1.
Cargo ship
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A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the worlds seas and oceans each year, cargo ships are usually specially designed for the task, often being equipped with cranes and other mechanisms to load and unload, and come in all sizes. Today, they are almost always built by welded steel, cargo ships/freighters can be divided into five groups, according to the type of cargo they carry. Tankers carry petroleum products or other liquid cargo, dry bulk carriers carry coal, grain, ore and other similar products in loose form. Multi-purpose vessels, as the name suggests, carry different classes of cargo – e. g. liquid, a Reefer ship is specifically designed and used for shipping perishable commodities which require temperature-controlled, mostly fruits, meat, fish, vegetables, dairy products and other foodstuffs. Specialized types of cargo vessels include ships and bulk carriers. Cargo ships fall into two categories that reflect the services they offer to industry, liner and tramp services. Those on a published schedule and fixed tariff rates are cargo liners. Tramp ships do not have fixed schedules, users charter them to haul loads. Generally, the shipping companies and private individuals operate tramp ships. Cargo liners run on fixed schedules published by the shipping companies, each trip a liner takes is called a voyage. However, some cargo liners may carry passengers also, a cargo liner that carries 12 or more passengers is called a combination or passenger-cum-cargo line. The desire to trade routes over longer distances, and throughout more seasons of the year. Before the middle of the 19th century, the incidence of piracy resulted in most cargo ships being armed, sometimes heavily, as in the case of the Manila galleons. They were also escorted by warships. Piracy is still common in some waters, particularly in the Malacca Straits. In 2004, the governments of three nations agreed to provide better protection for the ships passing through the Straits. The waters off Somalia and Nigeria are also prone to piracy, while smaller vessels are also in danger along parts of the South American, Southeast Asian coasts, the words cargo and freight have become interchangeable in casual usage
2.
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
3.
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
4.
Battle of Pearl Harbor
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The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States entry into World War II. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U. S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions they planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U. S. -held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, the attack commenced at 7,48 a. m. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, all eight U. S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but the USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service, the Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U. S. aircraft were destroyed,2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the station, shipyard, maintenance. Japanese losses were light,29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, one Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured. The surprise attack came as a shock to the American people. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan, the U. S. responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940, Roosevelt to proclaim December 7,1941, a date which will live in infamy. Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, over the next decade, Japan continued to expand into China, leading to all-out war between those countries in 1937. Japan spent considerable effort trying to isolate China and achieve sufficient resource independence to attain victory on the mainland, from December 1937, events such as the Japanese attack on USS Panay, the Allison incident, and the Nanking Massacre swung public opinion in the West sharply against Japan. Fearing Japanese expansion, the United States, the United Kingdom, in 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to control supplies reaching China. The United States halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline to Japan, an invasion of the Philippines was also considered necessary by Japanese war planners. War Plan Orange had envisioned defending the Philippines with a 40 and this was opposed by Douglas MacArthur, who felt that he would need a force ten times that size, and was never implemented. By 1941, U. S. planners anticipated abandonment of the Philippines at the outbreak of war and orders to that effect were given in late 1941 to Admiral Thomas Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet
5.
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
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The Pacific Ocean theater, during World War II, was a major theater of the war between the Allies and Japan. It officially came into existence on March 30,1942, when US Admiral Chester Nimitz was appointed Supreme Allied Commander Pacific Ocean Areas. In the other theatre in the Pacific region, known as the South West Pacific theatre. Both Nimitz and MacArthur were overseen by the US Joint Chiefs, most Japanese forces in the theater were part of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, which was responsible for all Japanese warships, naval aircraft, and marine infantry units. The Rengō Kantai was led by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, until he was killed in an attack by U. S. fighter planes in April 1943, Yamamoto was succeeded by Admiral Mineichi Koga and Admiral Soemu Toyoda. The General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army was responsible for Imperial Japanese Army ground and air units in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. The IJN and IJA did not formally use joint/combined staff at the level, and their command structures/geographical areas of operations overlapped each other. In the Pacific Ocean theater, Japanese forces fought primarily against the United States Navy, US Marine Corps, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and other Allied nations also contributed forces. Pacific Crucible, War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942, the Official Chronology of the U. S. Navy in World War II. In the Service of the Emperor, Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army, a History of Us, War, Peace and all that Jazz. Kafka, Roger, Pepperburg, Roy L. Warships of the World, the Campaigns of the Pacific War
6.
U.S. Shipping Board
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The United States Shipping Board was established as an emergency agency by the Shipping Act, September 7,1916. S. The 1916 act was the end result of Congressional efforts to create a board to address the problem dating from 1914, in essence, the USSB was given complete control over American ships and shipping. White for three years and Theodore Brent for a two-year term, the net effect was negligible as shipbuilding in the United States declined almost equally with the benefits gained. Though it was referred to as the War Shipping Board. During the war Congress granted the President extraordinary wartime powers that were used by means of Executive Orders to expand the authority of USSB and its corporation. The USSB, as a regulatory and policy body, executed its programs largely through the EFC which was an entity that was fully under the policy control of the majority stockholder. The Chairman of the USSB was initially the head of the EFC, the new USSB composition that remained throughout the war was Edward N. Hurley, Chairman, with Raymond B. Stevens replacing James B. White as Vice-chairman and John Donald, Bainbridge Colby and Charles R. Page as members, rear Admiral Washington L. Capps, formerly Constructor of the Navy and Chief of the Navys Bureau of Construction, became the General Manager of the EFC. S. The U. K. had contracted for ships through private British companies both for security and U. S. neutrality needs, there was no possibility to quickly expand capacity to incorporate the USSB/EFC shipbuilding program. S. The report of December 1918 shows 1 Austrian steamer,87 German steamers that now included 4 from Cuba, some of Germanys premier liners, such as Amerika, George Washington, Kronprinzessin Cecilie and Vaterland, were among the seized ships. On 15 November 1917 the USSB authorized negotiations with countries that had seized German or Austrian ships with actual discussions during December. The result was either charter or outright purchase of a number of ships interned from South America to China, the USSBs first action regarding new construction was commandeering every contract, hull and even steel in the U. S. yards for ships over 2,500 DWT. The first order was signed by Chairman Hurley on 3 August 1917 to be executed by the EFC to secure control of the shipyards, the action was immediately protested by nearly every shipyard and owner of the ships under construction with the foreign owners protesting through the State Department. With one exception, a new ship from Union Iron Works already loaded for departure named War Sword, some being built for domestic shippers had long careers, with Orizaba and Oriente being examples. The Boards construction program was executed through Emergency Fleet Corporation which it established 16 April 1917. By December 1918 the division had become the largest ship operating entity in U. S. history with a fleet of 1,386 vessels totaling 7,498,075 DWT either owned outright. With U. S. registered ships already under tight control these regulations were directed at neutrals. Enforcement of rates was strict and at one point, before wide compliance,136 steamers were held in U. S. ports
7.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
8.
Hog Islander
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Hog Islanders is the slang for ships built to Emergency Fleet Corporation designs number 1022 and 1024. These vessels were cargo and transport ships, respectively, built under government direction and subsidy to address a shortage of ships in the United States Merchant Marine during World War I. No ships were produced in time to participate in World War I, Emergency Fleet Corporation was formed by the US Shipping Board to acquire, design and build sufficient shipping for the US to conduct operations in World War I. The EFC found that US shipyards were too few and small to meet the needs, contracts were awarded to foreign yards in Japan, the EFC also contracted with private companies to form new yards, called Agency Yards. These would be assembly yards, building prefabricated ships, rather than using traditional methods, Hog Island in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the first shipyard ever built for mass production of ships from fabricated parts and sub-assemblies, produced at dozens of subcontractors. It had 50 slipways, seven wet docks and a detention basin, only two basic designs, EFC1022 and EFC1024, were to be fabricated at the yard, these became collectively known as Hog Islanders. The Type A design was a carrier and the Type B was designed to transport troops. Both were simple designs geared toward mass production and aesthetic considerations were ignored and these were very modern in design except for the aesthetics. The vessels were fueled by oil rather than coal, with geared turbines of 2,500 shaft horsepower capable of producing up to 15 knots. The design had a minimum of frills with no sheer, resulting in a squat, the hulls were symmetrical from the sides. The combination produced an unconventional look and profile and these ships were considered ugly but well built and had good performance in terms of capacity and speed. The Hog Island contract was for 180 ships, but only 122 were completed, the first ship, SS Quistconck, was launched on 5 August 1918, and the last of 122 ships on 29 January 1921. Though not effective in World War I, these ships were used extensively by the military, fifty-eight, nearly half, of the Hog Islanders were sunk during World War II. The Liberty ships built during World War II used a concept of production. Only 24 Type B troop transports were produced, twelve of the Type B ships were built with 8, 400-ton displacements, one of which became the US Navy USS Argonne. Another twelve were built with 13, 400-ton displacements, an example of which was the US Navy hospital ship USS Samaritan, which was active in World War II. St. Mihiel Argonne Samaritan SS Liberty Glo SS Robin Moor SS City of Flint De La Pedraja, Rene, Merchant Marine and Shipping Industry Since the Introduction of Steam, Greenwood Press,1994, ISBN 0-313-27225-5 de Tankerville, R. Note, page 545. New York, Shipping Publishing Company,545, the Ship Modeller Mailing List Website
9.
U.S. 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
10.
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
11.
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
12.
Type C2 ship
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Type C2 ships were designed by the United States Maritime Commission in 1937–38. They were all-purpose cargo ships with five holds, and U. S. shipyards built 173 of them from 1939 to 1945, compared to ships built before 1939, the C2s were remarkable for their speed and fuel economy. Their design speed was 15.5 knots, but some could make 19 knots on occasion, the first C2s were 459 feet long,63 feet broad, and 40 feet deep, with a 25-foot draft. Later ships varied somewhat in size, in 1937, MARCOM distributed tentative designs for criticism by shipbuilders, ship owners, and naval architects. The final designs incorporated many changes suggested by these constituencies, the ships were to be reasonably fast but economical cargo ships which, with some government subsidies to operators, could compete with vessels of other nations. The basic specifications called for a steel cargo ship with raked stem and cruiser stern, complete shelter and second decks. Dimensions of the hatches were 20 ft ×30 ft, except for No,2, which was 20 ft ×50 ft, allowing such cargo as locomotives, naval guns, long bars, etc. Ventilation to the holds was provided by hollow kingposts, which served as cargo masts. Cargo handling gear consisted of fourteen 5-ton cargo booms, plus two 30-ton booms at Nos.3 and 4 hatches, hot and cold running water was provided throughout. Many of the such as SS Donald McKay were converted by the U. S. Navy for service during World War II. The commercial versions were operated by the government during the war, beginning in late 1945, the commercial ships were sold to merchant shipping lines, with service until the early 1970s. C2, DWT9,758 by 5 builder, as in the USS Polaris C2-S DWT9,970 by Bethlehem Steel of Sparrows Pt, wild Rover a C2-S-B1, renamed Mormackite capsized in heavy seas and sank off Cape Henry in October 7,1954. USS Starlight a C2-S-AJ1, sank in 1970, december 26 with a full load of 8,900 bombs, rockets, shells and mines bound for Da Nang, South Vietnam a bomb went off in rough seas. On January 5,1970 she sank,29 members of her crew died. USS Towner a C2-S-AJ3, renamed SS Guam Bear wrecked and sank in 1967 and she was in a collision outside Apra Harbor, Guam. A constructive total loss, the hulk was towed 2 nautical miles off shore, Type C1 ship Type C3 ship Type C4 ship Liberty ship Victory ship U. S. Merchant Marine Academy From America to United States, The History of the long-range Merchant Shipbuilding Programme of the United States Maritime Commission, by L. A. Sawyer and W. H. Mitchell. Ships for Victory, A History of Shipbuilding under the U. S. Maritime Commission in World War II, United States Maritime Commission C2 Type Ships
13.
Type C3 ships
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Type C3-class ships were the third type of cargo ship designed by the United States Maritime Commission in the late 1930s. As it had done with the Type C1 ships and Type C2 ships, the design presented was not specific to any service or trade route, but was a general purpose ship that could be modified for specific uses. The C3 was larger and faster than the C1 and C2 contemporaries, measuring 492 feet from stem to stern, like the C2, it had five cargo holds. A total of 465 of these ships were built between 1940 and 1947, DWT12,430, as in USS Euryale Express a C3-E, was torpedoed and sank off the coast of Madagascar in 1942. Almeria Lykes a C3, renamed Empire Condor was torpedoed and sank off coast of Tunisia in 1942, rio Hudson a C3-P&C, rebuilt and converted to Avenger-class escort carrier. Was renamed HMS Avenger was torpedoed and sank near Gibraltar in 1942, block Island a C3-S-A1, renamed USN CVE21 was torpedoed and sank near the Azores in 1944. Rio de Janeiro a C3-P&C, Avenger-class escort carrier, renamed the HMS Dasher, exploded, sea Robin a C3-S-A2, sank in 1953. Sea Tarpon, a C3-S-A2, sank in 1956, sea Partridge a C3-S-A2, renamed Steel Vendor sank in 1971. Mormacsaga a C3-S-A5, sank in 1973, mormacland a C3, renamed Union Reliance was wrecked and scrapped in 1962. Riverside a C3-S-A2, wrecked in 1968, Type C4 ship T2 tanker Liberty ship Victory ship Hog Islander U. S. Merchant Marine Academy Sawyer, L. A. Mitchell, W. H, from America to United States, The History of the Long-range Merchant Shipbuilding Programme of the United States Maritime Commission. United States Maritime Commission C3 Type Ships
14.
T2 tanker
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The T2 tanker, or T2, was a class of oil tankers constructed and produced in large quantities in the United States during World War II. After the T3 Tankers, they were the largest navy oilers of the period, T2 tankers were used to transport, fuel oil, diesel fuel, gasoline and sometimes black oil-crude oil. Post war many T2s remained in use, like other hastily built World War II ships pressed into peace time service there were safety concerns and this occurred after two T-2s, Pendleton and Fort Mercer, split in two off Cape Cod within hours of each other. Engineering inquiries into the problem suggested the cause was due to poor welding techniques and it was found the steel was not well suited for the new wartime welding construction. The high sulfur content made the steel brittle and prone to metal fatigue at lower temperatures, marCom subsidized the excess cost of naval features beyond normal commercial standards. Standard T2s were 501 ft 6 in in length, with a beam of 68 ft. Rated at 9,900 tons gross, with 15,850 long tons deadweight, steam turbines driving a single propeller at 12,000 horsepower delivered a top speed of 16 knots. Six were built for commerce by Bethlehem-Sparrows Point Shipyard in Maryland, only to be taken over by the United States Navy following the attack on Pearl Harbor as the Kennebec class oiler. Bigger but faster, they were 526 ft in length, displaced about 22,445 tons. All five were requisitioned by the Navy during the war and converted to fleet oilers as the Mattaponi class. By far the most common variety of the T2-type tanker was the T2-SE-A1 and they were 523 ft long,68 ft abeam, with 10,448 gross register tons and 16,613 DWT. During that period, average time from laying of the keel to fitting out was 70 days. The record, however, was held by Marinship, which had the Huntington Hills ready for sea trials in just 33 days. The T2-SE-A2 variation, built only by Marinship of Sausalito, was identical to the T2-SE-A1 version. The A3 variation was essentially an A2 built as a Navy oiler from the start,25 of this design were ordered by the Maritime Commission, of which five became Navy oilers as the Chiwawa class. In 1966, the US Army reactivated 11 T2 tankers and converted them into floating electrical power generation plants, the ships propulsion systems electrical turbines were used to generate electricity for on-shore use, drawing on fuel from the ships 150,000 barrel holds. This allowed the ships to produce electricity for two years without refueling for the Vietnam War, the USNS French Creek was the first to arrive in June of 1966, then next was the USS Kennebago, both installed in Cam Ranh Bay. Schenectady, broke in two in 1943, the temperature of the harbor water was about 39°F and water conditions were still
15.
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
16.
Knot (unit)
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The knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, approximately 1.151 mph. The ISO Standard symbol for the knot is kn, the same symbol is preferred by the IEEE, kt is also common. The knot is a unit that is accepted for use with the SI. Etymologically, the term derives from counting the number of knots in the line that unspooled from the reel of a log in a specific time. 1 international knot =1 nautical mile per hour,1.852 kilometres per hour,0.514 metres per second,1.151 miles per hour,20.254 inches per second,1852 m is the length of the internationally agreed nautical mile. The US adopted the definition in 1954, having previously used the US nautical mile. The UK adopted the international nautical mile definition in 1970, having used the UK Admiralty nautical mile. The speeds of vessels relative to the fluids in which they travel are measured in knots, for consistency, the speeds of navigational fluids are also measured in knots. Thus, speed over the ground and rate of progress towards a distant point are given in knots. Until the mid-19th century, vessel speed at sea was measured using a chip log, the chip log was cast over the stern of the moving vessel and the line allowed to pay out. Knots placed at a distance of 8 fathoms -47 feet 3 inches from each other, passed through a sailors fingers, the knot count would be reported and used in the sailing masters dead reckoning and navigation. This method gives a value for the knot of 20.25 in/s, the difference from the modern definition is less than 0. 02%. On a chart of the North Atlantic, the scale varies by a factor of two from Florida to Greenland, a single graphic scale, of the sort on many maps, would therefore be useless on such a chart. Recent British Admiralty charts have a latitude scale down the middle to make this even easier, speed is sometimes incorrectly expressed as knots per hour, which is in fact a measure of acceleration. Prior to 1969, airworthiness standards for aircraft in the United States Federal Aviation Regulations specified that distances were to be in statute miles. In 1969, these standards were amended to specify that distances were to be in nautical miles. At 11000 m, an airspeed of 300 kn may correspond to a true airspeed of 500 kn in standard conditions. Beaufort scale Hull speed, which deals with theoretical estimates of maximum speed of displacement hulls Knot count Knotted cord Metre per second Orders of magnitude Rope Kemp
17.
Beaumont, Texas
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Beaumont is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Texas in the United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. Beaumont was founded as a town in 1835 by Northerners, the early European-American settlement had an economy based on the development of lumber, farming, and port industries. Rice became an important commodity crop in Texas, and is now cultivated in 23 counties, a big change occurred in 1901 with the Spindletop gusher, which demonstrated the potential of the huge oil field. With Spindletop, several companies developed in Beaumont, and some continue. The area rapidly developed as one of the major petro-chemical refining areas in the country, along with Port Arthur and Orange, Beaumont forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the Texas Gulf Coast. Beaumont is home of Lamar University, a national Carnegie Doctoral Research university with 14,966 students, including undergraduates and post graduates. Over the years, several corporations have been based in this city, gSUs Edison Plaza headquarters is still the tallest building in Beaumont. In 1824 Noah and Nancy Tevis settled on the west bank of the Neches River, soon after that, a small community grew up around the farm, which was named Tevis Bluff or Neches River Settlement. They began planning a town to be out on this land. Their partnership, J. P. Pulsifer and Company, controlled the first 50 acres upon which the town was founded and this town was named Beaumont, after Jefferson Beaumont, the brother-in-law of Henry Millard. They added more property for a total of 200 acres, Beaumont became a town on 16 December 1838. Beaumonts first mayor was Alexander Calder, from the towns founding in 1835, business activities included real estate, transportation, and retail sales. Later, other businesses were formed, especially in construction and operation, new building construction, lumber sales. The Port of Beaumont became a regional shipping center. Beaumont was a center for cattle raisers and farmers in its early years. With an active riverport by the 1880s, it became an important lumber and it exported rice as a commodity crop. The Beaumont Rice Mill, founded in 1892 by Joseph Eloi Broussard, was the first commercially successful rice mill in Texas, in addition, Broussard founded a company to operate an irrigation system to support rice culture. This helped stimulate the expansion of cultivation from 1500 acres in 1892 to 400,000 acres in 23 counties by his death in 1956
18.
Wilmington, Delaware
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Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine River and it is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. Wilmington was named by Proprietor Thomas Penn after his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, as of the 2015 United States Census estimate, the population of the city is 71,948, reflecting an increase of 1. 5% from the 2010 Census. The Wilmington Metropolitan Division, comprising New Castle County, DE, Cecil County, MD and Salem County, Wilmington is built on the site of Fort Christina and the settlement Kristinehamn, the first Swedish settlement in North America. The area now known as Wilmington was settled by the Lenape band led by Sachem Mattahorn just before Henry Hudson sailed up the Len-api Hanna in 1609, the area was called Maax-waas Unk or Bear Place after the Maax-waas Hanna that flowed by. It was called the Bear River because it flowed west to the Bear People, the Dutch heard and spelled the river and the place as Minguannan. The area was known as The Rocks, and is located near the foot of present-day Seventh Street. Fort Christina served as the headquarters for the colony of New Sweden which consisted of, for the most part, the lower Delaware River region, dr. Timothy Stidham was a prominent citizen and doctor in Wilmington. He was born in 1610, probably in Hammel, Denmark and raised in Gothenburg and he arrived in New Sweden in 1654 and is recorded as the first physician in Delaware. The most important Swedish governor was Colonel Johan Printz, who ruled the colony under Swedish law from 1643 to 1653. He was succeeded by Johan Rising, who upon his arrival in 1654, seized the Dutch post Fort Casimir, located at the site of the present town of New Castle and this marked the end of Swedish rule in North America. Although during the American Revolutionary War only one small battle was fought in Delaware, the British remained in the town until they vacated Philadelphia in 1778. In 1800, Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, a French Huguenot, knowledgeable in the manufacture of gunpowder, by 1802 DuPont had begun making the explosive in a mill on the Brandywine River north of Brandywine Village and just outside the town of Wilmington. The DuPont company became a supplier to the U. S. military. Located on the banks of the Brandywine River, the village was annexed by Wilmington city. The greatest growth in the city occurred during the Civil War, Delaware, though officially remaining a member of the Union, was a border state and divided in its support of both the Confederate and the Union causes. The war created enormous demand for goods and materials supplied by Wilmington including ships, railroad cars, gunpowder, shoes, and other war-related goods. By 1868, Wilmington was producing more iron ships than the rest of the combined and it rated first in the production of gunpowder and second in carriages
19.
PT boat
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A PT boat was a torpedo-armed fast attack craft used by the United States Navy in World War II. The PT boat was very different from the first generation of torpedo boat and these first generation torpedo boats rode low in the water, displaced up to 300 tons, and had a top speed of 25 to 27 kn. During World War I the US and UK developed the first high-performance motor torpedo boats and corresponding torpedo tactics, but these projects were all quickly disbanded with the Armistice. World War II PT boats continued to some of the advances in planing hull design borrowed from offshore powerboat racing and were able to grow in size due to advancements in engine technology. During World War II, PT boats engaged enemy warships, transports, tankers, barges, as gunboats they could be effective against enemy small craft, especially armored barges used by the Japanese for inter-island transport. Several saw service with the Philippine Navy, where they were named Q-boats most probably after President Manuel L. Quezon Primary anti-ship armament was four 2,600 pound Mark 8 torpedoes. Launched by 21-inch Mark 18 torpedo tubes, each bore a 466-pound TNT warhead and had a range of 16,000 yards at 36 knots, Two twin M2.50 cal machine guns were mounted for anti-aircraft defense and general fire support. Some boats shipped a 20 mm Oerlikon cannon, propulsion was via a trio of Packard 4M-2500 and later 5M-2500 supercharged gasoline-fueled, liquid-cooled marine engines. In September 1914, Hickman completed plans for a 50-foot Sea Sled torpedo boat and his plan was promptly rejected by the Admiralty, so Hickman built and launched his own privately financed 41-foot Sea Sled capable of carrying a single 18 Whitehead Mark 5 torpedo. In February 1915, this Hickman sea sled demonstrated 35 kn speeds in rough seas off Boston to both US and foreign representatives but again, he received no contracts. The Admiralty representative for this sea sled demonstration was Lieutenant G. C. E, in the summer of 1915, Lieutenants Hampden, Bremner, and Anson approached John I. Thornycroft & Company about developing a high speed torpedo boat. Meanwhile, in August 1915, the General Board of the United States Navy approved the purchase of an experimental small torpedo boat that could be transportable. This contract for C-250 ended up going to Greenport Basin and Construction Company, of Greenport, NY. When it eventually was delivered and tested in the Summer of 1917, it was not deemed a success, so a second boat of the sea sled design was ordered from Hickman in either late 1917 or early 1918. Using his previous design from September 1914 and the unsuccessful bid for C-250. The Sea Sled would not surface again as a torpedo boat topic until 1939, in 1922, the US Navy reconsidered using small internal combustion engine powered torpedo boats. As a result, two types of British Royal Navy Coastal Motor Boats were obtained for testing, the larger boat was used for experiments until 1930
20.
USS Cyrene (AGP-13)
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USS Cyrene was a motor torpedo boat tender for the United States Navy. She was laid down as Cape Farewell, a Maritime Commission type hull under a Maritime Commission contract, at Pusey, Cyrene was launched 8 February 1944 as Cape Farewell, sponsored by Mrs. G. L. Coppage. She was acquired by the Navy on 28 April 1944, and was commissioned 27 September 1944 with Commander F. A. Munroe, Jr. United States Naval Reserve, in command. Departing Norfolk, Virginia 10 November 1944, Cyrene arrived at Manus on 13 December to escort two squadrons of torpedo boats to Hollandia, New Guinea. She then sailed on convoy duty to Leyte, arriving 1 January 1945, Cyrene then served as tender for motor torpedo boats, and on 17 January 1945 became flagship for Commander, Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons, 7th Fleet. After the war ended, she sailed from Samar on 21 December 1945 and arrived at San Francisco on 7 January 1946, Cyrene was decommissioned 2 July 1946 and delivered to the War Shipping Administration for disposal the same day. Don Rickles, actor and comedian, served as a Seaman First Class aboard Cyrene, as of 2016, no other ship in the United States Navy has been named Cyrene. One of her lifeboats is now in use at Dover, England, Ships of the U. S. Navy, 1940-1945. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the entry can be found here
21.
Nordberg Manufacturing Company
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Nordberg Manufacturing Company was a manufacturer of steam engines, large diesel engines, pumps, hoists and compressors for the mining and quarry industries located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The company was founded by Bruno V. Nordberg and Jacob Elias Friend in 1886 in Milwaukee, by 1926, they were manufacturing diesel engines, steam engines, air compressors, gas compressors, mine hoists and blowing engines. In 1944, they designed and built the largest diesel engine that has ever built in the United States. It was built for a Victory ship built for the United States Maritime Commission, in 1946, they bought the Busch-Sulzer Diesel Engine Company which was formed in 1911 by Adolphus Busch of Anheuser-Busch Brewery. Busch had acquired the first American rights to the engine in 1898. Nordberg was acquired by Rex ChainBelt Inc in 1970, and was to become a division of Rex, Nordberg was acquired by Finlands Rauma Corporation in 1989, which was later merged into Metso in 1999. Metso closed Nordbergs former Milwaukee factory in 2004, illustrations and photographs of Nordberg factory and diesel engines from sales brochures and private sources
22.
Wilmington, California
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Wilmington is a neighborhood in the Los Angeles Harbor Region area of Los Angeles, California, covering 9.14 square miles. It is the site of Los Angeles Harbor College, Banning High School, Wilmington has six parks, including one on the waterfront. Wilmington dates its history back to a 1784 Spanish land grant and it became a separate city in 1863, and it joined the city of Los Angeles in 1909. Places of interest include the U. S. Army headquarters for Southern California, Wilmington shares borders with Carson to the north, Long Beach to the east, San Pedro to the south and west and Harbor City to the northwest. The percentages of people from birth through age 34 were among the countys highest, population was estimated at 54,512 in 2008. Wilmington is not considered very diverse ethnically, with a diversity index of 0.245. In 2000, Latinos made up 86. 6% of the population, while whites were at 6. 4%, Asians at 4. 8%, blacks at 2. 6%, the $40,627 median household income in 2008 dollars was average for the city. Renters occupied 61. 5% of the units, with homeowners occupying the rest. In 2000 there were 1,524 military veterans, or 4. 6% of the population, the Port of Los Angeles district of Wilmington was included in the 1784 Spanish land grant of Rancho San Pedro. Known as New San Pedro from 1858 to 1863, it was subsequently named Wilmington by “Father of the Harbor” Phineas Banning after his Delaware birthplace. Wilson College, precursor to the University of Southern California, opened in Wilmington in 1874 as the first coeducational college west of the Mississippi. The City of Los Angeles annexed Wilmington in 1909, and today it, citizens of Wilmington were dubious that annexation would be in their best interests, fearing that it would shift economic activity out of their city and towards Los Angeles. Among these promises were that $10 million would be invested in improvements to the port, in the 1920s, William Wrigley Jr. built innovative housing in Wilmington that was dubbed the “Court of Nations. ”Wilmington is adjacent to the Wilmington Oil Field, discovered in 1932. It is the third largest oil field in the continental United States, consequently, there are at least 8 major refineries in the Wilmington area, many of them dating back to the original strike. During World War II the United States Military operated the Los Angeles Port of Embarkation in Wilmington, the LAPE was controlled by the San Francisco Port of Embarkation from its inception in 1942 until late 1943 when it became autonomous. The California Shipbuilding Corporation, famous for building victory ships during the war, drum Barracks Civil War Museum – U. S. Army headquarters for Southern California and the Arizona territory during the Civil War. The bright green THE DON neon sign atop a building once welcomed visitors entering the city. The Phillips 66 refinery in Wilmington is also home to the worlds largest jack-o-lantern, decorated annually since 1952, the jack-o-lantern draws 30,000 visitors annually
23.
Tacoma, Washington
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Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city in and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washingtons Puget Sound,32 miles southwest of Seattle,31 miles northeast of the capital, Olympia. The population was 198,397, according to the 2010 census, Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third largest in the state. Tacoma also serves as the center of activity for the South Sound region. Tacoma adopted its name after the nearby Mount Rainier, originally called Takhoma or Tahoma and it is locally known as the City of Destiny because the area was chosen to be the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the late 19th century. The decision of the railroad was influenced by Tacomas neighboring deep-water harbor, by connecting the bay with the railroad, Tacomas motto became When rails meet sails. Today, Commencement Bay serves the Port of Tacoma, a center of trade on the Pacific Coast. Like most central cities, Tacoma suffered a decline in the mid-20th century as a result of suburbanization. Neighborhoods such as the 6th Avenue District have become revitalized, tacoma-Pierce County has been named one of the most livable areas in the United States. In 2006, Tacoma was listed as one of the most walkable cities in the country and that same year, the womens magazine Self named Tacoma the Most Sexually Healthy City in the United States. In contrast, Tacoma was also ranked as the most stressed-out city in the country in a 2004 survey, Tacoma gained notoriety in 1940 for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which earned the nickname Galloping Gertie. The city of Tacoma and surrounding areas were inhabited for thousands of years by American Indians, predominantly the Puyallup people, mcCarver, who named his project Tacoma City, derived from the indigenous name for the mountain. Tacoma was incorporated on November 12,1875, following the merger of Old Tacoma, the transcontinental link was effected in 1887, but the railroad built its depot on New Tacoma, two miles south of the Carr-McCarver development. The two communities together and joined. The population grew from 1,098 in 1880 to 36,006 in 1890, rudyard Kipling visited Tacoma in 1889 and said it was literally staggering under a boom of the boomiest. George Francis Train was a resident for a few years in the late 19th century, in 1890, he staged a global circumnavigation starting and ending in Tacoma to promote the city. A plaque in downtown Tacoma marks the start and finish line, in November 1885, white citizens led by then-mayor Jacob Weisbach expelled several hundred Chinese residents peacefully living in the city. The next day two Chinese settlements were burned to the ground, the discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1898 led Tacomas prominence in the region to be eclipsed by the booming development of Seattle
24.
USS Auriga (AK-98)
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USS Auriga was an Auriga-class cargo ship commissioned by the U. S. Navy for service in World War II, named after the constellation Auriga. She was responsible for delivering troops, goods and equipment to locations in the war zone, upon her commissioning, the cargo ship was assigned to the Naval Transportation Service. When the conversion work had completed, she got underway on 6 June for Port Hueneme, California, to load cargo. West Coast on 14 April, bound for the Fiji Islands, the vessel reached Viti Levu, Fiji Islands, on 3 May and began discharging cargo. Unloading was completed on the 28th, and she then reversed her course, the vessel put out to sea on 19 July and, upon her arrival at Nouméa on 7 August, unloaded her cargo. She completed this task on 21 August and sailed once more for the Fijis, the ship touched at Suva on the 24th, discharged equipment and supplies, and, three days later, began the voyage back to the United States. She arrived at San Francisco on 13 September, reloaded her holds, on 1 October she stood out to sea, bound for the Ellice Islands. Auriga reached Funafuti on the 16th but, the day, moved on to Wallis Island, Samoa. She then returned to Funafuti, where she carried out cargo operations into January 1944, on the 17th, the vessel got underway for Tarawa, Gilbert Islands, and spent the next week unloading cargo despite frequent enemy bombing attacks. She departed the Gilberts on the 24th and headed for Hawaii, the ship moored at Pearl Harbor on 1 February and unloaded all her cargo before entering the navy yard there for repairs and alterations. On the 22d, Auriga moved to Honolulu for loading operations and she reached her destination on 11 March and began sending cargo and fresh water to various small craft. The ship took on Army equipment and got underway for Kwajalein on 8 April, the ship anchored off Kwajalein on the 10th and sailed two days later for Hawaii. Shortly after returning to Pearl Harbor, Auriga was slated to take part in the invasion of Saipan in the Marianas, the vessel began taking on Army combat vehicles, ammunition, heavy artillery, and other supplies and embarked troops. On the morning of 1 June, the ship sortied with Task Group 51.18, after a pause at Kwajalein to refuel, TG58.18 arrived off Saipan on the 16th, and Auriga began debarking troops and equipment. The next day, the ship retired from Saipan and, during the eight days. On 25 June, Auriga touched at Saipan and began unloading operations, despite enemy air harassment, she completed the process on the 28th and left the area. She anchored at Eniwetok and remained there one month. The ship weighed anchor on the 27th and set a course for Pearl Harbor, after her arrival there on 3 August, the ship entered the navy yard for repairs and alterations
25.
Lend-lease
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This included warships and warplanes, along with other weaponry. It was signed into law on March 11,1941 and ended in September 1945, in general the aid was free, although some hardware were returned after the war. In return, the U. S. was given leases on army, Canada operated a similar smaller program under a different name. A total of $50.1 billion worth of supplies was shipped, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U. S. In all, $31.4 billion went to Britain, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China, and the remaining $2.6 billion to the other Allies. Reverse Lend-Lease policies comprised services such as rent on air bases that went to the U. S. and totaled $7.8 billion, of this, $6.8 billion came from the British and the Commonwealth. The terms of the agreement provided that the materiel was to be used until returned or destroyed, in practice very little equipment was returned. Supplies that arrived after the date were sold to Britain at a large discount for £1.075 billion. Canada operated a program called Mutual Aid that sent a loan of $1 billion and $3.4 billion in supplies and services to Britain. This program effectively ended the United States pretense of neutrality and was a step away from non-interventionist policy. Following the Fall of France in June 1940, the British Commonwealth and Empire were the forces engaged in war against Germany and Italy. During this same period, the U. S. government began to mobilize for war, instituting the first-ever peacetime draft. In the meantime, as the British began running short of money, arms, as one Roosevelt biographer has characterized it, If there was no practical alternative, there was certainly no moral one either. Britain and the Commonwealth were carrying the battle for all civilization, as the President himself put it, There can be no reasoning with incendiary bombs. In September 1940, during the Battle of Britain the British government sent the Tizard Mission to the United States, in December 1940, President Roosevelt proclaimed the U. S. would be the Arsenal of Democracy and proposed selling munitions to Britain and Canada. Isolationists were strongly opposed, warning it would lead to American involvement in what was seen by most Americans as an essentially European conflict. In time, opinion shifted as increasing numbers of Americans began to see the advantage of funding the British war against Germany, while staying out of the hostilities themselves. After a decade of neutrality, Roosevelt knew that the change to Allied support must be gradual, originally, the American position was to help the British but not enter the war
26.
HMS Ormonde (F172)
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HMS Empire Spearhead was a Type C1-S-AY-1 Infantry Landing Ship chartered by the British Ministry of War Transport during World War II. She was built by Consolidated Steel Corporation, Wilmington, California and she was launched as Cape Girardeau and completed as Empire Spearhead. In 1945, she was transferred to the Royal Navy and was later renamed HMS Ormonde, later that year she was transferred back to the MoWT and renamed Empire Spearhead. In 1947, she was transferred to the United States Maritime Commission, the ship was laid up in 1950 and renamed Empire Spearhead. The ship was built in 1944 as yard number 354 by Consolidated Steel Corporation Wilmington and she was launched on 7 November 1944, and completed in January 1944. The ship was 396 feet 5 inches long, with a beam of 60 feet 1 inch and she had a depth of 35 feet 0 inches. The ship had a GRT of 7,177 and a NRT of 4,823, the ship was propelled by two steam turbines, double reduction geared, driving a single screw propellor. The turbines were built by Westinghouse Electric Company, Essington, Pennsylvania, Cape Girardeau was launched in January 1944, and completed that month as Empire Spearhead. She was built for the War Shipping Administration and chartered by the MoWT, the Code Letters MYMR and United Kingdom Official Number 169773 were allocated. She took part in Operation Overlord, a photographer from the Daily Sketch was on board to record the invasion flotilla. The ship also carried members of the 231st Infantry Brigade, 1st Battalion, the troops were landed on Gold Beach. At the end of June 1944, Empire Spearhead was transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Empire Spearhead, following Overlord, Empire Spearhead was part of Force X. This was a convoy consisting seven ships, HMS Lothian, SS Clan Lamont, SS Empire Arquebus, HMS Empire Battleaxe, SS Empire Mace, HMS Empire Spearhead, the convoy sailed from Greenock on 3 August as part of Convoy UC31. Force X sailed via New York and the Panama Canal, arriving at Suva, Fiji, in November 1944, Empire Spearhead took part in Exercise Octopus at Unity Beach, Queensland. The exercise trained troops for amphibious landings, in March 1945, Empire Spearhead took part in Operation Iceberg. She departed Manus Island, Papua New Guinea on 19 March and arrived at the Leyte Gulf and she was briefly renamed HMS Ormonde during her last months in the Royal Navy. In 1946, she was transferred back to the MoWT as Empire Spearhead, in 1950, she was laid up on the James River and renamed Empire Spearhead. She was sold for scrap on 17 March 1965 to The Boston Metals Co, Empire Spearhead was withdrawn from the Reserve Fleet on 3 May
27.
D-day
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The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday,6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the liberation of German-occupied northwestern Europe from Nazi control, planning for the operation began in 1943. Adolf Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces, the amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France at 06,30, the target 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors, Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their positions, particularly at Utah. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs, at Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled, using specialised tanks. The Allies failed to any of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead, museums, memorials, and war cemeteries in the area now host many visitors each year. Between 27 May and 4 June 1940, over 338,000 troops of the British Expeditionary Force, after the German Army invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing his allies for the creation of a second front in western Europe. In late May 1942 the Soviet Union and the United States made a joint announcement that a. full understanding was reached with regard to the urgent tasks of creating a front in Europe in 1942. Instead of a return to France, the Western Allies staged offensives in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations. By mid-1943 the campaign in North Africa had been won, the Allies then launched the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and subsequently invaded Italy in September the same year. By then, Soviet forces were on the offensive and had won a victory at the Battle of Stalingrad. The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion within the year was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. Initial planning was constrained by the number of landing craft, most of which were already committed in the Mediterranean. At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill promised Stalin that they would open the second front in May 1944. Four sites were considered for the landings, Brittany, the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, as Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, it would have been possible for the Germans to cut off the Allied advance at a relatively narrow isthmus, so these sites were rejected
28.
SS Empire Javelin
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SS Empire Javelin was an Infantry Landing Ship or LSI in service with the UK in the latter part of the Second World War. Launched on 25 October 1943, she was a United States Maritime Commission C1-S-AY1 subtype, SS Empire Javelin served as a troop ship in Operation Overlord, including D-Day on 6 June 1944. She was lost on December 28,1944 while en convoy to France with 1,483 troops aboard somewhere around the midpoint between Southampton, England, and Le Havre, France. It is unknown whether she was sunk by U-322, active in the area on the same day, SS Empire Javelin was built by Consolidated Steel Corporation, Wilmington, California as the Cape Lobos, and transferred under the terms of lend lease on completion in January 1944. She was bareboat chartered by the War Shipping Administration to the Ministry of War Transport, most notably, the ship carried members of Company A, 116th Infantry, who were from Bedford, Virginia. Bedford is the home of the United States National D-Day Memorial, 551st Landing Craft Assault Flotilla crewed by Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve of Combined Operations was based aboard Empire Javelin on D-Day. Six of the eighteen LCAs of 551st LCA Flotilla were lost on D-Day, SS Empire Javelin embarked 1,483 US servicemen at Southampton for Le Havre, France on 28 December 1944. She was in convoy with USS LST-325 and escorted by the Free French frigate LEscarmouche, in the English Channel on the afternoon of the 28th there was an explosion without warning at 50°5′N 1°0′W, at least 20 lives were lost and 20 more injured. The LEscarmouche was called alongside once the extent of the damage had been assessed, HMS Hargood arrived to assist, standing off nearby on submarine watch. Two minutes after the last man jumped off, there was a large explosion, about 10 minutes later she was completely submerged. Some pictures of the sinking can be here, Initially it was thought that the ship had been torpedoed by German submarine U-772. Another U-boat, U-322, was active in the area on the same day, there is no definitive proof of what sank the Empire Javelin, it has also been proposed it struck a mine. Ships of the Royal Navy, The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy, omaha Beach, D-Day, June 6,1944
29.
Marine diesel engine
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Marine propulsion is the mechanism or system used to generate thrust to move a ship or boat across water. Marine engineering is the discipline concerned with the design process of marine propulsion systems. Nuclear reactors producing steam are used to propel warships and icebreakers, nuclear reactors to power commercial vessels has not been adopted by the marine industry. Electric motors using electric battery storage have been used for propulsion on submarines, development in liquefied natural gas fueled engines are gaining recognition for their low emissions and cost advantages. Stirling engines, which are efficient, quieter, smoother running producing less harmful emissions than diesel engines. The Stirling engine has yet to be upscaled for larger surface ships, until the application of the coal-fired steam engine to ships in the early 19th century, oars or the wind were used to assist watercraft propulsion. Merchant ships predominantly used sail, but during periods when naval warfare depended on ships closing to ram or to fight hand-to-hand, galley were preferred for their manoeuvrability, the Greek navies that fought in the Peloponnesian War used triremes, as did the Romans at the Battle of Actium. In modern times, human propulsion is found mainly on boats or as auxiliary propulsion on sailboats. Human propulsion includes the push pole, rowing, and pedals, propulsion by sail generally consists of a sail hoisted on an erect mast, supported by stays, and controlled by lines made of rope. The development of piston-engined steamships was a complex process, early steamships were fueled by wood, later ones by coal or fuel oil. Early ships used stern or side paddle wheels, while ones used screw propellers. The first commercial success accrued to Robert Fultons North River Steamboat in US in 1807, steam propulsion progressed considerably over the rest of the 19th century. Notable developments include the surface condenser, which eliminated the use of sea water in the ships boilers. This, along with improvements in technology, permitted higher steam pressures. As the means of transmitting the power, paddle wheels gave way to more efficient screw propellers. Steam turbines were fueled by coal or, later, fuel oil or nuclear power, the marine steam turbine developed by Sir Charles Algernon Parsons raised the power-to-weight ratio. He achieved publicity by demonstrating it unofficially in the 100-foot Turbinia at the Spithead Naval Review in 1897. This facilitated a generation of high-speed liners in the first half of the 20th century, and rendered the reciprocating steam engine obsolete, first in warships, and later in merchant vessels
30.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
31.
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
32.
Knot
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A knot is a method of fastening or securing linear material such as rope by tying or interweaving. It may consist of a length of one or several segments of rope, string, webbing, twine, strap, Knots have been the subject of interest for their ancient origins, their common uses, and the area of mathematics known as knot theory. There is a variety of knots, each with properties that make it suitable for a range of tasks. Some knots are used to attach the rope to other such as another rope, cleat, ring. Some knots are used to bind or constrict objects, decorative knots usually bind to themselves to produce attractive patterns. While some people can look at diagrams or photos and tie the illustrated knots, Knot tying skills are often transmitted by sailors, scouts, climbers, canyoners, cavers, arborists, rescue professionals, stagehands, fishermen, linemen and surgeons. The International Guild of Knot Tyers is a dedicated to the Promotion of Knot tying. Truckers in need of securing a load may use a truckers hitch, Knots can save spelunkers from being buried under rock. Many knots can also be used as tools, for example, the bowline can be used as a rescue loop. The diamond hitch was used to tie packages on to donkeys. In hazardous environments such as mountains, knots are very important, note the systems mentioned typically require carabineers and the use of multiple appropriate knots. These knots include the bowline, double figure eight, munter hitch, munter mule, prusik, autoblock, thus any individual who goes into a mountainous environment should have basic knowledge of knots and knot systems to increase safety and the ability to undertake activities such as rappelling. Knots can be applied in combination to produce objects such as lanyards. In ropework, the end of a rope is held together by a type of knot called a whipping knot. Many types of textiles use knots to repair damage, macrame, one kind of textile, is generated exclusively through the use of knotting, instead of knits, crochets, weaves or felting. Macramé can produce self-supporting three-dimensional textile structures, as well as flat work, Knots weaken the rope in which they are made. When knotted rope is strained to its point, it almost always fails at the knot or close to it. The bending, crushing, and chafing forces that hold a knot in place also unevenly stress rope fibers, the exact mechanisms that cause the weakening and failure are complex and are the subject of continued study
33.
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
34.
County (United States)
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In the United States, an administrative or political sub-division of a state is a county, which is a region having specific boundaries and usually some level of governmental authority. The term county is used in 48 U. S. states, while Louisiana and Alaska have functionally equivalent subdivisions called parishes, most counties have subdivisions which may include municipalities and unincorporated areas. Others have no divisions, or may serve as a singular consolidated city-county. Some municipalities are in multiple counties, New York City is uniquely partitioned into multiple counties/boroughs, the U. S. federal government uses the term county equivalent to describe non-county administrative or statistical areas that are comparable to counties. Alaskas Unorganized Borough is divided into 11 census areas that are equivalent to counties. As of 2013, the United States has 3,007 counties and 137 county equivalents for a total of 3,144 counties, the number of counties per state ranges from the 3 counties of Delaware to the 254 counties of Texas. Counties have significant governmental functions in all states except Rhode Island and Connecticut, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has removed most government functions from eight of its 14 counties. The county with the largest population, Los Angeles County, counties were among the earliest units of local government established in the Thirteen Colonies that would become the United States. Virginia created the first counties in order to ease the workload in Jamestown. Americas oldest intact county court records can be found at Eastville, Virginia, in Northampton County, maryland established its first county, St. Marys, in 1637, and Massachusetts followed in 1643. When independence came, the framers of the Constitution did not provide for local governments, rather, they left the matter to the states. Subsequently, early state constitutions generally conceptualized county government as an arm of the state, in some states, these powers are partly or mostly devolved to the counties smaller divisions usually called townships, though in New York, New England and Wisconsin they are called towns. The county may or may not be able to override its townships on certain matters, the newest county in the United States is the city and county of Broomfield, Colorado, established in 2001 as a consolidated city-county. The newest county-equivalents are the Alaskan boroughs of Skagway established in 2007, Wrangell established in 2008, there are 40 consolidated city-counties in the U. S. Similarly, some of Alaskas boroughs have merged with their principal cities creating unified city-boroughs. Some such consolidations and mergers have created cities that rank among the geographically largest cities in the world, see also, #County names, regarding Louisiana. Independent cities, These are cities that legally belong to no county, Washington, D. C. outside the jurisdiction of any state, has a special status. The city of Washington comprises the entirety of the District of Columbia, when founded in 1801, the District consisted of two counties and three cities. In 1846, Alexandria County – including the then–City of Alexandria – was given back to Virginia, in 1871, the three remaining entities – the City of Washington, Georgetown City, and Washington County – were merged into a consolidated government by an act of Congress
35.
USS Pembina (AK-200)
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USS Pembina – later known as USNS Pembina -- was an Alamosa-class cargo ship that was constructed for the U. S. Navy during the closing period of World War II. In 1951 she was returned to the Navy and served the remainder of her Navy career with the Military Sea Transportation Service. In 1968 she was transferred to the Army as USAT Resolute and served with the Army until she was returned to the U. S. Maritime Administration. The second ship to be so named by the Navy, Pembina was laid down 23 June 1944, MC Hull 2154, after shakedown in the Gulf of Mexico, Pembina loaded cargo at Gulfport, Mississippi, for delivery to Subic Bay, Luzon in the Philippine Islands. She sailed 21 June, arriving 10 August, and proceeded with other cargoes to Okinawa, Jinsen, Korea, after off-loading at Yokosuka, Japan 31 December, she was ordered to report to Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka to decommission. Pembina decommissioned 26 January 1946, and was delivered to War Shipping Administration representatives for turn over to the US War Department under loan agreement and she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register 5 June. Pembina operated under Shipping Control Authority for the Japanese Merchant Marine, with a Japanese crew, title was transferred to the Navy on 1 July 1950. The ship had been reinstated on the Naval Vessel Register 28 June 1950 and she transferred from SCAJAP via the US Army to the Navy Military Sea Transportation Service 1 April 1951 at Yokohama, Japan. She was assigned to the Commander MSTS Pacific Area at San Francisco, California,17 April 1956 following service in the Western Pacific Ocean, based in Japan. Pembina was placed in custody of US Maritime Administration 18 April 1957. She was given permanent assignment to MarAd 31 March 1958, berthed at Olympia and she remained at Olympia in the National Defense Reserve Fleet until transferred to the Army 29 May 1968. Renamed USAT Resolute 19 June 1968, the ship served the US Army as a transportation. In 1971 she was moved to the Rio Vista Marine Storage Activity Site in Rio Vista, California, however, when the Army changed over to containerized cargo handling she was no longer useful for cargo or training purposes. She was returned to the US Maritime Commissions Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet on 25 January 1979, in 1996 she was sold to a US-based Missionary Group called Friendships. Renamed Spirit of Grace, the former Pembina hauled supplies and delivered aid to people in various part of the world. On a mission trip to Israel in 2006, Spirit of Grace burned out a cylinder in her main engine, at the same time, Friendships was offered a newer vessel of similar size, which was accepted and has been renamed Integrity. As a result, Spirit of Grace was returned to the donor and subsequently sold to ESCO Marine in Brownsville Tx
36.
Landing Ship, Infantry
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LSIs were operated by the Royal Navy, British Merchant Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Indian Navy, and Royal Australian Navy. They transported British Commonwealth and other Allied troops in sea assaults, typically, a landing ship, infantry would transport its cargo of infantry from its embarkation port to close to the coast to be invaded. This location was approximately 6–11 miles off shore, the troops would then transfer to landing craft, most commonly LCAs, for the journey to the beach. The landing craft would return to the LSI after disembarking their cargo, such ships would not be purpose-built, but would be found within the lists of merchant marine vessels. These ships needed to be fast and have davits capable of lowering the new landing craft assault fully loaded with troops, Glengyle and her sisters, Glenearn, Glenroy, and Breconshire, then abuilding, were determined to be ideal for infantry landing ships. This class of four fast passenger and cargo liners were intended for the Far East trade route, the Admiralty acquired the four Glens shortly after their launchings, and converted them into fast supply ships. By June 1940, Glengyle, Glenearn, and Glenroy were under conversion to LSIs, the Admiralty insisted on keeping Breconshire in a fast cargo configuration, so the ISTDC consulted the Director of Naval Construction about suitable requisitioned ships. The Dutch Continental passenger steamers Queen Emma and Princess Beatrix were converted to LSIs, displacing approximately 3,000 gross registered tons and able to make 22 knots, these vessels could carry as many as 800 troops apiece. These were the original 5 LSIs, more LSIs would be found in the years to come from requisitioning or new construction provided by the United States under Lend-Lease. LSIs were grouped according to their capacity and endurance. Initially, all were requisitioned merchant vessels that exchanged carrying lifeboats for landing craft, Glengyle was built by Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Dundee, for the Glen Line. This latter alteration entailed introducing tables, forms, and posts for slinging hammocks into the cargo hold. Glengyle, the first LSI, was accepted into service on 10 September and, on 31 January 1941, smaller LSI, such as Queen Emma and Princess Beatrix, were generally converted cross-channel ferries, or a converted passenger ship. In Canada in the spring of 1943, work was under way on the conversion of Prince David and they were reconfigured to carry 550 infantrymen transported in six LCAs and two LCMs, and have large sick-bay facilities for the anticipated casualties. Their old 6-inch guns were replaced with two twin 4 inch mountings, two single Bofors, and ten Oerlikons. D, kelly RCNR, who had supervised the fitting-out of both ships. The ships davits were capable of lifting an LCA which, by time in the war, was approaching 14 tons. In Australia in mid-1942, HMAS Manoora was marked for conversion into the Royal Australian Navys first landing ship and her armed merchant cruiser armament was removed and replaced with a single 12-pounder gun, six 40 mm Bofors, and eight 20 mm Oerlikons. The Walrus amphibian aircraft was removed, and the ship was modified to carry US manufactured landing craft,17 LCVPs, Manoora was initially able to accommodate 850 soldiers, but later modifications increased this to 1,250
37.
SS Empire Spearhead
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HMS Empire Spearhead was a Type C1-S-AY-1 Infantry Landing Ship chartered by the British Ministry of War Transport during World War II. She was built by Consolidated Steel Corporation, Wilmington, California and she was launched as Cape Girardeau and completed as Empire Spearhead. In 1945, she was transferred to the Royal Navy and was later renamed HMS Ormonde, later that year she was transferred back to the MoWT and renamed Empire Spearhead. In 1947, she was transferred to the United States Maritime Commission, the ship was laid up in 1950 and renamed Empire Spearhead. The ship was built in 1944 as yard number 354 by Consolidated Steel Corporation Wilmington and she was launched on 7 November 1944, and completed in January 1944. The ship was 396 feet 5 inches long, with a beam of 60 feet 1 inch and she had a depth of 35 feet 0 inches. The ship had a GRT of 7,177 and a NRT of 4,823, the ship was propelled by two steam turbines, double reduction geared, driving a single screw propellor. The turbines were built by Westinghouse Electric Company, Essington, Pennsylvania, Cape Girardeau was launched in January 1944, and completed that month as Empire Spearhead. She was built for the War Shipping Administration and chartered by the MoWT, the Code Letters MYMR and United Kingdom Official Number 169773 were allocated. She took part in Operation Overlord, a photographer from the Daily Sketch was on board to record the invasion flotilla. The ship also carried members of the 231st Infantry Brigade, 1st Battalion, the troops were landed on Gold Beach. At the end of June 1944, Empire Spearhead was transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Empire Spearhead, following Overlord, Empire Spearhead was part of Force X. This was a convoy consisting seven ships, HMS Lothian, SS Clan Lamont, SS Empire Arquebus, HMS Empire Battleaxe, SS Empire Mace, HMS Empire Spearhead, the convoy sailed from Greenock on 3 August as part of Convoy UC31. Force X sailed via New York and the Panama Canal, arriving at Suva, Fiji, in November 1944, Empire Spearhead took part in Exercise Octopus at Unity Beach, Queensland. The exercise trained troops for amphibious landings, in March 1945, Empire Spearhead took part in Operation Iceberg. She departed Manus Island, Papua New Guinea on 19 March and arrived at the Leyte Gulf and she was briefly renamed HMS Ormonde during her last months in the Royal Navy. In 1946, she was transferred back to the MoWT as Empire Spearhead, in 1950, she was laid up on the James River and renamed Empire Spearhead. She was sold for scrap on 17 March 1965 to The Boston Metals Co, Empire Spearhead was withdrawn from the Reserve Fleet on 3 May
38.
New Caledonia
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New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean,1,210 km east of Australia and 16,136 km east of Metropolitan France. The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea, locals refer to Grande Terre as Le Caillou. New Caledonia has an area of 18,576 km2. Its population of 268,767 consists of a mix of Kanak people, people of European descent, Polynesian people, the capital of the territory is Nouméa. The earliest traces of human presence in New Caledonia date back to the Lapita period, the Lapita were highly skilled navigators and agriculturists with influence over a large area of the Pacific. British explorer Captain James Cook was the first European to sight New Caledonia, on 4 September 1774 and he named it New Caledonia, as the northeast of the island reminded him of Scotland. The west coast of Grande Terre was approached by Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse in 1788, shortly before his disappearance, from then until 1840, only a few sporadic contacts with the archipelago were recorded. Contacts became more frequent after 1840, because of the interest in sandalwood from New Caledonia, the trade ceased at the start of the 20th century. The victims of this trade were called Kanakas, like all the Oceanian people, the first missionaries from the London Missionary Society and the Marist Brothers arrived in the 1840s. In 1849, the crew of the American ship Cutter was killed, cannibalism was widespread throughout New Caledonia. On 24 September 1853, under orders from Napoleon III, Admiral Febvrier Despointes took formal possession of New Caledonia, a few dozen free settlers settled on the west coast in the following years. New Caledonia became a colony, and from the 1860s until the end of the transportations in 1897, about 22,000 criminals. Among the convicts were many Communards arrested after the failed Paris Commune, including Henri de Rochefort, between 1873 and 1876,4,200 political prisoners were relegated in New Caledonia. Only 40 of them settled in the colony, the rest returned to France after being granted amnesty in 1879 and 1880. In 1864, nickel was discovered on the banks of the Diahot River and with the establishment of the Société Le Nickel in 1876, mining began in earnest. The French imported labourers to work in the mines, first from neighbouring islands, then from Japan, the Dutch East Indies, the French government also attempted to encourage European immigration, without much success. The indigenous population was excluded from the French economy, even as workers in the mines, and they were ultimately confined to reservations. This sparked a violent reaction in 1878 as High Chief Atal of La Foa managed to unite many of the central tribes, the Europeans brought new diseases such as smallpox and measles
39.
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
40.
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
41.
SS Flying Enterprise
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SS Flying Enterprise was a 6,711 ton Type C1-B ship which sank in 1952. She was built in 1944 as SS Cape Kumukaki for the United States Maritime Commission for use in World War II, the ship was sold in 1947 and then operated in scheduled service under the name Flying Enterprise. Cape Kumukaki was built by Consolidated Steel Corporation of Wilmington, California, delivered on 18 March 1944, she was owned by the United States War Shipping Administration and registered at Los Angeles. After the end of World War II, she was sold in 1947 to the Isbrandtsen Company, at this time, her name was changed to the Flying Enterprise and re-registered in New York. For the next five years, she was used as a cargo freighter in the North Atlantic. On 21 December 1951, under the command of Henrik Kurt Carlsen, she left Hamburg, there is speculation that the cargo also included gold and zirconium Four days later, on Christmas night, she encountered a storm in the Western Approaches to the English Channel. Afterwards, it was discovered that she had suffered structural damage, an SOS was issued on 28 December, by which time she was listing 45 degrees to port. British flagged vessel MV Sherborne and USS General A. W. Greely responded, Sherborne being first to arrive, Carlsen, however, was reluctant to evacuate passengers and crew to a British ship. Sherborne was asked to remain on station in case the situation deteriorated before an American ship arrived, the situation did deteriorate, just as USS General A W Greely arrived mid-afternoon and both ships sent lifeboats to pick up passengers and crew. The crew and passengers were evacuated with the loss of one life, after passengers and crew had been evacuated, MV Sherborne was released and continued her voyage to Manchester. By 2 January 1952, the USS John W. Weeks had arrived and relieved the merchant ships, the following day, the tug Turmoil arrived, guided by the searchlights from USS John W Weeks, but found it impossible to take the Flying Enterprise in tow. The tugs mate, Kenneth Dancy, was transferred to the Flying Enterprise on 4 January. The ship was taken in tow on 5 January, when she was some 300 nautical miles from Falmouth, on 6 January, USS Willard Keith relieved the John W Weeks and the French tug Abeille 25 also joined the rescue effort. The tow line parted at 01,30 on 10 January, later that day, the Turmoil was joined by the Trinity House vessel Satellite and the tugs Dexterous and Englishman. Carlsen and Dancy finally abandoned ship at 15,22 hrs and were picked up by Turmoil, the Flying Enterprise sank at 16,10 hrs to whistle, siren and foghorn salutes from the flotilla. The salvage attempts were criticised as the ship might have saved by heading for the nearest safe harbour, Cork. A public house in Cork, Ireland is named the Flying Enterprise after the ship, in 1960, some $210,000 of the $800, 000-worth of cargo was salvaged from Flying Enterprise by the Italian company Sorima. Under a confidentiality clause in the contract, further details of the recovered cargo were not released
42.
English Channel
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The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is the body of water that separates southern England from northern France, and links the southern part of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 560 km long and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 33.3 km in the Strait of Dover and it is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as follows, a line joining Isle Vierge to Lands End. The southwestern limit of the North Sea, the IHO defines the southwestern limit of the North Sea as a line joining the Walde Lighthouse and Leathercoat Point. The Walde Lighthouse is 6 km east of Calais, and Leathercoat Point is at the end of St Margarets Bay. The Strait of Dover, at the Channels eastern end, is its narrowest point and it is relatively shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part, reducing to a depth of about 45 m between Dover and Calais. Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m in the Broad Fourteens where it lies over the watershed of the land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries. It reaches a depth of 180 m in the submerged valley of Hurds Deep,48 km west-northwest of Guernsey. The eastern region along the French coast between Cherbourg and the mouth of the Seine river at Le Havre is frequently referred to as the Bay of the Seine. There are several islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off the English coast. The coastline, particularly on the French shore, is indented, several small islands close to the coastline, including Chausey. The Cotentin Peninsula in France juts out into the Channel, whilst on the English side there is a parallel channel known as the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel, the Channel is of geologically recent origins, having been dry land for most of the Pleistocene period. The first flood would have lasted for months, releasing as much as one million cubic metres of water per second. The flood started with large but localized waterfalls over the ridge, the flow eroded the retaining ridge, causing the rock dam to fail and releasing lake water into the English Channel. The erosion of the Lobourg Channel was probably the final opening of the Strait, the time difference of about six hours between high water at the eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance. It was never defined as a border and the names were more or less descriptive. It was not considered as the property of a nation, strangely, before the development of the modern nations, British scholars very often referred to it as Gaulish and the French one as British or English
