gCaptain.com

When we think of early Aircraft Carriers, most defer to the US Navy converting Jupiter (Collier # 3) in 1920 to CVI Langley. Commissioned in March 1922, Langley was the U.S. Navy’s first conventional aircraft carrier. In October-November 1922, she launched, recovered and catapulted her first aircraft during initial operations in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas.

The history of Aircraft Carriers dates back to 1806 when the British Frigate HMS Pallas was used as platform to launch kites that dropped leaflets over France.

During the (American) Civil War, Union Forces converted the coal barge George Washington Parke Custis to launch hot air ballons to conduct reconnaissance. The barges never worked off shore.

The Union Army balloon Washington aboard the George Washington Parke Custis, towed by the tug Coeur de Lion.

During World War I, a number of countries used Balloon Tenders. [Continue Reading →]

University of Michigan researchers are investigating a radical new design for cargo ships that would eliminate ballast tanks, the water-filled compartments that enable non-native creatures to sneak into the Great Lakes from overseas.

PhysOrg.com is reporting that an alternative to current and proposed tank cleaning methods.

Here’s an excerpt:

“In some ways, it’s more like a submarine than a surface ship,” Parsons said. “We’re opening part of the hull to the sea, creating a very slow flow through the trunks from bow to stern.

“You’re continuously sweeping water through the ship and out,” he said. “So you’re always filled with local sea water, not hauling water from one part of the world to the other.”

The U-M ballast-free ship concept was conceived in 2001 and patented in 2004. It is intended for new-vessel construction only.

The full PhysOrg.com post is here.

(Ed. note: My guess is that this system could be used for cooling as well. A special thanks to BitterEnd reader Cherei in San Antonio for point me to this post.)

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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd of the net.

Stunning, dramatic shipwreck photography by Donibane Sanjuan. See more here.

Via Dark Roasted Blend
[Continue Reading →]

The task is to lift the whole bridge sections, each weighing approx. 3500 tonnes.

[Continue Reading →]

Ship Name: RCMP vessel St Roch (pronounced “Saint Rock”)

Vital Statistics (1944 configuration):
Length: 31.8 m (104’3”) Beam: 7.5 m (24’7”) Draft: 3.25 m (10’8”) Tonnage: 196.5 t
Hull: Douglas fir with Australian gumwood outer hull; rounded hull to allow ice to slide underneath; steel plate covering bow
Power source: 150 hp Union diesel, 6 cylinder; schooner rigged
Built: Burrard Drydock Shipyard, North Vancouver, 1928 (Charles Druguid design with modifications by Thomas Halliday)

St Roch was built specifically for the RCMP to patrol the Arctic. The ship was named after the Quebec east riding of Ernest Lapointe, then Federal Minister of Justice responsible for the RCMP. Launched on May 7, 1928, she began a long and successful career that ended in 1950 when officially retired from duty in Halifax. St Roch sailed through the Panama Canal in 1954 to return to Vancouver.

What was the significance of St Roch?

• First vessel to sail the Northwest Passage from west to east (1940 – 1942)
• First vessel to complete the Northwest Passage in one season (1944), also making it the first to use the more northerly, deeper route and to complete the Passage in both directions
• First vessel to circumnavigate North America
• Survived 12 winters stuck in the ice for 10 months at a time
• King George VI awarded the prestigious Polar Medal to Henry Larsen and the crew who sailed during the 1944 voyage
• Declared a National Historic Site (1962)

What was the RCMP’s role in the Arctic? [Continue Reading →]

The Juneau Empire is reporting:

A cruise ship scraped the bottom of the Tracy Arm fjord Wednesday morning, forcing its crew to cut short its trip and call the U.S. Coast Guard for assistance.

The Spirit of Alaska called the Coast Guard around 8 a.m. Wednesday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Levi Read said.

The boat is owned by Seattle-based Cruise West, which says on its Web site that the 143-foot boat has a “shallow draft” that makes for “optimum wildlife viewing.”

There were 41 passengers on board and 22 crew members, Read said. He said there were no reported injuries.

After hitting bottom, the boat anchored and waited for an inspector from the Coast Guard and a commercial diver to survey the damage to the boat, Read said.

He said the Coast Guard had dispatched two boats and a helicopter to assist the boat. A tugboat was scheduled to pull the Spirit of Alaska back to Juneau on Wednesday evening, according to the Coast Guard.

A spokesman for Cruise West said Wednesday afternoon that the Spirit of Alaska was on the second day of a seven-day trip that was to start and end in Juneau.

The complete Juneau Empire post is here.

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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd of the net.

(Ed. note: Wired . com is featuring a post comemerating the Battle of Midway)

Japanese fleet carrier Hiryu is seen shortly before the United States Navy sank it during the Battle of Midway.
Courtesy Kazutoshi Hando, U.S. Navy

Today, Wired Magazine remembers the Battle of Midway;

1942: Without ever sighting one another, Japanese and American task forces engage near the Midway Atoll, marking the turning point of the Pacific war and ringing down the curtain on the battleship as a dominant offensive naval weapon.

The Battle of Midway began only a month after the inconclusive Battle of the Coral Sea, which was the first time two opposing fleets slugged it out without making visual contact. Airplanes, specifically the dive bomber and the torpedo plane, were the weapons that made this possible and changed the nature of war at sea.

As a result, aircraft carriers now emerged as the most important ships in the fleet, relegating other surface ships to carrier-escort and picket duty, and — in the case of the battleship and heavy cruiser — to shore bombardment in support of troop landings.

You can find the balance of the post here.

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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd of the net.

This admittedly isn’t the newest military tech on the block, but I just couldn’t help writing it up. Russia makes the world’s largest military hovercraft dubbed the “Zubr.” It displaces 621 tons and can haul twice the payload of similar boats from the US Navy (somewhere around 150 tons). 

With production dating back to 1988, the last Zubr looks to have launched in 2004. Capable of carrying multiple tanks and a nice mix of 140mm rocket pods, 30mm cannons and air defense missiles, the Zubr can cruise for 300 miles before rapidly deploying troops and equipment close to shore. Scratch that. Directly on shore. In other words, it’s just like that R/C vehicle you lusted after in the ’90s, but it’s way bigger and actually good for something. Or, in this case, potentially very, very bad.

via Gizmodo.com

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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd of the net.

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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd of the net.

(Ed. note: I received a this email today and thought if worthy of sharing.)

Captain Rodriguez:

It’s been interesting following your and your reader’s adventures with TWIC. I have a buddy who’s a long-haul trucker, and the stories he’s been telling me over the past few years regarding credentials (he’s certified to haul “hazardous waste,” among other things) have been fairly bizarre. More like East Germany under the Stasi than the good ol’ USA. Considering some of the past comments on your blog, you may find this interesting if you haven’t yet read it.

Regards, Mike F.

This via the New York Times: Blunt Federal Letters Tell Students They’re Security Threats

WASHINGTON — A German graduate student in oceanography at M.I.T. applied to the Transportation Security Administration for a new ID card allowing him to work around ships and docks.

What the student, Wilken-Jon von Appen, received in return was a letter that not only turned him down but added an ominous warning from John M. Busch, a security administration official: “I have determined that you pose a security threat.”

Similar letters have gone to 5,000 applicants across the country who have at least initially been turned down for a Transportation Worker Identification Credential, an ID card meant to guard against acts of terrorism, agency officials said Monday.

The officials also said they were sorry about the language, which they may change in the future, but had no intention of withdrawing letters already sent.