Ship Trivia Quiz

Sumpter's up! Charles Darwin is the answer I had in mind.

I just consider myself lucky that there wasn't a Coast Guard vessel named Birch.

By the way, Darwin and Lincoln don't just share the same birth date, they were both born on the same day in 1809.

I'm looking forward to Sumpter's question.

  My question is simple, perhaps too simple, but we'll see.

   Can anyone box the compass?
 

N NbE NNE NEbN NE NEbE ENE EbN E EbS ESE SEbE SE SEbS SSE SbE S

SbW SSW SWbS SW SWbW WSW WbS W WbN WNW NWbW NW NWbN NNW NbW N

NbW NNW NWbN NW NWbW WNW WbN W WbS WSW SWbW SW SWbS SSW SbW S

SbE SSE SEbS SE SEbE ESE EbS E EbN ENE NEbE NE NEbN NNE NbE N

...."around the world and back"

...."around the world and back"

I was right, it was to simple. Your up schoonerbumm! Bring her up tight, trim sheets, and put a bone in her teeth!

By the way, your avatar, what vessel? 

For the rest of the forum....

A novice helmsman was sometimes required to "box the compass" just before he took the wheel or tiller, meaning recite the 32 points of the compass, forwards and backwards.

Another "around the world" question.

Who do the ships Victory, Constitution, Globe, the Clemson Class...  and the world's oldest profession have in common?

Lady Washington.  That was me on the tiller... about nine years ago.

 Sweet! I managed to get a Saturday afternoon at the helm of Stephen Taber, while on a week long cruise in September '69. That's one of those things I'll never forget.

schoonerbumm wrote:

For the rest of the forum.... A novice helmsman was sometimes required to "box the compass" just before he took the wheel or tiller, meaning recite the 32 points of the compass, forwards and backwards.

Excellent! I was wondering what that meant "box the compass" I am thoroughly enjoying this Thread! I'm learning so much! Thanks guys!

Man I'd love to man the tiller of a great ship one day! 

Hi

Ah yes, , , Lady Washington, ,aka U.S.S. Enterprise ! Yes they used the Lady W. as the sailing ship Enterprise in one of the Star Trek movies, where one of the NCC-1701D officers walks the plank. The first of the N.G. crew movies.

SteveH

Schoonerbum's latest question is indeed thought-provoking.  But having spent a good deal of time on his last one, only to make a thorough fool of myself (I've been doing that on a fairly regular basis recently), I think I'd better stay away from this one.   I await the answer with great anticipation.

Yes, the Lady Washington has had several starring roles in movies and TV specials.

Her most famous one was as Captain Jack Sparrow's stolen HMS Interceptor, "fastest ship in the Royal Navy". I crewed on one of the legs on her transit to the Caribbean for filming in 2001.

Check out the POTC I special features for an interview with one of her Captains and footage of her voyage.  

They were used as survey ships.

Jim

runkel wrote:

They were used as survey ships.   Jim

 Prostitutes used as survey ships?? Please elaborate.

Hmm...  I thought this one would go quickly with all of the Constitution buffs in the forum.

hint #1: May 11th is celebrated annually, by American destroyermen, at a certain port, in honor of this man for his exploits there.

hint#2: Oliver Wendell Holmes got the credit, but this man probably had more to do with saving the Constitution.

hint #3: USS Cyane

hint #4: USS Dolphin

Nobody seems to want to come in on your clues, so I'll have a guess that the "Tampico Affair" is part of the answer? What the connection with Victory is I have no idea.

Rick

RickF,

Thanks for the guess, but no, the Dolphin in question was from about 80 years before the Tampico affair.

Another hint: The oficer in question was also credited with winning the US Navy's first action in the Hawaiian Islands, hence the May 11 remembrance.

It appears that this question is going to earn me a barrage of cyber vegetables.

 Found the key, "Mad Jack" / "Roaring Jack" Purcival. He commanded USS Dolphin, USS Cyanne, USS Constitution, a Clemson Class flush deck destroyer, DD-298, was named for him, He was rumored to have commanded Nelson"s Victory in the Battle of Trafalger, He rescued two crewmen of the Whaler Globe, and confronted the Calvinist Missionaries in the port of Honolulu, over the "visitation by girls" to the vessels in port, viewed,and prohibited, by the calvinists, as prostitution.  He departed Honolulu on May 11th. He was also prominent in the refitting of USS Constitution.

Sumpter does it again!

I won't go into Mad Jack's biography, other than to say that John Percival was reputed to have commanded Victory's fore top at Trafalgar, not the ship. For Constitution buffs, Percival was a driving force within the Navy to save "Old Ironsides" and as a result, was given command of her on her subsequent circumnavigation (which included America's first military involvement in Viet Nam!)

I suggest that forum readers google "john percival" or "mad jack percival" for some fun reading.

A novelist would have a hard time inventing a character like Mad Jack and making him believable. Imagine a scene where missionaries have convinced the Hawaiian royalty to  not allow "the trade" and the first US Navy vessel in the Hawaiian Islands arrives.  

"Mad Jack Percival demanded an audience with Prime Minister Kalanimoku and the Dowager Queen (and regent) Kaahumanu. In his message, Percival asserted that denying women to his crew was an insult to the American flag."  ( google "the battle of honolulu" to see what happened)

Both Herman Mellville and James Mitchner created characters in their novels based on Mad Jack.

Mad Jack Percival Day is celebrated at Pearl Harbor on the anniversary of Dolphin's departure from the Hawaiian Islands.

Percival is also commemorated in a folk song "The Balllad of Mad Jack" performed by "Schooner Fare" and a painting of Dolphin in Hawaii by marine artist Raymond Massey (http://www.shipstoregalleries.com/fineart/artists/massey/orig/dolphin_honolulu_o.html)

Sumpter, you're up again.

that outermost seam between the deck and the hull. 

(I'd use tube glue, personally) 

Devil seams to caulk and pay were those just at or below the waterline that could be worked only while heeled underway.

Jim

Devil seams to caulk and pay were those just at or below the waterline that could be worked only while heeled underway.

   I'll give that one, Runkel has it! The exact wording would be , the devil is the longest seam, usually at the "turn" of the bilge,(just at or below the waterline) . It is also the "devil" refered to in "Between the devil and the deep blue sea".