Free Republic

**SNIP** That purpose was never fully realized. Yes, the announcement of the web page’s existence was followed a storm of petitions, but many of them called for Obama’s impeachment or demanded that states be permitted to secede from the union. Over the years, the aritifice, created by a man who promised falsely to oversee the most transparent administration ever, has become a monument to his naïveté and shortsightedness. So what was the new petition? It was a two-fer. It is a demand that the next major U.S. Navy Ship be named “USS The Deplorables.” It is meant to be in-your-face...

The U.S. Navy’s newest littoral combat ship USS Montgomery has had its hull cracked for a second time after hitting a lock wall during a transit of the Panama Canal, the U.S. Navy has confirmed. The latest incident occurred Saturday, Oct. 29 during southbound transit of the Panama Canal’s old locks on its way to its homeport in San Diego

WASHINGTON — The United States has determined that Syria has been seeking nuclear weapons from North Korea. "We do know that there are a number of foreign technicians that have been in Syria," Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Semmel said. "We do know that there may have been contact between Syria and some secret suppliers for nuclear equipment. Whether anything transpired remains to be seen." One North Korean-flagged ship, Al Hamad, arrived in the Syrian port of Tartous on Sept. 3. Three days later, the Israel Air Force attacked an unspecified target in northeastern Syria along the Euphrates...

Hopefully this will give you a little laugh on a Sunday evening.

The long-lost ship of British polar explorer Sir John Franklin, HMS Terror, has been found in pristine condition at the bottom of an Arctic bay, researchers have said, in a discovery that challenges the accepted history behind one of polar exploration’s deepest mysteries. HMS Terror and Franklin’s flagship, HMS Erebus, were abandoned in heavy sea ice far to the north of the eventual wreck site in 1848, during the Royal Navy explorer’s doomed attempt to complete the Northwest Passage.

The Navy is set to name a ship after the gay rights icon and San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, according to a Congressional notification obtained by USNI News.

The world’s largest viking ship has arrived in North America after crossing the North Atlantic Ocean on a journey from its homeport in Haugesund, Norway. The Viking ship, named Draken Harald Hårfagre, set sail from Norway with its approximately 32 crew members in late April and made stops in Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland, Canada, before making its way through the Saint Lawrence Seaway to Toronto for the Tall Ships Challenge Great Lakes 2016 festival this weekend. Future stops for the Viking ship include Chicago, Green Bay and Duluth, before heading to U.S. east coast with stops in New York City...

A cruise liner longer than the Eiffel Tower and 100 metres longer than the Titanic will set sail from a French port for the first time on Thursday. Harmony of the Seas will leave the western port of Saint Nazaire on Thursday afternoon and, if all goes well, not return until Sunday morning. The purpose of the voyage is mainly to test the power on the boat and how well it manoeuvres, which, given it weighs some 227,000 tonnes and measures 362 metres in length, will be interesting to see. There will be no passengers on board during the test...

The Philippines said on Saturday it had impounded a North Korean vessel in response to tough new United Nations sanctions introduced in response to Pyongyang's recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The 6,830-tonne cargo ship Jin Teng will not be allowed to leave Subic port, northeast of the capital Manila, where it had been docked for three days and its crew will be deported, presidential spokesman Manolo Quezon said on state-run radio station Radyo ng Bayan. It was the first reported case of the sanctions -- the toughest to date, which were adopted late Wednesday by the UN Security Council...

Some spectator video shows the Greek freighter Olga M bang its way through the old Evripos Bridge in Chalcis, Greece. According to reports, neither the bridge or vessel sustained significant damage in the incident, although after watching the video I find that hard to believe.

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.