1.
Bath Iron Works
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Bath Iron Works is a major American shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine. Since its founding in 1884, BIW has built private, commercial and military vessels, the shipyard has built and sometimes designed battleships, frigates, cruisers and destroyers, including the Arleigh Burke class, which are currently among the worlds most advanced surface warships. Since 1995, Bath Iron Works has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics, during World War II, ships built at BIW were considered by sailors and Navy officials to be of superior toughness, giving rise to the phrase Bath-built is best-built. Bath Iron Works was incorporated in 1884 by General Thomas W. Hyde, after the war, Hyde bought a local shop that helped make windlasses and other iron hardware for the wooden ships built in Baths many shipyards. He expanded the business by improving its practices, entering new markets, by 1882, Hyde Windlass was eyeing the new and growing business of iron shipbuilding, two years later, it incorporated as Bath Iron Works. On February 28,1890, BIW won its first contract for complete vessels, the Machias, one of these 190-foot gunboats, was the first ship launched by the company. In 1892, the yard won its first commercial contract for a steel vessel, in the 1890s, the company built several yachts for wealthy sailors. In 1899, General Hyde, suffering from the Brights Disease that would kill him later that year, resigned from management of the shipyard, leaving his sons Edward and that year the shipyard began construction of the Georgia, the only battleship to be built in Bath. The ship dominated the yard for five years until its launching in 1904, the yard faced numerous challenges because of the weight of armor and weapons. In sea trials, the Georgia averaged 19.26 knots for four hours, making her the fastest ship in her class, the company continued to rely on Navy contracts, which provided 86% of the value of new contracts between 1905 and 1917. The yard also produced fishing trawlers, freighters, and yachts throughout the first half of the century, at peak production during World War II, the shipyard launched a destroyer every 17 days. Bath Iron Works ranked 50th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts, in 1981, Falcon Transport ordered two tankers, the last commercial vessels built by BIW. In 1988, the USS Samuel B, Roberts, commissioned two years earlier at Bath, survived a mine explosion that tore a hole in its engine room and flooded two compartments. Over the next two years, BIW repaired the Roberts in unique fashion, the guided missile frigate was towed to the companys dry dock in Portland, Maine, and put up on blocks, where its damaged engine room was cut out of the ship. Meanwhile, workers in Bath built a 315-ton replacement, when it was ready, the module was floated south to Portland, placed on the dry dock, slid into place under the Roberts, jacked up, and welded into place. In 2001, BIW wrapped up an effort to build an enormous concrete platform. Instead of being built on a way so that they could slide into the Kennebec at launch. This greatly reduced the work involved in building and launching the ships, the 750-foot,28, 000-ton dry dock was built by Chinas Jiangdu Yuchai Shipbuilding Company for $27 million
2.
Destroyer
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Before World War II, destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for unattended ocean operations, typically a number of destroyers and a single destroyer tender operated together. After the war, the advent of the missile allowed destroyers to take on the surface combatant roles previously filled by battleships. This resulted in larger and more powerful guided missile destroyers more capable of independent operation, the emergence and development of the destroyer was related to the invention of the self-propelled torpedo in the 1860s. A navy now had the potential to destroy an enemy battle fleet using steam launches to launch torpedoes. Fast boats armed with torpedoes were built and called torpedo boats, the first seagoing vessel designed to fire the self-propelled Whitehead torpedo was the 33-ton HMS Lightning in 1876. She was armed with two drop collars to launch these weapons, these were replaced in 1879 by a torpedo tube in the bow. By the 1880s, the type had evolved into small ships of 50–100 tons, in response to this new threat, more heavily gunned picket boats called catchers were built which were used to escort the battle fleet at sea. The anti-torpedo boat origin of this type of ship is retained in its name in other languages, including French, Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Greek, Dutch and, up until the Second World War, Polish. At that time, and even into World War I, the function of destroyers was to protect their own battle fleet from enemy torpedo attacks. The task of escorting merchant convoys was still in the future, an important development came with the construction of HMS Swift in 1884, later redesignated TB81. This was a torpedo boat with four 47 mm quick-firing guns. At 23.75 knots, while still not fast enough to engage torpedo boats reliably. Another forerunner of the torpedo boat destroyer was the Japanese torpedo boat Kotaka, designed to Japanese specifications and ordered from the London Yarrow shipyards in 1885, she was transported in parts to Japan, where she was assembled and launched in 1887. The 165-foot long vessel was armed with four 1-pounder quick-firing guns and six torpedo tubes, reached 19 knots, in her trials in 1889, Kotaka demonstrated that she could exceed the role of coastal defense, and was capable of accompanying larger warships on the high seas. The Yarrow shipyards, builder of the parts for the Kotaka, the first vessel designed for the explicit purpose of hunting and destroying torpedo boats was the torpedo gunboat. Essentially very small cruisers, torpedo gunboats were equipped with torpedo tubes, by the end of the 1890s torpedo gunboats were made obsolete by their more successful contemporaries, the torpedo boat destroyers, which were much faster. The first example of this was HMS Rattlesnake, designed by Nathaniel Barnaby in 1885, the gunboat was armed with torpedoes and designed for hunting and destroying smaller torpedo boats. Exactly 200 feet long and 23 feet in beam, she displaced 550 tons, built of steel, Rattlesnake was un-armoured with the exception of a 3⁄4-inch protective deck
3.
General Electric
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General Electric, often abbreviated as GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in New York and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. In 2011, GE ranked among the Fortune 500 as the 68th-largest firm in the U. S. by gross revenue, as of 2012, the company was listed the fourth-largest in the world among the Forbes Global 2000, further metrics being taken into account. The Nobel Prize has twice been awarded to employees of General Electric, Irving Langmuir in 1932, on January 13,2016, it was announced that GE will be moving its corporate headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut to the South Boston Waterfront neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The first group of workers arrived in the summer of 2016, morgan and the Vanderbilt family for Edisons lighting experiments. The new company also acquired Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company in the same year, both plants continue to operate under the GE banner to this day. The company was incorporated in New York, with the Schenectady plant used as headquarters for years thereafter. Around the same time, General Electrics Canadian counterpart, Canadian General Electric, was formed, in 1896, General Electric was one of the original 12 companies listed on the newly formed Dow Jones Industrial Average. After 120 years, it is the one of the original companies still listed on the Dow index. In 1911, General Electric absorbed the National Electric Lamp Association into its lighting business, GE established its lighting division headquarters at Nela Park in East Cleveland, Ohio. Nela Park is still the headquarters for GEs lighting business, owen D. Young, through GE, founded the Radio Corporation of America in 1919 to further international radio. GE used RCA as its retail arm for radio sales from 1919, in 1927, Ernst Alexanderson of GE made the first demonstration of his television broadcasts at his General Electric Realty Plot home at 1132 Adams Rd, Schenectady, NY. The sound was broadcast on GEs WGY, experimental television station W2XAD evolved into station WRGB which—along with WGY and WGFM —was owned and operated by General Electric until 1983. GEs history of working with turbines in the field gave them the engineering know-how to move into the new field of aircraft turbosuperchargers. Led by Sanford Alexander Moss, GE introduced the first superchargers during World War I, superchargers became indispensable in the years immediately prior to World War II, and GE was the world leader in exhaust-driven supercharging when the war started. This experience, in turn, made GE a natural selection to develop the Whittle W.1 jet engine that was demonstrated in the United States in 1941, GE ranked ninth among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. In 2002, GE acquired the assets of Enron during its bankruptcy proceedings. Some consumers boycotted GE light bulbs, refrigerators and other products in the 1980s and 1990s to protest GEs role in weapons production. With IBM, Burroughs, NCR, Control Data Corporation, Honeywell, RCA and UNIVAC, GE had a line of general purpose and special purpose computers
4.
Mark 13 missile launcher
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The Mark 13 guided missile launching system is a single-arm missile launcher designed for use on frigates and other military vessels. Because of its distinctive single-armed design, the Mark 13 is often referred to as the one-armed bandit and its 40-round magazine consists of two concentric rings of vertically stored missiles,24 in the outer ring and 16 in the inner. Total capacity was reduced by 1 due to a requirement to carry a Guided Missile Training Round in order to test system functionality, in case of a fire, the system is equipped with magazine sprinkling, CO2 suppression and booster suppression. It is also equipped with a dud jettison function to eject a round overboard if it fails to fire. In the United States Navy, the Mark 13 launcher was most typically employed as part of the Mark 74 Guided Missile Launch System, or the Mark 92 Fire Control System. Though the launcher was original armament on U. S. Navy Perry-class frigates, in order to save costs on an obsolete system, by 2004 all active U. S. Navy vessels have had the system removed. It was also fitted on the French Cassard-class frigates, as well as the two Mitscher-class destroyers converted to DDGs, the last ten American Charles F. The Mark 22 guided missile launching system is a variation of the Mark 13 launcher which has only the inner 16 round storage ring of the Mark 13 launcher and it was deployed on US-designed, Baleares-class Spanish frigates. and US Navy Brooke class frigates. Another major difference is that on the Mark 22 the magazine is non-rotating, the launcher rotates over the desired missile and it is then hoisted onto the rail. On the Mark 13 the magazine rotates under the launcher. com FAS Mk 13 GMLS
5.
Surface-to-air missile
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A surface-to-air missile, or ground-to-air missile, is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of system, in modern armed forces, missiles have replaced most other forms of dedicated antiaircraft weapons. The first serious attempts at SAM development took place during World War II, further development in the 1940s and 1950s led to the first operational systems being introduced by most major forces during the second half of the 1950s. Smaller systems, suitable for work, evolved through the 1960s and 1970s. The American Nike Ajax was the first operational guided missile SAM system, widely used modern examples include the Patriot and S-300 wide-area systems, SM-6 naval missiles, and short-range man-portable systems like the Stinger and Strela-3. The first known idea for a guided missile was in 1925. A selenium cell was mounted on the tip of each of the rockets four tail fins, when one selenium cell was no longer in the light beam, it would be steered in the opposite direction back into the beam. During World War II, efforts were started to develop surface-to-air missiles as it was considered that flak was of little use against bombers of ever-increasing performance. The lethal radius of a shell is fairly small. Against the Boeing B-17, which operated just within the range of the numerous German eighty-eights flak guns, bombers flying at higher altitudes require larger guns and shells to reach them. This greatly increases the cost of the system, and slows the rate of fire, faster aircraft fly out of range more quickly, reducing the number of rounds fired against them. Against late-war designs like the Boeing B-29 Superfortress or jet-powered designs like the Arado Ar 234, the first serious consideration of a SAM development project was a series of conversations that took place in Germany during 1941. Von Braun became convinced a better solution was a manned rocket interceptor, the directors of the Luftwaffe flak arm were not interested in manned aircraft, and the resulting disagreements between the teams delayed serious consideration of a SAM for two years. None of these saw any real development until 1943, when the first large-scale raids by the Allied air forces started. As the urgency of the problem grew, new designs were added, including Enzian and Rheintochter, in general, these designs could be split into two groups. One set of designs would be boosted to altitude in front of the bombers and these designs included the Feuerlilie, Schmetterling and Enzian. The second group were high-speed missiles, typically supersonic, that flew directly towards their targets from below, both types used radio control for guidance, either by eye, or by comparing the returns of the missile and target on a single radar screen. Development of all systems was carried out at the same time
6.
RIM-66 Standard
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The RIM-66 Standard MR is a medium-range surface-to-air missile, with a secondary role as anti-ship missile, originally developed for the United States Navy. The SM-1 was developed as a replacement for the RIM-2 Terrier, the RIM-67 Standard is an extended range version of this missile with a solid rocket booster stage. The Standard missile program was started in 1963 to produce a family of missiles to replace existing guided missiles used by the Terrier, Talos, the intention was to produce a new generation of guided missiles that could be retrofit to existing guided missile systems. The RIM-66A is the medium ranged version of the Standard missile and was developed as a replacement for the earlier RIM-24C as part of the Mk74 Tartar Guided Missile Fire Control System. It used the fuselage as the earlier Tartar missile, for easier use with existing launchers. The RIM-66A/B Standard MR, was used during the Vietnam War, the only remaining version of the Standard missile 1 in service is the RIM-66E. While no longer in service with the USN, the RIM-66E is still in service with many navies globally and is expected to remain in service until 2020. The RIM-66C/D Standard MR was developed in the 1970s and was a key part of the Aegis combat system, the SM-2MR introduced inertial and command mid-course guidance. The missiles autopilot is programmed to fly the most efficient path to the target, target illumination for semi-active homing is needed only for a few seconds in the terminal phase of the interception. Mk 41 VLS adopts modular design concept, which result in different versions vary in size. The length comes in three sizes,209 in for the version,266 in for the tactical version. The empty weight for an 8-cell module is 26,800 lb for the version,29,800 lb for the tactical version. In the middle 1980s, the SM-2MR was deployed via Mk 41 Vertical Launch System aboard USS Bunker Hill, VLS has, since 2003, been the only launcher used for the Standard missile in the U. S. Navy aboard Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. The United States Navy is committed to keeping the Standard Missile 2 medium-range viable until 2035, the SM-1 and SM-2 were continuously upgraded through Blocks. The Standard can also be used against ships, either at line-of-sight range using its semi-active homing mode, or over the horizon using inertial guidance, Standard missiles were constructed by General Dynamics Pomona Division until 1992, when it became part of the Hughes Missile Systems Company. Hughes formed a joint venture with Raytheon called Standard Missile Company, Hughes Missile Systems was eventually sold to Raytheon making it the sole contractor. The Standard missile one became operational in 1968, the missile was utilized by ships equipped with the Tartar Guided Missile Fire Control System. The missile saw its first combat use in the early 1970s in the Vietnam war, the Standard Missile Two became operational in the late 1970s and was deployed operationally with the Aegis Combat System in 1983
7.
Harpoon (missile)
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The Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile system, developed and manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. In 2004, Boeing delivered the 7, 000th Harpoon unit since the introduction in 1977. The missile system has also further developed into a land-strike weapon. The regular Harpoon uses active homing, and a low-level. The missiles launch platforms include, Fixed-wing aircraft Surface ships Submarines, Coastal defense batteries, in 1965 the United States Navy began studies for a missile in the 45 kilometres range class for use against surfaced submarines. The name Harpoon was assigned to the project, Harpoon was primarily developed for use on US Navy warships such as the Ticonderoga-class cruiser as their principal anti-ship weapon system. The Harpoon was purchased by many American allies, including Pakistan, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates and most NATO countries. The Royal Australian Air Force is capable of firing AGM-84 series missiles from its F/A-18F Super Hornets, F/A-18A/B Hornets, and AP-3C Orion aircraft, the Royal Australian Navy deploys the Harpoon on major surface combatants and in the Collins-class submarines. The Spanish Air Force and the Chilean Navy are also AGM-84D customers, and they deploy the missiles on ships, and F/A-18s, F-16s. The British Royal Navy deploys the Harpoon on several types of surface ship, the Royal Canadian Navy carries Harpoon missiles on its Halifax-class frigates. The Republic of Singapore Air Force also operates five modified Fokker 50 Maritime Patrol Aircraft which are fitted with the sensors needed to fire the Harpoon missile, the Pakistani Navy carries the Harpoon missile on its frigates and P-3C Orions. The Turkish Navy carries Harpoons on surface warships and Type 209 submarines, the Turkish Air Force will be armed with the SLAM-ER. S. Navy Knox-class frigates and the four former USN Kidd-class destroyers which have sold to Taiwan. The two Zwaardvis/Hai Lung submarines and 12 P-3C Orion aircraft can use the missile. The Block 1 missiles were designated AGM/RGM/UGM-84A in US service and UGM-84B in the UK, Block 1B standard missiles were designated AGM/RGM/UGM-84C, Block 1C missiles were designated AGM/RGM/UGM-84D. This version featured a fuel tank and re-attack capability, but was not produced in large numbers because its intended mission was considered to be unlikely following the events of 1991–92. Block 1D missiles were designated RGM/AGM-84F, Block 1G missiles AGM/RGM/UGM-84G, the original SLAM-ER missiles were designated AGM-84H and later ones the AGM-84K. Block 1J was a proposal for an upgrade, AGM/RGM/UGM-84J Harpoon
8.
RUR-5 ASROC
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The RUR-5 ASROC is an all-weather, all sea-conditions anti-submarine missile system. The ASROC has been deployed on scores of warships of other navies, including Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan. In addition, the goal was to take advantage of modern sonars with a larger detection range. An extended range torpedo delivered by parachute from the air would allow warships the stand-off capability to attack submarines with very little advance notice to the hostile submarine. The RAT program came in three phases, RAT-A, RAT-B and RAT-C, RAT-A were efforts to develop a compact and economical stand-off ASW for smaller warships, but were found to be either unreliable or had too short a range. RAT-C was a program to develop a stand-off ASW weapon that used a depth charge. This would require a range of at least 8,000 yards to escape potential damage from the underwater blast, unlike the original RAT program rockets, the RAT-C was considerably larger to accomplish the extended range needed and was to be fitted to larger warships. With the failure of both the RAT-A and RAT-B programs, RAT-C was redesigned from a stand-off nuclear ASW weapon to one that could use not only a depth charge. To obtain the accuracy needed, the RAT-C rocket launcher had to be redesigned with larger side fins and this program finally combined reliability and accuracy, along with the necessary stand-off range. However, before RAT-C reached initial operational status in 1960 aboard the large US Navy destroyer leader USS Norfolk, the first ASROC system using the MK-112 Matchbox launcher, was developed in the 1950s and installed in the 1960s. This system was phased out in the 1990s and replaced with the RUM-139 Vertical Launch ASROC, after a surface ship, patrol plane or anti-submarine helicopter detects an enemy submarine by using sonar or other sensors, it could relay the subs position to an ASROC-equipped ship for attack. The attacking ship would fire an ASROC missile carrying an acoustic homing torpedo or a W44 Nuclear Depth Bomb onto an unguided ballistic trajectory toward the target. Water entry activates the torpedo, which is guided by its own sonar system, the W44 nuclear depth charge entered service in 1961, but was never used beyond one or two tests before the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty banning underwater nuclear tests went into effect. A total of 575 weapons were produced, the W44 weighed 170 pounds with a diameter of 13.75 inches and length of 25.3 inches. Following payload separation, the unguided W44 sank quickly to a depth where the 10-kiloton warhead detonated. The nuclear-armed ASROC was never used in combat, w44-armed ASROC missiles were retired by 1989, when all types of nuclear depth bombs were removed from deployment. The 31 U. S. Navy Spruance-class destroyers were all built with the Mark 16 Mod 7 ASROC Launching Group and these had one standard Mark 112 octuple ASROC launcher, located immediately above a reload system holding an additional 16 assembled rounds. Thus, each Spruance-class destroyer originally carried a total of 24 ASROC
9.
United States Secretary of the Navy
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The Secretary of the Navy is a statutory office and the head of the Department of the Navy, a military department within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Navy consists of two Uniformed Services, the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. In effect, all authority within the Navy and Marine Corps, specifically enumerated responsibilities of the SECNAV in beforementioned section are, recruiting, organizing, supplying, equipping, training, mobilizing, and demobilizing. The Secretary also oversees the construction, outfitting, and repair of ships, equipment. The Secretary of the Navy is a member of the Defense Acquisition Board, chaired by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, the CNO and the Commandant act as the principal executive agents of the SECNAV within their respective services to implement the orders of the Secretary. The United States Navy Regulations is the principal regulatory document of the Department of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps have their own separate staffs, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and Headquarters Marine Corps
10.
Guided missile destroyer
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A guided-missile destroyer is a destroyer designed to launch guided missiles. Many are also equipped to carry out anti-submarine, anti-air, the NATO standard designation for these vessels is DDG. Nations vary in their use of destroyer D designation in their hull pennant numbering, the U. S. Navy has adopted the classification DDG in the American hull classification system. In addition to the guns, a guided-missile destroyer is equipped with two large missile magazines, usually in vertical-launch cells. Some guided-missile destroyers contain powerful radar systems, such as the United States’ Aegis Combat System and this is especially true of navies that no longer operate cruisers, as other vessels must be adopted to fill in the gap. The first Arleigh Burke-class destroyer was designated DDG-51, as the hull numbers DDG-47-50 had been used for Ticonderoga-class ships, US Destroyers, An Illustrated Design History
11.
Bath, Maine
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Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. The population was 8,514 at the 2010 census, and 8,357 as of 2013 and it is the county seat of Sagadahoc County, Which includes one city and 10 towns. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its 19th-century architecture and it is home to the Bath Iron Works and Heritage Days Festival, held annually on the Fourth of July weekend. It is commonly known as The City of Ships, Bath is part of the metropolitan statistical area of Greater Portland. Abenaki Indians called the area Sagadahoc, meaning mouth of big river and it was a reference to the Kennebec River, which Samuel de Champlain explored in 1605. Popham Colony was established in 1607 downstream, together with Fort St George, the settlement failed due to harsh weather and lack of leadership, but the colonists built the New Worlds first oceangoing vessel constructed by English shipwrights, the Virginia of Sagadahoc. It provided passage back to England, most of Bath, Maine, was settled by travelers from Bath, England. The next settlement at Sagadahoc was about 1660, when the land was taken from an Indian sagamore known as Robinhood, incorporated as part of Georgetown in 1753, Bath was set off and incorporated as a town on February 17,1781. It was named by the postmaster, Dummer Sewell, after Bath in Somerset, in 1844, a portion of the town was set off to create West Bath. On June 14,1847, Bath was incorporated as a city, Land was annexed from West Bath in 1855. Several industries developed in the city, including lumber, iron and brass, with trade in ice, but Bath is renowned for shipbuilding, which began here in 1743 when Jonathan Philbrook and his sons built 2 vessels. Since then, roughly 5,000 vessels have been launched in the area, Bath became the nations fifth largest seaport by the mid-19th century, producing clipper ships that sailed to ports around the world. The last commercial enterprise to build ships in the city was the Percy & Small Shipyard. But the most famous shipyard is the Bath Iron Works, founded in 1884 by Thomas W. Hyde who also became the manager of it in 1888. It has built hundreds of wooden and steel vessels, mostly warships for the U. S. Navy, during World War II, Bath Iron Works launched a new ship an average of every 17 days. The shipyard is a regional employer, and operates today as a division of the General Dynamics Corporation. The city is noted for its Federal, Greek Revival, and Italianate architecture, including the 1858 Custom House, Bath is sister city to Shariki in Japan, where the locally-built full rigged ship Cheseborough was wrecked in 1889. Scenes from the movies Message in a Bottle and The Man Without a Face were filmed in the city, Bath is located at 43°54′59″N 69°49′21″W
12.
Charleston, South Carolina
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Charleston had an estimated population of 132,609 in 2015. Charleston was founded as Charles Town—honoring King Charles II of England—in 1670 and its initial location at Albemarle Point on the west bank of the Ashley River was abandoned in 1680 for its present site, which became the 5th-largest city in North America within 10 years. Despite its size, it remained unincorporated throughout the period, its government was handled directly by the state legislature and by its Anglican parish wardens. It adopted its present spelling with its incorporation as a city in 1783 at the close of the Revolutionary War. The Confederates burned the town prior to its evacuation but continued demand for the cotton and rice, along with growing industry. In 2016, Charleston was ranked the Worlds Best City by Travel + Leisure, the city proper consists of six distinct areas, the Peninsula or Downtown, West Ashley, Johns Island, James Island, Daniel Island, and the Cainhoy Peninsula. The old town fit into 4–5 square miles as late as the First World War, the city limits also have expanded across the Cooper River, encompassing Daniel Island and the Cainhoy area. The present city has an area of 127.5 square miles. North Charleston blocks any expansion up the peninsula, and Mount Pleasant occupies the land directly east of the Cooper River, Charleston Harbor runs about 7 miles southeast to the Atlantic with an average width of about 2 miles, surrounded on all sides except its entrance. Sullivans Island lies to the north of the entrance and Morris Island to itself south, the entrance itself is about 1 mile wide, it was originally only 18 feet deep, but began to be enlarged in the 1870s. The tidal rivers are evidence of a submergent or drowned coastline, there is a submerged river delta off the mouth of the harbor and the Cooper River is deep. Charleston has a subtropical climate, with mild winters, hot, humid summers. Summer is the wettest season, almost half of the rainfall occurs from June to September in the form of thundershowers. Fall remains relatively warm through November, winter is short and mild, and is characterized by occasional rain. Measurable snow only occurs several times per decade at the most, however,6.0 in fell at the airport on December 23,1989, the largest single-day fall on record, contributing to a single-storm and seasonal record of 8.0 in snowfall. The highest temperature recorded within city limits was 104 °F on June 2,1985, and June 24,1944, and the lowest was 7 °F on February 14,1899. At the airport, where records are kept, the historical range is 105 °F on August 1,1999. Hurricanes are a threat to the area during the summer and early fall
United States
United States Navy
Royal Australian Navy
German Navy
Hellenic Navy