As it's Easter, I thought it was time to once again honor the US military's chaplains, charged with the spiritual health of the troops. Last year, I told the story of the Four Chaplains who gave up their lives on the torpedoed troopship Dorchester. This year, we'll look at the first Chaplain to win the Medal of Honor in the 20th century, Father Joseph T. O'Callahan of the USS Franklin.

Joseph O'Callahan

O'Callahan was a Jesuit who taught math at Holy Cross before the war, and became the first of his order to join the Navy's chaplain corps when he requested an appointment in late 1940. His first assignment was to the Naval Air Station at Pensacola, where he quickly gained a reputation for hard work and care among not only Catholics but all he came in contact with. Finally, after 18 months in Florida, he was assigned to the carrier Ranger, just in time for her to be sent to support Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. O'Callahan provided a narration of the action to the crewman on duty throughout the ship over the 1MC, then went topside to help haul the body of a gunner killed by AA fire out of the Dauntless and provide him a proper burial at sea. Read more...

Gentlemen,

The last six months have not seen a victory on the scale of Texel, but we have continued to win most of our engagements. The biggest loss was one of our fast battleships and a pair of British battlecruisers in a night action, and the largest cause was the stupidity of the British commander, who allowed his flagship to be destroyed in the opening moments of the engagement.

In the past six months, we've laid down two battleships, 2 CLs and a quartet of destroyers. We have ships about to commission as well, 8 destroyers, a CVL and a CL. What will replace them is an open question, although after serious losses to air attack off the German coast, the staff would suggest an emphasis on carriers. Read more...

The ultimate purpose of sea power is to effect events on land, where most people spend their time. Often, this takes the form of controlling trade and use of the sea, but it can also involve direct projection of power ashore. This is usually unpopular with those on land, and while it's usually best to make your displeasure known at sea, this hasn't always been possible. The alternative is usually fixed coastal defenses, set up ashore to make life more difficult for attackers. Initially, these took the form of lookouts and conventional fortifications, set up to protect against raids on major settlements and up rivers, such as the Roman fortifications which protected southeast England and northern France. It was only with the development of gunpowder that land-based defenders gained an effective weapon against ships, and dedicated coastal defenses began to appear. One early example was Dartmouth Castle, which was built in the 1400s to protect Dartmouth, in soutwest England, and was sited to cover an iron chain to keep enemies out of the harbor. Artillery and booms like the chain would both form a vital part of coastal defenses for the next half-millennium.

Dartmouth Castle, protecting the river Dart

The first large-scale coastal defense system appears to have been the Device Forts,¹ constructed in England and Wales under Henry VIII to guard against the possibility of invasion by the French. The Device Forts were built in the era during which midevial castles were giving way to more modern bastion forts, of which the most impressive were so-called "castles", stone forts equipped with numerous heavy guns and intended to protect important cities and anchorages, as well as providing the defenders some protection against enemy troops. More numerous were the blockhouses, smaller stone buildings equipped with a few guns and positioned to defend against naval assault only. The first castles used rounded bastions, although these left "dead zones" near the walls where attacking troops could shelter, and later fortifications were angular in the style of the bastion forts being developed in continental Europe. These could cover all of their external walls with enfilading cannon fire, making them much harder to attack from land, although they still used vertical stone walls that were vulnerable to cannon fire.² Read more...

During the 1960s, the world's shipping companies were in trouble. Their existing break-bulk cargo ships were proving uneconomical to load and unload as labor costs, particularly in developed countries, climbed, and ships spent over half their time sitting still while stevedores emptied and filled their holds. Something better would be needed, presumably a way to package cargo into larger containers which could be moved on and off the vessel relatively easily.

CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest container ship ever to dock in North America³

This wasn't a completely new idea. In fact, its roots stretched back over a century, to the early train ferries, designed to bridge bodies of water too wide for bridges. Fully-loaded rail cars would be brought aboard on internal tracks and then shuttled across to the other side. Much the same was done during WWII, when LSTs were filled with fully-loaded trucks, which would simply be driven off on the beach at the far end. However, this kind of loading was rather inefficient, with an LST able to carry only a quarter of what it could if loaded with bulk cargo. During the Bismarcks campaign, the sacrifice in cargo was unacceptable, and a compromise was found in the form of loading the LST with trailers, which could carry more cargo than trucks, but still be unloaded quickly. Read more...

It's our normal open thread. Talk about whatever you want, even if it's not military/naval related.

I'd like to highlight the USN's response to the coronavirus, the deployment of the hospital ships Mercy and Comfort to Los Angeles and New York, respectively. Of course, this is somewhat overshadowed by the recent attempt by a rather disturbed train driver to ram Mercy.

Overhauls for 2018 are The Early Battlecruisers, Why do we need so many ships?, ASW in WWI, So You Want to Build a Battleship - Design Part 1, The Pursuit of the Goeben and Breslau, and Operation Staple Head. 2019 overhauls are the last part on commercial aviation, German Guided Bombs Part 4, Manila Bay, Naval Fiction, So You Want to Build a Battleship - Construction Part 2, The Philadelphia Experiment and A Brief History of the Destroyer.

Lord Nelson recently visited S.S. Anne, a cruise ship that was temporarily open to the public when docked in Kuchiba City, Kanto. Her priorities are rather different than mine.

SS Anne from pierside

I'll start with the good things. The ship was gorgeous, both inside and out, and the crew was very friendly. I particularly enjoyed the public art on display throughout the vessel. It looks like regular passengers would have a lot to do, with a pool, a gym, crew-led aerobics, and a very nice restaurant. We even got to tour the kitchen, although I'm not sure how good their hygiene standards were, given that the Captain had some sort of stomach bug while I was there. Read more...

The general cargo ship is the oldest of merchant ships, dating back to when man first began to move cargo across water. It is essentially an empty shell, filled with cargo loaded aboard one piece at a time. This cargo, known as break-bulk, can be anything from bolts of cloth to heavy equipment like trucks and industrial equipment. Traditionally, even liquids and bulk cargoes like grain were packaged up and moved aboard such ships, although the 19th century saw the creation of specialized bulk carriers and tankers for such cargo.

Three-island cargo ship Vega

Until the advent of containerization and other systems for improved handling of non-bulk cargo, break-bulk ships moved most of the world's general cargo. Typically, these ships were in the "three-island" layout, with their engines under the bridge amidships, and a forecastle and poop providing accommodation for the crew. Except for the engines, the entire main body of the ship was taken up by a number of holds, each loaded and unloaded through a hatch in the deck above it. Most ports were quite primitive and provided little more than a place to tie up, so cargo was handled by the ship's own booms, which usually limited loads to 10 tons or less. Initially, hatches were fairly small, which meant a lot of work inside the holds to make sure they were properly filled, increasing turnaround time and cost. Read more...

Gentlemen,

The long-anticipated war with Germany has finally started. Thanks to some poor guidance from Winston Churchill, we sent a force into the Baltic and had a rough time of it, losing CL Coetlogon to a submarine torpedo and taking substantial damage. We stand allied with Britain, however, and have a chance to make up the deficit.

We now have to decide on our war strategy and build plan. We have no invasion options in the German colonies, leaving us with a substantial surplus for new construction, particularly once our CAs commission next month. Read more...

Gideon Welles’ program to reform the Navy and supply it with the vast numbers of new vessels it would need to support the Northern war effort (and deter possible European threats) was tremendously successful. But like all such programs, it took time, and Southern privateers had a narrow window of opportunity to operate before the superior power of the U.S. Navy could be brought to bear.

Privateer Sumter intercepts brig Joseph Parks

Southern privateers began hauling their prizes into New Orleans as early as May 1861. These early war privateers were typically smaller vessels, refitted for war, that operated close to the coastline and pounced upon unsuspecting Northern merchantmen. In confrontations with United States naval vessels, they were outmatched and typically captured or sunk. Nevertheless, they operated in great numbers and with some success for the first year of the war, until the blockade—which made returning prizes to port difficult—began to take effect, and would-be entrepreneurs turned to blockade-running. Read more...

In early April 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a few desolate rocks in the South Atlantic. The British mobilized their fleet in response. After a fierce battle in the air and at sea, the British gained the upper hand, and began landing troops on May 21st at San Carlos Water on the west coast of East Falkland. The Argentinians attempted to defeat the invasion with air attacks, but the British eventually gained the upper hand. On the 28th, the British, despite some setbacks, began the ground campaign, defeating the Argentinian garrison at Goose Green and opening the way to lay siege to the main enemy positions near Stanley.⁴

British forces near Teal Inlet, with Mount Kent in the background

The night of June 1st saw several important arrivals near the Falklands. On the north coast, a pair of LCVPs and an LCU from Intrepid arrived at Teal Inlet, the LCVPs sweeping for mines (they found none) and the LCU bearing the first 100 tons of supplies for the new forward logistics base. At San Carlos, Atlantic Causeway arrived, bearing supplies, vehicles, and equipment, most notably two dozen extra helicopters that would go a long way towards replacing those lost on Atlantic Conveyor. Ashore, engineers were assembling a primitive airfield from prefabricated matting, which would allow Harriers to operate from San Carlos, greatly increasing the time they could spend on CAP. Norland brought the Gurkhas⁵ of 5 Infantry Brigade, while other ships began to land the brigade's equipment. Unlike the earlier landings, everything had to go by boat, as the helicopters were all committed to supporting 3 Commando Brigade on the front lines, particularly 42 Commando on Mount Kent, which finally received adequate rations and equipment, as well as reinforcements. Read more...