Under Cover Operations - Part 2

 Under Cover Operations - Part 2

This morning, December 11, thick fog arrived along with a rising tide, reducing visibility considerably. With some electronic tweeking to digital images, there is a record of one nearly anonymous arrival.

USS Beloit arrived in the early morning and tied up at HMC Dockyard, Jetty November Bravo 3. It is the latest delivery from the Fincantieri Marinette Marine Corporation shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin. Numbered LCS-29, it is the 15th Freedom variant Littoral Combat Ship built at the yard. (Even numbered ships are Independant class variants built by Austal USA in Mobile, AB.)

USS Beloit was commissioned November 23 in Milwaukee and was soon underway for its home base in Florida, exiting the St.Lawrence Seaway, with tug escorts, December 4. After a stop over in Quebec City it sailed directly to Halifax.

The State of Michigan, and to a lesser degreeWisonsin, has many place names connected to historic French (Canadian) explorers and settlers. Nevertheless the pronunciation of the names remains decidedly non-French. The State's largest city, Detroit (pronounced Dee-Troyt - or, perversely Dee-Troy-It, by some Canadians) is just one of many places with mispronounced French names. 

Beloit (Bell- Oyt), although it is in Wisconsin, is a variant and rhymes with the way Detroit is pronounced but is not a French name at all but is "made up" to sound like Detroit. It is well known however as the home of Fairbanks Morse, long time builders of diesel engines, including the ones on this ship, but which carry the Colt-Pielstick brand name, as a subisdiary of Fairbanks Morse Defense.

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