35 Maritime Facts Every History Fan Should Read

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26Lutjens (D185)

Lutjens (D185)

In the days after the 9/11 attacks, the German warship Lutjens (D185) passed by the US destroyer Winston S. Churchill with the United States flag flying at half-mast and the sailors Manning-the-Rails, an honor typically reserved for heads of state.


27. In 2010, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson was deployed to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and provided the island with 200,000 gallons a day of fresh drinking water from its desalination plants.


28. During the Spanish American war, the USS Charleston fired 13 rounds at the Spanish fort on Guam which all missed. The Spanish, unaware that war had been declared, believed that the Americans must be firing a salute and rowed out to apologize for their lack of gunpowder to return the salute.


29. The Titanic had an older sister ship called "Olympic", which became the only civilian ship to sink an enemy warship during World War 1 when it turned around and rammed a German submarine attempting to attack it. The submarine was gashed open by The Olympic's propellor.


30. The only active ship in the US Navy that has sunk an enemy ship is the USS Constitution which was built in 1797.


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31USS Enterprise

USS Enterprise

The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise was the longest warship ever built and weighed over 90,000 tons. Despite this, it was one of the fastest, due to having 8 separate nuclear reactors putting out a total of 280,000hp. No other carrier has more than two.


32. In 2009, when a Canadian man named John Wilson opened the shipping container he had bought for $400 and used it as a bridge for 10 years, inside it he found a $2,000,000 Canadian warship engine.


33. In 2007, when the North Korean merchant vessel MV Dai Hong Dan was attacked by Somali pirates, American destroyer USS James E. Williams came to their aid. This event led to rare pro-US statements from the North Korean media.


34. Aboard the World War 2 British battleship HMS Vanguard, an Engineer traveled 7 miles and climbed 3,000 feet of stairs daily during his turn of inspection and the ship’s bakery produced 1,000 lbs of bread daily.


35. When the USS West Virginia was finally raised after being sunk during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, deceased men were found in an airtight storeroom. On the calendar, 16 days were crossed off in red pencil.

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