Ironclad Gloire

The Gloire(launched: 1859) was the first ever ocean-going ironclad warship. The ship was developed after the Crimean War when the French witnessed the awesome power of exploding shells. The old wooden ships were no match for the exploding shells, so to counter their effect, and to somewhat stabilize the balance of power between French and British navies, the French decided to develop a new warship.

The ship was designed by Dupuy de Lome. According to the design, the iron covered and shielded the wooden hull. It was powered by an internal steam engine, with 3 masts of sail. It was manned by 570 sailors. The Gloire was armed with 36 x 160mm rifled guns initially. Later the Glire was armed with 8 x 240mm Breech Loading(model 1864)guns, and 6 x 193mm Breech Loading guns(model 1866).

Although this ship can be considered to have caused a revolution in warship construction and design, its edge over the British Navy ships lasted for only a year, as in 1860 the British launched their own iron-hulled ironclad vessel HMS Warrior, as compared to wooden hulled Gloire.

Increasing Pakistan Naval Iran Cooperation

 Earlier last month Pakistan and Iran joint naval drills in the Strait of Hormuz. PN ships visited Iran after they were returning from Oman. According to a Pakistan Navy spokesman, this was a normal visit. According to analysts it was an attempt to normalize the relations between the two countries after recent tensions and did not hint at anything else.

From PN's side PNS Hashmat(Agosta-70 submarine) and PNS Quwwat(missile boat) took part. Iranian navy's warships taking part in the exercise were not known.

 And now according to the latest news Iranian Navy vessels are set to visit the Karachi port from 2nd May to 6th May. The ships are Khanjar, Falakhon, Hendijan, Daylam and Submarine Ghadir 953. The task force will be headed by Captain Abbas Ali Jahanbakhsh. It is anticipated that both navies may hold some drills at the end of the visit.

Now it may just be a courtesy call in response to PN's visit, as PN's visit was not given much importance by analysts either. Or we may see increased cooperation and more frequent exercises in the future.

H. L. Hunley(submarine)

  Specs:

Displacement:	7.5 short tons
Length:	40 ft (12.0 m)
Beam:	3.83 ft (1.17 m)
Propulsion:	Hand-cranked propeller
Speed:	4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) (surface)
Complement:	1 officer, 7 enlisted
Armament:	1 spar torpedo

CSS H. L. Hunley was the first submarine ever to sink a warship. It was named after its maker Horace L. Hunley. It was manned by a crew of 8 and was armed by only 1 spar torpedo.

On 17th Feb 1864 its commanding officer Lt. George Dixon spied a Union sloop Housatonic, moored near the  Battery Marshall. The commander seized this chance and took the submarine close to the ship, silently. The crew, then, were able to lodge the spar torpedo on the starboard(right) side of the sloop. The torpedo, when detonated, sank the sloop in just 5 minutes.

H. L. Hunley itself did not survive the confrontation, one can only speculate as to why it sank. The submarine was recovered in 2000 A.D.

Equipment Database

We have decided to create a little database of some military equipments(new/old), and this post is the first step in achieving our goal. All we need is your support. We will add more posts shortly for different equipments.
To make browsing, for different types of equipments easier, we will post an Equipments Category list on the sidebar.
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