Happy Halloween Fools
I’m getting ready to go out as we speak.
Monthly Archives: October 2013
Coast Guard Saves Blackbeard’s Cannons
“PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Smilax worked with personnel from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources to recover five cannons and multiple barrel hoops from the Queen Anne’s Revenge in Beaufort Inlet, N.C., Monday.
The Queen Anne’s Revenge was the ship of the pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, for more than a year before the ship ran aground on the shoals in the inlet. The crew of the Smilax, a 100-foot inland construction tender, worked with NCDCR divers to lift the approximately one-ton cannons aboard the Smilax using a combination of flotation bags and the ship’s crane.”
Not bad for the grand old Cosmos-class inland construction tender USCGC Smilax (WLIC-315). She is the Coast Guard’s “Queen of the Fleet”.
Smilax was built by Dubuque Boat & Boiler Works in Dubuque, Iowa. Her keel was laid on 26 November 1943, she was launched on 18 August 1944, and commissioned 1 November 1944. Her first mission included watching out for German U-boats while stationed at Fort Pierce, Florida. Since 2011 she has been the oldest ship in the US Coast Guard and is possibly the last active US military vessel left from World War Two. As an honor, she is the only US military ship with her hull numbers painted in gold and her motto was changed to Natu Maximus Mandatum Traba (Oldest Commissioned Ship).
Homeported in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, she is responsible for maintaining 1,226 fixed aids to navigation such as lights and range markers.
…And salvaging the occasional pirate cannon.
Warship Wednesday, October 30 Mr. Holland’s toy
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.- Christopher Eger
Warship Wednesday, October 30 Mr. Holland’s toy
Here we see what started off originally as the Holland VI, a small submersible invented by Mr. John Philip Holland in 1896. The ship was built at Lewis Nixon’s Crescent Shipyard of Elizabeth, New Jersey for Mr. Holland as his sixth personal submarine (as the name implies).
Mr. Holland showing off his boat for the media. Nothing says 1900 submarines like bowler hats…
Just 53-feet long, she was the forerunner of every submarine today. Yes, there had been dozens of earlier experimental boats that had been produced in the US and Europe from the 1700s on, but the Holland VI had several unique features that are now standard on underwater boats. These included both an internal combustion engine (in Hollands case a 45hp Otto gas engine) for running on the surface, and a 56kW electric motor for submerged operation. She had a re-loadable torpedo tube and a topside deck gun (a pneumatic dynamite gun!). There was a conning tower from which the boat and her weapons could be directed. Finally, she had all the necessary ballast and trim tanks to make precise changes in-depth and attitude underwater.
What more could you ask for?
After running around the US coast and several interested (and very international ) parties popping in to take a look at it, the US Navy bought the little boat for $150-grand in 1900. This was about $3.5-million today. She was placed in commissioned six months later as USS Holland (SS-1) on 12 OCT 1900. The US promptly ordered six larger boats from Holland’s Electric Boat Company as did the Tsar. It was Holland boats sold to the Russians that saw limited use in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05, itself a dress-rehearsal for most of the technology used in the First World War.
Holland (SS-01), at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD., summer of 1905. The crew on deck are, L to R: Harry Wahab, chief gunner’s mate; Kane; Richard O. Williams, chief electrician; Chief Gunner Owen Hill, commanding; Igoe; Michael Malone; Barnett Bowie, Simpson, chief machinist mate, and Rhinelander. The two vessels on the right are monitors. The inboard vessel has only one turret and is probably one of 3 monitors: Arkansas (M-7), Nevada(M-8) or Florida (M-9). The outboard 2 turreted monitor is also one of 3 probables: Amphitrite (BM-2), Terror (M-4) or Miantonomah (BM-5).
Made quickly obsolete by very rapid developments in submarine design not only in the US but in Russia, Germany, the UK, and France, she was decommissioned in 1905.
The Navy kept her for eight years in mothballs then sold her as scrap to Henry A. Hitner & Sons, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 18 June 1913 for $100. Within just a few months of her being sold as scrap, British shipping was being sunk at amazing rates by German U-boats in WWI.
The breaker, with that in mind, held onto the ex-Holland through WWI, then passed her onto a local museum who held onto her for 15 years, only cutting her up in 1932 when the Depression dictated it was worth more in scrap iron regardless of sentimental attachment.
A small chunk of her is still in the National Museum of the Navy in Washington.
Nameplate of submarine Holland Exhibited in the “Dive, Dive, Dive!” display area in Bldg. 76
Today the Electric Boat Company still makes boats as part of GenDyn but Holland is largely forgotten.
Specs:
Displacement: 64 long tons (65 t) surfaced
74 long tons (75 t) submerged
Length: 53 ft 10 in (16.41 m) LOA
Beam: 10 ft 4 in (3.15 m) extreme
Draft: 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Installed power: 45 bhp (34 kW) (gasoline engine), later upgraded to 160hp
75 bhp (56 kW) (electric motor)
66 Exide batteries
1 × screw
Speed: First 3knots then later 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) surfaced
5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) submerged
Complement: 6
Armament: 1 × 18 in (460 mm) torpedo tube forward
1 ‘Aerial torpedo tube’ (experimental)
1 × 8.4 in (210 mm) dynamite gun (removed in US Naval service)
If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO)
They are possibly one of the best sources of naval lore http://www.warship.org/naval.htm
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
I’m a member, so should you be!
Two New Zombie Books Out ! Just in time for Halloween
Ok LSOZI fans, those of you that follow the blog for odd survivalism/zombie apocalypse type stuff will be pleased to know that there are a couple of new books out there this week that *coincidentally* we have a part in!
The first is an anthology of short stories “Zombies?! Zombies!!: An Anthology” edited by Lowell R Torres and published by iUniverse. Inside we have two short stories, “Hokahey” and “The 20th Round“. (link here! )
The second is a collection of excerpts from previously published works by numerous popular authors who share their own visions of how the zombie apocalypse will unfold. It’s an appetizing sampler platter and introduction to the horrific worlds described in their books. Their combined visions offer a compelling, fast paced, ride through apocalyptic possibilities. All profits go to the highly respected medical charity Direct Relief International (www.directrelief.org).
Entitled “Outbreak: Visions of the Apocalypse“, it has a chapter pulled from the second Last Stand on Zombie Island novel. We are thrilled to be mixed in with the likes of Shawn Chesser and David Forsyth in this book from Permuted Press.
Its available in kindle and paperback at this link for as little as $2 and remember, its for charity guys.
Thrilling Vintage Horsemanship
We forget today that before WWII, horse cavalry was an art that took years to perfect. Indeed, the US army lost so many skilled horsemen to the South at the beginning of the Civil War, that it did not effectively field decent mounted troops until two years into the war.
If you think you can just take a farm boy off the plow and plop him on a cavalry horse, take a look at these horsemen. The uniforms look like the Italian Army cavalry of the 1920s, possibly from the Tor Di Quinto school. (Although the stairs look like the Escola Prática de Cavalaria de Torres Novas from the Portuguese army)
One of their members was the Baron Amedeo Guillet,
Born in 1909, just five years before World War One to a noble family in the city of Piacenza, Amedeo Guillet went onto become a legend as one of the last cavalry commanders in military history. He grew up around horses, attended the famous the Tor Di Quinto school and the Officers Cavalry School in Modena where he graduated in 1930. His horsemanship was well-known, being selected for the Italian Olympic Equestrian Team in his early twenties. Eschewing the Olympics for the call of the bugle he joined the romantic Spahis Cavalry made up of feudal tribesmen from Libya who were being mobilized for an Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Lt Guillet served with this unit in a number of sharp engagements during the Second Italo–Abyssinian War (1935-36) in which Italy conquered and annexed Ethiopia. No sooner had the conflict ended then Guillet volunteered for service with the Italian advisors to General Franco’s Nationalist Forces in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). During that conflict he led Moroccan troops and was decorated.
Returning to the Italian African colonies in 1939, he was given command of a 2000-man force of Eritrean and Yemeni tribesmen on assorted horses, camels and dromedaries with only himself and five other Italian officers as an officer corps. These men were armed with obsolete 70-year old Vetterli rifles firing black powder 10.35x47R cartridges. Dubbed the Gruppo Bande Amhara, it was detailed to be the eyes and ears of the forces in Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana). When the British Army invaded in 1940 Guillet took to the desert with his force. In January 19, 1941 he led a remarkable charge through a British tank column that was all but forgotten in the sands of that desert sideshow. At the gorge of Cheru, Guillet, mounted on his champion white Arabian ‘Sandor’, Guillet led more than 500 of his troopers in a wild charge along the exposed flanks of the British 4/11th Sikhs Regiment of the 5th Indian Division. They charged the Indian soldiers, throwing grenades and firing at anything that moved at point-blank range. They literally ran through the entire Indian formation and only narrowly missed capturing an English Brigadier.
Sadly of the 500 men who charged more than 180 were left behind on the battlefield in the Indian positions, dead in their mounts. His force crippled, Guillet led his remaining men deeply into the desert, covering the Italian retreat.
Amedeo Guillet with Spahy di Libya, Ethiopia 1936 of the Gruppo Bande Amhara
With the surrender of the Italian forces in East Africa by General Guglielmo Nasi in November 1941, Guillet refused to break his oath while he could still fight. He formed the remnants of his force, known simply as the “Amhara” (Band) under a banner with the Cross of Savoy superimposed with an Islamic Crescent and the motto “Semper Ulterius”. He carried on a small scale guerilla conflict with the British and established arms caches that remained in the desert for years. Well armed but lacking ammunition and support, Guillet, who was known as ‘Comandante Diavolo’ (The Devil Commander) to both the natives and the British kept up his fight. It was the absence of support from outside the occupied area that effectively ended his almost one-man “Lawrence of Arabia” war. When finally cornered he disbanded his force and escaped to Yemen disguised as an Arab named Ahmed Abdullah al Redai. He there was granted service in the Yemeni king’s court as an advisor to the Royal guard.
He returned to Italy in disguise in September 1943 just before the Italian government switched sides and signed an armistice with the Allies. In reward for his services he was promoted to Major and reassigned against his wishes to Military Intelligence, finishing the war on missions in occupied German territory. After the war, Guillet entered the Italian diplomatic corps at the insistence of his king and served throughout the Middle East and North Africa until retiring from public service to his estate in Ireland in 1975. In 2000 he was awarded the Knights Grand Cross of the Military Order of Italy by the Italian President. It is the highest of high orders of Italy, with Guillet being only one of 28 people in history to be awarded such an honor. In 2001 the elderly Guillet visited Eritrea and was shocked to be greeted by an adoring crowd of thousands, including scores of also elderly Eritrean men, former horsemen of the Italian Cavalry force known as Gruppo Bande a Cavallo Amhara
(The Guillet information from an article I wrote at Suite 101 http://suite101.com/a/amedeo-guillet-cavalry-hero-of-wwii-a66107 )
Italian Frogmen, Submarine by Germany, Arms by the US
A team of four Italian Gruppo Operativo Incurson (Operational Raider Group) combat swimmers emerging from a Salvatore Todaro (S526)-class diesel attack submarine. The Salvatore Todaro (S526) is a German Type 212 class 1800-ton advanced SSK. These boats are able to transit up to two weeks without surfacing or snorkeling, which is huge for a non-nuclear boat. Manned by just a 27 man crew, one of these boats can float in 20-feet of water and carry up to 13 DM2A4, A184 Mod.3, Black Shark Torpedo, or IDAS missiles and 24 external naval mines. Oh yeah, and naval swimmers. Note the ease of leaving the sub by the front door. Their weapons of choice are M4-type rifles with the swimmer on the far right carrying one possibly in 7.62x51mm NATO (judging from the straight box mag and longer barrel) which could make it a Mk110 type.
The Operational Raider Group is a unit of just 150-200 hardcore operators inside the more well-known COMSUBIN that are comparable to the US Navy Seals, Royal Marine SBS, or Danish Frogmen corps. They trace their lineage back to the MAS units and X MAS units of World War One and Two, meaning they have more sunken battleships to their record than any other combat swimmers on the market.
Man Charged For Finding Lost Troopers Gun
In Michigan, a state trooper accidentally left his service weapon behind in the bathroom while going ‘code brown’. Now the citizen who found it is looking at ten years in the state pen.
The small northern Michigan village of Kalkaska, pop 2000-ish, who Ernest Hemingway immortalized in his short story, ‘the Battler’, is the setting for our tale. Quiet Kalkaska you see has a supermarket, and one day a local MSP Trooper came wheeling through with an urgent need to use the facility. Well, being the fine upstanding people that Kalkaska is known for, they allowed the boys in blue free reign of the water closet.
The thing is, the unnamed trooper in distress accidentally left his duty pistol atop the TP dispenser in the bathroom on his way out. When he returned after realizing his mistake, said abandoned gun was neither in the stall, nor in the market’s ‘lost and found box’. It had vanished.
Read the rest at my column in Firearms Talk
You Have to Admit, the Tomcat was about as Sexy as it gets…
051010-N-5088T-001 Persian Gulf (Oct. 10, 2005) A specially painted F-14D Tomcat, assigned to the Blacklions of Fighter Squadron Two One Three (VF-213), conducts a mission over the Persian Gulf. VF-213 is assigned to Carrier Air Wing Eight (CVW-8), currently embarked aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). U.S. Navy photo by Lt.j.g. Scott Timmester (RELEASED). The Tomcat was retired from US Naval service on 22 September 2006, just 11 months after this picture was taken.
Got Two Cents? The Navy will Sell you a Super Carrier and give you change But Ill give you a post card for free!
Yes, you read it right boys and girls, the US Navy is having a beginning of the fiscal year blowout sales and all mothballed super carriers are at closeout prices!
Forrestal in better times
Just yesterday the venerable USS Forrestal, the ship considered the largest carrier in the world at the time of her birth, was sold for a penny for scrap. Thats one cupro-nickel red cent. Her three sisters, Ranger, Independence, and Saratoga are probably not far behind.
Forrestal was a marvel of her time and age at over a 1000-feet long and weighing in at twice the weight of the World War Two Essex class fleet carriers that she was built to replace. She was the only aircraft carrier to land and take off a C-130 experimentally.
Yes, Virginia, that IS a four-engined C-130A on her the Forrestal’s flight deck. If you know how big a C-130 is, just think of how big the ship is that was able to launch one 29 times!
Laid down 14 July 1952 she was commissioned in 1955 and spent years on Yankee Station off the coast of Vietnam. There a horrible fire left her with the nickname of “The Firestall” in the fleet. Nevertheless she was repaired and put back in the line, holding her own in the rest of the Cold War. Her last hurrah was the First Gulf War, which she prepared to sail to but did not. Then, at age 37 she was to be a fleet training carrier, replacing the old USS Lexington (AVT-16) at Pensacola.
However, in a rash of post-Cold War budget cuts, she was mothballed in 1993, never actually becoming what would have been AVT-59. Well, twenty years in red lead row doesn’t do well on barley maintained ships and she is basically in pretty bad shape now.
This 2012 shot of her stern shows the years have not been kind to the old girl. While she could have been returned to service ten years ago, by now she is just a floating wreck.
Even her scrapping is going to have to be a largely military operation. According to one expert, “The scrap value that Southern retains offsets the cost for abatement, disposal, labor/subcontractor costs associated with sensitive equipment removal/return to the Navy, etc. Typically in all Gov. vessel contracts, you (the contractor) have to prepare a scrap materials report with dollar values, submit to the Gov. Entity for approval, then credit this value against the vessel contract value. In addition, the recyclers has to cover sensitive areas of the hull structure below hanger deck from cameras, etc., so this is an expensive process to the contract as it will have to be reset every time they work their way down through the decks to the keel. Most of the structural arrangement of this class (i.e. contributing to the damage stability) is similar to the Nimitz class. The Navy would prefer that this information not leak out, if possible. Also, the labor used on this project will have to be US citizens, pass security clearance, and must pass through checkpoints to gain access to the vessel during the scrapping process.”
Full of decades worth of asbestos, lead paint, petroleum, oils, and lubricants, the scrapper will probably just break even on the deal once the haz mat crews are paid. The scrapper will most likely try to sell small items from the ship such as dials, signage, builders plates, etc to collectors, museums, and veterans groups.
The Navy looked at making the ship a reef, but since modern Nimitz class carriers are an improvement on the Forrestal‘s design, it would be hard to keep her construction secrets secret. For largely the same reason coupled with the fact that no group had come up with enough money to pull it off, she could not be turned into a museum.
Still a sad end to a brave ship.
Her Specs:
Displacement: 59,650 tons standard;
81,101 tons full load
Length: 990 ft (300 m) at waterline;
1,067 ft (325 m) overall
Beam: 129 ft 4 in (39.42 m) ;
238 ft (72.5 m) extreme width
Draft: 37 ft (11 m)
Propulsion: Steam turbines, 4 shafts;
260,000 shp (194 MW)
Speed: 33 knots (61 km/h)
Complement: 552 officers, 4,988 enlisted
Armament: 8 × 5″/54 Mk 42 guns (removed)
Mk 29 NATO Sea Sparrow,
Mk 15 Phalanx CIWS
Aircraft carried: approx. 85 aircraft (F-14, F-4, A-4, A-7, A-6, E-2,S-3B, EA-6B, C-2, SH-3, A-3B, KC-130 (test flight))
Motto: First in Defense
In memory of the Forrestal, I have ten vintage post cards of her as AVT-59 that I picked up at a roadside stop in the Pensacola area years ago.
Do you like? Want one of your own to amaze your friends? Just let me know and Ill mail you one out.
If you want one (for free) just drop me an email at egerwriter@gmail.com with your address. I’ll mail one to you (let me know if you want me to send the postcard blank in an envelope or actually mail it to you ‘as’ as postcard with your address etc written on it). And no, this is not some way for me to get your address for Nigerian banking scams, just a way to send someone who wants a groovy old postcard a postcard.
Ave atque vale, USS Forrestal. Hail and farewell.
Keep a Tactical Mindset
An open letter to those who walk the earth: Wake up! As you shuffle through life like a zombie, there are those out there who would do you harm, and there are some among us who would never look up from their cell phone long enough to notice.
On a crowded commuter train in San Francisco last month, a gunman, in a packed car, calmly drew a handgun out and pointed it several times at the occupants before reholstering. The thing is, although the man did nothing to hide it, no one noticed a thing. It wasn’t until the suspect, believed to be 30-year old Nikhom Thephakaysone, shot and killed a passenger that he had never seen before that morning that the occupants of the train car noticed anything was amiss.
Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk.com
