Free Republic

Jacksonville, FL -Big questions are surfacing about the capabilities of a new Navy ship that will play an integral role in the future of Naval Station Mayport.

PASCAGOULA, Miss. (Dec. 15, 2015)—Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (NYSE:HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division launched Ralph Johnson (DDG 114), the company’s 30th Arleigh Burke-class (DDG 51) guided missile destroyer, on Saturday. (Super cool time lapse video of the launch.) “The last week of translating this quality ship across land and then launching it from our drydock is no small task, and our shipbuilders accomplished it in a very efficient manner,” said George Nungesser, Ingalls’ DDG 51 program manager. “All crafts and personnel making up this DDG shipbuilding crew have performed very well, and we were able to launch DDG 114 ahead of schedule....

(Bloomberg) — The U.S. Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship would be ineffective at hunting for mines because an underwater drone made by Lockheed Martin Corp. that’s supposed to find them often fails to work, the Pentagon’s weapons-testing office found.

A major disappointment announced today in the investigation into the El Faro sinking with the NTSB now saying that the wreck of the ship was discovered with the navigation bridge missing and no sign of the Voyage Data Recorder (VDR).

The TOTE Maritime LNG-powered newbuild MV Isla Bella arrived at its new homeport in Jacksonville, Florida late Monday night following a roughly two week trip from San Diego where the vessel was constructed.

With a capacity to carry 19,000 TEUs, the recently named MV CSCL Globe is the world’s largest containership by cargo capacity. But that’s not all it’s known for. The newbuild for China Shipping Container Lines is also noteworthy for being powered by what is physically the largest engine ever constructed.

"The U.S. Coast Guard said it called off its nearly weeklong search for the missing mariners of the El Faro at sunset Wednesday."

Bronze Age rock carving depicts a Mediterranean style boat. Above: A graphic representation of the Auga dos Cebros petroglyph, showing the obvious boat feature at the bottom. This image is a screenshot of the same as depicted in the YouTube video (see below). =================================================================================================================== A unique petroglyph discovered near the Atlantic coast of northern Spain has provided evidence that contacts between ancient Atlantic cultures and contemporaneous cultures of the Mediterranean were earlier and perhaps more intense than previously thought. The rock art panel, located in the Costa dos Castros region and known as Auga dos Cebros, depicts a boat with...

A piece of paper that sailed aboard the Titanic was recently sold at auction for the price of a fancy sports car. The yellowed document — a luncheon menu for the first-class dining room — is dated April 14, 1912. This means that it details the last-ever gourmet lunch served aboard the ill-fated luxury ocean liner. The menu reveals that, the day before the boat sank to the bottom of the icy North Atlantic Ocean, wealthy passengers dined on "grilled mutton chops," soused herring and a variety of other delicacies.

Anxious family members of 28 Americans who went missing during Hurricane Joaquin awaited news of their loved ones' fates Saturday, as the Coast Guard combed hundreds of miles looking for their stricken cargo ship. Officials said there was still no sign of the El Faro, which was last heard from around 7:20 a.m. ET Thursday when a distress call indicated it had lost power and was taking on water.

The Maersk Tigris was released Thursday, more than a week after the ship was seized by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a statement from the shipping company. The cargo vessel was transiting the Strait of Hormuz on April 28 when Iranian military vessels fired warning shots at the ship and directed it to proceed into Iranian waters. The ship and crew has been held ever since over a business dispute with Maersk Line. “The release follows a constructive dialogue with the Iranian authorities, including the Ports & Maritime Organization, and the provision of a letter of undertaking...

The National Park Service says tours on the USS Arizona Memorial are suspended after a vessel struck and damaged the memorial's dock. Spokeswoman Abby Wines said Wednesday that boats are taking visitors to a spot near the memorial where they may view it from a distance, but visitors are not being taken on it. Wines says the ramp and handrails connecting the dock to the memorial are mangled. Park service and Navy divers are expected to assess the damage from underwater Wednesday. The incident occurred when the hospital ship USNS Mercy and a civilian tugboat contracted by the Navy were...

)—Five Iranian boats fired shots across the bow of a Singapore flagged cargo vessel in the Persian Gulf on Thursday in an attempt to potentially stop the ship, a U.S. official told CNN. For the first time, the incident brought another Persian Gulf nation into the recent rising maritime tensions in the region. It is not yet clear if any of the rounds hit the Alpine Eternity. There were no U.S. citizens or cargo on board. The Pentagon is still gathering information about the incident.

Video....This report is unconfirmed, but comes from Saudi Arabia new services. It appears as though the Iranian navy has fired on and seized a US cargo ship.

(Reuters) - Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said an Iranian "force" seized a U.S. cargo ship after opening fire on it in the Gulf on Tuesday and directed it to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. A Pentagon spokesman said Iranian forces had boarded a Marshall Island-flagged vessel, the MV Maersk Tigris, in the Gulf. He said the boarding occurred after Iranian patrol boats fired shots across the vessel's bow and ordered it deeper into Iranian waters. The ship had no U.S. citizens aboard, the spokesman said, contradicting Al-Arabiya's report which said there were 34 U.S. sailors on board. He said...

Moments ago according to the native Twitter feed of Arabiya, Iranian forces have seized a US cargo ship, which has some 34 American sailors, which they have taken to the port of Bandar Abbas. More as we get it.

General Dynamics-NASSCO has launched Isla Bella, the first liquid natural gas-powered container ship that the Barrio Logan shipyard has built for the company TOTE. The 764-foot-long vessel slid down the launch ways Saturday at NASSCO, the last major shipyard on the West Coast. The company also is building a second vessel for TOTE under a contract that was signed in 2012. NASSCO said in a statement that the Marlin-class container ships “will be the largest dry-cargo ships of any kind in the world powered by LNG. The vessels ... will significantly decrease emissions while increasing fuel efficiency as compared to...

North Korea has accused Mexico of illegally holding one of its ships, after it ran aground last year. It said the Mu Du Bong was a legitimate commercial ship and its detention a "rampant violation" of sovereignty. But a UN expert says the ship belongs to North Korea's Ocean Maritime Management, which is on a UN blacklist. In July 2013 one of its ships was seized in Panama after Soviet-era weapons and fighter jets were found hidden under sugar sacks. United Nations sanctions ban most arms shipments to North Korea. Under resolutions adopted after Pyongyang's nuclear tests in 2006 and...

To keep track of increasingly stealthy Russian, Chinese, and Iranian submarines, the U.S. is building a robotic ghost ship - an unmanned, autonomous patrol ship - to follow them around the high seas.

Shiver me timbers: Archaeologists have unveiled some unnerving medical tools found amid the wreckage of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge.