Word: vessels
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...have made it through World War II and the Korean War without a single officer or crew member being killed in combat. But last week, in one of the worst accidents in recent U.S. military history, an explosion in the second gun turret of the 46-year-old vessel took the lives of 47 young sailors. At week's end investigators were still trying to determine the cause of the blast as the Iowa steamed toward its home port of Norfolk, Va. Defective electrical wiring, a damaged firing mechanism in the ship's gun system or even an errant spark...
...keeps getting worse. After responding late and ineffectively to an accident that it could have prevented, the company finally refloated the crippled tanker last week, towing it about 25 miles to nearby Naked Island for temporary repairs. But Exxon had trouble finding a dry dock that would accept the vessel. Cowper, who had cited the company's bungled attempts to manage the cleanup and called on the Coast Guard to take over, gave qualified approval to a belated offer of aid from the Bush Administration. The President remained opposed to the Government's directing the cleanup, but said he would...
...below the surface of the chilly Norwegian Sea, perhaps as deep as 2,000 ft., the submarine was running quietly and swiftly. With its tough titanium hull and liquid-metal-cooled nuclear reactors, the 361-ft. Mike-class vessel was one of the deepest-diving and fastest-running attack subs in Moscow's fleet. Then, late one morning last week, a submariner's worst nightmare became reality: fire broke out. The sub managed to reach the surface about 320 miles off the northern coast of Norway. As it wallowed, many of the 95 crew members rushed to life rafts...
...Moscow acted quickly to try to dispel international concerns. Only hours after returning home from London, Mikhail Gorbachev sent reassuring messages to President Bush, British Prime Minister Thatcher and Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. The power plant on the stricken sub had been shut down before the vessel sank, declared Gorbachev, who added, "The possibility of a nuclear explosion and radioactive pollution of the environment is excluded...
...sinking was a sharp blow to the Soviet navy. The prototype sub represented state-of-the-art Soviet design, impressive enough to prompt concern in Washington that U.S. superiority in undersea warfare might be imperiled. The Mike-class vessel was put in service in 1984 and was the only one of its class afloat. Experts believe it was used to test new design and propulsion features. The sinking marked at least the fifth such Soviet loss in 30 years. In the most recent major disaster, a Yankee-class Soviet sub burned and sank in the Atlantic in October 1986. Three...