Ahoy mates and welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Let’s see what going on today.
Let’s start off with a few friendly reminders. First off, all community build participants please remember to keep your blogs current and post your up dated photos. This way you are not scrambling towards the end of the month.
Next up, our MSW Trivia Contest is still running. Check in and stump the crew with your naval knowledge.
And finally, remember to get your daily dose of naval slang with Jim Adams’ Naval Word of the Day.
Small scale warriors from Hobby Boss
Hobby Boss has announced that they are releasing two new 1/1250 warship kits, the USS Kidd DD-993 & USS Harry W. Hill DD-986. Also, look for the new 1/700 USS San Francisco (SSN-711) to be hitting the shelves soon.
Argyll Back On Show
Fresh paint gleaming, HMS Argyll has emerged from a well earned month of maintenance, training and recuperation to rejoin the Fleet. In a very busy 5 week period, nearly all the Ship and her equipment have been inspected, assessed, refurbished, replaced, upgraded or had some old-fashioned TLC applied. The starboard Spey Gas Turbine, 1 of a pair used to drive a Type 23 at a speed of 28 knots, was replaced completely - a task requiring holes to be made in 3 decks to allow the old engine to lifted out and the new one lowered into place.
The Ship's hull was scraped by divers to remove all the marine growth that had attached to the Ship during our Gulf trip, whilst the 2 Seawolf 911 radar were 2 of several systems that underwent a major package of modifications and improvement. Both engineering departments worked hard to catch up on all the maintenance tasks that cannot be conducted at sea or on operations whilst, above decks, their warfare counterparts, led by the Chief Bosun's Mate (or “Buffer”) Petty Officer Brown, worked equally hard to refresh large amounts of the paintwork.
Like all modern Ships, Argyll requires carefully applied paintwork to prevent rust from weakening her, a task which, like the Forth Bridge, is never complete! The programme over the last year has given little chance to do this and the Parts of Ship had to remove rust, apply undercoat and then carefully finish off the top coat to leave whole areas looking like new. Not bad for a Ship nearing her 19th year!
After a week of trials to test some of the technical systems and prove the effects of the work, the Ship's Company are looking forward to representing the Navy at some high profile events around the UK. In her next stop, Liverpool, the Ship will form a key part of the celebration of the Tall Ships' Race that marks this proud maritime City’s year as Capital of Culture. Taking part in the array of events that have been laid on, and leading the Parade of Sail from the port, forms the culmination of festivities. A swift passage south will then see Argyll put her recent operational experience on display - showcasing the work of the RN in the Gulf as a part of the Meet Your Navy weekend in Portsmouth.
Canadian HMCS Fredericton visits their namesake city
HMCS Fredericton crewmembers recently went home, but not to Halifax. The crew visited New Brunswick’s capital city, Fredericton.
On arrival, City of Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside met the 11 crewmembers. "It is a pleasure to welcome crew members of HMCS Fredericton back to our city,” he said. "Their ongoing relationship with Transition House is a credit to the Navy, and we are very proud to have our city's name associated with such a fine group of officers and sailors."
Transition House is a shelter for family violence victims, and has been Fredericton’s chosen charity for 12 years. [Waiting on this info] Crew planned to help repair the shelter during their short stay.
“Our goal was to remove carpeting in bedrooms and lay new flooring, make furniture repairs, refurbish the building’s access ramp and provide a more secure and private fencing around the children’s play area,” said Master Seaman Ed Morris, who was instrumental in coordinating the visit. “We accomplished our task and then some!”
The hard work and long hours paid off, leaving crewmembers proud of their accomplishments.
"The organization is appreciative of all the work the crew does," said Tammy Kitchen, executive director of Transition House.
The French naval Academy to host 16th Naval Academies’ Commanders’ Conference
The Naval Academy commanders’ conference was launched in 1974 spurred on by Admiral Mack, who was then the US Naval Academy commander in Annapolis. The event consists in a meeting between allied directors and commanders of Naval Academies and is scheduled every two years by one of the participating naval academy or college. The French Naval Academy hosted the event for the second time, from the last 8th to the 11th, April.
Seventeen naval academies were participating to this 16th edition. The main topic, chosen by rear-admiral (Radm) Soudan, commander of the French Naval Academy and the Poulmic training centres, was dealing with: “maritime training trainee officers: : toward a standardization for better attractiveness”. Exchanges of thoughts were numerous, and constantly related to the news, within a total freedom of speech.
The talks included international cooperation, standardization of the maritime trainings between allied navies, attractiveness of the delivered diplomas, the European maritime vocation, and the French presidency of the EU. The occasion was great to promote this standardization in fields shared by all, such as: leadership, sailors abilities, and higher education
Furthermore, Radm Soudan reminded how fruitful it was for the students to evolve within and international frame and to obtain a certified European diploma. To reach this optimum, it is required to comply with the Bologna European process which enables Naval academies to deliver European standards diplomas ( Bachelor-Master-Doctorate). It facilitates inter-academies mobility.
Thanks to these exchanges, the formation methods of each of these 17 Naval Academies are better known. As an example, the Bachelor/Master/doctorate format was chosen by many European naval academies: Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Romania.
The brainstorming also enabled to assess existing training, and their possible evolutions in terms of cooperation, leadership placements, training periods at sea, language course, students, instructors and teachers exchanges.
Cooperation opportunities are definitely numerous between naval academies, registered or not within the Bologna process.
(1) France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Turkey, the USA.
Testimonies of naval academies commanders:
Vadm Bettini-Italy: “Meeting up within the frame of a 4 days conference facilitates exchanges and enables us to mature our common thoughts.
Vadm Fowler-USA : “This conference is an excellent opportunity to meet many of my counterparts, in order to better know each other and to set common interests projects for our trainee officers.”
Radm Ozkoç – Turkey: “It is essential for us to take part to this conference to know the progresses of our counterparts in terms of training. The integration to the Bologna process is not in order yet for our naval academy; nevertheless it is crucial to take the academies already integrated to this process as examples.”
Focus on exchanges achieved between the United States, Italy and Spain.
USNA/EN partership : an examplary student exchange
Two American midshipmen are sent to the Naval Academy for six months exchange periods, this process has been on for two years already. A training officer is stationed there since the 1960’s.
An agreement defining the exchanges between the two academies was signed in 2006. It was a first step toward the internationalization of the formation of the officer cadets. Other partnerships of this kind, were elaborated between naval academies ever since.
Broaden partnerships with the Italian and Spanish naval academies
The Naval Academy has created links with the “Escuela Naval Militar and the « Accademia Navale di Livorno » since their commanders met together, during the last “superintendent conference” of Gdynia during September 2006. In September 2008, a training officer exchange will take place between France and the two naval academies, In terms of scholarship; a first realization was launched in September 2007 with two French officer cadets who had stayed in each establishment for six months. Moreover, an agreement concerning scholarship exchanges was signed during the closing speech of the conference in order to seal the French-Italian cooperation.
Gator
