Page 197 - NS-2 Textbook

192 NAUTICAL SCIENCES

The harbor at Naples, Italy. The twin cones of the volcano Mount Vesuvius are in the background.

u.s. Sixth Fleet is at Gaeta (G1H't'-ta), Italy, about halfway ranean basin. This continued lmtil1986, when in retalia-
between Rome and Naples. tion for several Libyan-sponsored terrorist attacks, the
The Ukrainian Black Sea fleet headquarters is located United States lalmched a retaliatory attack against
at Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula. Major ship- Qadhafi's terrorist bases. The area has been relatively
yards for merchant and naval surface ships are located at quiet ever since. II
Nikolayev (Nik-a-Hi'-yaf), near Odessa, which is where
Russian aircraft carriers are built.
Strategic Geography. We have talked about the Strait
of Gibraltar as the dOOlway to the Atlantic Ocean from
the Mediterranean Sea. There are two other key choke
points of navigation associated with the Mediterranean
area: the Turkish straits, called the Bosporus (Bos'-per-as)
and the Dardanelles (Dard-n-elz'), and the Suez Canal.
In peace the Turkish straits are open to all ships by
international agreement. In 'Va1~ h01vever, the straits may
be closed to any nation at war with Turkey. Turkey is a
member of NATO. Russian and Ukrainian naval vessels
from Black Sea ports freely use the straits to support and
relieve the ships in the Mediterranean.
The Suez Canal is a vital waterway for the allies. On
this narrow water path through the Egyptian desert,
most surface cargo between Europe and Asia passes. As
was proved in the Arab-Israeli wars in 1967 and 1973, the
canal can be blocked quickly with mines or a few sunken
ships.
Farther to the west, during the late 1970s and early
1980s the North African cOlmtry of Libya, and its dic-
tatorial ruler Muamrnar Qaddafi, became a growing The Turkish straits consist of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, the
sponsor for terrorist activity throughout the Mediter- only access between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.