December Ice Storm

USS Albacore

USS Albacore, originally uploaded by erik.swenson.

the USS Albacore, making steam against the rising tide of weeds


USS Albacore

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Welcome Aboard — USS Albacore (AGSS-569)

The third Navy vessel to bear the name, the Auxiliary General Submarine (AGSS) Albacore holds a place in history as the first Navy-designed vessel with a true underwater hull of cylindrical shape that has become the standard for today's submarines worldwide.

Designed, built and maintained by the skilled engineers and craftsmen of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Albacore served as a sea-going test platform from 1953 to 1972. Albacore's teardrop-shaped hull was the prototype for the Navy's nuclear powered submarine force and was the first boat built specifically to operate underwater. Prior to Albacore, submarines had been characterized as surface vessels that could submerge. With her revolutionary hull design and state-of-the-art systems, Albacore provided the Navy with an engineering platform to evaluate systems and design features before including them in future classes of submarine. Her motto was Praenuntius Futuri (Forerunner of the Future) and her mission was experimental.

Commissioned in December of 1953, Albacore was only 2/3rds the length of a World War II Fleet Boat and, when outfitted with her special high capacity silver-zinc battery, could out run a contemporary nuclear submarine. In 1966, she set the record as the world's fastest submarine having attained an underwater speed of nearly 40 miles per hour.

Used for testing control and propulsion systems, sonar equipment, dive brakes, escape mechanisms, and various innovative theories and equipment, Albacore was truly a unique Navy floating laboratory.

In September of 1972, Albacore was decommissioned and placed in reserve at the Inactive Ship Facility in Philadelphia. Ten years later, Portsmouth City Councilman Bill Keefe began an effort to return Albacore to her place of birth as a permanent display. It took two years, lots of paperwork and committee meetings before Albacore was towed from Philadelphia to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. In May of 1985, Albacore was maneuvered through a dismantled railroad bridge and a cutout section of four lane highway toward her final resting place. It took nearly six months and a system of locks before she finally was settled on a concrete cradle at Albacore Park.

Your tour of Albacore begins outside the entrance to the museum. There are a series of five outdoor podiums and panels with push buttons that are part of a self-guided audio tour. An additional eleven audio sites continue the tour inside Albacore. The narratives relate not only interesting facts about the boat but also include comments by former crew members of incidents that occurred while they were on board.

Albacore provides a unique opportunity to see where a crew of 55 worked and lived. You will see some of the unusual features of this prototype submarine and hear some of the experiences of her crew.

For information on how to get to Albacore Park, hours of operation and tour charges, please check the Visitor Center section.

Find out more information...

Like a Big Pizza Pie

Like a Big Pizza Pie, originally uploaded by Dave Delay.

The moon just before total eclipse on February 20, 2008.

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UNH Graduation

AMR_0356.JPG, originally uploaded by fotocraz.

Bill Clinton winks at some Coeds at the UNH graduation as George Bush looks on.

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Now for a bit of lesser known NH History...

New Hampshire Almanac: Fast Day

The history of Fast Day is not known by many. Here you can read about it!

The unique and quirky New Hampshire holiday called Fast Day no longer legally exists. In 1991 the New Hampshire legislature abolished Fast Day in favor of creating a new holiday, Civil Rights Day (Chapter 206, Laws of 1991). The legislature, quite properly, wanted to honor civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King, but it was "...not the intent of the general court...to create an additional paid holiday for state employees." Therefore the archaic Fast Day was abolished.

Fast days were a common occurrence in the early days of the colonies. These were days of public humiliation, fasting and prayer proclaimed by the royal governors of the colonies to avert or repent for calamities such as plagues, earthquakes, crop failures, etc. Fast days were generally held before the spring planting, and a thanksgiving day was held after the harvest. Fast days were celebrated with a sermon, abstinence from secular pursuits, and at least partial abstinence from eating. Cotton Mather wrote "We may not eat or drink so much, nor may we eat or drink so well, on such a day, as at another time.".

The earliest known fast day proclamation was in Boston on September 8, 1670. New Hampshire’s first recorded proclamation of a fast day was in early 1680. The President and Council of the Province of New Hampshire issued a document in February 1680 that called for a meeting of the General Assembly for March 16th. They appointed February 26th as a "day of humiliation" to ask God to "bless us with peace & prosperitie", favor the upcoming meeting and to "favor spring & seede time". People were cautioned to abstain from work and attend church (Provincial Papers of New Hampshire, vol. XIX).

John Cutt, President of the Council that declared this day of humiliation, became the reason for a day of "public fasting and prayer." Cutt was born in England in 1613, emigrated to the colonies in 1646, and became a prosperous merchant in Portsmouth. On January 1, 1680 New Hampshire, previously under the wing of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, became a royal colony with a separate government. This government consisted of an appointed council of 9 men with a president (John Cutt), and an assembly of representatives from the towns. However, the elderly Cutt fell ill, and on March 1, 1681 the Council and General Assembly designated the 17th of March 1681 "A day of public fasting and prayer." They felt that Cutt’s illness and the recent sighting of a comet were signs of "divine displeasure." The day of fasting and prayer was unsuccessful and John Cutt died on April 1, 1681.

Despite this lack of success, the colonists continued to observe fast days on a regular basis. However, by the late 1800’s the observance of a fast day had lost much of its original religious meaning. There was therefore a push by most state legislatures to abolish this holiday. In 1894 Massachusetts abolished Fast Day and substituted Patriot’s Day. Maine soon followed suit. In 1897, Governor Ramsdell of New Hampshire urged the legislature, who annually proclaimed a Fast Day on various dates, to totally abolish the holiday. Instead the legislature passed an act in 1899 making Fast Day a legal holiday (Chapter 11, Laws of 1899). The date was flexible.

It became the custom for the governor to designate the last Thursday in April as Fast Day. This continued until 1949 when the legislature established Fast Day as the 4th Monday in April (Chapter 270, Laws of 1949). New Hampshire continued as the sole state to have Fast Day as a legal holiday until 1991, when Fast Day fell to the new Civil Rights Day.

Gilbreth, Donna. "Rise and Fall of Fast Day". New Hampshire State Library. 1997

The New Hampshire Almanac is compiled by the New Hampshire State Library from state statutes and other sources as noted.

NH Plates

NH has not only the highest percentage of vanity plates, it also is home to some of the most creative. Check out some of the ones we have found along the way.


Flickr Slideshow

Walking on Air

Walking on Air, originally uploaded by StarrGazr.

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One snowstorm this year and everyone, it seemed was out sledding. Roby Park in South Nashua is a popular spot for area residents that even includes snowmaking. But with the weather being so warm this year, I haven't seen any snow being made. This day, the slope was full of people all out having fun, young and old alike.

The other thing about NH youth is I think they are cold blooded which explains why they wear sandals but no jackets in the winter.

Obama at University of NH at Durham.

Obama at UNH 3, originally uploaded by edyment81.

I'm actually taking a picture of that guy on the ladder taking a picture of me...

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"I don't know what you guys did this weekend, but I announced I'm running for the presidency of the United States," said U.S. Senator, and presidential hopeful, Barack Obama, receiving wild applause from the crowd of 3,000 packed into the University of New Hampshire's Field House Monday night to hear him speak.

Obama Rocks UNH

The Bridge

The Bridge, originally uploaded by daman sidhu.

Fall colors over a bridge in White mountains, New Hamphsire.

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To give you a taste to the fabulous calendars we have produced, I am going to shamelessly parade the wonderful images that appear on the 2007 NH Photo Tour Calendar. This photo was chosen for the cover because "It is so typically NH" and it "seems very New Hampshire to me".

With a cover like that...you have got to know there is a whole year of NH goodness inside!

The calendars are being picked up tomorrow. If you have ordered yours already, it will be in the mail tomorrow! If you haven't ordered yet, please do so now.



Order yours today for only $15USD to insure you get yours!

All profiits from this high quality, full sized, calendar will be donated to CHaD (Children's Hospital at Dartmouth).

Shadow

Shadow, originally uploaded by steffie@lilypad.

Taken at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.

Silky Milkweed

Silky Milkweed, originally uploaded by StarrGazr.