1.
Elmira, New York
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Elmira /ˌɛlˈmaɪrə/ is a city in Chemung County, New York, US. It is the city of the Elmira, New York Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 29,200 at the 2010 census and it is the county seat of Chemung County. The City of Elmira is in the part of the county. It is in the Southern Tier of New York, a distance north of the Pennsylvania state line. This was long an area inhabited by indigenous people, in historic times, it was occupied by the Cayuga nation of the Iroquois Confederacy, also called the Kanawaholla. They had some relations with Europeans and English over fur trading, during the American Revolutionary War, the Sullivan Expedition of 1779 was mounted against the four Iroquois nations who had allied with the British and Loyalist forces. It fought a combined British-Iroquois force at the Battle of Newtown, south of the current city, in which Sullivan, after the conclusion of the war, the Iroquois and the new United States made a treaty at Elmira in 1791 to settle territorial disputes in the region. Most of the Seneca emigrated under pressure with the other Iroquois to Canada, the first European-American settler in Elmira was captain Abraham Miller of the Continental Army. He built a cabin after resigning just before the Revolutionary War, millers Pond and Miller Street are named after him and are near the location of his house. The New York legislature established the Township of Chemung, now Chemung County, the settlement of Newtown was soon established at the intersection of Newtown Creek and the Chemung River. In 1792, the settlement at Newtown joined with the Wisnerburg and DeWittsburg settlements to form the village of Newtown, in 1808, the village officially changed its name to the Town of Elmira, at a town meeting held at Teals Tavern. It is said the town was named after tavern owner Nathan Teals young daughter, in any case, the City of Elmira, also called The Queen City, was incorporated in 1864 from part of the town of Elmira and the village of Elmira. The remaining part of the town of Elmira exists still, surrounding the city on the west, north, the city and town share an intricately entwined history. Carpenters Family History book printed in 1898, Elmira is named after Major General Matthew Carpenters daughter and this occurred according to the book in 1821 at the constitutional convention which Matthew was a delegate to. In 1849, the New York and Erie Railroad was built through Elmira, in 1850, the Elmira and Jefferson Railroad gave the area a route north and the Elmira and Williamsport Railroad a route south in 1854. This made the city a prime location for an Army training, in 1872 the Utica Ithaca and Elmira Railroad was begun, eventually creating a route to Cortland and Syracuse via Horseheads, Breesport and VanEtten. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad was completed in 1884, the camp, in use from June 6,1864 until autumn 1865, was dubbed Hellmira by its inmates
2.
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
3.
Steam turbine
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A steam turbine is a device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884, in 1551, Taqi al-Din in Ottoman Egypt described a steam turbine with the practical application of rotating a spit. Steam turbines were described by the Italian Giovanni Branca and John Wilkins in England. The devices described by Taqi al-Din and Wilkins are today known as steam jacks, in 1672 an impulse steam turbine driven car was designed by Ferdinand Verbiest. A more modern version of car was produced some time in the late 18th century by an unknown German mechanic. The modern steam turbine was invented in 1884 by Sir Charles Parsons, the invention of Parsons steam turbine made cheap and plentiful electricity possible and revolutionized marine transport and naval warfare. Parsons design was a reaction type and his patent was licensed and the turbine scaled-up shortly after by an American, George Westinghouse. The Parsons turbine also turned out to be easy to scale up. Parsons had the satisfaction of seeing his invention adopted for all major world power stations, a number of other variations of turbines have been developed that work effectively with steam. The de Laval turbine accelerated the steam to full speed before running it against a turbine blade, De Lavals impulse turbine is simpler, less expensive and does not need to be pressure-proof. It can operate with any pressure of steam, but is less efficient. He taught at the École des mines de Saint-Étienne for a decade until 1897, one of the founders of the modern theory of steam and gas turbines was Aurel Stodola, a Slovak physicist and engineer and professor at the Swiss Polytechnical Institute in Zurich. His work Die Dampfturbinen und ihre Aussichten als Wärmekraftmaschinen was published in Berlin in 1903, a further book Dampf und Gas-Turbinen was published in 1922. It was used in John Brown-engined merchant ships and warships, including liners, the present-day manufacturing industry for steam turbines is dominated by Chinese power equipment makers. Other manufacturers with minor market share include Bhel, Siemens, Alstom, GE, Doosan Škoda Power, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan projects that manufacturing of steam turbines will become more consolidated by 2020 as Chinese power manufacturers win increasing business outside of China. There are several classifications for modern steam turbines, Turbine blades are of two basic types, blades and nozzles. Blades move entirely due to the impact of steam on them and this results in a steam velocity drop and essentially no pressure drop as steam moves through the blades. A turbine composed of alternating with fixed nozzles is called an impulse turbine, Curtis turbine, Rateau turbine
4.
5"/38 caliber gun
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The Mark 12 5/38 caliber gun was a US naval gun. The gun was installed into Single Purpose and Dual Purpose mounts used primarily by the US Navy, the 38 caliber barrel was a mid-length compromise between the previous United States standard 5/51 low-angle gun and 5/25 anti-aircraft gun. The increased barrel length provided greatly improved performance in both anti-aircraft and anti-surface roles compared to the 5/25 gun, however, except for the barrel length and the use of semi-fixed ammunition, the 5/38 gun was derived from the 5/25 gun. Both weapons had power ramming, which enabled rapid fire at high angles against aircraft, the 5/38 entered service on USS Farragut, commissioned in 1934. The base ring mount, which improved the rate of fire, entered service on USS Gridley. Even this advanced system required nearly 100 rounds of ammunition expenditure per aircraft kill, however, the planes were normally killed by shell fragments and not direct hits, barrage fire was used, with many guns firing in the air at the same time. Base ring mounts with integral hoists had a rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute per barrel, however. On pedestal and other mounts lacking integral hoists,12 to 15 rounds per minute was the rate of fire, useful life expectancy was 4600 effective full charges per barrel. The 5/38 cal gun was mounted on a large number of US Navy ships in the World War II era. It was backfitted to many of the World War I-era battleships during their wartime refits and it has left active US Navy service, but it is still on mothballed ships of the United States Navy reserve fleets. It is also used by a number of nations who bought or were given US Navy surplus ships, each mount carries one or two Mk 12 5/38cal Gun Assemblies. The gun assembly shown is used in single mounts, and it is the gun in twin mounts. It is loaded from the left side, the left gun in twin mounts is the mirror image of the right gun, and it is loaded from the right side. The Mk12 gun assembly weighs 3,990 lb, the major Mk12 Gun Assembly characteristics are,158 Semi-automatic During recoil, some of the recoil energy is stored in the counter-recoil system. That stored energy is used during counter-recoil to prepare the gun for the next round, the firing pin is cocked, the breech is opened, the spent powder case is ejected, and the bore is air cleaned. Hand loaded A Projectile-Man and a Powder-Man are stationed at each gun assembly and their job is to move the round, consisting of a projectile and a powder case, from the hoists to the rammer tray, and then start the ram cycle. The hydraulically driven Rammer Spade, called the Power Spade in that picture, is at the back of the Rammer Tray, if the multiple names of the Spade is confusing, look at this footnote. Vertical sliding-wedge breech block The breech block closes the chamber behind the powder case and it also holds the firing pin assembly
5.
3"/50 caliber gun
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For Army 3-inch gun see 3-inch M1918 gun The 3″/50 caliber gun in United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile 3 inches in diameter, and the barrel was 50 calibers long. Different guns of this caliber were used by the U. S. Navy and U. S. Coast Guard from 1890 through the 1990s on a variety of combatant and transport ship classes. The US Navys first 3″/50 caliber gun was a model with a projectile velocity of 2,100 feet per second. Low-angle mountings for this gun had a range of 7000 yards at the elevation of 15 degrees. The gun entered service around 1900 with the Bainbridge-class destroyers, and was fitted to Connecticut-class battleships. By World War II these guns were only on a few Coast Guard cutters. These guns fired the same 2,700 feet per second used by the following dual-purpose Marks. These were built-up guns with a tube, partial-length jacket, hoop, dual-purpose 3″/50 caliber guns first entered service in 1915 as a refit to USS Texas, and were subsequently mounted on many types of ships as the need for anti-aircraft protection was recognized. They also replaced the original low-angle 4/50 caliber guns on flush-deck Wickes and these dual-purpose guns were quick-firing, meaning that they used fixed ammunition, with powder case and projectile permanently attached, and handled as a single unit weighing 34 pounds. Maximum range was 14,600 yards at 45 degrees elevation, useful life expectancy was 4300 effective full charges per barrel. The 3/50 caliber gun Marks 17 and 18 was first used as a deck gun on R-class submarines launched in 1918-1919. At the time it was an improvement on the earlier 3/23 caliber gun, after using larger guns on many other submarines, the 3/50 caliber gun Mark 21 was specified as the standard deck gun on the Porpoise- through Gato-class submarines launched in 1935-1942. The small gun was chosen to remove the temptation to engage enemy vessels on the surface. The gun was mounted aft of the conning tower to reduce submerged drag. Wartime experience showed that larger guns were needed and this need was initially met by transferring 4/50 caliber guns from S-class submarines as they were shifted from combat to training roles from late 1942. Later, the 5/25 caliber gun, initially removed from battleships sunk or damaged in the attack on Pearl Harbor and later manufactured in a submarine version, post-war experimentation with an extended range variant was abandoned as shipboard surface-to-air missiles were developed. The United States Navy considered contemporary 5/38 caliber guns and 5″/54 caliber guns more effective against surface targets, the 3″/50 caliber gun was a semiautomatic anti-aircraft weapon with a power driven automatic loader. These monobloc 3″ guns were fitted to both single and twin mountings, the single was to be exchanged for a twin 40 mm antiaircraft gun mount and the twin for a quadruple 40 mm mount
6.
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
7.
Victory ship
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The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace losses caused by German submarines. A total of 531 Victory ships were built, one of the first acts of the United States War Shipping Administration upon its formation in February 1942 was to commission the design of what came to be known as the Victory class. The design was an enhancement of the Liberty ship, which had successfully produced in extraordinary numbers. Victory ships were larger than Liberty ships,14 feet longer at 455 feet,6 feet wider at 62 ft. Displacement was up just under 1,000 tons, to 15,200, with a raised forecastle and a more sophisticated hull shape to help achieve the higher speed, they had a quite different appearance from Liberty ships. To make them vulnerable to U-boat attacks, Victory ships made 15 to 17 knots,4 to 6 knots faster than the Libertys. The extra speed was achieved through more modern, efficient engines, most used steam turbines, which had been in short supply earlier in the war and reserved for warships. All were oil-fired, but for a handful of Canadian vessels completed with both coal bunkers and oil tanks, another improvement was electrically powered auxiliary equipment, rather than steam-driven machinery. To prevent the hull fractures that a few Liberty ships developed and these were manned by United States Navy Armed Guard personnel. The VC2-S-AP5 Haskell-class attack transports were armed with the 5-inch stern gun, one quad 40 mm Bofors cannon, four dual 40 mm Bofors cannon, the Haskells were operated and crewed exclusively by U. S. Navy personnel. The Victory ship was noted for good proportion of cubic between holds for a ship of its day. A Victory ships cargo hold one, two and five hatches are a single rigged with a capacity of 70,400,76,700, and 69,500 bale cubic feet respectively. Victory ships hold three and four hatches are double rigged with a capacity of 136,100 and 100,300 bale cubic feet respectively. Victory ship have built in mast, booms and derrick cranes, the first vessel was SS United Victory launched at Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation on 12 January 1944 and completed on 28 February 1944, making her maiden voyage a month later. American vessels frequently had a name incorporating the word Victory, the British and Canadians used Fort and Park respectively. Although initial deliveries were slow—only 15 had been delivered by May 1944—by the end of the war 531 had been constructed, because the Atlantic battle had been won by the time that the first of the Victory ships appeared none were sunk by U-boats. Three were sunk by Japanese kamikaze attack in April of 1945, many Victory ships were converted to troopship to bring US soldiers home at the end of World War II as part of Operation Magic Carpet. A total of 97 Victory ships were converted to carry up to 1,600 soldiers
8.
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
9.
Emergency Shipbuilding program
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The Emergency Shipbuilding Program was a United States government effort to quickly build simple cargo ships to carry troops and material to allies and foreign theatres during World War II. Run by the U. S. Maritime Commission, the program built almost 6,000 ships, by the fall of 1940, the British Merchant Navy was being sunk in the Battle of the Atlantic by Germanys U-Boats faster than the United Kingdom could replace them. Led by Sir Arthur Salter, a group of men called the British Merchant Shipping Mission came to North America from the UK to enlist U. S. and Canadian shipbuilders to construct merchant ships. As all existing U. S. shipyards capable to constructing ocean-going merchant ships were occupied by either work of building ships for the U. S. Navy or for the U. S. S. Ship repairer Todd Shipyards which had its headquarters in New York City in league with the shipbuilder Bath Iron Works located in Bath and that yard was to be called the Todd-California Shipbuilding Corp. It was slated to be built on the flats of Richmond on the east side of the Bay. Kaiser, who headed the Kaiser Companies, and John A. McCone, contracts for both yards and the ships was signed on December 20,1940. The first of these vessels, the SS Ocean Vanguard was launched at the Todd-California yard on October 15,1941, immediately the Commission authorized that the two yards building for the British build ships for the U. S. upon completion of their current contracts. S. In this first wave of seven additional yards were added to those in Maine and California. One of the new yards planned for construction was to be in Baltimore and that facility became known as the Bethlehem-Fairfield shipyard for the Fairfield section of Baltimore where it was located. On the West Coast it had yards in San Pedro and San Francisco and that yard was to be called the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company. On the West Coast, one yard was contracted to be built in Los Angeles at Terminal Island and that yard would be called the California Shipbuilding Corporation or CalShip for short. The Kaiser Corporation itself received a contract to build a new yard on the Columbia River at Portland, in 1941, the manufacturers of steam turbines in the U. S. With that, the Liberty ship was adopted as the emergency type to be built. As 1941 progressed, the construction of the emergency yards accelerated rapidly, the ships ordered this second wave included 112 emergency type, the remainder were standard type vessels and tankers. After this time the original Kaiser yard became known as Richmond #1, after the May 27 Declaration of Unlimited National Emergency by the President, the Emergency Program was further expanded in a third wave. To accommodate the addition of ships to be built, additional ways were added to the yards in the program. In total this increase raised the output of all merchant shipbuilders to approximately 500 ships for 1942 and 700 ships in 1943
10.
United States Maritime Commission
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It also formed the United States Maritime Service for the training of seagoing ships officers to man the new fleet. The purpose of the Maritime Commission was multifold as described in the Merchant Marine Acts Declaration of Policy. S, Merchant Marine prior to the Act. Another function given to the Commission involved the formation of the U. S. Maritime Service for the training of seagoing ships officers to man the new fleet, the actual licensing of officers and seamen still resided with the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation. President Roosevelt nominated Joseph P. Kennedy first head of the Commission, Kennedy held that position until February 1938 when he left to become US Ambassador to Great Britain. The other four members of the Commission in the years before the beginning of World War II were a mix of retired officers and men from disciplines of law. The man most notable in the group Land brought to the Commission was Commander Howard L. Vickery, USN, as a symbol of the rebirth of the U. S. Upon the U. S. entry into World War II, America was requisitioned by the U. S. Navy and became USS West Point. Most of the C2s and C3s were converted to Navy auxiliaries, notably attack cargo ships, attack transports, the Commission also was tasked with the construction of many hundred military type vessels such as Landing Ship, Tank s and Tacoma-class frigates and large troop transports. By the end of the war, U. S. shipyards working under Maritime Commission contracts had built a total of 5,777 oceangoing merchant, in early 1942 both the training and licensing was transferred to the U. S. S. With the end of World War II, both the Emergency and Long Range shipbuilding programs were terminated as there were far too many merchant vessels now for the Nations peacetime needs. In 1946, the Merchant Ship Sales Act was passed to sell off a portion of the ships previously built during the war to commercial buyers. Although not sold outright to nations that were enemies during the war, for the next 25 years, in ports all around the world one could find dozens of ships which had been built during the war but which now were used in peace. Ships not disposed of through the Ship Sales Act were placed one of eight National Defense Reserve Fleet sites maintained on the Atlantic, Pacific. On several occasions in the postwar years ships in the fleets were activated for both military and humanitarian aid missions. The last major mobilization of the NDRF came during the Vietnam War, since then, a smaller fleet of ships called the Ready Reserve Force has been mobilized to support both humanitarian and military missions. The Maritime Commission was abolished on 24 May 1950, and its functions were divided between the U. S. S. Merchant Marine Academy which had built and opened during World War II. 1936, Merchant Marine Act abolishes Shipping Board and establishes Maritime Commission,1937, Joseph P. S. merchant shipping has been held by many agencies since 1917
11.
Merchant navy
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A merchant navy or merchant marine is the fleet of merchant vessels that are registered in a specific country. The following is a partial list of the merchant navies or merchant marines of various countries, in many countries the fleets proper name is simply the capitalized version of the common noun. The British Merchant Navy comprises the British merchant ships that transport cargo and people during time of peace and war. For much of its history, the merchant navy was the largest merchant fleet in the world, in 1939, the merchant navy was the largest in the world with 33% of total tonnage. By 2012, the merchant navy—still remaining one of the largest in the world—held only 3% of total tonnage, as of the year ending 2012, British Merchant Marine interests consists of 1,504 ships of 100 GRT or over. This includes ships either UK directly owned, parent owned or managed by a British company and this amounts to,59,413,000 GRT or alternatively 75,265,000 DWT. This is according to the maritime shipping statistics provided by the British government. British Shipping is represented nationally and globally by the UK Chamber of Shipping, canada, like several other Commonwealth nations, created its own merchant navy in a large-scale effort in World War II. Established in 1939, the Canadian Merchant Navy played a role in the Battle of the Atlantic bolstering the Allies merchant fleet due to high losses in the British Merchant Navy. Eventually thousands of Canadians served in the merchant navy aboard hundreds of Canadian merchant ships, notably the Park Ship, a school at St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia, trained Canadian merchant mariners. Manning pools, merchant navy barracks, were built in Canadian ports, the Greek maritime fleet is today engaged in commerce and transportation of goods and services universally. It consists of the merchant vessels owned by Greek civilians, flying either the Greek flag or a flag of convenience. Greece is a nation by tradition, as shipping is arguably the oldest form of occupation of the Greeks. Greece is also ranked in the top for all kinds of ships, including first for tankers, the birth of the modern Indian Merchant Navy occurred before independence from the United Kingdom, when in 1919 SS Loyalty sailed from India to Britain. Today, India ranks 15th in the world in terms of total DWT, India currently supplies around 12. 8% of officers and around 14. 5% of ratings to the world seafaring community. This is one of the highest of any country, in December 1939,3000 seafarers were employed and 186 merchant vessels were on the New Zealand Registry. Some foreign vessels were impressed, including the barque, Pamir. New Zealand, like several other Commonwealth nations, created a merchant navy, although some ships were involved in the Atlantic and North Pacific trade, mostly this involved domestic and South Pacific cargos
12.
Isthmian Steamship Company
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The Isthmian Steamship Company was a shipping company founded by US Steel in 1910. Isthmian Steamship was the brainchild of US Steel President James A. Farrell, Farrell realized that US Steel could save substantial sums of money by owning its own fleet of freighters, rather than chartering cargo space from other companies. Farrell named the company after the Isthmus of Panama, in honour of Americas recent construction achievement, management of the company was assigned to the British Federal Steam Navigation Co Ltd, a company which traced its own origins back as far as 1782 with the British East India Company. The US end of Farrells new company was managed by the Norton Lilly Agency, the companys first ship was the SS Bantu, a British vessel launched in 1902 and purchased by US Steel in 1907 for a reputed £24,000. By 1914, the company had purchased six additional ships – Kentra, Buenaventura, Santa Rosalia, Charleton Hall, Craston Hall and the sleek cargo liner Crofton Hall – all sturdy British steamships. With the outbreak of World War I however, Farrell brought the company back under the cover of the flag of America. The company would continue to expand its operations in the ensuing decades, in 1956 however, the by then highly lucrative company was sold to States Marine Lines. US Steel justified the sale on the grounds that Isthmians overall usefulness had diminished and it continued to operate as a property of States Marine until the early 1970s. Its last list of officers is dated 1974. Atherton, John, Imperial Steel, The History of the Isthmian Steamship Company, 1910-1956, Xlibris Corporation, the History of the Isthmian Steamship Company
13.
United States Merchant Marine
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The United States Merchant Marine refers to either United States civilian mariners, or to U. S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Merchant Marine officers may also be commissioned as officers by the Department of Defense. This is commonly achieved by commissioning unlimited tonnage Merchant Marine officers as Strategic Sealift Officers in the Naval Reserves. As of 31 December 2016, the United States merchant fleet had 175 privately owned, oceangoing, self-propelled vessels of 1,000 gross register tons, nearly 800 American-owned ships are flagged in other nations. In 2004, the government employed approximately 5% of all American water transportation workers. In the 19th and 20th centuries, various laws fundamentally changed the course of American merchant shipping and these laws put an end to common practices such as flogging and shanghaiing, and increased shipboard safety and living standards. The United States Merchant Marine is also governed by more than 25 international conventions to promote safety, the Court held that the Secretary of the Air Force abused its discretion in denying active military service recognition to American merchant seamen who participated in World War II. Captains, mates, and pilots supervise ship operations on domestic waterways, a captain is in overall command of a vessel, and supervises the work of other officers and crew. A captain has the ability to take the conn from a mate or pilot at any time he feels the need, on smaller vessels the captain may be a regular watch-stander, similar to a mate, directly controlling the vessels position. Captains directly communicate with the company or command, and are responsible for cargo, various logs, ships documents, credentials, efforts at controlling pollution. Mates direct a ships routine operation for the captain during work shifts, mates stand watch for specified periods, usually in three duty sections, with 4 hours on watch and 8 hours off. When on a watch, mates direct a bridge team by conning, directing courses through the helmsman. When more than one mate is necessary aboard a ship, they typically are designated chief mate or first mate, second mate, in addition to watch standers, mates directly supervise the ships crew, and are assigned other tasks. The chief mate is usually in charge of cargo, stability and the crew, the second mate in charge of navigation plans and updates. Harbor pilots guide ships in and out of confined waterways, such as harbors, harbor pilots are generally independent contractors who accompany vessels while they enter or leave port, and may pilot many ships in a single day. Ships engineers operate, maintain, and repair engines, boilers, generators, pumps, Merchant marine vessels usually have four engineering officers, a chief engineer and a first, second, and third assistant engineer. On many ships, Assistant Engineers stand periodic watches, overseeing the operation of engines. However, most modern ships sailing today utilize Unmanned Machinery Space automation technology, at night and during meals and breaks, the engine room is unmanned and machinery alarms are answered by the Duty Engineer
14.
War Shipping Administration
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The War Shipping Administration was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime Commission and ship allocation under the WSA to Army, land who continued as head of the Maritime Commission while also heading the WSA. A shortage of vessels further complicated by requirements to take out of service for conversion and armament was of concern at the highest levels. Harry Hopkins reporting directly to the President, differences between the organizations and lack of decisive authority short of the President limited the boards effectiveness. Upon establishment of the WSA the Strategic Shipping Board continued in existence in a diminished role under the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On February 7,1942, the WSA was established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelts Executive Order No.9054, February 7,1942 as the U. S. had entered the war. The WSA was administratively split off from the United States Maritime Commission, established in 1936 and those included the production of Liberty ships and Victory ships among other types. The U. S. fleet expanded to some 3,500 dry cargo vessels, on a practical level The Maritime Commission and the WSA worked closely together under the administration of Vice Admiral Emory S. Land at the head of each and it became apparent immediately when this Nation entered the war that a special agency to deal with the operational problems peculiar to war was necessary to supplement the Maritime Commission. Thus WSA became the Governments ship operating agency and the Maritime Commission its shipbuilding agency, under that authority cargo hulls were allocated to either commerce, Army or Navy. Many of the Armys ships and Naval transports were allocated by WSA, WSA, through its agents, directly operated ships in support of the services and civilian requirements. After the war, WSA vessels were used to home the huge number of armed personnel overseas, as part of Operation Magic Carpet. Over 3,500,000 men were brought home from overseas areas by December 1,1945, on September 1,1946, the WSA functions were returned to the Maritime Commission. Combined Shipping Adjustment Board United States Merchant Marine Victory ship Ships for Victory, A History of Shipbuilding under the U. S. Maritime Commission in World War II, ISBN 0-8018-6752-5 LCCN2001018657 United States Government Manual,1945 War Shipping Administration section American Merchant Marine at War
15.
Liberty ship
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The Liberty ship was a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, the design was adapted by the United States for its simple, mass-produced on an unprecedented scale, the now iconic Liberty ship came to symbolize U. S. wartime industrial output. The class was developed to meet British orders for transports to replace those torpedoed by German U-boats, the vessels were purchased both for the U. S. fleet and lend-lease deliveries of war materiel to Britain and the Soviet Union. Eighteen American shipyards built 2,710 Liberty ships between 1941 and 1945, easily the largest number of ships produced to a single design and their production mirrored on a much larger scale the manufacture of the Hog Islander and similar standardized ship types during World War I. Only three Liberty Ships are preserved, two as operational museum ships. S, the number was doubled in 1939 and again in 1940 to 200 ships a year. Ship types included two tankers and three types of merchant vessel, all to be powered by steam turbines, limited industrial capacity, especially for reduction gears, meant that relatively few of these ships were built. In 1940 the British government ordered 60 Ocean-class freighters from American yards to replace war losses and these were simple but fairly large with a single 2,500 horsepower compound steam engine of obsolete but reliable design. Britain specified coal-fired plants, because it then had extensive coal mines, the order specified an 18-inch increase in draft to boost displacement by 800 long tons to 10,100 long tons. The accommodation, bridge, and main engine were located amidships, the first Ocean-class ship, SS Ocean Vanguard, was launched on 16 August 1941. The design was modified by the United States Maritime Commission, in part to increase conformity to American construction practices, but more importantly to make it even quicker and cheaper to build. The US version was designated EC2-S-C1, EC for Emergency Cargo,2 for a ship between 400 and 450 feet long, S for steam engines, and C1 for design C1. The new design replaced much riveting, which accounted for one-third of the costs, with welding. It was adopted as a Merchant Marine Act design, and production awarded to a conglomerate of West Coast engineering and construction companies headed by Henry J. Kaiser known as the Six Companies. Liberty ships were designed to carry 10,000 long tons of cargo, usually one type per ship, but, during wartime, generally carried loads far exceeding this. On 27 March 1941, the number of ships was increased to 200 by the Defense Aid Supplemental Appropriations Act and increased again in April to 306. By 1941, the turbine was the preferred marine steam engine because of its greater efficiency compared to earlier reciprocating compound steam engines. Eighteen different companies built the engine. It had the advantage of ruggedness and simplicity
16.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
17.
Superstructure
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A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of structures such as buildings, bridges. The word superstructure is a combination of the Latin prefix, super with the Latin stem word, in order to improve the response during earthquakes of buildings and bridges, the superstructure might be separated from its foundation by various civil engineering mechanisms or machinery. All together, these implement the system of protection called base isolation. As stated above, superstructure consists of the parts of the ship or a boat, including sailboats, fishing boats, passenger ships, and submarines and this does not usually include its masts or any armament turrets. Note that in times, turrets do not always carry naval artillery. The size of a watercrafts superstructure can have implications in the performance of ships and boats, since these structures can alter their structural rigidity, their displacements. These can be detrimental to any vessels performance if they are taken into consideration incorrectly, the height and the weight of superstructure on board a ship or a boat also affects the amount of freeboard that such a vessel requires along its sides, down to her waterline. In broad terms, the more and heavier superstructure that a ship possesses, on a bridge, the portion of the structure that is the span and directly receives the live load is referred to as the superstructure. In contrast, the abutment, piers, and other structures are called the substructure
18.
Forecastle
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Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors living quarters. Related to the meaning is the phrase before the mast which denotes anything related to ordinary sailors. The syncope of the word, focsle or focsle, is common among nautical terms, the positioning of the apostrophes represents silent letters, thus focsle. In medieval shipbuilding, a ship of war was usually equipped with a tall and it served as a platform for archers to shoot down on enemy ships, or as a defensive stronghold if the ship were boarded. A similar but usually much larger structure, called the aftcastle, was at the aft end of the ship, having such tall upper works on the ship was detrimental to sailing performance. Sailors stationed on the forecastle, or forecastle men, were responsible for handling the headsails, in the Royal Navy of the 17th and 18th centuries, these roles were reserved for older seamen who lacked the agility to go aloft or take other more strenuous duties aboard. By the end of the 19th century, raised forecastle had become a feature on warships again, in an attempt to keep forward gun positions from getting unacceptably wet on heavy seas. In addition the forecastle may provide additional crews quarters as in the past, a disadvantage of such a design is the structural weakness at the forecastle break relative to a flush deck structure. Media related to Forecastles at Wikimedia Commons
19.
Ammunition
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Ammunition is the general term used for the material fired, scattered, dropped or detonated from any weapon. The term ammunition can be traced back to the mid 17th century, broadly speaking, ammunition refers to both expendable weapons and the component parts of other weapons that create the effect on a target. Nearly all weapons will require some form of ammunition to operate, the word comes from the French la munition, which refers to the material used for war. The terms ammunition and munitions are used interchangeably, although the term munition now usually refers to both the actual weapons system alongside the ammunition required to operate it. The purpose of ammunition is to project a force against a target to have an effect. The most iconic example of ammunition is the cartridge, which all components required to deliver the weapon effect in a single package. Ammunition comes in a range of sizes and types and is often designed to work only in specific weapons systems. However, there are internationally recognized standards for certain types that enable their use across different weapons. There are also types of ammunition that are designed to have a specialized effect on a target, such as armor-piercing shells and tracer ammunition. Ammunition is commonly colored in a manner to assist in the identification. A round is a cartridge containing a projectile, propellant, primer. A shell is a form of ammunition that is fired by a large cannon or artillery piece. Before the mid-19th century, these shells were made of solid materials. However, since that time, they are often filled with high-explosives. A shot refers to a release of a weapons system. This may involve firing just one round or piece of ammunition, a dud refers to loaded ammunition that fails to function as intended, typically failing to detonate on landing. However, it can refer to ammunition that fails to fire inside the weapon, known as a misfire, or when the ammunition only partially functions. Dud ammunition, which is classified as an ordnance, is regarded as highly dangerous
20.
Pacific War
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The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in the Pacific and East Asia. It was fought over a vast area that included the Pacific Ocean and islands, the South West Pacific, South-East Asia, and in China. The Pacific War saw the Allied powers pitted against the Empire of Japan, the formal and official surrender of Japan took place aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. In Allied countries during the war, The Pacific War was not usually distinguished from World War II in general, or was known simply as the War against Japan. Japan used the name Greater East Asia War, as chosen by a decision on 10 December 1941. Japanese officials integrated what they called the Japan–China Incident into the Greater East Asia War, in Japan, the Fifteen Years War is also used, referring to the period from the Mukden Incident of 1931 through 1945. The Phayap Army sent troops to invade and occupy northeastern Burma, also involved were the Japanese puppet states of Manchukuo and Mengjiang, and the collaborationist Wang Jingwei regime. The official policy of the U. S. Government is that Thailand was not an ally of the Axis, Japan conscripted many soldiers from its colonies of Korea and Formosa. To a small extent, some Vichy French, Indian National Army, Germany and Italy both had limited involvement in the Pacific War. The German and the Italian navies operated submarines and raiding ships in the Indian, the Italians had access to concession territory naval bases in China, while the Germans did not. After Japans attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declarations of war, mexico, Free France and many other countries also took part, especially forces from other British colonies. Between 1942 and 1945, there were four main areas of conflict in the Pacific War, China, the Central Pacific, South East Asia, U. S. sources refer to two theaters within the Pacific War, the Pacific theater and the China Burma India Theater. However these were not operational commands, in the Pacific, the Allies divided operational control of their forces between two supreme commands, known as Pacific Ocean Areas and Southwest Pacific Area. In 1945, for a period just before the Japanese surrender. By 1937, Japan controlled Manchuria and was ready to move deeper into China, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937 provoked full-scale war between China and Japan. In August 1937, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to fight about 300,000 Japanese troops in Shanghai, the Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937 and committed which was known as Nanking Massacre. In March 1938, Nationalist forces won their first victory at Taierzhuang, but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May. In June 1938, Japan deployed about 350,000 troops to invade Wuhan, the Japanese achieved major military victories, but world opinion—in particular in the United States—condemned Japan, especially after the Panay incident
21.
Ammunition ship
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An ammunition ship is an auxiliary ship specially configured to carry ammunition, usually for Navy ships and aircraft. They most often deliver their cargo to ships using underway replenishment. To a lesser extent, they transport ammunition from one shore-based weapons station to another, U. S. Navy ammunition ships are frequently named for volcanos. During World War II, U. S. Navy ammunition ships were converted merchant ships or specially built on merchant ship hulls. They were armed, and were manned by Navy crews, the ship disintegrated in seconds with the loss of all hands. Contemporary U. S. ammunition ships of the Kilauea class are designed for their mission. They are unarmed and are manned by civilian crews and these ships are being replaced by the Lewis and Clark class dry cargo ships
22.
Ulithi
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Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling 4.5 km2, surrounding a lagoon about 36 km long and it is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia. Ulithis population was 773 in 2000, there are four inhabited islands on Ulithi Atoll. They are Falalop, Asor, Mogmog, and Fedarai, Falalop is the most accessible with an air strip, a small resort hotel, gas dealership, store and one of three public high schools in Yap state. Mogmog is the seat of the chief of Ulithi Atoll though each island has its own chief. Other important islands are Losiap, Sorlen, and Potangeras, the atoll is in the westernmost of the Caroline Islands,360 miles southwest of Guam,850 miles east of the Philippines and 1,300 miles south of Tokyo. It is a volcanic atoll, with a coral reef, white sand beaches. Ulithis forty small islands barely rise above the sea, with the largest being only one-half square mile in area, however the reef runs roughly twenty miles north and south, by ten miles across, enclosing a vast anchorage with an average depth of 80 to 100 feet. Ulithi was a staging area for the U. S. Navy in the final year of the Second World War. Several sunken warships rest at the bottom of the Ulithi lagoon, including the USS Mississinewa, the sunken tanker was found to be seeping oil into the lagoon. The United States Navy responded, locating the tanker, tapping her storage tanks, the cleanup operation was completed in February 2003. The atoll offers good fishing and diving, though recent typhoons have eroded some of the reefs, census records can be misleading because population can fluctuate during the year because it is common for Ulithians to leave for work or school abroad and to return. This is particularly true during festive times like the Outer Island High School graduation ceremony, additionally, during events like weddings and funerals, Yasors population may double. Electricity is now available on islands, and the advent of video players. Occasional diving and adventure tours visit Ulithi from Yap, the first European to find Ulithi was the Portuguese navigator Diego da Rocha, for four months in 1525. Its visit was recorded by Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra on board of ship Florida on 1 January 1528 and he named them Islas de los Reyes because of the sighting happening on the eve of Epiphany. It was later charted by the Spaniards as Islas de los Garbanzos and it was also visited by the Spanish expedition of Ruy López de Villalobos on 26 January 1543. Germany purchased the islands from Spain in 1899 and they were occupied in 1914 by Japan at the outset of the First World War
23.
Atoll
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An atoll, sometimes called a coral atoll, is a ring-shaped coral reef including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands/cays on the rim, the coral of the atoll often sits atop the rim of an extinct seamount or volcano which has eroded or subsided partially beneath the water. The lagoon forms over the crater or caldera while the higher rim remains above water or at shallow depths that permit the coral to grow. For the atoll to persist, continued erosion or subsidence must be at a slow enough to permit reef growth upwards and outwards to replace the lost height. The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu, meaning an administrative subdivision, the distribution of atolls around the globe is instructive, most of the worlds atolls are in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean. Reef-building corals will thrive only in tropical and subtropical waters of oceans and seas. The northernmost atoll of the world is Kure Atoll at 28°24 N, the southernmost atolls of the world are Elizabeth Reef at 29°58 S, and nearby Middleton Reef at 29°29 S, in the Tasman Sea, both of which are part of the Coral Sea Islands Territory. The next southerly atoll is Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands Group, at this latitude coral reefs would not develop without the warming waters of the Gulf Stream. However, Bermuda is termed a pseudo-atoll because its general form, while there is no atoll directly on the equator, the closest atoll to the Equator is Aranuka of Kiribati, with its southern tip just 12 km north of the equator. In most cases, the area of an atoll is very small in comparison to the total area. Atoll islands are low lying, with their elevations less than 5 meters, measured by total area, Lifou is the largest raised coral atoll of the world, followed by Rennell Island. More sources however list as the largest atoll in the world in terms of land area Kiritimati, the remains of an ancient atoll as a hill in a limestone area is called a reef knoll. The second largest atoll by dry land area is Aldabra with 155 km², the largest atoll in terms of island numbers is Huvadhu Atoll in the south of the Maldives with 255 islands. In 1842, Charles Darwin explained the creation of coral atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean based upon observations made during a voyage aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836. In time, subsidence carries the old volcano below the ocean surface, at this point, the island has become an atoll. Atolls are the product of the growth of marine organisms. Volcanic islands located beyond the water temperature requirements of hermatypic organisms become seamounts as they subside and are eroded away at the surface
24.
Caroline Islands
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The Caroline Islands are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia in the part of the group, and Palau at the extreme western end. Historically, this area was also called Nuevas Filipinas or New Philippines as they were part of the Spanish East Indies, the Carolines span a distance of approximately 3540 kilometers, from Tobi, Palau at the westernmost point to Kosrae at the easternmost. The group consists of about 500 small coral islands, east of the Philippines, in the Pacific Ocean, most of the islands comprise low, flat coral atolls, but some rise high above sea level. Other significant populations include Filipinos and Japanese, the natives live mainly on horticulture and fishing, also supplementing their diet with many different varieties of bananas and taro, either of the swamp or purple varieties. On some islands housing continues to be built with materials including coconut thatch. The language spoken in commerce is English, but there are several indigenous languages and they traditionally believe in a Supreme Being and in a bad spirit, yet they have hardly any religious rites. Due to extensive work, Christianity is the primary religion practiced in this region of Micronesia. Master Micronesian Navigator Mau Piailug was from the Carolinian island of Satawal and he learned the traditional navigation techniques of the Weriyeng school. These techniques had been preserved while similar techniques had been forgotten partly due to the remoteness of the Carolinian Islands. In 1985 a study was made on the origin of the sidereal compass used in the Caroline Islands, different islands and island groups in the Carolines passed down unique and variant oral legends recounting the origins and early histories of their peoples. On Pohnpei, for example, pre-colonial history is divided into three eras, Mwehin Kawa or Mwehin Aramas, Mwehin Sau Deleur, and Mwehin Nahnmwarki, Pohnpeian legend recounts that the Saudeleur rulers, the first to bring government to Pohnpei, were of foreign origin. The Saudeleur centralized form of rule is characterized in Pohnpeian legend as becoming increasingly oppressive over several generations. Arbitrary and onerous demands, as well as a reputation for offending Pohnpeian deities, the Saudeleur Dynasty ended with the invasion of Isokelekel, another semi-mythical foreigner, who replaced the Saudeleur rule with the more decentralized nahnmwarki system in existence today. The Spanish explorers Toribio Alonso de Salazar and Diego de Saavedra arrived on August 22,1526, on 1 January 1528 the discoverer Álvaro de Saavedra took possession of the Uluti Islands on behalf of the King of Spain. Spanish explorers visited the archipelago in 1542,1543, and 1545, in 1565 Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, the first Governor-General of the Philippines, passed through. The name was extended to include the Palau Islands and the archipelagos which were named the Gilbert Islands, the occupation of the Caroline Islands had, as in most of the Spanish colonies, a marked religious character. A royal decree of October 19,1707 granted authorization for the sending of missionaries in several expeditions to the islands, one such expedition was made by Father Juan Antonio Cantova, who was killed
25.
Landing Craft Infantry
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The Landing Craft Infantry were several classes of seagoing amphibious assault ships of the Second World War used to land large numbers of infantry directly onto beaches. They were developed in response to a British request for a capable of carrying and landing substantially more troops than their smaller Landing Craft Assault. The result was a steel ship that could land 200 troops. Some 923 were built starting in 1943, serving in both the Pacific and European theaters, including a number that were converted into heavily armed beach assault support ships. Commonly called Elsie Items, the LCI supplemented the small LCAs/LCVPs as a way to get many troops ashore before a dock could be captured or built, as such, they were the largest dedicated beachable infantry landing craft in the allied inventory. The LCI was designed to carry 200 troops at up to 15 knots, since a steel hull would be needed and steel was already earmarked for building destroyers at home the U. S was approached. There the plans were developed into the LCI - Landing Craft Infantry, the original British design was envisioned as being a one time use vessel which would simply ferry the troops across the English Channel, and were considered an expendable vessel. As such, no sleeping accommodations were placed in the original design. The troops were provided benches upon which to sit while they were transported across the channel and this was changed shortly after initial use of these ships, when it was discovered that many missions would require overnight accommodations. The US was able to come up with an easily built and mass-produced design by using non-traditional shipbuilding facilities, the US established LCI building yards at ten different locations. There were 3 major types of LCI which differed mostly by the location of the ramps, all of these ships had similar hulls. The hull of all LCI were 158 ft long with a 23-foot beam, making them relatively long, the LCI350 class had a single enclosed bow ramp with 2 bow doors that swung open. The reason for moving the ramp to the inside was to some protection for the troops as they disembarked to the beach. Also, the low, squared-off conning tower was upgraded on later models with a taller, round conning tower which afforded slightly more visibility from the bridge. However, they were included in the first waves at numerous invasions such as Anzio, Normandy, Southern France, Elba, Saipan, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, Guam, and Okinawa. All LCI were twin shaft propelled by two banks of Detroit Diesel 6-71 Quad Diesel engines that produced a total of 1600 BHP and these engines were a wartime expedient design that utilized existing and readily available engines. Four 2-stroke Detroit Diesel 6-71 with Roots blower were coupled to create a bank for each of the two propeller shafts, the 4 engines per bank were joined together using individual drive clutches hence the name Quad Diesel. If a single engine were to fail, the engine could be disconnected from the unit via its clutch
26.
Luzon
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Luzon (/luːˈzɒn/, Tagalog pronunciation, is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. It is ranked 15th largest in the world, with a population of 52.99 million as of 2015, it is the fourth most populous island in the world, containing about 53% of the countrys total population. Luzon may also refer to one of the three island groups in the country. The name Luzon is thought to derive from the Tagalog word lusong, from just before the first millennium, the Tagalog and Kapampangan peoples of south and central Luzon had established several Indianized kingdoms, notably among them those of Tundok and Namayan. The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the first Philippine document written in 900AD, names places in and these kingdoms were based on leases between village rulers and landlords or Rajahs, to whom tributes and taxes were levied. These kingdoms were coastal thalassocracies based on trade with neighboring Asian political entities at that time, some parts of Luzon were Islamized when the Sultanate of Brunei expanded its realms from Borneo to the Philippines and set up the Kingdom of Maynila as its puppet-state. In addition, other kingdoms like the Wangdom of Pangasinan had become tributary states to China and were largely Sinified kingdoms, certain kilns were renowned over others and prices depended on the reputation of the kiln. Of this flourishing trade, the Burnay jars of Ilocos are the large clay jar manufactured in Luzon today with origins from this time. The Yongle Emperor instituted a Chinese Governor on Luzon during Zheng Hes voyages, China also had vassals among the leaders in the archipelago. China attained ascendancy in trade with the area in Yongles reign, in the 1500s, people from Luzon were called Lucoes and were actively employed in trading, seafaring and military campaigns across Southeast Asia. The Portuguese were the first European explorers who recorded it in their charts as Luçonia or Luçon, edmund Roberts, who visited Luzon in the early 19th century, wrote that Luzon was discovered in 1521. Many people from Luzon had active-employment in Portuguese Malacca and his father and wife carried on his maritime trading business after his death. Another important Malacca trader was Curia de Raja who also hailed from Luzon, the surname of de Raja or diraja could indicate that Regimo and Curia, and their families, were of noble or royal descent as the term is an abbreviation of Sanskrit adiraja. Pinto noted that there were a number of Lucoes in the Islamic fleets that went to battle with the Portuguese in the Philippines during the 16th century, the Sultan of Aceh gave one of them the task of holding Aru in 1540. Pinto also says one was named leader of the Malays remaining in the Moluccas Islands after the Portuguese conquest in 1511, pigafetta notes that one of them was in command of the Brunei fleet in 1521. However, the Luções did not only fight on the side of the Muslims, pinto says they were also apparently among the natives of the Philippines who fought the Muslims in 1538. On Mainland Southeast Asia, Lusung/Lucoes warriors aided the Burmese king in his invasion of Siam in 1547 AD, at the same time, Lusung warriors fought alongside the Siamese king and faced the same elephant army of the Burmese king in the defence of the Siamese capital at Ayuthaya. Scholars have thus suggested that they could be valued by all sides
27.
Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos
28.
Kamikaze
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During World War II, about 3,862 kamikaze pilots died, and about 19% of kamikaze attacks managed to hit a ship. Kamikaze aircraft were essentially pilot-guided explosive missiles, purpose-built or converted from conventional aircraft, a kamikaze could sustain damage which would disable a conventional attacker and still achieve its objective. The goal of crippling or destroying large numbers of Allied ships, particularly aircraft carriers, was considered by the Empire of Japan to be a just reason for sacrificing pilots and these attacks, which began in October 1944, followed several critical military defeats for the Japanese. They had long since lost aerial dominance due to outdated aircraft, Japan suffered from a diminishing capacity for war, and a rapidly declining industrial capacity relative to the Allies. Japan was also losing pilots faster than it could train their replacements, in combination, these factors, coupled with the unwillingness to surrender, led to the use of kamikaze tactics as Allied forces advanced towards the Japanese home islands. While the term usually refers to the aerial strikes, it has also been applied to various other suicide attacks. The Japanese military also used or made plans for non-aerial Japanese Special Attack Units, including those involving submarines, human torpedoes, speedboats, the tradition of death instead of defeat, capture, and perceived shame was deeply entrenched in Japanese military culture. It was one of the traditions in the samurai life. The Japanese word kamikaze is usually translated as divine wind, in Japanese, the formal term used for units carrying out suicide attacks during 1944–1945 is tokubetsu kōgeki tai, which literally means special attack unit. This is usually abbreviated to tokkōtai, more specifically, air suicide attack units from the Imperial Japanese Navy were officially called shinpū tokubetsu kōgeki tai. Shinpū is the on-reading of the characters that form the word kamikaze in Japanese. As a result, the attack units are sometimes known in Japan as kamikaze tokubetsu kōgeki tai. Axell and Kase see these suicides as individual, impromptu decisions by men who were prepared to die. The case of Nikolai Gastellos taran on 26 June 1941 passed into Soviet air-warfare lore, in most cases, little evidence exists that such hits represented more than accidental collisions of the kind that sometimes happen in intense sea or air battles. One example of this occurred on 7 December 1941 during the attack on Pearl Harbor, First Lieutenant Fusata Iidas plane had taken a hit and had started leaking fuel when he apparently used it to make a suicide attack on Naval Air Station Kaneohe. Before taking off, he had told his men that if his plane were to become badly damaged he would crash it into an enemy target. During 1943–1944, U. S. forces steadily advanced toward Japan, newer U. S. -made planes, especially the Grumman F6F Hellcat and Vought F4U Corsair, began to outnumber and outclass Japans fighter planes. Tropical diseases, as well as shortages of parts and fuel
29.
USS Stanly (DD-478)
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USS Stanly, a Fletcher-class destroyer, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Rear Admiral Fabius Stanly. Some live footage of her appears in 1949s Sands of Iwo Jima at 1hr 23min, Stanly remained at the Charleston Navy Yard fitting-out and undergoing dock trials until 30 December. During that time, her catapult was removed to make room for additional 5 inch guns. On the 30th, she passed Fort Sumter on her way to shakedown training off the coast of Cuba, the two warships transited the Panama Canal on 5 March, fueled at Balboa the next day, and steamed for Long Beach. They stayed at San Pedro Harbor from the 12th to the 16th, after entering Pearl Harbor on 22 March, Stanly operated out of that naval base until May, hunting submarines, participating in drills, and screening convoys on the last leg of their voyages to Oahu. Finally, on 14 May, she departed Pearl Harbor in the screen of a westward-bound convoy, twelve days later, Stanly and her convoy passed through the submarine nets into the harbor at Nouméa, New Caledonia. Over the next three months, Stanly was in and out of Nouméa, escorting convoys and screening battleships and she made trips as far west as the coast of Australia and as far north and east as the New Hebrides and Wallis islands. Upon her return to Nouméa from Wallis Island on 7 August, entering Segond Channel on the 11th, she underwent 13 days availability before exiting the channel for Fila Island, also in the New Hebrides. On this passage, she was accompanied by destroyers Charles Ausburne, Claxton, the four destroyers arrived at Fila on the 24th and stood out again the next day, bound for the Solomons. By 27 August, Stanly and the three destroyers were off Guadalcanal, patrolling the anchorage at Lengo Channel. The Solomons-Bismarcks area was to be her theater of operations until late February 1944, on 28 August, she stopped at Tulagi, then, steamed on to patrol the entrance to Kula Gulf, between Kolombangara and New Georgia, and returned the next day to Florida Island. During the first week in September, Stanly sailed between Port Purvis and Tulagi, then, on the 8th, escorted a convoy out of Purvis Bay, the destroyer parted company with the convoy on 10 September and headed on to New Caledonia. Arriving in Nouméa on the 13th, she underwent boiler repairs, exchanged ammunition and torpedoes, fueled and she escorted another convoy from New Caledonia to Guadalcanal in October, leaving it off Lunga Point on the 5th. After stopping at Espiritu Santo on 8 October, Stanly returned to Post Purvis to fuel, for the rest of October, she continued to guard the convoys from Florida Island to various islands in the Solomons. On the last day of the month, she out of Purvis Bay. During the following evening and night, Stanly fought off an attack by Japanese motor torpedo boats while the task force pounded Buka Island, the Japanese lost at least three boats during the action. Late on 1 November, TF39 sighted an enemy surface force, radar contact was made at 02,30 on 2 November, and Stanly, along with the other three destroyers in the van, opened the battle with a torpedo attack. The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay claimed one enemy cruiser, Sendai, and the already mentioned
30.
Lifeboat (shipboard)
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A lifeboat is a small, rigid or inflatable boat carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard a ship. Lifeboat drills are required by law on larger commercial ships, in the military, a lifeboat may double as a whaleboat, dinghy, or gig. The ships tenders of cruise ships often double as lifeboats, recreational sailors usually carry inflatable life rafts, though a few prefer small proactive lifeboats that are harder to sink and can be sailed to safety. Inflatable lifeboats may be equipped with auto-inflation canisters or mechanical pumps, a quick release and pressure release mechanism is fitted on ships so that the canister or pump automatically inflates the lifeboat, and the lifeboat breaks free of the sinking vessel. Commercial aircraft are required to carry auto-inflating life rafts in case of an emergency water landing. Ship-launched lifeboats are lowered from davits on a deck, and are hard to sink in normal circumstances. The cover serves as protection from sun, wind and rain, can be used to collect rainwater, lifeboats have oars, flares and mirrors for signaling, first aid supplies, and food and water for several days. Modern lifeboats carry an Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon and either a radar reflector or Search, during the Age of Sail, the ships boats were often also used as lifeboats in case of emergency. In March 1870, answering a question at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom about the sinking of PS Normandy and they would encumber the decks, and rather add to the danger than detract from it. It was not until after the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15,1912, the Titanic′s boats had a capacity of 1,178 people on a ship capable of carrying 3,330 people. This was resolved by the use of collapsible lifeboats, a number of which had been carried on the Titanic. The US Navy asked various groups and manufacturers to suggest solutions, the result was the first enclosed, unsinkable, self-righting lifeboat, manufactured in Delanco, New Jersey, USA, the first units were delivered in 1944. These radically new lifeboats were 24 feet in length and weighed 5,000 lbs and they had two enclosed cabins at each end which could hold a total of 25 persons. The space in between was designed to help persons in the water be pulled aboard, and could be enclosed with a canvas top, the new type lifeboat could be driven either by a small motor or sail. Also, in 1943 the US developed a balsa wood liferaft that would not sink and these balsa liferafts were designed to hold five to ten men on a platform suspended on the inside or fifteen to twenty-five hanging lines placed on the outsides. They were inexpensive, and during the war thousands were stored in any space possible on US warships and these liferafts were intended only for use during a short term before lifeboats or another ship in the convoy or group could bring them aboard. Today, enclosed lifeboats are the preferred lifeboats fitted on modern merchant ships because of their protection against the elements. Generally each merchant ship has one fitted on the port side and one on the starboard side
31.
Destroyer escort
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Destroyer escort was the United States Navy mid-20th century classification for a 20-knot warship designed with endurance to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships. Kaibōkan were designed for a role in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Royal Navy and Commonwealth forces identified such warships as frigates, Destroyer escorts, frigates and kaibōkan were mass-produced for World War II as a less expensive anti-submarine warfare alternative to fleet destroyers. Post-war destroyer escorts and frigates were larger than those produced during wartime, with increased anti-aircraft capability, as Cold War destroyer escorts became as large as wartime destroyers, the United States Navy converted some of their World War II destroyers to escort destroyers. Full-size destroyers must be able to steam as fast or faster than the fast capital ships such as carriers and cruisers. This typically requires a speed of 25–35 knots and they must carry torpedoes and a smaller caliber of cannon to use against enemy ships, as well as anti-submarine detection equipment and weapons. A destroyer escort needed only to be able to maneuver relative to a slow convoy and these lower requirements greatly reduce the size, cost, and crew required for the destroyer escort. Destroyer escorts were optimized for anti-submarine warfare, having a turning radius. Their much slower speed was not a liability in this context, Destroyer escorts were also considerably more sea-kindly than corvettes. Electric drive was selected because it does not need gearboxes to adjust engine speed to the much lower optimum speed for the propellers, Destroyer escorts were also useful for coastal anti-submarine and radar picket ship duty. During World War II, seven destroyer escorts were converted to radar picket destroyer escorts, although these were relegated to secondary roles after the war, in the mid-1950s twelve more DEs were converted to DERs, serving as such until 1960-1965. Their mission was to extend the Distant Early Warning line on coasts, in conjunction with sixteen Guardian-class radar picket ships, which were converted Liberty ships. In World War II, some 95 destroyer escorts were converted by the US to high-speed transports and this involved adding an extra deck which allowed space for about 10 officers and 150 men. Two large davits were installed, one on either side of the ship. This enabled the UK to commission the US to design, build and supply an escort vessel that was suitable for anti-submarine warfare in deep open ocean situations, cochrane of the American Bureau of Shipping came up with a design which was known as the British Destroyer Escort. S. Navy and one to the Royal Navy, after World War II United States Navy destroyer escorts were referred to as ocean escorts, but retained the hull classification symbol DE. However other navies, most notably those of NATO countries and the USSR, in order to remedy this problem the 1975 ship reclassification reclassified ocean escorts as frigates. This brought the USNs nomenclature more in line with NATO, as of 2006 there are no plans for future frigates for the US Navy
32.
USS Richard W. Suesens
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USS Richard W. Suesens was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort in the United States Navy and it was named after Lieutenant Richard Wayne Suesens who died during the Battle of Midway and was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism. Richard W. Suesenss keel was laid down 1 November 1943 by the Consolidated Steel Corporation of Orange, completing shakedown off Bermuda and post-shakedown availability at Boston, Richard W. Suesens sailed for Long Island Sound on 29 June 1944. That night, in Buzzards Bay, she collided with the minesweeper USS Valor, the coastal minesweeper sank and the destroyer escort transported survivors to Newport, Rhode Island. Then she continued on, reported for duty at New York City, thence, on 4 July, a unit of CortDiv 69, she served as escort for ships en route to Mayport, then steamed on through the Panama Canal, reporting to the Pacific Fleet 23 July. On 2 August she arrived at San Diego, whence she sailed with TransDiv 10 to Hawaii, arriving on 19 August, she trained there until mid-September, then headed west with convoy PD-89-T, bound for Eniwetok. There, on 22 September, she joined TF33 and 8 days later sailed for Manus, assigned to TU77.4.24, an escort carrier unit, Richard W. Suesens sailed for the Philippines 14 October. On 16 October, TG77.4 rendezvoused with TG78.6 to provide air coverage for transports en route from Hollandia to Leyte. Through the landings on 20 October and the operations which followed. On 22 October TU77.4.24 was dissolved, Richard W. Suesens with six escort carriers, three destroyers, and four other destroyer escorts formed TU77.4.2 and with TU77.4.1 and TU77.4. During the early morning hours of 25 October, the Battle of Surigao Strait was fought, planes from Taffy 1 were designated to fly the searches while other units continued air support and patrol operations. At dawn the planes were launched on their missions, all available planes from Taffy 2 were dispatched to join those of Taffy 3. The Battle off Samar had begun, by 0720 the enemy force had closed to within 20 miles of Taffy 2. The destroyers formed a line between the carriers circular disposition and the approaching enemy, the escorts remained with the carriers as they continued to rearm returning planes and send them northward into the now visible gunsmoke clouds over Taffy 3. By 0920 the latter were only 12 miles from Taffy 2 and their shells splashed among the destroyers, the Japanese now so close to their objective-entrance into Leyte Gulf-were no longer on the offensive. TG77.4, despite staggering losses while protecting shipping in the Gulf, now commenced the pursuit, rescue operations and logistic resupply followed on 26 October. On the night of 27 –28 October, Richard W. Suesens resumed screening and plane guard duties and at the end of the month she headed south. Arriving at Manus 3 November, Richard W. Suesens spent the next 3 weeks undergoing upkeep and maintenance, then reported for duty in TF79, on 31 December the force sortied from Seeadler Harbor and headed for the Philippines
33.
Landing Ship, Tank
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This provided amphibious assaults to almost any beach. The bow of the LST had a door that would open with a ramp for unloading the vehicles. The LST had a flat keel that allowed the ship to be beached. The twin propellers and rudders had protection from grounding, the LSTs served across the globe during World War II including, Pacific War and European theatre. The first tank landing ships were built to British requirements by converting existing ships, then the British, over 1,000 LSTs were laid down in the United States during World War II for use by the Allies. Eighty more were built in the United Kingdom and Canada, as an interim measure, three 4, 000- to 4, 800-GRT tankers, built to pass over the restrictive bars of Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela, were selected for conversion because of their shallow draft. Bow doors and ramps were added to ships, which became the first tank landing ships, LST, HMS Misoa, Tasajera. They later proved their worth during the invasion of Algeria in 1942, the first purpose-built LST design was HMS Boxer. It was a design from ideas penned by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In order that it could carry 13 Churchill infantry tanks,27 other vehicles and nearly 200 men at a speed of 18 knots, as a result, each of the three ordered in March 1941 had a very long ramp stowed behind the bow doors. The three ships were converted to Fighter Direction Ships for the invasion of Normandy, the U. S. were to build seven LST but in light of the problems with the design and progress with the LCT Mark II the plans were canceled. Construction of the LCTs took until 1943 and the first US LCT was launched before them, at their first meeting at the Atlantic conference in Argentia, Newfoundland, in August 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill confirmed the Admiraltys views. During this meeting, it was decided that the Bureau of Ships would design these vessels, as with the standing agreement, these ships would be built by the US so British shipyards could concentrate on building vessels for the Royal Navy. The specifications called for vessels capable of crossing the Atlantic, calling a vessel 300 ft long a craft was considered a misnomer and the type was re-christened Landing Ship, Tank, or LST. The LST design incorporated elements of the first British LCTs from their designer, Sir Rowland Baker, one of the elements provided for sufficient buoyancy in the ships sidewalls so that they would float the ship even when the tank deck was flooded. The LST gave up the speed of HMS Boxer, at only 10 knots, within a few days, John C. Niedermair of the Bureau of Ships sketched out an awkward looking ship that proved to be the design for the more than 1,000 LST that were built during World War II. An anchor and mechanical winch system also aided in the ability to pull itself off the beach
34.
Leyte Gulf
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Leyte Gulf is a gulf in the Eastern Visayan region in the Philippines. The bay is part of the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, on the south of the bay is Mindanao Island, separated from Leyte by the Surigao Strait. Dinagat Island partly encloses the gulf to the southeast, and the small Homonhon Island and Suluan Island and it is approximately 130 km north-south, and 60 km east-west. Several municipalities are situated on the coast of the gulf, Balangiga, Giporlos, Guiuan, Lawaan, Mercedes, Quinapondan, there are also eleven marine reserves in the gulf region. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan stirred up a surge in Leyte Gulf, resulting to massive loss of lives, agricultural land. Leyte Gulf is identified by the Leyte State University as one of the important fishing grounds of Leyte, like other rich fishing grounds such as Maqueda Bay and Carigara Bay, the gulf is known for abundant catches of anchioves, herring, shrimp and crabs. It was also one of the richest sources of mud crabs in 1985. Fish harvest has been in decline in the due to the use of dynamite fishing. Typhoon Haiyan has damaged the hard coral cover within the gulfs area, further reducing the fish harvest
35.
USS Provo Victory (AK-228)
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USS Provo Victory was a Boulder Victory-class cargo ship acquired by the U. S. Navy during World War II. She served in the Pacific Ocean theatre of operations through the end of the war, following shakedown off California, Provo Victory reported for duty 8 November 1944. In 1944 she operated at San Francisco, California, in November, and then at Eniwetok, Ulithi, and the Palau Islands from December 1944 into February 1945. During the remainder of 1945 her cargo duties took her to Guam and Pearl Harbor in March, Seattle, Washington, in April, Ulithi in May, Leyte from June to October, Eniwetok and Seattle in November. Decommissioned 10 April 1946, she was returned to the War Shipping Administration at Seattle, Washington, that day and she helped with the Hungnam Evacuation with the Military Sea Transportation Service and Merchant Ships participating in Hungnam Korea Redeployment. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the entry can be found here. NavSource Online, Service Ship Photo Archive - AK-228 Provo Victory
36.
USS Boulder Victory (AK-227)
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USS Boulder Victory was a Boulder Victory-class cargo ship acquired by the US Navy during World War II. She carried ammunition into the Pacific Ocean war zone and, on 20 December 1944 at Manus, New Guinea, she struck a naval mine, Boulder Victory was laid down on 18 June 1944, at Richmond, California, by Permanente Metals Corporation, Yard No. On 17 October, the newly commissioned cargo ship sailed to San Francisco, California and her holds were filled by 2 November, and Boulder Victory got underway for the western Pacific. Boulder Victory received orders to transfer ammunition between these bases as needed and she made port at Eniwetok on 17 November to refuel, entered the lagoon at Ulithi on 30 November, and reached Kossol Passage on 8 December. Floating mines from that island were a constant danger, on 20 December, as Boulder Victory set out for Manus, she struck one of those mines on her port side. The explosion tore a hole in her No.3 hold that measured 18 by 32 ft, the hold contained 5-inch projectiles, but the fires started by the explosion were extinguished by the rapid rush of seawater into the space. As a consequence, only two shells exploded, leaving two 16-inch holes in the skin of the ship, Boulder Victory remained afloat, although low in the water, and, after emergency repairs to the engines, managed to get into Palau again on her own power. Her crew suffered no casualties, but the damage to the ship was so severe that her wartime operations ended, the cargo ship remained anchored at Kossol Passage unloading ammunition and cleaning debris from the hold until 8 February 1945. She then slowly steamed to Manus to unload the remainder of her cargo, finally, on 13 June, Boulder Victorys temporary repairs made her seaworthy again, and she set course via Pearl Harbor for San Francisco. On 30 June, the ship began an overhaul by United Engineering Company at Alameda, California. Boulder Victory was still in overhaul when the Japanese capitulated in August, but, on 1 September and she got underway on 10 October, to carry supplies to the occupation troops in Japan. After a refueling stop at Eniwetok, Boulder Victory continued on to Okinawa where she arrived on 30 October and she unloaded her cargo and embarked returning veterans. On 10 November, she set sail for the United States, after discharging her passengers, the ship sailed for San Francisco, where she commenced demilitarization on 5 December and was returned to the War Shipping Administration on 4 January 1946. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 21 January 1946, during 1946 and 1947, Boulder Victory was operated by Parry Navigation Company, Inc. She was then inactivated and laid up at Wilmington, North Carolina, until 1951, on 29 October 1953, she was transferred to the National Defense Reserve Fleet, at Suisun Bay, California. On 20 May 1957, American President Lines removed Boulder Victory so that the University of California could conduct thermal stress tests on her and she was returned 3 September 1957. She was removed 1 December 1983, for scrapping by C. J. W and she was scrapped in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, between 1983 and 1984
37.
USS Sangay (AE-10)
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The USS Sangay was a ship of the United States Navy which saw service during World War II in the Pacific Ocean. As a munitions carrier, the Sangay was named after the Sangay volcano in Ecuador, the ship shuttled ammunition initially between San Francisco and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, then moved to the forward area in the Pacific theatre to supply combatants. The Sangay served during the entirety of the war and was retired shortly after the end of hostilities, USS Sangay was laid down under Maritime Commission contract as SS Cape Sable on 30 October 1941 by Pennsylvania Shipyards, Inc. Sangay sailed from Yorktown, Va. on 13 May 1943 with a cargo of mines for San Diego and this duty was completed on 2 October. On 16 November, the ship left San Francisco for the first of five voyages to supply the fleet with ammunition in forward areas, civilian longshoremen were instead brought in to load Sangay. Sangays next assignment was to support the landings on Peleliu in the Palau Islands, between 15 and 21 September, she lay off the beach during the day issuing ammunition to American warships and retired seaward with the transports at night. She then issued ammunition in Kossol Passage between 22 and 26 September and at Seeadler Harbor between 1 and 10 October before joining USS Mauna Loa and sailing to San Francisco. Sangay left San Francisco on 22 March with a cargo of mines and mine components, arriving after several stops at Eniwetok on 27 June. She remained there until ordered back to Pearl Harbor on 12 August to be fitted as a tender for small minecraft, after ten days at Okinawa, from 11 to 20 October, she arrived at Sasebo on 22 October where she provided support to minesweepers clearing Japanese minefields. She remained there, except for a visit to Wakayama Wan. The ammunition ship arrived at Orange, Tex. on 30 April 1946 where she was decommissioned and placed in reserve on 20 July 1947. She was struck from the Navy list on 1 July 1960, having transferred the previous day to the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Beaumont. Sangay received two stars for her World War II service. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
38.
USS Mauna Loa (AE-8)
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USS Mauna Loa was laid down by Tampa Shipbuilding Co. Tampa, Fla.10 December 1942, launched 14 April 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Robert E. Friend and she is named after Mauna Loa, a large shield volcano on the Island of Hawaii. Assigned to the force, on 1 February she continued on to the Marshalls escorted by USS Manlove. On 9 February a near-disaster occurred while Mauna Loa was supplying USS Pennsylvania with gunpowder, at 16,35 a flash of flame leaped out across her deck, accompanied by a dull boom — one of the cans had exploded. Grains of burning powder were hurled about, many of them streaking down Mauna Loa’s open hold, without a moment’s hesitation, Boatswain F. B. Wilson seized a hose and turned it on the burning can. This stream of water checked the fire until Pennsylvania’s men could get the can over the side before it ignited the others, two of Pennsylvania’s men suffered broken legs and the man handling the powder can was blinded. Courageous performance of their duties under such hazardous conditions had become routine to the officers. On 2 March Mauna Loa sailed for the west coast, via Pearl Harbor and she got underway 10 April again for the South Pacific, her destination being the New Hebrides. She reached Espiritu Santo 28 April for a month of operations, then proceeded to Eniwetok, Marshalls, after a return trip to San Francisco, on 8 September Mauna Loa entered the Kossol Passage, Palaus, in company with USS Shasta and USS McCoy Reynolds. She then began a 24‑hour‑a‑day rearming of the 3d Fleet, while swept mines exploded all around the anchorage, after an unidentified plane strafed her during the night of 19 September while USS Portland was alongside, night operations were halted. By November she was en route to the Carolines, arriving Ulithi the 30th, Mauna Loa remained there until the beginning of the Okinawa campaign. On 13 March 1945 she departed Ulithi with TG50.8 for 5 successful months on the “line, ” as it came to be termed, the Japanese capitulation 14 August found her at San Pedro, Philippines. Mauna Loa departed San Pedro for the west coast 4 October, arriving Tiburon and she moved up to Bremerton, Wash.12 November. She then entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego 15 May 1946, Mauna Loa recommissioned 31 January 1955, Capt. Elgin B. Hurlbert in command, and departed San Diego 16 March for the east coast. After docking at Norfolk Naval Shipyard for alterations, she began refresher training out of Newport, R. I.8 September, then served out of Earle, N. J. through the end of the year. On 5 January 1956 Mauna Loa departed Earle with Mine Division 81 for Europe, arriving Naples, Italy, the ammunition ship operated with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean until 28 May when she steamed from Tangiers for home. She reached Yorktown, Va.13 June for supply duty along the east coast from Gravesend Bay to Norfolk into September 1957, on 26 July 1957 the Mauna Loa threatened for more than an hour to emulate the famous Hawaiian volcano in more than just a name
39.
USS Shasta (AE-6)
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USS Shasta, an ammunition ship, was laid down under Maritime Commission contract on 12 August 1940 by the Tampa Shipbuilding Company, Tampa, Fla. initially as a C2 type cargo ship. She was acquired by the Navy on 16 April 1941 and launched on 9 July 1941 and she was commissioned on 20 January 1942 with Capt. Francis A. Smith in command. She was named after Mount Shasta, a volcano in the Cascade Range in northern California, on 19 November 1942, Shasta departed Alameda, Calif. for Noumea, New Caledonia, on the first of her ten wartime transpacific voyages. At the western end of each voyage, she moved from island to island replenishing the supplies of the Battle Fleet. With one exception, a deployment to Adak, Alaska, in support of the Attu and Kiska operations and her cargo supported the campaigns against the Gilberts, the Marianas, the Palaus, and the Philippines. The highlights of Shastas wartime career came in 1945, in February, she participated in the first successful underway replenishment of ammunition. Later, while re-supplying the warships supporting the assault on Iwo Jima and her most harrowing experience occurred on 5 June when she was battered by the force fourteen winds of a typhoon off the southeastern coast of Okinawa. Though her cargo had shifted and much of it had been damaged and this same typhoon sank three destroyers and damaged nine others. USS Shasta survived an attack by planes at Ulithi and drifting mines at Okinawa. Her cargo operations complete, Shasta departed Leyte Gulf and joined TG30.8 on 17 July 1945, after a short replenishment cruise, she returned to Leyte Gulf for more cargo. The end of the war found Shasta taking on cargo from Victory ships and she remained at Leyte Gulf until 25 October, at which time she sailed for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard via Eniwetok Atoll. Following inactivation overhaul, she was decommissioned at San Diego on 10 August 1946, after almost six years of inactivity in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Shasta was recommissioned on 15 July 1953. Under the command of Capt. Peter M. Gaviglio, she departed San Diego on 26 November 1953, at the completion of modernization overhaul at Norfolk and underway replenishment training off Newport, R. I. Shasta sailed on 7 January for her first Mediterranean deployment. For the next years, she alternated between cruises with the 6th Fleet and Atlantic seaboard operations. She provided ammunition supply support to the 6th Fleet during the Jordanian crisis of May 1957, during her assignments to the continental United States, Shasta participated in several special projects. She acted as a ship for nuclear submarines, tested instruments on a dummy Polaris missile attached to her keel. In June 1959, Shasta helped test a recently developed torpedo counter-measure known as Project “Phoenix”, on 14 September 1966, Shasta steamed out of Norfolk on a final visit to the Far East. She transited the Panama Canal on 20 September, called briefly at Pearl Harbor and she remained in the Far East, either at Subic Bay or on Yankee Station, until 22 April 1967
40.
USS Lassen (AE-3)
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USS Lassen was built as MS Shooting Star under a U. S. Maritime Commission contract, was delivered to the U. S. Navy after sea trials, and became an ammunition cargo ship during World War II. Like many Naval ships of this category that carried large amounts of explosive cargo, in this case, the ship was named for Lassen Peak, a volcano in northern California that erupted heavily in 1914-17. Shooting Star was built by the Tampa Shipbuilding Company in Tampa, Florida and she was the second of eight C2 type motor ships of a series constructed by Tampa Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Tampa, Florida powered by twin Nordberg diesels, the first being Sea Witch. She was launched on 10 January 1940, christened by Mrs. Fred C. The ship was acquired by the Navy on 15 November 1940 and she was re-commissioned in her modified form on 27 March 1941, with Commander Russell S. Berkey of the U. S. Navy in command. On 22 November 1941, she departed from Norfolk, Virginia, en route to San Francisco, her homeport, after round-trip delivery voyages to the Samoa Islands, the Fiji Islands, and Pearl Harbor, the Lassen began duty as an advanced base supply ship. Departing from San Francisco on 26 August 1942, the Lassen replenished naval ships in New Caledonia from 19 September to 17 January 1943. The Lassen arrived back at San Francisco on 23 January 1943 for repairs, the installation of equipment. On 18 May 1943, the Lassen arrived at Espiritu Santo, in the New Hebrides and she also resupplied warships from the port of Efate, New Hebrides, and Noumea, New Caledonia, before returning to San Francisco on 24 November. An overhaul period in a drydock was a prelude to an extensive stay in the war zone supplying the American warships that were battling the Imperial Japanese Navy. As a part of Vice-Admiral W. L. Calhoun’s 7th Force, Pacific Fleet and she replenished ships both in the Marshall Islands and at Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands. As part of the train of the fleet at Kossol Passage, Palau Islands, from 25 September to 2 October and at Ulithi Atoll from 4 October to 18 November 1944. During the latter period, the USS Lassen rode out a severe typhoon, the Lassen exhibited this new ability and mobility by accompanying aircraft carrier Task Group 50.8 in raids from 13 March to 14 June 1945, while supporting the conquest of Okinawa campaign. The Lassens third battle star was earned while accompanying carrier Task Group 30.8 from 8 July to 6 August off the coasts of Japan itself, the end of the war at V-J Day found the Lassen operating out of San Pedro Bay, Leyte. On the 25th of October, she departed the war zone for the United States, via Eniwetok Atoll. There was little need for ships like the USS Lassen during the period of huge peacetime demobilization of the Navy fleet that followed. The Lassen was noted for carrying out her dangerous ammunition delivery and handling duties without any serious incidents during the War in the Pacific. She was held in port first at Port Discovery, Washington, from 20 November 1945 to 2 March 1946, the USS Lassen was decommissioned on 15 January 1947 and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet
41.
USS Mount Baker (AE-4)
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USS Mount Baker, originally named USS Kilauea, was acquired by the Navy 14 November 1940 while building by Tampa Shipbuilding Co. Tampa, Fla. as SS Surprise, delivered to Alabama Drydock & Shipbuilding Co. for conversion to Type C2, kilauea’s dangerous, difficult, and vital service during World War II was to carry ammunition to ships and bases and to issue it to the users. She began operating 17 June 1941 out of Norfolk, serving combatants on the east coast, in the Caribbean, aside from necessary overhaul, and a period as station ammunition ship in the Norfolk area October 1942‑January 1943, she continued American theater duty into 1943. Kilauea was renamed Mount Baker 17 March 1943 to avoid confusion with a similarly named ship, on 8 June, she sailed with ammunition for the Mediterranean, and until 6 November supplied ships in Oran, Algiers, Arzeu, Bizerte, and Palermo. Returning to Norfolk for local duty, Mount Baker then sailed 29 April 1944 to arm ships in the British Isles ports from which the Normandy invasion was to be staged, during this time she conducted experiments in at‑sea replenishment with a battleship, a cruiser, and a destroyer. Mount Baker departed Ulithi 3 June for overhaul at San Francisco and she decommissioned in January 1947 and was placed in reserve at San Diego, Calif. With the rapid expansion of the fleet required by the Korean War, Mount Baker recommissioned 5 December 1951, on 12 January 1953, Mount Baker sortied from San Francisco with a cruiser‑destroyer force for the largest, to that time, postwar training operation in the Pacific. Early in February she sailed for Sasebo, Japan, to combat duty. From March until the Armistice in July, Mount Baker gave efficient, in 1955, and almost every year thereafter, Mount Baker made similar deployments to the Far East, usually of 8 months duration. Stateside periods between were given to overhaul and training, as well as providing training in underway replenishment to other ships of the fleet. When she left San Diego 28 October 1964, she was bound for duty replenishing 7th Fleet ships operating off the coast of Vietnam in the struggle against North Vietnamese communism. She also brought ammunition to ships of the Taiwan patrol and bases in Japan, returning to Port Chicago, Calif. in the spring of 1965, Mount Baker prepared for a year‑long deployment for which she sailed 5 January 1966. After overhaul at Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard, Mount Baker sailed once more for the Far East 28 September 1967 to aid the United States fleet well into 1968, Mount Baker served in the Far East for a final time in 1969. Mount Baker was struck from the Naval Register on 2 December 1969 and transferred to the Maritime Administration for disposal, Mount Baker received four battle stars for Korean service. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the entry can be found here
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USS Nitro (AE-2)
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USS Nitro was laid down 19 March 1919 by Puget Sound Navy Yard, launched 16 December 1919, sponsored by Mrs. Henry Suzalo, and commissioned 1 April 1921, Comdr. Carrying explosives and ammunition for the Battle Fleet, Nitro averaged three cruises yearly between the east and west coast by way of the Caribbean and Panama Canal. In addition, she made five voyages from the west coast to Pearl Harbor, seven to Manila and she operated from Belfast, Plymouth, and Roseneath, Scotland, supplying battleships with the heavy projectiles they fired with such effect during the Normandy invasion. After loading ammunition, she sailed for Ulithi arriving 1 December, here she armed ships engaged in the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa campaigns through 20 May 1945, when she sailed for local cargo and rearming operations in the Philippines. Nitro returned to Puget Sound 15 August, repaired at Portland, Ore. then sailed for the Panama Canal and Norfolk, transferred to the Maritime Commission 30 March 1948, Nitro was sold to Welding Shipyards, Inc. Nitro received one star for World War II service. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the entry can be found here
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USS Alamosa (AK-156)
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USS Alamosa was the lead ship of the Alamosa-class cargo ships, commissioned by the US Navy for service in World War II. She was responsible for delivering troops, goods and equipment to locations in the war zone. Alamosa was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract, MC hull 2101, on 15 November 1943 at Richmond, California, by Kaiser Cargo, Inc. launched on 14 April 1944, sponsored by Mrs. J. J. Mullane, and acquired by the Navy and commissioned on 10 August 1944, Alamosa class cargo ships are named after United States Counties. After a brief fitting out period in the San Francisco Bay area, Alamosa sailed for Portland, there the ship entered the Commercial Iron Works yards and was decommissioned on 25 August for conversion to an ammunition issue ship. She was recommissioned on 25 September and got underway on 6 October for shakedown out of San Pedro, after taking on ammunition at Mare Island, California, Alamosa set sail on November for the Marshall Islands. Upon arriving at Eniwetok on 7 December, Alamosa was assigned to Service Squadron 8, for the duration of World War II, the vessel carried ammunition and cargo between Eniwetok, Saipan, Guam, Ulithi, Peleliu, and Leyte. After the end of hostilities, Alamosa entered dry dock at Apra Harbor, Guam, following the completion of repairs, she got underway again on 7 January 1946, bound for home. She arrived at Seattle, Washington, on 27 January, was decommissioned there on 20 May 1946 and her name was struck from the Navy list on 14 June 1946. The ship was sold for $6,227.22, to American Ship Dismantlers, Inc. on 19 May 1972, citations Photo gallery of USS Alamosa at NavSource Naval History
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USS Mount Hood (AE-11)
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USS Mount Hood was the lead ship of her class of ammunition ships for the United States Navy in World War II. She was the first ship named after Mount Hood, a volcano in the Cascade Range in Oregon. On 10 November 1944, shortly after 18 men had departed for shore leave, the ship was obliterated while also sinking or severely damaging 22 smaller craft nearby. Marco Polo was a ship built under a US Maritime Commission contract. Norfolk, Virginia, and the Norfolk Navy Yard, and commissioned 1 July 1944, following an abbreviated fitting out and shakedown period in the Chesapeake Bay area, ammunition ship Mount Hood reported for duty to ComServFor, Atlantic Fleet,5 August 1944. Assigned to carry cargo to the Pacific, she put into Norfolk, on 21 August, as a unit of Task Group 29.6, she transited the Panama Canal on the 27th, and continued on, independently, via Finschafen, New Guinea. Mount Hood arrived at Seeadler Harbor, in Manus Island of the Admiralty Islands, assigned to ComSoWesPac, she commenced dispensing ammunition and explosives to ships preparing for the Philippine offensive. At 08,30,10 November 1944, a party consisting of communications officer, Lt. Lester H. Wallace, at 08,55, while walking on the beach, they saw a flash from the harbor, followed by two quick explosions. Scrambling into their boat, they headed back to the ship, only to turn around again shortly thereafter as There was nothing, Mount Hood, anchored in about 35 feet of water, had exploded with an estimated 3,800 tons of ordnance material on board. The initial explosion caused flame and smoke to shoot up from amidships to more than masthead height, within seconds, the bulk of her cargo detonated with a more intense explosion. Mushrooming smoke rose to 7,000 feet, obscuring the ship, Mount Hoods former position was revealed by a trench in the ocean floor 1,000 feet long,200 feet wide, and 30 to 40 feet deep. The largest remaining piece of the hull was found in the trench, no human remains were recovered of the 350 men aboard Mount Hood or small boats loading alongside at the time of the explosion. The only other survivors from the Mount Hood crew were a junior officer, two of the crew were being transferred to the base brig for trial by court martial, and the remainder of the party were picking up mail at the base post office. Charges against the prisoners were dropped following the explosion, the concussion and metal fragments hurled from the ship also caused casualties and damage to ships and small craft within 2,000 yards. The repair ship Mindanao, which was broadside-on to the blast, was the most seriously damaged, all personnel topside on Mindanao were killed outright, and dozens of men were killed or wounded below decks as numerous heavy fragments from Mount Hood penetrated the side plating. A board convened to examine evidence relating to the disaster was unable to ascertain the exact cause, after only a little over four months service, Mount Hood was struck from the Naval Register on 11 December 1944. Port Chicago disaster List of accidents and incidents involving transport or storage of ammunition This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the entry can be found here. Photo gallery of Mount Hood at NavSource Naval History AE Sailors Association Selected documents relating to the loss of USS Mount Hood photos from history. navy. mil
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