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USS California (ACR-6)
The second USS ''California'' (ACR-6), also referred to as "Armored Cruiser No. 6", and later renamed ''San Diego'', was a United States Navy armored cruiser. Construction and commissioning ''California'' was Ceremonial ship launching, launched on 28 April 1904 by Union Iron Works at San Francisco, California, Ship sponsor, sponsored by Miss Florence Pardee, daughter of Governor of California, California Governor George C. Pardee, and Ship commissioning, commissioned on 1 August 1907. Service history Pre-World War I Joining the 2nd Division, United States Pacific Fleet, Pacific Fleet, ''California'' took part in the Naval Review at San Francisco in May 1908 for the Secretary of the Navy Victor H. Metcalf. Aside from a cruise to Hawaii and Samoa in the fall of 1909, the cruiser operated along the west coast, sharpening her readiness through training exercises and drills, until December 1911, when she sailed for Honolulu, and in March 1912 continued westward for duty on the As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rear Admiral (United States)
A rear admiral in four of the uniformed services of the United States is one of two distinct ranks of commissioned officers; "rear admiral (lower half)," a one-star flag officer, and "rear admiral" (sometimes referred to as "rear admiral (upper half)"), a two-star flag officer. The two ranks are only utilized by the United States Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, USPHSCC, U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and the NOAA Corps, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps. In contrast, in most other nations' rank-bearing services, the term "rear admiral" refers exclusively to two-star flag officer rank. Rear admiral (lower half) Rear admiral (lower half) (abbreviated as RDML) is a one-star rank, one-star flag officer, with the U.S. uniformed services pay grades, pay grade of in the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard, the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps, National ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breech-loading Weapon
A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel (i.e., from the rearward, open end of the gun's barrel), as opposed to a muzzleloader, in which the user loads the ammunition from the ( muzzle) end of the barrel. The vast majority of modern firearms are generally breech-loaders, while firearms made before the mid-19th century were mostly smoothbore muzzle-loaders. Only a few muzzleloading weapons, such as mortars, rifle grenades, some rocket launchers, such as the Panzerfaust 3 and RPG-7, and the GP series grenade launchers, have remained in common usage in modern military conflicts. However, referring to a weapon explicitly as breech-loading is mostly limited to weapons where the operator loads ammunition by hand (and not by operating a mechanism such as a bolt-action), such as artillery pieces or break-action small arms. Breech-loading provides the advantage of reduced reloading time because it is far quicker to load t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conning Tower
A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armoured, from which an officer in charge can conn (nautical), conn (conduct or control) the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for the ship's engine, rudder, lines, and ground tackle. It is usually located as high on the ship as is practical, to give the conning team good visibility of the entirety of the ship, ocean conditions, and other vessels. The naval term "conn" may derive from the Middle English ''conne'' (study, become acquainted with) or French ''conduire'' from Latin ''conducere'' (conduct). Surface ships On surface ships, the conning tower was a feature of all battleships and armored cruiser, armoured cruisers from about 1860 to the early years of World War II. Located at the front end of the superstructure, the conning tower was a heavily armored cylinder, with tiny slit windows on three sides providing a reasonable field of view. Designed to shield j ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gun Turret
A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in some degree of azimuth and elevation (cone of fire). Description Rotating gun turrets protect the weapon and its crew as they rotate. When this meaning of the word "turret" started being used at the beginning of the 1860s, turrets were normally cylindrical. Barbettes were an alternative to turrets; with a barbette the protection was fixed, and the weapon and crew were on a rotating platform inside the barbette. In the 1890s, armoured hoods (also known as "gun houses") were added to barbettes; these rotated with the platform (hence the term "hooded barbette"). By the early 20th century, these hoods were known as turrets. Modern warships have gun-m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbette
Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships. In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protection that eventually led to the pre-dreadnought. The name ''barbette'' ultimately comes from fortification: it originally meant a raised platform or mound, as in the French phrase ''en barbette'', which refers to the practice of firing a cannon over a parapet rather than through an embrasure in a fortification's casemate. The former gives better angles of fire but less protection than the latter. The disappearing gun was a variation on the barbette gun; it consisted of a heavy gun on a carriage that would retract behind a parapet or into a gunpit for reloading. Barbettes were primarily used in coastal defences, but saw some use in a handful of warships, and some inland fortifications. The term is also used for certain aircraft gun mounts. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deck (ship)
A deck is a permanent covering over a Compartment (ship), compartment or a hull (watercraft), hull of a ship. On a boat or ship, the primary or upper deck is the horizontal structure that forms the "roof" of the hull, strengthening it and serving as the primary working surface. Vessels often have more than one level both within the hull and in the superstructure above the primary deck, similar to the floors of a multi-storey building, that are also referred to as decks, as are certain compartments and decks built over specific areas of the superstructure. Decks for some purposes have specific names. Structure The main purpose of the upper or primary deck is structural, and only secondarily to provide weather-tightness and support people and equipment. The deck serves as the lid to the complex box girder which can be identified as the hull. It resists Tension (physics), tension, Compression (physics), compression, and racking forces. The deck's scantling is usually the same as t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belt Armor
Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers. The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from penetrating to the heart of a warship. When struck by an artillery shell or underwater torpedo, the belt armor either absorbs the impact and explosion with its sheer thickness and strength, or else uses sloping to redirect the projectile and its blast downwards. Typically, the main armor belt covers the warship from its main deck down to some distance below the waterline. If, instead of forming the outer hull, the armor belt is built inside the hull, it is installed at a sloped angle for improved protection, as described above. The torpedo bulkhead Frequently, the main belt's armor plates were supplemented with a torpedo bulkhead spaced several meters behind the main belt, designed to maintain the ship's watertight integrity even if the main belt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torpedo Tube
A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboard surface vessels. Deck-mounted torpedo launchers are usually designed for a specific type of torpedo, while submarine torpedo tubes are general-purpose launchers, and are often also capable of deploying naval mine, mines and cruise missiles. Most modern launchers are standardized on a diameter for light torpedoes (deck mounted aboard ship) or a diameter for heavy torpedoes (underwater tubes), although Torpedo#Classes and diameters, torpedoes of other classes and diameters have been used. Submarine torpedo tube A submarine torpedo tube is a more complex mechanism than a torpedo tube on a surface ship, because the tube has to accomplish the function of moving the torpedo from the normal atmospheric pressure within the submarine into the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American 18 Inch Torpedo
There have been a number of 18-inch torpedoes in service with the United States. These have been used on ships and submarines of the US Navy. American "18-inch" torpedoes were actually in diameter, beginning with the "Fiume" Whitehead torpedo The Whitehead torpedo was the first self-propelled or "locomotive" torpedo ever developed. It was perfected in 1866 by British engineer Robert Whitehead from a rough design conceived by Giovanni Luppis of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in Fiume. I ... of 1890. Ship classes that carried 18-inch torpedoes include: * ''Aylwin''-class destroyers * B-class through some R-class submarines * ''Bainbridge''-class destroyers * ''Cassin''-class destroyers * ''Cincinnati''-class cruisers * ''Columbia''-class cruisers * ''Illinois''-class battleships * ''Indiana''-class battleships * ''Kearsarge''-class battleships * ''Maine''-class battleships * ''Montgomery''-class cruisers * ''Paulding''-class destroyers * ''Pennsylvania''-class cruisers * ''Plun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gun Salutes
A gun salute or cannon salute is the use of a piece of artillery to fire shots, often 21 in number ('' 21-gun salute''), with the aim of marking an honor or celebrating a joyful event. It is a tradition in many countries around the world. History Firing cannons is a maritime tradition that dates back to the 14th century, when the cannon began to impose itself on the battlefields: a boat entering the waters of a country unloads its weapons and thus marks its intentions as peaceful. The coastal batteries or the boats encountered then respond to this salute. If 7 cannon shots are fired at the start, corresponding to the number of guns on board a boat, in addition to the symbolism of the number seven, this number increases to 21, since it was considered that for a shot fired by a boat, the batteries on land had enough powder for three rounds. 21-gun salute Other numbered salutes To honor the 75th birthday of King Charles III, a number of special salutes were fired. A 41-gun s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
QF 1-pounder Pom-pom
The QF 1 pounder, universally known as the pom-pom due to the sound of its discharge, was a 37 mm British autocannon, the first of its type in the world. It was used by several countries initially as an infantry gun and later as a light anti-aircraft gun. History Hiram Maxim originally designed the Pom-Pom in the late 1880s as an enlarged version of the Maxim machine gun. Its longer range necessitated exploding projectiles to judge range, which in turn dictated a shell weight of at least , as that was the lightest exploding shell allowed under the Saint Petersburg Declaration of 1868 and reaffirmed in the Hague Convention of 1899. Early versions were sold under the Maxim-Nordenfelt label, whereas versions in British service (i.e. from 1900) were labelled Vickers, Sons and Maxim (VSM), as Vickers had bought out Maxim-Nordenfelt in 1897 -- but they are the same gun. Service by nation Belgium The Belgian Army used the gun on a high-angle field carriage mounting. Fin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Driggs-Schroeder
Driggs-Schroeder was the name of several naval artillery, naval guns designed by US Navy officers William H. Driggs and Seaton Schroeder for the United States Navy in the late 1880s, fitted on ships built in the 1890s. Some Driggs-Schroeder weapons were also adopted by the US Army. These guns were initially produced by the William Cramp & Sons shipbuilding company, than a separate Drigg-Schroeder Ordnance Company was founded with Cramps' capital, which in 1896 was united with competing Hotchkiss gun, Hotchkiss Gun Company based in Rhode Island and the American Projectile Company from Massachusetts into American Ordnance Company headed by General Albert C. Ordway. Driggs later founded the Driggs-Seabury Ordnance Company in 1897, in partnership with his brother Louis Labadie "L. L." Driggs and Samuel Seabury, a retired US Navy officer. Driggs-Schroeder weapons included QF 1-pounder pom-pom#United States service, 1-pounder, QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss#US service, 3-pounder (Navy Marks 2 a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
