Images

Images are used liberally throughout The Carrier Project. This page will describe many of the types of images used, define the image standards, and identify (in general) the major sources of the images.

Icons

Various entries are marked by symbols, or icons, which give a graphic representation of the type of event being described. These icons were generally created by the webmaster using Paint Shop Pro and are defined here.

Accident	An unintentional incident, such as a collision or grounding. The icon represents a nautical life ring, thrown to people who fall overboard. The loops of rope on the outside of the ring make it easier for the victim to grasp it.	Administrative Action	An action is authorized, a contract awarded, a treaty signed. The quill pen symbolises the formalities surrounding such an event.
Cancel	A previously authorized action is stopped. Ship construction halted, mission cancelled, and so forth. The icon is the international "No" symbol.	Capture or Surrender	A ship is captured or surrendered, for example. The white flag is a traditional symbol of the termination of combat, used for surrender or to request a truce.
Civilian	Non-military action, usually a ship converted to civilian service. A ship's anchor, representing nautical service.	Commission	A ship or station is activated (commissioned). The icon shows the red, white and blue bunting that is draped over a ship's bow and speakers' platform at it's commissioning ceremonies.
Damage	Damage, usually caused by enemy action. May also mean damage caused by accident (when paired with the Accident icon) or by storm action (paired with the Weather icon). The explosion image evokes a violent event.	Decommission or Retired	A ship being removed from active service, for example. The gold watch is a traditional retirement gift; the hands on the face of the watch read five o'clock (1700 hours), time to go home at the end of the day.
Disaster	A catastrophic, usually naturally caused event, such as a flood, earthquake, fire, etc. The symbol is the internationally-recognised Red Cross.	First Event	A first-time event, or a record being broken. The gold star represents "#1".
Keel	A ship's keel being laid, beginning construction. The image represents an old-style ship's keel, keelpost and ribs. Ships aren't built that way anymore. Nowadays, sub-assemblies are joined together into modules called "superlifts"; these are placed on the building ways and joined together to eventually become the ship. Sort of like Lego building blocks, but on a grand scale.	Launch	Ship launched. A bottle of champagne is traditionally broken over the bow of the ship as it is christened. "It" then becomes "she".
Movie	Motion picture or documentary film. The icon shows an old-style motion picture camera, with film reels on top.	Museum or Memorial	A ship is preserved as a museum, or a memorial is dedicated. The ornate sign, surmounted by an anchor, indicates a naval museum.
Space	Action involving the U. S. space program. The icon is a much-reduced image of the NASA logo from the 70s.	Nuclear	A nuclear event, usually a test. The mushroom cloud indicates a massive explosion, and usually is taken to mean a nuclear detonation, although any major explosion - nuclear or otherwise - will create a mushroom cloud.
Reef	Usually indicates a ship deliberately sunk as an artificial reef, usually to create habitat for marine life and a site for sport divers, thus the fish image. May also indicate participation in a marine science project, such as oceanography, marine archaeology, etc.	Refit	Major refit and/or systems upgrade. The symbolism of the paintbrush represents replacing the old with the new.
Reserve	Ship or aircraft preserved in storage as part of the reserve fleet (a.k.a. "Ghost Fleet" or "Boneyard"). The subdued U. S. flag is intended to indicate waiting...	Scrap	A ship or installation disposed of by destruction, rather than sale or transfer to another service. The welding/cutting torch is a typical tool of the shipbreaker.
Special Mission	Secret or special mission, such as the Doolittle Raid or Operation Sea Orbit. The red-bordered orders indicate "Secret" or "important".	Weather	A meteorological event, such as a storm or tsunami. The icon is a standard weather symbol for a hurricane.
Stricken	Removed from service, but not disposed of. The image shows the letters "CV" being erased by a pencil eraser.	Sunk	Ship sunk, usually due to enemy action, including scuttling due to battle damage. Self-explanatory.
Target	Ship expended as target for gunnery or missile tests/training. The icon represents a sighting reticle.	Training	Ship assigned as training vessel, such as for carrier qualification. May also be used to indicate a major exercise, like the old Fleet Problems. "An apple for the teacher."
Unknown	Current status or final fate of ship unknown; cause or result of an action unknown.

Flags

National flags are used in a variety of ways in The Carrier Project:

To identify the nationality of a foreign ship
To identify the nations involved in a political action, as on the Timeline page
To identify the country that a surplus ship has been transferred to
To mark the flagship of a task force or fleet formation (usually trimmed in gold; see Argentina, below)
To identify an official, government-sponsored, website

The chart below shows the various national flags currently being used in The Carrier Project. These are much-reduced copies of a series of GIF images that I collected from Usenet some years ago.

Argentina	Brazil	Britain	Canada	Chile
China	Denmark	France	Germany WWII	Germany Postwar & Reunited
Iceland	Iran	Italy	Japan WWII	Japan Postwar
Mexico	Netherlands	Pakistan	Panama	Peru
Poland	Russia WWII	Russia Post-Berlin Wall	South Korea	Spain
Taiwan	Turkey	United States Civil War (Union)	United States Civil War (Confederate)	United States Modern
Uruguay

Other Images

Other images used include photographs, drawings or artwork. These will usually be set off from the text in a frame or border, and normally will be accompanied by additional information; a caption or description and the name of the source of the image (linked to the originating website, if any). Images themselves will either be directly called ("deep linked") from the source website, or will have been downloaded or scanned and stored in The Carrier Project's Photobucket album. They will usually be presented in a reduced-size format using the WIDTH specification of the IMG SRC tag. If the original image is too large, it will have been downloaded, resized and stored at Photobucket to reduce page loading time.

About The Carrier Project
General Site Organization	Page Layout	Technology
Site Conventions	General Information	The Site Refit
Images	Ship Class Data	The Site Refit (Older Notes)
Glossary: Words and Abbreviations	Individual Ship Data	List of Page Dedications