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August 16, 2025 29 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to frankly Speaking, your weekly destination for insight and inspiration,
with your host, Frank Morangos. Frankly Speaking is sponsored by
a Heppa four two one chapter of North Miami in
partnership with the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church of North Miami.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good afternoon, and welcome to another broadcast of Frankly Speaking
on this early Saturday afternoon and beautiful Southeast Florida. Is
my producer Brian Mudd just indicated, I am your host,
Frank Morangos, and for the next thirty minutes, I will
provide you with frank Talk and a lively interview that
I think you will really enjoy concerning the influence of
the ancient Hellenic ideals, values and faith of our contemporary culture.

(00:50):
To do my part to help make America Greek again.
On Friday August, in response to remarks made by the
former Russian president to meet Medeved about the risk of
war between our respective nuclear armed nations, President Trump ordered
two nuclear submarines to be positioned in what he calls

(01:10):
the appropriate regions. As expected, the media went wild with
headlines projecting the impending armageddon. Dmitri threatened that Trump would
remember that Moscow possessed Soviet era nuclear strike capabilities of
less resort, but based on the highly provocative statements of
the former president of Russia, Trump said, I have ordered

(01:34):
two nuclear submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions
just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more
than just that. Words he said are very important, and
one can often lead to unintended consequences. So I hope
this will not be one of those instances. Yes, President

(01:54):
Trump is correct. Words are very important. They mean things,
and for that reason, I've decided to focus the majority
of today's monolog on the word submarine, and more specifically,
on the origin of the concept. The United States launched
its first nuclear powered submarine on January twenty first, nineteen
fifty four, in Groton, Connecticut. The sub was called the

(02:17):
Nautilus five seventy one and marked a revolutionary envancement in
submarine technology as it could remain submerged for extended periods
in travel at high speeds. The United States has a
total of fourteen Ohio class nuclear powered submarines, each capable
of carrying up to twenty four triedent two ballistic missiles

(02:38):
that can deliver multiple thermonuclear warheads up to four thousand miles.
According to the US Navy, between eight and ten of
these Ohio class submarines are deployed at any one time
throughout the globe. The concept of a nuclear powered submarine
was pioneered by Admiral Hyman Rickover, who championed the idea
that ultimately led to the development of the nuclear reactor

(03:00):
would be needed to power such a powerful vessel. The
nineteen fifty four Nautilus, for example, was powered by pressurized
water reactor, a design that became standard for many subsequent
nuclear reactors. This type of power plant allowed the submarine
to travel at high speeds that's over twenty knots and
remains submerged for extended periods, a major leap beyond the

(03:22):
capabilities of diesel electric submarines. The Nautilus's ability to stay
submerged for extended periods, coupled with its speed, revolutionized naval
warfare and submarine operations. It demonstrated the nuclear power of
the United States Navy. The origin of the submarine, however,
reaches back to antiquity. Early inventors tested a variety of

(03:45):
methods to travel under water for exploration, recreation research, and
especially for warfare. Would you be terribly surprised if I
told you that the concept of the submarine was first
developed by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. The idea was
developed from his observations of what he called the paper Nautilus.
It is the name of a sea creature, a crustacean

(04:08):
that he wrote about in his treatise called Natural History
of Animals that he published in three hundred BC. As
a result, over the centuries, many talented and curious people
dabbled with diving bells and submergible boat designs, but achieved
limited success. In fact, a legend exists that describes how
Alexander the Great descended into the sea in a primitive

(04:31):
diving bell. However, it was not until nineteen hundred that
the U. S. Navy finally commissioned its first operational submarine
in its fleet. The first American submarine was constructed before
the Revolutionary War by David Bushnell, a young inventor from Connecticut.
He designed and built a one man submersible vessel that
he called the Turtle that featured a hand cranked screw

(04:54):
like ore that moved the boat forward and back. Under
water air pipes that brought fresh air into the boat,
ballast tanks that took on water to dive and emptied
to ascend, and even a primitive torpedo to attack enemy ships.
Encouraged by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Bushnell adopted his
vessel to be used against the British during the war

(05:17):
that sent New York Harbor into turmoil in seventeen seventy six.
To the surprise of the British ships that were blocking
the city, the Turtle's pilot, Ezra Lee, attempted to attach
explosives to the side of wooden ships, but failed to
do so before losing control of his submarine. Despite the
Turtle's lack of success, however, Bushnell proved that such a

(05:38):
vessel could be used for underwater surprise attacks. Between the
American Revolution and the Civil War, many individuals experimented with
submarine technology, including Robert Fulton, the innovator and promoter of
the steam engine. In eighteen hundred, Fulton completed his version
of the submarine that he too named the Nautilus. What

(06:00):
is fascinating is that Fulton's design introduced elements that may
still be found in modern submarines such as adjustable diving
planes for ease of vertical movement underwater, a dual system
of propulsion, and a compression air system that allowed the
crew about four hours of underwater travel. Ten years after

(06:21):
the end of the Civil War, Irish born John Holland
began designing and building submarines in the United States. Holland
submitted his first submarine design to the US Navy in
eighteen seventy five, which at the time was dismissed as
being impractical. Seeing this rejection as a challenge, Holland quickly
went back to the drawing board to redesign and improve

(06:42):
on the construction of his underwater boat. By eighteen eighty eight,
the US Navy recognized the potential for submarines in its
fleet and held a design competition. It is no surprise
that Holland's design won the award. Despite the success of
dar diesel powered submarines, the quest for a single power

(07:03):
source continued. The concept of nuclear power initially discovered by
the German scientists in nineteen thirties. Upon learning of this idea,
the American physicists Ross Gunn and Philip Abelson visualize the
potential and sketch an image of what a ship of
that type would look like. However, the most important proponent

(07:25):
of nuclear power submarines in the US was none other
than Admiral Rickover, who managed a research team that conceived
the concept of nuclear power into working submarines. Although it
sounds complex, nuclear power is rather quite easy to understand.
Nuclear power just uses atoms, the smallest particles of an element,

(07:46):
to produce an enormous amount of energy. That energy allows
the power plant on submarines to superheat the water all
around it and create steam. The steam then powers a
giant turbine, which then turns the subs propellers. These small
nuclear power plants on submarines would supply the necessary power
for these boats to travel up to five hundred thousand

(08:08):
miles and to stay under water almost indefinitely without refueling.
Rickover convinced the Navy and the Atomic Energy Commission that
nuclear power was the ideal propulsion method for submarines. So
on January seventeenth, nineteen fifty five, that is only seventy
years ago, the first nuclear powered submarine, the US Nautilus,

(08:30):
went to sea. On her first voyage, Nautilus traveled completely
submerged in the Atlantic for more than thirteen hundred miles,
and in nineteen fifty eight. Just a few years later,
she traveled under the polar ice cap and reached the
North Pole. Today's fleet of American nuclear submarines have two
crews and are able to spend up to six months

(08:53):
under water. When a boat finally returns from a lengthy patrol,
the crews just rotate, and since the vessel is refueled
only once or twice over its entire lifetime, there is
no need for them to ever stop. This is an
example of the kind of submarines that President Trump recently
ordered to locate in the appropriate regions. Changes in world

(09:16):
politics and further adaptations of sea, land, and space technologies
are creating new challenges for submarines in the twenty first century.
In the future, some are saying that submarines might not
even need a crew. Computer technology that talks to satellites
and transfers information to distant military basis for analysis would

(09:37):
captain the vote. But you might be asking, what does
all of this have to do with Greek ideals? Aristotle
and his teaching on virtue. At the end of the
thirty seventh section, of his ninth book on Natural History
of Animals, Aristotle devoted a paragraph on what I began

(09:58):
this monologue with, and that is a paper knautilus, or argonaut,
as he called it. The nautilus is actually an octopus, insists,
but one peculiar both in its nature and its habits.
It rises up from the deep waters and swims on
the surface. It rises with its shell turned downward in
order that it might rise more easily and swim with

(10:21):
it empty, But after reaching the surface it shifts position
of the shell. Aristotle continued his description by stating that
between the nautilus's feet, feelers can be found webbed growth
that resemble the substance between the toes of webbed footed birds.
It uses its winged and webbed designed when a breeze

(10:43):
is blowing for a sail and lets down some of
its feelers alongside as rudders or oars. It's frightening. But
it is true that when it fills its shell with water,
it then sinks back down in the sea as such
erraw Sstattle suggested that the multi chambered shell of the
paper nautilus functions as a sort of submarine boat. Today,

(11:07):
most marine biologists consider Aristotle's conclusions as fanciful. Amazingly, however,
his observations lasted for over two thousand years, with illustrations
of paper nautiluses, often showing the creature in its upright
shell vessel, holding its flattened arms in the air like
a sail to exploit the breezes of the ocean. Aristotle's

(11:29):
conceptualization of the nautilus's distinctive shell has captivated artists and
writers and engineers for generations. In fact, the author Jule
Verne featured a fictional submarine called the Nautilus in his
own novel twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. Apart from
inspiring various forms of art, literature, technology, and the design

(11:51):
of the first nuclear powered submarine, Aristotle used the metaphor
of a ship and its sailors to illustrate the relationship
between the soul and the bolts. In this analogy, the body
is like a ship, and the soul says it is
like a sailor. The soul, like the sailor, is seen
as the principle that gives the body that is the ship,

(12:12):
its form and purpose. This metaphor highlights that the soul
is not separated from the body, but rather an integral
part of it, much like a sailor is essential to
the function of a ship. Aristotle believed that soul was
what he called the first actuality of a living body,
meaning it's what makes a body alive and capable of activity.

(12:35):
The sailor metaform emphasizes the idea the sailor's actions, that is,
steering and navigating are what makes the ship move and
fulfill its purpose. Similarly, he says the soul's function, perception, thought,
emotion are what animate and direct the body. The ship,
in Aristotle's analogy, is the instrument or tool through which

(12:58):
the sailor. The soul upper rates the body provides the
physical structure and capabilities for the soul to function. His
metaphor is fantastic in that it emphasizes the close connection
between the soul and the body. Just as the ship
is defined by the presence and activity of the sailors,
the body is defined by the presence and activity of
the soul. This is an intimate connection where the soul

(13:21):
gives form and purpose. Aristotle acknowledged, however, that his analogy
isn't perfect. Unlike a sailor who can leave a ship.
The soul is not seen as something that can exist
independent of the body. This point is important because it
distinguishes Aristotle's view from his mentors Plato's more dualistic perspectives

(13:43):
that separate soul and body. Maybe perhaps this is why
we like Aristotle's concept of the paper nautilus so much.
In essence, Aristotle's sailor metaphor provides a powerful way to
understand his view of the soul as the act, the
principle that gives form and purpose to the body, highlighting
the intimate and inseparable relationship between the two and cultivating

(14:07):
what he calls a virtuous lifestyle. Imagine for a moment
that we are all sailors, for even a ship's captain
is always one of the sailors. He says that as such,
we primarily function as agents who are dependent on our
intellectual capabilities. In our desires, decide to do several jobs,

(14:27):
such as an oarsman, a captain, or a lookout in
order to reach our destination. No sailor, he says, is
a lone mariner. During our voyages, we understand ourselves as
members of the community of the ship, working together for
desired harbor. According to Aristotle, excellent sailors forge close bonds

(14:49):
of friendship with their co sailors for the preservation of
the ship, for the sake of the common good. Sailors
work in cooperation with each other on addition that none
of them greatly exceeds the other in virtue, for example,
to wrestle with diseases aboard the ship, with pirates, storms,
broken rudders, and to realize their objectives. Aristotle recognized the

(15:15):
vital role of sailors in various contexts, both above as
well as below the water line, often using their experiences
as analogies to illustrate his philosophical points. His perspectives can
be summarized in the following way. First, Aristotle used the
metaphor of a ship and its crew to represent the
virtues that are required for a healthy state, political community,

(15:39):
or even a fine a family unit. He compared a
political leader to a ship's captain, emphasizing the need for
practical wisdom, virtuously guiding the community towards shared goals, ensuring
the well being of its members, just as a ship's
captain strives to bring the ship safely to port. Good leaders,
he said, should pryor prioritize the common good of those

(16:02):
entrusted to their care. Aristotle emphasized as well, they need
for courage in the context of sailors facing danger at sea,
such as storms and shipwrecks. He noted that the courageous
individuals are not simply fearless in the face of dangers,
but rather know what to fear and respond appropriately. In
his analysis of a ship's crew, Aristotle highlighted the collaborative

(16:25):
nature of seafaring in the importance of teamwork, friendship love
among sailors for the preservation of their ship and the
success of their voyage. Finally, he understood the idea that
each sailor, despite their difference roles oarsmen, captain, lookout, et cetera,
function as agents contributing to the collective aim and the

(16:48):
pursuit of the common gold es central to the flourishing
of their life. In essence, Aristotle used the understanding of
the nautilus, sea urchin and the metaphors of a ship
and sale to illustrate human agency in the pursuit of
a shared goal within a community. He used them as
powerful allegories to demonstrate the attitudes, the skills and the

(17:09):
knowledge required for thriving culture. It might do us well
to reflect on his wisdom when considering the future course
of our own nations, political, cultural, and relational decisions. That is,
if we truly desire to stay the course that leads
to a virtuous life, because in the end, words mean things.

(17:30):
When we return, I will be joined by father. Andrew
mcguinnis a longtime friend, colleague, and esteemed Greek Orthodox clergyman.
Can't wait for you all to hear his Greek background
and how it has influenced his life's journey.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
We thank the have A four twenty one North Miami
chapter more their sponsorship of frankly speaking, and they promote
the ancient Hellenic ideas of education, philanthropy, civic responsibility, family,
and in the visual excellence through community service and volunteerism.
They offer scholarships annually to support students seeking a higher education.
A Heppa supports other organizations, including the Saint Basol Academy

(18:10):
in New York, IOCC hurricane relief efforts, and the local
Annunciation GOOC. If you're interested in donating to help support
these efforts, email a HEPPA four twenty one Northmiami at
gmail dot com.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
So welcome back to Frankly Speaking today, I'm thrilled to
welcome father Andrew McGuinness is a longtime friend, colleague, and
currently he's the pastor of Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church
in Fort Pierce, Florida. Father Andrew, welcome to Frankly Speaking.

Speaker 4 (18:43):
Thank you, thank you. Good to be with your frank.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
So every week I introduce to the greater public a
philanthropist and entrepreneur, faith leader, local personality. Last week we
had the good Greek on Spiro, the good Greek mover,
and today I want to say that we have the
good Greek pastor on the line, because you are known
as being a very very heartfelt pastor in your field

(19:10):
as a clergyman for many many years. And I'm really surprised.
I was looking that you were Saint Catherine's Greek Orthodox
Church for thirty years. Yes, So tell us a little
bit about your background before we get into your faith tradition.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
Okay, Well, I am native Floridian, but I hail from
Greece through my descent.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
You were born in Miami.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
Correct born in Miami. My dad is directly from Greece.
My mother's heritage came from Greece. I was one of
the privileged few. I take it to have been part
of the worshiping community as our Saint Sophia Cathedral in Miami.
And then later on while I was in college, I

(19:54):
was in South Carolina and Charleston and again a wonderful
faith community at the Holy Trinity Parish there. And I've
got to say that our worship is a church family.
What I experienced growing up and what I experienced in
my formative college years certainly is what led me to

(20:19):
enroll in seminary since I finished college.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, before you went to the seminary, you went to
the citadel?

Speaker 4 (20:24):
Correct?

Speaker 2 (20:25):
What inspired you to do that?

Speaker 4 (20:27):
I haven't accepted at three different colleges, each of which
wanted me the one I wanted to go to, the
one my best high school teacher wanted me to go to,
and the one my godfather went to. Well, I went
to the one my godfather went to. So that that's
how I got introduced to the citadel helps you grow.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
It takes I can only imagine, it takes the.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
High school student and makes as that's saying, goes.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
The whole man and your discipline and now your parents
you say they are heritage's Greek. Were they born in Greece?
Did they meet in Greece?

Speaker 4 (21:04):
My dad I was born in Greece, but spent some
of its formative years here in the States before getting
caught with World War Two and being stuck over there
for a while, so my parents didn't meet in Florida.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Did they influence you to become interested in the church?

Speaker 4 (21:25):
Only in the ways that our family worshiped together, and
that was an important part of growing up the worship experience.
Other than that, as they were as surprised as anybody
else when I said I'm born from the Citadel, I'm
going to Holy Cross a Brookline match, and.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
That's an interesting change. I would think. Did something happen
in your life that inspired you to change and then
to enter into the priesthood.

Speaker 4 (21:56):
I think it was the fulfillment of my formative years
as a child where I was attracted to the worship
in the brick Orthodox Church. So when I attended college
and the priest there made it a point to come
out to us every Sunday morning for a prayer service

(22:17):
and then invite us to the Divine liturgy in his parish.
That was just an extension of what I had learned
all along. I actually told him after my sophomore year,
I'm considering going to seminary, and told me, here are
the forums you can go right now, father Nick, I've

(22:38):
just spent the most difficult two years of my life
at the Citadel. I'm certainly going to enjoy my upper
classmen years and then i'll go. And that's what I did.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Well. I enjoyed meeting you, and we were together at
the seminary, and I recall your love of bicycling. I
remember you taking a part of bicycling your room in
pieces and putting in gasoline, probably the worst thing you
can do. And you inspired me to enter into long

(23:10):
distance bicycling as well. Do you still do that?

Speaker 4 (23:13):
I stopped doing that when I was ordained. There just
wasn't that kind of time between parish life and family
life to do what I was doing as a young man.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
And you married Elenni, who you met, I think in Jacksonville,
and I remember at the seminary you had a tandem.
You would ride it through Boston by yourself, almost as
though you were inviting someone to join you. And I
think you found a LENNI and she became your lifelong
partner in the ministry.

Speaker 4 (23:42):
I actually met her in Miami. You did invited and
invited her to ride on my tandem with me.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Oh so she did get a chance to ride on
that bike.

Speaker 4 (23:52):
She did get a chance. It's quite a wonderful experience.
And I'm more into a technology of taking care of
a bicycle like that with the weight of two people
and how it interacts and the maintenance that had to
do on it during a long distance triot of time.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
In many ways, life is like writing a tandem, isn't it.

Speaker 4 (24:15):
You have to work together with your partner, partner in
life and a partner in the Lord.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
Would you want to share with our listeners how the
Greek heritage influenced your life and continues to influence your life,
maybe as it helps you ride through life with your wife.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
The Greek heritage, as I mentioned before, is something that
you don't experience by yourself, that it's part of a family,
and when you're part of a worship family is in
the Greek Orthodox Church, you experience that. So being active
gives you that opportunity in your faith and your worship.

(25:01):
Worship is a family thing right now, at the very moment.
I just finished service on a major feast day of
our church. And when the service is over, it's not
like it's over. And then we'll see you next week.
We'll see your next feast day. We went down for
the what it's often called the liturgy. After the liturgy,

(25:24):
and we had the opportunity for fellowship, a religious discussion
hold on an informal basis, which is part of what
I find is integral to the Orthodox Christian life.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yes, and your family life must have been. I'm sure
it was an inspiration to your sons, one of which
is a clergyman himself.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
Yes, my son, the chemical engineer, found that his heart
wasn't in the profession. He took his masters then, but
he wanted to go back to the seminary, and Beaty
did and now as an assistant priest in California.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
And your other son, Arthur, Arthur is up.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
In Worcester, Massachusetts. The both graduates of Northeastern University, and
my son Arthur went into law school.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Fantastic father, Andrew, it was great to have you on
the on the show. You definitely are the good Greek pastor,
and I thank you, and I and I asked that
you pass on my regards to your family.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
I will thank you, Frank and to you God.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Bless thanks, thank you for joining me today on Frankly
Speaking at the close of each week's show, I like
to discuss the Greek etymology of a word that we
use in English, since it was used to name the
first nuclear submarine of the US Navy. Today I want
to discuss the word nautilus. The word nautilus originates from
the Greek word naftillos, which literally means sailor. The term

(26:54):
itself comes from a more ancient Greek now OUs, that
means ship. As I may mentioned in this Afternoon's monologue,
it was poetically used to describe the paper nautilus as
a type of octopus because it was believed to use
its arms as sails. The earliest studies of marine biology
traced back to the Venetians and the Greeks, who were

(27:15):
renowned explorers of the ocean and their composition. The first
recorded observations on the habits of marine life were actually
compiled by Aristotle. Apart from the word nautilus, many other
English words derived from the Greek word nofhtillos, combined with
the naous ship or noaftis, primarily those related to travel

(27:37):
by water or air. Take for example, astronaut literally means
a star sailor. The term combines the Greek word for star,
astron with naftis or sailor. Cosmonaut is another word similar
to astronaut, cosmonautus, a combination of the Greek word cosmos
referring to the universe, also using the name naftis for sailor.

(28:00):
And finally, the word aeronautics related to the science of
flight in the air, using the Greek word air combined
once again with the word naftilos. Here are still other
English words derived from the Greek nautical relating to ships, sailors,
or navigation. Navigate to plan direct the course of a
ship or aircraft or other forms of transport, and finally,

(28:23):
navigation the process or activity of accurately ascertaining one's position
and planning a following course. So, as mister gusport Trcalos
insists in my big fat Greek wedding, there you go.
Give me any word and I will show you its
Greek root. So thank you again for joining me on
Frankly Speaking, a show that seeks to provide frank talk

(28:44):
and lively interviews about the influence of ancient Hellenic ideals, values,
and faith on our contemporary culture to help make America
Greek again. If you would like to share a question
and or suggest a future guest or even a topic,
I would love to hear from you at Frank at
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