Ship Trivia Quiz

Hmmm....I've long been under the impression that Captain Kirk was, by Gene Roddenberry's own admission, based on Horatio Hornblower - who (despite what C. Northcote Parkinson might have us believe) was a totally fictitious character.  (Forester apparently was inspired by Lord Cochrane, but to call the latter "the real Hornblower" is a bit of an overstatement.)

Come to think of it, though, I heard that Kirk/Hornblower connection from various Trekkie friends of mine; I don't know whether Roddenberry ever put it in writing or not. 

This one has me stumped.  I'll be interested in the answer.

I'll take a stab....

Spock= Fletcher Christian

Kirk= William Bligh

Airfix HMS Bounty

Jack

Close, but Bligh would have been reincarnated as Lt. Sulu (giveaway hint #3).

I've never heard of the Roddenberry quote on Hornblower. One of Roddenberry's statements that I remember was that it was the 'wild west' in space. I don't buy either one.

It appears that after the success of the pilot episode, there was this big "Oh $#!+! what do we do now?!!!"

Rodenberry found his answer in history. The Star Trek series has a huge parallel in history, in fact, too parallel... if the original story was fiction, it might be called plagiarism.  Kirk and Spock's characters, the opening narration in each episode, the 'prime directive', the nature of the mission, the nature of Enterprise's encounters, the uniforms of the security details.... even "tribbles" were derived from the life a single historical personage and his companions.

Got part of it! (I think)

Kirk= Cook

Spock = George Dixon??

HMS Endeavor ! Which I can't remember who makes it in plastic, so I'll say.... I dunno.... AIRFIX!?

Spock = Wm Bush

(Kirk = Hornblower) 

Looks like Cadet Jack has the floor. 

The answers (though without ever getting an admission from Roddenberry, they may only be opinions) to the original question were Banks and Endeavour.

The ship was (the Airfix) Endeavour, James Cook was the inspiration for James T. Kirk and Sir Joseph Banks the model for science officer Spock.

The "prime directive" mimicked orders given, not only to Cook, but later Pacific explorers De La Perouse and Malaspina, to establish good relations and to use violence only as a last resort, with any of the new civilizations they encountered.

The Endeavour, Resolution and Enterprise were all on multi year missions.

On his second voyage, Cook claimed that he had sailed "..farther than any other man before me". Kirk claimed "to boldly go where no man has gone before"

Cook's logs of all three of his voyages were international best sellers... Kirk opened every episode with "Captain's log: stardate..."

Cook landed with his red coated marines on new unexplored islands, Kirk transported to new unexplored worlds with red uniformed (usually expendable) security details.

Cook's men were greeted by sexually uninhibited Polynesian babes... Kirk had the green babe, among others... remember the androids?

Kirk's ship was overrun with "Tribbles", Cook's ship was overrun with giant cockroaches picked up in New Zealand.

A common theme in Star Trek was the "wow" effect the trekkies had on technncally inferior civilizations...just like cannon, muskets and fireworks impressed stone aged islanders. 

Way too many parallels for coincidence, except of course, Kirk never got to be the main course at dinner.

By the way, a Lt. Bligh was Cook's sailling master in Resolution.

Thank you schoonerbumm,

That one threw me at first because I could only think of the re-made pilot episode in which Spock faces courts marshal for mutiny.

Here's one that is a little esoteric.... from the movie Otakotakae no Yamato (The Last Battle of Yamato)

Two of the young cadets, upon embarking on the Yamato, are assigned to an anti-aircraft battery, specifically battery #4 on the starboard side.

Question: What is the designation of the type of AA gun depicted and whose design was sold to Japan as the prototype?

Well, wouldn't we all like to forget the French!?

Dang, runkel, I thought that might be a bit tougher! You're right, the Hotchkiss design was adopted and became the Type 36 25mm AA cannon.

There is a company making turned brass barrels for these guns in 1:350 scale! I really hate to think of sticking these all over a late-war version of the Yamato or Musashi!

OK, runkle, you have a clean deck and it's yours!

Seven hundred tons, seven battle stars, three Oscar nominations, and one win for best supporting actor...   USS Reluctant

It helps to be a geezer on this forum.

My typing hasn't slowed down - but the keys have started to move on me.

OK -

Name the only person to have a Liberty ship named after them while they were still alive.

I can't resist throwing in a bit of trivia of my own here - one that I picked up when I was working on a drawing of an "FS boat" for the Coast Guard Historian's Office.  The book, play, and movie "Mister Roberts" are wonderful commentaries on life in the Navy during WWII.  (The captain in the movie reminded my father so much of his captain that he - my father - always had trouble watching it.)  And the ship in the book was a good-sized cargo ship (AK).  The irony is that none of the FS boats, including the one that played the Reluctant in the movie, were operated by the Navy during WWII.  They were Army vessels, many of them manned by Coast Guard crews. 

Another one got a considerable public reputation after the war:  she was transferred to the Navy, modified into a communications ship, and named U.S.S. Pueblo.

That Liberty ship would have been Francis J. O' Gara.

 Mr.O'Gara was sunk on the Jean Nicolet by a Japanese submarine in the Indian Ocean in 1944.  But he survived and spent 15 months in a prison camp.  He got the opportunity to seee his name on the side of a ship.  Later he was presented with the builder's plaque from the ship.

Surface_Line has the answer, and is up next.

The fate of the Jean Nicolet was a particularly grisly one. (pardon the appearance of the following account - I tried to clean it up as best I could.)

US Ship "Jean Nicolet" was torpedoed and sunk (by I-8) while en route from Los Angeles and Fremantle to Colombo and Calcutta with a cargo of US Army stores.  It has been said that the Japanese took all the sailors on to the submarine`s deck and killed them one by one. Many were massacred by clubbing, bayoneting or beheading. Then an aircraft was heard, and the remaining survivors were left squatting on deck with their hands tied behind their backs, while the submarine submerged. Yet a further account (Rohwer) says: One of the 103 crew members of the "Jean Nicolet" was killed immediately, five were taken below and never seen again and one was disembowelled. Ninety-six survivors picked up by the submarine were injured while running the gauntlet of the crew. Twenty-three of them survived when the submarine had to dive, and they were rescued by an Indian warship on 4 July 1944.

SS Francis J O'Gara, huh?  I like Liberty ships. Let's start with them for the next question.  But warships are good, too.

On a bit of a less cheerful note, can anyone explain the connection between the SS Francis J. O'Gara and the "Caine Mutiny"?

 Rick 

OK - that must be too obscure.

hint#1:  From the "Caine Mutiny" side, the association runs through an actual event, similar in many ways to the novel, that occurred in 1966. 

Woo. Nothing but crickets. This isn't going well, is it?

Another hint?  The common thread is the type of duty carried out by the two ships in question. 

We need to get this turkey wrapped up and put to bed, with or without digital vegetable throwing.

The 1966 event was documented in "The Arnheiter Affair" by Neil Sheehan.

There really was something in common between the ship that was the subject of this book and the ship that had been the SS Francis J. O'Gara.

Please, somebody help me here. 

I wasn't able to get anywhere with this one for 1966.

O'Gara was recomissioned as Outpost in 1957, but de-comissioned in 1965.

 The Caine Mutiny was written and filmed in the 50s.

There's an obvious comparison between Arnheiter and Queeg. But, Arnheiter's only command was the Vance, he was in Ingersoll before that. Perhaps one of the Vance's other officers served on the Outpost. 

This is all I could dig up.

Another controversy in the sixties surrounded the relief of Lieutenant Commander Marcus A. Arnheiter from the command of the destroyer escort Vance. Arnheiter was a highly individualistic skipper who apparently engaged in certain irregular and illegal practices while serving in the Vance. His real crime was that he completely destroyed the morale and effectiveness of his officers and men through excessive zeal and extremely poor leadership.

Desperation potshot:

Neil Sheehan was the author of both "The Arnheiter Affair" and "A Bright and Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam"; he also authored an article titled "The Erosion of Liberty".  (along with "The Pentagon Papers".)

 All I can see is the word Liberty in the one article title and the name Arnheiter in the book title.  Never read A Bright and Shining Lie, but there could be something in there to make the connection. 

If anybody can get anything out of that, fantastic.

OK, Straws in the wind, I grasp at thee, 

USS Vance was a DER, O'Gara was converted to USS Outpost, an AGR, both Radar picket ships.

From above:"Another hint?  The common thread is the type of duty carried out by the two ships in question"