1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
2.
Henry T. Mayo
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Henry Thomas Mayo was an admiral of the United States Navy. Mayo was born in Burlington, Vermont,8 December 1856, upon graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1876 he experienced a variety of naval duties including coastal survey. During the Spanish–American War he served in the gunboat Bennington off the west coast of North America, about 1909 he was in command of the cruiser USS Albany as she cruised in Central American waters protecting United States citizens and interests as part of the Special Service Squadron. Appointed rear admiral in 1913, he commanded the squadron involved in the Tampico incident of 9 April 1914. His demands for vindication of national honor further accentuated the tense relations with Mexico, promoted to vice admiral in June 1915, as the new Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet, he received the rank of admiral 19 June 1916. For his organization and support of World War I U. S. Naval Forces both in American and European waters, he was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal and various foreign decorations and he evidenced foresight in urging the postwar development of fleet aviation. Admiral Mayo retired 28 February 1921, and, for four years and he retained his commission as an admiral by a 1930 Act of Congress. He died at Portsmouth, New Hampshire,23 February 1937, Distinguished Service Medal Navy Expeditionary Medal Spanish Campaign Medal Victory Medal In 1940, the destroyer USS Mayo was named in his honor. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
3.
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
4.
P2 transport
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The P2 transport was a United States Maritime Commission design for a passenger ship which could be readily converted into a troop transport. Three variants of the design were built, the P2-SE2-R1, P2-S2-R2, ten P2-SE2-R1 ships were ordered by the Maritime Commission in World War II. The ships were laid down by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation in Alameda, the intended use of these ships after the War was for trans-Pacific service. As ordered, the ships were all named after U. S. Navy admirals, only eight ships were completed as troop transports for the U. S. Navy, with the last two ships canceled on 16 December 1944. Despite being canceled, the last two ships were completed after the war to the P2-SE2-R3 design as civilian ships, in 1946 the ships were all decommissioned by the Navy, and transferred back to the Maritime Commission, and from there to the United States Army. The Army operated them with crews as part of the Army Transport Service. In 1950 the ships were transferred back the Navy, but not recommissioned, instead they were assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service and still manned by a civil service crew, and keeping the name the Army had given them. Eleven P2-S2-R2 ships were ordered by the Maritime Commission in World War II, the ships were laid down by Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Kearny, New Jersey. The intended use of ships after the War was for South American service. As ordered, the ships were all named after United States Army generals, unlike the Admirals, the Generals did not have a relatively uniform life after World War II. Three were transferred to the Army as the Admirals had been, of one was disposed of by the Army. As noted above, the last two Admirals were canceled in 1944 while under construction and they were completed to the P2-SE2-R3 design and operated by American President Lines as the SS President Cleveland and the SS President Wilson. The President Wilson was later renamed SS Oriental Empress when sold to C. Y, United States Maritime Commission P-Type Passenger Ships The Ships List, American President Lines
5.
Turbo-electric transmission
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Turbo-electric drives are used in some rail locomotives and ships. An advantage of turbo-electric transmission is that it allows the adaptation of high-speed turning turbines to the slowly turning propellers or wheels without the need of a heavy and complex gearbox. It also has the advantage of being able to provide electricity for the ship or trains other electrical systems, such as lighting, computers, radar, the Paddle Wheel to Electric Drive. — detailed article with drawing and charts on turbo-electric drive for ships and the advantages
6.
Propeller
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A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the blade, and a fluid is accelerated behind the blade. Their disadvantages are higher mechanical complexity and higher cost, the principle employed in using a screw propeller is used in sculling. It is part of the skill of propelling a Venetian gondola but was used in a less refined way in parts of Europe. For example, propelling a canoe with a paddle using a pitch stroke or side slipping a canoe with a scull involves a similar technique. In China, sculling, called lu, was used by the 3rd century AD. In sculling, a blade is moved through an arc. The innovation introduced with the propeller was the extension of that arc through more than 360° by attaching the blade to a rotating shaft. Propellers can have a blade, but in practice there are nearly always more than one so as to balance the forces involved. The origin of the screw propeller starts with Archimedes, who used a screw to lift water for irrigation and bailing boats and it was probably an application of spiral movement in space to a hollow segmented water-wheel used for irrigation by Egyptians for centuries. Leonardo da Vinci adopted the principle to drive his theoretical helicopter, in 1784, J. P. Paucton proposed a gyrocopter-like aircraft using similar screws for both lift and propulsion. At about the time, James Watt proposed using screws to propel boats. This was not his own invention, though, Toogood and Hays had patented it a century earlier, by 1827, Czech-Austrian inventor Josef Ressel had invented a screw propeller which had multiple blades fastened around a conical base. He had tested his propeller in February 1826 on a ship that was manually driven. He was successful in using his bronze screw propeller on an adapted steamboat and his ship Civetta with 48 gross register tons, reached a speed of about six knots. This was the first ship successfully driven by an Archimedes screw-type propeller, after a new steam engine had an accident his experiments were banned by the Austro-Hungarian police as dangerous. Josef Ressel was at the time a forestry inspector for the Austrian Empire, but before this he received an Austro-Hungarian patent for his propeller. This new method of propulsion was an improvement over the paddlewheel as it was not so affected by either ship motions or changes in draft as the burned coal
7.
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
8.
Operation Magic Carpet
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Hundreds of Liberty ships, Victory ships, and troop transports began repatriating soldiers from Europe in June 1945. Beginning in October 1945, over 370 navy ships were used for duties in the Pacific. Warships, such as carriers, battleships, hospital ships. The European phase of Operation Magic Carpet concluded in February 1946 while the Pacific phase continued until September 1946, as early as mid-1943, the United States Army had recognized that, once victory was won, bringing the troops home would be a priority. More than 16 million Americans were in uniform, and more than eight million of them were scattered across all theaters of war worldwide, Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall established committees to address the logistical problem. Eventually organization of the operation was given to the War Shipping Administration, eligibility for repatriation was determined by the Advanced Service Rating Score. The Navy was excluded from the initial European sealift, as the Pacific War was far from over, the WSA ordered the immediate conversion of 300 Liberty and Victory cargo ships into transports. Adequate port and docking facilities were also serious considerations along with the necessary to take the veterans to demobilization camps after they reached Americas shores. The first homeward-bound ships left Europe in late June 1945, and by November, in mid-October 1945 the United States Navy donated the newly commissioned carrier USS Lake Champlain – fitted with bunks for 3,300 troops – to the operation. She was joined in November by the battleship USS Washington, the European lift now included more than 400 vessels. Some would carry as few as 300 while the large liners often squeezed 15,000 aboard, the WSA and the army also converted 29 troopships into special carriers for war brides, for the almost half a million European women who had married American servicemen. The Magic Carpet fleet also included 48 hospital ships, these more than half a million wounded. Nor was this a one-way stream, returned to Europe were more than 450,000 German prisoners of war, in addition to 53,000 Italian ex-POWs. Between May and September 1945,1,417,850 were repatriated, between October 1945 to April 1946, another 3,323,395 were repatriated. By the end of February, the ETO phase of Magic Carpet was essentially completed, with the surrender of Japan, the navy also began bringing home sailors and marines. Stopping at Okinawa, they embarked thousands more Tenth United States Army troops, the navy fleet of 369 ships included 222 assault transports,6 battleships,18 cruisers,57 aircraft carriers and 12 hospital ships. By October 1945, Magic Carpet was operating worldwide with the Army, Navy, december 1945 became the peak month with almost 700,000 returning home from the Pacific. With the final arrival of 29 troop transports carrying more than 200,000 soldiers and sailors from the China-Burma-India theater in April 1946, the last of the troops to return from the Pacific war zone arrived home in September 1946
9.
Alameda, California
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Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to and south of Oakland and east of San Francisco across the San Francisco Bay. Bay Farm Island, a portion of which is known as Harbor Bay Isle, is not actually an island. The citys estimated 2016 population was 79,277, Alameda is a charter city, rather than a general law city, allowing the city to provide for any form of government. Alameda became a city and adopted a council–manager government in 1916. The island Alameda occupies what was originally a peninsula connected to Oakland, much of it was low-lying and marshy, but on higher ground than the peninsula and adjacent parts of what is now downtown Oakland were home to one of the largest coastal oak forests in the world. The area was therefore called Encinal, Spanish for forest of evergreen oak, Alameda is Spanish for grove of poplar trees or tree-lined avenue, and was chosen in 1853 by popular vote. The inhabitants at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the late 18th century were a band of the Ohlone tribe. The peninsula became part of the vast Rancho San Antonio granted in 1820 to Luis Peralta by the Spanish king who claimed California, the grant was later confirmed by the new Republic of Mexico upon its independence from Spain. Over time, the became known as Bolsa de Encinal or Encinal de San Antonio. The city was founded on June 6,1853, and the town contained three small settlements. Eventually, the Central Pacifics ferry pier became the Alameda Mole, the first post office opened in 1854. The first school, Schmermerhorn School, was opened in 1855, the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad opened the Encinal station in 1864. The Encinal area was known as Fasskings Station in honor of Frederick Louis Fassking. Encinals own post office opened in 1876, was renamed West End in 1877, the West End area was originally called Bowmans Point in honor of Charles G. Bowman, an early settler. The Alameda Terminal was the site of the arrival of the first train via the First Transcontinental Railroad into the San Francisco Bay Area on September 6,1869, the transcontinental terminus was switched to the Oakland Mole two months later, on November 8,1869. The borders of Alameda were made coextensive with the island in 1872, mark Twain described Alameda as being The Garden of California. In 1917, an attraction called Neptune Beach was built in the now known as Crab Cove
United States
