The Nimble Books Blog

Dear readers,

I am very pleased to bring you this beautiful book in our new "nimble" format:

  SSN-23 JIMMY CARTER, U.S. Navy Submarine (Seawolf class)
 
with the stunning orange cover photo and full color interior.  The contents of the book are:

Introduction

Buy This Book If:

Acknowledgements

Key Facts

Specifications

Ships in the Seawolf Class

Remarks at the Naming Ceremony in 1998

Figure 1.  SSN-23 incorporates new design features for an “expeditionary” future.

Figure 2. Positive thinking about Carter's role.  Interestingly, none of these missions look much like the cable tapping missions that made Carter’s predecessor Parche the most decorated sub in U.S. naval history.

Figure 3.  President Carter being given a model of the future Jimmy Carter at the naming ceremony.  Personally, I'd have held out for the bigger one.

Figure 4.  A full-length view of the model, courtesy Motionmodels.com.  Note the conceptual representation of the additional maneuvering units fore and aft.  These below-waterline fixtures  will most likely never be seen in public while Jimmy Carter is in active service.

Figure 5.  Ship's crest.

Figure 6.  A detailed view of the propeller, rudder, and aft maneuvering units (courtesy Motion Models).  The actual appearance of the maneuvering units may be somewhat different.

Figure 5.  Moving her outdoors for the first time, June 24, 2004.

Figure 6. Sneaking out a little early.

Figure 7.  The Multi-Mission Platform that makes Jimmy Carter unique.

Figure 8. Inserting the forward upper module in the MMP.

Figure 9.  Leaving Electric Boat to begin Alpha Sea Trials, November 2004.

Figure 10.  During sea trials, February 2005.

Figure 11.  The commissioning ceremony, February 19, 2005.

Figure 12.  The crew manning the ship during the commissioning ceremony.

Figure 13.  Carter being "depermed", or demagnetized, to reduce her vulnerability to weapons that detect magnetic signatures.

Figure 14. Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn about to set off on an overnight trip, August 12, 2005.

Figure 15.  Departing Kings Bay, Georgia with the Carters on board.

Figure 16.  Carter on Carter.  This is the boat’s mess room.

Figure 17.  Returning to Kings Bay after taking Jimmy Carter on an overnight.

An Appropriate Name

Why SSN-23 Jimmy Carter Matters Today

References

Colophon

I found some terrific AP photos taken inside JIMMY CARTER--I wish I had been able to use them!  but the book is pretty nice.

If you like this sort of thing, you may want to take a look at a couple of other titles in our "Cool Ships" series:



BB-67 MONTANA, U.S. Navy Battleship: Why She Matters Today 





 CVN-78 GERALD R. FORD, U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier 


Relative sales of these titles will determine whether we do more subs next, or return to the old-fashioned targets capital ships. ;-)

Very cordially yours,

Fred Zimmerman
Publisher, Nimble Books LLC

Tags: About Nimble Books, Forthcoming from Nimble Books, My AmazonConnect Plog, What's New for Book-Lovers by W. Frederick Zimmerman
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Dear readers,

I am very glad to bring you this "nimble" book about Cuba with the beautiful  image from NASA's MODIS sensor wrapping around the front and back covers.

  Cool Maps of Cuba: An Atlas of History, Population, Resources Before and After Fidel Castro 




This book provides you with 27 beautifully printed color maps and satellite images of Cuba, listed below. 

Figure 1. The historical context of the Spanish and Portugese Age of Discovery. The Cambridge Modern History Atlas edited by Sir Adolphus William Ward, G.W. Prothero, Sir Stanley Mordaunt Leathes, and E.A. Benians. Cambridge University Press; London. 1912.

Figure 2. Cuba. Joan Vickeboons, 1639 (Library of Congress).

Figure 3. A new chart of the seas surrounding the island of Cuba with the soundings, currents, ships, courses &c. and a map of the island itself lately made by an officer in the Navy. From The London magazine, or, Gentleman's monthly intelligencer. Oct. 1762, v. 21.

Figure 4. Cuba during the Spanish-American War, 1898.

Figure 5. The location of the Bay of Pigs (1961).

Figure 6. The Bay of Pigs in Atlas Nacional de Cuba (Moscow 1970) via Cryptome.org.

Figure 7. CIA briefing board for JFK showing range of Soviet MRBMs stationed in Cuba (CIA 1962, via the National Security Archive, George Washington University).

Figure 8. Sugar in Cuba (US 1977).

Figure 9. Land Utilization in Cuba (US 1977).

Figure 10. Economic Activity in Cuba (US 1977).

Figure 11. Population Density (US 1977).

Figure 12. Political map of Cuba (CIA 1994).

Figure 13. Havana (CIA).

Figure 14. Detailed topographic map of Guantanamo Bay (NIMA, 1996).

Figure 15. Camp Delta at Guantanamo (Department of Defense, 2003). Our bad.

Figure 16. A beautiful MODIS image of Florida, the Bahamas, and Cuba (NASA 2001).

Figure 17. Another spectacular MODIS image (NASA 2004).

Figure 18. Coral reefs of Cuba (NOAA).

Figure 19. Coral reefs off western Cuba (Landsat 2001).

Figure 20. Land cover (MODIS IGBP, NASA, 2007). Red is urban, dark green is forest, pale green is grassy.

Figure 21. Vegetation map of Cuba (USGS & the Nature Conservancy).

Figure 22. Elevation and depth of Cuba and its surrounding waters (SRTM, NASA, 2007).

Figure 23. Coastal and Marine Geology (USGS).

Figure 24. Capitalists will find this USGS map of Cuba’s mineral resources handy. Not dated, but note the nuclear power plant near Cienfuegos on the west side of the island. Elements are identified via their scientific abbreviation (e.g. Cu for copper).

Figure 25. Population density (SEDAC, 2004). After Fidel and his brother depart, the people of Cuba will remain.

Figure 26. Almost every area of Cuba has been touched by human activity. Reds are substantial impact, green is low impact. (SEDAC Human Footprint V2, 2007).

Figure 27. Night lights over Florida and Cuba (DMSP, 2007). Observe the difference between the vibrant lights of Florida and the scattered lights of Cuba.

I wish I had been able to find a Godfather III map of organized crime activity in Cuba before 1960, and I would have liked to find a map that showed something of the restrictions on freedom under the Castro regime.  If you have any ideas for more Cool Maps of Cuba, by all means send them to me!

In the meantime, let's be glad that Castro is finally on the way out, and hope that this authoritarian regime will soon loosen its grip on the people of Cuba.  Surely, at the very least, they deserve to live less like North Korea and more like China.

Sincerely yours,

Fred Zimmerman

Publisher, Nimble Books LLC

Tags: About Nimble Books, Forthcoming from Nimble Books, My AmazonConnect Plog, What's New for Book-Lovers by W. Frederick Zimmerman
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