Each year on April 14th, my thoughts are drawn to a spot far out in the North Atlantic where, in 1912, one of the grandest ships ever to sail met her fate. On this evening, more than one hundred years ago, the great Titanic was lighting additional boilers as she steamed faster and faster into the night. Her…
Category: Maritime
Chat GPT
This is a conversation. Open disclosure, both stories here were composed by ChatGPT. This was a test. Both stories were composed, less than a minute apart using the exact same question, “I need a story about the RMS Titanic.” The point being decent writing, zero research, and semi-unique stories written by a program within minutes…
Hail Noble Captain, It Is Done Again
Hail Noble Captain, It Is Done Again This lady is a first. She is the USS Triton, perhaps my favorite submarine. She is the only submarine the United States ever built with two nuclear reactors. Nuclear reactors are the source of power aboard the ship; the heat they provide is used to provide propulsion and electricity. In 1960,…
SS United States
In the spirit of peace and beauty, I am highlighting an ocean liner, and this is the greatest liner built in the United States. She is the SS United States, designed by one of our preeminent Naval architects, Francis Gibbs. She is also, in my opinion, one of the five greatest liners ever built. The…
Graduation from Marine Corps Boot Camp and Kindness
In the summer of 1981, I joined the Marine Corps and was sent to Marine Corps boot camp, Parris Island, South Carolina where they turn young people into Marines. The way the Corps worked it at that time, before you graduated, your family was allowed to visit on the day before graduation. It was the…