Saturday, May 31, 2014

FUNNY PAGES CLASSICS, UPDATED

Sometimes watching a sailboat race has been compared to watching laundry dry. Try to imagine listening to one over the radio announced by a guy who doesn't know anything about sailing. Be sure to listen all the way to the end....despite the boring nonsensical early banter, the tag line is priceless.

Comics Magazine, The

The Sunday Funnies CLASSICS:


American Admiralty Books Safety & Privacy Policies (Attention EU Visitors , possible "cookie" encounter ahead) 
We don't do cartoons much mostly because we don't know how. But we love to browse through YouTube looking for funny videos that relate to our special pages such as fishing, boat building, navigation , etc.. Its Sunday, time to relax and follow that ancient Sunday tradition kick back and watch our maritime "funnies". Click on the links below and then hit the back arrow on the YouTube tool bar to come back here for the next selection. Today we bring you our "Classics", the editorial staff's all time favorites:

MARINE SPORTS BROADCASTING CLASSIC:

SAILBOAT RACING: Crank the sound up, its the clueless Irish commentator that makes this video a laugh riot, stay till the end as it starts a bit slow. There is a hell of a punch line. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gPjMvTmE2g

FROM HOLLYWOOD

THE BOATING SCENE FROM CADDY SHACKhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGD-tUsySPs

OUR ALL TIME FAVORITE COMMERCIALS

I gotta get me one of these!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgFhJN4H0T0l ( A Retained Classic!)

Going to Extremes To Bring You Salmon:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2anomrgUnvk&feature=related

Going to Extremes to Bring You Tuna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsoqF21hyPA

A REALLY FUNNY COMMERCIAL WITH A BOATING SAFETY MESSAGE:

ACTION ALERT UP DATE: U.S. Lack of Reaction to Plight of Wife and Children of U.S. Citizen


meriam The man on your left in this wedding photo is an American citizen, therefore his two children by his wife on your right , though born in the Sudan, are American citizens by the same rules that make the man in the white house a citizen. Those two children are locked in a jail cell with their mother in Sudan where she is awaiting a 100 lash flogging ( some men have not survived 60) and death by hanging for the "crime" of being a Christian, "aggravated" by refusing to denounce her religion. She is 27 years old and a medical doctor. So far the closest thing to a public official protest is a statement by Jesse Jackson ( and he is a public official ...how?). By contrast in the UK where neither of these people are citizens the Foreign office is vehemently protesting the whole kangaroo court. The UN. Great Britain, the Netherlands,Canada, and the Christian Muslim Forum of Great Britian have all called for Dr,Ibrahim's release. Where was the U.S. in all this, the one nation with the legal right and might to take military action to rescue its children and their mother who is entitled to permanent residency in the U.S. and a fast track to citizenship? Where were America's Muslims? Christians and Jews of any nation should avoid travel or business relations with Sudan or any other nation that punishes people for their religious beliefs. The under reaction by the United States doesn't surprise those of us with U.S. Merchant Marine experience who have been in need of U.S. counselor assistance in foreign lands with cargo and customs issues. Despite the State Department denial our experience makes the description of U.S. embassy personnel who couldn't be bothered very believable. There is a rumor that because of the international protest that Dr. Ibrahim may be released soon but she is still not out of the woods, still in prison with her children, and still under a flogging and death sentence. Here is a link to news article about her rumored release  .http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/31/reports-sudan-death-row-woman-to-be-freed
NOTE THAT NOTHING IN THAT ARTICLE INVOLVES ANY OFFICIAL WORD. IT IS NOT TIME TO LET DOWN OUR GUARD!

HOW HAS THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HELPED SO FAR?
"Both Wani and Mohammed said the US authorities in Khartoum had failed to press for Ibrahim's release. "It's not the US government. When the problem began, the US consul here had a very negative position on this. She was very high-handed. She said, and I quote: 'I don't have time,'" Wani told CNN.
Mohammed said: "The US embassy is not giving help." No one was available for comment at the embassy in Khartoum." From an interview with Daniel Wani husband and father of the imprisoned and condemned : http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/31/world-leaders-campaign-sudanese-womans-death-sentence-meriam-ibrahim
THERE WAS A STATEMENT FROM THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT:
The state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Thursday that US officials in Khartoum had conveyed grave concerns about the case to the Sudanese foreign minister this week, and were closely monitoring the appeals process.
"We're doing everything we can to push for her release," she said."
Unfortunately we have yet to see or hear from the President of the one nation whose tiny children (one a new born) are imprisoned and may be forced to watch their mother be tortured and hanged. Dr. Ibrahim would have been safely in the United States before any of this happened had the U.S. Immigration authorities timely processed her husband's application to bring his wife and children into the United States. If you think that as a U.S. citizen that you have a right to contract a legal marriage while working over seas, and that the Children of that marriage are entitled to U.S. citizen ship and your wife to permanent residency; techno- legally you are right, but you can trust the U.S. Bureaucracy to totally screw that up for you. 

MORE FROM THE BRITISH:
"The British Foreign Office has described the sentence as barbaric, and summoned the Sudanese charge d'affaires to hear its "deep concern". The UN, Canada and the Netherlands have also called on the Sudanese authorities to overturn the convictions and release Ibrahim".

"The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said he wholeheartedly endorsed a statement from the Christian Muslim Forum in Britain calling for the sentence to be rescinded."

We will keep you posted

Friday, May 30, 2014

AN OUTER SPACE BUSINESS ON AN OCEAN MODEL

OCEAN SHIPPING HAS HAD NON VESSEL OWNING COMMON CARRIERS (NVOCC) FOR DECADES PERHAPS A CENTURY OR LONGER. 

 

American Admiralty Books Safety & Privacy Policies    

THERE IS NOW A CRITICAL MASS OF PRIVATE SPACE LAUNCH SERVICES, GOVERNMENT SERVICES SEEKING COMMERCIAL PAY LOADS, AND AVAILABLE PAY LOADS TO SUPPORT AT LEAST ONE NVOCC FOR SPACE CARGO. 

                                                                
 The Capital needed to get started are basic living expenses, a phone, an excellent quality computer or two, some sales ability, research ability, and a willingness to study. What a NVOCC does in the world of ocean transportation is to present a "portal" to the world that operates for all practical purposes from the customer's view point as a "virtual" shipping line with departures to all points every day and at most any hour. In fact the NVOCC as the name implies owns no vessels but sells unsold cargo space on as many vessels operating under as many flags, and for as many lines as they can get into their system. The NVOCC tracks and sells available cargo space on both "liners" ( ships operating on regular schedules between set ports) and "Tramps" (ships whose port calls are determined by the available cargoes. The "inventory" of available cargo space and departure / arrival ports, dates and times would change daily. From the cargo owning shipper's experience  dealing with a NVOCC is little different from dealing with a liner service directly except that there is an infinitely wider choice of shipping ports departure / arrival times, and choices relative to freight rates. The shipper need not shop around but simply call the NVOCC, tell the agent what he has to ship, where he wants to ship it to, and when it has to be there. The NVOCC sales agent will tell the shipper what is available and the costs. Once the shipper has decided on the carrier represented by the NVOCC he simply proceeds to book the cargo through the NVOCC just as if he was dealing with the carrier directly.

 In the space launch business today it is doubtful that the launch services, especially the government launch services would allow that level of agency to a Non (Space)Vehicle Owning Common Carrier for space launch services. This is good and bad news for the would be space launch NVOCC entrepreneur. To the advantage of the entrepreneur there is no need to sign up a bunch of space launch services to an agency contract. The new NVOCC can simply open shop with the publicly available launch schedules of all of the available space launch services, and the publicly available cost estimates per payload weight unit, and the publicly available information for contact points for contracting a launch or a less than full capacity payload aboard a less than "full flight". The Space Shuttle when it was operating carried school experiments and similar private pay loads on a space available basis. For the newly minted space launch NVOCC the revenue source at this stage in history shifts from the transportation provider to the customer. The service rendered is providing the payload owner with information that would ordinarily require weeks of frustrating research.  Of course many of the most common pay load providers have existing regular relationships with a launch service. But every day more and more small academic and business entities are evolving things that will need a lift into space both complete satellite launches and small experiments needing transport to the International Space Station or similar destination. These numbers will continue to increase.  A space launch NVOCC is basically a web site business that has a potential to grow with the commercialization of space into a real agency model when the commercial launch services become sufficiently competitive. The first space tourism flights are already in the building and flight testing stages. The possibility of becoming the primary web site for space tourist information is there, as well as the probability of eventually becoming a direct ticket agent. Web sites can be supported not only by fee for service activities but also by advertising, and commissioned sales. You might notice that in our series on this subject a frequent advertisement run in conjunction is Amazon's TV service featuring a Star Trek theme. 

 The day is coming, perhaps less than a generation away when commercial space transportation services will be so competitive that the ocean traditional NVOCC business model as agent for the transportation providers will be viable. There is already a niche for the pay load payee / advertising supported model.  Who ever creates the best known and successful pay load payee / advertising supported model that lasts until the traditional transporter agent model or some hybrid organization becomes viable will be viewed as the "old reliable" firm. This will be an advantage in any space service business. Here is another visible similarity between ocean transport and space transport people. While both have certain "pioneering" and daring aspects of character, both populations have a particular "conservative bias. This is especially visible in engineering. Both mariners and astronauts prefer their mechanical engineering to be well tested, filled with redundant, fail safe, and back up systems. They like well tested abandonment and survival systems and damage control systems and they like to have these provided by "tried and true" vendors and contractors.

 In maritime law there is little mention of "marine business" or "commerce", often in the case law and older statutes maritime voyages and even businesses are written of as "maritime adventures".  The stock owners in the corporations that engage in these "maritime adventures" are often referred to in admiralty law as "backers of the maritime adventure". There is no doubt that space voyaging and ocean voyaging are risky businesses, people with an adventurous spirit are attracted to the games, but these are far from reckless people. When it comes down to purchasing goods and services for the voyage they exhibit a very conservative streak. They like to deal with other "pioneers' with an established record of success. That's why its already time for the first of the space launch NVOCCs to emerge. The best one still standing in twenty years will be the preferred "old line" firm for the next level of development coming in the space launch business. 

 If we were young people today looking at and interested in space business we'd be looking at space based services provision since for the up coming generation astronaut positions will still be scarce as hen teeth. Where would be the best place to seek a post secondary education for such a career? We recommend one of the Merchant Marine Academies that offer a business major. The more you know about ocean transport business the more directly applicable parallels you will have available in your mental make up for what is coming in the commercial exploitation of space. When you graduate commercial space jobs may be relatively rare, but America and most nations are full of steam ship agencies, freight forwarders, NVOCCs, maritime insurance companies, etc. This gives the new maritime academy graduate a viable parallel job market while awaiting more growth in the commercial space sector, and a fall back market if early opportunities in the commercial space sector bounce the graduate back into the job market.

American Admiralty Books Safety & Privacy Policies  



                                         

RELATED STORY: AOL REPORTS NEW REUSABLE MANNED SPACE CRAFT DESIGN

American Admiralty Books Safety & Privacy Policies   

The new SpaceX Dragon V2 Image: Space X via /SPLOID. GIZMODO.COM
THE DRAGON V2 COMES WITH SEATS FOR SEVEN , LANDING LEGS, AND LANDING SYSTEM THAT LETS IT SET DOWN ANYWHERE "WITH THE ACCURACY OF A HELICOPTER" AND A HEAT SHIELD SYSTEM THAT PROVIDES IT WITH RELOAD AND GO REUSABLE CAPABILITY.  

READ MORE AT AOL Photos and video available

READ A LOT MORE AND SEE INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR PHOTOS AT  SPLOID. GIZMODO.COM



http://www.aol.com/article/2014/05/30/elon-musk-unveils-spacecraft-to-ferry-astronauts/20901036/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing13%7Cdl6%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D482213

      

NEWS FLASH

SECOND DIVER DIES IN SEARCH OF SOUTH KOREAN FERRY 


Story at AOL 

A CALL TO ACTION: IN THE SUDAN A WOMAN, A MOTHER OF TWO WHO IS A DOCTOR, AND A CHRISTIAN IS WAITING TO BE WHIPPED THEN HANGED. HER CRIME? BEING A CHRISTIAN.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/apostasy-woman-in-sudan-sentenced-to-death-forced-to-give-birth-with-her-legs-chained-9451088.html



NAMAZU OUR GLOBAL ANALYST

Meriam Ibrahim and Daniel Wani | Courtesy Gabriel Wani  A Islamic Court in Sudan has sentenced the woman in this picture to flogging and death by hanging for being a Christian. Her husband is an American and her two children, both of whom have rights as American citizens, are imprisoned in her cell where she is shackled by her ankles to her bunk. She was arrested when she was eight months pregnant and gave birth in prison while wearing leg shackles. There is little public out cry in America over this.




 Listen up English speaking bipeds before its too late! While you're busy debating in some quarters whether or not your Islamic minorities ought to be able to have Sharia Law in their neighborhoods  Meriam Ibrahim  is chained at the ankles with her new born baby and small child in a prison cell in Sudan. SHE IS AWAITING 100 lashes with a whip before being hanged. Meriam is a 27 year old medical doctor and mother of two, born in Sudan and married to an American. What terrible crime did this doctor and mother commit to warrant a flogging that in and of itself could be fatal, and death by hanging preceded by imprisonment with her children?  SHE IS A CHRISTIAN. That's it plain and simple.  

 Under Sudanese versions of Islamic law she is to be flogged for "Adultery" which is defined as having sex with a non Muslim man, in this case her husband with whom she has had two children. Death by hanging is reserved for what the Sudanese court considers her worst crime...she is a Christian. They call it "apostasy" because death is what is demanded of converts to any other religion from Islam and Dr. Ibrahim's father who left her family in her infancy was a Muslim. Meriam was raised a Christian. She must be the kind of Christian that every pastor of every Christian denomination wishes he had in his congregation because she is a witness to her faith. She could have avoided her death sentence if she had abandoned her faith and renounced Jesus at her initial trial. She refused, she was eight months pregnant with her second child at the time.  

 You English speaking bipeds think that the days of throwing Christians to the lions ended in Roman times?  Think again. These people deny the Holocaust and they are planning one for you.
Yes, for the moment, Sudan doesn't claim the right to hang any and every Christian, just "converts" however they choose to define them.  Logically if they can hang anyone for simply being a Christian, they can hang every Christian and probably will if they go unpunished for this heinous act.

 Now you American bipeds really wake up. If Barrak Hussain Obama is an American citizen despite being fathered by a non citizen,  Dr. Meriam Yahya Ibrahim's children are American citizens since they were fathered by an American, who is still married to their mother and cares very much for them.  His struggles to free his wife and children are made more difficult since he is confined to a wheel chair.  These children are American citizens and they are being held in a jail cell with their mother who is chained by the ankles to her bunk. There is a likelihood that if the flogging and execution takes place these tiny children will be forced to watch. Meriam is the wife of an American citizen. She is entitled to permanent residency in the United States and a fast track to citizenship. Why is there no outcry in the American media over this situation? Where are America's Muslims? How are they decrying this abomination or does their silence mean they approve? 

 We don't think so, but the Court in Sudan claims to be acting on behalf of the global Islamic community as if their view of Islamic law is the only one. Their view frankly is absolutely barbaric, as would be the view  of anyone who could justify flogging and hanging a woman or man for their religious beliefs, imprisoning children. Rest assured these arrogant evil people have no respect, they are doing this to babies and a woman, who legally should enjoy the full protection of the United States of America. If they get away with it what will ever stop them from visiting such abuse on anyone? If the most powerful nation on earth isn't ready to use military force to free its children and the wife of a citizen if necessary what hope is there for anyone else caught in the web of these Islamic heretics?  I refer to them as heretics because their law is inhumane on its face and obviously so to anyone with common sense and an informed conscience, and this type of thing is definitely not found in many other nations that claim to be Islamic. But where is the public condemnation of these nations directed towards Sudan? 

 Because these Children should be considered American citizens by birth, even if dual nationals, the President needs no Congressional authorization to take immediate military action should diplomatic efforts fail to rescue Dr. Meriam or if the flogging and execution take place in secret to punish those responsible with a military strike. Why isn't this front page news, where is America's outrage? What do you think the American public reaction would be if Dr. Ibrahim were a blonde haired Canadian married to an American WASP and those kids in her prison cell looked like the Gerber baby?  Why isn't our black and supposedly Christian President up in arms? 

 Wake up English speaking bipeds! Seventy nine percent of you are still formally affiliated members of Christian denominations. Roughly 86% have a baptismal certificate somewhere on record even if you don't go to church. What these Islamic heretics plan for Dr. Meriam Ibrahim is what they have in mind for each and every one of you because these terrorists hate you, hate Christianity and all that it stands for, and are utterly devoid of morals Islamic or otherwise. These are enemies of mankind. As ruthlessly as they want to extinguish Christians like Meriam they also want to eliminate from the face of the earth all Jews and any Muslims that don't adhere to their particular beliefs. 

WAKE UP ENGLISH SPEAKING PEOPLES...WAKE UP AMERICA!

Thursday, May 29, 2014

OUR MOST VISITED POSTS 2012-2014


A WORD FROM OUR EDITOR


 Editor Johnas Presbyter as a very young CPO (handkerchief hanging out coat pocket)

Our recent research into our dashboard statistics for advertising purposes revealed something we hope will be useful to our occasional visitors who don't know their way around the blog very well yet. Below are listed the most searched for and visited posts between our start up late in 2012  through so far into 2014. By our estimate about 2,500 individuals are looking for these specific posts every few months. We may start linking our most popular articles at the HOME PAGE / NOTICES we realize that if you don't know the exact title or date of a post it can be very difficult to find a post of interest among the over 23000 on the site and which are growing at 2 to 3 per day.
Hope this helps.

Johnas 



SINGAPORE EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER INDONESIAN NAMING OF A NAVAL SHIP (Named for executed Indonesian Marines acting as saboteurs who bombed a civilian facility in the 1960s)

An American Southerner Addresses Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore
(Relates to the naval ship naming issue subtitled "Lessons From The Last Confederate Funeral)


ATTENTION MARITIME LEGAL BEAGLES
(Announcement of the serialization of the American Admiralty Bureau Publications in our Authoritative Literature Section)


THE WORLD EXPLAINED IN 40 MAPS
(A link to and explanation of graphic depictions of numerous important facts of global demographics, politics, religion, and economics)

A DETAILED LOOK AT THE CANADIAN COAST GUARD



MORE PARALLELS BETWEEN OCEAN AND SPACE EXPLORATION

LESSONS FROM THE AGE OF EUROPEAN MARINE EXPLORATION FOR THE SPACE AGE.

From the Book "PROTOCOLS" (c) 2012 by American Admiralty Books


SPACE AS AN OCEAN


                                Photo U.S. Air Force

Editor's note: sorry we missed a day If you have been following this series that may happen every now and then. We are "editing out loud" so to speak on this series which is eventually intended to be an e-book. Please check back daily.

CAPSULES AND SHUTTLES ARE LONG BOATS

 The Space Shuttle no longer operates and the planned replacement the X-34 program did not materialize in time to prevent the U.S from being  forced out of manned space flight. We now hitch rides to the international space station on Russian space craft little changed since the 1970s. China is working on going to the moon using space capsules and repeating the feats of the U.S Gemini and Apollo programs of decades ago but with better electronics. Such plans as the U.S. has for manned space flight that have received even a modicum of funding of late amount to very modest improvements in our last high tech long boat. More wings in space dedicated to transport to and from low earth orbit.

 As modest as the funding has been to replace the space shuttle there was no funding at all for the "Super Collider". With such a device scientist may explore the core of matter, energy, and time.Such research is is crucial to the propulsion break through to the space version of the caravel. In short, even while NASA has a small program going to discover "the warp drive"http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-scientists-begin-warp-drive-experiments-190400874.html  We aren't funding the underlying theoretical physics research. Such research is crucial to finding the propulsion break through to the space version of the caravel. In short there is no organized , funded development program generously endowed enough to be likely to find the break through that Capt. Readdy was talking about back in 1997. We are basically half heartily committed to an improved long boat. We also include however, in our long boat analogy unmanned space probes. These are "long boat missions too. Since 1997 NASA efforts have largely been directed towards such probes. NASA's unmanned probes are going to tell us a great deal about the universe out there in coming years. Moreover the space agencies of other nations some of which have never lofted a manned mission appear quite capable of unmanned probes and internationally the efforts seem to compliment rather than compete with each other.

Between 1998 and 2005 NASA launched about 25 such missions including fly bys of Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Pluto, Asteroids 3352, and McAuliffe and the comet P/West -Kohoutek-Ikemura. An orbitor was launched for Europa and multiple orbiting and landing missions to Mars.The Cassini mission to Saturn arrived on July 1, 2004.

 During this same time frame there were numerous similar missions carried out by the Russian, Japanese, and European space agencies. Notice however all were missions to, or mostly within our own solar system. Even those missions which give us a glimpse beyond, such as the Hubble telescope are showing us the cosmos not as it is today but as it was thirty eight to millions of years ago when the light from the distant stars we see began the journey to us and our instruments.

Our rocket science can explore our near shore, our own solar system, but our view beyond is hazy and we have no ability yet to travel or send probes there with any reasonable expectation of serious payoff. For example one of our rocket launched probe Pioneer II will pass a distant star. Pioneer II will fly by the star Lamba Aquila in the year 4,000,000 AD. Let us hope that since it was only about 5,000 years from the appearance of rudimentary mathematics and science to the first moon landing that in another three million, eight hundred thousand years we will have found the ability to fly to Lambda Aquila ourselves on a routine basis, long before our rocket launched probe reaches the area.

 If that is to happen the theoretical physicist and the various professions based on the liberal and fine arts; teachers, writers, historians, lawyers and the various artists must cooperate to drive the dream of the great beyond. For a while maritime history informs us that we may benefit from a protracted time in the long boats. The evolution of the space caravel physics work envisioned but as yet unfunded. Historians must articulate where we are in this new age of exploration. Authors, teachers, artists, and cinematographers need to continue to show us an ever evolving vision of the future that includes space travel , exploration, and commerce. All of us must help form the societal consensus that theoretical physics is worth the big investment that will bring us the "warp drive". But history also tells us that there is much work  for lawyers, biologists, and medical scientists before we make first contact whether with another intelligent race or a microbe, this book is about not repeating those errors on some future "New World".







Wednesday, May 28, 2014

DEFEATING THE CHINESE CABBAGE PATCH STRATEGY IN THE SPRATLYS.....With Gardening?

THE SIERRA MADRE WITH A 

HANDFUL OF PHILIPPINE MARINES 

ABOARD STANDS ALONE AGAINST 

THE CIRCLING CHINESE COAST 

GUARD. THE SHIP HAS STOOD 

GUARD OVER AYUNGIN SHOAL 

SINCE 1999. Yahoo News Philippines

Philippine Navy Photo: The Sierra Madre as an air drop resupply target. Obviously air drop resupply potential is very limited.
 As the Chinese started to attempt to seize by intimidation the internationally recognized exclusive economic zone waters of all the states bordering the South China Sea a Chinese general officer described the Chinese strategy as "The Cabbage Patch Strategy".  He said China would first surround the off shore islands and shoals of its neighbors with their coast guard (over 900 ships compared to less than 300 in the U.S. Navy and only dozens in the U.S. Coast Guard ), and then begin enforcing fisheries regulations and licensing mineral exploration, until Chinese fishing and other commercial craft surrounded each valuable area "like the leaves on a cabbage". The Chinese Coast Guard would then keep the actual sovereign powers out and any "remaining forces" "would leave of their own accord or starve". At times and places the strategy seemed to work but in 1999  eight marines of the Philippine Republic refused to budge. Though often reduced to eating such fish as they can catch, and depending on caught rain water since 1999 the marines aboard the now wrecked and grounded SIERRA MADRE are still holding out. Now a group wants to turn the ship into a garden. Actually we see it as something that could be done and with a great benefit. Just a little help from the United States could make it a 
                                                                                              
reality. A lightly used "Elevating work boat"  could be secured from Louisiana and sent to the Philippines to be commissioned into the Philippine Navy. It could steam out to Ayungin whenever aerial surveillance indicates a light Chinese Coast Guard presence and "jack up" next to the hulk of the Sierra Made, providing new and more comfortable quarters for the Marines. The hulk could then be filled with soil over time and transformed into a garden making for a virtually self sufficient human population on the shoal, a factor in international law that is never ignored. 

Yahoo News Philippines has the story


"Amid disputes in the West Philippine Sea, a dilapidated ship occupied by a handful of Marines seems to be the only thing that stands between the Philippines and China.

"BRP Sierra Madre, a warship the Philippines deliberately ran aground the Ayungin Shoal in 1999, serves as a failing reminder of the Philippine claim on disputed seas."

An online community called “It’s No Fun in Pag-asa” is leading efforts aimed at boosting the morale of military men stationed in the border with China, as well as residents there.
The same group, led by activist Carlos Celdran is now pushing for the conversion of BRP Sierra Madre into a garden—possibly one where Marines can grow vegetables."

TO READ MORE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW: https://ph.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good-vibes/new-life-for-old-ph-ship-in-disputed-ayungin-shoal-105649985.html

Ayungin

Some of our previous posts on the situation at Ayungin & the Spratly Islands







NEWS ITEM: RARE AND ENDANGERED FISH:

Endangered Sawfish Caught In Florida

Photo by 

Petr Kratochvil

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

THE LONG PAUSE BETWEEN THE LONG BOAT AND THE CARAVEL AND BETWEEN THE SPACE SHUTTLE AND THE STAR SHIP

SPACE AS AN OCEAN


                                Photo U.S. Air Force

LESSONS FROM THE AGE OF EUROPEAN MARINE EXPLORATION FOR THE SPACE AGE.

 From the Book "PROTOCOLS" (c) 2012 by American Admiralty Books

American Admiralty Books Safety & Privacy Policies (Attention EU Visitors , possible "cookie" encounter ahead) 

THE LONG PAUSE ; BETWEEN THE LONG BOAT AND THE CARAVEL, BETWEEN THE SPACE SHUTTLE AND THE STAR SHIP

CARAVEL WITH SQUARE SAILS DEPLOYED

VIKING LONG BOAT

"Proceedings: Do you think we will live to see a Man to Mars mission?

Capt. Readdy: Without question. If we really wanted to throw money at the problem , I think we could have gone ten years ago. It's no longer a question of technology. At this point , I think we need to focus on advances in propulsion technology rather than spending tens of billions of dollars on a mission that will take the better part of a year to get there and  almost the same amount of time to come back. Just as the jet engine eclipsed the propeller in World War II and the rocket engine was the enabling technology for our initial exploration of space , there is going to be another advance in propulsion technology. The science fiction writers , I'm sure, already know what it is. Whatever it is, it will open exploration beyond the Moon."
                                                                             
Naval Institute PROCEEDINGS, Feb. 1997: February 1997; page 55 "Building the Future Now", an interview with Capt. William F. Readdy, USNR; Commander of Space Shuttle Mission STS-79
                                                                                                                         
                                                                             

THE CARAVEL BOAT ESPERANCA OF PORTUGAL, LANTEEN SAILS DEPLOYED


We are in a long pause in manned interplanetary exploration, though we have a robot probe on the surface of Mars as we write these lines. We have made in space the equivalent of short coastal voyages, near earth orbital missions routine. We have made some interplanetary voyages to our nearest celestial neighbor, the moon. These missions developed the technology for the launch, repair, and improvement of orbital telescopes like Hubble that allow us to peer to the far reaches of the visible universe. In so peering we have learned that it is a far more vast place than ever before imagined and that planets , with atmospheres and water, are probably much more abundant than once thought only a few years ago. We are standing on the beach and looking out across that vast sea of outer space, with ever increasing knowledge of the far shore coming to us through our space telescopes and unmanned probes. But our long boats can't make the crossing. We await the development of the Caravel.

 The long boat was known by many names and found in many cultures. The term as used here does not describe only the traditional and well known boat of Viking fame. The long boat refers to a variety of early vessels that were characterized by a single hull, propulsion by oar or paddle, and if sails were carried, these usually consisted of a single square sail. Such vessels made some incredible voyages. Indeed it is widely accepted that Vikings visited North America in their long boats hundreds of years before Columbus. The long boat underwent a long period of refinement under the hands of many nations. Once wealth began to move on the seas with any regularity distinct differences arose between long boats used for commerce and those used to protect or raid commerce, the first warships. An early version of the long boat purposely built for warfare was the Galley.
                                                                      
File:Trireme.jpg
A Trireme among largest and most complex of the Galleys, the long boat at it a high point of development


  One example of this type of vessel found in the early Mediterranean was the Trireme, which by the fifth century had become the capital ship of the Mediterranean powers. Some were as much as 100 feet long and carried as many as 160 oarsmen. These were real ships, capable of real voyages, and quite impressive in their day. But the long boat at the height of its development was inadequate for repeated trans Atlantic or Pacific crossings and returns.  The long boat , in all of it's variations , was a coast wise vessel. One would occasionally survive a remarkable open water voyage, but no sailor in his right mind had any inclination to repeat such voyages. With its square sail and shallow keel, and primitive steering sweep  which precedes the true rudder, it could only sail in the most favorable of winds. With it's dependence on oars , and thus human muscle power, the caloric needs of the crew put severe limits on it's range. It's limited cargo capacity restricted  its' commercial utility. Its' relatively low free board and open construction made it vulnerable to heavy seas. The advent of routine transoceanic voyages had to wait the development of a more suitable craft. That craft would be a long time in arriving on scene and would develop from several different sources, ultimately to be perfected by most a unlikely source. The vessel that would open the seas to systematic exploration and commercial usage would be the caravel. 

 The first development that would lead to the evolution of the Caravel would be the lanteen sail. The lanteen sail , is a triangular shaped device similar in appearance to the sail of the popular small recreational sailboat known as the "SUNFISH". The lanteen sail reached its' greatest utility once wedded to a subsurface hull feature such as the extended keel, dagger board, or lee board. the lanteen sail coupled with these submerged hull features allowed a vessel to "tack"before the wind.

CLASSIC MODERN LANTEEN RIG SAIL AS USED ON VERY SMALL RECREATIONAL SAIL BOATS 

To Tack is to sail at an angle across the wind., allowing a vessel to make actual progress in an upwind direction via zig zag pattern. The lanteen sail also allowed a vessel to sail off at a wide variety of angles from the wind without the necessity to tack. The first vessels to exhibit those features were the Arabian Dhows. But the Arabian Dhows were not destined to explore the great seas, some additional refinements were still needed. They would come from an unexpected quarter.
File:Dhow.jpg
A modern version of the ancient Dhow



The Portuguese were mostly farmers. It was their princes who led them to sea, a sea they often viewed as hostile. yet at sea these farmers turned sailors would perform most amazing feats. King Diniz was the first to realize that Portugal's future and fortune lay at sea.  In 1217 Diniz appointed a Genoese, Manoel Pessagno as admiral of his fleet. Diniz then launched an expedition to the Canary Islands and in order to encourage the shipwright's art, he knighted his foremost shipwrights. To assure his supply of timber King Diniz planted forests. Because there were so few Portuguese seafarers in the beginning Diniz never failed to hire Genoese mariners and shipwrights when needed. The Genoese had a long history of contact with the Arabs, had seen dhows, and adopted the lanteen  sail, sometimes mixing the lanteen with square sails for better performance when the wind was astern or "on a run" as modern sailors would describe it. Now they had a patron greatly interested in ship performance improvement. First the Genoese in the employ of the Portuguese and later the Portuguese themselves  would  improve on the basic designs that had evolved from the dhow. The hull form would be improved for lateral stability, freeboard would be raised , cargo capacities improved, but most importantly the sail plan was improved. Mizzen masts appeared, allowing the sail plan to be split, less sail could be carried in high winds and bent on in light airs. The oarsman, was no longer a crew position. Mariners were now sailors, milking the wind for propulsive power in all weathers. However, the full evolution caravel did not happen over night.

 The caravel did not evolve directly from the dhow nor from the more round bottomed merchant ships of the day. Rather the caravel, the prime engine of the early age of maritime exploration evolved from the Dhow by way of humble Portuguese fishing vessels. The lowly fishing vessel had to be able to carry a substantial load , be sea kindly, not too labor intensive, and be able to get back to port before the cargo spoiled.  And so it was from a people late to seafaring , and from their most humble vessel designs that the vessel that would link the continents would evolve. when the NINA, the PINTA, and the SANTA MARIA pushed out into the Atlantic they were piloted by a Genoese navigator in the service of Spain who had no real way to accurately compute his longitude, but every confidence that his caravels would carry him to wherever he was bound and back. The humble but technologically superior caravels of Spain and Portugal would blaze the paths to the New World. Eventually they would be displaced by the full rigged ships of England, but had the caravel not appeared on scene when it did, the New World would be a lot newer.

 The Space Shuttle in its hey day was seen as such an improvement over the Space Capsule that it was sometimes called the "caravel of the space age". But in fact the Space capsules in use prior, and still in use in the Russian and Chinese manned space programs , Space shuttle, and the Space Shuttle's successor are little more than early long boats. With these vessels we have gained valuable experience in space travel, but neither capsule nor shuttle can take us where we need to go, specially beyond our own solar system. We are waiting on the real caravel, perhaps two. In terms  of manned exploration and exploitation of our own solar system, our present means of propulsion is sufficient to carry us to Mars and beyond on long and difficult voyages that will rival those of the era of epic voyages that started in 1487. We simply can't get there in a long boat. When the caravel first appeared it wasn't faster that other sailing craft by any order of magnitude, it was its total package of sea keeping, carrying capacity, sail efficiency, and crew comfort that made it suitable for the long haul. We won't be sending crews on two and five year voyages in any ship we can launch from earth. The caravel for the age of exploration of the solar system will be built in space from components the size of the capsules and shuttles we have sent up so far.  The first sign that a real caravel is, and all of the subsequent design improvements are, about to arrive will be the construction of an orbital shipyard. And the next wave of solar system exploration will involve flotillas of these built in space craft, not single ships. The long boats won't disappear, they will be a cost effective fleet of ferries and personnel launches for transport to the ship yard and space stations for many decades to come. The real caravel will be built in space. 

 Then the process will begin again with totally different propulsion systems, "the warp drive", that NASA is working on even as we write. But the caravel for the exploration of space beyond our own solar system  will also be built in space. We could be in the long boats a very long time. We were before. This time we must foresee that the caravel is coming and be prepared to step on that distant shore. We must be prepared because our maritime experience with new distant shores tells us that lack of preparation can spell death and destruction for us and those we meet. We must prepare in advance  this time for first contact with everything from macrobiotic to intelligent life. We had better get this done before we get out of the long boats.

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COMMERCIALIZATION OF SPACE BOOKSHELF

BRITISH BIRD FARMS

BRITISH AIRCRAFT CARRIERS Design, Development, and Service Histories


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 Bird farms are not the exclusive province of the American Navy. The Brits have been a bit short in the bird farm business of late but are coming back aboard with the new QUEEN ELIZABETH class. (See our related posts  Final Deposition of the SARATOGA ,  ANOTHER INSTALLMENT OF THE MICHELIN GUIDE TO BIRD FARMS, MY CARRIER VIDEO IS WAY COOLER THAN YOURS , THE MICHELIN GUIDE TO BIRD FARMS

FROM THE PUBLISHER:
"This book is a meticulously detailed history of British aircraft-carrying ships from the earliest experimental vessels to the Queen Elizabeth class, currently under construction and the largest ships ever built for the Royal Navy. Individual chapters cover the design and construction of each class, with full technical details, and there are extensive summaries of every ship's career. Apart from the obvious large-deck carriers, the book also includes seaplane carriers, escort carriers and MAC ships, the maintenance ships built on carrier hulls, unbuilt projects, and the modern LPH. It concludes with a look at the future of naval aviation, while numerous appendices summarize related subjects like naval aircraft, recognition markings and the circumstances surrounding the loss of every British carrier. As befits such an important reference work, it is heavily illustrated with a magnificent gallery of photos and plans, some reproduced in color.
Written by the leading historian of British carrier aviation, himself a retired Fleet Air Arm pilot, it displays the authority of a lifetime's research combined with a practical understanding of the issues surrounding the design and operation of aircraft carriers. British Aircraft Carriers is certain to become the standard work on the subject."

AAB RECOMMENDED FOR SERIOUS STUDENTS OF NAVAL HISTORY ESPECIALLY THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL NAVY, INTERESTING READ AND AN EXCELLENT PERMANENT REFERENCE

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Monday, May 26, 2014

America's Historic Black Sea Fleet

WHERE ARE THEY TODAY?

By Treaty, Ships of Nations Not Located On The Black Sea Are Limited As To Numbers And Length Of Stays In The Region. It Wasn't Always This Way. Once America Had A Fleet On The Black Sea And The People Of The Region, Including Russia Were Glad The Fleet Was There. No Doubt The Ukraine and Georgia Wish We had One Now.    

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   "In a high-tempo series of operations throughout the Black Sea, Aegean Sea and eastern Mediterranean, a small American fleet of destroyers and other naval vessels responded ably to several major international crises including the last days of the Russian Revolution and the 1920-1922 Turkish Nationalist Revolution. Officers and men of the navy's "four-piper" destroyers began by investigating circumstances on the ground in mainland Turkey right after World War I, and by transporting American relief teams to ports throughout Turkey and Southern Russia to aid the tens of thousands of orphans and refugees who had survived the wartime Armenian genocide."


  • Publisher: Naval Institute Press (November 15, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1612510531
  • ISBN-13: 978-1612510538

This was a 2012 Naval Institute Book of Special Interest: If you are an Institute member special pricing is available at:  http://www.usni.org/store/books