SS Cap Polonio

SS "Cap Polonio" was a German ocean liner that was launched in 1914 and scrapped in 1935. She worked the Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrtsgesellschaft ("Hamburg South America Steamship Company") route between Hamburg in Germany and Buenos Aires in Argentina. She was named after Cabo Polonio in Uruguay.
In the First World War "Cap Polonio" was briefly commissioned as the auxiliary cruiser SMS "Vineta". As such she was unsuccessful, did not see active service and was soon returned to her owners.
Building.
Blohm+Voss in Hamburg built "Cap Polonio", laying her keel in 1913 and launching her on 25 March 1914. She had three screws. Her port and starboard screws were each driven by a four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine. Exhaust steam from the low-pressure cylinder of each of these engines drove a low-pressure steam turbine that drove her middle screw.
The combination of three screws, two piston engines and one low-pressure turbine had been pioneered in the UK on the cargo liner and transatlantic liner , both launched in 1908. It had since been applied to the giant s and several other passenger liners. It offered better fuel economy and speed than propulsion purely by piston engines, and more flexibility than pure turbine propulsion.
"Cap Polonio"s holds included of refrigerated space for perishable cargo.
When the First World War began at the end of July 1914 "Cap Polonio" was not yet complete. With the prior agreement of the owners, the Imperial German Navy requisitioned her for conversion to an auxiliary cruiser. She was completed and armed with four and four quick-firing guns. She was designed with three funnels but the third one aft was a dummy. For war service the Imperial Navy had the dummy funnel removed.
In February 1915 this work was completed and on 6 February 1915 she was commissioned as SMS "Vineta", named after a mythical city of that name on the south coast of the Baltic Sea.
First World War.
"Vineta"s sea trials were unsatisfactory. Although the combination of piston engines and a turbine had achieved unrivalled fuel economy and good speeds in several UK-built liners, "Vineta" failed to reach her designed top speed of , and her coal consumption was a prodigious 250 tons per day. This gave her a maximum endurance at sea of less than three weeks. Also by this time the first phase of the war on commerce was over. Given her shortcomings the Imperial Navy decommissioned "Vineta" and returned her to her owners.
Restored to her civilian name "Cap Polonio", she remained at Hamburg, trapped by the Allied blockade of Germany.
Failure with British operators.
After the 1918 Armistice the United States seized her as war reparations. But she was then transferred to the UK Shipping Controller in London, who placed her under Union-Castle Line management. She sailed to England, was painted in Union-Castle colours and embarked passengers and homeward-bound South African soldiers for a voyage to Cape Town and Durban.
"Cap Polonio" sailed from Plymouth in Devon on 21 June 1919. Despite being bunkered with good British steam coal she made only . Worse, she suffered a series of mechanical failures. She did not reach Cape Town until 18 July and the Durban leg of her voyage was cancelled. On return to Plymouth the ship remained for a time in Devonport Dockyard.
Next the ship came under P&O management, who sailed her to Bombay in India. On this voyage she achieved only and again suffered significant mechanical problems. P&O too gave up on her, and she spent a time out of service in Liverpool.
Success with Hamburg Süd.
Finally in 1921 "Cap Polonio"s original owners, Hamburg Süd, bought her back for $150,000. In February 1922 she finally began the Hamburg – Buenos Aires service for which she had been built eight years earlier. And she at last achieved the speeds for which she was designed.
In 1927 Blohm+Voss completed a new flagship for the Hamburg Süd fleet. At and with a top speed, the new was significantly larger and slightly quicker than "Cap Polonio". The older ship remained in regular service until 1931, when Hamburg Süd laid her up.
In 1934 "Cap Polonio"s code letters RBLM were superseded by the call sign DHDN.
In June 1935 "Cap Polonio" sailed to Bremerhaven, where she was scrapped. However, parts of the ship's luxurious interior were salvaged and taken to Pinneberg in Holstein, where they were used to create the Hotel Cap Polonio. The hotel survived the Second World War and is still in business today.
In 1977 Deutsche Bundespost Berlin issued a set of pictorial commemorative stamps of German merchant ships. The 50 pfennig stamp in the set featured a picture of "Cap Polonio".


Open hatch bulk carrier

The open hatch bulk carrier, often referred to as OHBC or conbulker, is designed to offer direct access to the hold through cargo hatches which extend the full width of the vessel. As a result, large cargo units can be lowered into place. If it is possible, the holds or hatches are designed around standard cargo unit sizes. Sometimes a gantry crane is fitted. There is special attention for cargo-handling shipping gear. These conbulkers are expensive because there is extra steel necessary to widen the hatches. This is crucial to provide strength. The open hatches are useful for forest products, such as pre-slung timber and logs. The heavy units are more easy to handle than in a conventional bulk carrier. The open hatch bulk carriers can also be used to carry containers on the outward leg, and dry bulk on the return leg. The first open hatch bulk carrier was built in 1962, for the use of paper trade.


Triton-class container ship

The "Triton" class is a series of 5 container ships built for Costamare and operated by Evergreen Marine. The ships have a maximum theoretical capacity of 14,424 TEU. The ships were built by Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea.


Mikhail Frunze (ship)

The Mikhail Frunze () is a "Valerian Kuybyshev"-class (92-016, OL400) Soviet/Russian river cruise ship, cruising in the Volga – Kama – Neva basin. The ship was built by Slovenské Lodenice at their shipyard in Komárno, Czechoslovakia, and entered service in 1980. At 4,050 tonnes, "Mikhail Frunze" is one of the biggest river cruise ships currently in service with Vodohod. Her sister ships are "Valerian Kuybyshev", "Fyodor Shalyapin", "Feliks Dzerzhinskiy", "Sergey Kuchkin", "Mstislav Rostropovich", "Aleksandr Suvorov", "Semyon Budyonnyy" and "Georgiy Zhukov". Her home port is currently Nizhny Novgorod.
Features.
The ship has two restaurants, two bars, solarium, sauna and resting area.


SS Hagerstown Victory

SS "Hagerstown Victory" was a Victory ship-based troop transport built for the U.S. Army Transportation Corps (USAT) late in World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. It saw service in the European Theater of Operations during 1945 and in the immediate post-war period repatriating U.S. troops. "Hagerstown Victory" was one of 97 cargo Victory ships converted to a troopship.
"Hagerstown Victory" was one of many of the new 10,500-ton class ships known as Victory ships. Victory ships were designed to replace the earlier Liberty ships, which were intended to be used just for World War II. Victory ships, on the other hand, were designed to last longer and serve the U.S. Navy after the war. The Victory ship differed from a Liberty ship in that they were faster, longer, wider, taller, had a thinner stack set farther toward the superstructure and had a long raised forecastle.
History.
Construction and wartime operation.
"Hagerstown Victory" was laid down on 19 December 1944, as a U.S. Maritime Commission (MARCOM) Type C2 ship-based VC2-S-AP2 with hull  634. She was built by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation of Baltimore, Maryland and was launched on 13 February 1945, for the War Shipping Administration. Later, she was converted into a dedicated troopship. She was operated by the civilian company, Calmar SS Company. She was armed with a 5-inch (127 mm) stern gun for use against submarines and surface ships, and a bow-mounted 3-inch (76 mm) gun and eight 20 mm cannons for use against aircraft.
As a cargo ship, she delivered goods and war supplies to Gibraltar, Istanbul, Odessa in the Ukraine, Marseilles in France and Oran in Algeria. In October 1945, she was converted to a troopship allocated to the U.S. Army Transportation Corps (USAT). "Hagerstown Victory" was crewed by U.S. Merchant Marines, protected by a contingent of U.S. Navy Armed Guards, and had a complement of USAT (Water Division) aboard for troop administration.
She was able to transport up to 1,500 troops to and from Europe. As part of Operation Magic Carpet, she took U.S. troops home from so-called Cigarette Camps. Her cargo holds were converted to bunk beds and hammocks stacked three high for hot bunking. The cargo holds had mess halls and exercise places added. After the war, in early 1946, she was used to take German and Italian POWs from the U.S. to Le Havre, France, and Antwerp, Belgium.
Post-war use.
Later in 1946, "Hagerstown Victory" was laid up in the reserve fleet at the James River in Virginia, as part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet. In early 1967, she was put back in service and operated by the Oceanic Ore Carriers of New York to supply troops for the Vietnam War. In late 1967, she was sold to Chatham Shipping Corporation of Wilmington, Delaware, and renamed SS" Chatham". In 1969, she was sold to the Resolute Marine Associates Ltd. of Wilmington. She was seized by U.S. Marshals and sold on 23 May 1969, to Windjammer Shipping Inc. of Wilmington. She was then renamed "Windjammer Janeen".
In 1970, she was sold to Trans World Shipping Ltd. of Panama and renamed SS "Julep". On 23 November 1970, she sank in Typhoon Patsy at , off the coast of Luzon, while steaming from Taiwan-Formosa to the Philippines. An SOS distress call brought three ships which were able to save 22 of the crew, but 9 crewmen were not found.


Secondary armament

Secondary armament is a term used to refer to smaller, faster-firing weapons that were typically effective at a shorter range than the main (heavy) weapons on battleship- and cruiser-type warships. The nature, disposition, size and purpose of secondary weapons changed dramatically as the threat changed from torpedo boats, to torpedo-carrying destroyers, to aircraft, to anti-ship missiles.
Pre-dreadnought era.
Pre-dreadnoughts, from the period 1890 to 1905, were typically fitted with 3 or 4 different calibres of weapon. The main guns were usually approximately 12-inch caliber, secondary weapons usually 6-inch but typically in the range 5-inch to 7.5-inch. Guns smaller than 4.7-inch are usually considered "tertiary". (Many pre-dreadnoughts also carried 9.2 to 10-inch "secondary" guns, but these are usually treated instead as a mixed-caliber main armament.)
Secondary guns were "quick firers", and could fire 5 to 10 rounds per minute. It was this attribute, rather than their destructive power or accuracy, that provided the military value. Secondary guns were almost universally carried in "casemates", or a long armoured wall through which the battery of guns projected.
Such weapons were designed to fire at both capital ship targets and smaller targets such as torpedo craft and destroyers.
Small targets were of course vulnerable to 6-inch projectiles, and a high rate of fire was necessary to be able to hit a small and evasive target.
In this era, secondary weapons were also expected to engage capital ships. Heavily-armoured areas of battleships would not be vulnerable to 6-inch fire, but there were large areas that could not be heavily protected. These lightly armoured and unarmoured areas would be "riddled" at the expected ranges of perhaps 3000 yards. This would knock out the enemy's secondary armament, punch holes in the lightly armoured bow and stern, perhaps knock down funnels and spotting tops, and destroy the bridge and command positions. Secondary guns were a very important factor in battleship combat.
Dreadnought era.
Dreadnoughts were characterized by an "all-big-gun" armament. Broadly, this era spans from 1906, through the super-dreadnought era, to the end of World War I.
During this period, there was some variation in the selection of secondary weapon. British practice, at first, was to mount very small guns (3-inch and 4-inch) that were considered a tertiary battery. These guns were often mounted unarmoured in the open, or later, in a casemate battery. Later, the guns grew to 6-inch size. In other navies, the 6-inch size was commonly mounted throughout the era as a casemate battery.
British doctrine at first held that the small guns were for anti-torpedo defense only. Other navies, with a larger secondary battery, held that they should also be used against capital ships. For instance, German doctrine, for fighting in the North Sea, held that poor visibility provided a good opportunity for the shorter ranges at which smaller guns would be effective. Britain later came around to this point of view, although the primary justification for mounting a 6-inch battery (in the "Iron Duke" class) remained fighting against the increasingly large torpedo boats and destroyers.
Naval historians covering this period disagree on the value of the secondary battery. Arguing for, it provided protection against surface torpedo craft without needing a flotilla of supporting craft that smoked up the range and burdened the admiral with additional command, control and signalling. Arguing against, it consumed considerable displacement (2000 tons or more), were holes in the side close to the waterline that increased the risk of capsizing, and could not be heavily armoured yet were connected to magazines that threatened the destruction of the ship. There were also considerable difficulties in bringing secondary weapons into action with the main guns; they too smoked up the range, splashed and obscured their target, and might required maneuvers to open secondary arcs that put the main guns at a disadvantage. Battle experience showed that capital ships were almost always accompanied by their flotillas, secondary batteries were ineffective against capital ships, but that German battleship secondary batteries were very effective in the Jutland night action against British destroyers.
World War II.
With the emergence of the threat from air-delivered weapons, the nature of the secondary guns changed once more. Now they needed to be multi-purpose weapons, with a high-angle fire capability to engage aircraft, as well as the traditional use against destroyers. Although they were also used against capital ships, the extreme range of capital ship engagements (through superior optics and target prediction and, later, radar), meant they were not expected to achieve much.
High angle weapons could not be mounted in casemates. Thus, they migrated to small turrets mounted on the upper deck. In order to hit a fast-moving air target, a high rate of fire was required, thus secondary guns reverted slightly to the 5-inch from 6-inch size. Although 6-inch guns were still used by several navies including France, Germany, Italy and Japan in their new battleships; they were complemented by 4 to 5-inch guns as well.


SS Ryndam


MSC Nuria

MSC Nuria is a container ship built in 2008 by the Daewoo Mangalia Heavy Industries in Mangalia, Romania and currently operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A.. She is the largest container ship ever constructed in Romania.
The ship has a container capacity of 4,860 TEU's.
The Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. also had a previous ship called "MSC Nuria" built in 1977 as the "Australian Venture" and operated under Saint Kitts and Nevis flag that was discharged in 2006.


USNS Pollux (T-AKR-290)

USNS "Pollux" (T-AK-290), later T-AKR-290, the fourth United States Navy ship of the name, is an "Algol"-class vehicle cargo ship that is currently maintained by the United States Maritime Administration as part of the Ready Reserve Force (RRF) as SS "Pollux" (T-AKR-290).
In keeping with the pattern of the naming the Algol-class ships after bright stars, the "Pollux" was named after Pollux, a star in the northern constellation of Gemini.
Construction and early career.
The ship was built as the high speed container ship SS "Sea-Land Market", USCG ON 550721, IMO 7319632, by A.G. Weser in Bremen, West Germany, hull no. 1384, for Sea-Land Service, Inc.. Launched on 1 May 1973, she was delivered to Sea-Land on 1 September 1973. Due to her high operating cost, she proved uneconomical for commercial use. Sea-Land sold her to the United States Navy on 16 November 1981.
The U.S. Navy classified the ship as a cargo ship (AK), assigned her to the Military Sealift Command for non-commissioned service, and renamed her USNS "Pollux" (T-AK-290). In September 1992, the Navy reclassified her as roll-on/roll-off vehicle cargo ship and redesignated her as T-AKR-290.
Conversion.
"Pollux"s conversion into a vehicle cargo ship began on 28 July 1984 at Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her cargo hold was redesigned into a series of decks connected by ramps so vehicles can be driven into and out of the cargo hold for fast loading and unloading. She was also fitted with two pairs of cranes, one pair amidships capable of lifting , and the other pair aft capable of lifting . When her conversion was complete, Avondale delivered her to the Military Sealift Command on 31 March 1986.
Service.
When not active, "Pollux" was kept in a reduced operating status due to her high operating cost. If needed, she could be activated and ready to move in 96 hours.
"Pollux" took part in the Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991. Along with the other seven "Algol" class vehicle cargo ships, she transported 14 percent of all cargo transported between the United States and Saudi Arabia during and after the war.
She is currently in Boston's Dry Dock Number 3 as of 10/28/14.
As of 1/23/18 http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:455429/mmsi:368989000/imo:7319632/vessel:POLLUX
Transfer to Maritime Administration and Ready Reserve Force.
On 1 October 2007, "Pollux" was transferred to the United States Maritime Administration. On 1 October 2008, she was transferred to the Ready Reserve Force, losing her "USNS" designation, and laid up at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She can be reactivated in five days when needed. If activated again, "Pollux" will report to the Military Sealift Command.


SS Dwinsk

SS "Dwinsk was a British-flagged ocean liner sunk by in World War I. The ship was previously the third Rotterdam for the Holland America Line, C.F. Tietgen" for the Scandinavian America Line, and, as "Dwinsk", for the Russian American Line. The ship was put under Cunard Line management in 1917, and sailed under the British flag until sunk on 18 June 1918.
History.
SS "Rotterdam" was launched 18 February 1897 by Harland & Wolff in Belfast for the Holland America Line, the third ship by that name for the line. She sailed from Rotterdam, her namesake city, to Boulogne and New York on her maiden voyage 18 August 1897. The ship began its final voyage on this route on 17 February 1906.
Purchased by the Scandinavian America Line on 5 April 1906, the ship was renamed "C. F. Tietgen" after Carl Frederik Tietgen, a Danish merchant. The ship operated primarily on a Copenhagen-Kristiania-Kristiansand-New York route through 1913. On 28 June 1906 "C. F. Tietgen" collided with and sank the , 63-gross register ton American schooner "E. C. Hay" in the North River off the Desbrosses Street Ferry terminal in New York City; all four people aboard "E. C. Hay" survived.
In July 1913 the ship was chartered to Nordisk Film A/S for the filming of the movie "Atlantis". Later in 1913, the ship was sold to the Russian American Line and renamed "Dwinsk", and operating between Libau and New York from 10 February 1914. On 20 September 1914, "Dwinsk" began service on an Archangel-Hammerfest-New York route.
In 1917, control of the ship passed to Cunard Line who reflagged her under the British flag, and retaining her existing name. On 18 June 1918, under the command of Captain Henry Nelson, while steaming from France to Newport News, Virginia, "Dwinsk" was torpedoed by about from Bermuda. After the ship sank, "U-151" remained in the area, using the survivors in seven lifeboats as a lure to try to sink additional Allied ships.
Later the same day, spotted wreckage and the seven lifeboats, and as it approached the survivors, narrowly averted a torpedo strike launched by "U-151".
Six of the lifeboats were rescued by other ships; the seventh lifeboat, in the charge of the Second Officer, Joseph William Coppin (born 1881, St Neot, Cornwall), with 22 men aboard was never heard from again. rescued two boats on 21 June, and picked up the final boat on 28 June.


CSCL Arctic Ocean

CSCL "Arctic Ocean" is a container ship, operated by China Shipping Container Lines.
At the time of her construction she, and her four sister ships, "Globe", "Pacific Ocean", "Atlantic Ocean", and "Indian Ocean", were the largest container ships afloat, each carrying 19,100 twenty-foot equivalent unit containers. Half a dozen slightly larger vessels have been built, since then. Chinese officials said the vessels cost $136 million each to build.
In May 2017 the vessel made a visit to the Baltic Sea.
On May 19, 2017, the city of Gdańsk celebrated the arrival of the "Arctic Ocean", as it marked the first time a container ship of its size had visited the port.
On May 22, 2017, she moored at JadeWeserPort, the container port of Wilhelmshaven, Germany, on the River Weser.


Morzh-class submarine

The "Morzh"-class submarines were built for the Black Sea Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy shortly before World War I.
Background.
The class was originally conceived as part of an ambitious programme of naval construction devised by the Naval General Staff in 1909. This envisaged, among other things, the construction of six submarines for the Black Sea Fleet. The procurement was heavily cut back and delayed; in 1910, the Russian State Duma agreed to a portion of the naval plan to reinforce the Black Sea Fleet, including the construction of the six submarines. Three "Narval"-class submarines were ordered along with three of the new "Morzh"-class boats. The "Narval" class was a design developed by the Holland company for Russia.
Design.
The design of the "Morzh" class was based on , a vessel that was considered to be the most successful of the Russian-designed submarines built to date. The design of the new class was carried out at the Baltic Shipyard under Ivan Grigorevich Bubnov in 1910 and was approved on 30 May 1911, with construction starting at the Nikolayev shipyards on 25 June 1911. The principal objective of the designers was to deliver a high degree of maneuverability and stability. However, aspects of the design provoked controversy, in particular the lack of internal watertight compartments. This issue caused a heated dispute between Russia's submarine engineers and submarine officers; the engineers argued that adding bulkheads would greatly improve the ability to survive of the vessels while the submariners argued that bulkheads put the commander of the ship at risk of losing control of his crew. In the end, financial constraints required the bulkheads to be omitted.
The "Morzh" submarines were well-armed for the time, having a deck gun, four internal torpedo tubes and eight Dzhevetskiy torpedo-launching collars. However, the vessels had numerous shortcomings. They suffered from having only a single hull, lacking bulkheads, having a slow diving time of minutes due to poor ballast tank venting, and a diving depth of only . An additional problem was that twin diesel engines to power the vessels had been ordered from Germany, but were not delivered by the time the war broke out. They had to be replaced by severely underpowered engines from the Amur River gunboats, each of which delivered only . This meant that the designed surface speed could not be attained. The designed underwater speed also could not be attained due to a poorly designed hull shape, which was more like that of a surface vessel than a submarine. Many of these failings were replicated in the more numerous s, built to a design derived from that of the "Morzh".
History.
The ships were launched in September–November 1913 and were transferred to the naval base at Sevastopol between December 1914 - March 1915. "Nerpa", the largest vessel in the class, was the first to go into action in March 1915, followed by "Morzh" and "Tyulen" later that same month. All three vessels operated principally off the Bosporus against German and Ottoman Turkish naval forces, focusing on the chokepoint of many Turkish freighter routes.
The three submarines had an eventful war in the Black Sea, sinking 16 merchant ships between them. "Morzh" narrowly missed the Turkish flagship battlecruiser "Yavuz" in November 1915 but suffered damage in a Turkish air attack in May 1916. She was sunk with all hands in May 1917 on her 24th patrol as a result of striking a mine, confirmed when wreck discovered in 2002. After 24 patrols "Nerpa" went into refit in 1917 in Nikolayev but had to be laid up due to a shortage of essential parts and did not rejoin the war effort. The most successful of the three submarines was "Tyulen", which made a large number of successful attacks against enemy forces, including the capture of the armed merchantman "Rodosto" in October 1916.
"Tyulen" and "Nerpa" survived the war but had very different fates. "Tyulen" was captured by German troops at Sevastopol in May 1918 and transferred to British control in November 1918. It was passed on to White Russian forces under the command of General Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, who opposed the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. Following a Bolshevik advance, the vessel fled to Bizerte in French-ruled Tunisia in 1920, where it was interned. The ship was sold in 1924 and scrapped in 1930.
"Nerpa" remained in the shipyard at Nikolayev until 3 June 1922, when it was recommissioned by the Soviet Navy under the new name "Politruk" ("political instructor") and in 1923 it was given the designation of No. 11. The vessel was decommissioned on 3 December 1930 and was sold for scrap in February 1931.


MV Lisboa

MV "Lisboa was a Portuguese cruise liner owned by Portuscale Cruises. The ship was designed by Harland & Wolff as a freighter in Belfast built and ran in 1954 as Port Melbourne, a fast cargo liner for Port Line's UK-Australia express service. She was planned to be rebuilt as a car ferry, the Therisos Express, but instead became the cruise ship Danae. In later years, she was named Starlight Express, Baltica, and then Princess Danae".
From 1994 until 2012, the ship was operated by Classic International Cruises as the "Princess Danae". In late summer of 2012, the ship was detained in Dublin, Ireland for the non-payment of a fuel bill. Early in 2013, she was bought by the recently created Portuguese cruise company Portuscale Cruises and renamed "Lisboa". She was scrapped at Aliağa on 24 July 2015.
Her sister ship was the "Princess Daphne", built as "Port Sydney".


MV Portaferry II

MV "Portaferry II" is a passenger and car ferry operated by Transport NI. This ferry serves the Portaferry–Strangford ferry route across the mouth of Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland, a service which has been in operation since the 12th century.
History.
After years of service, MV "Strangford Ferry", which was launched on 6 September 1969, began to show signs of age. A second, smaller ship, MV "Portaferry Ferry", also operating on the Portaferry - Strangford route, had insufficient capacity to take over full service for route, so a new ship was needed. This new vessel was the "Portaferry II", built by McTay Marine of Merseyside, at a cost of a £2.7 million. She entered service on 18 December 2001, replacing the aging MV "Portaferry Ferry" and relegated the MV "Strangford Ferry", to a support role.
Details.
The "Portaferry II" has a gross tonnage of 312 tons, a hull length of , a beam of , a draught of and a capacity of 260 passengers and 20 cars. She is propelled by a pair of Voith Schneider propellors, driven by diesel engines, and is registered in Belfast.
Like her predecessors, due to the short travel time the only onboard facilities are a passenger waiting area and a gangway on one side of the ship with benches and placards to inform readers of the lough's wildlife.


HMM Copenhagen

HMM Copenhagen is one of the world's largest container ships as of 2020. Built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in South Korea. She is wide and long. The ship has a capacity of 23,964 TEU. "HMM Copenhagen" is registered in Panama and operated by HMM Co Ltd..


Bovril boats

Bovril boats, also known formally as sludge vessels, were specially designed sewage dumping vessels that operated on the River Thames from 1887 to 1998. Their task was to remove London's human solid waste from Beckton and Crossness for disposal on the ebb tide at sea, at Black Deep, an extremely deep part of the North Sea fifteen miles off Foulness, on one of the main approaches to the Thames Estuary. Similar boats operated on the Manchester Ship Canal, the Tyne, and elsewhere.
History.
The introduction of the flush toilet in the 1840s caused London's ageing sewers to overflow. In 1858 following the summer of The Great Stink and outbreaks of cholera among the public, Sir Joseph Bazalgette was appointed to redesign London's sewage system.
He was only partially successful however, as the sludge part of the human waste sewage began to build up on mud banks further down stream along the Thames.
The seriousness of the problem was highlighted in 1878 when a passenger steamer, The , sank at Gallions Reach following a collision with a cargo vessel, with great loss of life including many children. After the dead were later recovered by watermen, it was found that many had in fact not drowned, but instead had died from ingesting the poisoned waters of the toxic sludge-filled river.
Royal Commission.
A Royal Commission of 1882 concluded that it was necessary to create a cleaner river by separating the sludge part from the liquid sewage and remove it via boat for disposal at sea. In 1887 the first ship of a long line of 'pump and dump' effluent tanker vessels was launched. These ships, later nicknamed by those who crewed them as Bovril boats to describe their brown liquid cargo, were very well maintained, as hygienic as possible, and specially designed for marine disposal. Complex hydrostatic calculations had to be made when carrying liquid cargo but crews received reasonably good pay and regular work. The last of the fleet were:
"Bexley",
"Hounslow",
and "Newham",
all named after London Boroughs.
European Union legislation.
In the 1990s, European Union legislation forbidding the dumping of raw sewage at sea, and increasing environmental concerns that sewage was contaminating beaches, led to the phasing out of the fleet and many were scrapped or sold on to private companies. Newer technology finally allowed the sludge to be incinerated in a self-powering incinerator and sold on as fertilizer pellets for use on food crops.


USS Arco (ARD-29)

USS "ARD-29 was an auxiliary repair dock that served with the United States Navy during World War II as an Auxiliary floating drydock. In 1967, the ship was renamed Arco", and in the 1970s the vessel was first loaned, and later sold, to Iran.
Service history.
"ARD-29" was placed in service at San Diego, California on 1 July 1944 and was employed by the Navy at the Naval Repair Base at San Diego during the latter part of 1944 and the beginning of 1945. Early in 1945, the drydock began to receive modifications at the Kaiser Cargo yard at Richmond, California, in preparation for assignment to advanced bases in the Pacific. She was placed in commission on 23 June 1945, Lt. Hector Phillips, USNR, in command.
"ARD-29" visited Everett, Washington, for about a month before getting underway for the Central Pacific on 22 July. She stopped en route at Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands to change tugs and then continued on to the Marianas on 24 August under tow by . The floating drydock arrived at Guam on 2 September and operated there and later at Okinawa until late in 1946 when she was transferred to Pearl Harbor. "ARD-29" provided repair services to Pacific Fleet ships at Pearl Harbor until the beginning of 1959. At that time, she was towed back to Guam where she served out the last 12 years of her Navy career. During this assignment, she was named "Arco" on 28 March 1967. On 1 November 1971, "Arco" was loaned to the Imperial Iranian Navy. On 15 September 1976, her name was struck from the Navy list and she was sold to Iran on 1 March 1977.
As of the end of 2007, she was still on the active list of the Iranian Navy as "Drydock No. 400".


Khrabryi-class ship of the line

The "Khrabryi" class was a pair of ships of the line built for the Black Sea Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1840s and early 1850s. The class comprised two ships: and . The two ships were built as part of a naval expansion program aimed at strengthening the Black Sea Fleet during a period of increased tension with Britain and France over the continued decline of the Ottoman Empire. Both ships saw active service during the Crimean War, with "Imperatritsa Maria" serving as Pavel Nakhimov's flagship at the Battle of Sinop in November 1853, where the Russians annihilated an Ottoman squadron. The two ships were withdrawn to Sevastopol after the British and French intervention and were trapped there during the Siege of Sevastopol until 1855, when both were scuttled to block the harbor entrance.
Design.
The Ottoman Empire had grown increasingly weak by the 1820s, particularly after a combined French, British, and Russian fleet annihilated an Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Navarino in 1827. The power vacuum increased tension with Britain and France over influence in the region, prompting Russian fears of a conflict with the other two Great Powers. At the time, the British and French navies began to move away from the traditional seventy-four as improved building techniques allowed them to design larger two-decked ships of the line armed with 84 guns while retaining the hull strength of the 74-gun ships. And at the same time, the navy of the Eyalet of Egypt also began to build a powerful fleet. To prepare itself for an anticipated future conflict involving the British, French, Egyptians, or Ottomans, Russia began a construction program in the 1830s to strengthen the Black Sea Fleet that included nine 84-gun ships; unlike the shallower Baltic Sea, ships built for the Black Sea could make use of the deeper draft needed for the larger eighty-fours. The "Khrabryi" class were among the last of these to be built, and "Imperatritsa Maria" was the final eighty-four to be completed.
Characteristics.
The ships of the "Khrabryi" class were long, with a beam of and a draft of . The ships were given a broad beam to allow them to carry a heavy battery of 68-pound guns on their lower decks. They displaced .
The ships carried a different battery of guns. "Khrabryi" was armed with twenty-eight 68-pounder shell-firing Paixhans guns and four 36-pounder long guns on the lower gun deck and another thirty-two 36-pound short-barreled guns on the upper gun deck. In her forecastle and quarterdeck, she mounted twenty-four 24-pound gunnades, two 24-pound carronades, six 18-pound carronades, two 12-pound carronades, and two 8-pound carronades. "Imperatritsa Maria", meanwhile, carried only four of the 68-pounder Paixhans guns, with the rest of her lower battery deck filled with twenty-eight 36-pounder long guns. Her upper deck battery consisted of four more 68-pound shell guns and another twenty-eight 36-pound short-barreled guns. In her forecastle and quarterdeck, she mounted just twenty 24-pound gunnades.
Service history.
"Khrabryi" saw period of active service with the fleet in the late 1840s and into the early 1850s and both ships were assigned to the squadron commanded by Vice Admiral Pavel Nakhimov on the outbreak of the Crimean War, initially between Russia and Turkey, in October 1853, with "Imperatritsa Maria" as his flagship. The two ships were used to carry soldiers to Sukhumi that month and in November, the ships patrolled the Black Sea for Ottoman warships. "Khrabryi" was damaged in a storm and was thus prevented from taking part in the Battle of Sinop on 30 November, where the Russian shell-firing guns destroyed an Ottoman squadron.
The battle prompted Britain and France to intervene on the Ottoman side to contain Russia, which the Russians did not anticipate. Preferring to negotiate a settlement rather than actively fight an Anglo-French fleet that entered the Black Sea, the Russians withdrew their fleet to the safety of Sevastopol. The British and French laid siege to the city and the Russian ships were initially used to guard the city's seaward flank, but were later disarmed to use their guns to strengthen the land defenses. They were both ultimately scuttled in the harbor entrance as block ships to prevent the French and British ships from entering the port.


USS West Hobomac (ID-3335)

USS "West Hobomac" (ID-3335) was a steel–hulled cargo ship which saw service with the U.S. Navy as an auxiliary during World War I, and which later operated under the British flag during World War II before being lost to enemy action.
Commissioned into the Navy just three months before the end of World War I, "West Hobomac" completed three voyages during the war, and made several more on the Navy's behalf in the immediate postwar period prior to decommission in 1919. Between the wars, the ship operated as the merchant vessel SS "West Hobomac".
With the outbreak of World War II, "West Hobomac" was acquired by French interests and renamed SS "Ile de Batz". After the Fall of France in June 1940, "Ile de Batz" was seized by the British and placed into service under the British flag. "Ile de Batz" was torpedoed and sunk by "U-68" off the West African coast on 17 March 1942.
Construction and design.
"West Hobomac" was built in Seattle, Washington in 1918 at the No. 1 Plant of the Skinner & Eddy Corporation—the 13th in a series of 24 steel–hulled Design 1013 cargo ships built by Skinner & Eddy for the United States Shipping Board's emergency wartime shipbuilding program. The ship was laid down on 29 May 1918 and launched just 49 working days (59 calendar days) later on 27 July—a new record for the company, eclipsing its previous best of 51 working days. Completed on 17 August after only 66 working (80 calendar) days under construction, "West Hobomac" would end the war as the fifth fastest-built ship in the world.
"West Hobomac" had a designed deadweight tonnage of 8,800 and gross register tonnage of 5,600. The ship had an overall length of 423 feet 9 inches, a beam of 54 feet and a draft of about 24 feet. The vessel was powered by a Curtis geared turbine driving a single screw propeller, delivering a service speed of 11 knots.
Service history.
U.S. Navy service, 1918–1919.
"West Hobomac" was delivered to the U.S. Navy on 17 August 1918 and commissioned the same day for operation with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) as USS "West Hobomac" (ID-3335), with Lt. Comdr. Peter F. Johnson, USNRF, in command.
After taking on a cargo of 7,928 tons of coal, "West Hobomac" departed Portland, Oregon on 26 August 1918, bound for Iquique, Chile. Arriving at her destination on 23 September, "West Hobomac" discharged her cargo and loaded 824 tons of nitrates bound for the United States. Returning north along the Pacific coast of South America, "West Hobomac" transited the Panama Canal and arrived at New York on 8 November, three days before the end of World War I, where she unloaded her cargo. While still berthed at New York, "West Hobomac" received repairs to her engine and steering gear, underwent alterations to her crew's quarters, and refueled.
"West Hobomac" departed New York on 30 November, bound for France with a cargo of Army supplies, and arrived at Brest nine days before Christmas. Discharging her cargo, the vessel loaded 226 tons of Army return cargo and additional ballast, and on 18 January departed once more for New York. Arriving at her destination 6 February, the ship remained there for nearly two weeks, unloading and taking on board 6,392 tons of cargo for transport to the Netherlands.
Reaching Rotterdam on 11 March, "West Hobomac" unloaded and departed that port, in ballast, on the 23rd, bound for the United States. At New York, she loaded 5,252 tons of foodstuffs and relief supplies and sailed on 23 April for Belgium, arriving at Antwerp on 12 May where she discharged her cargo.
Departing for the United States on 16 May, "West Hobomac" arrived at Newport News, Virginia on 5 June. On 10 June, the ship was decommissioned, struck from the Navy List, and returned to control of the United States Shipping Board.
Interwar years.
In the interwar period, the USSB placed "West Hobomac" into commercial service. Little information is available concerning the ship's movements in this period, but it is known that the vessel was active in trade between the United States and Europe as well as ports in the Mediterranean. In 1933, the ship was acquired by the Lykes Brothers-Ripley Steamship Company consortium (later known as the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company.
World War II.
On 28 March 1940, "West Hobomac" was acquired at Newport News, Virginia by a French firm, Companie Generale Transatlantique, which renamed the ship Ile de Batz. Following the Fall of France in June 1940, "Ile de Batz" was seized by the British at Falmouth and transferred by the Minister of War Transport to the Bank Line for operation under the British flag.
By early 1942 "Ile de Batz"—now mostly manned by a Free French crew—was in operation between the United Kingdom and various ports in Africa and the Far East. Leaving Cape Town, South Africa with a 6,605-ton cargo of general goods and rice, "Ile de Batz" was intercepted 28 miles southwest of Cape Palmas on 17 March by "U-68". After disabling the vessel with a torpedo fired at 6:35 am, "U-68" surfaced and sank the stricken vessel at around 7:51 with 33 explosive rounds from her 10.5 cm gun. Four crew members of "Ile de Batz" were killed in the attack but the rest, including the ship's captain, 34 crew and 4 gunners made their way back to Cape Palmas, from whence they were taken to Freetown by HMCS "Weyburn" (K-173).


SS Robin Doncaster

SS "Robin Doncaster was a cargo liner that was built in 1940 as a Type C2-S cargo ship by Bethlehem Steel Co, Sparrows Point, Maryland, United States for the United States Maritime Commission (USMC). On completion in April 1941, she was transferred to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed Empire Curlew. In 1942, she was transferred to the USMC, regaining her former name "Robin Doncaster". She was rebuilt as a troop transport, and entered service with the War Shipping Administration in January 1944. She was returned to the USMC in April 1946 and was sold to Seas Shipping Co Inc in 1948. In 1957, she was sold to Isbrandtsen Lines and was renamed Flying Gull". Sold to American Export Lines in 1962, she served until she was scrapped in 1968.
Description.
The ship was built in 1940 by Bethlehem Steel Co, Sparrows Point, Maryland. She was Yard Number 4342, and cost $2,250,000.
The ship was long overall ( between perpendiculars), with a beam of . She had a depth of , and a draft of . She was assessed at , . Her DWT was 9,970.
The ship was propelled by two steam turbines, driving a single screw propeller of diameter. The turbines were made by Bethlehem Steel's SR division, Quincy, Massachusetts. Rated at 6,300 shp and driving the propeller at 85 rpm, they could propel her at a normal service speed of , with a maximum speed of .
As built, "Robin Doncaster" had a bale capacity of , or a grain capacity of , as well as capacity for of refrigerated cargo, and special cargo space in five holds. Carrying water and coal, she had a range of . She had a crew of 43 and could carry twelve passengers. The ship had sixteen 5-ton derricks, one 10-ton derrick and one 30-ton derrick to allow loading and unloading of cargo.
History.
"Robin Doncaster" was built at the request of the Robin Line. Intended for service between the United States and South Africa, she was launched on 7 December 1940.
World War II.
The ship was delivered on 16 April 1941. She was immediately requisitioned by the USMC, for transfer to the MoWT. "Robin Doncaster" was renamed "Empire Curlew". She was placed under the management of Donaldson, Brothers & Black Ltd. The United Kingdom Official Number 168169 was allocated. She departed from Baltimore, Maryland on 20 April for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, arriving on 23 April. She departed two days later, and joined Convoy SA 1, which formed at sea on 30 April and arrived at the Clyde on 3 May. "Empire Curlew" was a member of Convoy WS 9A, which assembled off Oversay on 3 June 1941. The convoy arrived at Freetown, Sierra Leone on 18 June. It departed Freetown on 20 June and arrived at Durban, South Africa on 4 July. The convoy departed Durban on 8 July and dispersed off Aden on 21 July, its ships then proceeding independently to Suez, Egypt. "Empire Curlew" arrived at Suez on 25 July, then sailed to Alexandria, Egypt. A return voyage was made to Port Said, Egypt before she returned to Suez, arriving on 10 August. "Empire Curlew" then sailed to Calcutta India, where she arrived on 23 August. She departed Calcutta on 29 August for Rangoon, Burma, arriving three days later. On 8 September, "Empire Curlew" departed from Rangoon bound for Cape Town, South Africa, where she arrived on 26 September. She departed the next day for Trinidad, arriving on 11 October and departing the next day for New York, where she arrived on 17 October.
On 2 November, "Empire Curlew" departed New York for Halifax. She arrived the next day, and on 4 November she joined Convoy TC 14A. The convoy arrived at the Clyde on 12 November. She left the convoy at the Belfast Lough and then sailed to Liverpool, Lancashire, arriving on 13 November. "Empire Curlew" departed from Liverpool on 5 December for the Clyde, where she joined Convoy WS 14. The convoy assembled off Oversay, and arrived at Freetown, Sierra Leone on 21 December. She departed from Freetown on 25 December for Cape Town, arriving on 5 January 1942.
On 9 January 1942, "Empire Curlew" departed from Cape Town for Basra, Iraq, where she arrived on 30 January. A voyage was made to Abadan, Iran, from where she departed on 16 February for Bombay, India, arriving four days later. On 1 March, "Empire Curlew" departed Bombay for Mombasa, Kenya and Tanga, Tanganyika. She departed Tanga on 11 March for Baltimore via Cape Town and Trinidad, arriving at Baltimore on 11 April.
"Empire Curlew" was returned to the USMC 17 April 1942, documented under U.S. registry and renamed "Robin Doncaster 16" May 1942 and operated by Seas Shipping Co. as agent for the War Shipping Administration. Conversion to a transport ship by Sullivan Drydock and Repair Corporation, New York was completed in January 1944. On 4 April 1946 she was transferred back to the USMC for reconversion.
In November 1942, "Robin Doncaster" transported some of the survivors from the American-owned, Panamanian-flagged merchant ship , which had been torpedoed shelled and sunk by on 8 November at with the loss of three crew. The survivors were rescued by on 10 November and transferred to the RAF crash boat "Navigator". They were taken to Port Elizabeth, South Africa. "Plaudit" had been on a voyage from Colombo, Ceylon to the United States via Cape Town, South Africa. She was carrying a cargo of gunny sack, jute, manganese ore and rubber. The survivors were landed at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 13 December. She also carried six survivors from the American liberty ship , which had been torpedoed by with the loss of three crew. "Ann Hutchinson" was subsequently divided in two parts by explosive charges in an attempt to salvage her cargo of 8,000 barrels of crude oil. Her stern section sank, but the bow section was towed to Port Elizabeth by . The survivors took to the lifeboats. Ten were rescued by , with the rest landing at Durban and Port Alfred.
In April 1944, "Robin Doncaster" transported troops from Camp Matthews, San Diego, California to Noumea, New Caledonia, arriving on 6 May. In September 1944 "Robin Doncaster" was on a voyage from San Francisco, California to Okinawa, Japan when she suffered two breakdowns at sea. She put into Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for repairs, which took three weeks. Due to this, she avoided being caught in Typhoon Louise.
On 29 September 1944, "Robin Doncaster" transported troops of the 165th Infantry Regiment who had been involved in Operation Forager from Tanapag Harbor, Saipan Mariana Islands to the Enewetak Atoll and then to Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, arriving on 4 October.
Post-war.
On 4 April 1946, "Robin Doncaster" was placed in the Reserve Fleet pending re-conversion to a cargo vessel. She was laid up in the James River, Virginia. On 18 July, Maryland Drydock Company were authorised to remove certain items of equipment from "Robin Doncaster" for installation on . The removed items were to be replaced within 60 days at no cost to the War Shipping Administration or USMC. The replacement was recorded as having been completed on 19 May 1947. The planned conversion of "Robin Doncaster" back to a cargo ship was canceled due to a lack of funds. On 18 March 1947, she was sold to Seas Shipping Inc. She was delivered on 7 October.
The United States Official Number 240462 was allocated. Her port of registry was New York. Her Code Letters were WMRD. On 9 January 1952, "Robin Doncaster" collided with the tug "Ruth," which was towing the barge "Agram" in the Delaware River, Philadelphia. The collision occurred because of confusion over signals given, and the presence of which was also attempting to pass "Ruth". Although agreement was made between "Mormacpenn" and "Ruth" as to how the ships would pass, no such agreement was made between "Robin Doncaster" and "Ruth". "Robin Doncaster" desired to pass port-to-port, whereas "Ruth" desired the pass to be starboard-to-starboard. After colliding with "Ruth", she then collided with "Agram", damaging the barge beyond economic repair. The New York Company, the owners of the barge, successfully sued the Seas Shipping Company Inc for damages. Robert B. Wathen, the owner of "Ruth" was successful in his appeal to be exonerated from blame for the collision, which was placed squarely on the "Robin Doncaster".
The Robin Line, operating twelve ships, was sold in 1957 with eight ships acquired by Moore McCormack Lines with four, including "Robin Doncaster", acquired for operation by American Export Lines. Seas Shipping had contracted with Moore McCormack on 1 March 1957 to sell the twelve Robin Line ships for $17 million with two specific vessels excepted, either one or both, from the sale at the option of the buyer. The two vessels were "Robin Doncaster" and "Robin Kettering". On 11 April 1957 Moore McCormack exercised the option to exclude both vessels. Seas Shipping then sold each vessel to independent third parties. "Robin Doncaster" was sold to Flying Gull Inc and renamed "Flying Gull". She was operated under the management of Isbrandtsen & Co Inc, retaining the Code Letters WMRD. "Flying Gull" was sold to American Export Lines in 1962. She was transferred to American Export Isbrandtsen Lines Inc in 1966. About this time, "Flying Gull" was involved in a collision when she was hit by at Kobe, Japan. Repairs took a week to complete. "Flying Gull" served until 1968. She arrived on 21 June 1968 at Bilbao, Spain for scrapping by Hierros Arbulu.


Temasek-class container ship

The "Temasek" class a class of container ships consisting of 10 ships in total. The ships were built for APL by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.
History.
The ships were originally ordered in 2011 by Neptune Orient Lines (NOL). They were to be delivered in 2013 and 2014. Five of the ships were chartered to Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL). Construction started in 2012 and the first ship was delivered on 13 March 2013.
In 2017, around the same time as the first new Triumph-class container ship went into service the charter ended. The ships were renamed and became part of the APL fleet.
In 2018 and 2019 eight of the ships were modified at the Cosco Zhoushan Shipyard and CSIC Qingdao Beihai Shipyard in China. The ships were made longer by adding two extra container bays and the wheelhouse was raised so that the containers can be stacked higher on deck.


USFC Grampus

USFC "Grampus was a fisheries research ship in commission in the fleet of the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, usually called the United States Fish Commission, from 1886 to 1903 and then as USFS "Grampus in the fleet of its successor, the United States Bureau of Fisheries, until 1917. She was a schooner of revolutionary design in terms of speed and safety and influenced the construction of later commercial fishing schooners.
"Grampus"′s home ports were Woods Hole and Gloucester, Massachusetts. During her 31-year career, "Grampus" made significant contributions to the understanding of the mackerel fishery off the United States East Coast , Canada, and the British colony of Newfoundland. She also investigated the tilefish population, conducted fishery investigations in the Gulf of Mexico, and contributed to fish culture work in New England to propagate the mackerel, cod, and lobster.
Design.
Fish Commission requirements.
Fishery scientists of the late 19th century believed that successful spawning was the most significant factor in the productivity of fisheries, and the Fish Commission had placed the fisheries research ship USFC "Fish Hawk" in service in 1880 to serve as a floating fish hatchery that could move up and down the coast in accordance with the timing of American shad runs. "Grampus" was constructed to fill a need the Fish Commission perceived for a ship with a well in which marine fishes could be kept alive and transported from the fishing grounds to fish hatcheries on the coast of the United States, where fisheries researchers could collect their eggs for use in the hatcheries and further ensure productive fisheries. "Grampus" also was to bring back fish for biological study of the fish themselves.
"Grampus" also needed to be seaworthy and fast, so as to be able to collect fish from European waters and bring back to the United States fish such as sole, turbot, plaice, and brill – which were important to the European commercial fishing industry but did not occur naturally in the waters off North America – so that they could be introduced into waters off the United States. "Grampus" also was to demonstrate the method of beam trawling used by European fishermen in the North Sea but not in the United States at the time to catch groundfish, and to spur the use of beam trawling by American commercial fishermen in the hope of increasing the monetary value of the American catch and to provide additional employment for men aboard American fishing vessels. The Fish Commission believed that groundfish species native to the waters off North America could be profitably fished even though they differed from the species found in European waters, and "Grampus" was to use beam trawling to test this idea.
The Fish Commission wanted to develop a comprehensive understanding of the migration of food fishes in the spring and autumn as they travelled to and from their summer feeding grounds, and chose to construct "Grampus" as a sailing ship because it wanted her to be able to remain at sea for weeks or months at a time to follow the migration continuously and investigate it completely without having to come into port for coal, as a steamer would. "Grampus" also had to be seaworthy enough to remain on duty and not lose contact with the migrating fish during bad weather. Finally, "Grampus" had to be designed and equipped to capture fish that did not swim near the surface in order to investigate fisheries completely, and she also needed to be able to capture and investigate minute life such as plankton, which supported the food fish population.
"Grampus" needed a windlass in order to work her gear, and the Fish Commission opted for a steam windlass. United States Navy Lieutenant Commander Zera Luther Tanner, an influential inventor and oceanographer of the era, commanding officer of the Fish Commissions fisheries research ship USFC "Albatross", and previously the first commanding officer of "Fish Hawk", received the task of determining what type of steam apparatus "Grampus" should carry. He chose a steam windlass with engines of 35 horsepower (26.1 kW). Operating the windlass required the installation of a boiler, steam pump, iron water tanks, and associated piping.
Speed and safety.
In addition to meeting the Fish Commissions research and fish culture requirements, "Grampus"s design also reflected ideas for improvement in the design of the then-conventional New England commercial fishing schooners so as to improve both speed and safety. In the mid-1880s, these schooners tended to be wide, shallow, and sharp so as to allow the greatest possible speed by reducing drag through the water and allowing the ship to carry a considerable amount of sail. In order to keep the hulls shallow, the schooners were "very wide aft, with a heavy, clumsy stern and fat counters, the run being hollowed out excessively so as to produce in the after section a series of very abrupt horizontal curves." The two masts came to nearly the same height above the waterline, and the schooners carried a large jib extending from the bowsprit end to the foremast.
This traditional schooner design had a number of drawbacks. The shallow hull did not, in fact, contribute significantly to speed, and the wide stern design actually hindered fast sailing. The ships shallowness of hull gave them a high center of gravity that made them prone to capsizing and sinking in heavy seas, often with significant or total loss of life among their crews. The foremast rising to the same height as the mainmast often meant either that the jib when raised to the top of the foremast caused an inefficient, asymmetrical sail pattern, or that the upper parts of the foremast were left unused; having a foremast that was taller than necessary added extra expense to the cost of the ships construction and also meant that she had an unnecessary amount of weight aloft, making her less stable and more prone to dangerous rolling and capsizing. The large jib also created problems, moving the sails center of effort too far forward when the schooner shortened sail and the mainsail was reefed, making the ship harder to handle. Moreover, handling the large jib required crew members to work on the bowsprit in bad weather, a dangerous practice that resulted in men being swept overboard and drowned.
To address these issues, "Grampus", although similar in design to the traditional New England schooner, also differed in significant ways. She had a hull deeper than traditional schooners of similar length, giving her greater stability, and her beam was less than that of a traditional schooner. She had a straight stem, rather than a raking one, and her stern was narrower and more raked, with her after portion approximating a V-shape, all changes which increased her hull length at the waterline. Her foremast was considerably shorter than her mainmast, and her rigging was designed so that she could carry a double-headed rig forward that allowed her to use a smaller jib that could be furled upon the approach of heavy weather and a fore staysail running from the foremast to near her stem. The result was a ship able to achieve higher sailing speeds, able to make more efficient use of her sails, with no need for crew members to work on her bowsprit during bad weather, and less likely to capsize in heavy seas.
Ideas for the changes in schooner design to make these improvements had been discussed as early as 1882, but "Grampus"s design was the first to put them into practice. A model of "Grampus" went on display in 1885 at the American Fish Bureau in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and attracted much attention. Her design influenced that of many future commercial fishing schooners. The U.S. Fish Commission′s "Report of the Commissioner for the Year Ending June 30, 1901" said that "her superiority in safety, speed, and other desirable qualities has been fully established" and "[a]fter twelve years' service [i.e., through at least 1898] the "Grampus" is unexcelled in speed by fishing vessels or pilot boats. Referring to shipbuilding in New England, the report added, "Nearly all of the fishing vessels recently built are deeper than formerly, and embody other features that characterize the "Grampus". The spirit of improvement has received such an impetus that the best skill of the most eminent naval architects has of late been devoted to designing fishing vessels."
Other characteristics.
"Grampus" was of wooden construction, built largely of white oak with some white pine deck planking. She was in length overall. Her fish well was pyramidal in shape, long and about wide at the bottom and long and about wide at the top, and it had 204 holes in its bottom planks to allow seawater to circulate through it. A laboratory was situated just aft of the well; it contained closet space and shelving to hold specimens in jars of alcohol, medicines, the ship′s library of over 100 volumes, fishing gear, and signal gun equipment. The ship was equipped to store specimens on ice.
For fishing, "Grampus" was rigged for trawling, hand-line fishing, gillnetting, seining, dredging, and squid jigging. She had equipment for capturing the eggs of pelagic fishes and keeping the eggs alive or hatching them once they were aboard. She also was equipped to harpoon swordfish and porpoises, with a pulpit for this purpose mounted on her jib boom end. She carried guns with which her personnel could shoot birds and seals so that their carcasses could be collected for study. To collect environmental information, she carried sounding equipment and deep-sea thermometers.
"Grampus"′s sail suit consisted of a foresail, a fore staysail, a riding sail, a mainsail, a jib, a flying jib, a fore gaff topsail, a main gaff topsail, a main topmast staysail, and a balloon jib. She carried five boats: a carvel-built seiner rigged as a schooner; a carvel-built open dinghy rigged as a sloop; and three dories. She also carried three "live-cars," dory-like craft covered with heavy netting through which seawater could circulate freely. They were intended to keep fish alive after crew members manning the dories hauled in trawl lines; the men in the dories could dump the live fish into a live-car alongside each dory as they reeled in the lines.
Construction.
By the spring of 1885, the United States Congress had appropriated $14,000 (USD) for the design and constriction of "Grampus" and design of the ship began. Under the supervision of U.S. Fish Commission Captain J. W. Collins, "Grampus"s hull was constructed at Noank, Connecticut, by Robert Palmer & Sons, which launched her on 23 March 1886. Her sails, rigging, blocks, and ground tackle came from E. L. Rowe & Son, of Gloucester; her boats from Higgins & Gifford, of Gloucester; her steam windlass from the American Ship Windlass Company of Providence, Rhode Island; and the boiler for the windlass from M. V. B. Darling of Providence. The rest of her equipment came mainly from Bliss Brothers and H. M. Greenough of Boston, Massachusetts.
Service history.
U.S. Fish Commission.
1880s.
The Fish Commission commissioned "Grampus" on 5 June 1886 under the command of Captain J. W. Collins. She departed Noank that day for Woods Hole, Massachusetts, which was to be her home port. After a stopover at Woods Hole from 6 to 8 June 1886, she departed for Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she arrived on 9 June 1886 and took aboard her boats and fishing gear – all of which had been manufactured at Gloucester – and made alterations to her sails. That work completed, she sailed on 14 June 1886 to Boston, Massachusetts, where she took aboard her marine chronometer and "other instruments and apparatus." She spent 16–22 June 1886 at Gloucester, then sailed to Woods Hole, arriving there on 23 June 1886 to begin preparations for her first scientific cruise.
That cruise began on 21 August 1886, when "Grampus" departed Woods Hole to determine the status of the tilefish off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Discovered in 1879, first collected scientifically at sea by the Fish Commission steamer in 1880, and abundant enough in 1880 and 1881 to suggest the development of a new fishery, the tilefish had experienced a massive die-off in 1882, with many millions of dead fish found between Nantucket, Massachusetts, and Cape May, New Jersey. After a week on the fishing grounds without finding a single tilefish – prompting Collins to propose that the species was at least locally extinct – "Grampus" set course for Woods Hole, arriving there on 24 August 1886.
The voyage doubled as a shakedown cruise, and it demonstrated that the steam windlass and its engines and boiler were too heavy for "Grampus", adding so much weight forward as to make her difficult to manage in a seaway, and the windlass and its associated machinery were removed and placed ashore at Woods Hole. She therefore arrived at Gloucester on 2 September 1886 to have installed a new wooden windlass that had been manufactured for her there. With her new windlass installed, she departed Gloucester on 22 September for a cruise to La Have Bank and Roseway Bank in the North Atlantic Ocean south of Nova Scotia, Canada, and Seal Island Ground in the Gulf of Maine to collect live cod and halibut for return to Woods Hole for study and propagation, i.e., fish culture work. During the cruise, "Grampus" received a "perfect specimen" of the squid "Sthenoteuthis megaptera" – only the second perfect specimen of the species ever collected and the first in United States, preceded only by one collected in Canada – from the Gloucester-based schooner "Mabel Leighton" on 26 September 1886. However, she had little success in her primary objective, finding that cod and halibut caught in deep water died soon after being placed in her well, apparently because of the rapid change in pressure and temperature as they were hauled to the surface. Her attempts to catch halibut in shallow water met with no success. She returned to Woods Hole on 12 October 1886 and offloaded fish she had collected as well as seabirds her personnel had shot for study.
"Grampus" made a single-day voyage to visit the mackerel-fishing fleet in the western part of Vineyard Sound off Gay Head, Massachusetts, then was engaged until March 1887 in voyages to collect spawning cod and investigate the fisheries in the Gulf of Maine, Massachusetts Bay, and Vineyard Sound, finding some success in bringing cod back alive in her well to Woods Hole, although over 95 percent of fish still died in the well. On 3 April 1887, she departed Woods Hole to conduct a cruise along the United States East Coast from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The reasons for the behavior of mackerel during their annual spring appearance off the coasts of the United States and Canada were poorly understood when "Grampus" entered service, and the cruise began a lengthy involvement for her in examining mackerel behavior as she studied schools of mackerel as they moved toward the coast early in the fishing season and how factors such as temperature and food sources influenced their subsequent movements. She completed this work for the season on 31 May 1887, then returned to Woods Hole on 4 June 1887. On 3 July 1887 she sailed north to investigate reports of mackerel in the North Atlantic Ocean northeast of Newfoundland and collect birds, bird eggs, and remains of the great auk, which had become extinct in the mid-19th century. She proceeded along the coast of Nova Scotia as far as Canso, into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, north to the Magdalen Islands, to St. John's, Newfoundland, and then along the eastern coast of Newfoundland, finding no sign of mackerel but collecting many specimens of flora and fauna as well as a significant number of great auk bones. She returned to Woods Hole on 1 September 1887. She spent the winter of 1887–1888 making cruises off Massachusetts to collect brood cod.
From April through July 1888, "Grampus" returned to the mackerel fishing grounds between Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras, collecting living eggs and embryos for fish-culture work and experimenting successfully with returning living mackerel to port in her well. In May 1888, she also studied menhaden reproduction in the lower Chesapeake Bay. Late in the 1888 fishing season, she investigated the mackerel fishery between Nantucket and Virginia, and she collected brood cod during October and the first half of November 1888. This effort came to an end on 15 November 1888, when she ran aground during a gale on Bass Rip (), a shoal in the North Atlantic east of Nantucket Island off the coast of Massachusetts. With the weather giving signs of deteriorating further, her crew abandoned ship. Unmanned, she floated free and was adrift for several days before she was recovered and taken to Woods Hole. She underwent repairs at Gloucester.
"Grampus" departed Woods Hole on 14 January 1889, arrived at Key West, Florida, on 27 January 1889, and began operations in the Gulf of Mexico to study the red snapper fishery on the continental shelf off the west coast of Florida in waters deep, continuing these operations until 27 March 1889 and battling a great deal of stormy weather to conduct her investigation. From late July through early September 1889 she conducted research in waters south of Massachusetts and Rhode Island and between the eastern end of Nantucket Island and Block Island, taking water temperature readings to a depth of as much as and making meteorological observations at stations along a series of parallel lines extending as far as from the coast. Her work began a multiyear effort to record temperatures in vertical water columns and associated weather above those columns to discern the interaction between the Gulf Stream and colder waters and the possible effect of that interaction on the behavior of various food fishes, especially the mackerel. In September 1889 she began collecting cod eggs off Massachusetts for the Bureau of Fisheries station at Gloucester, continuing that work until the following spring.
1890s.
"Grampus" completed her cod collection duties off Massachusetts for the season in May 1890. From 3 July to 25 August 1890, she resumed the work of recording water temperatures and weather off southern New England she had begun in the summer of 1889, this time joined in the effort by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey survey steamer and observers stationed aboard the Nantucket South Shoals Lightship. "Grampus" again collected brood cod over the winter of 1890–1891. From 5 May to 18 June 1891, she again investigated the mackerel fishery off the U.S. East Coast between Massachusetts and Delaware, continuing the inquiry into how weather and water temperature influenced the seasonal movements of mackerel. Following that, she operated off southern New England for the third consecutive summer, from 30 June to 1 September 1891, to continue the study of vertical water columns and weather begun in 1889, this time operating only with the support of personnel embarked on the lightship. On 5 September 1891, "Grampus" was on a voyage from Hyannis, Massachusetts, to Woods Hole with U.S. Commissioner of Fisheries Marshall McDonald and his wife and daughter, Assistant U.S. Fish Commissioner J. W. Collins (her former captain), and two female guests aboard when she ran aground on L'Hommidieu Shoal in Vineyard Sound during a southeasterly storm. McDonald, Collins, McDonalds family members, and the other two women made it safely to Falmouth, Massachusetts, in a dory, and "Grampus" later was refloated and returned to service.
In late June 1892, "Grampus" began an assignment in the lower Chesapeake Bay and the waters of the North Atlantic outside its mouth to ascertain the abundance of fishes in the region; she completed this work on 20 July 1892. Before the end of July, with Commissioner McDonald aboard, she began an investigation under his personal direction of the waters off southern New England to see if the tilefish had returned to those waters; the water-column studies of 1889 through 1891 in which she had participated demonstrated a return of warmer water to the depths the tilefish inhabited, and during several voyages in waters between Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and Cape Henlopen, Delaware, she collected eight tilefish during the remainder of the summer, the first found there since the tremendous tilefish die-off of 1882. This finding supported a hypothesis that an influx of cold water had killed the tilefish in 1882 and that the species would reestablish itself as warmer water spread back into the area. She spent the autumn of 1892 and winter of 1892–1893 in New England waters on fish egg collection duties and in largely unsuccessful attempts to capture live cod.
In the spring of 1893, the Fish Commission tasked "Grampus" to evaluate the success of a five-year ban the United States Congress had passed in 1886 on the taking of mackerel prior to 1 June of each year – a prohibition which had expired after the 1892 season – by following the commercial fishing fleet throughout the entire 1893 spring mackerel season to see what effect the five-year ban had had on the mackerel population off the U.S. East Coast. During her cruise, she was to obtain specimens of mackerel, record physical conditions continually, and use towed nets to gather organisms that mackerel feed on. Departing Woods Hole on 10 April 1893, she arrived at Lewes, Delaware, on 21 April after a stormy passage and met the mackerel fleet there. The mackerel catch and weather both were poor, and by mid-May 1893 the fleet had moved north, following the mackerel in their annual migration. After calling at Woods Hole for supplies, "Grampus" departed on 23 May 1893 to follow the fleet to the waters off Nova Scotia. There the mackerel catch improved significantly after 1 June 1893, and "Grampus" returned to Woods Hole in late June 1893 with a good collection of specimens and complete set of observations. She again searched for tilefish in July and August 1893 with Commissioner McDonald aboard.
"Grampus" again shadowed the mackerel fleet in the spring of 1894, departing Gloucester on 7 April. She was bound from Gloucester to Woods Hole before proceeding to Lewes when a serious nor'easter struck, raising significant concerns for her safety. She survived, however, and operated from Lewes from 20 April to 10 May, hampered as she had been a year earlier by heavy weather. She followed the fleet north to fishing grounds off the coast of New York, and then across Georges Bank to Cape Sable Island and Nova Scotia. She then continued to follow schools of mackerel into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence as far north as Cape North on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Completing this work she departed for Gloucester on 13 June, arriving there on 25 June. During the last half of July and first half of August 1894, she cruised the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to examine the mackerel fishery there. After egg collection duty in the autumn of 1894 and winter of 1894–1895, she spent another spring in 1895 following mackerel schools, beginning her cruise on 12 April, operating from Lewes until 10 May, then following the mackerel to waters off New York, across Georges Bank and Browns Bank to Nova Scotia, to Cape North, and then briefly in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence before returning to Gloucester, where she arrived on 30 June 1895. From 8 August to late September 1895, she conducted the first investigation of mackerel abundance and behavior and associated environmental factors in the waters off northern New England, operating between the Bay of Fundy and Block Island.
"Grampus" resumed the collection of information on the mackerel in the spring of 1896, leaving Gloucester on 11 April, arriving at Lewes on 16 April, leaving Lewes on 8 May, and working her way north along the coast of New Jersey and east along the coast of Long Island and Block Island before arriving at Woods Hole on 14 May. In May and early June 1896 "Grampus" collected mackerel eggs in the Vineyard Sound area and off Chatham, Massachusetts, and in the latter part of June she was stationed at Small Point, Maine, to collect mackerel eggs in support of the Fish Commission steamer "Fish Hawk" at Casco Bay. The lobster fishery had been in decline for a number of years, so in July "Grampus" moved to Rockland, Maine, to support "Fish Hawk", which had moved to Boothbay Harbor, in collecting lobster eggs, concluding this work on 3 August 1896 and returning to Gloucester. During the autumn of 1896 and over the winter of 1896–1897 she collected cod eggs. From May to June 1897, she collected lobsters along the coast of Maine from Portland to Rockland and transported them to the Fish Commission station at Gloucester with no difficulty; after the lobsters had been stripped of their eggs at Gloucester, she then released them along with lobster fry along the coast of Maine during her return voyage. She collected brood cod off Massachuetts in October and November 1897 and lobsters along the entire coast of Maine between April and July 1898, and released lobster fry along the coast of Maine. In "one of the most noteworthy investigations of the [Fish] Commission" and "one of the leading features of the fishing industry" during fiscal year 1899 (which ran from 1 July 1898 to 30 June 1899), she conducted a systematic study of tilefish populations on the edge of the continental shelf off southern New England and Long Island during three cruises between August and October 1898 and found tilefish in abundance, bringing back the hope the Fish Commission last held in 1880–1881 that a commercial tilefish fishery would develop. In October and November 1898 she collected brood cod along the coast of Massachusetts for the Fish Commission station at Woods Hole. During the summer of 1899 she made three cruises to the Gulf Stream to study the state of the tilefish fishery. She collected brood cod off Massachusetts for the Woods Hole station in October and November 1899.
1900s.
Between April and the beginning of July 1900, "Grampus" collected egg-bearing lobsters along the coast of Maine between Portland and Eastport with the assistance of a steam smack. During the summer of 1900 she made a successful cruise to study the tilefish fishery. In October 1900 she collected brood cod for the Woods Hole station, fishing as in years past in the vicinity of the Nantucket Shoals; she had caught 4,000 to 6,000 cod every autumn since 1897. In the spring of 1901, although delayed by stormy weather that persisted throughout April and early May, she collected egg-bearing lobsters for the Fish Commission′s Gloucester station during operations along the coast of Maine from Portland to Rockland, again assisted by a steam smack, and released lobster fry along the coast of Maine during her return trip from Gloucester. After a chase of several days and nights off the coast of Maine, she captured two harbor seal pups which went on display in a large pool as part of the Fish Commission′s exhibit at the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo, New York, but they both died during the exposition′s final week.
On 28 July 1901, "Grampus" embarked a small party from the Fish Commission′s Woods Hole station and left Woods Hole bound for fishing grounds south and east of Nomans Land to collect tilefish. Reaching the fishing grounds that night, she began trawling on the morning of 29 July in the vicinity of at a depth of and two hours later brought 62 tilefish weighing a combined to the surface. She returned with them to Woods Hole on 30 July, and the Fish Commission shipped her catch to dealers in Boston, Gloucester, and New York City who had agreed to cooperate with the Commission in its goal of establishing a commercial tilefish fishery. She collected brood cod off Massachusetts for the Woods Hole station from 2 October to 3 November 1901.
From 18 April to 18 July 1902, "Grampus" collected egg-bearing lobsters along the coast of Maine between Wood Island and Eastport for the Gloucester station, assisted as in previous years by a steam smack, and during the remainder of the summer assisted in the work of the Woods Hole station. One of her most significant achievements that summer was in response to a request by fish dealers and curers for more tilefish with which to spur the development of a commercial tilefish fishery; departing Woods Hole on 30 July 1902, she proceeded to fishing grounds southeast by south of Nomans Land and on 31 July in five trawl sets at at a depth of caught 474 tilefish ranging in size from and totaling . It was the largest catch of tilefish ever made at the time, and after she landed them at Woods Hole and they were shipped to fish dealers, the dealers found success in selling them. In the autumn of 1902 she collected brood cod at Nantucket Shoals for the Gloucester station. In the spring of 1903 she collected egg-bearing lobsters off Maine.
U.S. Bureau of Fisheries.
1900s.
By an Act of Congress of 14 February 1903, the U.S. Fish Commission became part of the newly created United States Department of Commerce and Labor and was reorganized as the United States Bureau of Fisheries, with both the transfer and the name change effective on 1 July 1903. As USFS "Grampus", "Grampus" became part of the Bureau of Fisheries fleet.
In the summer of 1904, "Grampus" collected egg-bearing lobsters in Maine, and in October and November 1904 she collected brood cod off Massachusetts. Laid up over the winter of 1904–1905, she reentered service on 1 April 1905 for another stint collecting egg-bearing lobsters. By mid-1905, the Bureau of Fisheries was reporting to the United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor that after 19 years of active service, "Grampus" would soon be in need of major repairs and reconstruction to keep her seaworthy, and that the Bureau viewed it as highly desirable that auxiliary motor power be installed aboard her to supplement her sails. In the summer of 1905, her usual duties of lobster collection were interrupted when she was tasked to transport Bureau of Fisheries representatives to Newfoundland to examine herring fisheries in its waters at the request of New England fishing interests and determine the effect on American herring-fishing vessels of fishing regulations recently passed by the colony's government. "Grampus" took the opportunity to make observations related to mackerel in the region and to study local fishing and fish preservation practices in Newfoundland during the voyage. The Bureau representatives found nothing irregular and that Newfoundland was enforcing fishing regulations in accordance with the Treaty of 1818, but in mid-1906 the Bureau again reported to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor that the voyage demonstrated both the need for repairs to and reconstruction of "Grampus" and the installation of motor power aboard her if she was to remain an effective part of the Bureau′s fleet.
"Grampus" completed her annual lobster collection duties off Maine in late September 1906, then was dismantled at Gloucester in anticipation of undergoing the major repairs and reconstruction advocated by the Bureau. After the U.S. Congress appropriated US$7,500 for her repairs, she was sent to Boothbay Harbor, Maine, for reconstruction in June 1907. After the completion of her repairs and reconstruction, "Grampus" – now referred to as an "auxiliary schooner" by the Bureau of Fisheries – began a cruise of several weeks in July 1908 to study animal life in the Gulf Stream off southern New England, collecting creatures from both deep and shallow water and taking soundings and temperature readings.
In the spring of 1909 at the request of the Board of Trade and Master Mariners' Association of Gloucester, the Bureau agreed to investigate mackerel schools believed to congregate in waters remote to those visited annually by the seining fleet, testing a belief among some fishermen that the replacement of older hook-and-line fishing methods by seining and gillneting over the previous 20 years had dispersed mackerel schools and led to a decline in the productivity of the mackerel fishery. On 7 April 1909, "Grampus" departed from Gloucester to conduct the study. She joined the seining fleet at Lewes, Delaware, on 2 May 1909 and began her mackerel study, making her first experiments that day at . Her cruise made experimental use of gillnets and lines to catch mackerel and tow nets to detect minute crustaceans mackerel feed on. Focusing initially on the southern fishing grounds from Cape Henry, Virginia, north to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where mackerel runs first began each spring, and hampered by stormy weather, she remained behind after the fishing fleet moved north to see if she could detect any mackerel remaining behind, as might be the case if newer fishing methods were dispersing them. No mackerel remained behind, however, and "Grampus" moved north to follow the fish, working her way across Georges Bank and Browns Bank and making port calls in Nova Scotia at Sandy Point from 5 to 8 August 1909, at Halifax, from which she departed on 12 August, and North Sydney, from which she sailed on 15 August. For the rest of August and during September she worked in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and along the south coast of Newfoundland; she then departed the region on 10 October 1909 bound for Gloucester, where she arrived on 16 October 1909. Her cruise failed to discover where the southern population of mackerel went after it disappeared from the fishing grounds off Long Island each year or where the northern population went after its annual departure from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, but "Grampus" did discover that weather and the presence of schools of predatory bonito had a much larger impact on the abundance of mackerel on the fishing grounds than previously suspected.
1910s.
Inactive over the winter of 1909–1910, "Grampus" began her annual lobster collection duties in April 1910. She conducted her routine fish-culture work during fiscal year 1911 (1 July 1910-30 June 1911) and fiscal year 1912 (1 July 1911–30 June 1912). In July and August 1912, she explored the oceanography of the Gulf of Maine to determine the physical and biological conditions governing the distribution of fish food and young fishes. In the summer of 1913 she studied the oceanography of waters from the Gulf of Maine to the Virginia Capes, discovering previously unknown scallop beds. In late 1913 and early 1914, she provided living quarters for personnel collecting pollock spawn. In the summer of 1914, she conducted oceanographic work from the Gulf of Maine to Nantucket, then was laid up over the winter of 1914–1915. She resumed her oceanographic work in the Gulf of Maine on 4 May 1915, continuing it until 27 October 1915. She was laid up for the winter of 1915–1916.
From 18 July 1916 to 24 April 1917, "Grampus" conducted her final scientific work for the Bureau of Fisheries, with oceanographic and other investigations off the U.S. East Coast and fishery investigations in the Gulf of Mexico. Early in the winter of 1916–1917, she investigated banks near Cape Fear, North Carolina, whose productivity were unknown to fishermen; she was hampered by storms and was able to study only two of the potential fishing grounds, but found one to be a good site to fish for sea bass or blackfish and the other productive for drifting fishing vessels. Later in the winter she moved on to the Gulf of Mexico, where she overcame interruptions by fog and storms to study the shrimp fishery there. In her otter trawl, she found shrimp in abundance off Mobile Bay on the coast of Alabama, on the southeast side of Ship Island on the coast of Mississippi, and southeast of Barataria Pass on the coast of Louisiana. Wrapping up her Gulf of Mexico work, she reached Washington, D.C., in April 1917, then proceeded to Gloucester.
Disposal.
After "Grampus" returned to Gloucester in 1917, major defects were found in her hull that would require considerable expense to repair. Deeming her of obsolete design, no longer suited to its needs, and not worth repairing, the Bureau of Fisheries condemned and sold her in 1918.


USS Rockwall (APA-230)

USS "Rockwall" (APA-230) was a that saw service with the US Navy in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
"Rockwall" was named after Rockwall County, Texas. She was laid down for the Maritime Commission on 9 September 1944 by Kaiser Shipbuilding of Vancouver, Washington; launched 5 November; acquired by the Navy on loan-charter 14 January 1945, and commissioned the same day at Astoria, Oregon, Capt. Charles W. Roland in command.
Operational history.
World War II.
After shakedown off the California coast, "Rockwall" sailed for Saipan, where she debarked a Marine Rocket Detachment and a Naval Construction Regiment 12 April. With other attack transports, she practiced amphibious operations and maneuvers off Lanai and Maui, 1–5 May. She then made a hydrographic survey on Palahinu Beach, Lanai, before arriving at Pearl Harbor on 7 May.
Invasion of Okinawa.
She departed 24 May, with Marines and debarked them at Okinawa 10 June. The next day, "Rockwall" sailed for Ulithi, and on 18 May, took on board the 5th Military Police Battalion of the U.S. Marines at Guam and carried them to Iwo Jima.
"Rockwall" began her homeward voyage with officers and enlisted men from Iwo Jima 29 June, picked up further troops at Tinian 4 July, and arrived at San Francisco on 24 July.
After hostilities.
"Rockwall" carried Army replacements to Manila 9 September and loaded stores and embarked Army troops at Leyte Gulf 13 September. She sortied on 18 September with , the amphibious force flagship, and a convoy of 24 attack transports and attack cargo ships for Honshū, Japan. The force arrived 25 September and began unloading.
"Rockwall" sailed 29 September for Shanghai, China, joining destroyer escort as escort on 4 October and arrived 6 October. She embarked 1,728 passengers 11 October and arrived at Seattle, Washington on 26 October. "Rockwall" made two more voyages to the Philippines.
Peacetime Operations.
During the spring of 1946, she took part as a support vessel in Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll designed to test the effectiveness of nuclear weapons on warships. Over 200 warships participated in the experiments, 75 of them as targets, the rest as support vessels.
"Rockwall" was then transferred to the Amphibious Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and soon began amphibious training operations in the Caribbean. On 15 March 1947, "Rockwall" decommissioned and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
Second commission.
The ship recommissioned 3 March 1951 at San Francisco. Her duties during the next 4 years were varied. "Rockwall" carried 1,500 Army troops to Bremerhaven, Germany in August 1952. The next spring, she took part in refresher training off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In January 1954, the transport embarked Marines at Morehead City, North Carolina, for a 5-month tour of duty in the Mediterranean with the 6th Fleet. She returned to Norfolk, Virginia on 27 May and began a series of amphibious operations off the beaches of Virginia and Vieques Island near Puerto Rico.
Final decommission.
"Rockwall" entered the Reserve Fleet again 4 June 1955 and decommissioned 28 September. On 1 December 1958, she was struck from the Navy List and was transferred to the custody of the Maritime Administration, after which she was berthed in James River, Virginia. She was disposed of by MARAD on 1 August 1983. She was then towed to Barcelona, where she was scrapped by Balboa Desguaces Maritimos, S.A.
Decorations.
For her service in World War II, "Rockwall" earned one battle star.


Msy Wind Spirit

The msy "Wind Spirit" is a motor sailing yacht, sailing as a cruise ship for Windstar Cruises. She is one of an unusual class of only three vessels (msy "Wind Star", msy "Wind Spirit" and msy "Wind Song"), designed as a modern cruise ship but carrying an elaborate system of computer-controlled sails on four masts.


MS City of York


IMR vessel

An Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) vessel is a highly technical vessel, deployed in the offshore industry.
Their primary task comprises the inspection and repair of subsea facilities and installations. These vessels are often equipped for other tasks including diving support, scale treatment and light construction work.
Capabilities.
IMR vessels are designed to continue operations in harsh weather conditions. They are equipped with IMO Class II or Class III Dynamic Positioning Systems and have the latest technology on board. The vessels usually have a large deck area, used for the carriage of auxiliary equipment, spools, containers, etc. The accommodation provides capacity for between 80 and 100 people. The vessels often have a helicopter platform. Most vessels have 1 or 2 cranes for supplies and installation of small-size structures. All vessels have a moon pool installed for the support of ROVs. Many IMR vessels have tanks for the supply of potable fresh water, brine and lubrication oil to the installation and the removal of greywater and sewage from it.
Operations.
These multi-purpose vessels' work includes:
Design.
Modern IMR vessels concentrate on a bigger operational window, being able to operate in the harshest of weather conditions, including the arctic environment. Many new vessels have an ice class notation and carry winterization equipment. New vessels are designed to be more environmental friendly and energy efficient by reducing emissions, using less or alternative fuel (LNG) and noise reduction. Designers and operators focus on a comfortable environment for crewmembers. IMR vessels often have a gymnasium, a solarium, a movie theatre and a high-quality kitchen.


SS Alanson B. Houghton

SS "Alanson B. Houghton" was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Alanson B. Houghton, the vice president and later president of Corning Glass Works, a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York (1919–1922), the United States Ambassador to Germany (1922–1925), United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1925–1929), and a member of the Jekyll Island Club.
Construction.
"Alanson B. Houghton" was laid down on 19 January 1944, under a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MC hull 2293, by J.A. Jones Construction, Panama City, Florida; sponsored by Mrs. H.R. Pratt, she was launched on 14 March 1944.
History.
She was allocated to American South African Lines, Inc., on 15 April 1944. On 14 October 1949, she was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, in Mobile, Alabama. On 28 October 1971, she was sold, along with 13 other ships, for $513,000 to Union Minerals and Alloys Corporation, for scrapping. She was removed from the fleet 25 October 1972.


SS Chief Ouray