Today’s bluejackets have to worry about modern 21st-century problems while underway such as flakey internet signals, running out of pop, broken exercise equipment, 1980s tech in the CIC, chicken wheels, and lines for the washing machine. One thing they don’t have to fool with is the old 01 Division holy-stone train.
What is a holystone? Well here is the wiki on it and another mention here but suffice to say that this lump of sandstone, boiler brick, or even ballast weight was common to sailors from the 18th century through WWII.
It’s simple to use, just add seawater and sometimes a liberal coating of sand and scrub away at the teak decking of your old school battleship, cruiser, destroyer, or frigate along with a dozen or so of your closest hammock mates under the close supervision of the bosun.
Sailors rubbing the deck of the Japanese battleship Yamashiro, Seto Island Sea, 1943
Sailors rubbing the deck of battleship HMS Rodney, 1940
Sailors holystoning the deck of Pelorus-class protected cruiser HMS Pandora in the early 20th century
Working the deck of the old HMS Nelson
Royal Navy Battleship Sailors scrubbing holystoning Bridge HMS Royal Oak Photo 1917 colorized by Postales Navales
A working party holystones the deck of USS Oklahoma City (CLG 5) in June 1966. “25 licks per board”
USS Maryland BB-46 off Hawaii August 1941 LIFE Peter Stackpole holystoning
At the end of the day, you would have a nice, clean deck that had been stripped of its top layer of grit and grime.
September 1, 1986: German destroyer Rommel D-187 (right) in company with USS Iowa BB-61 and Peder Skram F-352. The deck was likely freshly stoned as the battlewagon was headed to NATO-allied ports and needed to be squared away for the inevitable spate of visitors
Of course, today’s sailors much prefer nonskid.
Except for those who are assigned to the last two wooden decked ships in the U.S. Fleet, the USS Constitution, and USCGC Eagle who just donated a spare one to the USS Missouri museum…
The NYT has a super in-depth and interesting piece on life inside the ADX in Colorado, where they keep the worst of the worst ranging from Ted Kaczynski and the Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph to 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and 1993 World Trade Center bombing mastermind Ramzi Yousef.
The United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, otherwise known as the ADX, in Florence, Colo. Where they would keep Magneto if he existed…
The ADX can house up to 500 prisoners in its eight units. Inmates spend their days in 12-by-7-foot cells with thick concrete walls and double sets of sliding metal doors (with solid exteriors, so prisoners can’t see one another). A single window, about three feet high but only four inches wide, offers a notched glimpse of sky and little else. Each cell has a sink-toilet combo and an automated shower, and prisoners sleep on concrete slabs topped with thin mattresses. Most cells also have televisions (with built-in radios), and inmates have access to books and periodicals, as well as certain arts-and-craft materials. Prisoners in the general population are allotted a maximum of 10 hours of exercise a week outside their cells, alternating between solo trips to an indoor “gym” (a windowless cell with a single chin-up bar) and group visits to the outdoor rec yard (where each prisoner nonetheless remains confined to an individual cage). All meals come through slots in the interior door, as does any face-to-face human interaction (with a guard or psychiatrist, chaplain or imam). The Amnesty report said that ADX prisoners “routinely go days with only a few words spoken to them.”
Wesley Pritchett was selected as the Army Aviation Photo of the Year, titled Wingman. Scouts out! It shows a group of OH-58D Kiowa Warriors of the 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, 25th CAB, from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam going hot and fast over the coastline.
For generations the traditional top five big game animals, the Grizzly bear, Gray wolf, Cougar, Elk, and American bison, have been a treasured chase by sportsmen worth their salt. However, are these hunts still out there and within reach?
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off 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. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger
Warship Wednesday, April 15, 2015: Big Jean
Here we see the Richelieu-class battleship of the French Republic’s Marine Nationale Jean Bart racing forward on speed trials in 1949. Her distinctive all-forward main battery of eight 15-inch guns in twin quad turrets is very apparent.
France rather tried to distance themselves from the modern dreadnought game after the end of World War I, figuring that with the destruction of the Austrian battleships in the Med, and the Kaiser’s battleships at Scapa Flow in 1920; all was well in the world. Then came Hitler and his rebuilding of the German Navy to include the Deutschland class pocket battleships while Mussolini came to power in Italy and the new fascist government there building their very modern 40,000-ton Littorio-class battleships. As an answer to the first, the Republic ordered two 25,000-ton Dunkerque-class battleships in the early 1930s and as an answer to the latter (as well as the pair of German 38,000-ton Scharnhorst-class battleships laid down in 1935), the French ordered a quartet of massive new warships– the Richelieu‘s.
Class leader Richelieu in a beautiful color portrait. Click to big up
With a standard displacement of 35,000-tons to comply with the Washington and London Naval treaties (although this would balloon to nearly 50,000 when fully loaded), these 813-foot long beasts were among the largest battleships ever built and remain the largest French warships ever to put to sea. Even today, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (R91), the flagship of the French Navy and largest European warship afloat, only maxes out at 42,000-tons.
Unlike many battlewagons before them, these were fast battleships, capable of breaking 30-knots if needed due to a quartet of Parsons geared turbines that generated more than 150,000 shp. With long legs, these ships were capable of a 10,000-mile cruise at 16-knots, enabling them to travel to far off Pacific territories such as Indochina if needed (more on this later).
Designed to be able to take German 28 cm/54.5 (11 inch) SK C/34 fire as well as that from Italian 381 mm (15.0 in) L/50 guns, these leviathans were girded in as much as 17-inches of armor plate and mounted eight 15-inch 380mm/45 Modèle 1935 guns, the largest caliber naval gun ever fielded in French service. They could fire a 1950-pound diving shell to a range of 45,600 yds. The secondary armament of 9x152mm guns in three triple turrets over the stern could handle light work.
Those are pretty impressive turrets
Laid down at Chantiers de Penhoët, Saint-Nazaire on 12 December 1936, the second ship of the Richelieu-class was named Jean Bart after a notorious pirate privateer and naval commander.
This Flemish swashbuckler from Dunkirk, who spelled his name “Jan Baert,” was much man, at over 6 ft. 8” and topping some 400-pounds. This size didn’t stop big Jan/Jean, who cut his teeth in the Dutch Navy, from capturing an amazing 386 ships as a privateer during the late 17th Century and rising to the rank of full Admiral in the French Navy. A rather incorrect svelte statue stands to him in Dunkirk today and no less than 27 ships of the French Navy have carried his moniker, including their last completed battleship.
The French corsair
December 20, 1928: The remains of Jean Bart, famed sea dog of Louis XIV, were discovered in the Church of Saint-Éloi in Dunkirk by the historian Louis Lemaire. They are laid in an open casket for eight days, surrounded by a guard of honor supplied by volunteers from the Navy, before being reinterred with full pomp and ceremony.
When World War II came, class leader, Richelieu was nearing completion at Brest while Jean Bart was still a bit further away. Only 75 percent complete and mounting just half of her big guns, she took to the sea on June 19, 1940, as Metropolitan France was surrendering to the Germans, and made a break for the French North African port of Casablanca.
The third and fourth members of the class, Clemenceau, and Gascogne were not far enough along in their construction to even be considered ships (and were never completed).
How she looked in 1940 via shipbucket click to very much big up
Jean sat at Casablanca during the awkward Vichy French years, spending the next 29 months of the war languishing as there were no construction facilities to complete her and most of her smaller caliber guns were landed ashore to set up coast defense and AAA batteries in the city and harbor.
A view of Jean Bart’s forecastle in Casablanca Harbor, before the Allied invasion. Note the incomplete Turret II; despite its armored top not being installed, the structure is sealed. The French concreted over the otherwise-hollow structure to protect the ship against aerial bombs while she lay in harbor awaiting completion. Submarines are moored off to the left along the jetty, and what looks like a light cruiser is to the right with about half the ship out of the frame.
The French battleship Jean Bart, photographed by USN Photographers Mate Third Class Bill Wade from an airplane of the USS Ranger, Nov 8, 1942
Then, on Nov 8, 1942, the Allied Torch landings occurred and Jean Bart defended her colonial harbor from dockside from the 16-inch guns of the new SoDak-class battleship USS Massachusetts (BB-59) and the Dauntless dive bombers and Avenger torpedo planes of the carrier USS Ranger (CV-4) over the next three days she fired 25 shells from her one operational 15-inch turret which narrowly missed the Mass and the cruiser Augusta.
Nevertheless, with the Bart stationary, incomplete and by far outnumbered, the battle was a foregone conclusion. At least seven 16-inch shells (fired from Massachusetts from a range of over 24,000 yards) and several bombs hit her, sinking in with her decks awash.
A cartoon from the BB-59’s cruise book recounting how close the Jean Bart’s shells came to wreck her day. USN photo courtesy of James E. Hesson, plank-owner of Massachusetts (BB-59). Photo submitted in his memory by his son, Joe Hesson. Via Navsource
It was the only time that U.S. and French battleships fought in the steel era and she gave a good account of herself for all of her handicaps.
Jean Bart French battleship at Casablanca 1942 via All Hands 1943
The effect of a 1,000lb bomb from Ranger’s SBDs
She spent the rest of the war as a hulk in Casablanca and her four 380 mm guns were salvaged and sent to New York where they were emplaced on Richelieu who had gone over to the Free French Navy and was being refitted there.
refloated at Casablanca
That sistership put Bart’s guns to good use in both the European and Pacific Theaters of operation as well as in French Indochina.
Battleship Richelieu arriving in New York for refit. The fire control director on the fore tower had to be dismantled for her to pass under the Brooklyn Bridge. Note damaged turret
French battleship Richelieu at sea, September 1943 after her refit in New York. Half her main guns in this image came from Jean Bart and had fired at Casablanca. Click to big up
Bow view, the French battleship Richelieu in New York Harbor on August 14, 1943. USN photo 19-LCM-51074
Finally, four months after Hitler ate a bullet, big Jean was sent back to France and work began to complete her at Cherbourg.
Incomplete French battleship Jean Bart sailing from Casablanca to Cherbourg for repairs in 1945
How she looked in 1945 with wartime repairs and no armament fitted via Ship Bucket click to very much big up
Commissioned on 16 January 1949, she made 32-knots on her speed trials and was finally ready for sea duty– and for the first time was fully armed.
Getting her new 380mm Model 35s installed, 1948. As far as I can tell, these were the last battleship guns ever installed in a new battleship (barring the 1950s re-barreling of the Iowa class in the U.S.)
1948 off St. Nazaire, France
In the early 1950s, she sailed on many goodwill trips around Europe and to New York but was never fully manned; only carrying half-crews due to postwar funding shortfalls. She was more of a heavily armed and armored cruise ship and flag-waver than an active ship of the line.
Jean Bart alongside cruisers Suffren and Montcalm, the 1950s
Click to big up
In the Suez Crisis of 1956, she sailed with the joint Anglo-French fleet with an augmented near-full sized crew and provided some brief naval gunfire support, firing her big 15-inchers in anger once more, losing just four shells at the Egyptian defenses.
JEAN BART at Algiers on 1 November 1956, having embarked the élite Commando Hubert and soldiers of the 1st Parachute Regiment, Foreign Legion for Anglo-French Suez intervention
Jean Bart in true color, anchored at Toulon during the late 1950s after her brief participation in the Suez Crisis and the termination of her short service life
As a sad note, on the afternoon of 30 January 1956, she was briefly reunited with her old classmate Richelieu while at sea, the one and only time the two French ships maneuvered together underway.
Battleship Jean Bart in Harbor of Toulon 1968
Placed in reserve in 1957 after just an eight-year career, she was decommissioned soon afterward. Cantieri Navali Santa Maria of Genoa scrapped Richelieu in September 1968 while Jean Bart, the last European battleship afloat, was scrapped 24 June 1970 at Brégaillon near Toulon.
Today, at least six of Richelieu/Jean Bart‘s guns are maintained as museum pieces around France. However, you can visit the USS Massachusetts, the winner of the Great Casablanca Battlewagon Duel, at Falls River where she has been on display since 1965.
Battleship_Massachusetts,_2012 (Photo via Wiki)
Specs
Jean Bart in her final form 1955 via Shipbucket click to very much big up
Displacement: 35,000 tons standard as designed, 48,950 t at full load, in 1949
Length: 813 feet
Beam: 114 feet
Draught: 33 feet
Propulsion: four Parsons geared turbines, six Indret boilers. 150,000 hp (112 MW)
Speed: 32 knots at trials, 20 design
Range: 9800 nautical miles at 16 knots, 7671 nautical miles at 20 knots; 3181 nautical miles at 30 knots
Complement: 1620 designed, 911 men in 1950 (incomplete), 1,280 men during the Suez affair
Armament: As Designed:
8 × 380mm (15 inch)/45 Modèle 1935 guns in quadruple mounts at bow
9 × 152 mm (6 inch) secondary (3 × 3 mounted aft)
12 × 100 mm (3.9 inch) Anti-Aircraft guns (6 × 2) As completed 1949
8 × 380mm/45 Modèle 1935 guns in quadruple mounts at bow
9 × 152 mm AA in 3 triple turrets at the aft till 1952–53
8 × 40 mm AA
20 × 20 mm AA From 1953–54
Two 15-inch turrets fitted, only one operational
24 × 100 mm in 12 twin mountings CAD Model 1945
28 × 57 mm in 14 twin mountings ACAD Model 1950
Armor: Belt: 330 mm
Upper armored deck: 150–170 mm
Lower armored deck: 40 mm
Aircraft: Designed for four seaplanes, never fitted.
If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International.
They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/
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.
It seems that a lot of Serbs are doing spring cleaning and are tossing out their stocks of surplus hand grenades, to which the government is cautioning against.
“The ministry … appeals on citizens not to dispose of hand grenades and explosive ordnance in garbage containers and such places … they should instead call the nearest police station and officers will arrive as soon as possible to take the ordnance away,”
They estimate that as many as 900,000 are in civilian hands.
Let us face it; youth that are not exposed to the shooting sports grow up to be adults who don’t hunt. Sadly, for generations, the country’s youth have been left alone to gravitate towards electronic pacifiers and away from the traditions of the clays stand, bench rest, and hunting field.
Why does this matter?
Firearms education and the shooting sports reduce gun accidents and passes on this ancient activity to today’s youth. To keep this age old and time-honored tradition alive, young people need to be educated and involved in safe, regulated hunting and shooting.
Just as recently as the 1960s, most elementary and middle schools allowed local game wardens or law enforcement officials to come into the classes and give firearms safety and hunters education to children. Then by the time these same budding shooting sports enthusiasts reached high school, odds were their was an opportunity to join the campus small-bore or clays club then compete against other area schools own teams. These same youth accompanied their fathers and uncles into the field, first for small game then for larger and anxiously awaited the day when they would get their first rifle or shotgun of their very own.
Then came the counter culture shift of the 70s and the draconian gun laws and media messages of the 80s that vilified not only firearms but also the shooting sports as a whole. This resulted in fewer new shooters, which amplified over time, as those children who did not receive the tribal gun knowledge, became adults who were afraid of firearms.
Many parents today, having no gun history to fall back on other than Hollywood, would never dare give a gift of one to their children. Some states have made it illegal for youth under 16 to even purchase a BB gun.
Well it seems like in some cases, that trend is being corrected.
MIT has a shooting team– and its really popular (Photo by WaPo)
During the 16 weeks in the late summer and early fall of 1940, the RAF took on the so-far undefeated Luftwaffe over the skies of the British Isles and inflicted the first true defeat suffered by the Germans in WWII. Those scrappy handfuls of Commonwealth (and a few American, Polish, Czech and French) pilots and accompanying ground artillery were able to down some 1887 German aircraft and forestall an invasion of the UK.
These pilots included over 100 Canadians of the RCAF’s No. 1 Squadron (later renamed 401 Squadron) and the Royal Air Force’s 242 “All Canadian” Squadron, of whom 23 lost their lives.
“The top side paint scheme is patterned after the early 1940s earth tone and dark green camouflage used on Royal Air Force and Commonwealth Hawker Hurricane Mark IIs and Supermarine Spitfires during the Battle of Britain.”
This year’s CF-18 Hornet Demonstration Aircraft, seen here at 3 Wing Bagotville on March 30th, 2015, commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.Image: LS Alex Roy, Atelier d’imagerie Bagotville. BN01-2015-0189-002 CLICK TO BIG UP
This year’s CF-18 Hornet Demonstration Aircraft gets towed out to the flight line after it’s unveiling at CFB Bagotville in Saguenay, Qué. on March 27th, 2015. Click to big up
The 2015 CF-18 Hornet Demonstration Aircraft is unveiled at a ceremony held at 3 Wing Bagotville in Saguenay, Québec on 27 March 2015. Image: LS Alex Roy, Atelier d’imagerie Bagotville.a BN01-2015-0186-005 CLICK TO BIG UP
The CF-18 is from 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron “Skylarks” (425e Escadron d’appui tactique, “Alouette”) who flew Wellingtons during WWII
