Ship Photo of the Day

[Randy Daytona]

As today is the Ides of March, it seemed only appropriate to have a Trireme (this recreation is Greek, not Roman) but still good photos.

https://carolashby.com/the-roman-navy/

A Greek trireme, the Olympias, was constructed according to a 5th or 4th century BC design in 1985. With a length of 121 feet (40 m) , a width of 17 feet (5.5 m), and a beam (height) of 18 feet (5.3 m), it weighed 70 tons. Its maneuverability was astounding. A crew of 170 oarsmen demonstrated a 180 degree turn within one minute with a curve no wider than 2 ½ ship-lengths by the oarsmen on one side not rowing while those on the opposite side rowed. In sea trials, steady speeds of 2.15 knots (2.5 mph or 4.0 km/hr) and short-burst speeds of 9 knots (10.6 mph or 17 km/hr) were achieved.

 

[Jim123]

Row well and live!

 

[AIRMMCPORET]

Not quite. Certain Chief Selects can go and do their Chief games onboard rather than doing them locally. Obviously there's a certain quota and a Select is hand-picked. I think it was during my DH tour that we had a Select get to go there. I would think that would be a cool way to get pinned.

I missed out on that by having a broken collarbone at the time.?

 

[Randy Daytona]

This ship probably should have been named HoneyBadger as it just didn't care. USS Laffey (DD-459), a Benson class destroyer.

After arriving in the Pacific, USS Laffey first fought at the Battle of Cape Esperance (also known as the Second Battle of Savo Island). in October, 1942. It then fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal, where in the darkness and confusion, it passed within 20 ft of the Japanese battleship Hiei - so close the battleship could not depress its main guns but Laffey raked the dreadnought from stem to stern with its 5" guns, its 20mm cannons and its .50 caliber machine guns at point blank range, severely wounding Vice Admiral Hiroaki Abe and killing his chief of staff. Laffey was eventually trapped between the battleships Hiei and Kirishima as well as several Japanese destroyers, finally a torpedo in its stern ignited its magazines, sinking the ship. 59 of the Laffey's 247 crewmembers died, the ship earned the Presidential Unit Citation. The battleship Hiei was so severely damaged by the combined fire of the American ships (2 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers and 8 destroyers) that it was put out of action and sunk the next day.

Length: 348 ft, Beam: 36 ft, Displacement: 1,620 tons 50,000 HP gave 37.5 knots
Main armament: 4 x 5"/38 caliber guns, multiple 20mm cannons and .50 caliber machine guns, 5 x 21" torpedo tubes
Commissioned: 31 March 1942, Sunk: 13 November 1942

 

[Randy Daytona]

Some ships' names see to inspire excellence: Laffey is one of them. The 2nd USS Laffey (DD-724) was an Allen M Sumner class destroyer. The ship earned the nickname "The Ship That Would Not Die" for her exploits during the D-Day invasion and the battle of Okinawa when she successfully withstood a determined assault by conventional bombers and the most unrelenting kamikaze air attacks in history. Laffey survived despite being badly damaged by four bombs, six kamikaze crashes from 22 attacking aircraft, and strafing fire that killed 32 and wounded 71. Laffey shot down 9 of the attackers.

http://www.historynet.com/uss-laffey-attacked-off-okinawa-in-world-war-ii.htm

The story of this ship is in works to be made into a movie based upon the book Hell From the Heavens: The Epic Story of the USS Laffey and World War II’s Greatest Kamikaze Attack

http://deadline.com/2017/07/kamikaze-movie-rosalind-ross-uss-laffey-hollywood-gang-1202126799/



Length: 376 ft, Beam: 40 ft, Displacement: 2,200 tons. 60,000 HP gave 34 knots.
Main armament: 6 x 5"/38 caliber cannons, 12 x 40mm Bofors, 11 x 20mm Oerkilons, 10 x 21" torpedo tubes.
Commissioned: 8 February 1944, Decommissioned: 09 March 1976 Now a museum ship at Patriot's Point in Charleston, South Carolina

 

[Gatordev]

Let us not forget the second Laffey's participation in the documentary about the Navy's phased matter and time travel experiments.

 

[Jim123]

Let us not forget the second Laffey's participation in the documentary about the Navy's phased matter and time travel experiments.

The only reason you posted that was so all the resident nerds would out themselves by "liking" it.

Well played, sir.

 

[Randy Daytona]

Another ship hit by kamikazes, the Cleveland class light cruiser, USS Columbia (CL-56). Involved in most of the battles as it crossed the Pacific (including Surigao Strait), the Columbia took its worst damage during the invasion of Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines where 24 ships were sunk and 67 damaged by the suicide airplanes.

Length: 610 ft, Beam: 66 ft, Displacement: 11,744 tons 100,000 HP gave 32.5 knots
Main armament: 12 (4x3) 6"/47 caliber rifles, 12 (6x2) 5"/38 caliber secondaries, multiple 40mm Bofors and 20mm Oerkilons
Commissioned: 29 July 1942, Decommissioned: 30 November 1946, Struck: 01 March 1959


USS Columbia (CL-56) off San Pedro, 1945


Columbia is attacked by a kamikaze off Lingayen Gulf, 6 January 1945


The kamikaze hits Columbia at 1729. The plane and its bomb penetrated two decks before exploding, killing 13 and wounding 44.








Pennsylvania leading Colorado, Louisville, Portland and Columbia into Lingayen Gulf, Philippines, January 1945.

 

[jollygreen07]

Speaking of Cleveland Class light cruisers.The story of the Birmingham is particularly harrowing.

From Wikipedia:

...she suffered great topside damage from explosions on board the aircraft carrier Princeton while courageously attempting to aid that stricken vessel. 239 men died, 408 were wounded, and the bodies of four were never recovered. Birmingham retired to Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs which lasted from November 1944 to January 1945.

Birmingham alongside the burning Princeton during the Battle of Leyte Gulf on 24 October 1944

 

[Randy Daytona]

31 March 1992 - the last battleship in the world - USS Missouri - the Mighty Mo - (BB-63) is decommissioned.

Length: 887 ft, Beam: 108 ft, Displacement: 58,400 tons at full load. 212,000 HP gave 32.7 knots
Main armament: 9 x 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 rifles firing 2,700 lb shells, 20 5"/38 caliber dual purpose, 80 (20 x 4 quad mounts) Bofors 40mm, 49 x 20mm Oerkilons. Later modifications included 32 Tomahawks, 16 Harpoons and 4 CIWS.
Armor: Belt: 12.1", Turrets: 19.7", Bulkheads: 14.5" (Missouri and Wisconsin had 14.5" on the forward bulkheads, Iowa and New Jersey only had 11.3")

Commissioned: 11 June 1944, Final Decommissioning: 31 March 1992
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Missouri_(BB-63)
https://www.history.navy.mil/conten.../ships-us/ships-usn-m/uss-missouri-bb-63.html
https://ussmissouri.org/learn-the-history/the-last-battleship/final-plan-of-the-day/#


A kamikaze plane about to hit Missouri 11 April 1945


Missouri post refit


Missouri and Wisconsin together for resupply.


USS Missouri firing a 6 gun salvo, August 1944 (Notice the 6 Volkswagons headed downrange in the top right.)


USS Missouri (BB-63) flyover, Tokyo Bay, 2 September 1945

(I remember some of the music from NFL films...)

 

[Alto53]

Landed on both the Missouri and Wisconsin during the 1st Gulf War, flying 53Es out of Bahrain and Fujairah. One of the more amusing encounters was after landing on one, our next destination was '0R4' or '6T1' (can't remember the code scenario, but it was confusing since we'd never played that game before), but the Mighty Moe's Boss helped us out by stating "subtract 218.4 from this Freq, go 23 miles NW, looks just like us! Thanks for the pony". Sitting on the sole spot and looking at the aft turret was certainly impressive.

 

[Gatordev]

My favorite Shoe code identifier: R8J.

 

[Randy Daytona]

Perhaps the most fabled name in the US Navy: USS Enterprise (CVN-65). Saw the news about deactivation of her power plant the other day:

Length: 1,123ft, Beam: 132 ft (waterline), 257 ft (flight deck) Displacement: 93,000 tons, 8 Westinghouse nuclear reactors gave it 280,000 HP pushing it to 33+ knots

Commissioned: 25 Nov 1961, Decommissioned: 3 February 2017

https://www.military.com/daily-news...officially-deactivated-will-stick-around.html




Sailors aboard Enterprise battle a huge ordnance fire triggered by a Zuni rocket. 14 January 1969


View of Enterprise's stern during the fire, January 1969


Enterprise during an underway replenishment with the fleet oiler Hassayampa in the South China Sea in 1973.


Enterprise en route back to the United States following the evacuation of Saigon; the forward end of the flight deck contains a number of USMC CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters.


Enterprise (right) operating with Coral Sea (top left) and Midway (bottom left) off Alaska during the FLEETEX 83 exercise.


Enterprise enters Norfolk for the final time on 4 November 2012.

 

[Randy Daytona]

DDG-1000, USS Zumwalt. Lead ship of a planned class of 32, only 3 were built. (DDG-1001 is the USS Michael Monsoor, and due out in 2021 is DDG-1002: USS Lyndon B. Johnson) In addition to its stealth (radar and acoustic), it has several unusual design features. The Advanced Gun System was designed for a very high rate of fire and extreme range which allowed the Navy to fulfill its naval gunfire support role mandated by Congress. The crew size is unusually small, roughly 200 personnel.

Interestingly, the Zumwalt-class destroyer reintroduces the tumblehome hull form, a hull form not seen to this extent since the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. It was originally put forth in modern steel battleship designs by the French shipyard Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée in La Seyne, Toulon. French naval architects believed that tumblehome, in which the beam of the vessel narrowed from the waterline to the upper deck, would create better freeboard, greater seaworthiness, and, as Russian battleships were to find, would be ideal for navigating through narrow constraints (e.g. canals).[60]...The tumblehome has been reintroduced in the 21st century to reduce the radar return of the hull. The inverted bow is designed to cut through waves rather than ride over them.[62][63] The stability of this hull form in high sea states has caused debate among naval architects

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Zumwalt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumwalt-class_destroyer#History

Length: 600 ft, Beam: 80 ft, Draft: 14,500 tons. 2 gas turbines developing 105,000 HP push her to 33+ knots
Armament: 20 × MK 57 VLS modules, with 4 vertical launch cells in each module, 80 cells total.
2 x 155mm (6") Advanced Gun Systems
2 x 30 mm Mk 46 auto-cannons
Commissioned: 15 October 2016

 

[Randy Daytona]

USNS Mercy (T-AH-19), one of two massive hospital ships of the US Navy. It, along with the Comfort, are the converted San-Clemente class oil tankers (formerly SS Worth and SS Rose City). (The Navy has also had good success converting the Alaska class supertankers to the Expeditionary Support Base ships just coming out, the first of which pictured earlier in the thread, the USS Lewis B. Puller) The hospital ships have full medical services to include 12 operating rooms and 1,000+ beds.

Interesting Fact: It was relaunched from National Steel and Shipbuilding in San Diego, from the same yard and the same year as the Exxon Valdez.

Length: 894 ft, Beam: 105 ft Displacement: 69,300 tons 24,500 HP gives 17.5 knots
Commissioned: (to the US Navy) 8 Nov 1986 - originally launched 01 July 1975


USNS Mercy anchored off Jolo, Philippines in June 2006.


Mercy anchored in Dili, East Timor, as part of "Pacific Partnership 2008."


JDS Kunisaki (LST-4003), two Japanese Landing Craft Air Cushion hovercraft and USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) during Pacific Partnership 2010