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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 ...
72
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 ...
59
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
59
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 ...
50
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 of ...
49
Everyone could sail past Cape Bojador. The actual problem is getting back home. Whether Hanno really went as much south as maximalist interpretations allege is really irrelevant to some extent, as the waypoints he certainly did reach even to minimalist interpretations already show the problems the later European sailors encountered and had to overcome as ...
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 ...
44
In the Heart of the Sea is primarily based on a famous historical ship, which 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 whale....
43
The idea of naming ships goes back several thousand years but, unsurprisingly, there is very little evidence from the earliest days of sailing.
EGYPT
Possibly the earliest evidence of an individual ship name is the vessel Praise of the Two Lands,
a large Egyptian vessel made of cedar wood, built ca. 2680 B.C.
Source: Anita Schybergson, 'Cognitive Systems ...
42
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 ...
37
We can find record of Thomas Wakefield's 1870 trip in the 1904 publication Thomas Wakefield : missionary and geographical pioneer in East Equatorial Africa at archive.org.
The ships and trips start is begun on pg 98
Passages were taken for the little company in the brig ‘ Emily ’ (268
tons register), bound for Zanzibar. In his diary of the voyage, Mr.
...
34
Yes, this does seem to have happened on some galleys but evidence for the widespread use of this practice is lacking. Concerning conditions in general on galleys (rations, clothing, treatment etc.), it's important to note that different navies had different practices at different times.
This practice is mentioned in Robert C. Davis' (Professor of History at ...
33
Yes, archaeological evidence strongly suggest that at least some warships did but, considering the vast numbers of ships that were built during the Viking age - and in many different locations - we cannot assume that all Viking Longboats had shields along the side as only a small percentage have been recovered. Further, it's hard to know in what situations ...
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
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.
If ...
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 ...
26
As has been remarked in the comments, the main impediment to a merchant captain gaining command of a Royal Navy vessel (and I'm assuming we're talking the English/British Royal Navy) is that he would have been at the back of a long line of candidates. At some points in the Age of Sail there were 7 times as many Post-captains as there were ships for them to ...
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, ...
19
HMS Victory was laid down in 1759, launched in 1765, converted to a troopship in about 1811, decommissioned militarily in 1824 into a harbour ship, and converted into a floating museum in 1924. Her hull is essentially unchanged since her reconstruction in 1796, though additional repairs were done in the 20th century.
Victory's longevity is thought possibly ...
19
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 ...
18
Two talents may confidently be assumed, [...] as a moderate estimate
of the cost of both hull and rigging of a trireme. (p. 364)
Source: Frank Egleston Robbins, The Cost to Athens of Her Second Empire, Classical Philology, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Oct., 1918), pp. 361-388.
Newer authors (relying, as far as I can tell from a very cursory examination, upon ...
17
Did it, after all, arrive in Spain and deliver its treasure to King Charles?
Yes, but...
It wasn't exactly a treasure ship. Not like the treasure ships that would come later. It was more of a down-payment-on-a-bribe ship.
The story the OP and their video tells got a little smashed together and mixed up sending a ship back to Spain with scuttling his ships. ...
17
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, ...
17
Cape Bojador remained quite dangerous well into modern times:
This is also believed to be the site where Captain James Riley and the crew of the U.S. brig Commerce, sailing at the time from Gibraltar towards the Cape Verde Islands, shipwrecked in August 1815. […] The cape had a fearsome reputation among mariners even prior to the wreck of the Commerce, as ...
16
Addressing the broader question of how long wooden ships could stay in active service is a tricky one because of the nature of the beast.
Until the nineteenth century, all ships were built with bio-degradable material - wood - and rigged with rope made from hemp, and canvas made from flax. In the nature of things therefore, any vessel, no matter the care ...
16
It's hard to say for sure, but I strongly suspect it was named for the historic Palmyra in Syria. Most of the American settlements were only established (or renamed) after 1802 - skimming the WP articles, I get them as GA 1840, IL #1 1855, IL #2 unknown (but almost certainly later), IL #3 1814, IN 1839, ME 1807, MO 1819, NE 1870, NJ 1849, NY 1796, OH #1 1807,...
15
French slave trading practices were more abusive than comparable American practices for several reasons.
The French sent out more and larger ships than the Anglo Americans. Conditions were much worse with overcrowding, etc. than on smaller ships.
The destination for French slaves were Caribbean sugar islands, which were more nearly comparable to similar ...
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 ...
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