Tuesday, October 06, 2015

FYI- The USS Constitution

Is the only commissioned warship on the U.S. Naval inventory that has ever sunk an enemy ship in battle.

Let that sink in.


4 comments:

  1. Probably only true for sinking an enemy Ship of the Line in a surface engagement. I'm pretty sure that there are some frigates that have sunk some Somali small craft still in active service.

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  2. I remember building a model of that with my brother, all of the hours of stringing rigging with a tiny pair of tweezers. It's a beautiful vessel.

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  3. OK. But not particularly interesting. The USS New Jersey, which was only removed from the fleet rolls in 1999 sank lots of enemy ships. War has changed. As the world's biggest superpower we don't really need to sink enemy ships because most of our enemies don't have any. Instead our navy has become a vehicle for protecting the shipping lanes from airborne attack and for projecting power by delivering ordinance a long way from home. Very effectively, I might add.

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    Replies
    1. Don't know about that. By the time the New Jersey joined the fleet, her main job was shelling beaches and shooting down aircraft trying to get to the carriers.

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