I WAS THERE!!!


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Periscope view from the USS Wahoo (SS 565) as a single torpedo fired from Wahoo breaks the back of the former USS Devilfish (SS 292) in an exercise in 1968

 

the Ural (SSV-33) was a combination steam turbine- and nuclear-powered multipurpose ship that was commissioned in 1989. Based more or less on a Kirov class battle cruiser hull, Ural had capabilities in intelligence collection, communications relay, missile tracking, etc. After commissioning it transited to the Soviet Far East.

The USSR was in turmoil and collapsing soon after, and the Pacific area did not have facilities to support and maintain the Ural. It became little more than a floating barracks. SSV-33 was decommissioned by the Russian Navy in 2002 and scrapped from 2010.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A rare sight: All 11 of the Japanese Maritime Self-Dense Force Hatsuyuki class destroyers in close formation in hull number order.

 

An often-used destroyer weapon of the World War II era disappeared soon after the war. Surface launched heavy torpedoes (21-inch or 533mm diameter) -- usually mounted in quaduple tubes (or quintuple tubes) like those on the USS Dunlap (DD 384) in the photo --were a feature of all U.S. destroyers but were no longer fitted from the 1950s

 

That's because we started using ASROC'S and didn't need them anymore.
My ship actually had torpedo tubes that were abandoned when they perfected the ASROC's.


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The USS Massachusetts (BB 2) was commissioned in 1896 and featured turrets with twin 13-inch main guns. On at least the forward turret there was a statue of Victory.

 

 

 

 

Steam power was not new, but in the late 19th century, navies transitioned to steel (and armored) warships, while retaining the option for sails. The USS Chicago was among the first four such ships -- the so-called ABCD ships -- commissioned into the U.S. Navy. Cruiser Chicago was completed in 1886 and did not have a hull number; the numbers started a few years later.

The Chicago displaced 4,500 tons -- less than half of a current missile destroyer -- and was capable of 16 knots under ideal conditions. She was armed with four 8-inch guns, eight 6-inchers, two 5-inchers and had a few smaller guns as well. Chicago had a crew of 300 men.

Chicago was modernized later in the 1890s, losing most of her sails and her mainmast.

 

One of the most numerous convoy escorts in the North Atlantic during World War II was the Flower class corvette. Here's HMCS Mayflower.

The Flower class corvettes were quite small -- just 925 tons and 205 feet long. They were crewed by 85 men and their steam powerplants could muster a speed of 16 knots. But they had radar, sonar, depth charges and a 4-inch gun -- Mayflower's is pointed right at the camera.

294 of the class were built and operated by the Royal Navy and the Royal Candian Navy. A few were operated by U.S. crews under Reverse Lend-Lease and designated as patrol gunboats (PGs).

The only survivor is HMCS Sackville which serves as a museum ship in Halifax, Nova Scotia.