The interests of the United States in the Middle East and Southwest Asia as well as in the Eastern Africa regions are dating almost to the very founding of the American nation. Since the Second World War, the Navy of the United States has been there standing at the very first line of defense for all those national interests.

From the time of the establishment of the Middle East Forces back in 1949 and through to the beginning of the XXI century, the Navy did serve as a serious and reliable force for the human peace and social stability in this region.

The presence of the Forces helped a lot to prevent the potential regional crises from their further escalating into the full-scale wars, to enforce different international sanctions and also to possibly minimize the damage associated with the regional conflicts to both American and allied interests. And, in the cases where there were absolutely no any other alternative, the Navy had to go ahead to was in order to defend those interests.

Their physical presence also resulted in several peaceful operations, including the maritime rescue, numerous military exercises conducted together with the regional allies, and humanitarian assistance. The content of the present volume will definitely be greatly appreciated by the people - not only professionals but also amateurs and enthusiasts - having an interest in the subject.

The present practice-oriented publication was prepared with the specific intention to address virtually all aspects of the sea-water analysis by means of the classical plus the most advanced and recently introduced techniques. Until now, such analysis was limited to some number of major constituents. It will be of great interest to anyone dealing with the environment protection and to other workers such as river.

Authorities, oceanographers, practicing analysts, scientists and, of course, environmentalists. T. Crompton, the author of the volume, collected all methods published in the last several decades years. The main content of the work has been supplemented with almost fifty tables and same number of figures. The methods of the seawater analysis have been presented in a very logical manner making them easy to understand and perform.

The book starts with a chapter addressing the sampling and storage matters, including the devices used. The second chapter deals with determination of the anions, while the third one covers the anions in both coastal and estuary waters. Remaining chapters of the publication address the dissolved gases, cations in the sea water, cations in the coastal, bay and estuary waters, radioactive elements and organic/organometallic compounds, sample preparation, and elemental analysis.

In 1906 the Royal Navy was just beginning to feel the effects of its dynamic new First Sea Lord, Sir John Fisher. But there were underlying causes for the technological ferment, which owed nothing to the driving force of Fisher. The great partnership between the Admiralty and the naval armaments industry had come to full flower, to a point where even the Royal Dockyards were at such a peak of efficiency that they could compete on an equal footing with private yards.

Sir William White, the Director of Naval Construction (1885-1901), had taken the reputation of British designs to the forefront of world opinion, so that exports helped to keep building costs competitive. Even more important, the emergence of the German Imperial Navy as a new threat provided a political spur to maintain the rate of expansion started by the Naval Defense Act in 1889. The pace of technical advance had paradoxically slowed sufficiently to permit a period of consolidation. Armor was no longer changing almost yearly, and so there was no race between gun caliber and protection to bedevil the designers.

The Parsons steam turbine was now proven, and needed only the endorsement of the Admiralty to displace reciprocating engines. And last of all, after four decades of largely theoretical discussion of warship design, there was now the practical experience of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 to shape ideas about how warships should fight. The Fisher dictum 'Build First and Build Fast, Each One Belter than the Last' made a rousing slogan, and industry responded magnificently by turning out large numbers of ships at astonishingly short intervals. As one commentator had said, the flame of genius burned uncertainly in Fisher, and in his enthusiasm for the new technology he showed surprisingly little understanding of its implications. Thus the basic design of the Dreadnought was repeated in two classes, before any valid lessons could be learned from the prototype.

Similarly the new armored cruisers were repeated with no attempt to eradicate any weaknesses. Speed was Fisher's god, and in his zeal to increase speed in every category be created severe problems. The time given to prepare designs for the new destroyers, for example, was ludicrously short, and as a result, the Navy was saddled with ship of considerably less utility than the previous class - and at higher cost. The mania for speed soon infected the whole Navy, and it became the habit to credit ships with absurdly high speeds on trials.

The policy of deception spread to other areas, and the battle cruisers in particular were credited with spurious Fighting qualities. As is so often the case, the deceivers ultimately came to believe their own deception, thereby defeating whatever object Fisher may have had in mind... There are three more books in this series covering the periods 1860-1905, 1922-1946 and 1947-1995.

The 175 completed capital ships from fifteen navy fleets have all been fully described in these pages, as are the numerous further unbuilt ships that were aborted by World War or naval treaty. Data in contemporary naval reference books were often unreliable, as navies were seldom entirely open about their latest types, whether completed or not; this book corrects the record by using declassified information on Stalin's two-ocean battlefleet plans to reach the West.

Ship classes have been generally represented by both a photograph and a line drawing; wherever possible, these show appearances both before and after alterations. Line drawings, many specially commissioned, are to 1:1250 scale except were indicated. The book by Ian Sturton may be treated as the essential reference source as it is a good compendium of virtually all battlecruisers and battleships constructed from 1906 onwards. The ship line drawings are showing the profiles of the vessels and the images has been well chosen by the author.

The content is quite comprehensive in its detail and scope. The volume is making a truly perfect desk reference for the naval history students providing extensive technical details of the battleships that were designed in the historical period 1906-1940. The specialists in the field will also find it valuable.

Our ships are our homes as well as being our place of work. So, when crew members board a new ship, they should expect it to be fit for purpose, i.e. designed and built with the user and operational tasks in mind, taking into account environmental conditions that it is likely to encounter during its working life.

That is reasonable, isn't it? In this issue of Alert we will focus on the ship design with the seafarer in mind (or not in mind, as the case may be...). The reality is that very few, if not none, of the crew members boarding a new ship, have been involved in its design... Please use this booklet on the same topic as the supplementary training document.

Hello! We are all now familiar with Alert, you know it is a forum to share ideas and solve problems relating to the human element issues in the maritime industry, and today's issue concerns a very important investment - an investment in quality.

Regulations to ensure safer shipping and cleaner oceans are usually brought in following a casualty and accident involving loss of life, or one that had an impact on the environment. But some ship owners are failing to comply with the international requirements and their ships are falling below the standards. This video is to supplement the training booklet on same topics.

This short film opens the series of training videos developed by The Nautical Institute together with the Lloyd's Register. It is estimated that about eighty percent of all accidents happening at sea are the result of human or, more precise, the operator's errors. Though the operator's error may be immediate cause of the accident, but the root cause if often human influences on the design or operation of the ship's systems. So it is exactly the human factors that need some serious consideration, and in this is what we will concentrate on in the present program. The video is to supplement this Alert publication.

Alert 11 - Integration - The Human Element Jigsaw. In this issue, we are going to consider the human elements jigsaw...This training film is supplemented with this training booklet. Some of the ship components or systems may be fully automated but they may still require some input from the seafarer - setting tolerances, for example, or responding to alarms.

Other systems require direct seafarer's input for operation and maintenance. Then, there are systems tat require humans to interact with other humans, etc. And, in all these cases seafarers have to interact and work harmoniously with one another. Integrating the human element in this complex system is a dynamic process...