Leith comes from several archaeological digs undertaken in the Shore area in the late 20th century. Amongst the finds were medieval wharf edges from the 12th century and this date fits with the earliest documentary evidence of settlement in Leith - the foundation charter of Holyrood Abbey. Leith has played a long and prominent role in Scottish history, as the major port serving Edinburgh, it has been the stage on which many significant events in Scottish history have taken place. Mary of Guise ruled Scotland from Leith in 1560 as Regent while her daughter, Mary, Mary of Guise moved the Scottish Court to Leith, to a site that is now Parliament Street, off Coalhill. According to the 18th-century historian William Maitland, her palace was situated on Rotten Row, now Water Street. Artifacts from the residence are held by the National Museum of Scotland. In June 1560, Mary of Guise died, and the Siege of Leith ended with the departure of the French troops in accordance with the Treaty of Leith, also known as the Treaty of Edinburgh
47.
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
48.
Home Fleet
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The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy that operated in the United Kingdoms territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967. Rear-Admiral George Atkinson-Willes was Second-in-Command of the Home Fleet, with his flag in the battleship HMS Empress of India, in May 1903 Noel was succeeded as Commander-in-Chief by Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson. On 14 December 1904, the Channel Fleet was re-styled the Atlantic Fleet, in 1907, the Home Fleet was reformed with Vice-Admiral Francis Bridgeman in command, succeeded by Admiral Sir William May in 1909. Bridgeman took command again in 1911, and in the year was succeeded by Admiral Sir George Callaghan. On 4 August 1914, as the First World War was breaking out, John Jellicoe was ordered to command of the Fleet. The name Home Fleet was resurrected in March 1932, as the new name for the Atlantic Fleet, the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet in 1933 was Admiral Sir John Kelly. Its chief responsibility was to keep Nazi Germanys Kriegsmarine from breaking out of the North Sea, for this purpose, the First World War base at Scapa Flow was reactivated as it was well placed for interceptions of ships trying to run the blockade. The operational areas of the Home Fleet were not circumscribed, only with the destruction of the German battleship Tirpitz in 1944 did the Home Fleet assume a lower priority, and most of its heavy units were withdrawn to be sent to the Far East. With the Cold War, greater emphasis was placed on protecting the North Atlantic from the Soviet Union in concert with other countries as part of NATO, Admiral Sir Rhoderick McGrigor supervised combined Western Union exercises involving ships from the British, French, and Dutch navies in June–July 1949. Admiral McGrigor flew his flag from the aircraft carrier Implacable, also taking part in the exercises were Victorious and Anson, along with cruisers and destroyers. During the exercise, the combined force paid a visit to Mounts Bay in Cornwall from 30 June-4 July 1949, Admiral Sir Philip Vian, who was Commander-in-Chief from 1950-1952, flew his flag in Vanguard. In late 1951, Theseus joined the fleet as flagship of the 2nd Aircraft Carrier Squadron, the Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet still flew his flag however in Tyne at Portsmouth. During Exercise Mainbrace in 1952, NATO naval forces came together for the first time to practice the defence of northern Europe, Denmark, navys Atlantic Fleet, in his NATO position as SACLANT, by the end of 1952. The submarine tender Maidstone was the flagship in 1956. In 1960, C-in-C Home Fleet moved to Northwood, and in 1966 the NATO Channel Command moved to Northwood from Portsmouth, in April 1963, the naval unit at the Northwood Headquarters was commissioned as HMS Warrior under the command of the then Captain of the Fleet. The Home Fleet was amalgamated with the Mediterranean Fleet in 1967, the British Admirals of the Fleet 1734 –1995
49.
U-boat
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U-boat is the anglicised version of the German word U-Boot, a shortening of Unterseeboot, literally undersea boat. While the German term refers to any submarine, the English one refers specifically to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role. Austro-Hungarian navy submarines were known as U-boats. The first submarine built in Germany, the three-man Brandtaucher, sank to the bottom of Kiel harbor on 1 February 1851 during a test dive, the inventor and engineer Wilhelm Bauer had designed this vessel in 1850, and Schweffel & Howaldt constructed it in Kiel. Dredging operations in 1887 rediscovered Brandtaucher, it was raised and put on display in Germany, there followed in 1890 the boats WW1 and WW2, built to a Nordenfelt design. The SM U-1 was a completely redesigned Karp-class submarine and only one was built, the Imperial German Navy commissioned it on 14 December 1906. It had a hull, a Körting kerosene engine. The 50%-larger SM U-2 had two torpedo tubes, the U-19 class of 1912–13 saw the first diesel engine installed in a German navy boat. At the start of World War I in 1914, Germany had 48 submarines of 13 classes in service or under construction, during that war the Imperial German Navy used SM U-1 for training. Retired in 1919, it remains on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, on 5 September 1914, HMS Pathfinder was sunk by SM U-21, the first ship to have been sunk by a submarine using a self-propelled torpedo. On 22 September, U-9 sank the obsolete British warships HMS Aboukir, HMS Cressy, for the first few months of the war, U-boat anticommerce actions observed the prize rules of the time, which governed the treatment of enemy civilian ships and their occupants. On 20 October 1914, SM U-17 sank the first merchant ship, surface commerce raiders were proving to be ineffective, and on 4 February 1915, the Kaiser assented to the declaration of a war zone in the waters around the British Isles. This was cited as a retaliation for British minefields and shipping blockades, under the instructions given to U-boat captains, they could sink merchant ships, even potentially neutral ones, without warning. In February 1915, a submarine U-6 was rammed and both periscopes were destroyed off Beachy Head by the collier SS Thordis commanded by Captain John Bell RNR after firing a torpedo, on 7 May 1915, SM U-20 sank the liner RMS Lusitania. The sinking claimed 1,198 lives,128 of them American civilians, munitions that it carried were thousands of crates full of ammunition for rifles, 3-inch artillery shells, and also various other standard ammunition used by infantry. The sinking of the Lusitania was widely used as propaganda against the German Empire, a widespread reaction in the U. S was not seen until the sinking of the ferry SS Sussex. The sinking occurred in 1915 and the United States entered the war in 1917, the initial U. S. response was to threaten to sever diplomatic ties, which persuaded the Germans to issue the Sussex pledge that reimposed restrictions on U-boat activity
Poland
Virtuti Militari, 4th Class
