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.
Attack on 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
3.
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
4.
United States Merchant Marine
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The United States Merchant Marine refers to either United States civilian mariners, or to U. S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Merchant Marine officers may also be commissioned as officers by the Department of Defense. This is commonly achieved by commissioning unlimited tonnage Merchant Marine officers as Strategic Sealift Officers in the Naval Reserves. As of 31 December 2016, the United States merchant fleet had 175 privately owned, oceangoing, self-propelled vessels of 1,000 gross register tons, nearly 800 American-owned ships are flagged in other nations. In 2004, the government employed approximately 5% of all American water transportation workers. In the 19th and 20th centuries, various laws fundamentally changed the course of American merchant shipping and these laws put an end to common practices such as flogging and shanghaiing, and increased shipboard safety and living standards. The United States Merchant Marine is also governed by more than 25 international conventions to promote safety, the Court held that the Secretary of the Air Force abused its discretion in denying active military service recognition to American merchant seamen who participated in World War II. Captains, mates, and pilots supervise ship operations on domestic waterways, a captain is in overall command of a vessel, and supervises the work of other officers and crew. A captain has the ability to take the conn from a mate or pilot at any time he feels the need, on smaller vessels the captain may be a regular watch-stander, similar to a mate, directly controlling the vessels position. Captains directly communicate with the company or command, and are responsible for cargo, various logs, ships documents, credentials, efforts at controlling pollution. Mates direct a ships routine operation for the captain during work shifts, mates stand watch for specified periods, usually in three duty sections, with 4 hours on watch and 8 hours off. When on a watch, mates direct a bridge team by conning, directing courses through the helmsman. When more than one mate is necessary aboard a ship, they typically are designated chief mate or first mate, second mate, in addition to watch standers, mates directly supervise the ships crew, and are assigned other tasks. The chief mate is usually in charge of cargo, stability and the crew, the second mate in charge of navigation plans and updates. Harbor pilots guide ships in and out of confined waterways, such as harbors, harbor pilots are generally independent contractors who accompany vessels while they enter or leave port, and may pilot many ships in a single day. Ships engineers operate, maintain, and repair engines, boilers, generators, pumps, Merchant marine vessels usually have four engineering officers, a chief engineer and a first, second, and third assistant engineer. On many ships, Assistant Engineers stand periodic watches, overseeing the operation of engines. However, most modern ships sailing today utilize Unmanned Machinery Space automation technology, at night and during meals and breaks, the engine room is unmanned and machinery alarms are answered by the Duty Engineer
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Type C4-class ship
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The Type C4 class ship were the largest cargo ships built by the United States Maritime Commission during World War II. The design was developed for the American-Hawaiian Lines in 1941. Eighty-one ships were built as cargo or troopships in four shipyards, Kaiser Richmond, CA, Kaiser Vancouver, WA, Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock in Chester PA, all ships were capable of 17 knots, driven by a single screw steam turbine generating 9,900 shp. Among the variations of the design were the Haven class hospital ship and they were followed post-war by thirty-seven of the larger C4-S-1 class, also known as the Mariner class. Built by Kaiser Shipyards at Permanente No.3 in Richmond, USS General G. O. Squier USS General T. H. Bliss USS General J. R. Brooke USS General O. H. Ernst USS General R. L. Howze USS General W. M. Black USS General H. L. Scott USS General S. D. Sturgis USS General C. G. Morton USS General R. E. Callan, later USNS General H. H. Langfitt USS General Omar Bundy USS General R. M. Blatchford USS General LeRoy Eltinge USS General A. W. Brewster USS General D. E. Aultman USS General C. C. Ballou USS General W. G. Haan USS General Stuart Heintzelman C4-S-B1, C4-S-B2, C4-S-B5 DWT,15,300 Built by Sun Yards of Chester, Pennsylvania. SS Mount Davis SS Mount Greylock SS Mount Mansfield SS Mount Rogers SS Mount Whitney C4-S-A3 DWT,14,863 Built by Kaiser Shipyards in Vancouver, land SS Willis Vickery SS Louis McH. Howe SS Ernie Pyle C4-S-B2 DWT,15,300 Built by Sun Yards in Chester, SS Santa Magdelena SS Santa Mariana SS Santa Maria SS Santa Mercedes C4-S-49b DWT,13,915. Built in 1965 by Bethlehem Steel of Sparrows Pt, the last two C4 ships were constructed in 1966 for the Prudential Lines. SS Prudential Seajet SS Prudential Oceanjet Marine Perch a C4-S-A3, was renamed the SS Yellowstone was in a collision, Type C1 ship Type C2 ship Type C3 ship T2 tanker Liberty ship Victory ship Hog Islander U. S. A. Sawyer and W. H. Mitchell. London,1981, World Ship Society Ships for Victory, A History of Shipbuilding under the U. S. Maritime Commission in World War II, by Frederic C. Lane ISBN 0-8018-6752-5
8.
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
9.
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
10.
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
11.
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
12.
Wilmington, Los Angeles
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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
