US Asiatic Fleet

choi

James Holmes, LCS Diplomacy: A New, Old Option When Facing China. Defense News, Feb 12, 2012.
http://www.defensenews.com/apps/ ... e?AID=2012302120011

Quote:

"This [US Navy’s new, lightly armed Littoral Combat Ships (LCS)] was no battle fleet, nor was it meant to be. It was an implement of diplomacy, plain and simple.

"Then, Pacific Fleet reinforcements were based too far away to backstop Far Eastern forces effectively in wartime. Today, heavy Pacific Fleet forces reside in relatively nearby Japan and Guam.

Note:
(a)
(A) United States Asiatic Fleet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Asiatic_Fleet
(B) Edward C Whitman, On the China Patrol; Asiatic Fleet submarines between the Wars. Undersea Warfare (magazine), Winter 2003. http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno ... 17/chinapatrol.html
(C) Yangtze River Patrol and Other US Navy Asiatic Fleet Activities in China, 1920-1942, as Described in the Annual Reports of the Navy Department. Naval Historical center, US Department of Navy (compilation0.
http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/yangtze.htm

(b) fin-de-siècle (n; French, end of the century; First Known Use 1890)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fin-de-siècle
(c) The "men-of-war" is the plural form of "man-of-war." The latter is defined as "a combatant warship of a recognized navy."
(d) skipper (n; Middle English, from Middle Dutch schipper, from schip ship):
"the master of a ship; especially : the master of a fishing, small trading, or pleasure boat"
(e) The article mentioned "USS Houston, immortalized by historian James Hornfischer in 'Ship of Ghosts.'"

(A) James D Hornfischer, Ship of Ghosts: The story of the USS Houston, FDR's legendary lost cruiser, and the epic saga of her survivors. Bantam, 2006.
(B) USS Houston (CA-30)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Houston_(CA-30)
(Arriving Manila on Nov 19, [1940] she became flagship of Admiral Thomas C Hart, Commander Asiatic Fleet)

(f)
(A) The Sand Pebbles (film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sand_Pebbles_(film)
(a 1966 film; It tells the story of an independent, rebellious US Navy Machinist's Mate [McQueen] aboard the fictional gunboat USS San Pablo [od Asiatic Fleet] in 1920s China)
(B) The film was adapted from

The Sand Pebbles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sand_Pebbles
(a 1962 novel by American author Richard McKenna about a Yangtze River gunboat in 1926; it was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post for the three issues from November 17, 1962 through December 1, 1962; won the 1963 Harper Prize Novel Contest; "The phrase 'sand pebble' is a pun on the boat's name [San Pablo]; thus, the sailors who serve on her are the sand pebbles")

Pablo is Spanish form of Paul.
(g) For "make quick work of", see "male fast work of" or

make short work of sth. Cambridge Dictionaries Online, undated.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ ... e-short-work-of-sth
("INFORMAL  to finish or deal with something quickly")
(h) simile (n; Latin, comparison, from neuter of similis [similar]):
"a figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced by like or as (as in cheeks like roses) — compare METAPHOR"
(i) Quotation 2 said, "Then, Pacific Fleet reinforcements were based too far away."

United States Pacific Fleet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Pacific_Fleet
(created in 1907; Until May 1940, the fleet was based in San Diego. As part of the U.S. response to Japanese expansionism, the fleet was then instructed to assume an advanced position at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii)