In Contact

August 2020
Readers respond to articles on the ASDIC Committee, the 2019 movie Midway, and the Vertical Launch System.
A crewman on board the USS Fletcher (DD-992) performs maintenance on one of the ship’s gas-turbine engines. Gas turbines—the most prevalent form of propulsion on board Navy ships today—combine the functions of the boiler and the turbine into one element and do not need feedwater.

Moving Ships through the Water

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 2020
After manpower and wind were replaced by thermodynamic systems for marine propulsion, ships used paddle wheels, then propellers, and today water-jets to harness fossil fuels and nuclear power.
In Greyhound, Commander Ernest Krause (Tom Hanks) peers out through a shattered porthole in a scene that was likely shot on the film’s reproduction of the USS Kidd’s pilothouse.

‘Making Sure We Were Authentic’

Interview with Aaron Schneider
August 2020
Craig Symonds, Thomas Cutler, and U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings Editor-in-Chief Bill Hamblet talk with Greyhound’s director about the meticulous attention to accurate detail that informed the production.
A destroyer leads transports through heavy seas in Lieutenant Commander Griffith Baily Coale’s Convoy off Iceland—Increasing Gale. Coale’s first assignment as a U.S. Navy combat artist was in the North Atlantic.

The Key Role of the Convoys

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 2020
Well before the United States formally entered World War II, U.S. Navy destroyers were in the thick of it in the U-boat–infested North Atlantic.
he USS Comfort at anchor off Okinawa. Though clearly identifiable as a noncombatant, she suffered a devastating kamikaze attack in April 1945—the worst ordeal endured by a U.S. Navy hospital ship in World War II.

Mercy Afloat

By Barrett Tillman
August 2020
From ancient days to the Age of Sail to the year of COVID-19, hospital ships have been welcome vessels of healing and hope.
Shipwright John Hackett ran the construction of the USS Congress for the first two years, before being ordered to cease work. He would be called back to finish her later—but not until after he completed the frigate Crescent, a gift for the Dey of Algiers.

The Seventh Frigate

By William J. Prom
August 2020
All lovers of American naval lore know of the first six frigates of the nascent U.S. Navy—but what about the seventh? Meet the Crescent.