It's coming

U.S.S. ENTERPRISE

At Sea
November 28, 1941

BATTLE ORDER NUMBER ONE

1. The ENTERPRISE is now operating under war conditions.

2. At any time, day or night, we must be ready for instant
action.

3. Hostile submarines may be encountered.

4. The importance of every officer and man being specially
alert and vigilant while on watch at his battle station
must be fully realized by all hands.

5. The failure of one man to carry out his assigned task
promptly, particularly the lookouts, those manning the
batteries, and all those on watch on the deck, might
result in great loss of life and even loss of the ship.

6. The Captain is confident all hands will prove equal to
any emergency that may develop.

7. It is part of the tradition of our Navy that, when put
to the test, all hands keep cool, keep their heads, and
FIGHT.

8. Steady nerves and stout hearts are needed now.

G. D. MURRAY,
Captain, U.S. Navy
Commanding

Approved: November 28, 1941.
W. F. HALSEY,
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy,
Commander Aircraft, Battle Force

10 Places for the Temporal Anthropologist to Visit (part 1)

Noted temporal anthropologist Dr. Wendell A. Howe is currently investigating the immigrant experience by traveling from Liverpool to New York on the RMS Umbria.  He debarked at Ellis Island with the rest of the steerage passengers, spent a couple of days processing through immigration, and most recently hit the slums of New York with social reformer and muckraker, Jacob Riis.  Not a bad trip for your average 27th century time traveler looking to learn about the details of one of the most famous immigration paths in history.

Dr. Howe's travels, along with a recent article on the "Top Ten" destinations for a a time traveler got me to thinking what would be my Top Ten destinations in time.  For the purposes of this list we're going to assume the Babel Fish has been invented (and thus that God has been proven not to exist). We'll also assume that my appearance will be suitably altered so that for example when I show up in Japan in 1281 I'm not instantly put to the sword for being an unwelcome foreigner in a closed land.

In no particular order here we go:

Off Trafalgar October 1805:
The greatest battle in the Age of Fighting Sail, Admiral Lord Nelson led 27 British ships of the line against 33 French and Spanish ships of the line under French Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve. Nelson was killed, but his destruction of the combined fleet saved Britain from invasion by Napoleon. Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory, took numerous casualties so I probably don't want to hang out on the Admiral's flagship, but a perusal of the order of Battle of Trafalgar shows HMS Conqueror as having received three dead and nine wounded for a casualty rate of 2% amongst its officers and ratings. I'll take those odds.

The British casualties across the fleet were relatively light, but for the Victory and the HMS Royal Sovereign casualties were heavy with 20% of the men in each ship either killed or wounded. Of all British casualties at Trafalgar 80% were from two the first two ships in Nelson's weather line and the first six ships Vice-Admiral Collingwood's lee line. The combined French Spanish fleet suffered indiscriminately with an estimated 5000 dead and another 10,000 wounded or captured sailors and marines.

Alexandria circa 100BC and Baghdad circa 1100AD:
Eventually these two places would see two of the greatest crimes in human history committed. Once you've beaten the other side's army, kill the women and rape the cattle, but DO NOT destroy the largest compendium of human knowledge ever gathered up that point. Just don't do it.

The Library at Alexandria seems to have survived Julius Cesaer's unintentional burning of it, and it's later reduced history is clouded in mystery. The House of Wisdom was sacked after the Siege of Baghdad by the Mongol Hordes in 1258. It is claimed, perhaps apocryphally, that the waters of the Tigris ran black for six months following the the library's destruction from all the books and scrolls the Mongols threw in the river.

Whatever their later histories in 100BC and 1100AD the two libraries were at or near the height of their collections. Some temporal anthropologist could spend a lifetime at either of these two institutions, but as I'm more a temporal tourist I'd just like to spend a year or two at each surreptitiously scanning knowledge that's been forever lost to humanity. Though this list is generally without order, these would be the first two places I would visit.

Jerusalem circa 30-33AD:
We're gonna see what all the fuss is about. Basically this one is pretty simple. Was Western history worth it? It's pretty straightforward really. I'm gonna go back and hang with Jesus. If he is the Son of God, he'll know why I am there. If he looks at me like I just fell off the last donkey in the crazy convoy, well, sorry people, we've been had. Either way, I gotta know.

Come back for Part 2.

Ghost Fleet

Some of the hundreds of container cargo ships of the "Ghost Fleet of Malaysia".  The ships sit at anchor of the coast of Malaysia as the global economic downturn has left them without cargo to ship.

Do not tell these men and women about green shoots of recovery. As Briton Tim Huxley, one of Asia's leading ship brokers, says, if the world is really pulling itself out of recession, then all these idle ships should be back on the move. This is the time of year when everyone is doing all the Christmas stuff,' he points out.  'A couple of years ago those ships would have been steaming back and forth, going at full speed. But now you've got something like 12 per cent of the world's container ships doing nothing.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1212013/Revealed-The-ghost-fleet-recession.html#ixzz0R6CY9JND

You be knowin what day it is matey?

CL 53 USS San Diego

The Unbeatable Ship That Nobody Ever Heard Of:

"Few knew of her during World War II, and few know of her even today: a ship named for the city of San Diego. The light antiaircraft cruiser USS SAN DIEGO (CL 53) received the honor of being the first victorious American warship to enter Tokyo Bay."

HMS Research 1877

Cutty Sark Burns

Damn.

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - The Cutty Sark, the world's last surviving 19th century tea clipper, was severely damaged in a blaze on Monday.

Flames and thick black smoke shot high into the sky above the dry dock on the banks of the Thames where the boat has stood as a major tourist attraction for more than 50 years.
Photo

Forty firefighters brought the blaze under control. Aerial television pictures showed a mass of charred timbers that was once one of the world's fastest ships.

What she looks like today:


What she looked like yesterday:

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Daily Drew

Jeopardy! and Drew Barrymore! that's just hawt.

Captain of Old Ironsides canned

Navy fires commander of USS Constitution - The Boston Globe


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The commander of the famed USS Constitution was fired from his post yesterday, two months before his two-year term expired, because the Navy lost confidence in his ability to command the 210-year-old ship, officials said.

Thomas A. Graves took command of "Old Ironsides" in July 2005 in a ceremony before hundreds of spectators who gathered at the Charlestown Navy Yard to watch the ship set sail.

Yesterday, a Navy spokesman said that Graves, who lives in Marblehead, was relieved from the post because the department had lost "trust and confidence" in him.

"This was due to an administrative matter," said Commander Jeff Davis , a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon. "We're not able to discuss the details of that. This is not something that is accompanying a disciplinary action. This was based solely upon the senior officers' assessment of his ability to command effectively."

As Robert at Lawyers, Guns, and Money says, "Dude, it just sits there."

The photo above was taken during the Constitution's 200th birthday celebration in 1997. It was the first time she had been alone under sail in 116 years. She has just fired a salute from her starboard battery. She is escorted by the Blue Angels, the frigate USS Halyburton, and the destroyer USS Ramage.

Mutiny

Mutiny by American artist and writer Howard Pyle.

I can't find much about this illustration, but I dig Howard Pyle, so there ya go.

Tales of the Sea

Lawyers, Guns and Money

Robert Farley has a nice series of posts on the sinking of the light cruiser HMAS Sydney by the German armed merchant cruiser Kormoran.

Magellan Rounding the Cape

Magellan's ships fight their way around the Cape Horn.

The Standing Rigging

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Masts and Yards

This should've been posted before "Square Sails".

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Square sails

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250 years ago today

Was a bad day to be Admiral John Byng. Byng was the last British admiral to be shot on his own quarterdeck. Ordered to relieve the island of Minorca at the beginning of the Seven Year's War, Byng's squadron met a French squadron outside Port Mahon on that island. Despite having the weather gage Byng's squadron took heavy damage while, due to a tactical decision by Byng, the French squadron escaped virtually undamaged. After four days Byng returned to Gibraltar and was subsequently brought before a court-martial for "failure to do his utmost". Undoubtedly he had failed to do his utmost to pursue the enemy and he was found guilty. Unfortunately for Byng a 1749 update to the Articles of War left only one punishment for this crime as stated in Article 13:

"Every person in the fleet, who though cowardice, negligence, or disaffection, shall forbear to pursue the chase of any enemy, pirate or rebel, beaten or flying; or shall not relieve or assist a known friend in view to the utmost of his power; being convicted of any such offense by the sentence of a court martial, shall suffer death."

The Execution of Admiral John Byng (Click image to embiggun, link to the left for more info on painting)

Henry Hudson's Half Moon

Drawing of a replica of Half Moon, Henry Hudson's ship used to explore what would come to be known as the Hudson River.

The sailors of the Half Moon later mutinied and set Hudson, his son, and seven other seaman adrift in an open boat without food or water. Hudson was never seen again.

Pirates of the Burning Sea

Do want!

Pirates of the Burning Sea a new MMO set in 1720 on the Spanish Main. To be released in June 2007. Sign me up.

Sea Venture

(c2e)

Illustration by William Hutchinson from Sea Venture a juvenile novel (what the kids call chapter books today;) by Willoughby Patton (1959 Longmans, Green, and Co.)

The Eyes of the Fleet

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Top: Broadside of the 38-gun frigate HMS Shannon.

Bottom: Broadside of the razee frigate HMS Saturn. Originally laid down as a 74-gun third rate ship of the line, in 1813 the Saturn was cut down to a 50-gun razee frigate to deal with the large French and American frigates such as the 44-gun USS Constitution.

Frigates were the smallest ships (three masted square rigged vessels) in the Royal Navy. They were popularly referred to as the "Eyes of the Fleet" for their scouting and reconnaissance capabilities, but were still save, ships of the line, the most powerful batteries afloat. The fledgling United States Navy relied entirely upon frigates and smaller vessels until after the War of 1812 when the USS Independence, 90-guns, was launched late in 1814 as the first US ship of the line.