Here is the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz undergoing refit in San Diego. Note the catapults under the tents and the unusual aircraft on rthe deck (a mockup?).

Contributed by Kevin.

Here is a Los Angeles class nuclear attack submarine in a drydock in San Diego, CA. There are more subs to the northwest.

Contributed by Kevin.

Here’s a group of people captured from above enjoying an airboat ride through the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge (part of the Florida Everglades).

Contributed by Jeremy.

USS Recruit (TDE-1 and TFFG-1) in San Diego, CA, the Navy’s first non-ship, was originally a commissioned vessel and observed traditional Naval shipboard procedures like all other vessels.

Affectionately known as USS Neversail, the Recruit was a two-thirds scale mock-up and served as an instructional platform for new recruits. When completed in 1949, it was 225 long, had a 24-foot, four inch beam and a 41-foot mast.

Today, with the closure of the Navy training station the Recruit is being preserved as an historical building. [quarterdeck.org]

Contributed by Kevin.

This Los Angeles class nuclear attack sub at the Puget Sound Naval Ship Yard in Bremerton, WA is testing its ability to blow out its ballast tanks.

Contributed by PDunn.

We already posted the Invincible’s sister ship the HMS Illustrious. Here is the HMS Invincible (R05) in Portsmouth, UK.

Contributed by Kevin.

One of the most unusual homes in Milwaukee, WI, it was built by a traveling salesman and marine enthusiast. The “boat” is 72′ long and has a 16′ beam. It has never been in the water.

Contributed by Kevin.

The Enrico Toti was the first Italian submarine to be built after World War II.  She was commissioned in 1968 and decommissioned in 2001 after which she was sailed up the Po River to Cremona, Italy. There she sat until August of 2005 when engineers transported her across land to the “Museo della Scienza e Della Tecnica” in Milan.

Here is the same sub after its move to Milan.

Contributed by Kevin.

Calypso is the name of a ship that Jacques-Yves Cousteau, one of the most important researchers in oceanography, equipped as a mobile laboratory for field research.

A barge accidentally rammed Calypso and sank her in 1996. She was raised, and eventually towed to the basin of the Maritime Museum of La Rochelle in 1998, where she was intended to be an exhibit. A long series of legal and other delays kept any restoration work from begining. As of the end of 2006, most of the equipment has been removed from her upper decks, and she sits open to the elements. It is unclear as to what will become of this historic vessel. [wikipedia]

Contributed by Kevin.

The FLIP (FLoating Instrument Platform) ship is a 355 foot vessel designed to partially flood, resulting in only the front 55 feet of the vessel pointing up out of the water. The FLIP ship is designed to study wave height, acoustic signals, water temperature and density, and for the collection of meteorological data. Because of the potential interference with the acoustic insturments, FLIP has no engines or other means of propulsion. It must be towed to open water, there it drifts freely or is anchored.

FLIP carries a crew of five, plus up to eleven scientists. [wikipedia]

Here is an animation illustrating how it is deployed.

Contributed by Kevin.