![]() ![]() The blessing of ships dates as far back as the third millennium BC, when the ancient Babylonians, according to a narrative, sacrificed an oxen to the gods upon completion of a ship. The official launching ceremony recognizing the "floating" of a ship by name and marked with the traditional breaking of a bottle of champagne across the bow. For example, San Antonio was moved from the ways into a dry-dock, which when lowered enabled the ship to "float" for the first time. ![]() ![]() Today, many launchings, such as the one for San Antonio (LPD 17) take place separately from the Christening. Traditionally, it coincides with the ship's Christening with the ship sliding down the ways into the water with a splash. This is the point when the ship enters the water for the first time. Today, coins, often reflecting the ship's hull numbers, are typically placed under or near the mast for good luck in a small ceremony. To commemorate that moment, the Romans placed coins under mast for good luck or to help deceased sailors into the afterworld. The placement of the mast into the hull in ancient times signified the moment when a "shell" truly became a ship. However, the Keel Laying ceremony (also referred to as the keel authentication ceremony) symbolically recognizes the joining of modular components and the ceremonial beginning of a ship. Today, fabrication of the ship may begin months before and some of the ship's bottom may actually be joined before the official keel is laid. In earlier times it was the "laying down" of the central or main timber making up the backbone of a vessel. This is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. The prospective crew will phase transfer to the construction site starting with the nucleus crew about 12 months before delivery through to the arrival of the balance crew shortly before delivery. They establish a pre-comm detachment at the ship's prospective homeport and a pre-comm unit (PCU) at the construction site. The sailors who will eventually crew the ship are selected and ordered to the ship starting about 12-18 months prior to delivery. It seems equally safe, however, to say that future decisions in this area will continue to demonstrate regard for the rich history and valued traditions of the United States Navy. How will the Navy name its ships in the future? It seems safe to say that the evolutionary process of the past will continue as the Fleet itself changes, so will the names given to its ships. This act stated that "all of the ships, of the Navy of the United States, now building, or hereafter to be built, shall be named by the Secretary of the Navy, under the direction of the President of the United States, according to the following rule, to wit: those of the first class shall be called after the States of this Union those of the second class after the rivers and those of the third class after the principal cities and towns taking care that no two vessels of the navy shall bear the same name." The last-cited provision remains in the United States Code today. On Maan act of Congress formally placed the responsibility for assigning names to the Navy's ships in the hands of the Secretary of the Navy, a prerogative which he still exercises. Just as there are many milestones in the life of a Navy ship, there are a number of significant milestones and evolutions involved in bringing that ship to life. Homer is describing ships of his own time, not those of the Bronze Age.“So the ship’s been Christened, so now it goes out to sea, right? Or, is that the Commissioning? Have they put the ship into the water yet? And, when do they break the champagne bottle?” The ships and construction techniques described in the Iliad and the Odyssey are thus anachronisms. Eventually, the method of building ships with pegged mortise-and-tenon joinery was rediscovered or reintroduced. Because of this social collapse and the subsequent depopulation of the Greek mainland, the Iron Age Greeks returned to the much simpler method of laced construction. A review of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and archaeological evidence suggests that the Mycenaeans used pegged mortise-and-tenon joinery in shipbuilding until the dissolution of the social structure of the Late Bronze Age. Recent research into ships built with laced construction supports an alternative interpretation that Odysseus joined the planks with dowels and then secured the planking with pegs and lacings. Since its reinterpretation by Lionel Casson in 1964, the boat-building passage at Odyssey 5.234-53 has been widely accepted as a reflection of a construction technique by which mortise-and-tenon joints, secured by wooden pegs, were used to fasten plank edges together. ![]()
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