With all this talk of war and peace , US Marines arriving in Darwin , you could not be blamed for thinking the above gleaming, standout vessel in the port of Townsville is part of a modern day US Navy Great White Fleet ,similar to the 1908 armada sent out by President Theodore Roosevelt to circumnavigate the world .It included 16 battleships and escort vessels, to show America's growing might and its capacity to deploy in the Philippines and the Pacific. Australia and New Zealand were visited by the fleet, attracting huge crowds, covered previously in this blog,a Kiwi postcard ,below, issued to mark the event .
On the same day ,the following activity in Cleveland Bay provided another interesting subject for our Shipping Reporter, , the only one north of Oyster Bay . He was informed it is an operation to prepare the shipping channel to be extensively dredged to widen and deepen it to enable entry of larger vessels , including cruise ships . It is a barge towed about by tugs on which there is a large crane being used to "pull up a stump " . The impact of dredging on Magnetic Island ,especially on the coral and beaches, is a matter of concern.
