USS Barb

USS Barb has been the name of more than one United States Navy ship, and may refer to:

USS Barb (SS-220)

USS Barb (SS-220), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the barbus. The craft compiled one of the most outstanding submarine records of World War II. During the seven war patrols she conducted in the Pacific between March 1944-August 1945, Barb is officially credited with sinking 17 enemy vessels totaling 96,628 tons, including the Japanese aircraft carrier Unyo. In recognition of one outstanding patrol, Commander Eugene Fluckey was awarded the Medal of Honor and Barb received the Presidential Unit Citation. On the sub's 12th and final patrol of the war, Barb landed a party of carefully selected crew members who blew up a railroad train. This is notable as the only ground combat operation that took place on the Japanese home islands.

United States Navy service history

World War II

The keel of the USS Barb was laid down on 7 June 1941 by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 2 April 1942 (sponsored by Mrs. Charles A. Dunn, wife of Rear Admiral Dunn), and commissioned on 8 July 1942, Lieutenant Commander John R. Waterman in command.

USS Barb (SSN-596)

USS Barb (SSN-596), a Permit-class attack submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the barb, a kingfish of the Atlantic coast.

The contract to build her was awarded to the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and her keel was laid down on 9 November 1959. She was launched on 12 February 1962 sponsored by Mrs. Marjorie Fluckey, wife of Rear Admiral Eugene Bennett Fluckey, who earned the Medal of Honor as Commanding Officer of USS Barb (SS-220). The new Barb was commissioned on 24 August 1963, with Commander Charles D. Grojean in command.

Service history

1963–1967

Barb departed Pascagoula on 28 September for her shakedown cruise off the west coast. Sailing by way of the Panama Canal and Vallejo, California, she arrived in Puget Sound where she carried out a variety of trials between 30 October and 19 November. The submarine then concluded her shakedown training with a four-week, round-trip voyage to Hawaii. Upon her return to the United States West Coast on 17 December 1963, she entered the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for post-shakedown availability. Those repairs and modifications occupied her for nine months, carrying her well into 1964. On 1 July 1964, her home port was officially changed from Vallejo, California, to Pearl Harbor. Seven weeks later, Barb left the yard at Mare Island and began a somewhat circuitous voyage to her new base, traveling by way of Seattle, Washington.

Barb

Barb or BARB may refer to:

Barb horse

Barb horse or Berber horse (Arabic: حصان بربري) is a northern African breed with great hardiness and stamina. The Barb generally possesses a fiery temperament and an atypical sport-horse conformation, but nevertheless has influenced modern breeds.

Characteristics

The Barb is a light riding horse noted for its stamina. It has a powerful front end, high withers, short back, a sloping croup, and carries its tail low. It is hardy with clean legs and sound hooves. It does not have particularly good gaits, but gallops like a sprinter. It was used as breeding stock to develop racing breeds such as the Thoroughbred, American Quarter Horse, and Standardbred.

The predominant color is gray, but bay, black, chestnut, and brown horses are also found. The Barb stands 1.47–1.57 metres (14.2–15.2 hands) at the withers.

Breed history

It is not known where the Barb horse developed; some believe the breed originated in northern Africa during the 8th century, about the time that Muslim invaders reached the region. There is controversy over whether the Barb and Arabian horses share a common ancestor, or if the Arabian was a predecessor of the Barb. Native horses of the region may have been influenced by the crossing of "oriental" breeds, including the Arabian horse, Turkoman Horse or Akhal-Teke, and Caspian horse, with Iberian horses brought back from Europe by the Berber invaders after they conquered southern Spain. Today the several varieties of Barb include the Algerian, Moroccan, and Tunisian.

Feather

Feathers are epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds and some non-avian theropod dinosaurs. They are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates, and indeed a premier example of a complex evolutionary novelty. They are among the characteristics that distinguish the extant Aves from other living groups. Feathers have also been noticed in those Theropoda which have been termed feathered dinosaurs.

Although feathers cover most parts of the body of birds, they arise only from certain well-defined tracts on the skin. They aid in flight, thermal insulation, and waterproofing. In addition, coloration helps in communication and protection.Plumology (or plumage science) is the name for the science that is associated with the study of feathers.

Structures and characteristics

Feathers are among the most complex integumentary appendages found in vertebrates and are formed in tiny follicles in the epidermis, or outer skin layer, that produce keratin proteins. The β-keratins in feathers, beaks and claws — and the claws, scales and shells of reptiles — are composed of protein strands hydrogen-bonded into β-pleated sheets, which are then further twisted and crosslinked by disulfide bridges into structures even tougher than the α-keratins of mammalian hair, horns and hoof. The exact signals that induce the growth of feathers on the skin are not known, but it has been found that the transcription factor cDermo-1 induces the growth of feathers on skin and scales on the leg.

Château d'Ussé

The Château d'Ussé is located in the commune of Rigny-Ussé in the Indre-et-Loire département, in France. The stronghold at the edge of the Chinon forest overlooking the Indre Valley was first fortified in the eleventh century by the Norman seigneur of Ussé, Gueldin de Saumur, who surrounded the fort with a palisade on a high terrace. The site passed to the Comte de Blois, who rebuilt in stone.

In the fifteenth century, the ruined castle of Ussé was purchased by Jean V de Bueil, a captain-general of Charles VII who became seigneur of Ussé in 1431 and began rebuilding it in the 1440s; his son Antoine de Bueil married in 1462 Jeanne de Valois, the biological daughter of Charles VII and Agnès Sorel, who brought as dowry 40000 golden écus. Antoine was heavily in debt and in 1455, sold the château to Jacques d’Espinay, son of a chamberlain to the Duke of Brittany and himself chamberlain to the king; Espinay built the chapel, completed by his son Charles in 1612, in which the Flamboyant Gothic style is mixed with new Renaissance motifs, and began the process of rebuilding the fifteenth-century château that resulted in the sixteenth-seventeenth century aspect of the structure to be seen today.