1.
Film poster
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A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and they normally contain an image with text. Todays posters often feature photographs of the main actors, prior to the 1990s, illustrations instead of photos were far more common. The text on film posters usually contains the title in large lettering. It may also include a tagline, the name of the director, names of characters, film posters are displayed inside and on the outside of movie theaters, and elsewhere on the street or in shops. The same images appear in the film exhibitors pressbook and may also be used on websites, DVD packaging, flyers, advertisements in newspapers and magazines, film posters have been used since the earliest public exhibitions of film. They began as outside placards listing the programme of films to be shown inside the hall or movie theater, by the early 1900s, they began to feature illustrations of a film scene or an array of overlaid images from several scenes. Other posters have used artistic interpretations of a scene or even the theme of the film, as an economy measure, the NSS regularly recycled posters that were returned, sending them back out to be used again at another theater. During this time, a film could stay in circulation for several years and those posters which were not returned were often thrown away by the theater owner, but some found their way into the hands of collectors. Today there is a thriving market in film posters, some have become very valuable. The record price for a poster was set on November 15,2005 when $690,000 was paid for a poster of Fritz Langs 1927 film Metropolis from the Reel Poster Gallery in London. The 1931 Frankenstein six-sheet poster, of only one copy is known to exist, is considered to be the most valuable film poster in the world. Over the years, old Bollywood posters, especially with hand-painted art, have become collectors items, occasionally, rare film posters have been found being used as insulation in attics and walls. In 2011,33 film posters, including a Dracula Style F one-sheet, from 1930-1931 were discovered in an attic in Berwick, Pennsylvania, as a result of market demand, some of the more popular older film posters have been reproduced either under license or illegally. Although the artwork on reproductions is the same as originals, reproductions can often be distinguished by size, printing quality, several websites on the Internet offer authentication tests to distinguish originals from reproductions. Original film posters distributed to theaters and other venues by the movie studios are never sold directly to the public. However, most modern posters are produced in quantities and often become available for purchase by collectors indirectly through various secondary markets such as eBay. Accordingly, most modern posters are not as valuable, however some recent posters, such as the recalled Pulp Fiction Lucky Strike U. S. one sheet poster, are quite rare
2.
Edward L. Beach Jr.
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Edward Latimer Beach Jr. nicknamed Ned, was a highly decorated United States Navy submarine officer and best-selling author. During World War II, he participated in the Battle of Midway and 12 combat patrols, earning 10 decorations for gallantry, including the Navy Cross. After the war, he served as the aide to the President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Beachs best-selling novel, Run Silent, Run Deep, was made into the 1958 movie by the same name. The son of Captain Edward L. Beach Sr. and Alice Fouché Beach, Beach Jr. was born in New York City and raised in Palo Alto, Beach was appointed to the U. S. Naval Academy in 1935 by Senator Hiram Johnson of California. Beach served as a commander in his first class year. Beach was named as the midshipman who had done the most to promote naval spirit, Beach was detached from Lea in September 1941 to undergo accelerated training at the Submarine Training School at the New London Submarine Base in Connecticut. He completed training, graduating first in his class, in December 1941 shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Beach served aboard the submarines USS Trigger and USS Tirante, and took command of USS Piper just as the Pacific War was ending. He participated in the Battle of Midway and 12 war patrols that damaged or sank 45 enemy vessels and he held several shipboard positions, including communications officer, engineering officer, navigator, co-approach officer, and executive officer. Beach earned 10 decorations for gallantry, including the Navy Cross, in December 1945, Beach reported to the Department of the Navy to serve as the personal aide to Vice Admiral Louis E. Denfeld, the chief of the Bureau of Naval Personnel. In March 1947, he was attached to the Atomic Defense Section under Rear Admiral William S. Parsons, in May 1948, he was given command of USS Amberjack, a GUPPY II modified submarine. Amberjack gained the nickname Anglejack because of its use of steep diving and surfacing angles. During war games, Amberjack photographed the opposing task forces flagship through its periscope and sent the admiral a copy inscribed with Regards from Ned Beach and the Amberjack. His tour as skipper of Amberjack was abbreviated as he was called to Washington to serve as Naval Aide to General Omar Bradley, USA, in that post, Beach witnessed first hand the events surrounding the Revolt of the Admirals. Upon completing his tour of duty as Bradleys aide in March 1951, Beach was named commanding officer of the new Trigger. From 1953 to 1957, Beach was Naval Aide to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, as Naval Aide Beach was responsible for the management of Camp David, the White House Mess, and for the presidential yacht USS Williamsburg. While working the White House, Beach volunteered to be the coordinator on the White House staff for all plans to protect the President in case of nuclear attack. It was Beach who spearheaded the effort to get First Lady Mamie Eisenhower to christen USS Nautilus, Beach was advanced to the rank of captain on October 1,1956
3.
Clark Gable
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William Clark Gable was an American film actor, often referred to as The King of Hollywood or just simply as The King. Gable began his career as an actor and appeared as an extra in silent films between 1924 and 1926, and progressed to supporting roles with a few films for MGM in 1931. The next year, he landed his first leading Hollywood role and he also starred with Lana Turner in four features, and with Norma Shearer and Ava Gardner in three each. Gables final film, The Misfits, united him with Marilyn Monroe, Gable is considered one of the most consistent box-office performers in history, appearing on Quigley Publishings annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll 16 times. He was named the seventh-greatest male star of classic American cinema by the American Film Institute, William Clark Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio, to William Henry Will Gable, an oil-well driller, and his wife, Adeline. Gable was named William after his father, but even in childhood and he was mistakenly listed as a female on his birth certificate. Among Gables ancestors were Pennsylvania Dutch, Rhinelanders, and Bavarians, when he was six months old, his mother had him baptized as a Roman Catholic. She died when he was ten months old, possibly from a brain tumor, will Gable refused to raise his son Catholic, provoking criticism from Adelines side of the family. The dispute was resolved when Will Gable agreed to allow his son to spend time with his uncle, Charles Hershelman. In April 1903, Gables father married Jennie Dunlap, whose family came from the neighboring town of Hopedale. Gable was a tall, shy child with a loud voice and his stepmother raised him to be well-dressed and well-groomed. Jennie played the piano and gave her lessons at home. Later he took up brass instruments, at 13, he was the only boy in the mens town band. He was very mechanically inclined and loved to strip down and repair cars with his father, though his father insisted on Gable doing manly things, like hunting and hard physical work, Gable loved language. Among trusted company, he would recite Shakespeare, particularly the sonnets, will Gable agreed to buy a 72-volume set of The Worlds Greatest Literature to improve his sons education, but claimed he never saw his son use it. In 1917, when Gable was in school, his father had financial difficulties. Will decided to settle his debts and try his hand at farming, despite his fathers insistence that he work the farm, Gable soon left to work in Akron for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. At 17, Clark Gable was inspired to be an actor after seeing the play The Bird of Paradise, by then, his stepmother had died, and his father moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma to go back to the oil business
4.
Burt Lancaster
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Burton Stephen Burt Lancaster was an American film actor. Initially known for playing tough guys, Lancaster went on to success with more complex. He was nominated four times for Academy Awards and won once for his work in Elmer Gantry in 1960 and he also won a Golden Globe for that performance and BAFTA Awards for The Birdman of Alcatraz and Atlantic City. During the 1950s his production company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster was highly successful, making such as Marty, Trapeze, Sweet Smell of Success, Run Silent, Run Deep. The American Film Institute ranks Lancaster as #19 of the greatest male stars of classic Hollywood cinema, Lancaster was born in Manhattan, New York City, at his parents home at 209 East 106th Street, between Second and Third Avenues, today the site of Benjamin Franklin Plaza. Lancaster was the son of Elizabeth and James Henry Lancaster, who was a mailman, both of his parents were Protestants of working class origin. All of Lancasters grandparents were Ulster immigrants to the United States, the family believed themselves to be related to Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts. Before he graduated from DeWitt Clinton, his mother died of a cerebral hemorrhage, Lancaster was accepted by New York University with an athletic scholarship, but subsequently dropped out. At the age of 19, Lancaster met Nick Cravat, with whom he developed a lifelong partnership, together they learned to act in local theatre productions and circus arts at Union Settlement, one of the citys oldest settlement houses. They formed the acrobat duo Lang and Cravat in the 1930s, however, in 1939, an injury forced Lancaster to give up the profession, with great regret. He then found work, first as a salesman for Marshall Fields. He served with General Mark Clarks Fifth Army in Italy from 1943–45, although initially unenthusiastic about acting, after returning to New York from his Army service, Lancaster auditioned for a Broadway play and was offered a role. Wallis, who signed him to an eight-movie contract, Lancasters first filmed movie was Desert Fury. Fortunately for Lancaster, producer Mark Hellinger approached him to star in The Killers, in 1946, the tall, muscular actor won significant acclaim and appeared in two more films the following year. Subsequently, he played in a variety of films, especially in dramas, thrillers, and military and adventure films. In two, The Flame and the Arrow and The Crimson Pirate, a friend from his circus years, Nick Cravat, played a key supporting role, in 1953, Lancaster played one of his best-remembered roles with Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity. The American Film Institute acknowledged the iconic status of the scene from film in which Deborah Kerr. The organization named it one of AFIs top 100 Most Romantic Films of all time, Lancaster won the 1960 Academy Award for Best Actor, a Golden Globe Award, and the New York Film Critics Award for his performance in Elmer Gantry
5.
Don Rickles
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Donald Jay Rickles was an American stand-up comedian and actor. P. O. Potato Head in the Toy Story series and he won a Primetime Emmy Award for the 2007 documentary Mr. Warmth, The Don Rickles Project. His family was Jewish and spoke Yiddish at home, Rickles grew up in the Jackson Heights area. After graduating from Newtown High School, Rickles enlisted in the U. S. Navy and he was honorably discharged in 1946. Two years later, intending to be an actor, he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Frustrated by a lack of acting work, Rickles began performing comedy in clubs in New York, Miami. He became known as a comedian when he responded to his hecklers. The audience enjoyed these insults more than his material. When he began his career in the early 1950s, he started calling ill-mannered members of the hockey puck. His style was similar to that of an insult comic, Jack E. Leonard. He added, Make yourself at home, Frank, Sinatra, whose pet name for Rickles was bullet-head, enjoyed him so much that he encouraged other celebrities to see Rickles act and be insulted by him. Sinatras support helped Rickles become a headline performer in Las Vegas. During a Dean Martin Roast special, Rickles was among those who took part in a roast of Sinatra, Rickles earned the nicknames The Merchant of Venom and Mr. Warmth for his poking fun at people of all ethnicities and walks of life. Rickles said, I always pictured myself facing the audience as the matador, in 1958, Rickles made his film debut in a serious part in Run Silent, Run Deep with Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster. Throughout the 1960s, he appeared on television in sitcoms. Rickles guest-starred in Get Smart as Sid, an old war buddy of Max who comes to stay with him. In an episode of the 1960s drama series Run for Your Life, Rickles took a dramatic turn in the low-budget Roger Corman film X, The Man with the X-Ray Eyes as a carnival barker out to exploit the title character. Rickles appeared in the popular Beach Party film series and he recalled in his 2007 memoir that at a White House dinner, Barbara Bush teased him about his decision to appear in those films
6.
War film
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War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that war films often end with them, themes explored include combat, survival and escape, sacrifice, the futility and inhumanity of battle, the effects of war on society, and the moral and human issues raised by war. War films are categorized by their milieu, such as the Korean War. The stories told may be fiction, historical drama, or biographical, critics have noted similarities between the Western and the war film. Subgenres, not necessarily distinct, include anti-war, comedy, animated, propaganda, the war film genre is not necessarily tightly defined, the American Film Institute, for example, speaks of films to grapple with the Great War without attempting to classify these. However, some directors and critics have offered at least tentative definitions, the director Sam Fuller defined the genre by saying that a war film’s objective, no matter how personal or emotional, is to make a viewer feel war. However, Neale notes, films set in the American Civil War or the American Indian Wars of the 19th century were called war films in the time before the First World War, the film scholar Kathryn Kane points out some similarities between the war film genre and the Western. Both genres use opposing concepts like war and peace, civilization, james Clarke notes the similarity between a Western like Sam Peckinpahs The Wild Bunch and war-movie escapades like The Dirty Dozen. They take place in the combat zones of World War II, against the established enemies, on the ground. They contain many repeated events, such as mail call, all presented visually with appropriate uniforms, equipment and she argues that the combat film is not a subgenre but the only genuine kind of war film. This in turn pushes combat scenes to the ends of war films. Not all critics agree, either, that war films must be about 20th century wars, the costliest war in U. S. history in terms of American life, this war has been the subject of, or the backdrop to, numerous films, documentaries and mini-series. One of the earliest films using the Civil War as its subject was D. W. Griffiths 1910 silent picture, The Fugitive. Some films such as Gettysburg focused on a battle during the war, or even on a single incident, like the French short film. Others like the 1993 miniseries North and South spanned the entire breadth of the war, some films deal with the human aspects of the war, such as The Red Badge of Courage, or Shenandoah, on the tragedy that the war inflicted on the civilian population. Ken Burnss The Civil War is the most watched documentary in the history of PBS, the first war films come from the Spanish–American War of 1898. Short actualities – documentary film-clips – included Burial of the Maine Victims, Blanket-Tossing of a New Recruit and these non-combat films were accompanied by reenactments of fighting, such as of Theodore Roosevelts Rough Riders in action against the Spanish, staged in the United States
7.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
8.
Moby-Dick
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Moby-Dick, or, The Whale is a novel by American writer Herman Melville, published in 1851 during the period of the American Renaissance. The novel was a failure and out of print at the time of the authors death in 1891. William Faulkner confessed he wished he had written it himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world, call me Ishmael is among world literatures most famous opening sentences. The product of a year and a half of writing, the draws on Melvilles experience at sea, on his reading in whaling literature, and on literary inspirations such as Shakespeare. The white whale is modeled on the hard to catch actual albino whale Mocha Dick. In addition to prose, Melville uses styles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry, and catalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies. Hundreds of differences, mostly slight and some important, are seen between the two editions, the London publisher censored or changed sensitive passages and Melville made revisions, as well, including the last-minute change in the title for the New York edition. The whale, however, appears in both editions as Moby Dick, with no hyphen, because the British edition lacked the Epilogue, which accounts for Ishmaels survival, it seemed that the story was told by someone who was supposed to have perished. Many reviewers in British magazines recognized a violation of the rules of fiction, other reviewers, however, found the book too fascinating to dismiss it for these reasons. Some of the scornful British reviews were either reprinted or quoted in American periodicals, about 3,200 copies were sold during the authors life. Ishmael travels in December from Manhattan Island to New Bedford with plans to sign up for a whaling voyage, the inn where he arrives is overcrowded, so he must share a bed with the tattooed Polynesian Queequeg, a harpooneer whose father was king of the island of Rokovoko. The next morning, Ishmael and Queequeg attend Father Mapples sermon on Jonah, Ishmael signs up with the Quaker ship-owners Bildad and Peleg for a voyage on their whaler Pequod. Peleg describes Captain Ahab, Hes a grand, ungodly, god-like man who nevertheless has his humanities and they hire Queequeg the following morning. A man named Elijah prophesies a dire fate should Ishmael and Queequeg join Ahab, while provisions are loaded, shadowy figures board the ship. On a cold Christmas Day, the Pequod leaves the harbor, Ishmael discusses cetology, and describes the crew members. Ahab will give the first man to sight Moby Dick a doubloon, a gold coin, Starbuck objects that he has not come for vengeance but for profit. Ahabs purpose exercises a mysterious spell on Ishmael, Ahabs quenchless feud seemed mine, instead of rounding Cape Horn, Ahab heads for the equatorial Pacific Ocean via southern Africa. One afternoon, as Ishmael and Queequeg are weaving a mat — its warp seemed necessity, his free will
9.
Mutiny on the Bounty
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The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty occurred in the south Pacific on 28 April 1789. Led by Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, disaffected crewmen seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, the mutineers variously settled on Tahiti or on Pitcairn Island. Bligh meanwhile completed a voyage of more than 3,500 nautical miles in the launch to reach safety, Bounty had left England in 1787 on a mission to collect and transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the West Indies. A five-month layover in Tahiti, during many of the men lived ashore and formed relationships with native Polynesians. Relations between Bligh and his crew deteriorated after he began handing out increasingly harsh punishments, criticism and abuse, after three weeks back at sea, Christian and others forced Bligh from the ship. Twenty-five men remained on board afterwards, including loyalists held against their will, Bligh reached England in April 1790, whereupon the Admiralty despatched HMS Pandora to apprehend the mutineers. Fourteen were captured in Tahiti and imprisoned on board Pandora, which then searched without success for Christians party that had hidden on Pitcairn Island. After turning back toward England, Pandora ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, the 10 surviving detainees reached England in June 1792 and were court martialled,4 were acquitted,3 were pardoned, and 3 were hanged. Christians group remained undiscovered on Pitcairn until 1808, by time only one mutineer, John Adams. Almost all his fellow mutineers, including Christian, had been killed, no action was taken against Adams. Descendants of the mutineers and their Tahitian consorts live on Pitcairn into the 21st century and his Majestys Armed Vessel Bounty, or HMS Bounty, was built in 1784 at the Blaydes shipyard in Hull, Yorkshire as a collier named Bethia. She was renamed after being purchased by the Royal Navy for £1,950 in May 1787 and she was three-masted,91 feet long overall and 25 feet across at her widest point, and registered at 230 tons burthen. Her armament was four short four-pounder carriage guns and ten swivel guns. As she was rated by the Admiralty as a cutter, the smallest category of warship, her commander would be a lieutenant rather than a post-captain, nor did a cutter warrant the usual detachment of Marines that naval commanders could use to enforce their authority. Bounty had been acquired to transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti, a Polynesian island in the south Pacific, Bounty was refitted under Bankss supervision at Deptford Dockyard on the River Thames. The space required for these arrangements in the ship meant that the crew. Bligh was born in Plymouth in 1754 into a family of naval, appointment to Cooks ship at the age of 21 had been a considerable honour, although Bligh believed that his contribution was not properly acknowledged in the expeditions official account. With the ending of the American War of Independence in 1783, the navy was reduced in size, after a period of idleness, Bligh took temporary employment in the mercantile service and in 1785 was captain of the Britannia, a vessel owned by his wifes uncle Duncan Campbell
10.
Submarine
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A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability, the term most commonly refers to a large, crewed vessel. It is also used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely operated vehicles and robots, as well as medium-sized or smaller vessels, such as the midget submarine. The noun submarine evolved as a form of submarine boat, by naval tradition, submarines are usually referred to as boats rather than as ships. Although experimental submarines had been built before, submarine design took off during the 19th century, Submarines were first widely used during World War I, and now figure in many navies large and small. Civilian uses for submarines include marine science, salvage, exploration and facility inspection, Submarines can also be modified to perform more specialized functions such as search-and-rescue missions or undersea cable repair. Submarines are also used in tourism, and for undersea archaeology, most large submarines consist of a cylindrical body with hemispherical ends and a vertical structure, usually located amidships, which houses communications and sensing devices as well as periscopes. In modern submarines, this structure is the sail in American usage, a conning tower was a feature of earlier designs, a separate pressure hull above the main body of the boat that allowed the use of shorter periscopes. There is a propeller at the rear, and various hydrodynamic control fins, smaller, deep-diving and specialty submarines may deviate significantly from this traditional layout. Submarines use diving planes and also change the amount of water, Submarines have one of the widest ranges of types and capabilities of any vessel. Submarines can work at greater depths than are survivable or practical for human divers, modern deep-diving submarines derive from the bathyscaphe, which in turn evolved from the diving bell. In 1578, the English mathematician William Bourne recorded in his book Inventions or Devises one of the first plans for an underwater navigation vehicle and its unclear whether he ever carried out his idea. The first submersible of whose construction there exists reliable information was designed and built in 1620 by Cornelis Drebbel and it was propelled by means of oars. By the mid-18th century, over a dozen patents for submarines/submersible boats had been granted in England, in 1747, Nathaniel Symons patented and built the first known working example of the use of a ballast tank for submersion. His design used leather bags that could fill with water to submerge the craft, a mechanism was used to twist the water out of the bags and cause the boat to resurface. In 1749, the Gentlemens Magazine reported that a design had initially been proposed by Giovanni Borelli in 1680. By this point of development, further improvement in design stagnated for over a century, until new industrial technologies for propulsion. The first military submarine was the Turtle, a hand-powered acorn-shaped device designed by the American David Bushnell to accommodate a single person and it was the first verified submarine capable of independent underwater operation and movement, and the first to use screws for propulsion
11.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
12.
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
