Reprint...

Since I have been lax in my duties as a source of information for my loyal fans, I wanted to publish the following posts I wrote for Neal Ash's "USS APc-1 WWII" Facebook group...This group can only be accessed by joining, but it is well worth it for the information contained within concerning Small Coastal Transports...

Today's discussion of aircraft carriers prodded my memory of a few items...One often hears the term, "four and a half acres of sovereign US territory" in reference to the size of the flight decks of our largest carriers, but is it really treated as such?...The answer is yes, by international law...The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea gives US flagged warships not engaged in commercial trade the same status as land within US borders...It flies the US flag only, is bound only by US law and is immune to search and seizure by other powers, even when docked in a foreign port...  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_ships…

And foreign ports can be particularly welcoming of our carrier fleets when disaster strikes...Our nuclear powered aircraft carriers can produce enough electricity to power a small city, or essential services for a larger city...It's sick bay is actually a hospital which can act as an emergency room, and its helicopters can act as flying ambulances:

http://cimsec.org/flattops-of-mercy/23912

As a final item in my jogged memory, there have been times when a passing ship sighted by a pilot in distress has become a convenient flattop of opportunity: 

 http://1truckman.blogspot.com/2016/09/lost-at-sea.html

Another sometimes wondered about question concerns the aircraft carrier's traditional placement of the superstructure (or island) on the starboard side of the ship...Although bluejackets will tell you that the superstructure on any ship only exists to give sailors something to paint, the first carriers to have a superstructure were the British HMS Glorious and Courageous, both converted from cruisers...Their placement had to do with the original ships' boiler and stokehold air intakes and the fireroom's exhaust...Subsequent A/C's kept it on the same side to avoid confusion for pilots landing on a ship from which they did not take off...Other stories insist the propeller powered aircraft had a strong torque-steer toward the left, and since landing aircraft were kept under full power until forward motion was halted, larger disasters were avoided in the rare case when an arrestor cable broke under tension sending the aircraft back out to sea in an unwanted direction...For this reason the extremely powerful F4U Corsair, with its 13 foot propeller had to be kept under 3/4 throttle on arrested landings, otherwise it could flip over at full stop...The Japanese carriers Akagi and Hiryu were built with their superstructures portside to operate with their sister ships, Kaga and Soryu which had starboard side islands...The theory was one would fly left-hand circuits, and the other right-hand circuits, effectively splitting the air and sea lanes...Innovative thinking, but they lost the war anyway...In any event, the unwieldy width of the carrier with the superstructure mounted far to one side means other heavy equipment, including propulsion units, fuel and water tanks, ammunition magazines, and hangar decks with their spare parts and machine shops, must be proportionately distributed to achieve an even balance, preventing capsizing in emergency high-speed turns...

At some point soon I hope to have the loads lifted from my shoulders which have been thrust on me by the fortunes of life, at which time I can resume my previous direction in research and writing my blog articles and books...Thank you for your patience...

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