Trivia!

My first thought is Abdiel, which was also used to ferry supplies to Malta. Let me check Conways to see if I'm right.
Edit: way off: she only carried 100-156 mines.

 

I had a feeling that not many ships could carry and deploy that many mines.

 

This ship had eight racks for deploying mines!!

 

I remember Japan had some very large minelayers. I think there was one that could carry 600 mines, but I don't know its name.

 

Well I cheated a little on this one--is the minelayer you're thinking of named Tsugaru?

 

Sorry!

Guess again.

 

Looked up the Tsugaru.
Yep she can carry 600 mines, but I did not see anything about having eight racks for deploying the mines.
Nice guess, but she is not the ship to correctly answer this question.

 

Well, I hate to be a nitpicker, but the question was "What WW2 mine layer could carry up to 600 mines?" And I found one! But since I had to research it for the name, I guess I won't make a fuss.

 

Further research reveals the Polish minelayer Gryf could carry 600 mines AND had 8 racks!

 

Yepper! The ORP Gryf is the ship I was asking about.
She is a lot smaller than the the HMS Abdiel or the Tsugaru!
And she was the Largest ship in the Polish Navy at the start of WW2.

She had a very short and sad life:
In the morning of 3 September 1939, ORP Gryf and ORP Wicher were attacked by two German destroyers, Z1 Leberecht Maass and Z9 Wolfgang Zenker. Polish warships and a shore battery repulsed the attack, with Gryf scoring one hit on Leberecht Maas (4 killed). Gryf herself was slightly damaged with one shot. Later the same day, after three attacks of German bombers, Gryf was heavily damaged, and partially sank in the harbour. By 5 September the fire was extinguished and the three stern 120 mm artillery turrets were dismounted and placed ashore as a shore battery No. 34, part of the defensive system of the Hel Peninsula.

In November 1939, after the end of the invasion hostilities, the Germans raised the wreck and hauled it to a beach near Jastarnia, where it was used as an artillery practice target. After World War II the wreck was used as a target by the Polish Air Force. In 1957 it was decided that the wreck be raised. By 1960 the work was completed and most of the salvaged parts were scrapped.



OK Eljefe, You're up!

 

What is the oldest human-made object still in space? And why would I bring it up on a naval forum?

 

Sputnik? No idea.

 

A steel plate (aka manhole cover) from Pascal-B it might (highly unlikely) have beat Sputnik by a month and a half or so(not that sputnik still exists, burned up a long time ago). Nukes are cool? (in an end of the world type of way)

 

Mar 17, 2008 ... 50 years in space!

I cheated on this one.
So I will not post the full answer.

 

I cheated too, i saw it.
No idea why you'd bring it up though...

 

I'd be surprised if anyone knew the answer without the aid of Google. Feel free to post the answer, Knight4hire.

And the US Navy was responsible for more than just the launch vehicle.

 

read on when you cheat next time
I cheated too........lol

 

Isn't it the Vanguard I. I remember something about it from high school too many moons ago.
Danny

 

You are correct, B24.

After the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, the US government feverishly authorized multiple agencies to proceed with their own satellite programs to match the accomplishment. The primary participants where the Explorer program run by the Army and the Vanguard program run by the Navy. NASA didn't exist yet, and the Air Force's proposed launch vehicle was too far from completion.

Explorer 1 became America's first satellite, but it and Russia's Sputnik 1 and 2 all fell out of orbit long ago. America's second artificial satellite, and the fourth overall, was the Navy's Vanguard 1 launched in 1958. The satellite's small size and the capabilities of its Vanguard rocket launch vehicle insured the satellite reached a high orbit where it still remains today. Even though the satellite stopped working in 1964, Vanguard has circled the Earth nearly 200,000 times and estimates suggest it will stay in orbit for over 2000 years!

The specific group responsible for creating both the Vanguard rocket and the Vanguard satellite was the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). NRL also pioneered several new space technologies that have become standard today, including solar panels to power the satellite and a network of tracking stations to communicate with it. Three Vanguard satellites were successfully put into orbit, and NRL has developed dozens of other satellites for military and scientific missions ever since.

And you all thought the Navy was nothing but scurvy-infected pollywogs!