u/Grahamthicke

World War II Engagements: Served actively in the Arctic (including the Murmansk Run), the English Channel, the Bay of Biscay, and Normandy. She took part in numerous aggressive anti-shipping sweeps (such as Operations Tunnel and Hostile) and major gun battles against German destroyers, torpedo boats, and U-boats.
Vessels Sunk/Destroyed: Credited with helping sink or destroy 14 enemy ships, including the German destroyer Z32, torpedo boat T29, and the U-boat U-971
Korean War Tours: Completed two combat tours (1952–1954), earning fame as a "train buster" for destroying enemy supply trains along the coast.
Official Battle Honours: Formally awarded 5 battle honours across her career: Arctic (1943–1945), English Channel (1944), Normandy (1944), Bay of Biscay (1944), and Korea (1952–1953).

The H.L. Hunley was a hand-powered Confederate submarine that operated by using an eight-man crew to turn a long crankshaft connected to a propeller. [1, 2]

Propulsion and Crew

Muscle power: Seven crew members sat on a bench and turned the hand crank together, while the captain operated the steering and depth controls. [1, 2]
Crank design: The crankshaft used offset handles like a modern car engine to smooth out the turning force and prevent the men from hitting their elbows. [1]
Cramped space: The iron hull measured about 40 feet long and just under 4 feet wide, leaving very little room to breathe or move. [1]

Diving and Surface Control

Ballast tanks: Water was let in through sea-valves to submerge the boat, and hand pumps removed the water to surface. [1]
Keel weights: Heavy iron blocks on the bottom were bolted to the hull; the crew could release these weights in an emergency to rise quickly. [1]
Air supply: Small snorkel tubes were designed to bring in fresh air when the boat was near the surface, though the crew mostly relied on the air trapped inside or opening the hatches when safe. [1, 2]

Weapon and Attack

Spar torpedo: Instead of firing self-propelled torpedoes, the Hunley carried a long iron pole (a spar) on its front with about 90 pounds of black powder attached to the tip. [1, 2]
Contact detonation: On February 17, 1864, it rammed the Union ship USS Housatonic in Charleston harbor, causing the explosive charge to detonate on contact, which sank the warship. [1, 2]
Disappearance: The submarine sank shortly after its historic attack, most likely because the massive shockwave from its own explosive charge injured the crew inside. [1]

The Italian battleship Giulio Cesare(2100x1463) in 1940. At the Battle of Calabria that same year, she took an incredible 14 mile hit from HMS Warspite, disabling her boilers, and forcing the Italian fleet to make a full retreat under smoke screen.

This image shows the recently discovered lunar impact crater named McGetchin, which formed in 2024 and was captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The USS kearsarge(3000x2387), a Pre-Dreadnought battleship that had stacked turrets, 8inch guns on top of 13inch guns. The design was not successful, as problems such as slow re-loading and severe vibration emerged.

Hubble image of NGC 1097, a Seyfert galaxy. A supermassive black hole with a mass of 100 million solar masses lies at the center of the galaxy. The area around the black hole emits large amounts of radiation from the matter falling into the black hole.

Did you see the Great Blizzard of 1978? It went from the Ohio Valley through the Great Lakes right up to us in Ontario. I remember walking in it to school as a child through 75kph winds.

HMCS Bras d'Or(3115x2169) was a hydrofoil that served from 1968 to 1971. Never reaching past the prototype stage, no armament was fitted, but her speed exceeded 63 knots (117 kph 72mph) making her the fastest warship ever developed. The record still stands today.

First direct image of Earth taken by a person from the surface of another astronomical object (from the Moon), (AS11-40-5923) -July 1969, during humanity's first crewed Moon landing.

HMCS Haida(2813X1254), Canada's most celebrated warship, is a Tribal Class Destroyer that served from 1943 to 1963 in World War2 and Korea. She is docked in Hamilton, Ontario, as a museum ship.

"Suspended Plasma" By Maria Cogo

HNLMS Zwaardvis(2500x1667), originally HMS Talent P322, in service with The Netherlands in the 1950's Note the external torpedo tubes, fin stabilizers, and coning tower mounted main gun.

James Webb image of The Lion's Head nebula.

HMS Argus(5403x3339), a flat-top style aircraft carrier converted from an ocean liner during WW1. She served from 1918 right through to 1944, and could fly Sea-Hurricane and Seafire planes.

1970's TTC Streetcar. Did you grow up in or near a city with subways and streetcars? I loved all trains, especially subways, but my favourite was the streetcar. This 'train of the street' was like riding in a rail limousine. You just sat back and looked out the window.

The cruiser HMS Birmingham(2343x1772) in the heat of combat at Jutland. The hard fought Battle of Jutland was a Royal Navy victory, albeit a costly one. The objective was to keep the German navy contained and that objective was reached. Germany's war effort declined steadily after the battle.

This photo provided by NASA shows technicians connecting the inner and outer segments of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, Nov. 25, 2025, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The telescope's 1 million mile journey started today. (Jolearra Tshiteya/NASA via AP)

View of galaxies captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in deep space, billions of light-years away. (ESA Webb / NASA / CSA / L. Bradley (STScI) / A. Adamo (Stockholm University) / Cosmic Spring collaboration)

HMS Upholder(2000x999), seen to the left. She is regarded as the most successful Royal Navy submarine of WW2, sinking 25 ships, including U-Boats. She was fitted with internal and external torpedo tubes.

Spiral Galaxy NGC 2566 from Webb (ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Leroy)

The US Civil War submarine H L Hunley(4032x3024). The Hunley had only one mission from which she never returned. Her mission was a success, sinking the Sloop of War USS Housatonic, and heralding in a new era of Naval Warfare. She's seen here after recovery off of Charleston Harbor on August 8 2000,

The Daedalus crater on the far side of the moon as seen from the Apollo 11 spacecraft (NASA)