Picture Gallery of our 2007 visit to Frijoles Canyon trail in Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. Frijoles Canyon was settled around 1100 by the Ancestral Pueblo people, and remained in use until about 1500 CE. The soft rock of the canyon wall, called volcanic tuff, is compressed volcanic ash which made a good material for digging out caves and making building stones. The main Native American community in the canyon was named Tyuonyi. The Circular House had two or three stories and up to 400 rooms, and housed perhaps a hundred people. The Long House was not unlike a modern condominium (sans plumbing, heating and lights of course). Built up against the canyon wall, logs called vigas were embedded in the canyon wall and provided floor joists. In the picture gallery attached, you can see the holes from the vigas in the canyon walls. Some petroglyphs and paintings survive, and a couple of the kivas have been partially restored. It’s a fascinating place to visit if you ever find yourself near Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sources:
[1] Frijoles Canyon and Rim Trail, National Park Service
[2] Frijoles Canyon Village, ScienceViews.com

The aviation photos page contains photos taken by me of historically significant aircraft, usually at an airshow.

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The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation, with substantial help from the Ford Motor Company, produced over 18,000 B-24 Liberator heavy bombers for the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II. The ubiquitous B-24 was seen in every theatre of the war, and because of it’s long range (second only to the Boeing B-29 Superfortress) served as a long range bomber, maritime patrol aircraft, cargo plane (C-87 Liberator Express) and anti-submarine aircraft.

This photo was taken by me at the Aviation Nation airshow at Nellis Air Force Base on November 11, 2007.

(To see all the posts in this series, click here: Naval Armor.)

Battle ship design is a series of trade-offs: heavy armor and armament (and thus great weight) vs. speed given the available room for sails or engines, size (and target profile) vs. maneuverability. The various design compromises – light, fast and maneuverable vs. heavy, slow and powerful are the reason we have such a variety of ships in naval history – patrol/torpedo boats, destroyers, frigates, light cruisers, heavy cruisers, dreadnoughts, and battle ships. During our revolutionary period, the heaviest and most powerfully armed ships were called first-rate ships of the line, meaning that they could hold a place in a battle line of ships and face any opponent. The fledgling United States did not have any ships-of-the-line, but we did produce three heavy frigates: built for more speed and maneuverability, but still fairly heavily armed.

Most everyone has heard of “Old Ironsides”, the oldest commissioned naval vessel in the World. She is properly the USS Constitution, one of three completed (the other two being the USS United States and the USS Constellation) out of the six heavy frigates commissioned by Congress in 1794. Named by President Washington, she was launched in September, 1797. She was one of the nascent Navy’s capital ships – the best our young country could produce.

But did you know that she does not have iron sides? Constitution is sixty-five years ahead of that innovation. She earned her nickname in the War of 1812, in a battle with the HMS Guerriere. As the story goes, a British sailor observed their cannonballs bouncing off the side of the Constitution, and exclaimed “Huzzah! Her sides are made of iron!” The nickname stuck, helped along by an 1830 poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Her sides are actually southern live oak, a very dense wood which can weigh 75 pounds per cubic foot. Also, in an age where ships of the line had 18 inch thick sides, the Constitution had 21 inch sides. Of course this made her very heavy, and she actually drove her launch rails into the mud and got stuck at her first launch attempt. However, the heavy oak sides paid off, and she survived 42 battles in her combat career. She still sails – her career continues to this day as a Navy training vessel and museum ship.

Sources:
[1] Celebrating the History of the USS Constitution, Marblehead Magazine
[2] USS Constitution, Wikipedia
[3] USS Constitution, Naval Historical Center
[4] USS Constitution, Official Website of the United States Navy