Happy new year from the Deck
December 31st, 2009 | Blogs Historical Life at Sea | Posted by Phil Ewing
MC2 John Wallace Ciccarelli Jr / Navy
In the ancient tradition of maritime lore
Here’s a post that Scoop Deck has not attempted before
To welcome the new year — in addition to grog –
Is required a special entry in a ship’s daily log.
For instance:
While landsmen one winter all spent the night frozen
Here’s the entry they filed on the bridge of the Chosin
Or if the verse of that cruiser you find makes you blue
Here are Navy deck logs from World War II
If other examples on the Web you happen to find
Please post them below, if you would be so kind
This dalliance in verse has now reached its end
But we’ll see you back here on the Deck in two thousand and ten.
Lest we forget …
December 31st, 2009 | Blogs Historical Navy nuclear weapons ordnance Submarines | Posted by Lance Bacon
Thanks to Joel “Bubblehead” Kennedy, who reminds us of the 50th anniversary of the commissioning of USS George Washington (SSBN 598), the first ballistic missile submarine. What must it have been like to be there July 20 1960, when the skipper sent a burner 1,100 miles downrange, then sent President Eisenhower the message: POLARIS — FROM OUT OF THE DEEP TO TARGET. PERFECT.
I think Bubblehead says it best:
Service in SSBNs might not be as glamorous and exciting as being on an attack boat, but the bottom line is that our strategic capability is the cornerstone of our national security, and as the most survivable leg of our nuclear triad, SSBNs play an unmatched role in our defense. I’m thankful there are men out there on strategic patrol during this holiday season so that my family can sleep soundly at night.”
Check out his post(s) at bubbleheads.blogspot.com
The terror threat at sea
December 31st, 2009 | Blogs Maritime operations Ships The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
A boarding team from the destroyer Laboon approached a suspicious small boat in the Red Sea in July. Internet chatter about at-sea terror threats has increased this week // Navy
All of a sudden, there is lots of discussion online about terrorist threats to U.S. warships in the Middle East. Galrahn has an excellent post today about a new warning for ships, including this money quote: “We assess a direct, grave threat, by Al Qaeda, against U.S. Navy warships and U.S.-flagged vessels. Moreover, if U.S.-flagged merchantmen are still steaming anywhere in the U.S. 5 Fleet area of responsibility without armed security, they do so now at a considerably elevated risk.”
There’s more: Richard Wachtel, a spokesman for the Middle East Media Research Institute, tells Scoop Deck that a post on a jihadist Web site Wednesday called for people to “gather intelligence” about the U.S. and international warships that patrol the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. Here’s the whole post, provided by Wachtel:
So, What’s in a Name?
December 31st, 2009 | Navy | Posted by Lance Bacon
Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., is continuing with his decade-long effort to rename the Department of the Navy.
And this time, he may pull it off.
The resolution, H.R. 24, would redesignate the Department of the Navy as “Department of the Navy and Marine Corps” and change the title of Secretary of the Navy to “Secretary of the Navy and Marine Corps.” Jones says the effort is to ensure the Marine Corps receives equal recognition as a military branch.
The measure has died in committee in previous years. But Jones said Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told him the measure had a good chance of circumventing committee and being brought to the floor if Jones could find 350 cosponsors by Christmas.
Jones has 362 cosponsors to date. It’s the second-highest number of any bill or resolution introduced this year.
What do you think? Is this name change long overdue, or much ado about nothing?
And you thought your duty was tough
December 31st, 2009 | Foreign navies Life at Sea Maritime operations Morale Navy Submarines The Pacific | Posted by Lance Bacon
The INS Rustoleum, aka Nerpa, is the pride of India’s nuclear Navy. (In fairness, they have busted the rust and given her a new coat of paint since this photo.)
If it seems like U.S. ship builders are spitting out subs at breakneck speed, it is with good reason.
They are.
Lawmakers put the Navy on a 60-month construction span by the end of the Block II contract, which calls for two $2 billion submarines each year starting in 2011. Basically, they want subs better and cheaper … and delivered yesterday.
India seems to be taking a slightly different approach.
The country is planning a 10-year lease of a Russian nuke, the Nerpa. Not sure if that lease has an option to buy. For the crew’s sake, I hope not.
Construction began in the early 1990s, back when our Navy still had non-nuclear carriers. Russia’s financial collapse put Nerpa on hold until India visited the bargain basement and dropped $650 million to get the screw turning once more. Things were looking up when Nerpa started sea trials in November 2008, but a toxic gas leak killed 20 sailors and technicians. Then to add insult to injury painful death, the sub’s cost went from $974 million to $2.5 billion.
But India won’t let a little thing like a dangerous, poorly designed, over-priced, cursed boat stop them! In fact, defense leaders have come up with the ultimate solution for putting this storied past behind their new boat. They are going to rename it the “Chakra,” which roughly translated means “Mayday! Mayday! May …,” or something like that.
Makes a few misaligned bolts in the torpedo room seem rather minor, eh?
Darwin Awards, here we come!
December 31st, 2009 | Mishaps | Posted by Lance Bacon
While perusing the Safety Center’s Website, I stumbled upon AlSafe message 077/09. It’s called a “summary of mishaps,” but reads like the nomination entries for the Darwin Award finalists. The collection of a “year of knuckleheadedness and numbskullosity” is further proof that we have plenty of youth – what we need to find is the Fountain of Smart.
Kudos to the Safety Center staff, which has provided these examples of lessons learned in 2009:
- I will not find a stray snake, carry it home as a pet, and then try to play with it.
- I will not remove a .45 caliber pistol from my glove compartment and try to make sure it isn’t loaded while i’m driving to a pistol range.
- I will not try to unclog a deck drain by drilling a hole in a damage control plug and jamming it into the end of the hose on an expired carbon-dioxide fire extinguisher.
- I will not try to hang a picture beside a window in my office by teetering on a stool beside a large window.
- I will not playfully try to take away a Gerber from a Marine who is fooling around with it.
- I will not jog over to the gym at 0130 when there is a concrete barricade in my path that I didn’t know was there and couldn’t see.
- I will not play water polo with a 10-pound medicine ball.
- I will not use a rolling chair as a ladder and then try to jump even higher to reach something.
- I will not pretend to push someone off a balcony, especially if they grab me while falling off.
- I will not reward myself for serving as a designated driver by having a few drinks while waiting to actually do the driving.
- I will not lob a coconut at someone giving a briefing while I’m in the audience. I may want to, but I promise to fight the urge.
Indeed, words to live by.
Consolidated cutthroat up 3.25: The pirate stock exchange
December 30th, 2009 | Maritime operations Pirates The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
Three maritime risk-adjustment entrepreneurs guarded an investment they acquired, by hostile takeover, in the Indian Ocean in October, 2008 // MC2 Jason Zalasky / Navy
If, like so many other people in this dire economy, you’re looking for new places to park your money, Reuters reporter Mohamed Ahmed brings you an exotic new investment opportunity: The pirate stock exchange.
In his extraordinary story, Ahmed describes how Somali pirates have adopted the same techniques that have worked for centuries in the City of London or on Wall Street, selling “shares” — for cash, weapons or equipment — to investors who then get a taste of the ransom paid by governments or owners to free their hijacked ships:
It is a lucrative business that has drawn financiers from the Somali diaspora and other nations — and now the gangs in Haradheere have set up an exchange to manage their investments.
One wealthy former pirate named Mohammed took Reuters around the small facility and said it had proved to be an important way for the pirates to win support from the local community for their operations, despite the dangers involved.
“Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 ‘maritime companies’ and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking,” Mohammed said. “The shares are open to all and everybody can take part, whether personally at sea or on land by providing cash, weapons or useful materials … we’ve made piracy a community activity.”
The full story is definitely worth a read. It raises tough questions, though: If high-seas hijacking has become this much an economic cornerstone for coastal Somalis, can the U.S. and international warships in the Gulf of Aden ever hope to stomp it out?
A 4th or 5th Zumwalt? Defense pundit says… maybe
December 30th, 2009 | Blogs leadership Science and technology Ships Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
Although the Navy's top decision-makers, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus -- here testifying before the Senate in June -- only want three Zumwalt-class destroyers, a defense analyst says the Navy could end up with more // Navy
The ubiquitous defense pundit Loren Thompson hasn’t given us blue-side types very much to chew on since he and his compatriots launched their Early Warning blog last summer, vowing it wouldn’t contain all the “tendentious nonsense” found in so many other mil-blogs. Now, what was it that veteran mil-blogger ol’ Phib said about that? Oh, right.
Anyway, this week, the Lexington Laestrygonians do have an interesting item: Thompson thinks the political environment is such that the Navy could wind up with one or even two additional Zumwalt-class destroyers on top of the three it now plans to build. A bloc of New England defense Democrats, he writes, as well as the influence of corporate titans such as radar and missile-maker Raytheon and shipbuilder General Dynamics, will want to keep the momentum going on building DDG 1000s for as long as possible:
By the time the very capable workforce at Bath Iron Works gets done building the third DDG 1000, it will be far enough down the learning curve to offer big savings on a fourth or fifth vessel in the class. And then there are the intrinsic appeals of the DDG 1000 design, which include greater volume for future growth and greater automation of shipboard operations resulting in a much smaller crew than on the Burke class. So while Raytheon and Bath Iron Works owner General Dynamics aren’t planning on building more than three DDG-1000 destroyers, there is a real possibility that could happen.
A plausible scenario, although when it comes to the Zumwalt, up is down and black is white. Nothing will be certain about this ship, or its siblings, until long after the silver bottle is cracked on its tumble-home bow.
Zeal does not rest, but it does Tweet
December 30th, 2009 | Blogs Carriers Life at Sea Royal Navy Science and technology | Posted by Phil Ewing
Great Britain's aircraft carrier Ark Royal chopped into Tweet Forces Command's AOR when it became the first U.K. warship to join the popular world of micro-blogging // Royal Navy
There are many great Twitter feeds from commands throughout the fleet — for example, just pulling a few random samples from the Twitter Feed of Excellence, you can follow the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard and the carriers Harry S. Truman and Nimitz.
Tweeting, however, is apparently something new over in the Royal Navy, according to this story in the Telegraph, which says that the carrier Ark Royal is the first British warship to Tweet at sea:
Messages include information about choir practice and a chemical training exercise, complete with images of the crew in chemical suits and respirators. A recent post says: “Just had our brief for our final training war tomorrow. We are all living up to our motto – ‘Zeal does not rest’.”
HMS Ark Royal’s commanding officer, Captain John Clink, said he was keen to keep up with the latest technology.
“For hundreds of years the Royal Navy has been at the forefront of technology – particularly communications between ship and shore,” he said. “So it’s no surprise to me that we are embracing all available media, especially the internet, to keep the public up to date with our operations.
Check it out here — they’ve already got 102 followers.
Want to shoot a battleship’s gun? Time’s running out!
December 29th, 2009 | Historical Maritime operations ordnance Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
This magnificent spectacle of American seapower is not what will take place this New Year's Eve on the Delaware River off Philadelphia // NavHistHerCom
Let’s get it right out of the way: No, it’s not one of the 16-inch guns. Yes, disappointing. But! If you’re willing to fork over the cash, you can buy the right to fire one of the 5-inch guns aboard the battleship New Jersey at midnight on New Year’s Eve, to ring in the new year naval-surface-fire-support style:
The winner will sit in the gun mount, count down the end of 2009 and fire the legendary port-side (Philadelphia side) 5-inch gun and begin the midnight fireworks over the Delaware River. Don’t worry, we are not firing live ammo! But it will be loud and very visual. So let the bidding begin!
How much can one expect to cough up for this privilege? According to the auction site the “estimated value” is “priceless,” and the “buy now” price is $10,000. If it sounds appealing, get out your wallet now — you have until 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 30 to place your bids.