The UK Telegraph has picked up on the fate of Cowpens‘ most recent CO emeritus. About which quite enough has been said here. But there was one bit of trivia I was not aware of, and it had to do with the skipper’s prior at-sea command, the USS Winston Churchill:
The vessel is one of the most prestigious in the US Navy and the only one to fly the flag of a foreign navy alongside the Stars and Stripes – the White Ensign of the Royal Navy.
So I went and Googled it, and sure enough, there it is.
I don’t recognize the topmast flag on the starboard side, but I take it to be gold lion passant on a red field as displayed in Churchill‘s patch. The other signal flags on the port side are November Sierra Whiskey and Charlie, which I take to be alphabetic for the Naval Surface Warfare Center.
Ironic, that:
She had been due to take up a high-level job in the Navy Staff at the Pentagon but has now been re-assigned to the Naval Surface Warfare Centre, a weapons research unit in Virginia.
Update: Oops, I’m out – NWSC is Churchill’s naval callsign, I am reminded in comments.
Flag recce never was my strong suit.
I’ve heard also that she (Churchill) always has an RN exchange officer assigned.
Their navigator slot is filled by a British PEP officer. He’s the guy she nearly choked out after they bent the screws in shoal water.
The flags on CHURCHILL’s port hoist are: November Whiskey Sierra Charlie, the ship’s call sign.
Ah, the 4 flags are the Ship’s Intl Call Sign….All USN/USCG ships begin with “N” and in this case NWSC. “Winston S Churchill” per ACP 113. Many ships were able to be assigned a three letter that connected to the long name of the ship. EISENHOWER is “NIKE” (wow…how’s that for double kool?)
Flag recce never was my strong suit.
That’s because you aren’t a
blackshoeProfessional Surface Warfare OfficerHad the chance but decided that I could not stand going without seeing the sun once in a while. And I always did like brown shoes.
Oh, crap! If The WON finds out, I bet he’ll have them strike the Ensign and then send it back to 10 Downing St!
That is indeed Gules, a crowned lion passant Or.
“I don’t recognize the topmast flag on the starboard side…”
Uhhh, wouldn’t that the “Port” side, or did you mean the starboard side of the photo???
I know, I know… I’m just being a pain in the kiester.
Em, it’s on the left side of the photograph, which – since Churchill is bow on – is the starboard side of the ship.
Right back atcha
Thot you were referencing the white flag above the signal flags. My bad… Gomenasai
“The vessel is one of the most prestigious in the US Navy ”
I can think of 12 more prestigious…
I can go with that Idea as long as one of them is not the Kennedy!!
Or is it 11…or 10?
That’s OK Nose. It happens with age.
In late 1945, it was 154 between CVBs, CVs, CVLs, and CVEs. Of course, we had over 500 DD/DE types then, too.
If ya goes by cost per pound, then the LCS is a winnah!
You know, every time I see a picture of a Burke like this, I take a little comfort at the mess shipbuilding is today in the Navy, and boy, is it messed up. The DDG-51 stable? If old 31 Knot hisself was to see one pulling into the pier, he’d be begging to take her right back out for a flank bell run. That is a fine looking warship.
Of course, you Nasal Aviators only care for your little planes, not mighty ships of steel
Ironically the saying about “twisted steel and sex appeal” doesn’t really much hold for aircraft. They have a very small amount of steel. At 429 pounds per cubic foot it’s all to heavy for AC.
Now a Burke? Lottsa twisted steel and sex appeal, if you think steel plate is twisted.
Aye Matey! And that 1100 ft of floating city that we float around on is just cannon fodder i suppose. Big E could outrun most of the black shoes dragging a screw.
Mmmmkay. Except I might add, being an engineer and professional Surface Warfare Officer just recently off the Big E; The equation for maximum efficient hull speed is 1.3 X Square Root of Waterline Length in Feet.
So: LWL for a Burke is ’bout 466 ft. V(sub max) = 1.3 X sqrt 466 = 28.06 kts or so. Yet she does 30+ kts.
and LWL for Big E is 1040 ft. V(sub max) = 1.3 X sqrt 1040 = 41.92 kts or so. I have a yellow hat and know the stats and she does about the same as a Burke these days. The screw pitch is fixed and as any old steam type knows, there are three endpoints.
Apples and oranges I’m afraid.
Hull speed definitely related to waterline. It takes a great deal of power to push through the bow wave, but it can be done, has been done by DDs and Cruisers.
You can see the waterline phenomenon in sailboats that carry small engines in the area of 5-10 hp that can get nearly 1 knot per hp.
Destroyers are in the range of exceeding hull speed slightly, by partial dynamic support, that is, sorta almost planing, a bit. You can see this allowed for in the afterbody of the Forrest Shermans, for instance.
As far as carriers go, I think the original Lex and Sara, designed as electric battlecruisers in 1916, are still the fastest carriers ever built.
Oh man! You did the math! My last math was figuring the super elevation of the launcher for a drone kill. That was 25 years ago! SWOs don’t DO math!
Lex is just provoking us!
Not only is it a fine looking ship, it IS a fine ship! Three cheers for the Arleigh Burke class design, probably the best, most balanced, most effective major weapons system design of the past thirty years or so, with the hull numbers and number of lives program wise that would make a cat blush to prove it. Hopefully someone somewhere with a role of some sort in the Navy shipbuilding plan is taking notes.
Flags aside, that is a very very cool angle for the photo….reminds me of the Victory At Sea shots of maneuvering sub-chasers.
I happened to be aboard her when we took the pic. We had some time to kill, so we took the photographer we had riding with us out in the rhib a couple thousand yards out, then started a high speed run towards the rhib. The photo was shot with a long range lens, so the rhib wasn’t as close as it looks (there was no danger…), but it was still pretty daunting to be sitting in front of the ship bearing down on us (I was in the rhib). Cool stuff.
Lucky bastard.
I agree, very cool angle and that big lens treatment helps too.
stars and stripes article on the ship
http://www.stripes.com/01/mar01/ed031201d.html
at norfolk
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Winston_Churchill_%28DDG_81%29_arrives_at_Naval_Station_Norfolk.jpg
‘Sokay, Lex, I love looking at pics of ships and flags, just not Gorgons. Plskthnx.
Dammit Cap’n, you shoulda warned us! The Torygraph article leads with the official Gorgon pic! Ow! [Jtg makes sign of cross, looks for his garlic, etc.]
Coat of arms of England? Or Richard I?
It’s not the coat of arms of Winston Churchill, I can assure you. It looks to be the coat of arms for England, symbol of the kingdom and hence the monarchs thereof. In heraldic terms, “Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or armed and langued Azure.”
I have absolutely no idea what that means. And looking at the standard displayed I can’t even tell for certain if there’s three lions on it.
But I can be pretty sure if it’s on a US warship it’s more about the kingdom than the king. We’re kind of particular that way.
– Max
Red background; three gold lions with one forefoot up (passant) and faces turned toward the viewer (guardant), arranged vertically (in pale), with blue claws (armed) and tongues (langued)
If it were England they ought to be triple stacked, that isn’t.
DDG 81. I kicked in a few bucks along with my ’81 classmates to commission a painting of the ship for the wardroom.
I reckon the lion refers to the William Manchester biographies of Churchill (great reads, by the way), and someone with some heraldic experience used a little imagination.
Stacked lions atop the national ensign would have been pushing it.
Here is the full blazon for the arms of DDG-81
Per fess enhanced nebuly Argent and Gules, a cross of the like surmounted by a fleur-de-lis Azure, in base a book expanded Or, leaved of the first below a lion passant guardant of the fourth.
CREST: From a wreath Argent and Gules a trident head per chevron Azure and of the first superimposed by a wreath of laurel and oak Or.
Not sure why they used “per fess enhanced” rather than “a chief nebuly” other than giving a more elegant blazon, and one less layer.
I have no idea what you just said, Joe.
I had a Chief Nebuly. And yes; yes, he was.
You learn something new every day. Kind of cool to hear a royal navy officer serves on board.
“Update: Oops, I’m out – NWSC is Churchill’s naval callsign, I am reminded in comments.”
Mildly dyslexic too NSWC -v- NWSC
– I would have flunked the whole thing anyway.
You need do some research on the etymology of “Lex” in the immediate application. Lex is pretty good about self effacing humor. One of his most endearing traits.
Ahhh, remembers, thanks for the whack to the forehead.
What I forgot to add, definite display of naval awesomeness
The RN White Ensign also flys ashore at the Citadel,Charleston, SC on the monument to to the RN Sub HMS Seraph.
She landed General Mark Cark on North Africa
HMS Seraph also floated off The Man who Never Was, off Spain, Major Martin, RM.