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SHORT ANSWER
The short answer is that this was considered by the British to be the simplest and most economical way of disposing of the German U-boat fleet. The decision to sink the U-boats rather than salvage or divide them up among the ‘Big Three’ (the UK, the US, the Soviet Union) was part of the Potsdam Agreement (August 1945). It was agreed that the ...
83
The Germans wanted to send more, but there were none available. Most were unsuitable to escort Bismarck. Those which were suitable were damaged.
A good warship for commerce raiding is fast, both to catch enemy ships and run from warships, fuel efficient to keep at sea for as long as possible, and carries heavy armament to rapidly sink enemy ships from ...
64
Xenophon in his Hellenica (an account of the last yearsof the Peloponessian War and its aftermath) mentions several named ships, for example, "Paralus" and "Salaminia". Thus, we can infer that at least some of Greek ships were named in IV century BC, and maybe earlier. Also, Homer in his Iliad, which is dated to 8th century BC, does not give any names for ...
56
Long ago, in 16 century they used open fire in fair weather (with all possible precautions) on the deck to cook (ref. Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea). When the sea was rough, only cold food could be served. Later they used galleys of higher and higher sophistication, but still mostly in the good weather.
There was no other way to heat oneself, except ...
52
The autobiography of Ahmose, son of Abana, a Egyptian soldier in the early Eighteenth Dynasty (1550-1600 BC), mentions the names of a few the ships he was on. "Wild Bull", "Northern" and "Rising in Memphis" according to this translation
46
Postcards produced on Kodak Professional AZO paper had 'AZO stamp boxes' on the reverse. The style of these boxes varied over time.
In this case, we have four triangles in the corners of the stamp box, two 'up' and two 'down'. This suggests that the card was produced in the date-range 1918-1930.
The ship name on the reverse appears to be 'USS Marica'. A ...
43
From lateen sail history we note that the first known type of fore-and-aft rig capable of working upwind is the spritsail:
The earliest fore-and-aft rig was the spritsail, appearing in the 2nd century BC in the Aegean Sea on small Greek craft.
The lateen sail originated somewhat later during the Roman empire in the Mediterranean Sea.
As the efficiency ...
42
In the Heart of the Sea is primarily based on a famous historical ship which is also was part of the inspiration for Herman Melville's Moby Dick. That ship was named Essex. Launched at Nantucket in 1799, it was lost at sea in 1820 along with most of the crew in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean. It was apparently attacked and destroyed by an angry sperm ...
41
The news reached London on the 10th of August. It was, of course, known by British officials in the colonies much earlier, but
It is astonishing how casually the Declaration was first reported to
official London. On July 8 ex-Governor Tryon in New York wrote to
Lord George Germain, the colonial secretary, and Admiral Shuldham
wrote to the Admiralty ...
38
The idea of naming ships goes back several thousand years but, unsurprisingly, there is very little evidence from the earliest days of sailing.
EGYPT
If we accept names from mythology, then we might consider the Ancient Egyptian god Ra's solar barque, the Atet, which was known by two names:
The solar barque the people saw during the day was called the ...
32
Yes, they did.
This practice is mentioned in Robert C. Davis' (Professor of History at Ohio State University) Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500 - 1800:
to make sure that none of the slave oarsmen spoke out and gave the
game away, all the rowers were gagged with "a morsel of cork that ...
31
No.
It is true the US Coastal Command found itself with a lack of ASW assets in Dec 1941. According to uboat.net the Eastern Sea Frontier had...
4 Yard Patrol Boats
4 Subchasers
1 Coast Guard Cutter
3 Eagle-class patrol boats
103 aircraft, five of which were combat ready
However, the 50 old destroyers would not have made a significant difference. More ...
26
Not repeating info in the other answer(s), but it should be realized that by the time the Declaration of Independence was written, the Battles of Lexington and Concord were already more than a year old (April 19, 1775), as was the Colonials' Continental Army (June 1775).
Parliament in London by this time was already quite certain they had an organized ...
21
An anecdotal addition to the excellent points in the existing answer:
At the end of WWII, my mother was discharged from the ATS before my father was discharged from the army, so she got a job as bookkeeper to a scrap metal merchant operating near the base where they were stationed.
Her boss was the winning bidder on a contract to scrap some damaged, ...
18
There were several ways to stay warm. Not that any of them were exactly great. First winter travel was rare.
Next is the fact that passengers (not crew) would not really go above deck much. They mostly just traveled below deck. If we're sticking with just passengers, and not talking about crew, and if we're talking about "the age of sail" then mostly the ...
15
The person at the wheel or tiller did not decide how to steer the ship. The person holding the steering device was usually of low rank and would steer the way the officer in charge at the moment told him to. That meant that he would usually hold the control so the ship was going straight at a specific compass heading, until instructed to change course.
...
15
Trans-Atlantic passenger travel was not very popular until the advent of the steamer, and yet men and women crossed the ocean periodically, including the affluent.
Trans-Atlantic passenger travel didn't exist before the advent of steam power. It became possible because of steam power.
Before, people had to have very good reasons for traveling. Migrating ...
14
Looking at one specific ship yard, the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company:
Nine shipways were constructed, producing 126 Liberty's and 117 larger ships between Dec. 6, 1941 and the end of the war. Peak employment in 1943 was 21,000 employees in three shifts.
Historically, it was typical for a ship to be launched about 1/2 way through construction. If we ...
14
I believe this is somewhat overstating the risks and well as the severity of the disasters.
A sengokubune (千石船) refers to a ship that can carry 1000 koku of rice (sen = 1000). The actual ship design being referred to is known as a benzaisen (弁才船), originally a type of small cargo boat developed in, and for use within, the Seto Inland Sea. In their calm, ...
14
This is Kiel, before 1958. The signal tower was build in 1912 and dismantled in 1958. It is located at the Kiellinie on the Blücherbrücke:
It had to be torn down as it developed some Pisa-esque characteristics after the war.
54°20'19.3"N, 10°9'30.9"E
As it was a frequent guest at exactly this place, I'm going out on a limb and make a wild guess ...
13
Questions.
When did humans develop the ability to sail any direction regardless of wind direction?
Short Answer:
The Anglo Saxons Norsemen, early Vikings would have been the first to travel close to the wind sometime in the 6th century. Without a keel one can't sail close to ...
12
It's probably a representation of the awning or tent that would have covered the Captain's berth at the stern of the vessel. The Wikipedia article on the Galley shows some other representations.
This model of a 16th century Maltese galley shows the awning at the stern quite clearly:
Source: Wikipedia
as does this 15th century representation of a Venetian ...
11
I'm not sure why @Spencer didn't post this as an answer, but I believe he is correct in his comment from Apr in 2018 (as is the more recent (June 2018) limited response from @Rob Crawford):
There is another snippet from the Madrid Skylitzes showing this same
thing on land, on top of a hill, while the boat rows away, depicing
Thomas the Slav fleeing to ...
11
RMS Britannic was initially requisitioned for use as a hospital ship on 13 November 1915. She was then renamed as HMHS Britannic and underwent a refit. From the Wikipedia article:
In the interior, 3,309 beds and several operating rooms were installed. The common areas of the upper decks were transformed into rooms for the wounded. The cabins of B Deck ...
11
The shields or pavises along the side of the ship are a pavisade which is
A protective barrier made up of shields bearing the arms of those on
board placed along a vessel's sides.
The Wikipedia Pavise article has a slightly more detailed description:
a decorative row of shields or a band of canvas hung around a sailing
vessel to prevent an ...
10
Understanding this development first requires a discussion of various sailing rigs. Further, to understand the consequences of various sail plan decisions, one must need understand the points of sail, from close-hauled, through beam reach, to running.
When running-before-the-wind a sailing vessel is very comfortable, with the deck flat, hull stable in the ...
10
As identified in the first paragraph of the question, the purpose of Operation Rheinübung was a continuation of the commerce raids on allied shipping in the Atlantic. The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had previously performed a similar exercise with great success.
Commerce raiding was a common tactic used against a superior (or simply numerically larger) naval ...
10
The short answer is that the US Navy had learned from its experiences earlier in the war in terms of carrier design, and that the crew - together with the crews of other vessels in the carrier group - fought hard to save their ship.
This meant that they were able to keep enough compartments from flooding such that the ship remained afloat. A significant ...
10
Le Cerf Volant, a 14-gun warship, was probably captured in late December 1668 (New Style date) by Edward Collier while commanding the Oxford. Collier seized the French ship at Cow island while it was anchored not far from Morgan's ship.
According to Dudley Pope in Harry Morgan's Way: The Biography Of Sir Henry Morgan 1635-1688 (2013), Sir Thomas Modyford, ...
9
They had the technology to navigate outside of the Mediterranean, or at the very least their Phoenician neighbors did:
According to Herodotus, a Phoenician expedition sent down the Red Sea by pharaoh Necho II of Egypt (c. 600 BC) even circumnavigated Africa and returned through the Pillars of Hercules after three years.
But like the Romans, the Greeks ...
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