re: #19 Chrysicat

Anything floating on the ocean and not a submarine has been a target for some time.

The US has spent almost a century building a great blue water Navy - a way of duplicating and then surpassing the British Navy - that has only been challenged once, in WWII. Since then the US Navy has fought grossly inferior enemies, or just been a pawn in the Cold War.

Put simply - if something floats it can sink.