Beyond the Horizon
February 2024
GREY FLEET
Suicides by military and military veterans is a major concern within the armed services; however, the solution is far beyond the current standings. A Navy Petty Officer aboard the USS RALPH JOHNSON (DDG-114) died of self-inflicted wounds in a Japanese hospital. Currently, the Navy is averaging about 20 suicides per year.
Ensuring freedom of the seas, USS RALPH JOHNSON, Canadian HMCS OTTAWA, and Japan’s large deck helicopter carrier JS IZUMO (DDH-183) and destroyer JS SAMIDARE (DD-106) sailed through the Taiwan Straits without entering any state’s territory. A heavily armed Chinese naval destroyer followed closely behind, shadowing the ships in transit. The President of China announced his goals for the future, and his top objective was the absorption of Taiwan. Taiwan has allied itself with many Western nations including the U.S.
Allied Ships near Taiwan
Chinese destroyer cutting across the bow of a U.S. Navy ship.
Virtually daily, Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched drone attacks on ships in the Red Sea. The U.S. Navy has consistently destroyed these before they can hurt anyone. The French missile FS LANGUEDOC (653) successfully destroyed two Aster 15 drone missiles aimed at them. The Houthi have attacked any ship that has even minimal connections with Israel. mv CENTRAL PARK was attacked by pirates but no one was certain whether or not they were Houthi supported. The ship is owned by an Israeli businessman.
The Houthis attacked a Norwegian bio-diesel tanker, STRINDA, in the same region that was protected by a joint naval force with which the FS LANGUEDOC operated. The Scandinavian ship was afire but quick damage control saved the ship that was aided by the USS MASON (DDG-87). This fall, over 22 missile attacks were launched from Yemen, and those attacks continue unabated. The U.S. Navy officials noted that direct confrontations against rebels in Yemen will not occur simply because the U.S. is not at war with Yemen.
INLAND WATERWAYS
Only politicians and lawyers can obfuscate definitions of seemingly simple things like the Water of the United States. Words have denotations and connotations (the former is the dictionary definition and the latter is how one interprets a definition) and that has tossed the proverbial monkey wrench into laws, mandates, directives, regulations, and rules. The root of the problem is the political conservatives versus the political liberal. Liberals and their environmental supporters stride toward broad delineations to include swamps, ponds, bogs, sloughs, and wetlands. The conservatives and their well-heeled agricultural chemical benefactors want strict limitations on what waters the government can control.
The Corps of Engineers and sundry entities have backed up jurisdictional decisions like a stuffed toilet. Over 4,000 cases are awaiting revised definitions from both Congress and the Courts. Every time a decision is made, it is reversed in the courts. The Supreme Court has made several attempts to define WOTUS and they have merely complicated the matter. Perhaps Solomon could not handle this.
A 2022 report from the Texas Transportation Institute entitled “A Model Comparison of Domestic Freight Transportation on the General Public” again proffers data suggesting that freight hauled on the waterways is better environmentally than other methods. A towboat emits 19.3 tons of carbon dioxide per 1 million tons of cargo moved. Railroads spew forth 26.9 tons, and trucks dump 71.6 tons. Anyone driving on an Interstate can attest to the need to reduce trucking. (My truckdriver uncles are spinning in their graves).
The Army Corps of Engineers is in the process of creating a series of 73 freshwater reef extending perpendicularly to the shore of the Monongahela River to protect fish from the currents as they mate and birth baby fishes. Furthermore, as the water slows the sediment creates plant life as food for the little finlets.
The importance of these reefs reflects the concern for river flow as the Elizabeth Dam is eliminated which will alter the course of the river and the current. Sportsmen are also interested in promulgating habitat for black bass, sunfish, walleye, sauger, white bass, striped bass, musky, and channel catfish.
Confession time: I don’t know how to spell muskellunge and I don’t know the difference between Musky and Northern Pike. On the other hand, I have been accused of being the world’s worst fisherman…by my son. When he was 12 (at the age when he was sure that his dad was the Dork of the Universe) we went fishing in Finland. I managed to catch ZERO fish but did happen to catch a baby duck, and thus provided all the data necessary for my son to pray that he was adopted.
ENVIRONMENT
A recent National Geographic Society television documentary on research scientists whot spent a year in the Arctic was incredibly interesting and provocative. Among the sundry findings were that the air temperature is warmer the higher you go above the ice because the snow acts as an insulator to protect the ice pack. The ice controls the jet stream, and as it decreases the jet stream changes more slowly thus high and low pressure systems tend to move slowly. This means that thunder storms may linger much longer than normal. The same goes for droughts, flood, snow storms, etc. They also discovered that the icy water is a haven for significant amounts of plankton that not only feed various animals and fish, it accounts for about 25% of the oxygen passed into the environment. The satellite photography over the last 20 years clearly indicates the significant shrinkage of the pack ice. It takes little imagination understand that the ice loss has been instrumental in climate change.
nge.
The Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a monster of the deep weighing in at around 199 tons and reaching a length of 100 feet. The jaw bone alone is about 25 feet. It may be the largest animal to ever have existed (according to Wikipedia). As a baleen whale, Big Blue lives on 4 tons of krill per day. It also is the loudest animal on the planet and its call can be heard over 1000 miles away. It also has one of the longest life-spans on earth, living 80 to 100 years in part because they have few natural enemies except for the Orca and big ships. Because of their size, they were hunted greedily for their abundant oil until they were virtually extinct. Since the late 1960’s, the Blue Whale has rebounded although still considered an endangered species, and their estimated population is between 10,000 and 25,000 according to National Geographic.
BIG SHIPS
Big ships carrying cargo and passengers remains an extraordinary spectacle for those shore-bound. Among the largest was Great Northern Steamship Company’s MINNESOTA, the behemoth in the early 20thcentury, that was unsurpassed until World War I. Built in 1903, she weighed in at 21,000 tons with a length of 622 feet and beam of 73.5 feet. She bristled with derricks and cranes but could only manage about 12.5 knots when fully loaded. On 22 January 1905 MINNESOTA carried 300 people and the largest cargo ever to cross the Pacific. In her hold one could see papers of pins, hogsheads of tobacco, bales of cotton, a railroad engine, and the appropriate set of railroad cars bound from Seattle to Yokohama.
The magnificent ship made 40 trips between the U.S. and Asia; however, she was so big and could carry huge tonnage of cargo that filling her was difficult and barely profitable. As her boilers started to die, she was sold to the Atlantic Transport Company; but, the outbreak of WWI sent her to the Navy as the USS TROY,and she carried 52,000 tons of supplies to Europe. At the end of the war she was deemed no longer useful. She regained the name MINNESOTA but her sailing days were over and she was used as a hospital ship during the Spanish Flu crisis of 1919.
YACHTS (EVERY POTTER YACHTER’S DREAM)
Bob Bitchin’s monthly online blog contains some wonderful cartoons, articles, photos, and links to stuff that you will spend the next year viewing. One such link led to articles about super yachts like you see on BELOW DECKS. Aaron Fidler, CEO of Furrion (a high tech company, duh), has a simply little Palmer Johnson built boat of 136’ painted with 24k gold dust, reeking of chrome, silver, and marble within its bar, dining room, and sundry guest rooms. The AK ROYALTY may be rented for a paltry $122,000 per day. Yes, per day.
Those of us who watched every single James Bond movie and yearned for his cars, boats, and yachts will be happy to know that the REGINA, a super yacht featured in SKYFALL is now for sale for $14.2 million. Like many super yachts, it can be rented for $120,000 per 5-day week.
