It has been seven years since Naval Gazing started up, and it is once again time to celebrate both the US Navy and the fact that I keep finding things to write about.
The big event this year was our second meetup in New England, which was amazing. Thanks to everyone who came. I'm currently planning to do next year's back at Iowa. Check back here around the start of 2025 for more details. We should have the same catering crew, and an in-depth look at the greatest ship ever built.
Beyond that, things have kept chugging away. The Discord continues to be a good place to hang out, the blog keeps publishing (and will do so) and while the book has been on hold for a while, I hope to get back to it soon. Thanks to those who contributed posts in the past year, Suvorov, the Fatherly One, John Olsen and theredlamb. As always, Said Achimiz deserves credit for hosting, and for fixing various problems. My appreciation to all those who have commented and aren't spammers, because that's a lot of why I keep doing this. And thanks as always to Lord Nelson for putting up with me.
As is traditional, let me know if you have any suggestions for the next year. I make no promises, but if there's something interesting, I will try to get to it, or at least put it on the list. And thanks to you all for reading.
Comments
2025 Wishlist:
-Russo-Japanesse War
-Schleswig Wars
-Early German Naval Strategy (SYWTBAMN 1870's edition)
-Admaral Byng (pour encourager les autres)
Thanks again to bean for all you do. This blog is a something I look forward to each week.
Acoustic Research Detachment - Bayview, Idaho. Call me to discuss.
Thanks for another interesting year!
Since you asked, some suggestions in the "current affairs" bucket - in all cases, phrased quite specifically but to be understood as general areas of interest:
@bean, thank you for an awesome year!
Topic requests:
-Soviet submarine strategy, particularly SSBNs -Your long awaited rant on McNamara -The future of US shipbuilding -Weather and combat ops (I.e., sea state is too high to fly, it’s too hot to be outside without heat stroke, rain/fog and their impact on sensors, hail and missiles, etc.) -Vignettes on modern hot spots (balance of forces, tactical considerations, strategic questions) for the Red Sea, Gulf, South China Sea, etc.
Other possible ideas: - The role of the Air Force in naval conflict - Maintenance and repairs - what do they do underway / alongside / in dry dock - Recruiting and staffing - Safety and accidents - Crime at sea (piracy, smuggling, illegal fishing)
Bean: I enjoy your blog. It's my refuge when the culture and political wars become too intense. You combine serious organizational skills with old-fashioned storytelling.
Of the posts I've read, I'm most impressed by the series on the Falklands (on a par with the Max Hastings book), Jutland, and coastal defenses. I recently read your post on visiting the Jeremiah O'Brien. This meant something extra to me, because my father-in-law, who died in 2011, was one of the youngest Liberty ship captains, just 27 when he took command of his ship in 1942. (Try having a ship captain and harbor pilot as the father of the girl you want to marry!)
You may have covered this in various posts, but I'd like to hear more about naval dead ends, e.g., rams, casemates, torpedo tubes on battleships, guns hurling dynamite, circular floating batteries.
Also, as a writer myself and a former editor, I'd like to hear more about your book, if you'd care to share your plans with us.
@Steve Bieler: those you list all have at least appeared. You might also like the airships series. The book project was announced here.
I was just going to point out that the torpedoes on battleships have gotten all the cover they are likely to, because that involved reading basically everything I could find. You know you've been doing this a while when commenters (well, a commenter) know your backlog better than you do.
The short version on the book is that I'm working on a technical history of the battleship. It's mostly done by word count, but the stuff I have left to do is the annoying stuff.