Once again active after decades of idleness, the dry docks are being used to scrap the aging Suisun Bay Reserve fleet.
A short article and a sad one
Bud Shortridge
Saturday, July 28, 2012
CORVETTES AT WAR
Though Great Britain possessed the world's greatest Naval fleet, the tradition-bound Lords of the Admiralty overlooked the fact that spread as its responsibilities were across the globe, it now had to defend its far-flung dominions against enemies technologically advanced over any ever fought before. By 1938 it was readily apparent that the flimsy aircraft and vulnerable submarines of the Great War of 1914-18 had developed into formidable long-range weapons now able to decimate entire cities and fleets. The era when proud warships and sword-wielding cavalry could dominate world politics had come to an end. Not without reluctance, the British Admiralty admitted the war of the future would be fought in the sky and beneath, as well as on the sea
So it was late in 1938 that Royal Navy planners came to the conclusion the British Fleet seriously lacked ships able to wage coastal or ocean warfare against Hitler's growing armada of more than 600 swift, deadly, long-ranged U-boats. Despite the Royal Navy's awesome number of destroyers with suitable anti-submarine weaponry, these fleet-footed greyhounds were needed to protect the equally awesome number of capital surface warships. The dismal truth was that no single, capable, coastal or ocean-going anti-submarine escort vessel existed in suitable numbers within the Royal Navy.
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You can get to the link: HERE
Bud Shortridge
shortsweetnavy@yahoo.com
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
OUR OCEANIC ILLS
THE SEAMAN AND THE SHIPOWNERS & HOW THEY GOT FROM "POINT A TO POINT B."
I've always been super interested in anything that was connected to the sea...especially Maritime history...ships, Navies, battles upon the seas...etc..etc.
I've always admired the seaman and what their history was in obtaining the status they have up to about 1940. So this article starts off on the Pacific coast with the first 'strike' against the shipowners which occurred in 1850. After this strike was settled, which was to the seaman's defeat, there was sort of a peace for about 35 years....then along about 1885 all hell broke loose.
So this rather long article tells the story of turmoil over the years between the seaman and the shipowner and how they both shuffled and fought up until about 1940. Fights that lead to gains, then losses,then gains again....but over all I'm really not sure who the winner was.
If your interested in this extremely interesting fight for survival you can click:
Hope you find the article interesting
Monday, July 23, 2012
THE COCONUT THAT SAVED A FUTURE PRESIDENT
THE MAN WHO RESCUED THE
CREW OF PT-109 REMEMBERS
For 85-years, Eroni Aron Kumana has lived among the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. Currently, he lives on one of the Western Solomon Islands - Rannonga. Unfortunately, an 8.1 earthquake destroyed his home on April 2, 2007, as well as many other homes and businesses. But when one door is closed, a window is opened. The USS Peleliu (LHA-5), a big-deck amphibious ship was in the vicinity dispensing air and assistance. When the ship's captain learned about Eroni's plight, and what he had done in WW II, the entire ship chipped in $1500 to purchase a brand-new roof to rebuild his home. It was all that he needed. Of course, his story is not about roofs and doing good deeds. It is about bravery, courage under fire, and a massive change in history of the United States.
You can read about this famous man and what he done by clicking
Thursday, July 19, 2012
THE SAGA OF A MODERN SEA RAIDER
The Kronprinz Wilhelm [picture above] was one of the most successful of these cruisers, standing third in the amount of shipping destroyed and being the last of the original lot to be finally hunted down. Unlike her two more successful rivals, the Emden and Karlsruhe, she was not a man-of-war and weakened the main German Fleet little. Built in 1901, she was comparatively old in 1914. Her tonnage was 15,000 and her quadruple expansion engines of 3,500 horsepower gave her the rather surprising speed of 23 knots. She burned an excessive amount of coal which was to be her eventual undoing. Her evaporators had been designed to supply a certain amount of make-up feed during transatlantic runs but were in no way adequate for prolonged cruising. And yet she kept to the sea for 251 consecutive days and cruised for nearly 40,000 miles without once disabling her engines. It was a grand game of hide and seek. Battle cruisers, cruisers, and armed merchant cruisers were seeking her; charts were being constantly studied and the most careful plans were being laid for her capture; but all to no purpose. Her hunting ground was the South Atlantic where her uncanny success in evading searching forces soon caused the exasperated English to dub
her the “Mystery Cruiser.”
If you care to give this a 'go'....just click on the link below:
THE SAGA OF A MODERN SEA RAIDER
Hope you enjoy
shortsweetnavy@yahoo.com
Sunday, July 15, 2012
SOME MEN ASK NO ODDS
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Fifty degrees 20 min. north; twenty degrees 30 min west; rescued 13 of the crew of the American tug 'Vigilant." Three men remained aboard the tug which proceeded on her voyage.
To the operator there was nothing extraordinary in the marconigram; nothing unusual except this time it was a tug. But anything could have happened in those days of ruthless U-boat warfare. If Noah's Ark had come sailing over the horizon, he would not have been surprised. At that time anything that could float put to sea. "Three men remained - tug proceeded on her voyage." In peace time, that closing sentence might have intrigued him, in war time, with England being bled of ships amd men and badly in need of food, his task was to strain the air for more important and vital news.
If you'd care to give this one a 'go'....click on link:
SOME MEN ASK NO ODDS
Bud Shortridge
shortsweetnavy@yahoo.com
Monday, July 9, 2012
ALL IS LOST BUT HONOR
It happened soon after the Armistice. German-American trade, which had been nonexistent for so long, was opening up. the Philadelphia built ship, Liberty Glo, owned by the Shipping Board and under charter to the Barber Steamship Company, loaded in New York for Bremerhaven. The cargo was miscellaneous in the extreme, varying from fat-backs and tallow to second-hand clothing and rag dolls.
It was a Saturday sailing, so times as to put the ship into Germany during Christmas week. The shipping news called it a Santa Claus voyage, perhaps because of the great volume of Christmas packages which went to make up the cargo.
Want to know what happened....just click on this to get to the link:
Sunday, July 8, 2012
JAPAN'S FIRST SUBMARINES
The Japanese people really do have a great sense of un-imaginativeness which happened to impress many naval people at the turn of the century.....just at the time when the first submarines were being introduced. These people could work 24 hrs a day if need be....that was not a problem with these people.
Darn good mechanics....but they just didn't acquire all this on their own...they had to be shown....but once shown they could do just about anything.
So this is the same concept the Japanese naval 'hot shots' come to viewing the demonstration of the John Holland's submarine on March 14, 1900 and immediately ordered five of them.
So...that is what this short article is all about....or at least "my version" of it all....and really when you get to reading it.....the Japanese was pretty darn quick in picking up just how to "pop these puppies" together.
Just click on this to get to the link:
Friday, July 6, 2012
MS DON ISIDRO
The MS Don Isidro was actually a passenger ship built by ship builders in Kiel, Germany in 1939. On the last of January 1942 she was in Brisbane....and was requisitioned for use as a USAT [U.S. Army Transport].
Well she eventually became a blockade runner to get much need supplies to Gen. MacArthur's men in the Philippines.
But sorry to say things didn't work out as planned.
If you'd care to read about her demise in the Timor Sea...just click on this link:
Hope the ship history is of interest to you
Thursday, July 5, 2012
USS MONADNOCK: HOW 'NOT' TO BUILD A BATTLESHIP
Relating the Strange Case of the USS Monadnock, the Oldest New Ship that Ever Entered Our Navy
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Monadnock, the old man chuckled. “Shucks, Sonny,” he mused. “People been saying that ever since I can remember.
Why they was a building on that old devil when I was a boy!” As a matter of fact, no one really believed the story that the Monadnock was to be launched. It was too incredible. Why, she was home, and wife, and mother to hundreds of yard workmen. They could affectionately call every rivet in her by name - its first name.
Click on Link: USS MONADNOCK: HOW NOT TO BUILD A BATTLESHIP
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