Pacific Vortex: Vladivostok and more

pg 64

The people who poured their sweat and labor into the Starbuck won't take it kindly if it turns up tied to a pier in Vladivostok.

Vladivostok is a city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia, situated at the head of the Golden Horn Bay, not far from Russia's borders with China and North Korea. The population of the city, according to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, is 592,069, down from 594,701 recorded in the 2002 Census.

The city is the home port of the Russian Pacific Fleet and the largest Russian port on the Pacific Ocean.

"The Lillie Marlene,"..."An incident that is even more extraordinary than the Mary Celeste."

Lillie Marlene is a ship invented by Cussler for this novel. However, there is a song called Lili Marlene.

"Lili Marleen" (a.k.a. "Lili Marlene", "Lily Marlene", "Lili Marlène" etc.) is a German love song which became popular during World War II.

Written in 1915 during World War I, the poem was published under the title "Das Lied eines jungen Soldaten auf der Wacht" (German for "The Song of a Young Soldier on Watch") in 1937, and was first recorded by Lale Andersen in 1939 under the title "Das Mädchen unter der Laterne" ("The Girl under the Lantern").

Following Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia, from 1941 Radio Belgrade became Soldatensender Belgrad to entertain German armed forces; the song was played frequently and became popular throughout Europe and the Mediterranean among both Axis and Allied troops.

The Mary Celeste was an American brigantine merchant ship famous for having been discovered on 4 December 1872, in the Atlantic Ocean unmanned and apparently abandoned (one lifeboat was missing), despite the fact that the weather was fine and her crew had been experienced and able seamen. The Mary Celeste was in seaworthy condition and still under sail heading toward the Strait of Gibraltar. She had been at sea for a month and had over six months' worth of food and water on board. Her cargo was virtually untouched and the personal belongings of passengers and crew were still in place, including valuables. The crew was never seen or heard from again. Their disappearance is often cited as the greatest maritime mystery of all time.

The fate of her crew has been the subject of much speculation. Theories range from alcoholic fumes, to underwater earthquakes, to waterspouts, to paranormal explanations involving extraterrestrial life, unidentified flying objects (UFOs), sea monsters, and the phenomenon of the Bermuda Triangle, although the Mary Celeste is not known to have sailed through the Bermuda Triangle area. The Mary Celeste is often described as the archetypal ghost ship, since she was discovered derelict without any apparent explanation, and her name has become a synonym for similar occurrences.

Coast Guard Board of Inquiry

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) is both a military and a law enforcement service. It is one of the seven components of the uniformed services of the United States and one of the five elements of the United States armed forces. Its role includes enforcement of US law, coastal defense, and search and rescue.

During peacetime the USCG falls under the administration of the United States Department of Homeland Security. During wartime, the USCG may, at the direction of the President, report to the Secretary of the Navy; its resources, however, are integrated into U.S. military operations).

The USCG maintains an extensive fleet of coastal and ocean-going patrol ships, called cutters by tradition, and small craft, as well as an extensive aviation division consisting of HH-65 Dolphin and HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules, HU-25 Guardian, and HC-144 Ocean Sentry. USCG helicopters are equipped with hoists to rescue survivors and also play a major role in law enforcement. The helicopters are able to land and take off from USCG cutters, making them an indispensable tool in fighting illegal drug traffic and the influx of illegal immigrants. The fixed-wing aircraft are used for long range search and rescue and law enforcement patrols.

Today's lighthouses on the United States coast are all run by the U.S. Coast Guard. The list of active light houses, lighted beacons, etc. that provide detailed information on aids to navigation with their locations and characteristic signals is currently maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard in its Light List issued each year.

Pacific Vortex: hard rise on the planes and more

pg 14

"I then ordered all ballast blown and hard rise on the planes."

A ballast tank is a compartment within a boat, ship or other floating structure that holds water.

In submarines ballast tanks are used to allow the vessel to submerge, water being taken in to alter the vessel's buoyancy and allow the submarine to dive. When the submarine surfaces, water is blown out from the tanks using compressed air, and the vessel becomes positively buoyant again, allowing it to rise to the surface. A submarine may have several types of ballast tank: the main ballast tanks, which are the main tanks used for diving and surfacing, and trimming tanks, which are used to adjust the submarine's attitude (its 'trim') both on the surface and when underwater.

The stern planes, located near the propeller and normally horizontal, serve the same purpose as the trim tanks, controlling the trim, and are commonly used, while other control surfaces may not be present on many submarines. The fairwater planes on the sail and/or bow planes on the main body, both also horizontal, are closer to the centre of gravity, and are used to control depth with less effect on the trim.

When a submarine performs an emergency surfacing, all depth and trim methods are used simultaneously, together with propelling the boat upwards. Such surfacing is very quick, so the sub may even partially jump out of the water, potentially damaging submarine systems.

"I have ordered the men to resign the game."

A reference to the game of chess. When a player feels defeated, he will tip over his king and resign - or quit.

During WWII, eight men from the sunken submarine Tang swam 180 feet to the surface.

USS Tang (SS-306) was a Balao-class submarine of World War II. She was built and launched in 1943.

In her short career, the Tang sank 33 ships displacing 116,454 tons. Her commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Richard H. O'Kane, received the Medal of Honor for her last two engagements (October 23, 1944 and October 24, 1944). Tang was sunk during the last engagement by a circular run of her final torpedo.

The ship sank in 180 feet of water. Several of the crew managed to reach the surface, and some of them survived to be captured by the Japanese. These were the first American submariners to escape a sunken submarine using a Momsen lung.

Of the 13 men who escaped, only nine reached the surface, and of these, five were able to swim until rescued. (Four had escaped the sub before it had even begun to sink). A total of 74 men were lost. Those who escaped the submarine were greeted in the morning with the bow of the transport sticking straight out of the water.

The nine survivors, including O'Kane, were picked up the next morning by a Japanese destroyer. The nine captives were retained by the Japanese in prison camps until the end of the war.

Our position is 32⁰ 43' 15" N- 161⁰ 18' 22" W

Latitude and longitude are often measured in degrees, minutes and seconds. The Eiffel Tower has a latitude of 48° 51′ 29″ N-- that is, 48 degrees plus 51 minutes plus 29 seconds. Or they may be measured entirely in degrees, e.g. 48.85806° N.

Latitude runs vertically - north to south. Longitude runs korizontally, east to west.

Dupree's final position for the Starbuck to travel the required distance, even at flank speed.

Flank speed is a nautical term referring to a ship's true maximum speed, beyond the speed that can be reached by traveling at full speed. Usually, flank speed is reserved for situations in which a ship finds itself in imminent danger, such as coming under attack by aircraft. Flank speed is very fuel-inefficient and often unsustainable because of engine overheating issues.

For example, the most economic speed of the Littoral combat ship is 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) providing a range of 4,300 nautical miles (8,000 km; 4,900 mi), and endurance of 215 hours. This ship has a flank speed of 50 knots (93 km/h; 58 mph) but can only travel 1,500 nautical miles (2,800 km; 1,700 mi) at flank speed, exhausting its fuel in 30 hours. Thus, its "flank speed" consumes fuel over seven times faster than most economic.

Other speeds include one-third, two-thirds, standard, and full. One-third and two-thirds are the respective fractions of standard speed. Full is greater than standard, but not as great as flank. Emergency may not be any faster than flank, but indicates the ship should be brought up to maximum speed in the shortest possible time.

(One must speed up in order to "outflank" an opponent - the origin of the term.

Spartan Gold: Delmarva Peninsula and more

pg 16
...Cannon had escaped from prison and went on murdering and robbing far into her nineties, to tales that have her ghost still roaming the Delmarva Peninsula.

The Delmarva Peninsula is a large peninsula on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by most of Delaware and portions of Maryland and Virginia. The peninsula is almost 180 by 60 miles (300 by 100 km), and is bordered by the Chesapeake Bay on the west, and the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, and Atlantic Ocean on the east.

The northern isthmus of the peninsula is transected by the sea-level Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, so the peninsula could be considered to be an island. Several bridges cross the canal, and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel join the peninsula to mainland Maryland and Virginia, respectively. Another point of access is Lewes, Delaware, reachable by ferry from Cape May, New Jersey.

Dover, Delaware's capital city, is the peninsula's largest city by population but the main commercial area is Salisbury, Maryland, near its center. Including all offshore islands (the largest of which is Kent Island in Maryland), the total land area south of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal is 5,454 sq mi (14,130 km2). At the 2000 census the total population was 681,030, giving an average population density of 124.86 persons/sq mi (48.2 persons/km²).

Roughly south of Wilmington, Delaware, is the fall line, a geographic borderland where the Piedmont region transitions into the coastal plain, a flat and sandy area with very few or no hills

After a detailed study of the Pocomoke's historical topography...
I shared info on the Pocomoke River in my last Pacific Vortex post, but will share it again.

The Pocomoke River stretches approximately 66 miles (106 km) from southern Delaware through southeastern Maryland in the United States. At its mouth, the river is essentially an arm of Chesapeake Bay, whereas the upper river flows through a series of relatively inaccessible wetlands called the Great Cypress Swamp, largely populated by Loblolly Pine, Red Maple and Baldcypress.

The river is the easternmost river that flows into Chesapeake Bay and is reputed to be one of the deepest rivers for its width in the world. “Pocomoke” (locally /ˈpoʊkɵmoʊk/), though traditionally interpreted as "dark (or black) water" by local residents, is now agreed by scholars of the Algonquian languages to be derived from the words for "broken (or pierced) ground," and likely referred to the farming practices of the surrounding indigenous peoples.

...the bulk of the proceeds would go to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinatti, Ohio.

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is a museum in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio based on the history of the Underground Railroad. The Center also pays tribute to all efforts to "abolish human enslavement and secure freedom for all people." Billed as part of a new group of "museums of conscience," along with the Museum of Tolerance, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Civil Rights Museum, the Center offers lessons on the struggle for freedom in the past, in the present, and for the future as it attempts to challenge visitors to contemplate the meaning of freedom in their own lives.

Its location recognizes the significant role of Cincinnati, where thousands of slaves escaped to freedom by crossing the Ohio River, in the history of the Underground Railroad.

After ten years of planning and fundraising, the $110 million Freedom Center opened to the public on August 3, 2004; official opening ceremonies took place on August 23. The 158,000 square foot (15,000 m²) structure was designed by Boora Architects (design architect) of Portland, Oregon with Blackburn Architects (architect of record) of Indianapolis with three pavilions celebrating courage, cooperation and perseverance. The exterior features rough travertine stone from Tivoli, Italy on the east and west faces of the building, and copper panels on the north and south. According to one of its primary architects, the late Walter Blackburn, the building's "undulating quality" illustrates the fields and the river that escaping slaves crossed to reach freedom. First Lady Laura Bush, Oprah Winfrey, and Muhammad Ali attended the groundbreaking ceremony on June 17, 2002.

Pacific Vortex: Where there's smoke, there's fire and more

Pg X

"We're nowhere near the northern shipping lanes."

The establishment of the North Atlantic sea lanes was inspired by the sinking of the US mail steamer Artic by collision with the French steamer Vesta in October 1854 which resulted in the loss of over 300 lives. Lieutenant M. F. Maury of the US Navy first published a section titled "Steam Lanes Across the Atlantic" in his 1855 Saliling Directions proposing sea lanes along the 42 degree latitude. A number of international conferences and committees were held in 1866, 1872, 1887, 1889, and 1891 all of which left the designation of sea lanes to the principal trans-Atlantic steamship companies at the time; Cunard, White Star, Inman, National, and Guion lines. In 1913-1914 the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea held in London again reaffirmed that the selection of routes across the Atlantic in both directions is left to the responsibility of the steamship companies.

Shipping lanes came to be by analysing the prevailing winds. It is well known that the trade winds allowed ships to sail towards the west quickly, and that the westerlies allowed ships to travel to the east quickly. As such, the sea lanes are mostly chosen to take full advantage of these winds. Currents are also similarly followed as well, which also gives an advantage to the vessel.

It should be noted however, that the sea lanes were chosen based on the importance of cities as well, which could explain some anomalies towards the currents/winds, such as the fact that the shipping lanes are not optimally chosen for the route from Cape town towards Rio de Janeiro (passing Tristan da Cunha).

The Northern Sea Route is a shipping lane officially defined by Russian legislation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean specifically running along the Russian Arctic coast from Murmansk on the Barents Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait and Far East. The entire route lies in Arctic waters and parts are free of ice for only two months per year. Before the beginning of the 20th century it was known as the Northeast Passage, and is still sometimes referred to by that name.

"The San Francisco to Honolulu to Orient traffic is four hundred miles south."

Shipping routes reflect world trade flows. Sailings are most numerous and most frequent on routes where trade volumes are largest and demand is therefore greatest.

In liner trades to and from the UK, the busiest routes are to the Far East (especially China and Japan), passing through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and the Malacca Straits. The North Atlantic route, linking Western Europe and the USA and Canada, is also busy, and there are well-established routes to the Middle East, India, Australia and New Zealand, Central and South America, as well as to East and West Africa.

There are direct liner services from the UK to most other countries, and certainly to all the main trading economies. However, if your cargo is destined for a smaller port in one of these countries or for a port in a country with little trade with the UK, there may not be a direct sailing available - in which case, your cargo will need to be transhipped to another local sailing at the end of the ocean voyage.

In-bulk trade routes reflect the places of origin and consumption of the commodities carried. For example, many of the main oil routes begin in the Middle East and end in developed countries where demand for oil is greatest.
More info here: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1078045256&type=RESOURCES

"Are you positive?"
"Stake my rating on it."

From left to right: a Special Warfare Operator 1st Class and a Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class.

United States Navy ratings are general occupations that consist of specific skills and abilities. Each naval rating has its own specialty badge, which is worn on the left sleeve of the uniform by each enlisted person in that particular field. Working uniforms, such as camouflage Battle Dress Uniforms, utilities, coveralls, and Naval Working Uniform, bear generic rate designators that exclude the rating symbol. Just as an officer has rank, not a rate, an officer's occupation (if drawn more narrowly than an officer of the line) is classified according to designators and professional staff corps.

Ratings should not be confused with rates, which describe the Navy's enlisted pay-grades. Enlisted sailors are referred to by their rating and rate. For example, if someone's rate is Petty Officer 2nd Class and his rating is Boatswain's Mate, then combining the two—Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class (BM2)—defines both rate and rating in formal address or epistolary salutation.

Pacific Vortex: 2100 hours and more

pg. x of the prologue
"Secure the bridge for diving at 2100."
The "bridge", on a submarine is a small open platform in the top of the sail, used for observation during surface operation.

2100 means 2100 hours, or 11 pm. This is the 24 hour clock, which is also known as military time in the US. In Europe, timetables for trains and planes are given with the 24 hour clock.

00:00 -- 12:00 a.m.(start of day) --"12 midnight"
01:00 -- 1:00 a.m.
02:00 -- 2:00 a.m.
03:00 -- 3:00 a.m.
04:00 -- 4:00 a.m.
05:00 -- 5:00 a.m.
06:00 -- 6:00 a.m.
07:00 -- 7:00 a.m.
08:00 -- 8:00 a.m.
09:00 -- 9:00 a.m.
10:00 -- 10:00 a.m.
11:00 -- 11:00 a.m.
12:00 -- 12:00 p.m.
12 noon
13:00 -- 1:00 p.m.
14:00 -- 2:00 p.m.
15:00 -- 3:00 p.m.
16:00 -- 4:00 p.m.
17:00 -- 5:00 p.m.
18:00 -- 6:00 p.m.
19:00 -- 7:00 p.m.
20:00 -- 8:00 p.m.
21:00 -- 9:00 p.m.
22:00 -- 10:00 p.m.
23:00 -- 11:00 p.m.
24:00 ("12 midnight")* (end of day)

Dupree lowered himself through the three levels of the conning tower - or sail, as the modern Navy called it...

A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer can con the vessel; i.e., give directions to the helmsman. It is usually located as high on the ship as practical, to give the conning team good visibility.

The verb 'conn' probably stems from the verb "conduct" rather from another plausible precedent, the verb "control". It is noted that the conning tower allows for efficient reconnaissance.

Admiral Douglas Monaster, from HMS Malefactor, is credited with using the term "control tower".

The conning tower of a submarine was a small watertight compartment within its sail (or fin in British usage) equipped with instruments and controls and from which the periscopes were used to direct the boat and launch torpedo attacks. It should not be confused with the submarine's control room, which was directly below it in the main pressure hull; or the bridge, a small exposed platform in the top of the sail. As improvements in technology allowed the periscopes to be made longer—then to be eliminated altogether, as in the Virginia-class—it became unnecessary to raise the conning station above the main pressure hull. The additional conning tower pressure hull was eliminated and its functions were added to the command and control center. Thus it is incorrect to refer to the sail of a modern submarine as a conning tower.

The Executive Officer and another man, the navigator, were bent over the plotting table.

An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.

In the units of some military forces, the Executive Officer (XO) is the second-in-command, reporting to the commanding officer (CO).

In the United States Army and Marine Corps, for example, there are XO billets in each company, battalion, and brigade, though not at higher levels of command. The XO billet is not a command; rather it is considered staff. The XO is typically responsible for the management of day-to-day activities, such as maintenance and logistics, freeing the unit commander to concentrate on tactical planning and execution. The XO also takes charge in the absence of the CO. While the experience gained as an XO is highly beneficial for an officer's professional development, never serving in the position will not preclude an officer from commanding later.

In the United States Navy and Coast Guard, XOs are normally assigned to all ships and shore units, and have a similar role to their counterparts in the Army and Marine Corps. On board Coast Guard cutters that are commanded by either a junior officer or a senior enlisted member, Executive Petty Officers (XPOs) are usually assigned to serve as second-in-command.

"Six hundred seventy miles north of Kahuku Point, Oahu."

Kahuku is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Koʻolauloa District on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, United States. In the Hawaiian language, ka huku means "the projection", presumably a reference to Kahuku Point nearby, the northernmost point of land on the island of Oahu. As of the 2000 Census, Kahuku had a total population of 2,097.

Pacific Vortex: maiden trial and more

Dupree was chosen to command the Starbuck on her maiden trial

Every stage of life, for people and animals, has had a name. A "maiden" is a girl or young unmarried woman. (Old unmarried women can also be called maidens, but are more typically called spinsters.) At one point a maiden was also automatically considered to be a virgin, although that point is long past. But a "maiden trial" stems more from the virgin belief...the ship's "first" trip out to sea.

Typically, a ship goes out on "sea trials", then is officially christened and goes out on her maiden voyage.

A buzzer sounded; the officer on watch...picked up the bridge phone.

Watchmen were groups of men, usually authorised by a state, government, or society, to deter criminal activity and provide law enforcement. Watchmen have existed in various guises throughout the world and were generally succeeded by the emergence of formally organised policing.

An early reference to a watch can be found in the Bible where the Prophet Ezekiel states that it was the duty of the watch to blow the horn and sound the alarm. (Ezekiel 33:1-6)

The existence of watchmen have also been found in the Ottoman, Greek and Egyptian Empires.

The Roman Empire turned the role of a watchman into a profession by creating two organizations:
the Praetorian Guard thus establishing a rank and file system with a Captain of the Guard.
Vigiles, literally the watch.

The term the Watch then of course migrated into the naval lexicon as well.

"Echo sounder reports the seafloor has risen fifteen hundred feett in the last five miles.

Echo sounding is the technique of using sound pulses directed from the surface or from a submarine vertically down to measure the distance to the bottom by means of sound waves. This information is then typically used for navigation purposes or in order to obtain depths for charting purposes. Echo sounding can also refer to hydroacoustic "echo sounders" defined as active sound in water (sonar) used to study fish. Hydroacoustic assessments have traditionally employed mobile surveys from boats to evaluate fish biomass and spatial distributions. Conversely, fixed-location techniques use stationary transducers to monitor passing fish.

The word sounding is used for all types of depth measurements, including those that don't use sound, and is unrelated in origin to the word sound in the sense of noise or tones.

Technique
Distance is measured by multiplying half the time from the signal's outgoing pulse to its return by the speed of sound in the water, which is approximately 1.5 kilometres per second. For precise applications of echosounding, such as Hydrography, the speed of sound must also be measured typically by deploying a Sound Velocity Probe into the water. Echo sounding is effectively a special purpose application of sonar used to locate the bottom.

_____________________
Pacific Vortex, by Clive Cussler. 1982
This annotation comes from the 2010 Bantam Books Mass Market Edition, and from Wikipedia unless otherwise identified.

Pacific Vortex: nuclear submarine Starbuck and more

From the Prologue:

climbed onto the bridge of the nuclear submarine Starbuck

Cussler probably named the Starbuck after the Starbuck of Herman Melville's Moby Dick (which may also have been the origina of the name for the character in the play The Rainmaker), but that novel was published in 1851.

Where did Melville get the name?

The Starbuck family were a group of whalers operating out of Nantucket, Massachusetts from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Some members of the family gained wider exposure due to their discovery of various islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The two most prominent explorers in the family:
Valentine Starbuck - born in 1791
Obed Starbuck - 1797- 1882

(Starbucks, the coffee shop people, was indeed named after Melville's Starbuck.)

capable of cruising at one hundred twenty-five knots...two thousand feet beneath the sunlit surface.

Although the Starbuck was supposed to be the newest and most advanced sub afloat, Cussler was really exaggerating the speed of this submarine. The contemporary Los Angeles class attack subs (first built in 1972, last one built in 1996, could only go about 22 knots (about 23 miles per hour)-submerged. Today's attack class submarines (the Virginia-class) can't go much faster.

The knot (pronounced not) is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile (which is defined as 1.852 km) per hour, approximately 1.151 mph. Etymologically, the term knot derives from counting the number of knots that unspooled from the reel of a chip log in a specific time.

1,852 m is the length of the internationally-agreed nautical mile. The U.S. adopted the international definition in 1954, having previously used the U.S. nautical mile (1,853.248 m).[5] The U.K. adopted the international nautical mile definition in 1970, having previously used the U.K. Admiralty nautical mile (6,080 ft [1,853.184 m]).

The speeds of vessels relative to the fluids in which they travel (boat speeds and air speeds) are measured in knots. For consistency, the speeds of navigational fluids (tidal streams, river currents and wind speeds) are also measured in knots. Thus, speed over the ground (SOG) (ground speed (GS) in aircraft) and rate of progress towards a distant point ("velocity made good", VMG) are also given in knots.

The Starbuck was like a thoroughbred jumper

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are considered "hot-blooded" horses, known for their agility, speed and spirit.

The Thoroughbred as it is known today was developed in 17th and 18th-century England, when native mares were crossbred with imported Oriental stallions of Arabian, Barb, and Turkoman breeding. All modern Thoroughbreds can trace their pedigrees to three stallions originally imported into England in the 17th century and 18th century, and to a larger number of foundation mares of mostly English breeding. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Thoroughbred breed spread throughout the world; they were imported into North America starting in 1730 and into Australia, Europe, Japan and South America during the 19th century. Millions of Thoroughbreds exist today, and more than 118,000 foals are registered each year worldwide.

Thoroughbreds are used mainly for racing, but are also bred for other riding disciplines such as show jumping, combined training, dressage, polo, and fox hunting. They are also commonly crossbred to create new breeds or to improve existing ones, and have been influential in the creation of the Quarter Horse, Standardbred, Anglo-Arabian, and various warmblood breeds.

Thoroughbred racehorses perform with maximum exertion, which has resulted in high accident rates and health problems such as bleeding from the lungs, low fertility, abnormally small hearts and a small hoof to body mass ratio. There are several theories for the reasons behind the prevalence of accidents and health problems in the Thoroughbred breed, and research continues.

The Department of Underwater Warfare ordered the trials to be conducted

This is a fictional title - for the United States it's called the Naval Undersea Warfare Center.

_____________________
Pacific Vortex, by Clive Cussler. 1982
This annotation comes from the 2010 Bantam Books Mass Market Edition, and from Wikipedia unless otherwise identified.

Pacific Vortex: Mutiny on the Bounty and more

The Pacific Ocean

...the voracious appetite of the Pacific.

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceans. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.

At 165.2 million square kilometres (63.8 million square miles) the Pacific covers about 46% of the Earth's water surface and about one-third of its total surface area, making it larger than all of the Earth's land area combined.

The equator subdivides it into the North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, with two exceptions: the Galápagos and Gilbert Islands, while straddling the equator, are deemed wholly within the South Pacific. The Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres (35,797 ft).

The Pacific Ocean was sighted by Europeans early in the 16th century, first by the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and named it Mar del Sur (South Sea). Its current name was given by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish expedition of world circumnavigation in 1521, who encountered favourable winds as he reached the ocean and called it Mar Pacifico in Portuguese, meaning "peaceful sea".

The mutiny on the Bounty took place in the Pacific....Pitcairn Island

The mutiny on the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty occurred on 28 April 1789. (The movies that have been made dramatizing the story generally take liberty with the facts).

The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against the commanding officer, William Bligh. According to most accounts, the sailors were attracted to the idyllic life on the Pacific island of Tahiti and repelled by the harsh treatment of their captain.

On 5 April 1789, after five months in Tahiti, the Bounty set sail with its breadfruit cargo. On 28 April, some 1,300 miles west of Tahiti, near Tonga, mutiny broke out. From all accounts, Fletcher Christian and several of his followers entered Bligh's cabin, which he always left unlocked, awakened him, and pushed him on deck wearing only his nightshirt, where he was guarded by Christian holding a bayonet.

The eighteen mutineers set Captain Bligh and 18 of the 22 crew loyal to him afloat in a small boat. Mutineers then settled on Pitcairn Island or in Tahiti. The Bounty was subsequently burned off Pitcairn Island to avoid detection and to prevent desertion. Descendants of some of the mutineers and Tahitians still live on Pitcairn island.

After Bligh and his crew of 18 made an epic and eventful journey in the small boat to Timor in the Dutch East Indies, he returned to England and reported the mutiny.

Herman Melville's Moby Dick

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, written by American author Herman Melville and first published in 1851, is widely considered to be a Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that on this voyage Ahab has one purpose, to seek out a specific whale: Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white sperm whale. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg, which now drives Ahab to take revenge.

The Essex, the only known ship to be sunk by a whale

Two actual events served as the genesis for Melville's tale. One was the sinking of the Nantucket ship Essex in 1820, after it was rammed by a large sperm whale 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the western coast of South America. First mate Owen Chase, one of eight survivors, recorded the events in his 1821 Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex.

The other event was the alleged killing in the late 1830s of the albino sperm whale Mocha Dick, in the waters off the Chilean island of Mocha. Mocha Dick was rumored to have twenty or so harpoons in his back from other whalers, and appeared to attack ships with premeditated ferocity. One of his battles with a whaler served as subject for an article by explorer Jeremiah N. Reynolds in the May 1839 issue of The Knickerbocker or New-York Monthly Magazine.

So does the Hai Maru, blown to bits when an underwater volcano erupted beneath her hull.
I've been unable to find any record of a ship called the Hai Maru, let alone one destroyed by an underwater volcano.

Only one such incident has ever been reported:
From the New York Times, October 14, 1987: Underwater Volcano Erupts, Shaking Ship of Researchers

An undersea volcano in the south-central Pacific Ocean erupted directly beneath a California-based research vessel on Sunday, causing a fearful clamor as large bubbles of steam and gas shook the ship, bursting under her hull and in the surrounding water.

In a radio-telephone interview yesterday, Dr. Harmon Craig, chief scientist on the research ship Melville, described how one gigantic bubble pushed six feet above the ocean surface and exploded, shooting out jets of gas and exposing in its core a cluster of 20 or 30 volcanic rocks. Rocks Too Hot to Handle

The rocks were so filled with gas that they floated briefly. It was thought risky to place a small boat in the churning water, but the ship was maneuvered close enough to net a football-sized rock. Dr. Craig said he tried to pick it up but it was too hot to handle.

In a message to the ship's base, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, affiliated with the University of California at San Diego, Dr. Craig said bubbles bursting in nearby waters and under the hull made ''horrendous clangs and clamors.''

Such activity, he said in the radio-telephone interview, seemed to support the hypothesis of French seismologists in Tahiti, about 1,000 miles to the northwest, that mysterious rumblings they record from time to time originate from the bursting of bubbles in undersea volcanic eruptions.

The French, who operate seismic stations in the area to monitor atmospheric nuclear explosions at their test center on Mururua island, have long debated the source of these peculiar acoustic waves.

The determination that some originated beyond the southeast end of the Tubai, or Austral island chain, led 10 years ago to the discovery there of the undersea volcano that erupted Sunday, Dr. Craig said. ''It was remarkable that it was discovered exactly 10 years ago,'' he said.

The volcano has become known as the MacDonald Seamount.

A number of oceanographers said yesterday that they could not recall any previous incident in which a ship suddenly found itself in the midst of an undersea eruption. They pointed out that ships have passed areas of discolored water produced by earlier eruptions, and in some cases had intentionally ventured near eruptions that were building new islands.

In 1963 a fishing boat crew observed that the sea had begun to boil south of Iceland. Subsequent eruptions built the island of Surtsey.

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Pacific Vortex, by Clive Cussler. 1982
This annotation comes from the 2010 Bantam Books Mass Market Edition, and from Wikipedia unless otherwise identified.