Ship commissioning
Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military forces; the ceremonies involved are rooted in centuries old naval tradition. Ship naming and launching endow a ship hull with her identity, but many milestones remain before she is completed and considered ready to be designated a commissioned ship; the engineering plant and electronic systems and multitudinous other equipment required to transform the new hull into an operating and habitable warship are installed and tested. The prospective commanding officer, ship's officers, the petty officers, seamen who will form the crew report for training and intensive familiarization with their new ship. Prior to commissioning, the new ship undergoes sea trials to identify any deficiencies needing correction; the preparation and readiness time between christening-launching and commissioning may be as much as three years for a nuclear powered aircraft carrier to as brief as twenty days for a World War II landing ship.
USS Monitor, of American Civil War fame, was commissioned less than three weeks after launch. Regardless of the type of ship in question, a vessel's journey towards commissioning in its nation's navy begins with a process known as sea trials. Sea trials take place some years after a vessel was laid down, mark the interim step between the completion of a ship's construction and its official acceptance for service with its nation's navy. Sea trials begin when the ship in question is floated out of its dry dock, at which time the initial crew for a ship will assume command of the vessel in question; the ship is sailed in littoral waters for the purpose of testing the design and other ship specific systems to ensure that they work properly and can handle the equipment that they will be using in the coming years. Tests done during this phase can include launching missiles from missile magazines, firing the ship's gun, conducting basic flight tests with rotary and fixed-wing aircraft that will be assigned to the ship in the future, various tests of the electronic and propulsion equipment.
During this phase of testing problems arise relating to the state of the equipment on the ship in question, which can result in the ship returning to the builder's shipyard to address the concerns in question. In addition to problems with a ship's arms and equipment, the sea trial phase a ship undergoes prior to commissioning can identify issues with the ship's design that may need to be addressed before it can be accepted into service with its nation's navy. During her sea trials in 1999 French Naval officials determined that the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was too short to safely operate the E2C Hawkeye, resulting in her return to the builder's shipyard for enlargement. After a ship has cleared its sea trial period, it will be accepted into service with its nation's navy. At this point, the ship in question will undergo a process of degaussing and/or deperming, which will vastly reduce the ship in question's magnetic signature. Once a ship's sea trials are completed plans for the actual commissioning ceremony will take shape.
Depending on the naval traditions of the nation in question, the commissioning ceremony may be an elaborately planned event with guests, the ship's future crew, other persons of interest in attendance, or the nation in question may forgo a ceremony and instead administratively place the ship in commission. At a minimum, on the day on which the ship in question is to be commissioned the crew will report for duty aboard the ship and the commanding officer will read through the orders given for the ship and its personnel. If the ship's ceremony is a public affair the Captain may make a speech to the audience, along with other VIPs as the ceremony dictates. Religious ceremonies, such as blessing the ship or the singing of traditional hymns or songs, may occur. Once a ship has been commissioned its final step toward becoming an active unit of the navy it now serves is to report to its home port and load or accept any remaining equipment. To decommission a ship is to terminate its career in service in the armed forces of a nation.
Unlike wartime ship losses, in which a vessel lost to enemy action is said to be struck, decommissioning confers that the ship has reached the end of its usable life and is being retired from a given country's navy. Depending on the naval traditions of the country in question, a ceremony commemorating the decommissioning of the ship in question may take place, or the vessel may be removed administratively with little to no fanfare; the term "paid off" is alternatively used in British Commonwealth contexts, originating in the age-of-sail practice of ending an officer's commission and paying crew wages once the ship completed its voyage. Ship decommissioning occurs some years after the ship was commissioned and is intended to serve as a means by which a vessel that has become too old or too obsolete can be retired with honor from the operating country's armed force. Decommissioning of the vessel may occur due to treaty agreements or for safety reasons (such as a ship's nuclear reactor and assoc
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is an artificial 82 km waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal is a conduit for maritime trade. Canal locks are at each end to lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, 26 m above sea level, lower the ships at the other end; the original locks are 34 m wide. A third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016; the expanded canal began commercial operation on June 26, 2016. The new locks allow transit of larger, post-Panamax ships, capable of handling more cargo. France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate; the United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal on August 15, 1914. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects undertaken, the Panama Canal shortcut reduced the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan.
Colombia and the United States controlled the territory surrounding the canal during construction. The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for handover to Panama. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, in 1999, the canal was taken over by the Panamanian government, it is now operated by the government-owned Panama Canal Authority. Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, when the canal opened, to 14,702 vessels in 2008, for a total of 333.7 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System tons. By 2012, more than 815,000 vessels had passed through the canal, it takes 11.38 hours to pass through the Panama Canal. The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the seven wonders of the modern world; the earliest mention of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama occurred in 1534, when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, ordered a survey for a route through the Americas that would ease the voyage for ships traveling between Spain and Peru.
Such a route would have given the Spanish a military advantage over the Portuguese. In 1668, the English physician and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne speculated in his encyclopaedic endeavour Pseudodoxia Epidemica - "some Isthmus have been eat through by the Sea, others cut by the spade: And if policy would permit, that of Panama in America were most worthy the attempt: it being but few miles over, would open a shorter cut unto the East Indies and China". In 1788, American Thomas Jefferson Minister to France, suggested that the Spanish should build the canal since it would be a less treacherous route for ships than going around the southern tip of South America, that tropical ocean currents would widen the canal thereafter. During an expedition from 1788 to 1793, Alessandro Malaspina outlined plans for its construction. Given the strategic location of Panama and the potential offered by its narrow isthmus separating two great oceans, other trade links in the area were attempted over the years.
The ill-fated Darien scheme was launched by the Kingdom of Scotland in 1698 to set up an overland trade route. Inhospitable conditions thwarted the effort and it was abandoned in April 1700. Numerous canals were built in other countries in the late early 19th centuries; the success of the Erie Canal in the United States in the 1820s and the collapse of the Spanish Empire in Latin America led to a surge of American interest in building an inter-oceanic canal. Beginning in 1826, US officials began negotiations with Gran Colombia, hoping to gain a concession for the building of a canal. Jealous of their newly obtained independence and fearing that they would be dominated by an American presence, the president Simón Bolívar and New Granada officials declined American offers; the new nation was politically unstable, Panama rebelled several times during the 19th century. Another effort was made in 1843. According to the New York Daily Tribune, August 24, 1843, a contract was entered into by Barings of London and the Republic of New Granada for the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Darien.
They referred to it as the Atlantic and Pacific Canal, it was a wholly British endeavor. It was expected to be completed in five years. At nearly the same time, other ideas were floated, including a canal across Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Nothing came of that plan, either. In 1846, the Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty, negotiated between the US and New Granada, granted the United States transit rights and the right to intervene militarily in the isthmus. In 1848, the discovery of gold in California, on the West Coast of the United States, created great interest in a crossing between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. William H. Aspinwall, the man who won the federal subsidy for the building and operating the Pacific mail steamships at around the same time, benefited from this discovery. Aspinwall's route included steamship legs from New York City to Panama and from Panama to California, with an overland portage through Panama; the route between California and Panama was soon traveled, as it provided one of the fastest links between San Francisco and the East Coast cities, about 40 days' transit in total.
Nearly all the gold, shipped out of California went by the fast Panama route. Several new and larger paddle steamers were soon plying
Brooklyn Navy Yard
The Brooklyn Navy Yard is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlears Hook in Manhattan, it is bounded by Navy Street to the west, Flushing Avenue to the south, Kent Avenue to the east, the East River on the north. The site, which covers 225.15 acres, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Brooklyn Navy Yard was established in 1801. From the early 1810s through the 1960s, it was an active shipyard for the United States Navy, was known as the United States Naval Shipyard and New York Naval Shipyard at various points in its history; the Brooklyn Navy Yard produced wooden ships for the U. S. Navy through the 1870s, steel ships after the American Civil War in the 1860s; the Brooklyn Navy Yard has been expanded several times, at its peak, it covered over 356 acres. The efforts of its 75,000 workers during World War II earned the yard the nickname "The Can-Do Shipyard".
The Navy Yard was deactivated as a military installation in 1966, but continued to be used by private industries. The facility now houses an industrial and commercial complex run by the New York City government, both related to shipping repairs and maintenance and as office and manufacturing space for non-maritime industries; the Brooklyn Navy Yard includes dozens of structures. The Brooklyn Naval Hospital, a medical complex on the east side of the Brooklyn Navy Yard site, served as the yard's hospital from 1838 until 1948. Dry Dock 1, one of six dry docks at the yard, was completed in 1851 and is listed as a New York City designated landmark. Former structures include Admiral's Row, a grouping of officers' residences at the west end of the yard, torn down in 2016 to accommodate new construction. Several new buildings were built in the late 20th and early 21st centuries as part of the city-run commercial and industrial complex. A commandant's residence a National Historic Landmark, is located away from the main navy yard's site.
The site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard was a mudflat and tidal marsh settled by the Canarsie Indians. The Dutch colonized the area in the early 17th century, by 1637, Dutch settler Joris Jansen Rapelje purchased 335 acres of land around present-day Wallabout Bay from the Indians; the site became his farm, though Rapelje himself did not reside on it until circa 1655. Rapelje was a Walloon from Belgium, the area around his farm came to be known as "Waal-boght" or "Waal-bocht", which translates into "Walloon's Bay"; the Rapelje family and their descendants had possession of the farm for at least a century afterward, farmed on the drained mudflats and tidal marshland. They built a grist mill and a mill pond on the site by 1710; the pond continued to be used through the 19th century. The Remsen family were the last descendants of the Rapeljes to own the farm, they held possession of nearby land plots through the mid-19th century. During the American Revolutionary War, the British kept prisoners of war inside decrepit ships which were moored in the bay.
Many of the prisoners died and were subsequently buried in long, shallow trenches on nearby solid ground. Around 12,000 prisoners of war were said to have died by 1783, when all the remaining prisoners were freed; the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument in nearby Fort Greene was built to honor these casualties. In 1781, shipbuilder John Jackson and two of his brothers acquired different parts of the Rapelje estate. Jackson went on to create the neighborhood of Wallabout, as well as a shipbuilding facility on the site; the first ship that Jackson built at the site was the merchant ship Canton, which he built in the late 1790s. The Jacksons put the land up for sale in 1800, the federal government soon learned about the sale. On February 7, 1801, federal authorities purchased the old docks and 40 acres of land from John Jackson for $40,000 through an intermediary, Francis Childs. Childs sold the site to the federal government sixteen days later; the purchase was part of outgoing U. S. president John Adams's plans to establish a series of naval yards in the United States.
This particular site was chosen because it was thought that the plot's location near Lower Manhattan and New York Harbor would be ideal for placing military defenses. The property went unused for several years because Adams's successor Thomas Jefferson opposed military build-up; the Brooklyn Navy Yard became an active shipyard for the United States Navy in 1806, when the yard's first commandant Jonathan Thorn moved onto the premises. So, it took several decades before the Brooklyn Navy Yard was developed, it was around the same time that Quarters A, the federal-style commandant's house, was built at the northwestern corner of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In 1810, the federal government acquired another 131 acres of land from the state of New York. Much of this land was underwater at high tide. During the War of 1812, the Brooklyn Navy Yard repaired and retrofitted more than one hundred ships, although it was not yet used for shipbuilding; the first ship of the line built at Brooklyn Navy Yard was the USS Ohio, a wooden ship designed by Henry Eckford.
Her keel was laid in 1817, she was launched on May 30, 1820. The yard's first receiving ship, a type of ship used to house new recruits for the Navy, was Robert Fulton's steam frigate, USS Fulton; the Fulton was called the Demologos and was desi
Casco Bay
Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of Maine, New England, United States. Its easternmost approach is Cape Small and its westernmost approach is Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth; the city of Portland sits along its southern edge and the Port of Portland lies within. There are two theories on the origin of the name "Casco Bay". Aucocisco is the Abenaki name for the bay, which means'place of herons'; the Portuguese explorer Estêvão Gomes, mapped the Maine coast in 1525 and named the bay "Bahía de Cascos". The first settlement in Casco Bay was that of Capt. Christopher Levett, an English explorer, who built a house on House Island in 1623–24; the settlement failed. The first permanent settlement of the bay was named Casco; the United States Coastal Pilot lists 136 islands, leading to the bay's islands being called the Calendar Islands based on the popular myth there are 365 of them. Robert M. York, the former Maine state historian said there are "little more than two hundred islands".
At the time of European contact in the sixteenth century, people speaking an Eastern dialect of the Wabanaki language inhabited present-day Casco Bay. A number of Treaties were negotiated and signed between the British colonies and members of the Wabanaki Confederacy in Casco Bay, including the Treaty of Casco, the Treaty of Casco, Treaty of Casco Bay; the latter Treaty was the result of a Conference between the British and the Abenaki in August, 1727, at which the parties agreed to uphold the terms of the 1725 Treaty of Peace and Friendship which ended Dummer's War, to cooperate with each other in keeping the peace. Chief Loron Sagouarram, who had signed the Treaty of 1725, addressed the gathering in 1727, providing his understanding of the Treaty relationship. Casco Bay is home to abandoned military fortifications dating from the War of 1812 through World War II. See Forts of Casco Bay below. Since Casco Bay was the nearest American anchorage to the Atlantic Lend-Lease convoy routes to Britain prior to US entry into World War II, Admiral King ordered a large pool of destroyers to be stationed there for convoy escort duty in August 1941.
The State Historic Site of Eagle Island was the summer home of Arctic explorer Robert Peary. Walter Cronkite stated. In 2008, up-and-coming composers Peter J. McLaughlin and Akiva G. Zamcheck wrote a piece in four movements paying homage to the wreck of the Don in Casco Bay in 1941; the piece received critical acclaim from fellow Maine composers. The "Don" was lost 29 June 1941 near Ragged Island. Portland has a substantial fleet of deep-sea fishing vessels which offload their catch at the Portland Fish Exchange. Numerous towns and islands serve as ports for lobster boats. Recreational fishing boats can be chartered. Marinas include Chebeague Island Boat Yard on Great Chebeague Island. During the 1980s and 1990s, Bath Iron Works operated a dry dock in Portland Harbor to repair US Navy vessels, but that operation was discontinued. Predominant fish in the bay include mackerel, striped bass, bluefish. Shellfish include lobsters, mussels and snails. Harbor seals congregate on certain exposed ledges, whales on occasion swim into the bay, in a few instances into Portland Harbor.
Seagulls and varying species of ducks are the most common birds. Casco Bay contains bay mud bottoms and banks in some locations, providing important substrates for biota; the major islands in the bay are served by the Casco Bay Lines ferry service at the Maine State Pier in Portland. Peaks Island is served by a car ferry and, during the summer, sees 16 ferries a day; the other islands see no car transport. Great and Little Diamond islands and Long Island are served by the Diamond Pass run, popular with tourists in the summer months. Other services offered by Casco Bay Lines include a daily mailboat run, a cruise to Bailey Island, a sunset run. Other services such as water taxis are popular alternatives to the ferry, but are limited to six passengers per boat. From south to north: Cape Elizabeth South Portland Portland Falmouth Cumberland Yarmouth Freeport Brunswick Harpswell West Bath Phippsburg Major islands Minor islands Casco Bay is home to 7 lighthouses: Cape Elizabeth Lights Portland Head Light Ram Island Ledge Light Spring Point Ledge Light Portland Breakwater Light Halfway Rock Light Pocahontas Light, the smallest lighthouse registered with the United States Coast Guard, it stands only 6 feet tall Forts in Casco Bay: The newspaper for Portland, the largest city in Casco Bay, is the Portland Press Herald
Guam
Guam is an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States in Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean. It is the easternmost point and territory of the United States, along with the Northern Mariana Islands; the capital city of Guam is Hagåtña and the most populous city is Dededo. The inhabitants of Guam are called Guamanians, they are American citizens by birth. Indigenous Guamanians are the Chamorros, who are related to other Austronesian natives of Eastern Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan. Guam has been a member of the Pacific Community since 1983. In 2016, 162,742 people resided on Guam. Guam has a population density of 775 per square mile. In Oceania, it is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands and the largest island in Micronesia. Among its municipalities, Mongmong-Toto-Maite has the highest population density at 3,691 per square mile, whereas Inarajan and Umatac have the lowest density at 119 per square mile; the highest point is Mount Lamlam at 1,332 feet above sea level.
Since the 1960s, the economy has been supported by two industries: tourism and the United States Armed Forces. The indigenous Chamorros settled the island 4,000 years ago. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, while in the service of Spain, was the first European to visit the island, on March 6, 1521. Guam was colonized by Spain in 1668 with settlers, including Diego Luis de San Vitores, a Catholic Jesuit missionary. Between the 16th century and the 18th century, Guam was an important stopover for the Spanish Manila Galleons. During the Spanish–American War, the United States captured Guam on June 21, 1898. Under the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded Guam to the United States on December 10, 1898. Guam is among the 17 non-self-governing territories listed by the United Nations. Before World War II, there were five American jurisdictions in the Pacific Ocean: Guam and Wake Island in Micronesia, American Samoa and Hawaii in Polynesia, the Philippines. On December 7, 1941, hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Guam was captured by the Japanese, who occupied the island for two and a half years.
During the occupation, Guamanians were subjected to beheadings, forced labor and torture. American forces recaptured the island on July 21, 1944. An unofficial but used territorial motto is "Where America's Day Begins", which refers to the island's close proximity to the international date line; the original inhabitants of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands were the Chamorro people, who are believed to be descendants of Austronesian people originating from Southeast Asia as early as 2000 BC. The ancient Chamorro society had four classes: chamorri, matua and mana'chang; the matua were located in the coastal villages, which meant they had the best access to fishing grounds, whereas the mana'chang were located in the interior of the island. Matua and mana'chang communicated with each other, matua used achaot as intermediaries. There were "makåhna" or "kakahna", shamans with magical powers and "Suruhånu" or "Suruhåna" healers who use different kinds of plants and natural materials to make medicine.
Belief in spirits of ancient Chamorros called "Taotao mo'na" still persists as a remnant of pre-European culture. It is believed that "Suruhånu" or "Suruhåna" are the only ones who can safely harvest plants and other natural materials from their homes or "hålomtåno" without incurring the wrath of the "Taotao mo'na", their society was organized along matrilineal clans. Latte stones are stone pillars; the latte-stone was used as a foundation. Latte stones consist of a base shaped from limestone called the haligi and with a capstone, or tåsa, made either from a large brain coral or limestone, placed on top. A possible source for these stones, the Rota Latte Stone Quarry, was discovered in 1925 on Rota; the first European to travel to Guam was Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, sailing for the King of Spain, when he sighted the island on March 6, 1521, during his fleet's circumnavigation of the globe. When Magellan arrived on Guam, he was greeted by hundreds of small outrigger canoes that appeared to be flying over the water, due to their considerable speed.
These outrigger canoes were called Proas, resulted in Magellan naming Guam Islas de las Velas Latinas. Antonio Pigafetta said that the name was "Island of Sails", but he writes that the inhabitants "entered the ships and stole whatever they could lay their hands on", including "the small boat, fastened to the poop of the flagship." "Those people are poor, but ingenious and thievish, on account of which we called those three islands Islas de los Ladrones." Despite Magellan's visit, Guam was not claimed by Spain until January 26, 1565, by General Miguel López de Legazpi. From 1565 to 1815, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, the only Spanish outposts in the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines, were an important resting stop for the Manila galleons, a fleet that covered the Pacific trade route between Acapulco and Manila. To protect these Pacific fleets, Spain built several defensive structures that still stand today, such as Fort Nuestra Señora de la Soledad in Umatac. Guam is the biggest single segment of Micronesia, the largest islands between the island of Kyushu, New Guinea, the Philippines, the Hawaiian Islands.
Spanish colonization commenced on June 15, 1
5"/38 caliber gun
The Mark 12 5"/38 caliber gun was a United States naval gun. The gun was installed into Single Purpose and Dual Purpose mounts used by the US Navy. On these 5" mounts, Single Purpose means that the mount is limited to 35° elevation with no provision for AA shell fuze setters, is designed to fire at surface targets only. Dual Purpose means that it is designed to be effective against both surface and aircraft targets because it can elevate to 85° and has on mount AA shell fuze setters; 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. United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile 5 inches in diameter, the barrel was 38 calibers long, making the 5"/38 dual purpose midway in barrel length between the 5"/51 surface-to-surface and the 5"/25 anti-aircraft guns; the increased barrel length provided 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; the 5"/38 entered service on USS Farragut, commissioned in 1934. The base ring mount, which improved the effective rate of fire, entered service on USS Gridley, commissioned in 1937. Among naval historians, the 5"/38 gun is considered the best intermediate-caliber, dual purpose naval gun of World War II as it was under the control of the advanced Mark 37 Gun Fire Control System which provided accurate and timely firing against surface and air targets; this advanced system required nearly 1000 rounds of ammunition expenditure per aircraft kill. However, the planes were killed by shell fragments and not direct hits; this would result in large walls of shell fragments being put up to take out one or several planes or in anticipation of an unseen plane, this being justifiable as one plane was capable of significant destruction. The comparatively high rate of fire for a gun of its caliber earned it an enviable reputation as an anti-aircraft weapon, in which role it was employed by United States Navy vessels.
Base ring mounts. 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 replacing 5"/25 guns that were fitted in the 1930s, it has left active US Navy service, but it is still on mothballed ships of the United States Navy reserve fleets. It is used by a number of nations who bought or were given US Navy surplus ships. Millions of rounds of ammunition were produced for these guns, with over 720,000 rounds still remaining in Navy storage depots in the mid-1980s because of the large number of Reserve Fleet ships with 5"/38 cal guns on board; each mount carries one or two Mk 12 5"/38cal Gun Assemblies. The gun assembly shown is used in single mounts, it is the right 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, it is loaded from the right side. The Mk12 gun assembly weighs 3,990 lb; the Mark 12 Gun Assembly was introduced in 1934, where it was first used in single pedestal mounts on the Farragut-class destroyers, but by the time of World War II they had been installed in single and twin mounts on nearly every major warship and auxiliary in the US fleet. 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. The firing pin is cocked, the breech is opened, the spent propellant case is ejected, the bore is cleared of debris with an air blast. Hand loaded a powder-man are stationed at each gun assembly, their job is to move the round, consisting of a projectile and a propellant case, from the hoists to the rammer tray projecting from the gun's breech, start the ram cycle. Power rammed This gun used a 7.5 hp electric-hydraulic power rammer, designed to ram a 93 lb, 47.5 in long round into the chamber at any gun elevation in less than one second.:172 The rammer's control box, hydraulic fluid tank and AC motor are bolted to the top of the slide.
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" are confusing, look at this footnote. Vertical sliding-wedge breech block, it contains the firing pin assembly. Hydraulic recoil Two hydraulic pistons in the housing absorb the major shock of recoil as the housing moves back inside the slide, they buffer the end of counter-recoil for a soft return to battery. Pneumatic counter-recoil At the end of recoil, the counter-recoil system moves the housing forward again until it is back "in battery," and holds it there at any gun elevation. A chamber in the housing is filled with compressed air. At the rear of this chamber is a 3.5 in cylindrical hole with a c
United States
