Tag: Ships

Saturday Snippet: Wake of the Wahoo

Today’s snippet comes from one of the most unusual submarine warfare memoirs of World War II. Forest J. Sterling was a (or, rather, the) Yeoman aboard USS Wahoo (shown below), one of the most successful submarines in the US Navy during the war against Japan. Sterling’s job was to take care of correspondence and administrative paperwork for… Continue reading Saturday Snippet: Wake of the Wahoo

Saturday Snippet: The Old Navy

Rear Admiral Daniel P. Mannix III served in the US Navy from the 1890’s until the 1920’s.  He recorded an amusing, absorbing account of his service in his private journals, letters, etc.  Later, his son, well-known author Daniel P. Mannix IV, took those documents and used them to write “The Old Navy”, a record of… Continue reading Saturday Snippet: The Old Navy

French Navy fighters and their pilots at play

The YouTube channel Chasse Embarquée hosts numerous videos of French Navy Rafale fighters aboard the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.  Here’s the latest in their series, released just a few days ago.  It contains some of the best air-to-air photography I’ve seen for a long time. Looks like French fighter pilots enjoy themselves just as much… Continue reading French Navy fighters and their pilots at play

Shortages or not, be thankful for your toilet paper!

If you’re running low on TP, be thankful you still have some, and don’t have to use an old sailor’s method.  The always interesting Old Salt Blog reports: Sailors in the Age of Sail used tow-rags. What is a tow-rag? As can be seen in the video below, close to the ship’s head — the… Continue reading Shortages or not, be thankful for your toilet paper!

US naval expenditure: is reality finally beginning to bite?

I’ve long been annoyed and frustrated at the US Navy’s visible incompetence and waste of taxpayers’ time and money in designing, building and commissioning new generations of warships.  The “Little Crappy Ship” imbroglio, the Zumwalt train wreck and the USS Gerald R. Ford’s litany of failures are only the first three programs to come to… Continue reading US naval expenditure: is reality finally beginning to bite?

Saturday Snippet: The sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse in 1941

Americans tend to forget that Japan didn’t only attack Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.  She simultaneously attacked across a wide swath of the Pacific Ocean, including the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies and Malaya.  Britain had just sent to Singapore one of its most modern battleships, HMS Prince of Wales (which had recently played… Continue reading Saturday Snippet: The sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse in 1941

The Panama Canal, faster than usual

Courtesy of Old Salt Blog, here’s a time-lapse video of a passage through the Panama Canal.  The trip lasts 11 hours, but the video takes less than 7 minutes – much more palatable in our high-speed world!  Note the “locomotives” on either side of the ship, hauling it through the locks.  They’re partly visible from… Continue reading The Panama Canal, faster than usual

A chemical reaction leads to a very big bang

Back in September, the chemical tanker Stolt Groenland experienced a massive explosion in Ulsan, South Korea.  This clip was taken by the dashcam video of a vehicle parked rather too close to the big bang. An initial investigation has revealed it was caused by a chemical reaction. According to the MAIB’s interim report, released today,… Continue reading A chemical reaction leads to a very big bang

Fish plastic and canal clearing

Two unrelated sources this morning turn into a single blog article.  Ah, the wonders of imagination . . . First, Old Salt Blog brings us the news that an engineering graduate in England has won the James Dyson Award for inventing a biodegradable plastic made from fish waste.  You can read more about it at… Continue reading Fish plastic and canal clearing