1.
Nathaniel Bowditch
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Nathaniel Bowditch was an early American mathematician remembered for his work on ocean navigation. Nathaniel Bowditch, the fourth of seven children, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, to Habakkuk Bowditch, a cooper, and Mary Bowditch. At the age of ten, he was made to school to work in his fathers cooperage. In 1786, age fourteen, Bowditch began to study algebra and he also taught himself Latin in 1790 and French in 1792 so he was able to read mathematical works such as Isaac Newtons Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. He found thousands of errors in John Hamilton Moores The New Practical Navigator, at eighteen, among his many significant scientific contributions would be a translation of Pierre-Simon de Laplaces Mécanique céleste, a lengthy work on mathematics and theoretical astronomy. This translation was critical to the development of astronomy in the United States, in 1795, Bowditch went to sea on the first of four voyages as a ships clerk and captains writer. His fifth voyage was as master and part owner of a ship, following this voyage, he returned to Salem in 1803 to resume his mathematical studies and enter the insurance business. One of his homes in Salem, the Nathaniel Bowditch House. This house has designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1798 Bowditch married Elizabeth Boardman, who died seven months later, in 1800 Bowditch married his second wife and cousin, Mary Ingersoll Bowditch. They had 2 daughters and 6 sons, including Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, among his grandchildren were Henry Pickering Bowditch and Charles Pickering Bowditch. In 1802, his book The American Practical Navigator was first published and that same year, Harvard University awarded Bowditch an honorary Master of Arts degree. In 1804, Bowditch became Americas first insurance actuary as president of the Essex Fire, under his direction, the company prospered despite difficult political conditions and the War of 1812. He was offered the chair of mathematics and physics at Harvard in 1806, in 1804, an article on his observations of the Moon was published and in 1806 he published naval charts of several harbors, including Salem. As well as Harvard, the United States Military Academy and the University of Virginia offered Bowditch chairs in mathematics, Bowditch again refused these offers, perhaps because the $2,000 salary offered was two-thirds of the salary he received as president of the insurance company. Bowditchs translation of the first four volumes of Laplaces Traité de mécanique céleste was completed by 1818, publication of the work, however, was delayed for many years, most likely due to cost. Nonetheless, he continued to work on it with the assistance of Benjamin Peirce, by 1819, Bowditchs international reputation had grown to the extent that he was elected as a member of the Royal Societies of Edinburgh and London and the Royal Irish Academy. In 1823, Bowditch left the Essex Fire and Marine Insurance Company to become an actuary for the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company in Boston, there he served as a money manager for wealthy individuals who made their fortunes at sea, directing their wealth toward manufacturing
2.
War Shipping Administration
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The War Shipping Administration was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime Commission and ship allocation under the WSA to Army, land who continued as head of the Maritime Commission while also heading the WSA. A shortage of vessels further complicated by requirements to take out of service for conversion and armament was of concern at the highest levels. Harry Hopkins reporting directly to the President, differences between the organizations and lack of decisive authority short of the President limited the boards effectiveness. Upon establishment of the WSA the Strategic Shipping Board continued in existence in a diminished role under the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On February 7,1942, the WSA was established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelts Executive Order No.9054, February 7,1942 as the U. S. had entered the war. The WSA was administratively split off from the United States Maritime Commission, established in 1936 and those included the production of Liberty ships and Victory ships among other types. The U. S. fleet expanded to some 3,500 dry cargo vessels, on a practical level The Maritime Commission and the WSA worked closely together under the administration of Vice Admiral Emory S. Land at the head of each and it became apparent immediately when this Nation entered the war that a special agency to deal with the operational problems peculiar to war was necessary to supplement the Maritime Commission. Thus WSA became the Governments ship operating agency and the Maritime Commission its shipbuilding agency, under that authority cargo hulls were allocated to either commerce, Army or Navy. Many of the Armys ships and Naval transports were allocated by WSA, WSA, through its agents, directly operated ships in support of the services and civilian requirements. After the war, WSA vessels were used to home the huge number of armed personnel overseas, as part of Operation Magic Carpet. Over 3,500,000 men were brought home from overseas areas by December 1,1945, on September 1,1946, the WSA functions were returned to the Maritime Commission. Combined Shipping Adjustment Board United States Merchant Marine Victory ship Ships for Victory, A History of Shipbuilding under the U. S. Maritime Commission in World War II, ISBN 0-8018-6752-5 LCCN2001018657 United States Government Manual,1945 War Shipping Administration section American Merchant Marine at War
3.
Portland, Oregon
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Portland is a port and the largest city in the U. S. state of Oregon and the seat of Multnomah County. It is in the Willamette Valley region of the Pacific Northwest, at the confluence of the Willamette, the city covers 145 square miles and had an estimated population of 632,309 in 2015, making it the 26th most populous city in the United States. Approximately 2,389,228 people live in the Portland metropolitan statistical area and its Combined Statistical Area ranks 17th with a population of 3,022,178. Roughly 60% of Oregons population resides within the Portland metropolitan area, named after Portland, Maine, the Oregon settlement began to be populated in the 1830s near the end of the Oregon Trail. Its water access provided convenient transportation of goods, and the industry was a major force in the citys early economy. At the turn of the 20th century, the city had a reputation as one of the most dangerous cities in the world. After the citys economy experienced a boom during World War II. Beginning in the 1960s, Portland became noted for its liberal political values, and the city has earned a reputation as a bastion of counterculture. According to a 2009 Pew Research Center study, Portland ranks as the eighth most popular American city, the city operates with a commission-based government guided by a mayor and four commissioners as well as Metro, the only directly elected metropolitan planning organization in the United States. The city government is notable for its planning and investment in public transportation. Its climate is marked by warm, dry summers and cool and this climate is ideal for growing roses, and Portland has been called the City of Roses for over a century. Keep Portland Weird is a slogan for the city. During the prehistoric period, the land that would become Portland was flooded after the collapse of glacial dams from Lake Missoula and these massive floods occurred during the last ice age and filled the Willamette Valley with 300 to 400 feet of water. The Chinook people occupying the land which would become Portland were first documented by Meriwether Lewis, before its European settlement, the Portland Basin of the lower Columbia River and Willamette River valleys had been one of the most densely populated regions on the Pacific Coast. Large numbers of settlers began arriving in the Willamette Valley in the 1830s via the Oregon Trail. In the early 1840s a new settlement began emerging ten miles from the mouth of the Willamette River and this community was initially referred to as Stumptown and The Clearing because of the many trees cut down to allow for its growth. In 1843 William Overton saw potential in the new settlement but lacked the funds to file a land claim. For 25 cents Overton agreed to half of the 640-acre site with Asa Lovejoy of Boston
4.
IMO number
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The International Maritime Organization number is a unique reference for ships and for registered ship owners and management companies. IMO numbers were introduced under the SOLAS Convention to improve safety and security. For ships, the IMO number remains linked to the hull for its lifetime, regardless of a change in name, flag, or owner. The ship number consists of the three letters IMO followed by a unique number assigned to sea-going merchant ships under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. In 1987 the IMO adopted Resolution A, in the SOLAS Convention cargo ships means ships which are not passenger ships. Passenger ships should carry the marking on a horizontal surface visible from the air. When introduced, the IMO adopted the existing unique ship numbers applied to ships listed by Lloyds Register since 1963, IMO ship identification numbers are assigned by IHS Fairplay. For new vessels the IMO number is assigned to a hull during construction, the IMO ship identification number is made of the three letters IMO followed by the seven-digit number. This consists of a six-digit sequential unique number followed by a check digit, the integrity of an IMO number can be verified using its check digit. This is done by multiplying each of the first six digits by a factor of 2 to 7 corresponding to their position from right to left, the rightmost digit of this sum is the check digit. For example, for IMO9074729, + + + + + =139, in May 2005, IMO adopted a new SOLAS regulation XI-1/3-1 on the mandatory company and registered owner identification number scheme, with entry into force on 1 January 2009. Like the IMO ship number, the identification number is a seven-digit number with the prefix IMO
5.
Oceanography
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Oceanography, also known as oceanology, is the study of the physical and the biological aspects of the ocean. Paleoceanography studies the history of the oceans in the geologic past, humans first acquired knowledge of the waves and currents of the seas and oceans in pre-historic times. Observations on tides were recorded by Aristotle and Strabo, early exploration of the oceans was primarily for cartography and mainly limited to its surfaces and of the animals that fishermen brought up in nets, though depth soundings by lead line were taken. Although Juan Ponce de León in 1513 first identified the Gulf Stream, Franklin measured water temperatures during several Atlantic crossings and correctly explained the Gulf Streams cause. Franklin and Timothy Folger printed the first map of the Gulf Stream in 1769-1770, information on the currents of the Pacific Ocean was gathered by explorers of the late 18th century, including James Cook and Louis Antoine de Bougainville. James Rennell wrote the first scientific textbooks on oceanography, detailing the current flows of the Atlantic, during a voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in 1777, he mapped the banks and currents at the Lagullas. He was also the first to understand the nature of the intermittent current near the Isles of Scilly, Robert FitzRoy published a four-volume report of the Beagles three voyages. In 1841–1842 Edward Forbes undertook dredging in the Aegean Sea that founded marine ecology, the first superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory, Matthew Fontaine Maury devoted his time to the study of marine meteorology, navigation, and charting prevailing winds and currents. His 1855 textbook Physical Geography of the Sea was one of the first comprehensive oceanography studies, many nations sent oceanographic observations to Maury at the Naval Observatory, where he and his colleagues evaluated the information and distributed the results worldwide. Despite all this, human knowledge of the oceans remained confined to the topmost few fathoms of the water, almost nothing was known of the ocean depths. The Royal Navys efforts to all of the worlds coastlines in the mid-19th century reinforced the vague idea that most of the ocean was very deep. As exploration ignited both popular and scientific interest in the regions and Africa, so too did the mysteries of the unexplored oceans. The seminal event in the founding of the science of oceanography was the 1872-76 Challenger expedition. As the first true oceanographic cruise, this laid the groundwork for an entire academic. In response to a recommendation from the Royal Society, The British Government announced in 1871 an expedition to explore worlds oceans, charles Wyville Thompson and Sir John Murray launched the Challenger expedition. The Challenger, leased from the Royal Navy, was modified for scientific work, under the scientific supervision of Thomson, Challenger travelled nearly 70,000 nautical miles surveying and exploring. On her journey circumnavigating the globe,492 deep sea soundings,133 bottom dredges,151 open water trawls and 263 serial water temperature observations were taken, around 4,700 new species of marine life were discovered. The result was the Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H. M. S, Murray, who supervised the publication, described the report as the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
6.
Research vessel
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A research vessel is a ship or boat designed, modified, and/or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles, some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated vessel. Due to the nature of the work, research vessels are often constructed around an icebreaker hull. The research ship had origins in the voyages of exploration. By the time of James Cooks Endeavour, the essentials of what today we would call a ship are clearly apparent. In 1766, the Royal Society hired Cook to travel to the Pacific Ocean to observe, the Endeavour was a sturdy boat, well designed and equipped for the ordeals she would face, and fitted out with facilities for her research personnel, Joseph Banks. And, as is common with contemporary research vessels, Endeavour carried out more than one kind of research, some other notable early research vessels were HMS Beagle, RV Calypso, HMS Challenger, USFC Albatross, and the Endurance and Terra Nova. The names of early research vessels have been used to later research vessels. A hydrographic survey ship is a designed to conduct hydrographic research. Nautical charts are produced from this information to ensure safe navigation by military, hydrographic survey vessels also conduct seismic surveys of the seabed and the underlying geology. Apart from producing the charts, this information is useful for detecting geological features which are likely to bear oil or gas, in practice, hydrographic survey vessels are often equipped to perform multiple roles. Some function also as oceanographic research ships, naval hydrographic survey vessels often do naval research, for example, on submarine detection. An example of a survey vessel is CCGS Frederick G. Creed. For an example of the employment of a survey ship see HMS Hydra and these vessels often also carry scientific divers and unmanned underwater vehicles. Since the requirements of both oceanographic and hydrographic research are very different from those of fisheries research, these boats often fulfill dual roles, examples of an oceanographic research vessel include the NOAAS Ronald H. Brown and the Chilean Navy Cabo de Hornos. An example of a research vessel is FRV Scotia. Naval research vessels investigate naval concerns, such as submarine and mine detection, sonar, an example of a naval research vessel is the Planet of the German Navy. Polar research vessels are constructed around a hull, allowing them to operate in polar waters
7.
Steam turbine
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A steam turbine is a device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884, in 1551, Taqi al-Din in Ottoman Egypt described a steam turbine with the practical application of rotating a spit. Steam turbines were described by the Italian Giovanni Branca and John Wilkins in England. The devices described by Taqi al-Din and Wilkins are today known as steam jacks, in 1672 an impulse steam turbine driven car was designed by Ferdinand Verbiest. A more modern version of car was produced some time in the late 18th century by an unknown German mechanic. The modern steam turbine was invented in 1884 by Sir Charles Parsons, the invention of Parsons steam turbine made cheap and plentiful electricity possible and revolutionized marine transport and naval warfare. Parsons design was a reaction type and his patent was licensed and the turbine scaled-up shortly after by an American, George Westinghouse. The Parsons turbine also turned out to be easy to scale up. Parsons had the satisfaction of seeing his invention adopted for all major world power stations, a number of other variations of turbines have been developed that work effectively with steam. The de Laval turbine accelerated the steam to full speed before running it against a turbine blade, De Lavals impulse turbine is simpler, less expensive and does not need to be pressure-proof. It can operate with any pressure of steam, but is less efficient. He taught at the École des mines de Saint-Étienne for a decade until 1897, one of the founders of the modern theory of steam and gas turbines was Aurel Stodola, a Slovak physicist and engineer and professor at the Swiss Polytechnical Institute in Zurich. His work Die Dampfturbinen und ihre Aussichten als Wärmekraftmaschinen was published in Berlin in 1903, a further book Dampf und Gas-Turbinen was published in 1922. It was used in John Brown-engined merchant ships and warships, including liners, the present-day manufacturing industry for steam turbines is dominated by Chinese power equipment makers. Other manufacturers with minor market share include Bhel, Siemens, Alstom, GE, Doosan Škoda Power, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan projects that manufacturing of steam turbines will become more consolidated by 2020 as Chinese power manufacturers win increasing business outside of China. There are several classifications for modern steam turbines, Turbine blades are of two basic types, blades and nozzles. Blades move entirely due to the impact of steam on them and this results in a steam velocity drop and essentially no pressure drop as steam moves through the blades. A turbine composed of alternating with fixed nozzles is called an impulse turbine, Curtis turbine, Rateau turbine
8.
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
9.
5"/38 caliber gun
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The Mark 12 5/38 caliber gun was a US naval gun. The gun was installed into Single Purpose and Dual Purpose mounts used primarily by the US Navy, the 38 caliber barrel was a mid-length compromise between the previous United States standard 5/51 low-angle gun and 5/25 anti-aircraft gun. The increased barrel length provided greatly improved performance in both anti-aircraft and anti-surface roles compared to the 5/25 gun, however, except for the barrel length and the use of semi-fixed ammunition, the 5/38 gun was derived from the 5/25 gun. Both weapons had power ramming, which enabled rapid fire at high angles against aircraft, the 5/38 entered service on USS Farragut, commissioned in 1934. The base ring mount, which improved the rate of fire, entered service on USS Gridley. Even this advanced system required nearly 100 rounds of ammunition expenditure per aircraft kill, however, the planes were normally killed by shell fragments and not direct hits, barrage fire was used, with many guns firing in the air at the same time. Base ring mounts with integral hoists had a rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute per barrel, however. On pedestal and other mounts lacking integral hoists,12 to 15 rounds per minute was the rate of fire, useful life expectancy was 4600 effective full charges per barrel. The 5/38 cal gun was mounted on a large number of US Navy ships in the World War II era. It was backfitted to many of the World War I-era battleships during their wartime refits and it has left active US Navy service, but it is still on mothballed ships of the United States Navy reserve fleets. It is also used by a number of nations who bought or were given US Navy surplus ships, each mount carries one or two Mk 12 5/38cal Gun Assemblies. The gun assembly shown is used in single mounts, and it is the gun in twin mounts. It is loaded from the left side, the left gun in twin mounts is the mirror image of the right gun, and it is loaded from the right side. The Mk12 gun assembly weighs 3,990 lb, the major Mk12 Gun Assembly characteristics are,158 Semi-automatic During recoil, some of the recoil energy is stored in the counter-recoil system. That stored energy is used during counter-recoil to prepare the gun for the next round, the firing pin is cocked, the breech is opened, the spent powder case is ejected, and the bore is air cleaned. Hand loaded A Projectile-Man and a Powder-Man are stationed at each gun assembly and their job is to move the round, consisting of a projectile and a powder case, from the hoists to the rammer tray, and then start the ram cycle. The hydraulically driven Rammer Spade, called the Power Spade in that picture, is at the back of the Rammer Tray, if the multiple names of the Spade is confusing, look at this footnote. Vertical sliding-wedge breech block The breech block closes the chamber behind the powder case and it also holds the firing pin assembly
10.
3"/50 caliber gun
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For Army 3-inch gun see 3-inch M1918 gun The 3″/50 caliber gun in United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile 3 inches in diameter, and the barrel was 50 calibers long. Different guns of this caliber were used by the U. S. Navy and U. S. Coast Guard from 1890 through the 1990s on a variety of combatant and transport ship classes. The US Navys first 3″/50 caliber gun was a model with a projectile velocity of 2,100 feet per second. Low-angle mountings for this gun had a range of 7000 yards at the elevation of 15 degrees. The gun entered service around 1900 with the Bainbridge-class destroyers, and was fitted to Connecticut-class battleships. By World War II these guns were only on a few Coast Guard cutters. These guns fired the same 2,700 feet per second used by the following dual-purpose Marks. These were built-up guns with a tube, partial-length jacket, hoop, dual-purpose 3″/50 caliber guns first entered service in 1915 as a refit to USS Texas, and were subsequently mounted on many types of ships as the need for anti-aircraft protection was recognized. They also replaced the original low-angle 4/50 caliber guns on flush-deck Wickes and these dual-purpose guns were quick-firing, meaning that they used fixed ammunition, with powder case and projectile permanently attached, and handled as a single unit weighing 34 pounds. Maximum range was 14,600 yards at 45 degrees elevation, useful life expectancy was 4300 effective full charges per barrel. The 3/50 caliber gun Marks 17 and 18 was first used as a deck gun on R-class submarines launched in 1918-1919. At the time it was an improvement on the earlier 3/23 caliber gun, after using larger guns on many other submarines, the 3/50 caliber gun Mark 21 was specified as the standard deck gun on the Porpoise- through Gato-class submarines launched in 1935-1942. The small gun was chosen to remove the temptation to engage enemy vessels on the surface. The gun was mounted aft of the conning tower to reduce submerged drag. Wartime experience showed that larger guns were needed and this need was initially met by transferring 4/50 caliber guns from S-class submarines as they were shifted from combat to training roles from late 1942. Later, the 5/25 caliber gun, initially removed from battleships sunk or damaged in the attack on Pearl Harbor and later manufactured in a submarine version, post-war experimentation with an extended range variant was abandoned as shipboard surface-to-air missiles were developed. The United States Navy considered contemporary 5/38 caliber guns and 5″/54 caliber guns more effective against surface targets, the 3″/50 caliber gun was a semiautomatic anti-aircraft weapon with a power driven automatic loader. These monobloc 3″ guns were fitted to both single and twin mountings, the single was to be exchanged for a twin 40 mm antiaircraft gun mount and the twin for a quadruple 40 mm mount
11.
Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
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The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German 20 mm Becker design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models employed by both Allied and Axis forces during World War II, and many still in use today. During World War I, the German Reinhold Becker developed a 20 mm caliber cannon and this used a 20x70 RB cartridge and had a cyclic rate of fire of 300 rpm. It was used on a scale as an aircraft gun on Luftstreitkräfte warplanes. Because the Treaty of Versailles banned further production of weapons in Germany. SEMAG continued development of the weapon, and in 1924 had produced the SEMAG L, the Oerlikon firm, named after the Zürich suburb where it was based, then acquired all rights to the weapon, plus the manufacturing equipment and the employees of SEMAG. In 1927 the Oerlikon S was added to the product line. This fired a larger cartridge to achieve a muzzle velocity of 830 m/s, at the cost of increased weight. The purpose of development was to improve the performance of the gun as an anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapon. An improved version known as the 1S followed in 1930, three sizes of gun with their different ammunition and barrel length, but very similar mechanisms, continued to be developed in parallel. In 1930 Oerlikon reconsidered the application of its gun in aircraft and introduced the AF and AL, designed to be used in flexible mounts, the 15-round box magazine used by earlier versions of the gun was replaced by drum magazine holding 15 or 30 rounds. In 1935 it made an important step by introducing a series of guns designed to be mounted in or on the wings of fighter aircraft, designated with FF for Flügelfest meaning wing-mounted, these weapons were again available in the three sizes, with designations FF, FFL and FFS. The FF fired a larger cartridge than the AF, 20x72RB. The FF weighed 24 kg and achieved a velocity of 550 to 600 m/s with a rate of fire of 520 rpm. The FFL of 30 kg fired a projectile at a velocity of 675 m/s with a rate of fire of 500 rpm. And the FFS, which weighed 39 kg, delivered a high velocity of 830 m/s at a rate of fire of 470 rpm. Apart from changes to the design of the guns for wing-mounting and remote control, for the FF series drum sizes of 45,60,75 and 100 rounds were available, but most users chose the 60-round drum. The 1930s were a period of global re-armament, and a number of foreign firms took licenses for the Oerlikon family of aircraft cannon
12.
Lead ship
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The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to ships and larger civilian craft. Large ships are complicated internally and may take as much as five to ten years to construct, any changes or advances that are available when building a ship are likely to be included, so it is rare to have two that are identical. Constructing one ship is likely to reveal better ways of doing things. The second and later ships are often started before the first one is completed, launched and tested, the improvements will sometimes be retrofitted to the lead ship. Larger civilian craft, such as Sun Princess, the ship of the Sun-class cruise ships. The same custom is followed in fiction, the Constitution-class cruiser is the basis for the Enterprise of Star Trek. Example of a lead ship announcement from US Navy USS Pennsylvania BB-38
13.
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
14.
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
15.
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
16.
Military Sealift Command
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The Military Sealift Command is a United States Navy organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the Navy. The United States Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and it first came into existence on 9 July 1949 when the Military Sea Transportation Service became solely responsible for the Department of Defenses ocean transport needs. The MSTS was renamed the Military Sealift Command in 1970, Military Sealift Command ships are made up of a core fleet of ships owned by the United States Navy and others under long-term-charter augmented by short-term or voyage-chartered ships. Some ships may have Navy or Marine Corps personnel on board to carry out communication and special mission functions, ships on charter or equivalent, retain commercial colors and bear the standard merchant prefix MV, SS, or GTS, without hull numbers. Five programs comprise Military Sealift Command, Combat Logistics Force, Special Mission, Prepositioning, Service Support, the Combat Logistics Force’s role is to directly replenish ships that are underway at sea, enabling them to deploy for long periods of time without having to come to port. The Special Mission program operates vessels for military and federal government tasks, such as submarine support and missile flight data collection. The Prepositioning program sustains the US militarys forward presence strategy by deploying supply ships in key areas prior to actual need, also, MSC realigned two of its four mission-driven programs and adding a fifth program. The Prepositioning and Sealift programs are unchanged by the 2012 reorganization, as of June 2013, Military Sealift Command operated around 110 ships, and employed 9,800 people. The Combat Logistics Force is the part of the MSC most associated with supporting the Navy. In 1972, a study concluded that it would be cheaper for civilians to man USN support vessels such as tankers, the CLF is the American equivalent of the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary. These MSC ships are painted gray and can be easily identified by the blue. The Combat Logistics Force was formerly called the Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force, some of its ships were transferred to the new Service Support program. Special mission ships work for several different US Navy customers, including the Naval Sea Systems Command and these ships like those of the NFAF are painted haze gray with blue and gold stack bands. Some of its ships were transferred to the new Service Support program, as a key element of sea basing, afloat prepositioning provides the military equipment and supplies for a contingency forward deployed in key ocean areas before need. The MSC Prepositioning Program supports the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, Prepositioning ships remain at sea, ready to deploy on short-notice the vital equipment, fuel and supplies to initially support military forces in the event of a contingency. The Prepositioning Program consists of 34 at-sea ships plus 2 aviation support ships kept in reduced operating status and these ships wear civilian livery, and are only designated USNS if government-owned, those chartered from civilian owners are either SS or MV. It consists of four government-operated ships formerly in the Special Mission program, Sealift is divided into three separate project offices, Tanker Project Office, Dry Cargo Project Office and the Surge Project Office. As a result of a 2012 organization, MSCs 12 worldwide MSC ship support units will now report to the MSC operational area commands in their areas of responsibility
17.
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
18.
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
19.
United States Navy Armed Guard
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United States Navy Armed Guard units were established during World War II in an attempt to provide defensive firepower to merchant ships in convoy or merchant ships traveling alone. The United States Navy Armed Guard were U. S, Armed Guard crews served on Allied merchant marine ships in every theatre of the war. Typically the crew was led by a commissioned officer, but earlier in the war chiefs. The assignment as an Armed Guardsman was often dreaded because of the constant danger, Merchant ships were slow and unwieldy despite being priority targets for enemy submarines and planes. Furthermore, merchant ships were among the slowest to receive updated equipment, early on in the war some ships only had a few machine guns installed, so the crew painted telephone poles to replicate the barrels of larger guns. The most common armament to be installed on merchant ships during the war were the MK II 20mm machine gun and the 3/50, 4/50, and 5/38 deck guns. When practicable, the Navy Armed Guard aboard a merchant ship would provide cross-training to merchant crew members in the use of the guns in the event the Navy personnel were killed or injured. The Navy Armed Guard unit would travel with the merchant ship to its destination and return Stateside on the ship, or another. The first merchant ship to make the eastbound convoy to North Russia with a Navy Armed Guard was the 3800-ton freighter SS Larranga. At the insistence of the master, Captain Cameron Dudley Simmons, she was installed with a Navy Armed Guard consisting of Ensign H. A. Axtell, Jr. Ordnance placed under their charge on the SS Larranga was one 4-inch gun, the Armed Guard crew of the SS Larranga has the distinction of being the first to fire on an enemy submarine from an armed merchant vessel. By Richard Snow, ISBN 978-1-4165-9110-8 US Navy Armed Guard Veterans/Memorial Web Site Arming of Merchant Ships and Naval Armed Guard Service History of the Naval Armed Guard Afloat, World War II
20.
Deck gun
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Deck gun can also mean a type of big water nozzle used for firefighting. A deck gun is a type of artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Similar unenclosed guns are often found on ships as secondary or defensive armament. Most submarine deck guns were open, however a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret, the deck gun was used as a defensive weapon against smaller boats or ships and in certain cases where torpedo use was limited. Typically a crew of three, gunner, loader and layer, operated the gun, while others were tasked with supplying ammunition, a small locker box held a few ready-use rounds. With a well-drilled, experienced crew, the rate of fire of a gun could be 15 to 18 aimed shots per minute. The deck gun was introduced in all submarine forces prior to World War I, although technically not a deck gun, USS Holland, the first American submarine, was equipped with a pneumatic dynamite gun built into the bow in 1900. The deck gun was first used by the Germans in World War I, lothar von Arnauld de la Perière used a deck gun or a dynamiting team on 171 of his 194 sinkings. In early World War II, German submarine commanders favored the deck gun because of the unreliability of torpedoes, the deck gun became less effective as convoys became larger and better equipped, and merchant ships were armed. Surfacing also became dangerous in the vicinity of a convoy because of improvements in radar, German U-boat deck guns were eventually removed on the order of the supreme commander of the U-boat Arm during World War II, and those deck guns that remained were no longer manned. Two notable deck guns from German U-boats used in World War II were the 8.8 cm SK C/35, the 88 mm had ammunition that weighed about 30 lb and was of the projectile and cartridge type. It had the controls on both sides of the gun so that the two crewmen that were in charge of firing it could control the gun from either side. The 105 mm evolved from the 88 mm in the sense that it was accurate and had more power due to the 51 lb ammunition it fired. In the US Navy, deck guns were used through the end of World War II, many targets in the Pacific War were sampans or other small vessels that were not worth a torpedo. The unreliability of the Mark 14 torpedo through mid-1943 also promoted the use of the deck gun, most US submarines started the war with a single 3 inch /50 caliber deck gun, adopted in the 1930s to discourage commanders from engaging heavily-armed escorts. However, the aging S-boats were equipped with a 4 inch /50 caliber gun, by 1944 most front-line submarines had been refitted with a 5 inch /25 caliber gun, and some were equipped with two 5 inch guns. The USS Argonaut, Narwhal and Nautilus were each fitted with two 6/53 caliber guns Mark 18, the largest deck gun to be fitted on any United States submarine. Japanese submarine cruisers used 14 cm/40 11th Year Type naval guns to shell California, British Columbia, the French submarine Surcouf was launched in 1929 with two 203mm/50 Modèle 1924 guns in a turret forward of the conning tower
21.
Emergency Shipbuilding program
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The Emergency Shipbuilding Program was a United States government effort to quickly build simple cargo ships to carry troops and material to allies and foreign theatres during World War II. Run by the U. S. Maritime Commission, the program built almost 6,000 ships, by the fall of 1940, the British Merchant Navy was being sunk in the Battle of the Atlantic by Germanys U-Boats faster than the United Kingdom could replace them. Led by Sir Arthur Salter, a group of men called the British Merchant Shipping Mission came to North America from the UK to enlist U. S. and Canadian shipbuilders to construct merchant ships. As all existing U. S. shipyards capable to constructing ocean-going merchant ships were occupied by either work of building ships for the U. S. Navy or for the U. S. S. Ship repairer Todd Shipyards which had its headquarters in New York City in league with the shipbuilder Bath Iron Works located in Bath and that yard was to be called the Todd-California Shipbuilding Corp. It was slated to be built on the flats of Richmond on the east side of the Bay. Kaiser, who headed the Kaiser Companies, and John A. McCone, contracts for both yards and the ships was signed on December 20,1940. The first of these vessels, the SS Ocean Vanguard was launched at the Todd-California yard on October 15,1941, immediately the Commission authorized that the two yards building for the British build ships for the U. S. upon completion of their current contracts. S. In this first wave of seven additional yards were added to those in Maine and California. One of the new yards planned for construction was to be in Baltimore and that facility became known as the Bethlehem-Fairfield shipyard for the Fairfield section of Baltimore where it was located. On the West Coast it had yards in San Pedro and San Francisco and that yard was to be called the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company. On the West Coast, one yard was contracted to be built in Los Angeles at Terminal Island and that yard would be called the California Shipbuilding Corporation or CalShip for short. The Kaiser Corporation itself received a contract to build a new yard on the Columbia River at Portland, in 1941, the manufacturers of steam turbines in the U. S. With that, the Liberty ship was adopted as the emergency type to be built. As 1941 progressed, the construction of the emergency yards accelerated rapidly, the ships ordered this second wave included 112 emergency type, the remainder were standard type vessels and tankers. After this time the original Kaiser yard became known as Richmond #1, after the May 27 Declaration of Unlimited National Emergency by the President, the Emergency Program was further expanded in a third wave. To accommodate the addition of ships to be built, additional ways were added to the yards in the program. In total this increase raised the output of all merchant shipbuilders to approximately 500 ships for 1942 and 700 ships in 1943
22.
Livestock
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Livestock are domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber, and labor. The term is used to refer solely to those raised for food. In recent years, some organizations have also raised livestock to promote the survival of rare breeds, animal husbandry practices have varied widely across cultures and time periods. Originally, livestock were not confined by fences or enclosures, but these practices have largely shifted to intensive animal farming and these practices increase yield of the various commercial outputs, but have led to increased concerns about animal welfare and environmental impact. Livestock production continues to play an economic and cultural role in numerous rural communities. Livestock as a word was first used between 1650 and 1660, as a merger between the live and stock. Older English sources, such as the King James Version of the Bible, the word cattle is derived from Old North French catel, which meant all kinds of movable personal property, including livestock, which was differentiated from immovable real estate. In later English, sometimes smaller livestock such as chickens and pigs were referred to as small cattle, today, the modern meaning of cattle, without a modifier, usually refers to domesticated bovines, but sometimes livestock refers only to this subgroup. Legal definition United States federal legislation sometimes more narrowly defines the term to make specified agricultural commodities either eligible or ineligible for a program or activity, for example, the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999 defines livestock only as cattle, swine, and sheep. Animal-rearing originated during the transition to settled farming communities from hunter-gatherer lifestyles. Animals are domesticated when their breeding and living conditions are controlled by humans, over time, the collective behaviour, lifecycle and physiology of livestock have changed radically. Many modern farm animals are unsuited to life in the wild, dogs were domesticated in East Asia about 15,000 years ago. Goats and sheep were domesticated around 8000 BC in Asia, swine or pigs were domesticated by 7000 BC in the Middle East and China. The earliest evidence of horse domestication dates to around 4000 BC, the term livestock is nebulous and may be defined narrowly or broadly. Broadly, livestock refers to any breed or population of animal kept by humans for a useful and this can mean domestic animals, semidomestic animals, or captive wild animals. Semidomesticated refers to animals which are only lightly domesticated or of disputed status and these populations may also be in the process of domestication. Some people may use the term livestock to refer to only used for red meat. Livestock are used by humans for a variety of purposes, many of which have an economic value, Livestock products include, Meat A useful form of dietary protein and energy, meat is the edible tissue of the animal carcass
23.
Church of the Brethren
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The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination with origins in the Schwarzenau Brethren that was organized in 1708 by Alexander Mack in Schwarzenau, Germany. The Brethren movement began as a melding of Radical Pietist and Anabaptist ideas during the Protestant Reformation, the first of its churches in the United States was established in 1723. These church bodies became known as Dunkards, and more formally as German Baptist Brethren. The denomination holds the New Testament as its only creed, historically, the church has taken a strong stance for nonresistance or pacifism—it is one of the three historic peace churches, alongside the Mennonites and Quakers. Distinctive practices include believers baptism by immersion, a threefold love feast consisting of feet washing, a fellowship meal, and communion, anointing for healing. The Church of the Brethren represents the largest body descending from Macks Schwarzenau Brethren church, the church had 122,810 members as of June 2010 and 1,047 congregations in the United States and Puerto Rico as of August 2010. Six liberal arts colleges and one seminary are related to the Church of the Brethren, general offices and the Brethren Press are located in Elgin, Illinois. In 1948, the Church of the Brethren joined the World Council of Churches as a member and was a forming member of the National Council of Churches in 1950. Five men and three women gathered at the Eder, a river that flows through Schwarzenau, to perforrm baptism as an outward symbol of their new faith. One of the members of the group first baptized Mack, who then, in turn and these eight Christians referred to themselves as the New Baptists. The name alluded to the use of the name Täufer by the Mennonites, the denomination reorganized in America and founded its first American congregation on Christmas Day 1723 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, then a village outside Philadelphia. They became known as German Baptists, in 1871, the denomination adopted the name, The German Baptist Brethren Church. Until the early 20th century, Brethren were colloquially called Tunkers or Dunkers, in 1728, Conrad Beissel, a Brethren minister at Conestoga renounced his association with the Brethren and formed his own group in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. They came to be known as the Ephrata Cloister, Beissel practiced a mystical form of Christianity. He encouraged celibacy and a vegetarian diet, after the Beissel split, the Brethren split several times because of doctrinal differences. The most conservative members emphasized consistency, obedience, and the order of the Brethren and they opposed the use of musical instruments, Sunday schools, and worldly amusements. They promoted plain dress, simple living, and church discipline, the progressives in the church focused on grace and acceptance. They promoted higher education, salaried ministers, Sunday schools, the majority of Brethren held a position between the two extremes
24.
Cowboy
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A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of special significance. A subtype, called a wrangler, specifically tends the horses used to work cattle, in addition to ranch work, some cowboys work for or participate in rodeos. There are also cattle handlers in many parts of the world, particularly South America and Australia. The cowboy has deep historic roots tracing back to Spain and the earliest European settlers of the Americas, over the centuries, differences in terrain, climate and the influence of cattle-handling traditions from multiple cultures created several distinct styles of equipment, clothing and animal handling. As the ever-practical cowboy adapted to the world, the cowboys equipment and techniques also adapted to some degree. The English word cowboy has an origin from several earlier terms that referred to both age and to cattle or cattle-tending work, the word cowboy appeared in the English language by 1725. It appears to be a direct English translation of vaquero, a Spanish word for an individual who managed cattle while mounted on horseback and it was derived from vaca, meaning cow, which came from the Latin word vacca. Another English word for a cowboy, buckaroo, is an anglicization of vaquero, originally, the term may have been intended literally—a boy who tends cows. By 1849 it had developed its sense as an adult cattle handler of the American West. Variations on the word cowboy appeared later, cowhand appeared in 1852, and cowpoke in 1881, originally restricted to the individuals who prodded cattle with long poles to load them onto railroad cars for shipping. Names for a cowboy in American English include buckaroo, cowpoke, cowhand, the word cowboy also had English language roots beyond simply being a translation from Spanish. Originally, the English word cowherd was used to describe a cattle herder, and often referred to a preadolescent or early adolescent boy and this word is very old in the English language, originating prior to the year 1000. In antiquity, herding of sheep, cattle and goats was often the job of minors, on western ranches today, the working cowboy is usually an adult. Responsibility for herding cattle or other livestock is no longer considered a job suitable for children or early adolescents. However, both boys and girls growing up in a ranch environment often learn to ride horses and perform basic ranch skills as soon as they are physically able, such youths, by their late teens, are often given responsibilities for cowboy work on the ranch. The term cowboy was used during the American Revolution to describe American fighters who opposed the movement for independence, in the same period, a number of guerilla bands operated in Westchester County, which marked the dividing line between the British and American forces. These groups were made up of local farmhands who would ambush convoys, there were two separate groups, the skinners fought for the pro-independence side, the cowboys supported the British
25.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
26.
James River
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The James River is a river in the U. S. state of Virginia. It is 348 miles long, extending to 444 miles if one includes the Jackson River, the James River drains a catchment comprising 10,432 square miles. The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million people and it is the 12th longest river in the United States that remains entirely within a single state. Tidal waters extend west to Richmond, the capital of Virginia, larger tributaries draining to the tidal portion include the Appomattox River, Chickahominy River, Warwick River, Pagan River, and the Nansemond River. At its mouth near Newport News Point, the Elizabeth River, many boats pass through this river to import and export Virginia products. The navigable portion of the river was the highway of the Colony of Virginia during its first 15 years, facilitating supply ships delivering supplies. However, for the first five years, despite many hopes of gold and riches, in 1612, businessman John Rolfe successfully cultivated a non-native strain of tobacco which proved popular in England. Soon, the became the primary means of exporting the large hogsheads of this cash crop from an ever-growing number of plantations with wharfs along its banks. This development made the efforts of the Virginia Company of London successful financially, spurring even more development, investments. The upper reaches of the river above the head of navigation at the line were explored by fur trading parties sent by Abraham Wood during the late 17th century. Although ocean-going ships were unable to navigate beyond present-day Richmond, portage of products, produce from the Piedmont and Great Valley regions traveled down the river to seaports at Richmond and Manchester through such port towns as Lynchburg, Scottsville, Columbia and Buchanan. The James River was considered as a route for transport of produce from the Ohio Valley, the James River and Kanawha Canal was built for this purpose, to provide a navigable portion of the Kanawha River, a tributary of the Ohio River. For the most mountainous section between the two points, the James River and Kanawha Turnpike was built to provide a link via wagons. However, before the canal could be completed, in the mid-19th century, railroads emerged as a more practical technology. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was completed between Richmond and the Ohio River at the new city of Huntington, West Virginia by 1873, dooming the canals economic prospects. In the 1880s, the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad was laid along the portion of the canals towpath. In modern times, this line is used primarily in transporting West Virginia coal to export coal piers at Newport News. The James River contains numerous parks and other recreational attractions, canoeing, fishing, kayaking, hiking, and swimming are some of the activities that people enjoy along the river during the summer
27.
National Defense Reserve Fleet
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The NDRF is managed by the U. S. Department of Transportations Maritime Administration. It is a different entity from the United States Navy reserve fleets, NDRF vessels are at the fleet sites at James River, Virginia–the James River Reserve Fleet, Beaumont, Texas–the Beaumont Reserve Fleet, and Suisun Bay, California, and at designated outported berths. Former anchorage sites included Stony Point, New York - the Hudson River Reserve Fleet, Wilmington, North Carolina, Mobile, Alabama, Astoria, Oregon, and Olympia, Washington. Through the 2010s, the oldest, most decrepit hulls at Suisun Bay will be stripped of materials, then broken up in Texas. Twenty of the most polluting mothball ships are slated for recycling by 2012, at its peak in 1950, the NDRF had 2,277 ships in lay-up. In July 2007, it held 230 ships, primarily dry cargo ships with some tankers, military auxiliaries, by the end of August,2015, it held 100. The NDRF was established under Section 11 of the Merchant Ship Sales Act of 1946 to serve as a reserve of ships for national defense, NDRF vessels were used in seven wars and crises. During the Korean War,540 vessels were out to move military forces. During a worldwide tonnage shortfall in 1951–53, more than 600 ships were reactivated to carry coal to Northern Europe, from 1955 through 1964, another 600 ships were used to store grain for the Department of Agriculture. Another 223 cargo ships and 29 tankers were activated during a tonnage shortfall after the Suez Canal was closed in 1956, during the Berlin crisis of 1961,18 vessels were activated and remained in service until 1970. Another 172 vessels were activated for the Vietnam War and these are crewed with a reduced crew but kept available for activation within four, five, ten or twenty days. An additional 28 ships are held under United States Maritime Administration custody for other Government agencies on a cost-reimbursable basis. Vessels with military utility or logistic value are held in status and are in a preservation program that is designed to keep them in the same condition as when they enter the fleet. The internal spaces are dehumidified to slow the corrosion of metal, DC power is distributed through anodes to the exterior underwater portions of the hull, creating an electric field that suppresses corrosion and preserves the surface of the hull. External painting and other work is generally deferred since it does not affect the ability to activate and operate the vessel. MARAD is authorized as the government’s disposal agent through the NDRF program for merchant type vessels equal to or greater than 1,500 gross tons. A state agency can file an application to request title to a vessel as-is where-is from the NDRF for the purpose of creating an artificial reef, of the 132 non-retention vessels in the NDRF, there are 117 that are being prepared for disposal. The NDRF program can give and lend historic artifacts to maritime-heritage organizations, battleships, cruisers, and aircraft carriers which have been stricken or those awaiting final disposition may be transferred to MARAD locations for berthing
28.
Naval Oceanographic Office
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The Naval Oceanographic Office, located at John C. In 1830, the U. S. Navy established the Depot of Charts and Instruments maintain a supply of navigational instruments and nautical charts for issue to naval vessels. It soon became apparent that the Depot would be unable to obtain and maintain a supply of the latest data unless it undertook production of charts from its own surveys. In 1837, the first survey sponsored by the Depot and led by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes resulted in four engraved charts published for use by the U. S. Navy, Lieutenant Wilkes continued his surveying and gained fame as leader of the U. S. The expedition ranged over the eastern Atlantic to Antarctica, the coasts of both Americas, and far into the west and southwest Pacific. It began the U. S. collection of magnetic data and contributed substantially to hydrographic. During the succeeding five years,87 similar charts were published and issued from the results of surveys by Wilkes and these individual surveys, however, were limited in scope, the Depot needed a way to gather information quickly on a worldwide basis. Naval officer Matthew Fontaine Maury, who known as The Pathfinder of the Seas. Commander Maury, who held the position of Hydrographer of the Navy from 1842-1861, is credited with founding the science of oceanography and his system for collecting and using oceanographic data revolutionized navigation of the seas. Maury assumed command of the Navys Depot of Charts and Instruments in 1842, possessing an active, scientific mind, he immediately recognized possibilities for expanding the services of the Depot. He suggested that, if all shipmasters would submit reports of their experiences to a central agency and this idea became the basic formula of hydrographic offices throughout the world, making Maurys contributions a milestone in naval oceanography. Within five years,26 million reports poured into the Depot, in 1854, the agency was given the official name of The U. S. Naval Observatory and Hydrographical Office. In 1866, an Act of Congress separated the two functions, establishing the Hydrographic Office as a distinct activity. By this time the Offices mission had expanded to include the carrying out of surveys, the collection of information, the Office continued to grow throughout the nineteenth century. By the turn of the century, pleasure cruises had become a form of vacationing. The collision of the Titanic with an iceberg in 1912 prompted the Hydrographic Office to urge that an ice patrol be established to document sea-ice hazards to prevent such disasters. Because features and conditions of the oceans are constantly changing, surveying, charting and mapping must be continuous processes. Experiences during World War I showed the need for greater accuracy for oceanographic data, aerial photography was used for the first time that year
29.
USNS Dutton (T-AGS-22)
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USNS Dutton was an oceanographic survey ship for the United States Navy from the late 1950s through the 1980s. She was launched as SS Tuskegee Victory in 1945, Maritime Commission hull number MCV682, in her U. S. Navy service, she was named after Captain Benjamin Dutton, Jr. and was the second U. S. Navy ship named in his honor. SS Tuskegee Victory was a Victory ship laid down on 16 February 1945, after seven years of commercial service, she was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet in 1952. USNS Dutton T-AGS-22 was placed in service on 1 November 1958 and assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service, manned by a civilian crew. Dutton was operated by the U. S. Naval Oceanographic Office for the U. S. Navy Office of Special Projects in support of the U. S. Navy Fleet Ballistic Missile Program. Three ships were converted for this purpose, Dutton, and identical sister ships, Bowditch, Dutton participated in the recovery effort of the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash from January through April 1966. Attached aboard Dutton was a U. S. Navy Oceanographic Detachment, may 1966 to an Oceanographic Unit, of approximately 3 officers and 22 enlisted personnel, mostly technicians. Dutton was taken out of service ca, the entry can be found here. This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, the entry can be found here. Navsource Memorial web site for USNS Bowditch, USNS Dutton and USNS Michelson Melson, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Memorial web site for USNS Bowditch, USNS Dutton and USNS Michelson Navy Survey Ship Designator Listing
30.
Kaohsiung
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Kaohsiung City is a special municipality in Taiwan. It is a city with sufficiency as categorized by Globalization. The Kaohsiung International Airport is the second largest airport in Taiwan, the Port of Kaohsiung is the largest harbor in Taiwan, but not officially part of Kaohsiung City. The southern terminal of the Freeway 1 is in Kaohsiung, for north-south travel on railway, the city is served by the Taiwan Railways Administration stations of TRA Western Line and Pingtung Line. The Taiwan High Speed Rail also provides fast and frequent railway connection to Taipei, the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit, the citys subway system, was launched in early 2008. Kaohsiung was the host city of the World Games 2009, a multi-sport event primarily composed of sports not featured in the Olympic Games, the city is also home to the Republic of China Navy fleet headquarters and academy. Hoklo immigrants to the area during the 16th and 17th centuries called it Takau, the surface meaning of the associated Chinese characters was beat the dog. According to one theory, the name Takau originates from the aboriginal Siraya language, according to another theory, the name evolved via metathesis from the name of the Makatao tribe, who inhabited the area at the time of European and Hoklo settlement. On a linguistic basis, the Makatao are considered to have part of a greater Siraya tribe. During the Dutch colonization of southern Taiwan, the area was known as Tancoia to the world for a period of about three decades. In 1662, the Dutch were expelled by the Kingdom of Tungning government and his son, Zheng Jing, renamed the village Banlian-chiu in 1664. The name of Takau was restored in the late 1670s, when the town expanded dramatically with immigrants from mainland China, in his 1903 general history of Taiwan, US Consul to Formosa James W. Davidson relates that Takow was already a well-known name in English. However, in 1920, the name was changed to Takao, while the new name had quite a different surface meaning, its pronunciation in Japanese sounded more or less the same as the old name spoken in Hokkien. After Taiwan was handed to the Republic of China, the name did not change, the name Takau remains the official name of the city in Austronesian languages of Taiwan such as Rukai, although these are not widely spoken in the city. The name also remains popular locally in the naming of businesses, associations, the written history of Kaohsiung can be traced back to the early 17th century, through archeological studies have found signs of human activity in the region from as long as 7000 years ago. Dutch settlers colonizing Taiwan in 1624 referred to the region as Tankoya, the first Chinese records of the region were written in 1603 by Chen Di, a member of Ming admiral Shen You-rongs expedition to rid the waters around Taiwan and Penghu of pirates. The earliest evidence of activity in the Kaohsiung area dates back to roughly 4700–5200 years ago. The prehistoric Dapenkeng, Niuchouzi, Dahu, and Niaosong civilizations were known to inhabit the region, unlike some other archeological sites in the area, the Longquan Temple ruins are relatively well preserved
31.
Babcock & Wilcox
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Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises is an American power generation company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company was founded in 1867 in Providence, Rhode Island by partners Stephen Wilcox and George Babcock as Babcock, Wilcox & Company to manufacture, built nuclear-powered surface ship, NS Savannah. B&Ws boilers supply more than 300,000 megawatts of installed capacity in over 90 countries around the world, a reactor from B&W was destroyed by a nuclear meltdown in the Three Mile Island accident. During World War II, over half of the US Navy fleet was powered by Babcock & Wilcox boilers, the company has its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. B&W also has joint major joint venture companies in Beijing and the Indian city of Pune, on June 30,2015, Babcock & Wilcox completed a spinoff from BWX Technologies, its former parent which is now headquartered in Lynchburg, Virginia. The two companies began trading separately on July 1, B&W employs approximately 5,700 people, in addition to several thousand joint venture employees. B&W PGG and its subsidiaries have facilities in Ohio, Wisconsin, Arona, Italy, Beijing, China, Esbjerg, Denmark, Babcock & Wilcox MEGTEC LLC B&W SPIG Diamond Power International, Inc. The boilers more safely generated higher pressure steam and was more efficient than existing designs, in 1891, Babcock & Wilcox Ltd is established as a separate United Kingdom company, to be responsible for all sales outside the US and Cuba. In 1902 the New York Citys first subway is powered by B&W boilers, during 1907 and 1909 Theodore Roosevelts Great White Fleet were powered by B&W Boilers. In 1929 B&W installs the worlds first commercial size recovery boiler using the magnesium bisulfite process in Quebec, between 1941 and 1945 B&W designed and delivered 4,100 marine boilers for combat and merchant ships, including 95 percent of the US fleet in Tokyo Bay at Japanese surrender. In 1942, the developed the cyclone furnace. Between 1943 and 1945 B&W provided components, materials and process development for Manhattan Project, between 1949 and 1952 B&W provided the 8 boilers for the SS United States, the fastest ocean liner ever constructed. Between 1953 and 1955 B&W designed and fabricated components for USS Nautilus, in 1961 B&W designed and supplied reactors for world’s first commercial nuclear ship NS Savannah. In 1962 B&W designed and furnished reactor systems for B&Ws first commercial reactor, Indian Point, in 1975 B&W designed and built components for liquid metal fast breeder reactors. In 1975 the long term agreements with the British Babcock & Wilcox Ltd were ended. Subsequently, the British company was renamed Babcock International Group plc, in 1978 B&W designed and built the nuclear reactor that was involved in the Three Mile Island accident. In 1999 B&W was awarded the contract to develop fuel cells, on February 22,2000, B&W filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in part as a result of thousands of claims for personal injury due to prolonged exposure to asbestos and asbestos fibers. Claims included asbestosis, lung cancer, pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, as a condition of emerging from bankruptcy, B&W created a trust fund to compensate victims, but for amounts far less than settlements paid in individual personal injury lawsuits
32.
Public domain
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The term public domain has two senses of meaning. Anything published is out in the domain in the sense that it is available to the public. Once published, news and information in books is in the public domain, in the sense of intellectual property, works in the public domain are those whose exclusive intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable. Examples for works not covered by copyright which are therefore in the domain, are the formulae of Newtonian physics, cooking recipes. Examples for works actively dedicated into public domain by their authors are reference implementations of algorithms, NIHs ImageJ. The term is not normally applied to situations where the creator of a work retains residual rights, as rights are country-based and vary, a work may be subject to rights in one country and be in the public domain in another. Some rights depend on registrations on a basis, and the absence of registration in a particular country, if required. Although the term public domain did not come into use until the mid-18th century, the Romans had a large proprietary rights system where they defined many things that cannot be privately owned as res nullius, res communes, res publicae and res universitatis. The term res nullius was defined as not yet appropriated. The term res communes was defined as things that could be enjoyed by mankind, such as air, sunlight. The term res publicae referred to things that were shared by all citizens, when the first early copyright law was first established in Britain with the Statute of Anne in 1710, public domain did not appear. However, similar concepts were developed by British and French jurists in the eighteenth century, instead of public domain they used terms such as publici juris or propriété publique to describe works that were not covered by copyright law. The phrase fall in the domain can be traced to mid-nineteenth century France to describe the end of copyright term. In this historical context Paul Torremans describes copyright as a coral reef of private right jutting up from the ocean of the public domain. Because copyright law is different from country to country, Pamela Samuelson has described the public domain as being different sizes at different times in different countries. According to James Boyle this definition underlines common usage of the public domain and equates the public domain to public property. However, the usage of the public domain can be more granular. Such a definition regards work in copyright as private property subject to fair use rights, the materials that compose our cultural heritage must be free for all living to use no less than matter necessary for biological survival
33.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
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The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships is the official reference work for the basic facts about ships used by the United States Navy. When the writing project was developed the parameters for this series were designed to cover only commissioned US Navy ships with assigned names, if the ship was not assigned a name it was not included in the histories written for the series. In addition to the entries, DANFS and the online links have been expanded to include appendices on small craft, histories of Confederate Navy ships. DANFS was published in print by the Naval Historical Center as bound volumes, ordered by ship name. Several volumes subsequently went out of print, in 1991 a revised Volume I Part A, covering only ship names beginning with A, was released. Work continues on revisions of the remaining volumes, volunteers at the Hazegray website undertook to transcribe the DANFS and make it available on the World Wide Web. The project goal is a transcription of the DANFS, with changes limited to correcting typographical errors. In 2008 the NHC was re-designated as the Naval History and Heritage Command and it has developed an online version of DANFS through a combination of optical character recognition and hand transcription. The NHHC is slowly updating its online DANFS to correct errors, the NHHC has begun a related project to place Ship History and Command Operations Reports online at their DANFS site. As the DANFS is a work of the U. S. government, its content is in the domain. Many websites organized by former and active members of U. S. Navy vessels include a copy of their ships DANFS entries. The Dictionary limits itself largely to basic descriptions and brief operational notes, and includes almost no analysis or historical context
34.
USS Prevail (AGS-20)
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USS Prevail was an Auk-class minesweeper acquired by the United States Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing. Prevail, a minesweeper, was named after the word prevail. Prevail was laid down by Pennsylvania Shipyards Inc, beaumont, Texas,15 November 1941, launched 13 September 1942, sponsored by Mrs. T. B. Moran, and commissioned 17 April 1943, Comdr, a. V. Wallis, USNR, in command. After training at Key West, Florida, Prevail spent several months on duty with convoys between the U. S. Beginning 8 September, she took part in the main sweeps off Salerno, in April 1944, Prevail resumed operations off Anzio and Naples. On 17 August she departed Naples as part of the force for the invasion of southern France, between 18–23 August she acted as control ship for sweeping operations at Cavalaire-sur-Mer, France, the first step in opening the port of Marseille. Miscellaneous assignments along the southern coast of France followed and in November she was ordered to the United States, arriving at Norfolk, Virginia,11 December, Prevail was reassigned to the Pacific Fleet and got underway from Norfolk, Virginia 15 February 1945. Arriving Okinawa on 23 May, she engaged in patrols off Kerama Retto under almost constant attack by Japanese kamikaze aircraft. Then in July she conducted minesweeping operations off Okinawa and south toward Formosa, from 20 November to 23 December, she assisted in the operations to clear the merchant sea lanes of the East China Sea and supported SAR operations among the islands off Formosa. New Years Day 1946 found Prevail on the Whangpoo River at Shanghai, China, transferred to the San Diego Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet on 9 April, Prevail decommissioned 31 May 1946. Prevail recommissioned 1 April 1952, was reclassified as USS Prevail, reporting in late August to Commander, Hydrographic Survey Group 1, in October, she undertook her first surveying assignment in the Cape Hatteras area. From 1953 to 1956 she conducted survey and cable laying operations in the Caribbean, along the Southern and Eastern coasts of the United States north to Nova Scotia, during 1957 Prevail operated along the Newfoundland and Labrador Coast and briefly in the Bahama Islands. On 7 February 1958 she departed for the Mediterranean, returning 9 May, from 19 May to 27 July 1959, Prevail conducted sounding surveys in the western Mediterranean, then moved to the eastern Mediterranean. After returning home 10 September, she spent the four years conducting surveys in the Caribbean, off Bermuda. After decommissioning, Prevail was struck from the Navy List on 10 January 1964 and sold to Union Minerals, New York City,13 October 1964. Prevail earned 6 battle stars for World War II service and this article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here, photo gallery of USS Prevail at NavSource Naval History Ships of the U. S. Navy, 1940-1945 AM-107 USS Prevail uboat. net - Minesweeper USS Prevail of the Auk class
35.
USS Serrano (ATF-112)
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USS Serrano was an Abnaki-class tug of the United States Navy. She was laid down on 6 March 1943 by the United Engineering Co, alameda, California, United States, and launched on 24 July 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Sidney E. Fraser. Serrano was commissioned on 22 September 1944, Lt. Comdr, after six years of service, Serrano was decommissioned in 1950. After spending ten years in reserve, she was reactivated, converted to a surveying ship and she served in that role until 1970. Completing her shakedown in November, Serrano took three barges in tow at Port Hueneme and sailed for Hawaii, arriving at Pearl Harbor on 17 December and she reported to Service Squadron 10 the same day and, on the 23d, joined a westbound convoy. By the end of January 1945, she had delivered yard craft to Eniwetok, in early February, she moved on to the Palaus and, at mid-month, arrived in San Pedro Bay, Leyte, P. I. with an ARD and a YF in tow. On the 20th, she got underway for the Admiralties and, for over two months, she continued oceanic towing operations, ranging from the Philippines to the Marianas. From mid-May to mid-June, she provided services in the Ulithi area, then, on the 16th. Serrano arrived in Buckner Bay and joined ServRon 12 on 28 June and she then returned to Okinawa for further occupation duty. On 25 September, the tug joined Amphibious Group 8 at Wakayama. After three weeks of various duties, including cargo carrying operations, she commenced docking and undocking duties at Nagoya, in early December, she interrupted that work to support the mine detection force then clearing the waters of Ise Wan. At mid-month, she returned to Nagoya, Serrano remained in the Far East, providing tug, rescue, salvage, and fire fighting services in Japanese, Chinese, Philippine, and Okinawan waters, into the summer of 1946. In August, she headed east and, after delivering tows to Guam and Pearl Harbor, retained on the active list through the 1940s, Serrano operated in the Trust Territories during 1947. In 1948, she returned to the eastern Pacific and, into the summer of 1949, operated in the Hawaiian Islands and she then moved north for operations in the Aleutians before returning to California in February 1950 for inactivation. On 31 May, Serrano was decommissioned and berthed with the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Francisco, in 1951, Serrano was towed to San Diego where she remained until ordered activated and converted for hydrographic survey and oceanographic research work in 1960. With the designation AGS-24, she was recommissioned on 30 June 1960, on 1 November, in company with USS Maury, Serrano continued west to conduct a cable survey as far as Guam. From the Marianas, she proceeded via the Philippines into the Gulf of Siam for hydrographic and oceanographic operations, with few interruptions, she continued surveys and collected data from Nansen casts, core and bottom samplings, and bath thermo-graphic observations in the gulf into late March 1961. She then moved into the Strait of Malacca for further oceanographic work, in early May, she underwent availability in the Philippines, and, at mid-month, she sailed for Hawaii
