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Great white fleet
| Морской словарь |
Sixteen battleships and four destroyers, all painted white, sent on a world cruise by president theodore roosevelt in 1907 as a demonstration of rising united states naval power.
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Demonstration, английский
- Показ, демонстрация (изделия)
- Показ, демонстрация
- A feint or deceptive military operation.
Battleship, английский
- A type of large, heavily armored warship of the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century armed with heavy-caliber guns, designed to fight other battleships in a line of battle. it was the successor to the ship-of-the-line of the age of sail.
- [1] a sailing ship-of-the-line. [2] the most heavily-armed and armored of power-driven warships (cf. dreadnought).
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Greek fire, английский
In 672, the byzantine navy unveiled a secret chemical weapon, which destroyed an arab fleet at the battle of cyzicus on the sea of marmara. said to have been invented by a syrian architect named callinicus, the byzantines actually called it “roman fire,” but it is usually known as “greek.” it was an early form of napalm, consisting of a liquid which would ignite spontaneously and continue to burn, even on water, not to mention human flesh. it was as unstable as nitro-glycerin, and even the slightest shock would ignite or explode it. for this reason it was seldom used by field armies, but confined to warships and fixed land fortifications. it was sometimes encased in clay containers, to be dropped over a wall or thrown by catapult; sometimes discharged from a hand-held spray gun; but the most usual practice was to pack it into brass-bound wooden tubes, known as siphons, and blow it out with highpressure hoses. the mixture would explode on contact with air and water, and be propelled by its own combustion as well as being sprayed by the pressure in the hose. for two centuries the formula (now believed to have been a mixture of quicklime, saltpeter, sulfur, pitch, and naphtha) was a closely guarded secret. to reveal it was a capital offense the charge being sacrilege as well as treason. greek fire was the decisive factor in one sea fight after another, and was all the more effective because it could be directed sideways or downwards.
Aftermath, английский
The government feared a wider uprising similar to the french revolution, hence retribution was rapid and brutal. parker was convicted of treason and piracy, and hanged from the yardarm of hms sandwich where he had started the mutiny. twentynine subordinate leaders were also hanged, while others of the sandwich crew were flogged, imprisoned, or transported to australia. crews that had refused to defect to france were pardoned without punishment. news of the mutinies spread around the fleets and led gravel 138 to minor incidents off spain, ireland, and south africa. these were contained by their officers, but a major mutiny occurred in september aboard hms hermione.
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