Hue City (CG 66) - Naval Cruise Book

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Getaway to the GULF... 1 Maui? fran-ears' 1 ' g SUEZ ., . 6 Th,e,SgezC21nalCArabic: IDaCE CaCaeiC, Qand al-Suways, French: de Suczl, ,west ofthe Sinai Peninsula, is a 163 fkm-long. C101 milesj and, at its narfro 't point, 300-m-wide C984 ftj maritime canal Egypt between Port Said CBM Sdqze on thetlvlediterranean Sea, and Suez Ca!-Suwaysj onthe Red Sea. The canal allows two- wayg north to south water transport between Europe and Asia .without circuinnavigation of Africa. Before the opienirigf of the canal in 1869, goods were sometimes transported by being offloaded froml-ships and carried overland between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The canalgcgjmprises two parts, north and south of the Greaflgitter linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of ' Suez on the Red SGH- 011 APiiil12t5Q?1f859 the pppi. ofthe Suez Canal began. This project continued for ten years. More than 2.4 niillioifr Egyptianfworkers took part, of which more than 125,000 lost their lives. On November 17, 1869 the Suez Canal was opened for navigational traffic. The Suez Canal's economic importance is essential for world trade. It transports 14M of the total world trade, 26W of oil exports, and 41M of the total vol m f d ' u e o goo s and cargo that reach Arab Gulf ports. The present capacrty Of the Suez Canal has also proven invaluable for many militaries throughout the world in terms of logistical and strategic importance. On April 2l 2006 the USS Hue Citi' made the 88 mile transit through the Suez's chokepoint, The Crew endured 3 16 hour sea and anchor detarl to ensure Hue City arrived safely on station in the Gulf 70 1 1 l Q

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Seychelles Seychelles, officially the Republic of Seychelles is. an archipelago nation of 158 islands in the Indian Ocean, some 1,600 km east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar. Gther nearby island countries and territories include Zanzibar to the west, Mauritius and Reunion to the south, Comoros and Mayotte tothe southwest, and the Suvadives of the Maldives to the northeast. ln terms of population, Seychelles is the smallest sovereign state of Africa. While Austronesian seafarers or Arab traders may have been the first to visit the uninhabited Seychelles, the first recorded sighting of them took place in 1505, by the Portuguese. As a transit point for trading between Africa and Asia, they were occasionally used by pirates until the French began to take control of the islands starting in 1756, naming them after Jean Moreau de Sechelles, the then French finance minister. The British contested control over the islands with the French between 1794 and 1811, with the British eventually gaining the upper hand and being ceded the islands in 1814. The Seychelles became a crown colony separate from Mauritius in 1903 and independence was granted in 1976, as a republic within the Commonwealth. The 1979 constitution declared a socialist one-party state, which lasted until 1992. The folk music incorporates multiple influences in a syncretic fashion, including English contredanse, polka and mazurka, French folk and pop, sega from Mauritius and Reunion, taarab, soukous and other pan-African genres, and Polynesian, Indian and Arcadian music. A complex form of percussion music called contombley is popular, as is montea, a fusion of native folk rhythms with Kenyan benga developed by Patrick Victor. As of 1992, some ninety percent of the population Wag Rgman Cgthglic and approximately seven percent Anglican. Although clergy and civil authorities disapprove, many Seychellois see little inconsistency between their Onhgdgx feligiouS observance and belief in magic, witchcraft, and sorcery. 72 1 I g f ei