NAC News – Edition 534
Your weekly national and international naval news for the week of October 13th, 2023
Edition: CN 534 Glenada (Glen-class tug)
Quote: “The situation here terrifies people in Europe for two reasons. First, because of its immediate effect on European security, given the possible drying up of U.S. assistance to Ukraine. And, second, because of a deeper fear that what happens in the U.S. foreshadows developments in Europe.” 6 October 2023, Tara Varma, The Washington Post (Editor – ref US politics, see the “Significant Article” below)
Rod Hughes: Editor NAC News rhughes@shaw.ca (Comments welcome to help improve this service.) Links to keep in touch with the NAC and RCN can be found at the bottom of this email. Contact Kevin Goheen executivedirector-nac@outlook.com if you wish someone to be added to the NAC News email distribution. (Influencer or good candidates to become a NAC member, and note the first year’s NAC/Branch membership dues are waived)
NOTICES
2 November 2023 The Deep Blue Forum 2023. Registration. The $50 ticket discount code for NAC members is DB23_NAC. All serving navy & government personnel can register for FREE. Venue – The Westin Ottawa, 11 Colonel By Drive. Not Able to Attend in Person? All speaker sessions will be live streamed, to allow for virtual attendance.
13 November 2023 0900-1600 hrs Vancouver BC Day Sail event on warship for women and girls
6 December 2023 7:30 am – 6:30 pm Ottawa time. Industrial Participation Association of Canada (IPAC) announced their first ever Industrial Participation Conference, titled The Changing Landscape of Industrial Participation in Canadian Federal Procurements Conference to be held at the National Arts Centre, Ottawa. Registration is free for public sector!
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THIS WEEK’S SIGNIFICANT ARTICLES
The Mood of Americans Ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election (Editor – not a maritime story but broad implications explained in a CGAI 1:00:54 hr podcast)
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CANADA
Naval Experience Program a “huge win” for S3 Kevin Hassa
Digital Leadership series: LCdr Dawn Macdonald
Freedom is not free: Supporting Canada’s military
High cost of living dragging down Armed Forces morale, chaplain general warns
Sexual assault charge stayed against former senior officer once poised to command army
Aker Arctic provides ice expertise for Canadian polar icebreaker
Canadian Federal Government Funds Montreal’s New Container Terminal
A ship that sank on Lake Huron 128 years ago is found nearly intact off Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula
BC Ferries forced to gear down vessel electrification ambitions
To find more info about the Citizen Sailor Virtual Cenotaph project
Lookout: Volume 68, Issue 40, October 10, 2023
NAC Naval Affairs Programme Briefing Note #30 Naval Assistance and Disaster Relief
(Editor – please share to anyone you think may benefit from the knowledge, after all, that’s what our naval affairs programme is all about – educating Canadians)
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USA & AMERICAS
USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: Oct. 10, 2023
Brazilian Navy Cuts First Steel for Future Nuclear-Powered Submarine
HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding Launches Amphibious Assault Ship Bougainville (LHA 8)
US Navy Commissions First Flight III Destroyer USS Jack H Lucas
CIMSEC: Be mindful of JADC2’s emission risks
Navy Misses All Recruiting Goals in FY 2023, Raises Goals for FY 2024
Navy honors Chicago’s own Admiral Rickover with new nuclear submarine
“We don’t have decades to rebuild” the submarine industrial base, says industry
HII secures $347 million contract for U.S. Navy’s Lionfish UUVs
Report to Congress on the U.N. Law of the Sea Convention (Editor – the actual report is not properly included but the preamble is useful from a US standpoint)
Dry Dock Improvements to Support Aircraft Carrier Construction (Editor – American ingenuity on display in a 3:19 min video)
Bahamas Approves Expansion of Grand Bahama Including Largest Lift Drydock
Op-Ed: US Navy Needs a Small, Lightly-Manned Warship to Counter China
Major breakthrough in molten salt reactor tech for maritime use
US Nearshoring, Reshoring And Onshoring Is Booming (Editor – huge implications)
Why Are Submarines Painted Black instead of Blue ? #shorts (Editor – 45 sec video)
San José: The ‘holy grail’ of shipwrecks (Editor – 4:10 min video)
Low Water Levels on the Mississippi is affecting Shipping – FreightWaves Roundtable (Editor – 11:45 min video) and Thinning Rivers Could Disrupt Amazonian Grain Exports
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INDO-PACIFIC
Royal Canada Navy’s frigate HMCS Ottawa visits Malaysia
Another Summer in the South China Sea: A Guided Tour of the World’s Most Contested Waters (Editor – great article with useful imagery)
China Near ‘Breakthroughs’ With Nuclear-Armed Submarines
Military escalation through joint drills with US ‘to backfire on Philippines’ and PLA holds cross-regional naval drills in South China Sea amid US-Philippines exercise then China expels Philippine naval gunboat trespassing near Huangyan
(LEAD) S. Korea, U.S., Japan stage trilateral maritime interdiction drills for 1st time in 7 years then USS Ronald Reagan Heading to Busan After Trilateral Exercise with South Korea, Japan
Report to Congress on Chinese Naval Modernization and Chinese navy looks to big data to give it an edge and China Continues To Exploit Commercial Shipping For Sealift
How many nuclear-powered submarines for Australia?
Chinese and Saudi navies launch joint counterterrorism exercise against backdrop of Israel-Hamas war
India Closer To Procuring Third Aircraft Carrier, More MPA
Navy firepower boost: Review wants more destroyers, fewer frigates (Editor – Australia)
More Details on Sunken Chinese Nuclear Submarine: Torpedo Failure or Self-Inflicted Traps? (Editor – looking to verify the validity of this 8:36 min video)
US Reaffirms Commitment to Defend Japan, Including Disputed Islands
OOCL welcomes six of twelve eco-friendly 24,000 TEU giants
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EUROPE
Ukraine:
Canada sending more artillery shells, aircraft bombs to Ukraine, defence minister says
Turkish Ship Undamaged from Mine Explosion in Black Sea
Russia Lifts Ban on Most Diesel Exports
NATO Allies to Form Mine-Sweeping Force to Clear Black Sea Route
General:
Repairing Finland-Estonia Gas Pipeline May Take Months (Editor – I wonder what the repair team will find?) Seabed Warfare: Another Sabotage in the Baltic? then Ministers: Balticconnector pipeline damage was deliberate with NATO to Respond if Baltic Sea Pipeline Damage Deliberate the plot thickens Seismic Station Detected Possible Blast During Baltic Gas Line Breach
With Finland in NATO, Russia restructures forces including Northern Fleet and Russia’s Bloodied Navy Remains a Threat
Royal Navy aircraft carrier will not be deployed to the Mediterranean but other options are open
UK aircraft carrier visits Sweden
France Joins Belgium and The Netherlands for Mine Warfare Motherships
Russia’s New Black Sea Base Angers Georgia
British jets intercept Russian aircraft near carrier group
RFA Proteus – the latest ship to join the Royal Naval Service (editor – not very elegant but such capabilities, 1:11 min video)
Fincantieri Launches Sixth PPA for Italian Navy
First FDI frigate built by Naval Group for Hellenic Navy hits the water
Belgian Navy’s Castor class patrol vessel seizes 210 kilos cocaine
Shadow Seal: New four-man submersible aimed at special forces missions (Editor – includes 1:28 min video)
Why do Modern Navy Ships Have Smaller Guns? #shorts (Editor – 45 sec video)
Spanish Navy to modernize fleet of 6 Segura class minehunters
Chinese-Owned Containership Reaches Kaliningrad After NSR Passage
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MIDDLE EAST
US Navy Deploys Ford Carrier Strike Group to Israel | Impact on Global Shipping? (Editor – 14:49 min video) and Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group to deploy to Europe this week
Egypt intelligence official says Israel ignored repeated warnings of ‘something big’
Israeli naval deployment mainly patrol boats and special units and Israeli Navy targets Hamas with Naval Spike NLOS missiles
Fighting in Gaza Could Lead to Shipping Disruption in Strait of Hormuz
Israel Ports Open But At ‘Heightened Risk’
Multinational naval coalition intercepts $25m in illegal drugs in Gulf of Oman
Duke thanks RN and RFA personnel for Gulf efforts
DP World raises $1.5 billion for decarbonization
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GLOBAL INTERESTS
Repair yard shortage puts maritime energy transition at risk
Rise in Piracy Incidents in Gulf of Guinea and Singapore Straits Raises Concern
“Procurement challenges” and “lack of capacity” keep SA Navy in harbour
The Soviet spacecraft cemetery in the Pacific
New Satellite Data Will Reveal Hidden Details of Ocean Currents
Gulf of Guinea Countries Join Forces to Secure Maritime Domain
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SCUTTLEBUTT
Why is this floating airbase called ‘Big E’ #shorts (Editor – 45 sec video)
The Most Important Ship of WW2? Liberty Ships (Editor – amazing statistics in a 9:18 min video!)
Battle of Tsushima – When the 2nd Pacific Squadron thought it couldn’t get any worse… (Editor – 36:40 min video)
The Mariner’s Mirror – The Rules and Regulations for Composite Ships (Editor – 21 min podcast)
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THIS WEEK IN RCN/MARITIME HISTORY
14 October 1942 The SS Caribou was a passenger and train ferry that operated in the Cabot Strait between Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and North Sydney, Nova Scotia. The German submarine U-69 sank the vessel, losing 136 lives. It was worst loss of life in Canadian waters during the Second World War. Nursing Sister LCdr Margaret Brooke, fought for her own life hanging onto ropes on a capsized lifeboat while still doing everything she could to save the life of her colleague and friend Agnes Wilkie. Despite her heroic efforts her friend succumbed to the frigid waters. HMCS Margaret Brooke is named in her honour.
14 October 1944 HMCS Magog (frigate) is torpedoed and badly damaged by U-Boat 1223 in the St. Lawrence River off Pointe des Montes.
16 October 1915 An Order-in-Council gives the Hospitals Commission authority to provide retraining and rehabilitation for disabled veterans.
16 October 1944 HMCS Annan, CO A/LCDR Charles P. Balfry, RCNR, and HMCS Loch Achanalt, CO A/LCdr Richard Wallace Hart, RCNVR sank the German submarine U-1006 south of the Faeroes. HMCS Loch Achanalt’s Radar Operator had first radar contact of U-1006 located astern of HMCS Annan. Canadian were for a time most of the sea-going radar operator component of the RN. Thirty out of the forty radar officers who completed their initial training with the Admiralty in 1940 were Canadian.
17 October 1944 HMCS Prince Henry and HMCS Prince David engage in landing liberation forces in Greece (17-18 Oct).
19 October 1940 Patrol vessel HMCS Bras d’Or foundered in the early morning while keeping the Romanian freighter Ingener N Vlassopol under surveillance in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near Anticosti Island. The two ships traveled down the St. Lawrence River together but in the Gulf of St. Lawrence they ran into a storm and heavy seas on the night of 18/19 October and are eventually separated and the Bras d’Or disappeared with her 30 crewmen. Investigation determines that the Bras d’Or was not rammed as there is no damage to the freighter. A report from the mate on the Romanian freighter stated that the lights on the Bras d’Or were extinguished at 0350 hours local, 19 October. It has been suggested Brad d’Or foundered due to icing conditions that were prevalent at the time. A search is later made but nothing is ever found of the ship nor were any bodies (5 officers and 25 crew).
19 October 1943 British ore carrier Penolver and American freighter Delisle hit mines laid by U-220 off St. John’s Harbour.
20 October 1940 HMS Windflower, the first corvette built in Canada, is commissioned into the Royal Navy with a Canadian crew. She is turned over to the RCN in 1941.
SIGNIFICANT RCN DATES – If you see any omissions or errors please inform me, and any more modern significant dates are also welcomed. The list draws primarily from the Directory of History and Heritage’s comprehensive “Significant Dates in Canadian Military History”, the now defunct “Canada Channel”, “Legion Magazine”, The Naval Service of Canada, Its Official History Vol 1-3, NAC member Roger Litwiller’s excellent web site, encyclopedic guidance from NAC member Fraser McKee, the Uboat.net site, and anywhere else I can find credible information. For the merchant ship history, a special thanks to NAC member Bill Dziadyk for his able assistance and detailed work. The RCN lost 1,965 men and 24 ships during the War, most of them in the Atlantic. A comprehensive list of the staggering merchant losses – sunk, damaged, or lost – Canadian Merchant Ship Losses of the Second World War, 1939-1945 by Rob Fisher {Revised June 2001}, and for the loss of individual personnel RCN Ship Histories, Convoy Escort Movements, Casualty Lists 1939-1947
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