ARA Canal Beagle

ARA "Canal Beagle" (B-3) is a cargo ship in service with the Argentine Navy since 1978, capable of transporting bulk cargo, live cattle, and containers. She is the second ship in the Argentine Navy to bear the name of the Beagle Channel in the south of Tierra del Fuego.
Design.
"Canal Beagle" (B-3) is one of three cargo ships ordered by the Argentine Navy in 1975, designed and built by the Argentine Príncipe, Menghi y Penco shipyard, at Buenos Aires, Argentina. The design is optimised for Patagonic coastal service.
"Canal Beagle" has a steel hull and the superstructure at the stern, with a single mast and a single funnel atop, behind the bridge; the cargo area is located in the middle of the ship and three “Liebherr” cranes serve the three holds, one each. She has a bulk cargo capacity of or 6,800 tons (e.g.: coal, cereals, live cattle), a refrigerated cargo capacity of , and can carry up to 140 containers.
"Canal Beagle" is powered by two 6-cylinder Sulzer 6 ZL 40/48 marine diesel engines of each, driving two variable-pitch propellers; with a maximum speed of .
History.
With the ships then operating with “Naval Transport Service” ( "Servicio de Transportes Navales") approaching obsolescence, the Argentine Navy was authorized (via decree 3/10/1975) to order the local construction of three cargo ships for the southern coastal service. The ships, with hull optimised for Patagonic coastal service, were designed and built by the Argentine Príncipe, Menghi y Penco shipyard, at Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the late 1970s and are denominated the "Costa Sur"-class.
"Canal Beagle", the first ship in her class, was laid down on 10 January 1977 and launched on 19 October 1977. She was commissioned on 29 April 1978 and assigned to the Argentine Navy’s Naval Transport Service with pennant number B-3.
In addition to coastal and riverine activities in Argentina, "Canal Beagle" also operated overseas. In 1989, "Canal Beagle" helped remove oil from the shipwreck of the polar transport , in an effort to reduce pollution in the Antarctic waters.
In 1992 she transported to the Gulf of Fonseca, Honduras, the four "Baradero"-class patrol boats used under United Nations mandate ONUCA.
In 2005, "Canal Beagle" was part of the naval deployment contributing to the security of the 4th Summit of the Americas ( "IV Cumbre de las Américas") hold in the Argentine city of Mar del Plata.
Starting in late 2007, she took part in the Argentine Antarctic Program replacing the icebreaker in the resupply of the Argentine bases in Argentine Antarctica.
As of late 2016, "Cabo de Hornos" remains in service with the Argentine Navy.


List of Soviet and Russian submarine classes

The Submarines in the Soviet Navy were developed by numbered "projects", which were sometimes but not always given names. During the
Cold War, NATO nations referred to these classes by NATO reporting names, based on intelligence data, which did not always correspond perfectly with the projects. See:
The NATO reporting names were based on the British (and later American) habit of naming submarines with a letter of the alphabet indicating the class, followed by a serial number of that class. The names are the radiotelephonic alphabet call sign of a letter of the alphabet. For security purposes, the "pennant numbers" of Soviet submarines were not sequential, any more than those of Soviet surface vessels were.
Most Russian (and Soviet) submarines had no "personal" name, but were only known by a number, prefixed by letters identifying the boat's type at a higher level than her class. Those letters included:
Any of those prefixes could have С (S) added to the end, standing for специальная ("spetsialnaya") and meaning "designed for special missions":


Gunde Maersk

Gunde Maersk is owned and operated by the A.P. Moller Maersk. "Gunde Maersk" was one of the largest container ships in the world when she was built. The "Gunde Maersk" was christened on 10 May 2008 at Maersk Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark.
Hull and engine.
"Gunde Maersk" is a fully cellular container ship with a capacity of 11,008 TEU. It was completed in May 2008 by the Odense Steel Shipyard, in yard 212. It has an overall length of 367 meters.
It is powered by a Wärtsilä 12RT-Flex96c, 2-stroke slow speed diesel engine. This engine is capable of propelling the "Marchen Maersk" at a top speed of 25 knots.


SS Felix Riesenberg

SS "Felix Riesenberg" was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Felix Riesenberg, a mariner, explorer, civil engineer, chief officer of the United States Shipping Board, (USSB) and author of marine textbooks.
Construction.
"Felix Riesenberg" was laid down on 16 November 1944, under a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MC hull 2391, by J.A. Jones Construction, Brunswick, Georgia; she was sponsored by Mrs. N.M. Campbell, and launched on 14 December 1944.
History.
She was allocated to the American West African Line Inc, on 26 December 1944. On 7 March 1951, she was sold to Pacific Waterways Corp., and renamed "Transatlantic". In March 1959, she was sold to Alaska Steamship Co., and renamed "Nenana". On 6 January 1971, she was sold to Jui Fa Steel & Iron Works Co., Ltd., Taiwan, for scrapping.


Argo-class submarine

The "Argo"-class was a class of two coastal submarines built by Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico in Monfalcone for Portugal but operated by the Royal Italian Navy () after Portugal was unable to pay construction costs. The submarines were built in 1936, and both served in the Mediterranean Sea at the start of the Second World War. The boats were transferred to the BETASOM Atlantic submarine base at Bordeaux in 1940, but returned to the Mediterranean in 1941, where both were sunk within a few days of the September 1943 Italian armistice.
Design and description.
The "Argo"-class submarines displaced surfaced and submerged. The submarines were long, had a beam of and a draft of . Their crew numbered 46 officers and enlisted men.
For surface running, the boats were powered by two diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the "Argo" class had a range of at ; submerged, they had a range of at .
The boats were armed with six internal torpedo tubes, four in the bow and two in the stern for which they carried a total of 10 torpedoes. They were also armed with a single deck gun, forward of the conning tower, for combat on the surface. The light anti-aircraft armament consisted of four single machine guns.
Ships.
"Argo".
"Argo" (pennant number AO) was launched 24 November 1936 and completed on 31 August 1937. "Argo" completed two unsuccessful wartime patrols in the Mediterranean before passing the Strait of Gibraltar on 8 October 1940 for an Atlantic patrol to Bordeaux on 24 October. During its first BETASOM patrol, "Argo" damaged convoy HG 47 escort on 1 December and sank a freighter from convoy OB 252 on 5 December 1940. First Lieutenant Alessandro De Angelis was lost overboard and drowned in heavy seas as "Argo" was returning to port. The second and third BETASOM patrols from 27 February to 28 March and from 19 May to 12 June 1941 were unsuccessful. "Argo" left France on 11 October, passed the Strait of Gibraltar on 20 October, and reached Cagliari on 24 October 1941. After refit, "Argo" patrolled off Cape Ferrat from 6 to 21 April and off Cap Caxime (Algeria) from 22 to 29 May 1942, where it sustained damage from aerial attacks requiring another period of repairs. After patrolling off the Balearic Islands from the 15 to 26 October and off the island of Galite (Tunisia) from the 29 to 30 October, "Argo" entered the Bay of Bougie on 11 November 1942 to torpedo the anti-aircraft ship and the troopship , which had been damaged by aerial bombing during Operation Torch. "Argo" then patrolled off the north African coast from 17 December to 8 January 1943, and during February, April and June. After two patrols off Sicily in July, "Argo" was refitting at Monfalcone until the armistice of September 8, 1943. "Argo" was scuttled when German troops captured the shipyard on 10 September. The Germans salvaged her, but scuttled her at Monfalcone, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy, on 1 May 1945.
"Velella".
"Velella" (pennant number VL) was launched 18 December 1936 and completed on 1 September 1937. "Velella" was on patrol in the eastern Mediterranean when Italy declared war. After refit at La Spezia, "Velella" sailed on 25 November 1940 and passed the Strait of Gibraltar on 1 December for an Atlantic patrol to Bordeaux on 25 December. After four unsuccessful Atlantic patrols, "Valella" returned to the Mediterranean on 24 August 1941. After refit at Cagliari and training at Pula, "Velella" patrolled without success south of Cape Palos (Spain) in April 1942, south of the Balearic Islands in June, along the Tunisian coast in July, and west of the Island of Galite in August, south of the Balearic Islands in September, in the Gulf of Philippeville and the Bay of Bona in November, north of Cape de Fer in April 1943, and off eastern Sicily in July. Its last patrol was off Salerno, where it was torpedoed by on 7 September 1943. There were no survivors.


Amphibious assault ship

An amphibious assault ship is a type of amphibious warfare ship employed to land and support ground forces on enemy territory by an amphibious assault. The design evolved from aircraft carriers converted for use as helicopter carriers (and, as a result, are often mistaken for conventional fixed-wing aircraft carriers). Modern ships support amphibious landing craft, with most designs including a well deck. Coming full circle, some amphibious assault ships also support V/STOL fixed-wing aircraft, now having a secondary role as aircraft carriers.
The role of the amphibious assault ship is fundamentally different from that of a standard aircraft carrier: its aviation facilities have the primary role of hosting helicopters to support forces ashore rather than to support strike aircraft. However, some are capable of serving in the sea-control role, embarking aircraft like Harrier or the new F-35B variant of the Lightning II fighters for combat air patrol and helicopters for anti-submarine warfare or operating as a safe base for large numbers of STOVL fighters conducting air support for an expeditionary unit ashore. Most of these ships can also carry or support landing craft, such as air-cushioned landing craft (hovercraft) or LCUs.
The largest fleet of these types is operated by the United States Navy, including the dating back to 1989 and the very similar ships that entered service in 2014. Amphibious assault ships are also operated by the Royal Australian Navy, the Brazilian Navy, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, the Egyptian Navy, the French Navy, the Italian Navy, the Republic of Korea Navy (South Korea) and the Spanish Navy.
The term amphibious assault ship is often used interchangeably with other ship classifications. It applies to all large-deck amphibious ships such as the landing platform helicopter (LPH), landing helicopter assault (LHA), and landing helicopter dock (LHD).
History.
World War II.
In the Pacific theatre of World War II, escort carriers would often escort the landing ships and troop carriers during the island-hopping campaign. In this role, they would provide air cover for the troopships as well as fly the first wave of attacks on the beach fortifications in amphibious landing operations. On occasion, they would even escort the large carriers, serving as emergency airstrips and providing fighter cover for their larger sisters while these were busy readying or refuelling their own planes. They would also transport aircraft and spare parts from the US to the remote island airstrips.
The Imperial Japanese Army had its own special army ships being similar to aircraft carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy: they were landing craft carriers that carried both landing craft and aircraft, and the plan was to launch the aircraft at the same time as the landing crafts carrying the troops, and to use them for combat air patrol, aerial reconnaissance and close air support. First, ( or ), completed in 1934 as the world's first purpose-built landing ship, was designed to launch aircraft, but it did not have the facilities for landing. Its successor, the (), completed in 1942, had a full-length flight deck in addition to the floodable well deck, making it more like a full-fledged aircraft carrier. However, the Japanese were already in a state of defeat, and the ship was eventually not used as an aircraft carrier until it was sunk in the fall of 1944. With the deployment of the 8,000-ton "Shinshū Maru" and a further refinement, the 9,000-ton Akitsu Maru (1941), the Japanese amphibious forces had in hand prototypes for all-purpose amphibious ships. Today the U.S. Navy and Marines use this fundamental concept to the exclusion of all others in their LHA and LHD class amphibious assault carriers. In 1937, British and American observers watched "Shinshū Maru" at work off Shanghai and immediately recognized a significant development in amphibious warfare. "Shinsu maru" carried landing craft in a well deck that could be flooded, which allowed the landing craft to float free from an open stern gate. The ship could also hold additional craft on davits, but her next most impressive function was an ability to discharge vehicles from a deck-level parking garage directly onto a pier. The ship also carried two catapults for aircraft but did not embark operational seaplanes. She could, however, transport and unload aircraft if necessary, a capability further developed with "Akitsu maru", which even had a short take-off flight deck.
Post-World War II.
Despite all the progress that was seen during World War II, there were still fundamental limitations in the types of coastline that were suitable for assault. Beaches had to be relatively free of obstacles, and have the right tidal conditions and the correct slope. However, the development of the helicopter fundamentally changed the equation. The first use of helicopters in an amphibious assault came during the invasion of Egypt during the Suez War in 1956. In this engagement, two British light fleet carriers, and , were converted to perform a battalion-size airborne assault with helicopters.
The techniques were developed further by American forces during the Vietnam War and refined during training exercises. The modern amphibious assault can take place at virtually any point of the coast, making defending against them extremely difficult.
Most early amphibious assault ships were converted from small aircraft carriers. As well as the two light aircraft carriers converted for use in the Suez War, the Royal Navy converted the carriers and into "commando carriers" during the 1950s. Their sister ship was also converted to a commando carrier in the early 1970s, but was restored to aircraft carrier operations before the end of the 1970s. The United States Navy used three aircraft carriers; , , and , and the escort carrier as the basis of their amphibious assault fleet, before constructing the five ships specifically for the landing platform helicopter role.
Later amphibious assault craft were constructed for the role. The United States Navy constructed the "Tarawa" class of five landing helicopter assault ships, which began to enter service from the late 1970s, and the "Wasp" class of eight landing helicopter dock ships, the first of which was commissioned in 1989. The United States Navy is also designing a new class of assault ships: the first ship entered service in October 2014.
The first British ship to be constructed specifically for the amphibious assault role was , which was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1998. Other nations have built amphibious assault ships; the French , South Korea's , and Spain's are all currently active, while Australia has two ships based on the Spanish design.
Most modern amphibious assault ships have a well deck (docking well), allowing them to launch landing craft in rougher seas than a ship that has to use cranes or a stern ramp. The US Navy hull classification symbols differ among these vessels, depending on, among other things, their facilities for aircraft: a modern landing ship dock (LSD) has a helicopter deck, a landing platform dock (LPD) also has a hangar, and a landing helicopter dock (LHD) or landing helicopter assault (LHA) has a full-length flight deck with internal aviation facilities for both rotary and fixed wing craft below deck.
Design.
Due to their aircraft carrier heritage, all amphibious assault ships resemble aircraft carriers in design. The flight deck is used to operate attack and utility helicopters for landing troops and supplies and on some ship types also launch and recover Harrier Jump Jets to provide air support to landing operations. STOL aircraft such as the OV-10 were sometimes deployed on and were able to perform short take-offs and landings on large-deck amphibious assault ships without needing catapults or arresting wires, although for safety and clearance reasons, the latter was most often not permitted. Landing craft are also carried, either on deck-mounted davits, or in an internal well dock (well deck in USN).


MV Yasin C

Yasin C is a Turkish bulk carrier, captured by Somali pirates on 7 April 2010 while on its way to Mombasa. The crew locked themselves in the engine room, and the ship was released without ransom on 10 April 2010.


CMA CGM Magellan

CMA CGM Magellan is an built for CMA CGM. The ship is named after Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.


Thalassa Hellas-class container ship

The "Thalassa Hellas" class is a series of 10 container ships built for Enesel and operated by Evergreen Marine. The ships have a maximum theoretical capacity of 13,808 TEU. The ships were built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea.


William M. Black (dredge)

William M. Black is a steam-propelled, sidewheel dustpan dredge, now serving as a museum ship in the harbor of Dubuque, Iowa. Built in 1934, she is one of a small number of surviving steam-powered dredges, and one of four surviving United States Army Corps of Engineers dredges. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992. She is open for tours as part of the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium.
Description and history.
"William M. Black" is located at the head of the Dubuque Harbor, where Ice Harbor Drive meets East 3rd Street. She has a riveted steel hull long, and wide at its widest point, including the paddleboxes for its sidewheels. Her hold is deep, and she has a scow-formed bow and no keel. Her superstructure has three decks, supported by a network of steel I-beams, so that heavy equipment could be supported anywhere within her structure. The dustpan dredge is mounted in front, with winched cables on either side to hold the ship in place during dredging operations. The paddleboxes are located about 2/3 of the way down the hull. The pump that operated the dredge was located in a forward position, with its steam power plant located just aft of its position. One of the ship's paddlewheels has been removed, and is on display on the museum grounds.
According to information provided on the tour, "William M. Black", one of the last paddle steamers built in the US, was used primarily along the Missouri River. She had a crew of 49 and dredged of material per day. She was placed out of service in 1973 because she consumed of heavy oil each day, which became prohibitively expensive during the 1973 OPEC oil embargo.


Xian Ni

The Xian Ni (Chinese: , "Xiānnī") (formerly Konstantin Stanyukovich) is a "Dmitriy Furmanov"-class (project 302MK, BiFa129M) Chinese river cruise ship, cruising on the Yangtze River. The ship was built by VEB Elbewerften Boizenburg/Roßlau at their shipyard in Boizenburg, East Germany, and entered service in 1994. Her home port is currently Nantong.
Features.
The ship has two restaurants: Golden Pavilion Dining Room on the Boat deck and Emperor's Dining Hall (176 places) on the Upper deck, two bars: Misty Observation Lounge/library (Boat deck) and Lotus Bar on the Upper deck, conference hall (for up to 220 people), sauna and souvenir shop.


List of submarine operators

The following countries operate or have operated submarines for naval or other military purposes.
Ballistic Missile Submarines (SSBN).
Ballistic missile submarines are larger than any other type of submarine, in order to accommodate ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.


Pre-dreadnought battleship

Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late- 1880s and 1905, before the launch of in 1906. The pre-dreadnought ships replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, protected by case-hardened steel armour, and powered by coal-fired triple-expansion steam engines, pre-dreadnought battleships carried a main battery of very heavy guns in fully-enclosed rotating turrets supported by one or more secondary batteries of lighter weapons.
In contrast to the chaotic development of ironclad warships in preceding decades, the 1890s saw navies worldwide start to build battleships to a common design as dozens of ships essentially followed the design of the Royal Navy's . The similarity in appearance of battleships in the 1890s was underlined by the increasing number of ships being built. New naval powers such as Germany, Japan, the United States, and to a lesser extent Italy and Austria-Hungary, began to establish themselves with fleets of pre-dreadnoughts. Meanwhile, the battleship fleets of the United Kingdom, France, and Russia expanded to meet these new threats. The decisive clash of pre-dreadnought fleets was between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Imperial Russian Navy at the Battle of Tsushima on 27 May 1905.
These battleships were abruptly made obsolete by the arrival of in 1906. "Dreadnought" followed the trend in battleship design to heavier, longer-ranged guns by adopting an "all-big-gun" armament scheme of ten 12-inch guns. Her innovative steam turbine engines also made her faster. The existing pre-dreadnoughts were decisively outclassed, and new and more powerful battleships were from then on known as dreadnoughts. At the same time, the ships that had been laid down before were designated pre-dreadnoughts.
Evolution.
The pre-dreadnought developed from the ironclad battleship. The first ironclads—the French "Gloire" and —looked much like sailing frigates, with three tall masts and broadside batteries, when they were commissioned in the early 1860s. HMVS "Cerberus", the first breastwork monitor, was launched in 1868, followed in 1871 by , a turreted ironclad which more resembled a pre-dreadnought than the previous, and its contemporary, turretless ironclads. Both ships dispensed with masts and carried four heavy guns in two turrets fore and aft. "Devastation" was the first ocean-worthy breastwork monitor, built to attack enemy coasts and harbours; because of her very low freeboard, she could not fight on the high seas as her decks would be swept by water and spray, interfering with the working of her guns. Navies worldwide continued to build masted, turretless battleships which had sufficient freeboard and were seaworthy enough to fight on the high seas.
The distinction between coast-assault battleship and cruising battleship became blurred with the Admiral-class ironclads, ordered in 1880. These ships reflected developments in ironclad design, being protected by iron-and-steel compound armour rather than wrought iron. Equipped with breech-loading guns of between 12-inch and 16 ¼-inch (305 mm and 413 mm) calibre, the Admirals continued the trend of ironclad warships mounting gigantic weapons. The guns were mounted in open barbettes to save weight. Some historians see these ships as a vital step towards pre-dreadnoughts; others view them as a confused and unsuccessful design.
The subsequent of 1889 retained barbettes but were uniformly armed with guns; they were also significantly larger (at 14,000 tons displacement) and faster (because of triple-expansion steam engines) than the Admirals. Just as importantly, the "Royal Sovereign"s had a higher freeboard, making them unequivocally capable of the high-seas battleship role.
The pre-dreadnought design reached maturity in 1895 with the . These ships were built and armoured entirely of steel, and their guns were now mounted in fully-enclosed rotating turrets. They also adopted main guns, which, because of advances in gun construction and the use of cordite propellant, were lighter and more powerful than the previous guns of larger calibre. The "Majestic"s provided the model for battleship building in the Royal Navy and many other navies for years to come.
Armament.
Main battery.
Pre-dreadnoughts carried guns of several different calibres, for different roles in ship-to-ship combat. The main armament was a main battery of four heavy guns, mounted in two centre-line turrets fore and aft. Very few pre-dreadnoughts deviated from this arrangement. These guns were slow-firing, and initially of limited accuracy; but they were the only guns heavy enough to penetrate the thick armour which protected the engines, magazines, and main guns of enemy battleships.
The most common calibre for the main armament was , although some ships used smaller guns because they could attain higher rates of fire; British battleships from the "Majestic" class onwards carried this calibre, as did French ships from the "Charlemagne" class, laid down in 1894. Japan, importing most of its guns from Britain, used 12-inch guns. The United States used both and guns for most of the 1890s until the , laid down in 1899 (and not to be confused with the earlier of Spanish–American War notoriety), after which the 12-inch gun was universal. The Russians used both 12 and as their main armament; the , , "Tsesarevich", and had main batteries while the mounted guns. The first German pre-dreadnought class used an gun but decreased to a gun for the two following classes and returned to 11-inch guns with the .
While the calibre of the main battery remained quite constant, the performance of the guns improved as longer barrels were introduced. The introduction of slow-burning nitrocellulose and cordite propellant allowed the employment of a longer barrel, and therefore higher muzzle velocity—giving greater range and penetrating power for the same calibre of shell. Between the "Majestic" class and "Dreadnought", the length of the British 12-inch gun increased from 35 calibres to 45 and muzzle velocity increased from per second to per second.
Secondary battery.
Pre-dreadnoughts also carried a secondary battery. This consisted of smaller guns, typically , though any calibre from 4 to 9.4 inches (100 to 240 mm) could be used. Virtually all secondary guns were "quick firing", employing a number of innovations to increase the rate of fire. The propellant was provided in a brass cartridge, and both the breech mechanism and the mounting were suitable for rapid aiming and reloading. The role of the secondary battery was to damage the less armoured parts of an enemy battleship; while unable to penetrate the main armour belt, it might score hits on lightly armoured areas like the bridge, or start fires. Equally important, the secondary armament was to be used against enemy cruisers, destroyers, and even torpedo boats. A medium-calibre gun could expect to penetrate the light armour of smaller ships, while the rate of fire of the secondary battery was important in scoring a hit against a small, manoeuvrable target. Secondary guns were mounted in a variety of ways; sometimes carried in turrets, they were just as often positioned in fixed armoured casemates in the side of the hull, or in unarmoured positions on upper decks.
Intermediate battery.
Some of the pre-dreadnoughts carried an "intermediate" battery, typically of 8-inch (203 mm) to 10-inch calibre. The intermediate battery was a method of packing more heavy firepower into the same battleship, principally of use against battleships or at long ranges. The United States Navy pioneered the intermediate battery concept in the , , and classes, but not in the battleships laid down between 1897 and 1901. Shortly after the USN re-adopted the intermediate battery, the British, Italian, Russian, French, and Japanese navies laid down intermediate-battery ships. This later generation of intermediate-battery ships almost without exception finished building after "Dreadnought", and hence were obsolete before completion.
Tertiary battery.
The pre-dreadnought's armament was completed by a tertiary battery of light, rapid-fire guns. These could be of any calibre from 3-inch (76 mm) down to machine guns. Their role was to give short-range protection against torpedo boats, or to rake the deck and superstructure of a battleship.
Torpedoes.
In addition to their gun armament, many pre-dreadnought battleships were armed with torpedoes, fired from fixed tubes located either above or below the waterline. By the pre-dreadnought era the torpedo was typically in diameter and had an effective range of several thousand metres. However, it was virtually unknown for a battleship to score a hit with a torpedo.
Range of combat.
During the ironclad age, the range of engagements increased; in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 battles were fought at around 1 mile (1.5 km), while in the Battle of the Yellow Sea in 1904, the Russian and Japanese fleets fought at ranges of 3.5 miles (5.5 km). The increase in engagement range was due in part to the longer range of torpedoes, and in part to improved gunnery and fire control. In consequence, shipbuilders tended towards heavier secondary armament, of the same calibre that the "intermediate" battery had been; the Royal Navy's last pre-dreadnought class, the "Lord Nelson" class, carried ten 9.2-inch guns as secondary armament. Ships with a uniform, heavy secondary battery are often referred to as "semi-dreadnoughts".
Protection.
Pre-dreadnought battleships carried a considerable weight of steel armour. Experience showed that rather than giving the ship uniform armour protection, it was best to concentrate armour over critical areas. The central section of the hull, which housed the boilers and engines, was protected by the main belt, which ran from just below the waterline to some distance above it. This "central citadel" was intended to protect the engines from even the most powerful shells. The main armament and the magazines were protected by projections of thick armour from the main belt. The beginning of the pre-dreadnought era was marked by a move from mounting the main armament in open barbettes to an all-enclosed, turret mounting.
The main belt armour would normally taper to a lesser thickness along the side of the hull towards bow and stern; it might also taper up from the central citadel towards the superstructure. The deck was typically lightly armoured with 2 to 4 inches of steel. This lighter armour was to prevent high-explosive shells from wrecking the superstructure of the ship.
The battleships of the late 1880s, for instance the , were armoured with iron and steel compound armour. This was soon replaced with more effective case-hardened steel armour made using the Harvey process developed in the United States. First tested in 1891, Harvey armour was commonplace in ships laid down from 1893 to 1895. However, its reign was brief; in 1895, the German "Kaiser Friedrich III" pioneered the superior Krupp armour. Europe adopted Krupp plate within five years, and only the United States persisted in using Harvey steel into the 20th century. The improving quality of armour plate meant that new ships could have better protection from a thinner and lighter armour belt; 12 inches (305 mm) of compound armour provided the same protection as just 7.5 inches (190 mm) of Harvey or 5.75 inches (133 mm) of Krupp.
Propulsion.
Almost all pre-dreadnoughts were powered by reciprocating steam engines. Most were capable of top speeds between 16 and . The ironclads of the 1880s used compound engines, and by the end of the 1880s the even-more efficient triple expansion compound engine was in use. Some fleets, though not the British, adopted the quadruple-expansion steam engine.
The main improvement in engine performance during the pre-dreadnought period came from the adoption of increasingly higher pressure steam from the boiler. Scotch marine boilers were superseded by more compact water-tube boilers, allowing higher-pressure steam to be produced with less fuel consumption. Water-tube boilers were also safer, with less risk of explosion, and more flexible than fire-tube types. The Belleville-type water-tube boiler had been introduced in the French fleet as early as 1879, but it took until 1894 for the Royal Navy to adopt it for armoured cruisers and pre-dreadnoughts; other water-tube boilers followed in navies worldwide.
The engines drove either two or three screw propellers. France and Germany preferred the three-screw approach, which allowed the engines to be shorter and hence more easily protected; they were also more maneuverable and had better resistance to accidental damage. Triple screws were, however, generally larger and heavier than the twin-screw arrangements preferred by most other navies. The French also built the only class of turbine powered pre-dreadnought battleships, the of 1907.
Coal was the almost exclusive fuel for the pre-dreadnought period, though navies made the first experiments with oil propulsion in the late 1890s. An extra knot or two of speed could be gained by applying a 'forced draught' to the furnaces, where air was pumped into the furnaces, but this risked damage to the boilers.
Pre-dreadnought fleets and battles.
The pre-dreadnought battleship in its heyday was the core of a very diverse navy. Many older ironclads were still in service. Battleships served alongside cruisers of many descriptions: modern armoured cruisers which were essentially cut-down battleships, lighter protected cruisers, and even older unarmoured cruisers, sloops and frigates whether built out of steel, iron or wood. The battleships were threatened by torpedo boats; it was during the pre-dreadnought era that the first destroyers were constructed to deal with the torpedo-boat threat, though at the same time the first effective submarines were being constructed.
The pre-dreadnought age saw the beginning of the end of the 19th century naval balance of power in which France and Russia vied for competition against the massive Royal Navy, and saw the start of the rise of the 'new naval powers' of Germany, Japan and the USA. The new ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy and to a lesser extent the U.S. Navy supported those powers' colonial expansion.
While pre-dreadnoughts were adopted worldwide, there were no clashes between pre-dreadnought battleships until the very end of their period of dominance. The First Sino-Japanese War in 1894–95 influenced pre-dreadnought development, but this had been a clash between Chinese battleships and a Japanese fleet consisting of mostly cruisers. The Spanish–American War of 1898 was also a mismatch, with the American pre-dreadnought fleet engaging Spanish shore batteries at San Juan and then a Spanish squadron of armoured cruisers and destroyers at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba. Not until the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 did pre-dreadnoughts engage on an equal footing. This happened in three battles: the Russian tactical victory during the Battle of Port Arthur on 8–9 February 1904, the indecisive Battle of the Yellow Sea on 10 August 1904, and the decisive Japanese victory at the Battle of Tsushima on 27 May 1905. These battles upended prevailing theories of how naval battles would be fought, as the fleets began firing at one another at much greater distances than before; naval architects realized that plunging fire (explosive shells falling on their targets largely from above, instead of from a trajectory close to horizontal) was a much greater threat than had been thought.
Gunboat diplomacy was typically conducted by cruisers or smaller warships. A British squadron of three protected cruisers and two gunboats brought about the capitulation of Zanzibar in 1896; and while battleships participated in the combined fleet Western powers deployed during the Boxer rebellion, the naval part of the action was performed by gunboats, destroyers and sloops.
Europe.
European navies remained dominant in the pre-dreadnought era. The Royal Navy remained the world's largest fleet, though both Britain's traditional naval rivals and the new European powers increasingly asserted themselves against its supremacy.
In 1889, Britain formally adopted a 'two power standard' committing it to building enough battleships to exceed the two largest other navies combined; at the time, this meant France and Russia, who became formally allied in the early 1890s. The and were followed by a regular programme of construction at a much quicker pace than in previous years. The , , and classes appeared in rapid succession from 1897 to 1905. Counting two ships ordered by Chile but taken over by the British, the Royal Navy had 39 pre-dreadnought battleships ready or being built by 1904, starting the count from the "Majestic"s. Over two dozen older battleships remained in service. The last British pre-dreadnoughts, the , appeared after "Dreadnought" herself.
France, Britain's traditional naval rival, had paused its battleship building during the 1880s because of the influence of the Jeune École doctrine, which favoured torpedo boats to battleships. After the Jeune École's influence faded, the first French battleship laid down was "Brennus", in 1889. "Brennus" and the ships which followed her were individual, as opposed to the large classes of British ships; they also carried an idiosyncratic arrangement of heavy guns, with "Brennus" carrying three guns and the ships which followed carrying two 12-inch and two 10.8-inch in single turrets. The , laid down 1894–1896, were the first to adopt the standard four gun heavy armament. The Jeune École retained a strong influence on French naval strategy, and by the end of the 19th century France had abandoned competition with Britain in battleship numbers. The French suffered the most from the dreadnought revolution, with four ships of the still building when "Dreadnought" launched, and a further six of the begun afterwards.
Germany's first pre-dreadnoughts, the , were laid down in 1890. By 1905, a further 19 battleships were built or under construction, thanks to the sharp increase in naval expenditure justified by the 1898 and 1900 Navy Laws. This increase was due to the determination of the navy chief Alfred von Tirpitz and the growing sense of national rivalry with the UK. Besides the "Brandenburg" class, German pre-dreadnoughts include the ships of the , , and classes—culminating in the , which served in both world wars. On the whole, the German ships were less powerful than their British equivalents but equally robust.
Russia equally entered into a programme of naval expansion in the 1890s; one of Russia's main objectives was to maintain its interests against Japanese expansion in the Far East. The "Petropavlovsk" class begun in 1892 took after the British s; later ships showed more French influence on their designs, such as the . The weakness of Russian shipbuilding meant that many ships were built overseas for Russia; the best ship, the "Retvizan", being largely constructed in America. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 was a disaster for the Russian pre-dreadnoughts; of the 15 battleships completed since "Petropavlovsk", eleven were sunk or captured during the war. One of these, the famous "Potemkin", mutinied and was briefly taken over by Romania at the end of the mutiny. However, she was soon recovered and recommissioned as "Panteleimon". After the war, Russia completed four more pre-dreadnoughts after 1905.
Between 1893 and 1904, Italy laid down eight battleships; the later two classes of ship were remarkably fast, though the "Regina Margherita" class was poorly protected and the "Regina Elena" class lightly armed. In some ways, these ships presaged the concept of the battlecruiser. The Austro-Hungarian Empire also saw a naval renaissance during the 1890s, though of the nine pre-dreadnought battleships ordered only the three of the "Habsburg" class arrived before "Dreadnought" herself made them obsolete.
America and the Pacific.
The United States started building its first battleships in 1891. These ships were short-range coast-defence battleships that were similar to the British except for an innovative intermediate battery of 8-inch guns. The US Navy continued to build ships that were relatively short-range and poor in heavy seas, until the laid down in 1901–02. Nevertheless, it was these earlier ships that ensured American naval dominance against the antiquated Spanish fleet—which included no pre-dreadnoughts—in the Spanish–American War, most notably at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba. The final two classes of American pre-dreadnoughts (the s and s) were completed after the completion of the "Dreadnought" and after the start of design work on the USN's own initial class of dreadnoughts. The US Great White Fleet of 16 pre-dreadnought battleships circumnavigated the world from 16 December 1907, to 22 February 1909.
Japan was involved in two of the three major naval wars of the pre-dreadnought era. The first Japanese pre-dreadnought battleships, the "Fuji" class, were still being built at the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95, which saw Japanese armoured cruisers and protected cruisers defeat the Chinese Beiyang Fleet, composed of a mixture of old ironclad battleships and cruisers, at the Battle of the Yalu River. Following their victory, and facing Russian pressure in the region, the Japanese placed orders for four more pre-dreadnoughts; along with the two "Fuji"s these battleships formed the core of the fleet which twice engaged the numerically superior Russian fleets at the Battle of the Yellow Sea and the Battle of Tsushima. After capturing eight Russian battleships of various ages, Japan built several more classes of pre-dreadnought after the Russo-Japanese War.
Obsolescence.
In 1906, the commissioning of brought about the obsolescence of all existing battleships. "Dreadnought", by scrapping the secondary battery, was able to carry ten guns rather than four. She could fire eight heavy guns broadside, as opposed to four from a pre-dreadnought; and six guns ahead, as opposed to two. The move to an 'all-big-gun' design was a logical conclusion of the increasingly long engagement ranges and heavier secondary batteries of the last pre-dreadnoughts; Japan and the United States had designed ships with a similar armament before "Dreadnought", but were unable to complete them before the British ship. It was felt that because of the longer distances at which battles could be fought, only the largest guns were effective in battle, and by mounting more 12-inch guns "Dreadnought" was two to three times more effective in combat than an existing battleship.
The armament of the new breed of ships was not their only crucial advantage. "Dreadnought" used steam turbines for propulsion, giving her a top speed of 21 knots, against the 18 knots typical of the pre-dreadnought battleships. Able both to outgun and outmaneuver their opponents, the dreadnought battleships decisively outclassed earlier battleship designs.
Nevertheless, pre-dreadnoughts continued in active service and saw significant combat use even when obsolete. Dreadnoughts and battlecruisers were believed vital for the decisive naval battles which at the time all nations expected, hence they were jealously guarded against the risk of damage by mines or submarine attack, and kept close to home as much as possible. The obsolescence and consequent expendability of the pre-dreadnoughts meant that they could be deployed into more dangerous situations and more far-flung areas.
World War I.
During World War I, a large number of pre-dreadnoughts remained in service. The advances in machinery and armament meant that a pre-dreadnought was not necessarily the equal of even a modern armoured cruiser, and was totally outclassed by a modern dreadnought battleship or battlecruiser. Nevertheless, the pre-dreadnought played a major role in the war.
This was first illustrated in the skirmishes between British and German navies around South America in 1914. While two German cruisers menaced British shipping, the Admiralty insisted that no battlecruisers could be spared from the main fleet and sent to the other side of the world to deal with them. Instead the British dispatched a pre-dreadnought of 1896 vintage, . Intended to stiffen the British cruisers in the area, in fact her slow speed meant that she was left behind at the disastrous Battle of Coronel. "Canopus" redeemed herself at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, but only when grounded to act as a harbour-defence vessel; she fired at extreme range (13,500 yards) on the German cruiser SMS "Gneisenau", and while the only hit was from an inert practice shell which had been left loaded from the previous night (the 'live' shells of the salvo broke up on contact with water; one inert shell ricocheted into one of "Gneisenau"s funnels), this certainly deterred "Gneisenau". The subsequent battle was decided by the two s which had been dispatched after Coronel. This appears to have been the only meaningful engagement of an enemy ship by a British pre-dreadnought.
In the Black Sea five Russian pre-dreadnoughts saw brief action against the Ottoman battlecruiser "Yavuz" during the Battle of Cape Sarych in November 1914.
The principle that disposable pre-dreadnoughts could be used where no modern ship could be risked was affirmed by British, French and German navies in subsidiary theatres of war. The German navy used its pre-dreadnoughts frequently in the Baltic campaign. However, the largest number of pre-dreadnoughts was engaged at the Gallipoli campaign. Twelve British and French pre-dreadnoughts formed the bulk of the force which attempted to 'force the Dardanelles' in March 1915. The role of the pre-dreadnoughts was to support the brand-new dreadnought engaging the Turkish shore defences. Three of the pre-dreadnoughts were sunk by mines, and several more badly damaged. However, it was not the damage to the pre-dreadnoughts which led to the operation being called off. The two battlecruisers were also damaged; since "Queen Elizabeth" could not be risked in the minefield, and the pre-dreadnoughts would be unable to deal with the Turkish battlecruiser lurking on the other side of the straits, the operation had failed. Pre-dreadnoughts were also used to support the Gallipoli landings, with the loss of three more: , and .
A squadron of German pre-dreadnoughts was present at the Battle of Jutland in 1916; German sailors called them the "five-minute ships", which was the amount of time they were expected to survive in a pitched battle. In spite of their limitations, the pre-dreadnought squadron played a useful role. As the German fleet disengaged from the battle, the pre-dreadnoughts risked themselves by turning on the British battlefleet as dark set. Nevertheless, only one of the pre-dreadnoughts was sunk: SMS "Pommern" went down in the confused night action as the battlefleets disengaged.
Following the November 1918 Armistice, the U.S. Navy converted fifteen older battleships, eight armoured cruisers and two larger protected cruisers for temporary service as transports. These ships made one to six trans-Atlantic round-trips each, bringing home a total of more than 145,000 passengers.
World War II.
After World War I, most battleships, dreadnought and pre-dreadnought alike, were disarmed under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. Largely this meant the ships being broken up for scrap; others were destroyed in target practice or relegated to training and supply duties. One, "Mikasa", was given a special exemption to the Washington Treaty and was maintained as a museum and memorial ship.
Germany, which lost most of its fleet under the terms of the Versailles treaty, was allowed to keep eight pre-dreadnoughts (of which only six could be in active service at any one time) which were counted as armoured coast-defence ships; two of these were still in use at the beginning of World War II. One of these, , shelled the Polish Westerplatte peninsula, opening the German invasion of Poland and firing the first shots of the Second World War. "Schleswig-Holstein" served for most of the war as a training ship; she was sunk while under refit in December 1944, and broken up "in situ" in January 1945. The other, , was mined and then scuttled in March 1945.
A number of the inactive or disarmed pre-dreadnoughts were nevertheless sunk in action during World War II, such as the Greek pre-dreadnoughts "Kilkis" and "Lemnos", bought from the U.S. Navy in 1914. While neither of the ships was in active service, they were both sunk by German divebombers after the German invasion in 1941. In the Pacific, the U.S. Navy submarine sank the disarmed Japanese pre-dreadnought "Asahi" in May 1942. A veteran of Tsushima, she was serving as a repair ship.
Post World War II.
No pre-dreadnoughts served post–World War II as armed ships; the last serving pre-dreadnought was the former , which was used as a target ship by the Soviet Union into the early 1960s as the "Tsel". The hull of the former served as a crane ship from 1920 until its scrapping in 1955. The hulk of the ex- was used as an ammunition barge at Guam until 1948, after which she was scrapped in 1956.
Lone survivor.
The only pre-dreadnought preserved today is the Japanese Navy's flagship at the Battle of Tsushima, , which is now located in Yokosuka, where she has been a museum ship since 1925.


Hired armed cutter Admiral Mitchell

His Majesty's hired armed cutter (or schooner) "Admiral Mitchell served under two contracts for the British Royal Navy, one at the end of the French Revolutionary Wars and the second at the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. She participated in several notable small engagements and actions. In 1806 the Admiralty purchased her and took her into service as the Sir Andrew Mitchell" in 1807.
First contract.
"Admiral Mitchell"s first contract ran from 22 January 1800 to 26 October 1801. An item in the "London Chronicle" indicates that a Lieutenant Shirley commanded her in May. However, items in the "Naval Chronicle" suggest that "Admiral Mitchell" was thereafter under the command of Lieutenant John Derby (or Darby). Her duties were to carry dispatches to and from the British fleet off the coast of France, and escort convoys.
On 3 June 1801, "Admiral Mitchell" arrived in Portsmouth from a cruise, having recaptured, off Boulogne, two vessels, laden with iron and timber, and sent them into Dover. On 29 June 1801, "Admiral Mitchell", recaptured three vessels: the brigs "Supply" and "Favorite", and the sloop "Prince of Wales".
On 25 August letters reached Plymouth that Derby had brought into Dartmouth a large American ship that had been sailing from New York to Havre de Grace. She had a cargo of "India goods of various descriptions, valued per manifest at £50,000, supposed French property as a French merchant, supercargo, and family on board going to Old Prance". The cutter "Alert" was in company at the time.
On 28 October, Derby sailed "Admiral Mitchell" into Catwater. There she and all the hired craft turned in their stores and guns to the yard and gunwharf.
Second contract.
"Admiral Mitchell"s second contract ran from 26 August 1803 to 6 April 1805.
Lieutenant Alexander Shippard assumed command, apparently before the contract took effect. "Admiral Mitchell" was attached to the fleet under Lord Keith for the guard of the Narrow Seas, that is, the English Channel. On 21 August 1803 Shippard landed Georges Cadoudal, the Chouan chief, at Biville, between Dieppe and Tréport, and on 16 January in the following year he landed General Pichegru at the same place.
In between, on 21 October 1803 Captain Robert Honyman of sighted a convoy off Boulogne of six French sloops, some armed, under the escort of a gun-brig. He sent and to pursue them but the winds were uncooperative and the squadron was unable to engage. Instead, Shippard brought up "Admiral Mitchell" and attacked the convoy. After two and a half hours of cannonading, "Admiral Mitchell" succeeded in driving one sloop and the brig, which was armed with twelve 32-pounder guns, on the rocks. "Admiral Mitchell" had one gun dismounted, suffered damage to her mast and rigging, and had five men wounded, two seriously. Lloyd's Patriotic Fund awarded Shippard a presentation sword worth 50 guineas. Shippard also received promotion to the rank of commander on 3 March 1804. Head money for the brig was paid 24 years later, in December 1827.
Lieutenant John Harper also commanded "Admiral Mitchell" briefly, possibly in late 1803 or early 1804. Rear-Admiral Bartholomew S. Rowley, for whom Harper had been flag lieutenant, placed him on "Admiral Mitchell", and sent him on a confidential mission to the coast of France. Harper then transferred briefly to the hired armed cutter "Duke of Clarence", which was also on the Guernsey station.
By 12 February 1804 "Admiral Mitchell" was under the command of Lieutenant Alexander Shippard. On that day he was in command when "Admiral Mitchell" and the revenue cutter "Hound" recaptured "Perseverance". At some point thereafter, Lieutenant Richard Williams assumed command of "Admiral Mitchell".
At 4 P.M. on 23 October 1804, a French flotilla of two prams and eighteen armed schuyts left Ostend for the westward. A British squadron consisting of , Commander John Hancock, the gun-brigs , Lieutenant John Hinton, , Lieutenant Charles Cutts Ormsby, , Lieutenant Edward Nathaniel Greensword, and , Lieutenant Joseph Gulstone Garland, and the hired armed cutters "Admiral Mitchell" and "Griffin", gave chase. They succeeded in bringing the leading pram to action by 5:18, and in a little over an hour silencing her. However, the tide was falling, darkness was coming on, and the vessels were in shoal water and in unfamiliar sands and currents. "Cruizer" hauled off and anchored but "Conflict" had already grounded, due to the fault of her pilot. When they found that they could not free her, Lieutenant Ormsby and his crew abandoned her and rowed her boats to "Cruiser". Hancock sent Ormsby back with "Admiral Mitchell" providing cover in an attempt to recover or destroy "Conflict", but they discovered that she was already high and dry on a sandbank, and in French hands.
At high tide Hancock sent in boats to try and bring her off, or destroy her, with "Admiral Mitchell" and "Griffin", reinforced for the purpose, providing support. However, by that time the French had hauled "Conflict" further onshore and brought up field pieces and howitzers. The boat party was forced to withdraw after having suffered three men wounded. In all, the British lost one man killed and 11 wounded, none from "Admiral Mitchell".
"Sir Andrew Mitchell".
The Admiralty purchased "Admiral Mitchell" in 1806 and took her into service on 19 February 1807 as the schooner "Sir Andrew Mitchell". She was apparently commissioned in the Leeward Islands.
Notes, citations, and references.
Notes
Citations
References


Mikhail Kalinin-class passenger ship

The "Mikhail Kalinin"-class passenger ship (project 101, in Germany known as Seefa 340) is a class of Soviet ocean liners and cruise ships, operated by the Baltic State Shipping Company (BGMP), Far East Shipping Company (FESCO) and Black Sea Shipping Company (ChMMP or BLASCO).
The 19 Soviet ships of this class were constructed in 1958–1964 by the East German company "VEB Mathias-Thesen Werft", in Wismar. The class was named after the first ship in the class "Mikhail Kalinin", which in her turn was named after the nominal head of state of Russia and later of the Soviet Union Mikhail Kalinin.
Overview.
Since we couldn't fit information about the vessels in the class, we decided to show 8 out of the 19 vessels in the fleet.


Russian replenishment oiler Academic Pashin

Academic Pashin is a replenishment oiler of Project 23130 and the lead vessel of the class. Developed by the Spetssudoproect JSC, it is the first replenishmet oiler commissioned with the Russian Navy since the end of the Cold War. The ship is named after the Hero of the Russian Federation Valentin Pashin. She is assigned to the Northern Fleet.
History.
The construction of "Academic Pashin" was carried out under a state contract for the Russian Defence Ministry, signed in November 2013. The ship was laid down on 26 May 2014, during a keel lying ceremony at the Nevsky Shipyard in Saint Petersburg. It was first scheduled for delivery by late 2016.
On 18 March 2016, the ship's hull was rolled out of the construction hall, to start pre-finishing works before its launching on the water. It was launched on 26 May 2016.
On 17 May 2018, it has started first stage of its sea trials in the Ladoga Lake. In September 2018, the ship arrived in Kronstadt, where it was to join the Russian Navy by the year end.
In early 2019, the trials continued in the Baltic Sea, where the ship's interaction with deck helicopters was worked out. The Ka-27PS helicopters were delivering various cargoes onto the ship and back to shore. "Academic Pashin" successfully completed the trials in late June 2019, and was commissioned on 21 January 2020.
In April 2020, "Academic Pashin" was spotted in the Channel off Cherbourg during the first sea trials of the French Navy's submarine "Suffren".


City of Washington (ship)

City of Washington was an American merchant steamship that aided in rescuing the crew of when it exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, in 1898.
Construction and merchant service.
Built at John Roach & Sons shipyard for Alexandre & Sons, "City of Washington" was a 2,600-ton iron ship both equipped with a compound surface condensing engine and rigged as a hermaphrodite brig. She was launched on August 30, 1877 in Chester, Pennsylvania. Later acquired by the New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Company, "City of Washington" was refitted in 1889 with a triple expansion steam engine. "City of Washington" operated under the Ward Line and was assigned to passenger and trade routes between New York City, Havana, and Mexican gulf ports such as Campeche and Progreso.
USS "Maine" and the Spanish–American War.
On the night of February 15, 1898, "City of Washington" was moored in Havana harbor near when "Maine" exploded in the incident that precipitated the Spanish–American War. "City of Washington" suffered minor damage in the explosion, but assisted in the rescue of "Maine"s crew by sending out lifeboats and providing her dining salon for use as a makeshift hospital. The efforts of "City of Washington" and the resulted in the rescue of approximately 100 crew members from "Maine".
Captain Frank Stevens and other crew members of "City of Washington" provided eyewitness testimony on the "Maine" disaster in Naval Court of Inquiry hearings which ended on March 21, 1898. The Court of Inquiry concluded that "Maine" was destroyed by the explosion of a submarine mine. While the Court did not place responsibility for the explosion, media and popular opinion overwhelmingly attributed it to Spain's forces in Cuba. Shortly thereafter, Congress declared a state of War with Spain, effective April 20, 1898.
In April 1898, "City of Washington" was one of many civilian steamships chartered by the US Army Quartermaster Department for use as a transport ship for the invasion of Cuba. She was chartered as Transport #16 at the rate of USD $450 per day through September 1898.
Return to merchant service.
In late 1898, "City of Washington" returned to her prior civilian duties, ferrying passengers from New York to Cuba until 1908 when the ship was retired and laid up at Brooklyn, New York. In 1911 she was purchased by Luckenbach Steamship Company of New York. Her superstructure and machinery were removed, and she went into operation as a coal barge.
Wreck.
On July 10, 1917, "City of Washington" and another barge, "Seneca", were under tow by the tugboat "Luckenbach 4" when all three vessels ran aground on a shallow reef near Key Largo in the Florida Keys. The other two vessels were refloated on July 15, but "City of Washington" broke up immediately and was not recoverable. Now a popular dive site, the "City of Washington" wreck has been designated part of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's Shipwreck Trail.


Leninsky Komsomol-class cargo ship

The Leninsky Komsomol class (also transliterated as Leninskiy Komsomol or Leninskij Komsomol (Russian: Ленинский Комсомол класс) was a class of 25 ocean-going dry cargo ships; tweendeckers with turbine main engines, built between 1959 and 1968 in the Soviet Union under the designations Projects 567 and 567K. Twenty were built by the Kherson Shipyard, and five in either the Nikolayev Shipyard, or the Nosenko Shipyard in Nikolayev. They were part of a program to modernize the Soviet Union's merchant fleet.
Three forms of transliteration of the Russian name are used in English-language sources:
The "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ships were the first merchant ships of the Soviet Union to have turbine engines. They were called "turbo-runners" in news reports and by seamen.
The class was named after the lead ship, the "Leninsky Komsomol". This first vessel was laid on 25 September 1957 and was handed over to Black Sea Shipping Company on 23 December 1959. The last ship in the class was named "Parizhskaya Kommuna" (Russian: "Парижская Коммуна") which was taken into operation on 17 December 1968. This was the third largest class of ship in Black Sea Shipping Company by number of ships in the class. The "Parizhskaya Kommuna" was the first Soviet merchant ship with controllable pitch propeller and the largest ship with gas-turbine main engines in the world at the time of her launching.
The "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ships were excellent for transatlantic traffic. Their speed, manoeuvrability and seaworthiness forced foreign experts to pay attention to the design. The ships had high freeboard and, because of this, excellent stability and seaworthiness.
Development and operational history.
Project 567 was developed at the Central Design Bureau "Chernomorsudoproekt" (CDB ChSP) in Nikolayev. The main designers were K. I. Bohonevich, B. K. Sidorov and F. V. Sibir'.
Ships of this class were designed for use:
The "Leninsky Komsomol"-class cargo ships were a continuation of a tradition already established in Russian and Soviet shipbuilding. Ships built with a dual purpose in Russia dated back to the age of sailing ships and the paddle steamer fleet. Russia had been defeated in the Crimean War of 1853–1856, and the terms of the resulting Treaty of Paris prohibited Russia from maintaining a naval force in the Black Sea. This led to the practice of building merchant ships with extra strength and speed that operated under the flags of the Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company (ROPIT), the Voluntary Fleet (Dobroflot), and other shipping companies of the Russian Empire during peacetime. These vessels could be quickly mobilised for military duty in wartime, with 200 merchant ships mobilised for service with the Imperial Russian Navy after the outbreak of the First World War in just the Black Sea.
During the Soviet period shipbuilders built several types of high-speed (for that time) ocean-going cargo ships with dual-purpose-use. The "Leninsky Komsomol" class had a deadweight of 16 thousand tons, with six holds and six tweendecks, with cabins for one or two crewmembers each. They were built in Nikolayev and Kherson. A ship class is often called by the name of the first ship of the class to be launched or delivered. In this instance the first ship was named "Leninsky Komsomol". This was most likely due to the influence of the KGB, which had a strong interest in building such ships and was led consistently by former Komsomol leaders, such as Alexander Shelepin and Vladimir Semichastny. The phenomenon of former Komsomol workers working in the KGB was termed , and included Vladimir Semichastny, and others.
The "Leninsky Komsomol" class demonstrated the expertise of the Soviet Black Sea shipbuilders and the increased level of the Soviet shipbuilding industry. All of the class were initially operated by the Black Sea Shipping Company, homeported in Odessa. By the early 1980s the Black Sea Shipping Company included 270 ocean-going ships, and was ranked as the world's largest shipping company by number of vessels, due to the construction of ships in the 1960s and 1970s. Three "Leninsky Komsomol class" cargo ships were transferred to the Soviet Navy in 1985–1986 for use as large dry-cargo transports:
Use in military transportation.
"Leninsky Komsomol"-class ships were used as a "blockade runners" during "Operation Anadyr", the Soviet effort to break the Cuba blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 57 ships of the Black Sea Shipping Company were involved in breaking the blockade. An additional 34 vessels from Baltic Shipping Company, the Murmansk Shipping Company, the Latvian Shipping Company and the Far Eastern Shipping Company also participated. "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ships were later used to carry military cargo to Angola, Vietnam and other countries in conflict zones during the Cold War.
During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, eight Soviet "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ships carried military cargoes to Syria and Egypt in October and early November 1973:
Other classes of merchant ship carried military cargoes to Syria and Egypt during this period, but more "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ships were involved in these operations than any other class of Soviet merchant ship.
Design.
Project 567 was developed at the Central Design Bureau "Chernomorsudoproekt" (CDB ChSP) in Nikolayev.
Major designers:
A total of 25 ships were built. Twenty of the ships were built at the Kherson Shipyard and a further five at the Nikolayev Shipyard, or the Nosenko Shipyard in Nikolayev under the Soviet merchant fleet modernization program. The first ship was laid down in 1957 and was completed and handed over in December 1959. The last ship was completed and handed over in 1968.
Outwardly the "Leninsky Komsomol"-class resembled the US Mariner class, with their cargo derricks and their superstructure divided into three structures (a long forecastle, central accommodation structure, and aftcastle), the engine room in the centre, a sloping bow, and a cruiser stern. The "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ships were roughly the same length as the American vessels, but were less broad beamed.
The ships were classed as multipurpose tweendeckers and as dry cargo freighters. All were powered by steam-turbines, with the exception of the gas-turbine-powered SS "Parizhskaya Communa". They had two decks in the tweendecker style, and their superstructure in three blocks. Their general purpose was the carriage of general and grain cargoes.
Specifications.
The ships of the class were between and long, with a beam of between and . Their moulded depth amidships varied between and , and their draught from approximately and . The dimensions and tonnage of each ship varied slightly from her sisters, but shape of the hull and the proportions were the same. A new and improved hull design was developed for the "Leninsky Komsomol" class. The design proved successful and was used in the construction of later classes of Soviet merchant ships. including those of the "Slavyansk" and "Kapitany" classes. Some variations in the later designs included the placing of the superstructure closer to the stern, and reducing the number of hold compartments to five larger ones. The design was continually refined and improved as the ships were being built, using lessons learned from preceding ships. The cargo booms used on the earlier ships were replaced with brand new Soviet-made cargo cranes on those built after 1961. But generally the overall design remained the same.
Engines for all ships in the "Leninsky Komsomol" series were made at the Kirov Plant in Leningrad and installed at the Kherson and Nikolayev shipyards. All, with the exception of the last to be built, "Parizhskaya Kommuna", were equipped with a "ТС-1" steam turbine turbo gear unit consisting of a double-case turbine and gears fed by two fuel oil boilers with capacity of 25 tons of steam per hour at a pressure of 42 atmospheres and a temperature of 470 °C. Turbine power was 13 000 hp, giving 1000 rpm at full speed. The gearbox lowered this to 100 rpm in the transition to a single four-bladed bronze propeller with a diameter of 6.3 m. The processes managing the boilers and turbine were automated. The "Parizhskaya Communa", completed in 1968, was equipped with a "ГТУ-20" gas turbine from the Kirov Plant.This provided 13,000 hp and allowed "Parizhskaya Communa" to reach a speed of 19 knots. At that time she was the largest merchant freighter with gas turbine engine in the world. Generally the power output for ships of the class was between 13000 and 14300 hp. "Leninsky Komsomol" attained a speed of 18.2 knots. The maximum speed of other ships in the class while carrying cargo was 19.2 knots, rising to 20.4 knots when sailing in ballast. This made the "Leninsky Komsomol" ships faster than most contemporary merchant ships. They had a cruising range of some 12,000 miles.
There were frequent turbine breakdowns while sailing at high speed. If one turbine blade was damaged while at full speed the ship lurched with such force that people on the deck fell and people working at height risked falling and being injured. The heightened fuel consumption at high speed in the face of rising fuel prices made the operation of the ship too expensive. Careful attention was paid to the different speed gradations used in service:
Cargo operations.
The "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ships had six cargo holds, providing a total bale capacity of 19,925m³ and a bulk capacity of 23,355m³.
Four of the class, including the "Metallurg Anosov", were specially equipped for the transportation of troops and weapons, including long-range missiles. The "Metallurg Anosov"s length overall was 9.1 m longer than the "Leninsky Komsomol", the first ship in the class. The beam, moulded depth and size of cargo hatches were also increased.
The "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ships were equipped with either cargo derricks, used on the first four ships built, or cargo cranes, used on every "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ship built from 1961 onwards.
The first configuration used was for a ship equipped with cargo booms (cargo derricks) and two heavy-lift derricks:
The second configuration was for cargo cranes and two heavy-lift derricks:
Self-defense.
In the event of military mobilization "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ships could be fitted with anti-aircraft guns installed on rotary mounts in place of the cargo cranes. The comparatively high speed that the ships could attain would have allowed them to outrun some pursuers, or to escape dangerous areas quickly.
Crew.
The first vessels had berths for 51 people, including 10 spare beds, though the last vessels to be introduced had berths for 48 persons or fewer. The Soviet shipping companies began reducing the crews of merchant ships in the late 1960s, a process which continued into the 1990s. During the last years of their operation, the "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ships were crewed by around 35 people, nearly half that had originally been necessary. Cabins were initially for single, double or four-person occupancy, and by the 1970s the four-berth cabins had been converted into double berths. The ships were fitted with Soviet-made air-conditioning.
Significance.
Michael Yakovich Kozubenko (), a cinematographer working at Odessa Film Studio from 1953 produced the 1959 documentary film ""Leninsky Komsomol class" turbo-runners". The class were held up as examples of the latest in Soviet shipping construction, and used in promotional advertisements in 1963/1964 for the USSR Maritime Transport, depicting the "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ships built in the shipyards of the Ukrainian SSR, and the tanker "Sofia", which had been built in a Leningrad shipyard. The "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ships also received wide coverage in newspaper and magazine articles. The class was a particularly significant milestone in the shipbuilding history of U.S.S.R., and Kherson Shipyard in particular. They were somewhat less so for Nikolayev Shipyard, as only five were built there, and the yard was already well known for the construction of naval vessels.
In 2009 the Marshall Islands issued a series of stamps dedicated to the Cuban Missile Crisis. One depicted a "Leninsky Komsomol"-class ship, described as the "Metallurg Kurako", surrounded by warships and patrol aircraft of the US Navy. The depiction is similar to a photograph of the "Metallurg Anosov", and it may be that it is the "Metallurg Anosov" pictured on this stamp.
Notes.
a. All ships were handed over to the Black Sea Shipping Company on the date of their completion, with the exception of "Parishskaya Kommuna", which was delivered to the company after an extended period of sea trials.
b. The dates of the scrapping of "Leninsky Pioner" and her removal from Lloyd's Register are different. "Leninsky Pioner" was transferred from Black Sea Shipping Company to the Soviet Navy's Black Sea Fleet in 1986. A new container ship also named "Leninsky Pioner" was laid down on 23 January 1987. It is not clear which vessel was removed from Lloyd's List in 1999.


Piyavka-class river patrol craft

The "Piyavka"-class river patrol boat, also known as Project 1249, is a Russian Coast Guard vessel. The patrol craft is designed to operate in rivers to secure and protect Russian maritime borders, enforce navigational laws and other law enforcement duties, and search and rescue. The patrol craft work alongside other Russian Coast Guard and Navy vessels, such as the "Moskit"-class and the "Ogoniok"-class river patrol craft. Its hull is not capable of breaking through heavy ice during the winter season.
Design.
The patrol craft have a basic design and are powered by diesel engines. The weapon suite allows the craft to engage surface, ground, and air threats and targets, the suite also gives them a good self-defense capability. The vessels basic suite of sensors and systems for navigation and communication allows the vessels to perform the required missions.


USS Endurance (ARDM-3)

 was originally laid down as ARD-18, a non self-propelled United States Navy Auxiliary floating drydock in 1944. Built by the Pacific Bridge Company in Alameda, California. During World War II USS ARD-18 was assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater and serviced ships at Guadalcanal and Ulithi. After the war, floating dry dock ARD-18 was sent to Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock Corp.'s yard, circa 1967-68 and was lengthened by adding a midsection as well as an additional deck above the uppermost crane deck. Redesignated Medium Auxiliary Repair Dry Dock Endurance (ARDM-3), she served until retirement in 1995.


MS Nana Maru

The was a Japanese cargo ship from the Seia Maru-class, which was sunk in military service by ML-KNIL Brewsters during World War II. It was part of the 11th Air Fleet.
History.
Construction was ordered on 17 June 1939 by Kokusai Kisen K.K.. During construction, the ship was taken over by Osaka Shosen Kaisha. It was built by Harima Zosensho K.K. and was laid down and named "Nana Maru" on 16 April 1940. On 29 June, construction was finished and the ship started service between Japan and South Africa. Because of the war, the Japanese Imperial Navy requisitioned the ship on 21 September 1941 so that it could be used as a transport ship.
Sinking.
On 23 January 1942, during the Battle of Balikpapan, the Japanese troop convoy of which the "Nana Maru" was part, was attacked by Dutch aircraft in the Makassar Strait at . Brewster pilots 1st Lt. P.A. Hoyer and Sgt. A.E. Stoové of the 2-VLG-V squadron dropped their bombs upon the ship's deck. At 17:30 the captain ordered abandon ship, and at 21:00, after a large explosion, the "Nana Maru" sank to the bottom of the ocean.


USS Beukelsdijk

USS "Beukelsdijk" (ID-3135) was a transport ship of the United States Navy during World War I, serving from 1918 to 1919.
Ship history.
Military service.
The ship was built as the "turret" type steamship "Grängesberg" by William Doxford & Sons at Sunderland, England, for Wm. H. Müller & Company of Rotterdam and sold to the Holland America Line in 1916 and renamed "Beukelsdijk".
The ship was taken over by the United States under the right of angary on 20 March 1918 at San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was commissioned on 21 March 1918, with Ensign Frank L. Stiles, National Naval Volunteers (NNV), in command.
Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS), "Beukelsdijk" carried coal to South America; her ports of call included Bahia, Santos, and Rio de Janeiro. Sailing from Rio on 4 June 1918, the freighter reached New York on 6 July, unloaded her cargo of coffee and underwent repairs. She then picked up 818 tons of general cargo, 1,680 tons of bulk oil, and aeroplane parts and proceeded to Hampton Roads to join a France-bound convoy. Although engine problems compelled her to stop four times en route, "Beukelsdijk" limped into Brest on 26 July and, after undergoing repairs to boilers and engines, proceeded thence to Saint-Nazaire where she unloaded her cargo and took on ballast for the return voyage. The outbreak of Spanish influenza, however, compelled her to remain until 13 October.
Then, upon shifting to Quiberon Bay, "Beukelsdijk" disembarked her sick sailors to the Naval Hospital there, but suffered further misfortune when a fire broke out in her coal bunkers. The blaze was discovered on 16 October and the crew had to unload a considerable quantity of her fuel in order to extinguish it, a task not completed until the 18th. Sailing for home a week later, "Beukelsdijk" paused at the Azores from 2 to 9 November and then continued on to New York, where she arrived on 23 November.
Following a lengthy period of repairs, "Beukelsdijk" sailed from New York on 5 January 1919 for the Gulf of Mexico. Arriving at Galveston, Texas, on the 13th, she sailed for France with a cargo of cotton and oil. She reached Le Havre on the 28th only to encounter further misfortune during the cargo-unloading process when a boiler explosion killed two sailors. Although originally slated to proceed to Plymouth, England, to bunker for the return trip, "Beukelsdijk" was re-routed to the Netherlands to be returned to her owners. Clearing Le Havre on 24 April, "Beukelsdijk" was decommissioned and handed back to the Holland America Line at Rotterdam on 19 May 1919. Her name was struck from the Navy List simultaneously.
Civilian service.
The ship was sailing from Rotterdam to Narvik when she was wrecked near Bodø, Norway, on 29 January 1923.


USNS Lt. Robert Craig (T-AK-252)

USNS "Lt. Robert Craig" (T-AK-252) was a built for the U.S. Maritime Commission during the final months of World War II.
She was acquired by the U.S. Army in 1946 and renamed USAT "Lt. Robert Craig" and served the Army until 1950 when she was acquired by the United States Navy. She served the Navy worldwide until 1973 when she was struck and sold.
Victory built in California.
"Lt. Robert Craig" (T AK 252) was laid down as "Bowling Green Victory" under Maritime Commission contract by California Shipbuilding Corporation, Los Angeles, California, 21 June 1945; launched 28 August 1945; sponsored by Mrs. C. M. Holladay; and delivered to her operator, J. H. Winchester, 27 September 1945.
U.S. Army service.
She operated under the War Shipping Administration until July 1946 when she was transferred to the Army Transportation Service and renamed "Lt. Robert Craig".
U.S. Navy service.
She was acquired by the Navy from the U.S. Maritime Commission 9 August 1950 and assigned to duty under the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS).
Manned by a civilian crew, "Lt. Robert Craig" steamed from New York City to the U.S. West Coast late in August and began Pacific Ocean supply runs out of San Francisco, California, 14 October. During the next 4 years, she made more than a score of deployments to American bases in the central and western Pacific Ocean, ranging from the Marshall Islands, the Mariana Islands and to the Philippine Islands, South Korea, and Japan. Throughout in much of 1953, she provided logistics support for the U.S. nuclear testing program in the Marshall Islands. During a deployment in the Far East between March and May 1954, she steamed to French Indochina carrying supplies for French forces fighting the Vietminh in Vietnam.
"Lt. Robert Craig" returned to the U.S. East Coast in mid-August and during the next month completed a roundtrip voyage out of New York City to Europe and back. Thence, she made a 3-month deployment via the west coast to the Far East and back. arriving New York 21 December to resume transatlantic supply runs.
Since 1954, "Lt. Robert Craig" maintained a busy and wide-ranging schedule of operations which has sent her over the major sealanes of the globe in support of far flung American naval and ground forces. She completed more than three dozen transatlantic roundtrips between east and Gulf Coast ports and European ports in Scandinavia, West Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and France. In addition she operated in the North Atlantic from 1955 to 1964 while making numerous runs in support of military construction programs and operations along the coast of Greenland.
First Mediterranean deployment.
"Lt. Robert Craig" made her first deployment to the Mediterranean between 25 March and 20 May 1956. Since that time she has completed more than a dozen such runs to that unsettled sea and has visited ports in North Africa, France, Italy, Turkey, Greece, and Lebanon. Following American intervention against Communist subversion in the troubled Middle East in 1958, she supported U.S. peacekeeping operations in Lebanon. In addition several of her Mediterranean cruises have sent her through the Suez Canal for additional logistics missions in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean.
Worldwide operations.
"Lt. Robert Craig" has alternated her busy Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean service with more than a dozen deployments to American bases in the Pacific and the Far East. Operating out of New York, her supply missions have usually sent her via the Panama Canal and the west coast to ports in the Far East from Japan to Southeast Asia.
Between December 1961 and November 1964 she made two round the world cruises out of New York to the Far East and back. During the latter deployment, which lasted from 7 May to 18 November 1964, she visited ports in 17 European, Middle Eastern, and Asian nations from Denmark to South Vietnam, as well as U.S. bases in the Philippine Islands, Okinawa, and the Mariana Islands.
Following the increase of American military support in 1965 for the defense of South Vietnam, the ship provided increased logistics support for U.S. forces in Southeast Asia.
Final inactivation.
The vessel served the Navy until she was placed out of service and struck from the Navy List on 15 June 1973. She was sold for non-maritime use on 26 December 1973 and scrapped in 1974.
Honors and awards.
Qualified vessel personnel were authorized the following:


SS Benjamin Rush

SS "Benjamin Rush" was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Benjamin Rush, a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, and educator as well as the founder of Dickinson College. Rush attended the Continental Congress. He served as Surgeon General of the Continental Army and became a professor of chemistry, medical theory, and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
Construction.
"Benjamin Rush" was laid down on 13 December 1941, under a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MCE hull 303, by the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, Baltimore, Maryland; she was sponsored by Mrs. Benjamin Rush Jr., the wife of the vice president of Industrial Insurance Company of America, and was launched on 25 June 1942.
History.
She was allocated to United Fruit Co., on 11 July 1942. On 24 October 1947, she was laid up in the James River Reserve Fleet, Lee Hall, Virginia. A fire on 13 December 1948, burned out the midship house, causing an estimated $250,000—$265,000 in damages. She was recommended for scrapping on 21 December 1951, instead of repairing. On 29 April 1954, she was sold for scrapping to Boston Metals Co., along with four of her sister ships for $353,885. She was removed from the fleet on 9 May 1954.
Bibliography.


Stellar Daisy

MV "Stellar Daisy" was a South Korean-owned very large ore carrier (VLOC) that sank on March 31, 2017 in the South Atlantic off the coast of Uruguay while on a voyage from Brazil to China. She was the largest ship, by a factor of over three on gross tonnage, to be lost at sea.
General characteristics.
"Stellar Daisy" was a single-deck capesize very large ore carrier (VLOC) with an overall length of and a beam of . Fully laden, the vessel drew of water and had a deadweight tonnage of 266,141 tons. Her ten cargo holds had a combined bale capacity of . The gross tonnage of the vessel was 148,431 and net tonnage 44,530. On her last voyage, she had a crew of 24.
Like most bulk carriers, "Stellar Daisy" was propelled by a single low-speed two-stroke diesel engine driving a large fixed pitch propeller. Her 9-cylinder Mitsubishi 9UEC75LSII main engine had an output of at 76 rpm. This gave the vessel a service speed of .
The MV Stellar Daisy was classed with the Korean Register of Shipping South-Korean classification society, which surveyed and approved the ship's modifications.
Career.
"Stellar Daisy" was originally built as a very large crude carrier (VLCC) at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works in Nagasaki, Japan. Named "Sunrise III", she was laid down on July 23, 1992, launched on February 25, 1993 and delivered to the owners on July 2, 1993.
In 1992, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) was amended so that all oil tankers of or above ordered after July 6, 1993 were required to have a double hull in way of cargo tanks to reduce the possibility of oil spill in the event of hull damage. Following several high-profile shipwrecks leading to significant environmental damage, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) decided to phase out single-hull oil tankers such as "Sunrise III" with an accelerated schedule.
In 2006, Polaris Shipping Co Ltd, Seoul, purchased four single-hulled oil tankers, including "Sunrise III", for conversion to very large ore carriers (VLOC) at Cosco (Zhoushan) Shipyard in China. At the time, this was a typical strategy to increase the lifetime of an otherwise obsolete vessel by another 10 to 14 years and, thanks to the high charter rates of large bulk carriers used to transport iron ore to China, the conversion would pay itself back in just one to two years.
Typically, the center tanks of the oil tanker would be split into dry cargo holds while the side tanks would be used for ballast or remain empty. Holes cut on the main deck for cargo hatches and coamings would require additional structural strengthening to retain sufficient longitudinal strength after conversion. A tank top strengthened for high loading rate and grab unloading would be fitted above the bottom frames and girders. The vessel returned to service in 2008 as "Stellar Daisy".
Loss.
On March 31, 2017, while she was carrying sinter fines (iron ore) across the South Atlantic Ocean from the Vale terminal , near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to China, a loud bang was heard and the ship suddenly began listing. An officer radioed that the ship was taking on water and listing heavily. Very soon the ship sank. Radio contact with the ship, last reported to be from shore, was lost.
Search.
Two Filipino crew members were rescued from a liferaft on April 1 by the cargo ship "Elpida". The crew members reported that they had seen their ship sink. The other 22 crew members, 14 Filipinos and 8 South Koreans, remain missing.
A search for survivors and wreckage was made by Uruguayan, Argentine and Brazilian ships, supported by Brazilian and US aircraft, in a search area of , off the coast of Uruguay. On April 21, the Uruguayan Navy ship "" returned to port after a 17-day search during which floating debris from the wreckage was found. The search continued with six merchant ships.
In August 2018, the South Korean government approved funding for searching and retrieving "Stellar Daisy"s voyage data recorder. Exploration company Ocean Infinity's chartered vessel "Seabed Constructor" departed Cape Town to search for the ship. Ocean Infinity deployed a fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles to simultaneously search the seabed for "Stellar Daisy". On 17 February 2019 the company announced that it believed it had found the ship's wreck, and soon afterwards retrieved the voyage data recorder.
Possible causes.
While the shipping journal "Lloyd's List" reported that cargo liquefaction caused by excessive moisture in the iron ore cargo could be a possible cause of the loss, another shipping journal "ShipInsight" argued that, while a number of vessels have been lost for this reason, any liquefaction should not have been calamitous for "Stellar Daisy" because, being a converted oil tanker, her cargo holds were originally the centre tanks designed to carry liquid cargo. "ShipInsight" speculated that the most likely loss for the vessel was linked to her conversion from a tanker to an ore carrier.
In February 2017, China Port State Control (PSC) authorities identified six deficiencies, two of which were related to watertight and weathertight doors, during an inspection in Tianjin, China.
Aftermath.
Following the sinking of "Stellar Daisy", the International Association of Dry Cargo Shipowners (INTERCARGO) has called for an investigation of the causes leading to the casualty. The safety of ore carriers converted from oil tankers in the 2000s has also been questioned. More than half of the bulk carriers in Polaris Shipping's fleet are such conversions.
Only a few days after the loss of "Stellar Daisy", another VLOC owned by Polaris Shipping reported structural damage in one of its ballast tanks below waterline, resulting in a small leak. The 280,000-ton vessel, "Stellar Unicorn", was built in 1993 as a single-hull oil tanker and converted to an ore carrier in China in 2008. Like "Stellar Daisy", she was fully laden with Brazilian iron ore bound for China when the hull damage was discovered off South Africa. "Stellar Unicorn" was also found to have structural and water/weathertight deficiencies in a Port State Control inspection in Qingdao, China, in July 2016 but these were cleared in a follow-up inspection. In June 2017, "Stellar Unicorn" was sent to cold lay-up together with a number of other Polaris VLOCs and finally sold for scrap in September 2017.
On April 13, a Polaris-owned converted VLOC that was leading the search for the missing "Stellar Daisy" crew members, "Stellar Cosmo", was reportedly forced to head to Cape Town for repairs due to structural damage. However, this claim has been refuted by Polaris Shipping which stated that the vessel headed to Singapore for bunkering before continuing to China. "Stellar Cosmo" was sold for scrap in September 2017.
In May 2017, two cracks appeared on the main deck of "Stellar Queen", another converted VLOC owned by Polaris Shipping, during a ballast water exchange operation while the vessel was underway from China to Brazil with empty holds. Published photographs showed sea water pouring from the ballast water tanks through cracks of about and in length.
Investigation and legal proceedings.
On January 21, 2019, subsequent to an investigation conducted by the Korean Coast Guard at the request of the South-Korean government, a South-Korean Prosecutor indicted Polaris Shipping Head of Maritime Affairs including a KRS surveyor and two thickness measurement technicians. The heads of Polaris Shipping were charged for not notifying the relevant government body of defects of the hull of the vessel and for their loading method which was allegedly not certified by the Class society. The heads denied those charges. Moreover, the charges were for procedural issues and not for substantial ones. It was alleged by the prosecutor that the thickness measurement company forged the documents which were to prove that their engineers had fulfilled the annual education required by the licensing entity. This charge was not about thickness measurement itself but about their renewal of the license. Moreover, the charge was denied by the thickness measuring company.
On January 24, 2019, the court however declined to indict at this stage the CEO of Polaris Shipping, Kim Wan-joong, as well as three other persons who had been signaled in the Korean Coast Guard's investigation, including a KRS surveyor and two thickness measurement technicians of a private company involved in forging annual education license document pertaining to qualification of technician working for thickness measurement company.
The court's judge indicated that he may reach additional conclusions after having had the opportunity to review the findings of the undersea exploration which has been recently contracted by the South Korean Government to the US ocean seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity.


Unprotected cruiser

An Unprotected Cruiser was a type of naval warship in use during the late Victorian or pre-dreadnought era (about 1880 to 1905). The name was meant to distinguish these ships from “protected cruisers” which had become accepted in the 1880s. A protected cruiser did not have side armor on its hull like a battleship or “armored cruiser” but had only a curved armored deck built inside the ship – like an internal turtle shell – which prevented enemy fire penetrating through the ship down into the most critical areas such as machinery, boilers, and ammunition storage. An unprotected cruiser lacked even this level of internal protection. The definitions had some gray areas because individual ships could be built with a protective deck that did not cover more than a small area of the ship, or was so thin as to be of little value (the same was true of the side armor on some armored cruisers). An unprotected cruiser was generally cheaper and less effective than a protected cruiser, while a protected cruiser was generally cheaper and less effective than an armored cruiser (with some exceptions in each case).
Examples.
Unprotected cruisers included medium-sized ships such as the Spanish and Chinese "Kai Che" down to smaller ships of about 1,000 tons. A small unprotected cruiser was little different from a large gunboat (for instance, at the Battle of Manila in 1898 the American was larger than the Spanish unprotected cruisers of the , and was equivalent to a small British protected cruiser, however the US Navy classified "Concord" as only a gunboat.) Such ships could be known by alternate names depending on the preference of each navy. For instance, the British Royal Navy tended to refer to larger gunboats/small cruisers as “sloops”.
The designation “unprotected” made sense only after the development of protected cruisers in the 1880s. Many ships designed earlier had essentially the same features and size range; for instance, the Spanish , the French and the Dutch ships were also to be called unprotected cruisers. Steel-hulled cruisers had been preceded by iron-hulled (but not armored) ships and composite (iron and wood)-hulled ships, which were originally termed cruisers, frigates, or corvettes. Most of these ships retained sailing rig and were useful for colonial duties, where dockyards and coal supplies were often inadequate. Some of these older ships were fairly large, for instance .
The cruisers meant for colonial duty, like gunboats, were not built for high speed. The French unprotected cruiser "Milan" (1885) was distinct in appearance and role, with the recognition that cruisers were more useful as scouts and commerce raiders if they were faster than ironclad battleships. In the 1880s and 1890s fast, small unarmored cruisers could also be listed as “avisos”, “dispatch boats” (if the ship was fast enough to be useful for carrying messages, in the era before wireless), or “torpedo cruisers” (a term derived from “torpedo gunboats”, again the distinction being mainly of larger size). Different contemporary reference works may use more than one of these terms for the same ship.
Decline.
All of these terms faded from use because the design of these ships became obsolete. By World War I, there was no need to produce unprotected cruisers since fast “light” cruisers could be given not only protective decks but side armor (over the pre-dreadnought era, effective armor could be made thinner with less weight due to advances in steelworking technology). The speed and firepower difference between even a small light cruiser and a gunboat had made these categories permanently distinct. Wireless technology had eliminated message-carrying roles, and specialized torpedo craft were made much lighter and faster (destroyers). When discarded terms such as “sloop”, “frigate” and “corvette” were used again, it was for small anti-submarine convoy escort craft.