Randolph (CVA 15) - Naval Cruise Book

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THESE TROUBLED WATERS Continued from Page I5 pire, although the Eastern, or Byzantine Empire con-- tinued for more than a thousand years until I453. WVith the passing of Rome, Byzantium became the only naval power in the lvlediterranean, and naval warfare became a long story of piracy and police action, until a new alignment of power appeared. In 622 an Arab, an uneducated man, but speaking with the voice of a prophet, fled from the town of Mecca under political pressure. From that event dates one of history's most amazing movements. In a matter of a few years the followers of Mohammed exploded across Africa and deep into Europe, bringing to the world what proved to be by far its longest and most bitter contest. Islam and Christendom warred con- tinuously from 622 until as late as the First WVorld XfVar, and the ancient rivalry still smolders in the Middle East. In 1958 Randolph was one of hundreds of war- ships of the Christian nations rushed to the Eastern Mediterranean when the delicate balance of Christians and Moslems in Lebanon threatened war. It was Byzantium that first carried the burden of re' sisting Islam's fiery advance. Her situation between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean demanded a large navy, which she kept, but it was not the way of Islam to Hght pitched battles at sea. Every minor oriental potentate, of which there were thousands, and more thousands of private persons, with the blessing of their religion, sent their sleek, fast galleys raiding the ships and ports of Christendom. To police these pirates, Byzantium developed the idea of the cruiser, a fast warship that patrolled and fought alone or in small numbers. One of the military reasons for the long survival of Byzantium was her possession of a secret weapon, Greek fire, the atomic bomb of the Middle Ages. The formula for this terrible substance was so closely guarded over hundreds of years that today we are only able to guess what it might have been. However, its employment was very similar to one of our modern weapons, the flame thrower. Byzantine warships mounted nozzles in their bows through which the lluid was pumped, and ignited by a torch as it issued in a flaming stream. The Byzantine navy was the Hrst to have a special rate of gunner's mates, and the Hrst to perfect the technique of destroying its enemies at a distance. In l453 Constantinople was captured by the Otto- man Turks, but long before that date other Christian powers had risen in the YVest and had taken up the war against Islam. In the W'est, after the fall of the Roman Empire, civilization was preserved only in the Catholic Church for hundreds and hundreds ol' years. When in the Middle Ages Europe at last began again to develop ordered government and the pursuit of civilized ends, it was accomplished under the aegis ol' the Churcli. lhe ideal ol the Church was to weld liuropc, which had long been disorganized and divided by petty chieltains and local wars, into one great Iffll gious community. Une ol the principal methods the Church used to achieve this unity was the Crusade. which channeled the belligerent spirit ol the European warriors against a common enemy, Islam. During the llth century the armies ol liuiope had begun to make headway against the inroads ol the Saracens, and in 1095 the lfirst Crusade was launched by Pope Urban ll. 'Iihis was the most successful ol fi'-' A, 'N ff f ,. . Hs , 'Fif i' I M ff 41 7 F f-lx., ff Ss' f c Nxy L 1 sf f s' f ff lil ,X J! X Phoenician the many crusades of the next 200 years, and jeru- salem was captured in lO99. The Christians estab- lished the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a state which was a going concern until ll87 when Jerusalem was lost. and which was not formally dissolved until 1291. At Hrst, relations between Christians and Bloslems were satisfactory, business flourished and the Moslems were tolerant of Christianity. However. the Moslems. too. developed the crusading spirit. and in HST, Saladin led a Moslem crusade, a bliifllllf. which overwhelmed the Kingdom of jerusalem. Many more crusades were launched, but except for a few years of negotiated peace, jerusalem remained hrmly in the hands of the Moslems. Several of the crusades were conveyed to the East in huge convoys. One of them failed to fight the Saracens at all, because in mid-passage the leaders were induced to take a hand in a political argument in the Byzantine Empire, and their force was directed against Constantinople. The last crusade was taken to Pal' estine by St. l.ouis ol France. a king who was recognized as a saint in his own life-time, in a vast lleet of ISOO ships, some of which carried as mans as H100 persons. Although there were no lleet actions. lighting at sea was continuous and bloody as the raiders of the Bar- bary Coast continued to pres' on the counuerce of ll-l