Ship Trivia Quiz

Okay, hopefully this has not been done before.

Name two stories or poems about Siren type women who lure ships and boats to ruin and sailors to their deaths?

Steve

Hopefully this is a valid question.

Here she is foundering. The flag was supposedly flying upside down as a sign of distress but is not depicted that way in the painting.

AKA “The Ship of Gold”. You are up, Steve!

The Central America which went down on a voyage to New York in 1857?

Steve

HINT: all of the women and all but one of the children survived!

Thanks, Lee.

What was the SECOND ship had “women and children first”?

That is the answer. Thanks for including the Rudyard Kipling verse.

You are up, Tom!

Lee

The HMS Birkenhead was one of the first iron hulled ships in the Royal Navy, by the way.

HMS Birkenhead and ‘Birkenhead drill’.

On February 25, 1852, the British troopship HMS Birkenhead struck a hidden reef off the South African coastline. Lieutenant-Colonel Seton directed the soldiers and crew to stand fast. When the ship went down more than 400 people drowned (only 193 of the 643 people on board survived). However the lifeboats stayed afloat! Thus the legend of the ‘Birkenhead drill’. Women and children first gained further prominence in the wake of the Titanic sinking.

‘The Birkenhead Drill’ was celebrated in verse by Rudyard Kipling in his moral boosting work Soldier an’ Sailor Too:

To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about,
Is nothing so bad when you've cover to 'and, an' leave an' likin’ to shout;
But to stand an’ be still to the Birken’ead drill is a damn tough bullet to chew,
An’ they done it, the Jollies - 'Er Majesty’s Jollies - soldier an' sailor too!
Their work was done when it 'adn’t begun; they was younger nor me an' you;
Their choice it was plain between drownin' in 'eaps an' bein' mopped by the screw,
So they stood an' was still to the Birken'ead drill, soldier an' sailor too!

Thank you, Mr. Morrison.

 A drill was named for this ship and was curiously the precursor to the tradition of "Women and children first".

What was the ship and who named the drill?

Hubert Wilkins, with financing from the coal heir Lincoln Ellsworth, undertook a series of expeditions including an attempt to reach the North Pole by submarine. The expedition leased the submarine O-12 from the USN and refitted her to include an arched topside that could slide under the polar ice cap, and an auger to bore holes for the snorkel.

She was 175 feet long, 560 tons and diesel powered. The batteries could run her about 125 miles.

Aptly, she was renamed Nautilus.

After a series of misadventures, the expedition was abandoned and she was scuttled in Norway.

She was able to go about as far as 80 N.

The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus encountered similar problems in her initial trips under the ice cap. Significant damage to the sail and the periscopes was made by ice projecting down that the rather primitive upward looking depth sounders did not detect. Also, open leads or polynyas were far fewer and more distant apart than was supposed. That made navigation difficult as gyrocompasses did not function well at that latitude, and LORAN was not usable unless surfaced, and even then celestial navigation was more accurate. She reach the pole on August 3rd, 1958. USS Skate did the same on August 11th, although neither surfaced.

USS Skate returned on March 17th, 1959 and as Subfixer correctly reported, committed Wilkins' ashes to a location at or about the North Pole.

Over to you, sir.

Hubert Wilkins. He made an unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole in 1931. USS Skate delivered his ashes to the Pole when she made her historic surfacing there on March 17, 1959, thus completing his journey.

He tried to get there in 1931, and finally did on March 17, 1959.

Who was he and where is "there".

You have it my Friend. Over to you for the next one.....Cheers Mark

Esmond Knight

H.M.S. Prince of Wales

"Sink the Bismark!".

He was an ally and the engagement occured in the Atlantic.

Bumpety-bump. Well, I did as much research as I could, but came up empty handed. What nationality was/is he?

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................................

OK. This Seaman was involved in one of the great Sea Engagements of the Second World War. After the War he became an Actor. One of his Roles in a Movie was to play the CO of the Vessel he was on during the Engagement so here are the Questions for you to Ponder...........

Actors Name........

His Ship.......

The Movie's Name.....  

And it is the Westerdam.....sunk once by allied bombing, and twice by the Dutch resistance.  Over to you

OK could it be the Mv Westerdam (46-65). She sank3 Times before making her Maiden Voyage. She was a Cargo/Passenger Vessel.

wow, I didnt think this one would go this long.  Hint--two of the three similar events were caused by Dutchmen.....and this all took place in the 20th century.

No, not the Great Eastern, again I am looking for a ship that was designed to handle two tasks at once.  the Great Eastern was solely a passenger ship, able to accommodate 4,000 passengers around the globe without the need to refuel.  And the "three things" is not correct.  But that's a good guess, I had never heard of this ship before.  

OK it was the SS Great Eastern and what she did 3 Times was to fail at her Launching.

no, the Hunley was a warship, and nothing more.  This ship was designed from the outset to perform two different tasks.  Also, the "three times" I am referring to all happened before the ship's maiden voyage took place....

to attack the union ships blockading confederate ports. 3rd time was the charm as sank union ship but was still sunk.

Could it have been the Hunley as she sank 3 Times.

OK.....

Most ships can only do this one time, but one ship did it three times.  This ship was built for two purposes at the same time.  Name the ship, and for bonus points, name the circumstances surrounding the "three times".

correct. got that from the book "tin cans". your turn.

I believe you are looking for the USS Truxtun, USS Pollux and USS Wilkes.  Pollux was a US supply ship, Truxtun was an old "four piper" destroyer, and Wilkes was a newer Gleaves class destroyer.  They were sailing together to Argentia, Newfoundland in February 1942.  The seas were rough and the weather was poor due to a storm.  Visibility was down to zero.  The three ships all ran aground within 2 miles of each other near the Newfoundland town of Lawn.  Wilkes was able to shift cargo and weight aft, and lightened the bow enough that she came up off the rocks on her own, but Pollux and Truxtun were both lost.  In both cases, the crews abandoned ship and tried to make their way to land.  In the process, 110 men from Truxtun and 93 men from Pollux died.  

nope. hint: east coast of newfoundland.