Word: vessel
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...died as it was under a ceaseless inferno of bombs from the R. A. F. and shells from the Royal Navy. For five days many units of the latter lay to offshore, grimly pouring broadside after broadside into the flaming town. In an extraordinarily daring exploit, one British "light vessel" (possibly a destroyer) penetrated Bardia's inner harbor, and in a hail of Italian machine-gun fire from shore, sank three Italian supply vessels. The Italians tried, with torpedo planes, to drive off the iron-clad fortresses which their shore batteries could not hit or harm...
Construction has a prodigal stepson for which a real feast is spread about once a generation, usually combined with war: shipbuilding. And 1940 was its festal year. For Admiral Stark's two-ocean Navy, shipyards launched a naval vessel every twelve days; few were the Washington glamor girls who had not smashed a bottle on a prow. The Maritime Commission at year's end had 932,000 gross tons of merchant shipping under construction, was launching a vessel a week (last week's: the 17,500-ton Rio Parana, for New York-South America service). The venerable...
There were those aboard who felt that the British simply hung a lot of mines to submerged moorings and got to hell away from them as fast as they could, hoping that nothing but an Axis vessel bumped into them. Before sighting the harbor, we had been in a brief "blow" and it was during this time that it was feared that some of the mines might easily have broke away from their moorings. ... I never did find out whether the harbor was actually mined...
Wolf Sighted. About 700 miles northeast of Montevideo, H. M. S. merchant cruiser Carnarvon Castle (20,122-ton motorship, former star of the Capetown run ) sighted a suspicious vessel, apparently a merchantman, but long, lean and low. The Britisher signaled "Stop!"' The stranger, speeding ahead, replied with a salvo of shells which neatly bracketed the Carnarvon Castle...
Unlikely to get much help from overworked U. S. shipbuilders, the British have done a little better in the market for second-hand ships. Since the war began, England and Canada have bought or arranged to buy 168 old vessels totaling 627,600 tons (deadweight) from U. S. owners (including 36 vessels from World War I's laid-up fleet). Deals are under way now for 45 more, and others may follow. Since almost any seagoing vessel is adequate for use in convoys, which travel slowly, Britain is better off buying old ships at low prices than new ones...