Guest humor by David Middleton
Climate Change Weather Disables US Navy’s Newest Ship!
Brand-new US Navy warship trapped in Canada amid cold and ice
Fox News
A brand-new U.S. Navy warship has not moved from Montreal since Christmas Eve and will spend the winter stuck in Canada due to cold and ice.
The USS Little Rock – unveiled in a ceremony on Dec. 16 in Buffalo, New York and attended by nearly 9,000 people – has not moved far since due to adverse weather conditions that kept the warship trapped at bay in Canada, the Toronto Star reported.
The warship known as a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) cost $440 million to build and stretches 387 feet in length and weighs 15 tons more than the Statue of Liberty. It is capable of traveling more than 46 miles per hour.
Such combat ships are described as agile and designed for rapid transitions between missions with minimal manning. They are used for surface warfare, counter piracy and drug operations, as well as other first response missions.
[…]
“The temperatures in Montreal and throughout the transit area have been colder than normal, and included near-record low temperatures, which created significant and historical conditions in the late December, early January time frame,” Lt.-Cmdr. Courtney Hillson told the newspaper.
“Keeping the ship in Montreal until waterways are clear ensures the safety of the ship and crew, and will have limited impact on the ship’s operational schedule.”
[…]
The crew stationed on the ship was provided with cold-weather clothing and will focus on mission training while the delay continues.
USS Little Rock was “built by Marinette Marine on the shores of the Menominee River in Marinette, Wisconsin“. She had just been commissioned in a ceremony in Buffalo and was making a “routine visit” to Montreal on her way to her future home port, Mayport, Florida…
The USS Little Rock is a Freedom-class littoral combat ship built by Marinette Marine on the shores of the Menominee River in Marinette, Wisconsin. Designed to operate off coastlines and in shallow water, littoral combat ships can carry out anti-submarine, anti-mine, anti-surface, and amphibious warfare missions. Little Rock and her sister ships are small, fast, and agile.
Unfortunately for the crew, the ship was not agile enough to escape the rapidly advancing winter ice. Commissioned in Buffalo, New York on December 16, the ship stopped in Montreal for a routine visit before heading for the East Coast via the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Once in Montreal, a “historic” cold snap caused sea ice to form faster than expected along the seaway, which authorities promptly closed for the season. According to Weather.com, the percentage of the Great Lakes covered in ice increased from three percent on Christmas Eve to 30 percent by January 6.
The St. Lawrence Seaway is the only way in and out of the Great Lakes to the open ocean, and it typically stays closed until March. The Navy has accepted that the 389-foot long, 3,400-ton Little Rock won’t be able to get under way to her home port of Mayport, Florida until the seaway reopens.
Clearly USS Little Rock was designed to be an agile pirate-hunting warship in an ice-free world, because “the ship was not agile enough to escape the rapidly advancing winter ice.” Good thing the Pentagon dropped climate change from its mission list… Losing your newest ship to “rapidly advancing winter ice” would have been seen as a defeat in the war against weather climate change. Now it’s just an opportunity for the crew to focus on “mission training” until spring.
In a totally unrelated bit of trivia, my second cousin, the late RADM. Roderick O. Middleton served on two of Little Rock’s predecessors. He was a gunnery officer on CL-92 USS Little Rock (1946-1948) and he was commanding officer of CLG-4 USS Little Rock (1964-1965). Oddly enough, CL-92 and CLG-4 were the same ship. RADM Middleton also had a tour of duty at NASA, where he was involved in the Apollo program (1965-1969).
In response to various comments above.
1) American ships are named after American cities. This one is named for Little Rock, Arkansas.
2) The USS Little Rock is a light weight, fast ship, designed for interdiction missions that require speed and high maneuverability. Light, fast ships are not ‘icebreakers’. Ice breakers are not light, fast ships.
3) Low temperature driven (ductile/brittle transition) fast fracture failures in ship steels were investigated and resolved in WWII. A great wealth of knowledge about steel alloying, steel plate manufacturing, steel welding, stress concentration effects in steel joints, and fracture mechanics was learned and applied. The USS Little Rock was fabricated to modern design, materials, and process specifications appropriate for naval ships. It is not susceptible to ductile/brittle fracture hazards.
4) The superstructure of the USS Little Rock is aluminum alloy. Aluminum alloys have lower density than steels, allowing weight reduction (and attendant ‘moment arm’ effects) above the hull. The reduced superstructure weight also reduces ballast weight, greatly enhancing speed, maneuverability, and range.
5) Port calls in state/provincial capitals is a standard political ‘good will’ mission for US navy ships, where possible. Montreal is the capital of Quebec, Canada.
6) Weather happens. Normal weather resulted in a fast freeze up while the Little Rock was making such a ‘port call’ on her maiden transit from fabrication port in Marinette WI to her home port in Mayport FL . Rather than risk hull damage from thick ice pack in the St. Lawrence Seaway, the USS Little Rock will remain in Montreal Port until the St. Lawrence Seaway is deemed navigable again.
“Weather happens”
Yes we all know it does…
Doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun at the expense of the alamists, who don’t know what weather once things creep a fraction a degree over normal.
Quebec City is the capital of Quebec. Montreal is just the strip club capital.
LOL, correct on both counts!
I stand corrected. Shouldn’t rely on memory for such geographic detail.
As for Montreal’s status as the strip club capital, I’ll defer to your greater knowledge, Gentlemen….
None of which tells us why the USN gambled on her being able to reach the Atlantic in late December or early January. Though someone gave a hint above that the fault must obviously lie with foreigners, specifically Canadians. That reminded me of the fruitcake “explanations” offered for the collisions of the USN warships with commercial traffic last year.
I read somewhere that they had problems with the steering wheel thingie before the ice-up but I think that’s a ruse and it’s really a super sekrit super duper spy ship eavesdropping in on the NAFTA negotiations going on now in Montreal.
dearime,
I simply researched and provided facts, to clarify misunderstandings by others. Why don’t you research the reasons for the ships schedule and causes for delay, from release fromMarinette WI to Montreal Quebec. Provide a timeline, incidents, and reasons for delay. Identify those points where the US Navy ‘gambled’ and your evidence of such. Perhaps it will dispel your ‘fruitcake’ dyspepsia?
Québec city is the capital of the province of Québec. Montréal is the métropole.
Obviously should have been Christened USS Mayport in Mayport.
You can go up and visit Canada any time you like, even in January, due to global warming and the loss of all ice and snow in the region–Michael Mann.
Speaking of the ‘events of 1812’ I hope this isn’t the start of a revised ‘Plan Red’.
See above:
J Mac January 23, 2018 at 5:47 pm
I think this reverse global warming trick [the early freeze] was a maneuver planned by those treacherous Canadians (perhaps with the aid of those dratted British Red Coats) to capture the ship and hold it hostage. They are now in a much better position to negotiate a better trade deal under the NAFTA umbrella. The move is especially brilliant since we (the US) don’t even seem to realize they pulled it off. The only downside is that they now need to feed our sailors until we figure out what they have done! After that they can demand ransoms.
I think the most telling comment in the press release was that the crew was issued cold weather clothing. The LCS was designed to operate in temperate and tropical waters, they do not have a heating system to deal with a Canadian winter. Especially tied up to a dock running on shore power. The other LCS Class of ships, the Independence Class, are built in Mobile, Alabama where ice isn’t a problem….yet.
“Yet”… LOL!
First they can’t read radar and now weather forecasts ? WTF Just blast your way out or get an ice breaker .
What exactly is the point of having a brand new Battleship that can go 46 Mph and zero in ice . Patrol
a third of the world or less ?
Something ain’t right here . We are not getting the full story . Sounds like a warranty issue .
Not a battleship.
“Sounds like a warranty issue”
By golly Amber your logic is sound even if your facts aren’t!
“Fix it OEM, you morons!”
ROFL!
That’s what you get when you don’t buy Australian (just kidding).
Austal ‘Littoral Combat Ship’ does the same speed; 46mph (40 knots) but it looks better . . . http://www.austal.com/full-vessel-listing (they started business building one modest cray-boat on a dirt floor in Perth).
“…weighs 15 tons more than the Statue of Liberty.”
I wonder how many people know how much the Statue of Liberty weighs?
In the event of a sudden outbreak of the right kind of war, I’m sure they could ask to borrow one of the Russian nuclear-powered ice breakers.
The Gulf of St. Lawrence, well downstream of Montreal, looks pretty well iced over to me. I’d stay in Montreal….
http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/prods/WIS28SD/20180123180000_WIS28SD_0009848517.gif
Thanks for the info. Welcome to Montreal enjoy your stay