Ship Trivia Quiz

In 1942, the epic Battle of Midway was fought in the Pacific between Japanese and United States forces.

True or false: There is actually no Midway Island at that location.

False, strictly.  Midway Atoll is composed primarily of Sand Island and Eastern Island.  There is no particular chunk of land named Midway Island.

Rick 

Which makes the answer TRUE--there is no actual Midway Island. Please re-read my question.

However, your explanation outweighs your mistaken entry of "False, strictly", so despite your slip, you get it right (but please don't attempt this in a court of law!)

It has long been a pet peeve of mine to see or hear the term "Midway Island" being used in describing the atoll, in text and film accounts of the battle. 

Okay Rick, good job! I guess it's your question next, I'm tapped-out for awhile!

Really sorry, folks.  I've been cursed with trivia block.  And this may be worse than nothing.

What U.S. carrier since WWII was fitted with ASW sonar?  (not just fitted with spaces for sonar, but actually fitted with the equipment and manned with the Sonar Technicians?) 

true - it was America - thus the bow anchor.  (I didn't know about the stern anchor and that wouldn't have been related to the sonar outfit.  fascinating.)

over to you, finally.  I must restrain myself from answering if I don't have a question prepared.

Rick 

Thanks Rick, but from what I understand, the America's stern anchor was indeed due to the sonar. She had to have two and as a second bow anchor would somehow interfere with the sonar dome, the second was placed at her stern.

Next question: What three Royal Navy ships had a US Navy sister that lived in the Chesapeake Bay throughout WWII?

I'm interested. Very! I jusst have no clue. My searches have turned up nothing so far. I'm waiting and watching with bated breath. 

subfixer wrote:

Well, we don't want any breath that has bait in it, so, here's a hint: they were CVEs.

• (CVE-6) Altamaha became HMS Battler
• (CVE-7) Barnes became HMS Attacker
• (CVE-8) Block Island became HMS Hunter
• 
  
• (CVE-9) Bogue

USS Charger (CVE-30) had three  sister ships - HMS Avenger, HMS Biter and HMS Dasher, transferred to the RN under Lend-Lease. All were converted merchant ships .

Charger's area of operations throughout the war was Cheasapeake Bay as a training ship for pilots and ships' crews in carrier operations. She was converted back to a merchant ship after the war. Avenger and Dasher were both sunk. Biter was sold to France in 1945.

Rick

OK, here's a really obscure one, which I hope will get you all guessing.

What connects Newcastle upon Tyne, Gibraltar, Malta and the Italian battleship Duilio (1876)?

Rick

Well done - but I thought it would take longer than an hour! I visited Fort Rinella on Malta last year, where the 100-ton Armstrong gun is preserved.

Over to you, dostacos

Rick

RickF wrote:

Well done - but I thought it would take longer than an hour! I visited Fort Rinella on Malta last year, where the 100-ton Armstrong gun is preserved. Over to you, dostacos Rick

names of the ship.....

second hint. I was named after the President of my company and I carried passengers and freight on the Chesapeake Bay between Baltimore, Maryland and Norfolk, Virginia from 1928 until July 12, 1942

what are my NAMES 

Looks like nobody wants to play, Dan. Obviously no Paul Newman fans out there!

Rick

Well, that one did it for me.  Originally S.S. President Warfield, named for the president of the line, S. Davies Warfield.  Acquired by the War Shipping Administration in 1942 and turned over to the British for use as a troop transport.  Tansferred back to the U.S. in 1944 and taken over by the Navy as the U.S.S. President Warfield.  Sold in 1946 by the WSA to the Potomac Shipwrecking Co., which was acting as an agent for the Jewish political group Haganah.  Carried Jewish refugees to Palestine under the name Exodus 1947.  (The ship in the movie "Exodus," with Paul Newman, looked nothing like the real thing - which retained the distinctive look of a Chesapeake Bay steamer till the end.)

Great question.  It'll take me a few days to come up with one; I don't want to suffer a reprise of the electronic vegetable-throwing I got (probably deservedly) after my U.S.S. Maine adventure. 

Or maybe I didn't answer the question completely.  The Wikipedia article in which I found all the above - it's titled "Exodus (ship)" - didn't mention a change of name when she went into British service.  I'm assuming she kept the name President Warfield, but maybe not.   

Ok, here goes.  Movie buffs may get this one right away, but I'm running out of ideas.

What's the connection between the commander-in-chief of the German High Seas Fleet during World War I and two identically-named cities in Oregon and Massachusetts?

Well, I'll flat out admit that I slopped around on the net and found the following, which very well may be wrong.

The Heavy Cruiser USS Salem (CA-139) put in an appearance as the Admiral Graf Spee in the movie "The Battle of the River Plate" which I have not seen (1956, because I was born then) BUT of course will.

Sheesh, I thought it would take a little longer than that!

The movie (which goes under two titles:  "The Battle of the River Plate" and "Pursuit of the Graf Spee") was on TCM cable a week or so ago; that's why it was on my mind.  It has a lot to recommend it.  The names of the ships that "played" the Graf Spee, Achilles, Exeter, and Ajax are listed in the opening credits; it's the only movie I've ever seen that does such a thing.  In general, the producers seem to have taken a great deal of trouble to make it as accurate as they could - subject to some pretty severe budgetary limitations.  Anthony Quayle plays Commodore Harwood, and a very young Christopher Lee (before he made a name for himself in horror movies) has an interesting role as a radio reporter in Montevidea.  If I remember right, one of the British merchant captains captured by the Graf Spee plays himself. 

It has one strange feature that I've never been able to figure out, in all the times I've watched it.  Captain Langsdorff, played by the distinguished British actor Peter Finch, is presented quite sympathetically.  But the story ends with the scuttling of the ship.  As I remember, the last shot shows Langsdorff standing on board a tugboat, looking pensively on as the Graf Spee burns.  There's no mention of the fact that he went back to his hotel room in Montevideo and shot himself.  I wonder why the moviemakers left that out.

Bondoman - you're up.