Nautical Nightmares - Part Three | First in Defence

the United States Navy possesses the largest and most powerful fleet of ocean-going vessels on the planet in the many years that have passed since it was founded the brave men and women serving within this institution have been exposed to numerous incidents of an inexplicable and unsettling nature in this week's episode we examine three such occurrences [Music] [Music] in June of 1775 following the outbreak of the American Revolution legislation was passed calling for the arming of civilian ships and merchantman in the war against Great Britain it soon became clear however that this measure along with the ongoing cooperation of French naval forces would not be sufficient to break the vise-like grip which the Empire held over the seas surrounding the continent the Royal Navy was a vital component of the British forces in the colonies without it the Kings armies would be starved of men and resources as well as the ability to bombard coastal targets recognising the importance that control over these waters represented the colonies funded the construction of thirteen frigates specifically designed for war this new military force was named the Continental Navy and would go on to fight against the British with both courage and distinction the experience and skill which these sailors would gain over the next ten years would become integral to the future of an independent America but the price of this knowledge was great with more than 80 percent of her ships being sent to the bottom of the sea before the war's end it would not be for nearly another decade in response to repeated attacks on American merchant ships by Barbary pirates that the US Congress enacted new legislation the naval Act of 1794 provided funding for six new frigates the idea of a United States Navy had finally been realized and there would be few times in its future where it would not find itself actively engaged in conflict with America's enemies following a brief campaign against her former ally France the US Navy would be employed in further anti-piracy activities and attempts to end the African slave trade before playing a role in further conflicts with Great Britain and Mexico US naval forces proved essential to the Allied victories in both world wars and they have continued to maintain global security since the end of the 1940s during the two centuries it has been in existence it has deployed thousands of ships and aircraft to locations spanning the entirety of the globe its sailors have served their country on every continent facing a broad range of enemies in battle and in more recent times the accounts and written records of her commanders have caused commentators to ask probing questions regarding the origins of some of these opponents in February 1945 at the height of the battle for Iwo Jima elements of the American fifth Marine Division found themselves pinned down by a superior Japanese force despite a murderous hail of enemy gunfire a lone marine named Tony Stein performed repeated acts of courage these included helping wounded colleagues to safety and braving enemy artillery in order to obtain ammunition for the rest of his platoon during the course of the battle Stein carried out a number of single-handed attacks on the enemy's defensive positions during fire away from the rest of his unit and blowing up concrete pillboxes in the process 10 days later he was killed by a sniper and was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1970 as a further tribute to the deceased hero the u. s. navy named their latest warship the USS Stein this Knox class destroyer was initially assigned to the u.

s. 7th fleet and spent the first few years of her military service patrolling Far Eastern waters in April of 1978 she was ordered to conduct a series of drills off the coast of South America an itinerary which also included scheduled visits to a number of different ports whilst in the region one evening the crew were going about their duties when the entire vessel was catastrophic ly shaken by a sudden and unexpected impact sailors were hurled from their feet several sustaining injuries after violently colliding with their counterparts or the ship's bulkheads as shocked crew members rallied to their stations the Stynes commanding officer made his way to the control room to find out what had occurred he found the bridge crew struggling to reinitiate the ship's electrical systems several of which had been knocked offline by the incident it gradually became evident that the vessel had collided with a large underwater object one which had failed to register on its monitoring systems a check of the regional charts confirmed there was no existing anomalies situated anywhere on the seabed only adding to the mystery assuming that the culprit was either a submarine or a submerged shipwreck the commander ordered sailors upon to the deck with search lights looking for wreckage or bodies in the water nothing was seen and when the ship's technicians reported that they were unable to restart the sonar system the decision was made to return to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in Los Angeles to rectify the issue once the ship had been dry docked repair crews fanned out across her hull documenting any visible damage this work was almost immediately brought to a halt when it was discovered that approximately 10% of the Stein's sonar dome was missing and what remained was completely inoperable all along the exterior of the sensor housing deep lacerations and slashes were visible all of varying length and depth as the technicians slowly unfastened the couplings around the device several objects fell from it clattering onto the ground below directing their torch beams downwards the men were shocked to discover that the items lying at their feet were teeth and talons in total over 100 organic samples would be slowly extracted from the reinforced rubber surrounding the damaged sensor amongst these were sharpened hooks much like those found in the suction cups of giant squid but some of them were over an inch in length five times longer than those found on any creature documented by marine biologists to this day nobody can be sure exactly what collided with the destroyer but with the damage that was caused it must have been colossal in size if it was indeed a squid and it's dimensions were equivalent to the biological mass it left behind it would be around a hundred and fifty feet in length a sobering figure given that this is three times longer than any similar creature previously encountered during the Cold War the United States Navy actively sought to neutralize the threat posed by Russian submarines capable of launching nuclear missiles at the US mainland key to the US Navy's strategy was a new type of submarine a fast attack craft which was designated the sturgeon class in total 37 of these vessels would be deployed during the conflict including the USS jipang the trapping took two years to complete finally launching in September of 1969 under the control of Commander Dean our Sackett Junior she was immediately deployed to the Arctic Ocean with orders to conduct research and mapping in relation to the movements of the polar ice cap she was also tasked with investigating the limitations that this hostile environment may hold in the commission of submarine warfare for four weeks the trapping carried out weapons drills and scientific analysis of the region before she was recalled to the holy Loch Naval Base in Scotland both the submarine and the men who served aboard her would spend nearly three decades carrying out missions all around the globe before she was eventually decommissioned in 1999 the USS Japan should have remained just another anonymous component of America's cold war fleet the finer details of her activities shrouded well away from the prying eyes of the general public and this might have been the case were it not for the release of a series of images in 2015 purporting to have come from the submarines periscope camera whilst she was on maneuvers in the Arctic sea in an article published by the investigative website black vault it was alleged that during the trip Aang's deployment in March of 1971 she had been in the vicinity of Jan Mayen Island when commander Sackett had been called to the control room by the duty officer John clicker it was explained that through the periscope clicker had sighted an unknown aircraft operating nearby one which he did not recognize and which was acting in an unusual manner Sackett had initially been skeptical of the report attributing the description to the crew man's inexperience but when he looked through the periscope he was shocked by what he saw moving slowly through the skies not far from his vessel was an aircraft like nothing he'd ever seen at the point he first sighted it the craft had borne a passing resemblance to an airship from the 1930s but as it carried on along its flight path it had seemed to somehow shift and alter its form into various different shapes the commander had immediately placed his vessel on alert continuing to monitor the UFOs progress and taking photographs as he did so suddenly it plunged into the ocean without warning disappearing beneath the surface Sackett ordered his sonar operators to try and get a fix on the craft only to be told that it was not registering on their systems as he watched on incredulously the object then slowly rose back out of the water before shooting off at an impossible speed whilst critics have been quick to dismiss the account and alleged photographs as a hoax the story resonates for two reasons firstly the apparent capabilities of this mysterious craft bear more than a passing resemblance to similar objects which were engaged by f-18s from the USS nimitz off the coast of california in November of 2004 more whirring still the story evokes memories of a secret russian intelligence report which alleges the mysterious flying craft successfully drove away u. s.