Ship Trivia Quiz

Name the ship that conducted the only wartime aircraft-dropped bombing on the United States and the pilot name?

Jim 

The book is buried away in a box in the attic, but in 6th grade I bought a Scholastic Books paperback entitled Great Untold Stories of World War Two, and this story was one of them.  It was a plane launched from a Japanese sub off the Pacific coast, which dropped two incendiary bombs in the forests of Oregon.  The plan was to start a raging forest fire that would sweep down into California destroying all before it, including (hopefully) part of the aircraft industry on the west coast, while at the same time horrifying the populace with the destruction of which the Japanese Empire was capable.  The fires started, I believe, were extinguished by mother nature within hours and caused little damage outside the areas of impact.

I can't get to the book so I can't give the details, but I remember being fascinated by this story, so I wanted to chip in at least a bit.

You have the right story I-25 and Nobuo Fujita. The fist bomb dropped on the continental United States. Alumni72 your up next.

Jim 

When will I learn to keep my big mouth shut?

Give me a chance to come up with something at least half-witted.

OK, I want to get something out before too long, and this might be a bit lame and a little easier than I want it to be - but here goes.  It's more of a teaser:

This ship, part of the navy of a would-be nation, began life as a tugboat.  She was tender to a historic ship in a historic battle against another historic ship in its first action ever, and ended her career when she was captured by that same opponent in its last action ever.  But this ship's real claim to fame, so to speak, is that she provided her nation's one and only effort in naval aviation.

There - I hope this one keeps you all occupied for at least five minutes. 

Yes indeedy.

CSS Teaser, began life as a tug in Philadelphia around 1855.  She then served as a (very minor) gunboat and tender to the CSS Virginia during the battle with USS Monitor at Hampton Roads, the Monitor's first action.

She  then was "converted" - although how much conversion was necessary nobody knows - for use as a 'balloon vessel' along the James River. On July 4 1862 she was engaged by the USS Maratanza, with the USS Monitor in support, and captured.  This was the Monitor's last action before being lost at sea.

The balloon she towed for three days before her capture went into popular lore as one made of silk from the gowns donated by patriotic southern belles living in Richmond.  A nice tale, but untrue - the balloon was made in Savannah GA and had already been used in the Peninsula campaign.

Good work, Schoonerbum - you're up.

Did my use of the word 'teaser' give it away? I couldn't resist.

Nope, "teaser" didn't help, but it did bring a smile when I figured it out. Your most useful hint was "would-be-nation"... not many options there, at least ones with a navy, and obviously a tug was too small for a carrier or even a seaplane tender.... led me to start with a confederate balloon.

OK, this should be an easy one...

At one point in his career, Captain James Cook was assigned to command HMS Drake, he never sailed on the Drake, what happened?

Resolution began her career as the North Sea collier Marquis of Granby, launched at Whitby in 1770, and purchased by the Royal Navy in 1772. She was originally to be renamed Drake, but fearing this would upset the Spanish, she was instead renamed Resolution.

Jim

Runkel has it!

Cook's officers and men were initially issued commisions for Drake and Raleigh. England had just recently avoided a war with Spain and one of the secretaries of state, Lord Rochford, worried that the two names would be extremely offensive to Spain. Aurora and Hisperous were the first two names suggested, but not well liked. Resolution and Adventurer were then considered, with the final selection of Resolution for Cook's ship and Adventure for Furneaux's. New commisions and warants had to be issued.

But England's efforts to placate the Spanish were fruitless. Even before Resolution and Discovery departed on Cook's third voyage, the Spanish crown had already sent orders to the Viceroy of New Spain to apprehend Cook. By the time the Spanish expedition left Mexico in February 1779 to search for Cook, the famous Captain had already been killed in Hawaii.

What was the name of the ship John F Kennedy first met Winston Churchill?

Jim

subfixer you got it 1957. Next question.

Jim

Thanks, runkel.

  What do the city of Phoenix, Arizona and DaNang have in common?

We need to start some where. They both had US Navy ships named after them.

Jim

taking it a step futher, they both had ships named for them that were later renamed... 

but based on Da Nang being in italics and Phoenix not, it appears that the question refers to the city of Phoenix and the ship (presumably LHA) Da Nang.

schoonerbumm wrote:

taking it a step futher, they both had ships named for them that were later renamed...  but based on Da Nang being in italics and Phoenix not, it appears that the question refers to the city of Phoenix and the ship (presumably LHA) Da Nang.

Not an LHA.

  "Is this one of those " the son of the sponsor of the USS KheSanh/DaNang/Peleliu,LHA-5, is now the mayor of Phoenix, Arizona?" type associations?"

Believe me, I am not sophisticated enough to come up with one of those. But the two do share a common bond. Da Nang is not the present name of the ship, I'll give you that much. Now get off your seat and run with it.

C'mon you guys, how many hints and clues do you need?  LST, seat.....

county?? it now belongs to a third party?? not named Da Nang anymore... must have been changed by the new owners to another one.

Nobody? You people...tsk tsk, no knowledge of LST naming systems? Shameful!

USS Maricopa County is named for a county in northern Arizona. She was sold to S. Vietnam in 1962 and renamed Da Nang. Captured by N. Vietnam 1975 and renamed Tran Khnanh Du. Still active in the N. Vietnamese navy.

My turn?

subfixer wrote:

I sent him a PM a few days ago with no response. If it is OK with you, Surfaceline, seeing as you are the first responder, how about you asking the next question.

Just as long as it's not "what color were the battleships painted on 12/7"