The USS Enterprise: 1775-2012 (Part 1)

One of the last acts of the 112th Congress was for the Senate to unanimously agree (yesterday, January 3, 2013) to S. Res. 630, a resolution congratulating the Navy and the current and former officers and crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise (CVN 65) on completion of the 26th and final deployment of the vessel.

The U.S.S. Enterprise (CVN-65) was deactivated on December 1st, 2012.  Over 100,000 Marines and sailors (including my Uncle Rick) served aboard her during her 51 years in service.

This U.S.S. Enterprise is 8th in a long line of ships by that name that served their country well.  Everything has changed so much in the past 238 years.  The U.S. Navy is no exception--just take a look at the evolution of the U.S.S. Enterprise:

Enterprise I

(The Revolutionary War)

The first USS Enterprise was originally a 70-ton British supply sloop.  Colonel Benedict Arnold (who later became an infamous traitor) and 35 men captured it from a shipyard in Quebec, Canada on the 18th of May 1775. They armed the ship with twelve 4-pounder guns and 10 swivel guns.  The ship was manned by 50 officers and enlisted men.  The USS Enterprise was engaged in the Battle of Quebec and the Battle of Valcour Island. On the July 7, 1777 , the ship was assigned to duty during the evacuation of Fort Ticonderoga.  The small American fleet was no match for the British, and the Enterprise was ran aground on the shores of Lake Champlain.  The Americans burned the ship to avoid its re-capture.

Enterprise II

(The Revolutionary War)

The second Enterprise was purchased by the Continental Navy in 1776.   Because she was commissioned before the first USS Enterprise was deactivated, she is not called the USS Enterprise--just the Enterprise. She was a 25 ton, 8-gun schooner and carried a crew of 80 men.  The ship was commanded by Captain James Campbell.  During the Revolutionary War, the Enterprise guarded convoys and protected the shores against British pillagers.

Enterprise III

(The Quasi-War, The First Barbary War, and the War of 1812)

USS Enterprise vs. Tripoli

The third Enterprise was built in 1799 by Henry Spencer for $16,240.   It was a 135 ton, 12  6-pounder gun schooner, and was manned by a crew of 70.  The ship was rebuilt several times, eventually becoming a 16 gun, 165 ton brig rigged ship. Its first task was defending United States Merchantmen in the Caribbean against French Privateers during the Quasi-War with France. In 1801, the Enterprise joined other ships for the First Barbary War.  Not far from Malta, she defeated the Tripolitan corsair Tripoli after a 3 hour battle.  No one on the USS Enterprise was injured while 40% of the Tripoli’s crew were killed or wounded.  Throughout the remainder of her patrol in the Mediterranean during the war with Tripoli , the USS Enterprise made a good showing for herself.

The USS Enterprise was repaired at Washington Naval Yard, and recomissioned in  1811.  She was at sea when war was declared against Great Britian.

On the 5th of September 1813, the HMS Boxer  and the USS Enterprise sighted each other off the coast of Maine.  The British commander Captain Samuel Blyth nailed the Union Jack to his ship’s mast, indicating his intention of fighting to the end.  Lieutenant William Burrows, leading the Americans, declared, " We are going to fight both ends and both sides of this ship as long as the ends and the sides hold together.“  Both Blyth and Burrows were killed or mortally wounded during the first few minutes of the battle.  The battle lasted 30 minutes and left the HMS Boxer in ruins.

The third USS Enterprise remained in service, patrolling and suppressing pirates, slave-traders, and smugglers until she was shipwrecked on Little Curacao Island in the West Indies in 1823.

Enterprise IV

The fourth USS Enterprise  was a 197 ton schooner, armed with two 9 pound guns and eight 24 pound carronades, and outfitted with a full complement of 72 men.  She was launched on the 26th of October 1831, and sailed for South America in 1832.  Here she patrolled the Brazil Station until 1834.  Next, she cruised to the Far East, then proceeded to Hawaii and then to Mexico.  From there she continued to the west coast of South America which she patrolled until 1839.  The ship left Valparaiso, Chile, rounded the Horn, and returned to Philadelphia where it was inactivated in July 1839.  It was recomissioned in November and returned to its duties protecting U.S. commerce on the coast of South America until 1844 when it was decommissioned and sold.

Enterprise V

The fifth USS Enterprise was a steam corvette with auxiliary sail power.  It had a displacement of 1375 tons, a crew of 184 men, traveled at a speed of 11.4 knots, and was armed with an 11-inch moth bore, four 9-inch broadside guns, one 60-pounder pivot, and 1 short Gatling gun.  It was commissioned in 1877.

Its first assignment was to surveying operations at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and its next assignments were similar operations at the Amazon and Madiera Rivers. 

From 1883 to 1886, the ship sailed on a hydrographical survey which took it around the world. 

Later, it was used for training and practice for the U.S. Naval Academy and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.  The USS Enterprise was returned to the navy in 1909 and then  sold.   

Enterprise VI

The sixth Enterprise was a motor patrol craft  purchased by the Navy in 1916 .  It was transferred to the Bureau of Fisheries in 1919.

USS Enterprise--Part 2 (Role of the carrier Enterprise in World War II): coming tomorrow

Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe.  2013 is already here.  It makes me wonder where the last year has gone.

Yesterday, we were singing at Maple Manor, a nursing home we have been visiting for many years.  The sad part about singing at nursing homes is that the audience is always changing.  This time too, I missed many faces.  I know they didn't leave on a vacation, and they're not coming back when the snow melts.  Where did they go?  

Everyone we meet is either going to heaven or hell.  We each have an appointed time on this earth.  We don't know how long that time is. The time of our lives goes by very fast, and we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of what we did with our time on this earth. 

I challenge each and every one of you, readers, to be ready for that day.  I want to see your smiling faces in heaven.  I want to hear the Savior tell you and tell me, "Well done, good and faithful servants!"

Make this year count eternally.  "Only one life, 'twill soon be past: only what's done for Christ shall last."  We can have a happy forever because Jesus Christ did something eternally important.  He gave His life and rose again to give us joy unspeakable and full of glory.  

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  --John 3:16

Book Review: Understand Your Rights

Many people make New Year's Resolutions.  I make December 28th resolutions.  With the year quickly drawing to a close, I quickly think of all the things I want to finish before the year is over.

It seems Congress has been trying to make resolutions too, but I'm skeptical that any of their December 31st--last 12 hours of the year--resolutions to save our country from the fiscal cliff are going to work, no matter how much Senator Reid "Really hopes so."  

We will survive this fiscal cliff, just like we survived the Mayan Apocalypse and Y2K,  but it will be more serious and it is not going to make life any easier for anyone.  As Hank Anzis wrote in his must-read post "Off the Cliff" it shouldn't be "unreasonable to ask the government to make some tough choices themselves."

The government should make the drastic cuts needed to put our nation back on the right track.  But, it's December 31st.  It's simply not going to happen.    

However, at least one of my December 28th resolutions is going to get done.  That is writing a book review about Understand Your Rights: Because You're About to Lose Them, by Revolutionary War and Beyond.

I was given a free autographed copy of the book by the author and his father (who reenacted John Adams) at the Liberty Fest in Hampton this fall.  I found the book very informative and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a refresher course on the Bill of Rights.  It is written in a trying-to-be-objective manner, explaining both sides of the argument, but it is very definitely  from a conservative Republican perspective.  

The book begins with a Prologue and then the first three chapters give the early history of the United States with the Articles of Confederation and a purposefully weak government.  Then, the arguments for and against the U.S. Constitution (by the Federalists and Anti-Federalists) are explained. 

 One interesting fact I hadn't realized until I read this book is that although the first Congress under the Constitution met in March of 1789, and Washington was inaugurated in May of '89, North Carolina did not join the Union until November of '89, and Rhode Island did not join until May of the following year.  Many of the states would not accept the Constitution without the promise of a Bill of Rights, and so writing the Bill of Rights was a major task of the first Congress. 

Chapter 3 of Understand Your Rights goes hand in glove with Einstein's statement: “The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it.  Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure."  This chapter lists various ways the government has taken away rights and declares that only the voters can defend their rights.

The next ten chapters are each dedicated to one of the first 10 amendments, using the same format for each one.  Each chapter starts with the text of the amendment, followed by a short explanation.  

Next comes a history of the rights listed in the amendment.  The histories explain how the rights go back into English history and were developed with the Assize of Clarendon, the Magna Carta, British court cases, Sir William Blackstone, the colonial era and the colonists' relationship with each other and the mother country, the American Revolution, and the Articles of Confederation.  

Then, the book explains how the Amendment effects life today.  A summary of each important court case that involved the Amendment or the right, is given.  Finally, the chapter ends with a summary from the author's perspective about how the right is threatened and what can be done to preserve it. 

 The fourteenth chapter is a conclusion; then there is a very reasonably sized Appendix containing the texts of the Assize of Clarendon, the Magna Carta, the Articles of Confederation and many other documents essential to the history of law in our country.  

The author maintains a positive tone throughout his work, while clearly laying out what he believes are the major threats to the traditional American way of life and government:

Next to the ignorance of the American population about the importance of their rights, an overactive judiciary is probably the number 1 threat to your personal freedom.  The American people must do everything they can to stop the escalating power grab of the judiciary before it is too late and we descend into a totalitarian state."

The courts have, with the 14th ammendment and then the case of Griswold vs. Connecticut, taken more and more power.  The author also points to the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt as a major turning point during and after which the government has taken more and more power. 

The author believes that "We must shrink the powers of the federal government and the Courts and restore self governance and local state governance."  He warns of "an oligarchical totalitarian system" which is already taking over and will take over, if Americans don't "wake up."  Remedying the problem is not going to be easy, he admits, but "We will win if we don't just lie down and continue to let them [those who want to increase government power]" walk all over us."  

The author concludes by saying:

     "It's time to stop the decay of America.  But it won't happen unless WE do something.  What can we do today?  Educate ourselves and others.  Vote!  It is our responsibility.  Nothing is going to change...unless we change!"   

 I wrote an article that expressed most of the same sentiments last year.  If every American understood their rights and treasured them, our country would take a turn for the better.

But, it's December 31st.  Midnight is in 12 hours.  We're about to go off the cliff.

In any case, I've decided not to worry as worrying doesn't help anything, so Have a Happy New Year!

Our Daily Bread

 "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 

    Jesus told his disciples that they should pray, "Give us this day our daily bread."

The Lord feeds even the sparrows and we can trust God to take care of our every-day physical needs.  Is there any one of my readers who hasn't eaten today?  I certainly hope not!  But no matter how much you eat today, you will have to eat again tomorrow.  Bread is good, but the satisfaction you get from eating it does not last forever--if you remain satisfied for 8 hours you are doing incredibly well!

 We can also trust the Lord to give us daily spiritual nourishment.  In John 6:35, Jesus said, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."  Is there any one of my readers who hasn't feasted on the Word of God today?  I certainly hope not!  The Lord prepares a feast for your soul each day.  If you read the Bible yesterday, it is not enough; you need to read more everyday.  

Reading the Bible is one of the most important things you can do, because the nutrition you receive from the Bread of Life lasts forever-- it is eternal.

Lord, give us this day our daily bread, the Bread of Life!

His Grace is Sufficient

"My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." --1 Corinth. 12:9

His grace is sufficient for me;

He's seen me through my weakest moment.

May His peace around me e'er be;

He's tak'n the gloom and giv'n light refulgent.

When shall I see him face to face?

I want to see Jesus who died for me

To behold His beauty and grace

(And) hold the hands of Him who holds eternity.

His grace is sufficient for you;

Doubts and fears may sweep in tireless dark waves,

But Christ's word is faithful and true.

In hardest times remember, Jesus saves!

When tears would your joy obfuscate,

Think of Christ's unwavering love for you.

On His word you must contemplate;

His great mercy and grace will see you through.

His grace is sufficient for all,

All who seek Him, all who for His word wait,

His goodness will their hearts enthrall;

His timing is right--ne'er too early, ne'er too late.

My prayer today is, "Lord, thank you for your manifold blessings on us.  Thank you for your grace which is sufficient to cover all our guilt and shame.  Thank you for redeeming us, so that we can walk in newness of life in you.  Lord Jesus, I long to see your face!  Comfort every heart that is sad and afflicted; let them feel your presence and know your grace.  Come quickly Lord and let your Kingdom fill the heavens and the earth.  Amen."

Wisdom

This week I took a shot at answering a few questions on Yahoo Answers.  I quickly came to the conclusion that a good many people--to put it nicely--are totally clueless.  

The only reason I would recommend following my example and answering a few questions at Yahoo Answers is if you're seeking proof against natural selection and the evolution of the human species.

When the Lord came to King Solomon and told Solomon he could have whatever he wanted, Solomon asked for wisdom.

"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding."  --Proverbs 4:7

 In Proverbs 8:35-36, Wisdom says, "Whosoever findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul:  all they that hate me love death."

How do we find wisdom? 

 We find it in the Bible.  Proverbs 9:10 tells us "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.  We read God's word so we can know more about Him, what He desires, and what His will is.  We fear God (We respect Him.  We do not do anything that displeases Him).

We learn from experience, and we are willing to listen to other's advice.  (Proverbs 15:31-32)

We remember that God's wisdom is often different from the conventional wisdom.  God said in Isaiah 55:9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."  If you are in-tune to the wisdom of God, you will be peculiar!  The Apostle Paul tells us "the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God," and "The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than man."

We ask the Lord for wisdom, just like Solomon asked.  James 1:5 says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."  God was so pleased with Solomon's request for wisdom that he gave him long life, riches, and honor in addition.  The Lord wants us to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves."

The Lord can lead and direct our steps if we keep our eyes on Him.  He doesn't want us to go through life blindly.  He's the best answer, and He's the only one who can give us the wisdom we need to tell the difference between right and wrong--so we aren't clueless.

"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.  

For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, 

and the gain thereof than fine gold.  She is more precious than rubies: 

and all things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.  

Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.  

Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.  

She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: 

and happy is every one that retaineth her."

--Proverbs 3:13-18

Are You an Encourager?

Encouragers are the most important people in the world.  Why?  Encouraging words are like sunshine on a cold winter day or raindrops on parched, thirsty soil.

As Proverbs 16:24 says, 

"Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones."

     Everyone has his or her own bad days.  Everyone has troubles.  Sometimes we wonder if we can meet our goals.

     And then sometimes we meet discouragers--people who tell us we'll never get it right, that we're wasting our time, and that we will never succeed. 

 Every great invention has been criticized, every great discovery disparaged.  Benoit Mandelbrot's fascinating work in fractals was, at first, dismissed by his colleagues as insignificant (watch Nova video about it here).  The Wright brothers were publicly scorned by the European newspapers.  No great work ever was done without the pioneer facing derision and discouragement.

God, however, is an encourager.  The Lord says in Isaiah 51:12

"I, even I, am He that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of man..."

and Isaiah 41:13

"I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee."

     The Lord has promised us He will always be with us.  I know from experience that He is there even when there is nothing else but sadness and confusion.  His Holy Presence and peace is there to encourage us and give us peace and hope.  He reminds us to keep fighting the good fight--to never give up!  Better things are awaiting us if we trust in Him.

     The Lord Jesus wants us to be like Him--to be imitators of Christ.  Hebrews 12:12 instructs us to "lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed."

     The amount of good one word of encouragement can do is unfathomable.  I have been blessed to know some chronic encouragers, and their words of encouragement have never left me.   I would like to thank them for being who they are--for being encouragers.  Their small work makes a big difference.

As for the rest of us, let's reconsider ourselves.  What team are we on?  Do we belong to the Encouragement Team?  If not, we better join.  It's time to spread the sweetness of pleasant words.