Comically small USN boats
Teeny tiny ship – The OIC/LPO still demands to be called “captain”
Ever wonder where the officer who graduates last in his class at Annapolis gets sent? I think I may have found it. Pictured is quite possibly the smallest “ship” in the US Navy’s fleet.
This is a little tug boat known as “Boomin’ Beaver”. Not much bigger than a Ford F-150, these little boats are used to tow small vessels, but their primary role is to tend to underwater security nets at major ports.
The tug first popped up on Reddit earlier this week. Chuck’s Boat and Drive in Longview, Washington built these boats for loggers, and at some point, the U.S. Navy purchased scores of them for various harbor duties. One Redditor identified this particular tug as operating out of Point Loma Sub Base in California, saying:
“It’s a security tug. Those protective barriers surrounding the water portion of the navy base don’t move themselves. It’s the equivalent of opening the gate for cattle to go in and out. Unlock it, unlatch it, swing it open, and close it when the ship has passed.”
Source; Popular Mechanics
That thing really need the giant GPS receiver on the top of the “bridge”?
Careful. Don’t make it too top heavy. Wouldn’t want it to roll…….on second thought, might be fun to watch.
That metacentric height issue can be a real bitch…
If your referring to the thing in the white radome, that is a commercial radar operating around 3 GHz.
Long ago in a galaxy far far away when DOD was developing the HARM missile. Some enterprising folks came up with an idea to save the taxpayer money. They tuned the HARMs to target those reasonably inexpensive radars during the Live Fire Test & Eval (LFT&E) phase of the program. That way they didn’t have to destroy some of the few bad guy systems we had acquired or the more expensive blue systems.
As these systems have become cheaper they have proliferated greatly and I don’t know if that solution from back then would be such a good idea these days.
It’s a Raymarine civilian radar unit…you can buy them at Westmarine…
Raymarine’s current iteration is super easy to install, it only needs power because the unit connects via wi-fi to any Raymarine wifi capable multi-function display, eliminating the need for extra lines run through small spaces on civilian boats.
It’s great for unattended sailing or cruising, you can set an alarm that sounds anytime you come within “x” distance of anything else…
Depending on high you mount the unit you would be surprised how far away your unit can find other vessels…of course it depends on whether you are looking for things closer or farther as the higher you mount the less the ability to see closer objects…
“Depending on high you mount the unit”
Some people have been known to use them for other than marine use.
Chuckle chuckle snort..
Raymarine a Raytheon product.
I.23 times the square root of the altitude of the antenna (in feet) will give you the radar horizon in miles. I just can’t remember if it is nautical or statute miles.
Nautical..
It bothered me so I had to go look it up. You are correct.
I haven’t seen that statistic since the 70s! Thanks for mentioning it.
Here is another formula. 9 times the square root of the tire pressure.
Thanks for the correction, folks!
Plenty of room for a quad fifty.
Yeah, that’s got my vote. But you would need to have a little floating pup trailer on a winch line just to handle the ammo and spare barrels.
A Gun Tug nick-named “The Troll.”/s
I can tell you where an officer that graduates at the bottom of his class at Annapolis end up…on my ship. Technically, it’s a ship owned by the taxpayers but a ship I was on, so it makes it ‘mine’. Go to YT and watch videos of middies making their initial ship choice. You see all the sleek, powerful combatants go early. Watch the body language of those with fewer opportunities especially the last dozen or so. Now imagine back in the day with auxiliary ships that would go even later. This type is your AOR’s (mine), AO’s, AS’s, AD’s, AE’s, AF’s, ect. You know no future Chester Nimitz is your new butter bar DIVO because nobody is making that type of ship your first choice. All those babies are USNS ships nowadays. This tug is probably operated by a BM2 or 1 (E5-6) would be my guess.
“videos of middies making their initial ship choice”
What the hell did I just watch? The Academy’s and the O-corp really is another world.
Worked with a Chief Engineer who started off his sea days as a machinists mate on the old three island oilers (1950’s vintage, looked like T2’s.) He said those were not glorious assignments for any of the officers or crew onboard, but tended to have very relaxed regulations onboard. He had a great time.
BUT… I can see where a middle might sign and groan in dismay. Not exactly a high profile surface combatant.
middie might sigh and groan*
so do these little bumper boats even get a official name, or just a number?
This boat has masculinity written all over it!
Cool!
What do they use for propulsion? Does the “skipper” in the “wheelhouse” have to paddle with his legs?
Nah. They have the frame of an old Trek bike bolted to the floor. The skipper takes a seat and pedals, and the chain drives the propeller.
Kills two birds with one stone: PT and getting those security nets moved. (smile)
LAUNCH THE DINGHY!!!! Would this be the type of ship(?) boat!??! that someone like Hunter Biden would command as a reserve ossifer?
No surprise, we had some fugly gun pr0n and now a fugly boat(?)/ship(?!?)
It’s so fugly it’s cute!
Sleeping quarters are a bit cramped but the galley is huge.
Well, I’m glad to see that the Navy had “Smart” ships before anyone even thought about building “Smart” cars. (smile)
Might fit in my pool.
Oh, it’s so cute!!! I could take that out on the lake and get some sonar responses on lake trout, and this cute gadget will tell me when weather’s starting a hissy fit.
CUTE little thing, where’s the rest of it?