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Post by peterj on Jan 17, 2008 8:37:29 GMT 12
Lets expand our knowledge and have a bit of fun with an alphabetical list of different types of boats and ships - each with a small description of of the item.
I'll start;
Aviation Transport
Normally a flat topped barge or a redundant/earlier generation of Aircraft Carrier working out its retirement, carries aircraft to and from carriers and aircraft equipped ships to factories and repair locations.
Some also used to operate seaplanes when all the seaplane carriers had been sunk.
Barge
A freight carrier, usually towed - but some are equipped with an engine, standard design is a strongly built square ended rectangle. Can have a capacity of a few thousand tonnes but most are smaller.
Your entry for "C" is ??
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Post by Roderick on Jan 17, 2008 10:08:47 GMT 12
C....Container ship Container ship in IstanbulContainer ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size containers, in a technique called containerization. They form a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport. Container fleet in 2006The earliest container ships were converted tankers, built up from surplus tanker T-2's after World War II. The first container ship was the Ideal-X,[citation needed] a converted T-2 tanker, owned by Malcom McLean, which carried 58 metal containers between Newark, New Jersey and Houston, Texas on its first voyage, in April 1956. Now container ships are all purpose-built and as a class are second only to crude oil tankers and bulk carriers as the biggest cargo ships on the oceans.
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Post by peterj on Jan 17, 2008 11:57:23 GMT 12
Dan Craft
A series of "work boats" used to carry, place, maintain and recover Dan Buoys which are used to mark obstacles and clear lanes.
Dan Buoy A buoy used to mark positions or objects in relatively shallow water. Dan buoys are carried by mine countermeasures ships to support navigation and mark mine fields.
You can probably understand that there were several thousands of these buoys used each year in WW2 and these were the craft that looked after them.
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Post by Roderick on Jan 17, 2008 16:36:22 GMT 12
East Indiaman
...An East Indiaman was a ship operating under charter or licence to the Honourable East India Company. The company itself did not generally own merchant ships, but held a monopoly granted to it by Queen Elizabeth I of England for all English trade between the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, which was progressively restricted during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. English (later British) East Indiamen usually ran between England, the Cape of Good Hope and India, often continuing on their voyages to China before returning to England via the Cape of Good Hope. Main ports visited in India were Mumbai (then Bombay), Chennai (then Madras) and Kolkata (then Calcutta).
East Indiamen were designed to carry both passengers and goods and to defend themselves against piracy, and so constituted a special class of ship. In the period of the Napoleonic Wars they were often painted to resemble warships, and some carried a sizeable armament. A number of these ships were in fact acquired by the Royal Navy, and in some cases they successfully fought off attacks by the French. One of the most celebrated of these incidents occurred in 1804, when a fleet of East Indiamen and other merchant vessels successfully fought off a marauding squadron commanded by Admiral Linois in the Indian Ocean. The event is dramatised in Patrick O'Brian's novel HMS Surprise.
East Indiamen were the largest merchant ships regularly built during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, generally measuring between 1100 and 1400 registered tons. Two of the largest were the Earl of Mansfield and Lascelles being built at Deptford in 1795. Both were purchased by the Royal Navy, completed as a 56-gun Fourth Rate Ship of the Line, and renamed Weymouth and Madras respectively. They measured 1426 tons on dimensions of approximately 175 feet overall length of hull, 144 feet keel, 43 feet beam, 17 feet draft.
According to historian Fernand Braudel, some of the finest and largest Indiamen of the late 18th and early 19th centuries were built in India, making use of Indian shipbuilding techniques and crewed by Indians. These ships were used for the China run. Until the coming of steamships, these Indian-built ships were relied upon almost exclusively by the British in the eastern seas. None sailed to Europe and they were banned from English ports. Many hundreds of Indian-built Indiamen were built for the British, along with other ships, including warships. Notable among them were Surat Castle (1791), a 1,000 ton ship with a crew of 150, Lowjee Family, of 800 tons and a crew of 125, and Shampinder (1802), of 1,300 tons.[1]
Another significant East Indiaman in this period was the 1176-ton Lord Warley that was being built at the Perry yard at Blackwall in 1795 when sold to the Royal Navy and renamed HMS Calcutta. In 1803 she was employed as a transport to establish a settlement at Port Phillip in Australia, later shifted to the site of current-day Hobart, Tasmania by an accompanying ship, the Ocean. HMS Calcutta was seized by French forces in 1805 and sunk by the Royal Navy off Sicily in 1809.
The 1200 ton Arniston was likewise employed by the Royal Navy as a troop transport between England and Ceylon. In 1815, she was wrecked near Cape Agulhas with the loss of 372 lives after a navigation error that was caused by inaccurate dead reckoning and not having a marine chronometer with which to calculate her longitude.
Due to the need to carry heavy cannon, the hull of the East Indiamen — in common with most warships of the time — was much wider at the waterline than at the upper deck, so that guns carried on the upper deck were closer to the centre-line to aid stability. This is known as tumblehome. The ships normally had two complete decks for accommodation within the hull and a raised poop deck. The poop deck and the deck below it were lit with square-windowed galleries at the stern. To support the weight of the galleries, the hull lines towards the stern were full. Later ships built without this feature tended to sail faster, which put the East Indiamen at a commercial disadvantage once the need for heavy armament passed.
With the progressive restriction of the monopoly of the British East India Company the desire to build such large armed ships for commercial use waned, and during the late 1830s a smaller, faster ship known as a Blackwall Frigate was built for the premium end of the India and China trades.
The shipwreck of one of the largest East Indiamen, the Earl of Abergavenny, is located at Weymouth Bay, in England.
The word is also used as a translation of the Dutch Oostindiëvaarder of the Dutch East India Company
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Post by yogismum on Jan 17, 2008 20:49:02 GMT 12
Frigate, A word you say when you hit your thumb with a hammer! ;D
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Post by Mamalicious on Jan 17, 2008 22:35:14 GMT 12
hilarious mum...good on ya!!
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goldieangel
Lieutenant
ZambukaMarine Naval Intelligence Unit
Posts: 4,858
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Post by goldieangel on Jan 17, 2008 22:42:57 GMT 12
G - Gondola............for a romantic trip on the river
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Post by peterj on Jan 17, 2008 23:24:49 GMT 12
Holographic Ship
Holographs are basically a 3D stabalised light image.
When Red Dwarf encounters a holo-ship in Enlightenment, with an all-hologram crew composed of the "best and brightest", Rimmer can interact as if he were alive again, so naturally he cheats on a test to become a member of the crew. A female officer aboard the ship, Nirvanah Crane, explains that because they were all holograms and had zero chance of pregnancy or transmitting sexual disease, the holo-crew's R&R hours consists of near-constant casual sex, with as many partners as you wanted over time with no emotional strings attached.
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Post by peterj on Jan 18, 2008 21:06:16 GMT 12
Inspection Vessels
During all the previous wars there has been a need for vessels to stop and search vessels for contraband goods to stop "blockade runners" supplying goods and supplies to the enemy. These vessels which range from fishing boats at the harbour mouth to large well armed auxiliary cruisers mounting 6" guns [ as used in the Greenland/Iceland/UK gaps during WW2 ] and quite capable of scaring and scarring a light cruiser or commerce raider are referred to as "Inspection Vessels".
The small fishing boats at the mouth of Wellington Harbour were backed up by the 6" guns of the Fort Dorset batteries, although it was a 12pdr gun from the Fort that fired NZ's first shot of WW2 - and no doubt cured any constipation that the Captain of the merchant ship that failed to stop for inspection only hours after NZ declared war in 1939 may have had( one story has this incident happening before the UK joined us in WW2 ).
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Post by peterj on Jan 19, 2008 22:29:02 GMT 12
Junk (ship) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A junk is a Chinese sailing vessel. The English name comes from Javanese djong (Malay: adjong), meaning 'ship' or 'large vessel'.[1] Junks were originally developed during the Han Dynasty (220 BC¨C200 AD) and further evolved to represent one of the most successful ship types in history. This article is about the history of Junks. For modern developments and sailing technique see Junk Rig.
Design Junks were efficient and sturdy ships that were traveling across oceans as early as the 2nd century AD.[citation needed] They incorporated numerous technical advances in sail plan and hull designs that were later adopted in Western shipbuilding.
The historian H. Warington Smyth considered the junk one of the most efficient ship designs:
"As an engine for carrying man and his commerce upon the high and stormy seas as well as on the vast inland waterways, it is doubtful if any class of vessel is more suited or better adapted to its purpose than the Chinese or Indian junk, and it is certain that for flatness of sail and handiness, the Chinese rig is unsurpassed." (H. Warington Smith) [3]
Sail plan The structure and flexibility of junk sails make the junk easy to sail, and fast. Unlike a traditional square rigged ship the sails of a junk can be moved inward, toward the long axis of the ship, allowing the junk to sail into the wind.
The sails include several horizontal members ("battens") which provide shape and strength. Junk sails are controlled at their trailing edge by lines much in the same way as the mainsail on a typical sailboat; however, in the junk sail each batten has a line attached to its trailing edge where on a typical sailboat this line (the sheet) is attached only to the boom. The sails can also be easily reefed and adjusted for fullness, to accommodate various wind strengths. The battens also make the sails more resistant than traditional sails to large tears, as a tear is typically limited to a single "panel" between battens. Junk sails have much in common with the most aerodynamically efficient sails used today in windsurfers or catamarans, although their design can be traced back as early the 3rd century AD.
The standing rigging is simple or absent.
The sail-plan is also spread out between multiple masts, allowing for a powerful sail surface, and a good repartition of efforts. The rig allows for good sailing into the wind.
Flags were also hung from the masts to bring good luck and women to the sailors on board. A legend among the Chinese during the junk's heyday regarded a dragon which lived in the clouds. It was said that when the dragon became angry, it created typhoons and storms. Bright flags, with Chinese writing on them, were said to please the dragon. Red was the best color, as it would make the dragon likely to help the sailors.
Hull design Classic junks were built of softwoods (though in Guangdong in teak) with multiple compartments accessed by separate hatches and ladders: similar in structure to the interior stem of bamboo. The largest junks were built for world exploration in the 1400s, and were around 120 (400+ feet) meters in length. (See Zheng He)
Rudders Junks employed stern-mounted rudders centuries before their adoption in the West, though the rudder, origin, form and construction was completely different. It was an innovation which permitted the steering of large, high-freeboard ships, and its well-balanced design allowed adjustment according to the depth of the water. A sizable junk can have a rudder that needs up to three members of the crew to control in strong weather. The world's oldest known depiction of a stern-mounted rudder can be seen on a pottery model of a junk dating from the 100s AD, though some scholars think this may be a steering oar - a possible interpretation given that the model is of a river boat that was probably towed or poled. By contrast, the West's oldest known stern-mounted rudder can be found on church carvings dating to around 1180 AD.[citation needed]
Also, from sometime in the 13th-15th centuries many junks incorporated "fenestrated rudders" (rudders with holes in them), an innovation adopted in the West in 1901 to decrease the vulnerability of torpedo boats' rudders when manoeuvering at high speed. Likewise, the Chinese discovery was probably adopted to lessen the force needed to direct the steering of the rudder.
The rudder is reported to be the strongest part of the junk. In the Tiangong Kaiwu "Exploitation of the Works of Nature" (1637), Song Yingxing wrote, "The rudder-post is made of elm, or else of langmu or of zhumu." The Ming author also applauds the strength of the langmu wood as "if one could use a single silk thread to hoist a thousand jun or sustain the weight of a mountain landslide."
Separate compartments Another characteristic of junks, interior compartments, allowed reinforced ship structure and reduced the rapidity of flooding in case of holing. Ships built in this manner were written of in Zhu Yu's book Pingzhou Table Talks, published by 1119 AD during the Song Dynasty.[2] Again, this type of construction for Chinese ship hulls was attested to by the Moroccan Muslim Berber traveler Ibn Batutta (1304-1377 AD), who described it in great detail (refer to Technology of the Song Dynasty).[3] Although some historians have questioned whether the compartments were watertight, most believe that watertight compartments did exist in Chinese junks. All wrecks discovered so far have limber holes; these are located only in the foremost and aftermost compartments.
Benjamin Franklin wrote in a 1787 letter on the project of mail packets between the United States and France:
"As these vessels are not to be laden with goods, their holds may without inconvenience be divided into separate apartments, after the Chinese manner, and each of these apartments caulked tight so as to keep out water" (Benjamin Franklin, 1787). In 1795, Sir Samuel Bentham, inspector of dockyards of the Royal Navy, and designer of six new sailing ships, argued for the adoption of "partitions contributing to strength, and securing the ship against foundering, as practiced by the Chinese of the present day". His idea was not adopted. Bentham had been in China in 1782, and he acknowledged that he had got the idea of watertight compartments by looking at Chinese junks there. Bentham was a friend of Isambard Brunel, so it is possible that he had some influence on Brunel's adoption of longitudinal, strengthening bulkheads in the lower deck of the SS Great Britain.
Due to the numerous foreign primary sources that hint to the existence of true watertight compartments in junks, historians such as Joseph Needham proposed that the limber holes were stopped up during leakage. He addresses this issue in pg 422 of Science and Civilisation in Ancient China:
Less well known is the interesting fact that in some types of Chinese craft the foremost(and less frequently also the aftermost) compartments is made free-flooding. Holes are purposely contrived in the planking. This is the case with the salt-boats which shoot the rapids down from Tzuliuching in Szechuan, the gondola-shaped boats of the Poyang Lake, and many sea going junks. The Szechuanese boatmen say that this reduces resistance to the water to a minimum, and the device must certainly cushion the shocks of pounding when the boat pitches heavily in the rapids, for she acquires and discharges water ballast rapidly just at the time when it is most desirable to counteract buffeting at stem and stern. The sailors say that it stops junks flying up into the wind. It may be the reality at the bottom of the following story, related by Liu Ching-Shu of the +5th century, in his book I Yuan (Garden of Strange Things):
In Fu-Nan (Cambodia) gold is always used in transactions. Once there were (some people who) having hired a boat to go from east to west near and far, had not reached their destination when the time came for the payment of the pound (of gold) which had been agreed upon. They therefore wished to reduce the quantity (to be paid). The master of the ship then played a trick upon them. He made (as it were) a way for the water to enter the bottom of the boat, which seemed to be about to sink, and remained stationary, moving neither forward nor backward. All the passengers were very frightened and came to make offerings. The boat (afterwards) returned to its original state. This, however, would seem to have involved openings which could be controlled, and the water pumped out afterwards. This was easily effected in China (still seen in Kuangtung and Hong Kong), but the practice was also known in England, where the compartment was called the 'wet-well', and the boat in which it was built, a 'well-smack'. If the tradition is right that such boats date in Europe from +1712 then it may well be that the Chinese bulkhead principle was introduced twice, first for small coastal fishing boats at the end of the seventeenth century, and then for large ships a century later.
Leeboards & centerboards Leeboards and centerboards, used to stabilize the junk and to improve its capability to sail upwind are documented from a 759 AD book by Li Chuan, an innovation adopted by Portuguese and Dutch ships around 1570.[citation needed]
Other innovations included the square-pallet bilge pump, which were adopted by the West during the 16th century. Junks also relied on the compass for navigational purposes.
History The first records of junks can be found in references dating to Han Dynasty (220 BC-200 AD).
2nd century junks (Han Dynasty) The 3rd century book "Strange Things of the South" (ÄÏÖÝ®ÎïÖ¾) by Wan Chen (ÈfÕð) describes junks capable of carrying 700 people together with 260 tons of cargo ("more than 10,000 "õú"). He explains the ship's design as follows:
"The four sails do not face directly forward, but are set obliquely, and so arranged that they can all be fixed in the same direction, to receive the wind and to spill it. Those sails which are behind the most windward one receiving the pressure of the wind, throw it from one to the other, so that they all profit from its force. If it is violent, (the sailors) diminish or augment the surface of the sails according to the conditions. This oblique rig, which permits the sails to receive from one another the breath of the wind, obviates the anxiety attendant upon having high masts. Thus these ships sail without avoiding strong winds and dashing waves, by the aid of which they can make great speed" ("Strange Things of the South", Wan Chen, from Robert Temple). A 260 AD book by Kang Tai (¿µÌ©) also described ships with seven masts, traveling as far as Syria.
10th-13th century junks (Song Dynasty) The great trading dynasty of the Song employed junks extensively. The naval strength of the Song, both mercantile and military, became the backbone of the naval power of the following Yuan dynasty. In particular the Mongol invasions of Japan (1274-1284), as well as the Mongol invasion of Java essentially relied on recently acquired Song naval capabilities. The ship to the right's dimensions are 360'x 110'x 120'.
14th century junks (Yuan Dynasty) The enormous dimensions of the Chinese ships of the Medieval period are described in Chinese sources, and are confirmed by Western travelers to the East, such as Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta and Niccol¨° da Conti. According to Ibn Battuta, who visited China in 1347:
We stopped in the port of Calicut, in which there were at the time thirteen Chinese vessels, and disembarked. On the China Sea traveling is done in Chinese ships only, so we shall describe their arrangements. The Chinese vessels are of three kinds; large ships called chunks (junks), middle sized ones called zaws (dhows) and the small ones kakams. The large ships have anything from twelve down to three sails, which are made of bamboo rods plaited into mats. They are never lowered, but turned according to the direction of the wind; at anchor they are left floating in the wind. A ship carries a complement of a thousand men, six hundred of whom are sailors and four hundred men-at-arms, including archers, men with shields and crossbows, who throw naphtha. Three smaller ones, the "half", the "third" and the "quarter", accompany each large vessel. These vessels are built in the towns of Zaytun (a.k.a Zaitun; today's Quanzhou; ´ÌÍ©) and Sin-Kalan. The vessel has four decks and contains rooms, cabins, and saloons for merchants; a cabin has chambers and a lavatory, and can be locked by its occupants. This is the manner after which they are made; two (parallel) walls of very thick wooden (planking) are raised and across the space between them are placed very thick planks (the bulkheads) secured longitudinally and transversely by means of large nails, each three ells in length. When these walls have thus been built the lower deck is fitted in and the ship is launched before the upper works are finished. (Ibn Battuta).
15th-17th century junks (Ming Dynasty)
Expedition of Zheng He The largest junks ever built were probably those of Admiral Zheng He, for his expeditions in the Indian Ocean. According to Chinese sources, the fleet comprised 30,000 men and over 300 ships at its height.[citation needed]
The 1405 expedition consisted of 27,000 men and 317 ships. The dimensions of Zheng He's ships according to ancient Chinese chronicles and disputed by modern scholars (see below):
"Treasure ships", used by the commander of the fleet and his deputies (Nine-masted junks, claimed by the Ming Shi to be about 420 feet long and 180 feet wide). "Horse ships", carrying tribute goods and repair material for the fleet (Eight-masted junks, about 339 feet long and 138 feet wide) "Supply ships", containing food-staple for the crew (Seven-masted junks, about 257 feet long and 115 feet wide). "Troop transports" (Six-masted junks, about 220 feet long and 83 feet wide). "Fuchuan warships" (Five-masted junks, about 165 feet long). "Patrol boats" (Eight-oared, about 120 feet long). "Water tankers", with 1 month's supply of fresh water and sustainability. Recent research, however, suggests that the actual length of the biggest treasure ships may have rather lain between 390-408 feet long and 160-166 feet wide instead [4] while others estimate them to be 200-250 feet in length.[5]
Accounts of medieval travellers Chinese junks are described as very large, three or four-masted ships.Niccol¨° da Conti in his relations of his travels in Asia between 1419 and 1444, matter-of-factly describes huge junks of about 2,000 tons:
They make ships larger than ours, about 2,000 tons in size, with five sails and as many masts. The lower part is made of three decks, so as to better resist storms, which occur frequently. These ships are separated into several compartments, so that if one is touched during a storm, the others remain intact." (Niccol¨° da Conti)[6] Also, in 1456, the Fra Mauro map described the presence of junks in the Indian Ocean as well as their construction:
"The ships called junks (lit. "Zonchi") that navigate these seas carry four masts or more, some of which can be raised or lowered, and have 40 to 60 cabins for the merchants and only one tiller. They can navigate without a compass, because they have an astrologer, who stands on the side and, with an astrolabe in hand, gives orders to the navigator." (Text from the Fra Mauro map, 09-P25.)[7] Fra Mauro further explains that one of these junks rounded the Cape of Good Hope and travelled far into the Atlantic Ocean, in 1420:
Detail of the Fra Mauro Map relating the travels of a junk into the Atlantic Ocean in 1420. The ship also is illustrated above the text."About the year of Our Lord 1420 a ship, what is called an Asian junk (lit. "Zoncho de India"), on a crossing of the Sea of India towards the "Isle of Men and Women", was diverted beyond the "Cape of Diab" (Shown as the Cape of Good Hope on the map), through the "Green Isles" (lit. "isole uerde", Cabo Verde Islands), out into the "Sea of Darkness" (Atlantic Ocean) on a way west and southwest. Nothing but air and water was seen for 40 days and by their reckoning they ran 2,000 miles and fortune deserted them. When the stress of the weather had subsided they made the return to the said "Cape of Diab" in 70 days and drawing near to the shore to supply their wants the sailors saw the egg of a bird called roc, which egg is as big as an amphora." (Text from Fra Mauro map, 10-A13.)[8]
Asian trade Chinese junks were used extensively in Asian trade during the 16th and 17th century, especially to Japan, where they competed with Japanese Red Seal Ships, Portuguese carracks and Dutch galleons, and to Southeast Asia. Richard Cocks, the head of the English trading factory in Hirado, Japan, recorded that 50 to 60 Chinese junks visited Nagasaki in 1612 alone.
These junks were usually three masted, and averaging between 200 and 800 tons in size, the largest ones having around 130 sailors, 130 traders and sometimes hundreds of passengers.
19th century junks (Qing Dynasty) Junk Keying travelled from China to the United States and England between 1846 to 1848.Junks remained considerable in size and played a key role in Asian trade until the 19th century. One of these junks, Keying, sailed from China around the Cape of Good Hope to the United States and England between 1846 and 1848.
20th century junks In 1955, six young men sailed an old Chinese junk from Formosa (Taiwan) to San Francisco. The four month journey aboard the "Free China" was captured on film and their arrival into San Francisco made international front-page news. The five Chinese-born friends saw an advertisement for an international trans-Atlantic yacht race, and jumped at the opportunity for adventure. They were joined by the then US Vice-Consul to Taiwan, who was credited with capturing the courageous journey on film.
Enduring typhoons and mishaps, the crew, having never sailed a century old junk before, learned along the way. The crew included Reno Chen, Paul Chow, Loo-chi Hu, Benny Hsu, Calvin Mehlert and were led by skipper Marco Chung. After their journey began 6,000 miles away, the "Free China" and her crew arrived into San Francisco Bay under a majestic fog on August 8, 1955.
Shortly after the historic journey, the footage was featured on ABC television's "Bold Journey" travelogue. Hosted by John Stephenson and narrated by ship's navigator Paul Chow, the program highlighted the adventures and challenges of the junk's sailing across the Pacific as well as some humorous moments aboard ship. [9]
In 1968, Bill King sailed a junk schooner in the controversial Sunday Times Golden Globe Race.
A growing number of designs of modern recreational junk rigged sail boats has emerged. Notably: Benford Design Groups "Badger" known from Annie Hill's book "Voyaging on a small income". Also Tom MacNaughton of MacNaughton Group has several popular junk rigged designs.
For long travels with few crew, the simplisity of the junk rig in terms of construction, maintainance and handling makes it an important alternative to the more prevalent designs. Most notably is the implied safety that follows from extremely simple reefing, which is particularly important when there is few crew and the weather changes from bad to worse, minimizing the need to work on deck exposed to bad weather. Also simple construction means both lower cost and simple repairs.
Called junk, but far from being junk, they were the origin of several improvements to western shipping.
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Post by peterj on Jan 21, 2008 8:13:36 GMT 12
Ketch From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A ketch is a sailing craft with two masts: a main mast, and a shorter mizzen mast abaft (rearward of) the main mast. Both masts are rigged mainly fore-and-aft. From one to three jibs may be carried forward of the main mast when going to windward. If a ketch is not rigged for jibs it is called a cat ketch, sometimes called a periauger. On older, larger ketches the main mast may in addition carry one or more square rigged topsails. A ketch may also carry extra sails, see below.
The lowest fore-and-aft sail on the main mast is called the mainsail, while that on the mizzen is called the mizzen sail. These may be any type of fore-and-aft sail, in any combination. The Scots Zulu, for example, had a dipping lug main with a standing lug mizzen.
The ketch is popular among long distance cruisers as the additional sail allows for a better balance, and a smaller more easily handled mainsail for the same overall sail area. It also allows sailing on mizzen and jib only without introducing excessive lee helm, and in an emergency can be quite well steered without use of the rudder.
Running before the wind or reaching across the wind, a ketch may carry extra sails such as a spinnaker on the main mast, and a spinnaker or (mizzen staysail) on the mizzen mast.
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Post by peterj on Jan 21, 2008 18:30:06 GMT 12
LUMP
A shortish, stocky and sturdily built craft, used for carrying heavy stores, such as chain, hawsers, ordnance ( guns and mountings ) around a dockyard.
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Post by peterj on Jan 21, 2008 18:44:19 GMT 12
Monitor
A short, broad beamed, shallow drafted vessel designed to carry heavy armament. HMS Abercrombie, a monitor in WW2, carried two 15" guns on a 373' long hull, 89' broad with a draught of 15', HMS Repulse, a Battleship in WW2, carried six 15' guns on a hull of over 700' in length, also 89' broad but with a draught of 29'.
This shallow draught under a big gun caused complaints from the Germans in WW1 - they considered it "unsporting" to bring such big gun platforms to just of the beach in the European shallows such as around Ostend and chuck full size battleship shells at the Kaisers best. This shows the usefullness of the monitor class in getting needed navy "big gun" support up where it was needed, including into sallows.
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Post by peterj on Jan 27, 2008 14:10:20 GMT 12
HMS Nonsuch
Actually several ships of the Royal Navy have been called "Nonsuch"
HMS Nonsuch
HMS Nonsuch, a 38-gun great ship, rebuilt from a previous ship and sold c. 1645.
HMS Nonsuch, a 34-gun ship launched in 1646 and wrecked 1664.
HMS Nonsuch, an 8-gun ketch purchased in 1654 and sold in 1667, later as the civilian vessel Nonsuch making the trading voyage establishing the Hudson's Bay Company.
HMS Nonsuch, a 42-gun fourth rate launched in 1668 and captured in 1695 by the French privateer Le Francais.
HMS Nonsuch, a 5-gun hoy launched in 1686 and sold 1714.
HMS Nonsuch, a 48-gun fourth rate ship of the line, launched in 1696, rebuilt 1717, and broken up in 1745.
HMS Nonsuch, a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line in service from 1741 to 1766.
HMS Nonsuch, a 64-gun third rate ship of the line launched in 1774, used as a floating battery from 1794, and broken up in 1802.
HMS Nonsuch, an 'M' class destroyer launched in 1915 and sold in 1921.
HMS Nonsuch, a sloop laid down in February 1945 and cancelled in October of that year.
HMS Nonsuch (D107), the former German Narvik class destroyer Z.38 taken after the war's end, and scrapped in 1949.
HMS Nonsuch is also a sample ship name as used by the Royal Navy. [1]
A fictional HMS Nonsuch (a 74 gun ship of the line) also appears in the tales of Horatio Hornblower.
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Post by peterj on Jan 29, 2008 16:33:22 GMT 12
Oberon class submarine From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oberon-class General characteristics Displacement: 2030 t/2400 t Dimensions: 295 ft x 26.6 ft x 18 ft (90 m x 8.1 m x 5.5 m) Armament: 8-21 in (533 mm) TT (6 bow, 2 stern. 24 torpedoes) Later equipped to use Harpoon Propulsion: 2 shafts, two 3,680 bhp (2.7 MW) Admiralty Standard Range diesel generators, two 12,000 hp (8.9 MW) English Electric main motors Speed: surfaced/submerged 12 knots/17 knots (22 km/h / 31 km/h) Range: 9,000 nautical miles (17,000 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h) Complement: 62 [1]
The Oberon-class was a thirteen-ship class of diesel-electric submarines of the Royal Navy, and were based on the successful Porpoise-class submarine. The Oberons were far more successful in the export market than their predecessor, with fourteen boats being operated by the navies of Australia (HMAS Oxley, Otway, Onslow, Ovens, Orion and Otama), Canada (HMCS Ojibwa, Okanagan, Onondaga, Olympus and Osiris), Brazil (S 20 Humaitá, S 21 Tonelero and S 22 Riachuelo), Egypt and Chile(Hyatt and O'Brien).
Design The class differed from the Porpoises in that they used QT28 steel instead of the UXW[2] used in the Porpoise. This was easier to fabricate and gave a significant increase in diving depth. Additionally, they made use of glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) in the casing and other additional improvements helped the class become even more silent than the Porpoises. Additional new electronics and weapons, including in 1970 the Mk24 Tigerfish torpedo. The RAN and RCN O-boats were upgraded to fire American Mk48 torpedoes. The Canadian Oberons also used the NT-37 torpedo before the Mk48 was introduced. The Australian boats were later updated to be equipped with the subsonic anti-ship Harpoon missile. HMAS Ovens was only the second conventional submarine in the world - and the first Oberon - to fire a sub-surface launched Harpoon missile. Consequently, the boat's designation changed from SS to SSG. This occurred off the island of Kauai in Hawaii in 1985, where the target was successfully hit from over the horizon. Like the previous Porpoises, the Oberons were far quieter than their American counterparts. They performed remarkably well in clandestine operations, performing surveillance and inserting special forces, vital during their heyday in the Cold War. These operations were primarily carried out by the British across Arctic Europe; the Canadians across the Arctic Pacific; and the Australians throughout south-east Asia and as far north as the Sea of Japan.
The Oberons were arguably the best conventional submarine class of its time[2], with an astonishing reputation for quietness that allowed it to exist into the 21st century until replaced by newer classes such as the Collins- and Victoria-classes in Australia and Canada respectively. In fact, the ability of the O-boats to run in total silence enabled Australian submarines to successfully attack USS Enterprise in a training exercise, despite a huge number of supporting ships 'protecting' it[citation needed].
Service The first of the class to be commissioned into the Royal Navy was Orpheus in 1960, followed by the nameship in 1961. The last to be commissioned was Onyx in 1967. Six were commissioned between 1967 and 1978 for the RAN. In 1982, HMS Onyx took part in the Falklands War, the only conventional submarine of the RN to do so, landing members of the SBS. All Oberons in service, including boats exported, have now been decommissioned; the last RN boats were decommissioned in 1993, with the final Canadian and Australian Oberons decommissioned in 2000.
Surviving examples As of 2006, ten Oberons have survived, nine as complete examples. Two ships have now become museum ships in the UK. HMS Onyx has now moved to Barrow-in-Furness after the museum at Birkenhead, Merseyside closed, where another Falklands veteran, HMS Plymouth, has remained. The other boat, HMS Ocelot, is located at Chatham. Australia's six Oberons are located at the following places: HMAS Ovens is located at the Western Australian Maritime Museum at Fremantle, HMAS Onslow is located at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney. Both are museum ships. The sail, outer hull, and stern section of HMAS Otway are preserved on land at Holbrook, NSW. HMAS Otama is located at Westernport Bay, Victoria. HMAS Oxley's fin stands as a permanent memorial at HMAS Stirling, Garden Island, Western Australia. HMS Otus is harboured in Sassnitz, Germany on the island of Rügen and can be visited. 4 Oberons are docked at the Naval Base in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada.
One of the Brazilian Oberons (S 21 Tonelero) sunk while docked at the navy yards at the Praça Mauá on Rio de Janeiro, on December 24 2000 [3]. The surviving one, S 22 Riachuelo, was converted into a museum at the Brazilian Navy Cultural Center (Espaço Cultural da Marinha Brasileira) on Rio de Janeiro.[4]
The Oberon class was briefly succeeded in RN service by the Upholder-class submarine, later sold to the Canadian Navy after refit as the Victoria-class .
When I came down to wellington from Waitotara for a holiday in 1969 I met one of these boats and was invited on board - but was unable to come back at the stated time.
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