Ship Trivia Quiz

bryan01 wrote:

USS Wisconsin & USS Eaton, May 6, 1956. USS Kentucky. Nauticus, Norfolk, Virginia. WisKy.

Bing, Bang, Boom!! impressive, figured it would take longer, on to you

navypitsnipe wrote:

Bing, Bang, Boom!! impressive, figured it would take longer, on to you

Sorry, but I already knew the story

Ok, next QUESTION, a case of Royal Prerogative:
This ship of the line of the Royal Navy was built with fundings from her namesake. The monarch, delighted with this unexpected case of generosity, altered the name of the ship to express his gratitude.

After an uh...unfortunate accident the monarch understandably approached the namesake again for financial help. This time however they came up empty handed (they were in fact still behind on payments for the original ship). As a punishment the disappointed monarch undid the earlier name change.

What was the name of this ship and who was the monarch involved?

  I'm taking a guess off the top of my head. Was it King Charles II of England and the ship, Loyal London ? 

    Montani semper liberi !  Happy New Year and happy modeling to all and every one of you.

                                                        Crackers

Very well done Crackers!

The original London of 1656 was one of a couple of 64-gun, later 80-gun, Great ships for the Commonwealth Navy. After the Restoration she escorted King Charles II from the Republic back to England. At the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665 she was selected as flagship of Sir John Lawson, Vice-Admiral of the Red. On 8 March an accidental explosion of her powder room blew out her bottom and she sank with the loss of 300 men.

In a moment of, later regretted, generosity the City of London offered to donate a new London. The delighted king decided that the new ship would be named Loyal London. The new 92-gun Loyal London of 1666 fought as flagship at St James' Day Battle and proved to be an excellent ship.

During the Raid on the Medway in June 1667 the Loyal London, together with the Royal James and the Royal Oak, was set on fire and burned to the water line. Unlike the latter two the underwater part of her hull seemed to be in good enough condition to be rebuilt into a new ship. The costs of this rebuilding proved however to be much higher then estimated. Naturally the king approached the City of London for financial help as this was after all 'their' ship. Due to the Great Fire of 1666, the blockade of 1667 and the war in general the City was not able to raise any money. They had in fact not even been able to completely pay the debts for the previous ship!

Despite this the rebuilding of the new 96-gun London was completed in 1670, the prefix Loyal however struck by an angry Charles II.

You're next Crackers!

  OK, I'll take the challenge.

                   This individual, born in 1577, the son of a North Sea fishman, was captured by the Spanish, while a young seaman on a merchant ship. Serving four miserable years as a galley slave, he escaped and made his way back to his native country, nurturing raging hatred against his captors.

            Years later, as a commander of a small flotilla of ships, he intercepted 4 great galleons and 11 merchant ships carrying a vast treasure off the coast of Cuba. Looting most of the ships of treasure worth about 4,000,000s ducats of gold, silver, silk from the orient and rare woods and indigo, this individual became a national hero in his homeland.

             The admiral of the treasure fleet was executed for cowardice and incompetence, while the hero was killed a year later, when a cannon ball took off his head while attacking another Spaniash fleet.  

            Can you name this bold leader and his nation of origin ? 

  Montani semper liberi !  Happy New Year and happy modeling to all and every one of you.

                                                    Crackers 

Piet Hein, Holland!

  Excellent Bryan01! You are correct! Although he is not as well known as Admirals de Ruyter and Tromp, Pieter Pieterzoon Heyn, popularly and affectionaly known as Piet Hein, is very properly honered in Holland as one of the first in their long series of naval heroes.

   Now, who was the 18th century British naval commander who was shot by a firing squad on the quarter deck of his ship, for failing to capture the Spanish Island of  Mallorca ?

  Montani  semper liberi ! Happy New Year and happy modeling to all and every one of you.

                                            Crackers

Assuming there's a typo in the name of the island (I've only seen it spelled Minorca), the officer in question was Adm. John Byng.  There's a considerable amount of misunderstanding of this incident; I strongly recommend Dudley Pope's book about it, At Twelve Mr. Byng Was Shot.  Mr. Pope expertly sorts out the complicated political situation in which Byng found himself - and which probably had more to than anything else with his execution. 

But if I understand the rules of this game correctly (maybe I don't; so far as I know they've never been written down), the next question should go to BryanO1 - shouldn't it?

crackers wrote:

Excellent Bryan01! You are correct!

Well Crackers, as I'm a Dutchman, that question was a real easy one for me! I think that almost everyone in the Netherlands/Holland, even the ones with no interest in nautical history, knows Piet Hein

I think you are right on three counts Mr. Tilley.

1. Admiral John Byng must be the person Mr. Crackers is looking for. It certainly is quite a story. I particularly ‘like' this part (from Wikipedia):

The court martial condemned Byng to death. However its members recommended that the Lords of the Admiralty ask King George to exercise his prerogative of clemency.

William Pitt, then Leader of the House of Commons, told the king: "the House of Commons, Sir, is inclined to mercy", to which George II responded: "You have taught me to look for the sense of my people elsewhere than in the House of Commons."

The royal prerogative was not exercised and John Byng was shot on 14 March 1757.

2. The island in question was indeed Minorca (Mallorca , Ibiza & Formentera being the other islands of the Balearics).

3. I wouldn't mind if you continued with the next question, I have the feeling however that you would be grateful if I took that burden from you

Well, one learns something every day.  I'm used to thinking of the two islands as "Minorca" and "Majorca" (easily remembered for English speakers:  "major" and "minor").  But I see (via Wikipedia) that "Mallorca" is indeed an alternative, Spanish and Catalan spelling for "Majorca."  Most interesting.

I really think the next question is yours, Bryan - and I suspect I'll be utterly unable to answer it. 

Well, I'm not to sure about that. I don't know if it has been tried before in this thread but I was thinking about a CRYPTIC question this time.

So, bend your mind for this one!

These "Ships of the Line" can decide the outcome of a war without even moving an inch!

Hmmm, I think a few hints are needed here:

- They can transport huge amounts of vehicles and personnel.

- They are unarmed and have to stay together to fulfill there purpose.

subfixer wrote:

These are ships and not barges?

You're getting closer! Another hint:

- Armies have been using them since ancient times.

*holds his nose and dives in*

Pontoon bridges?

Cryptic ships-of-the-line could possibly be the same as ships-in-a-line.

Ships in a line could be a convoy?  But I don't see how not moving an inch figures into it. 

Or, Herodotus writes that Xerxes of Persia (520-465 BC) tried to cross the Hellespont but the bridge he built for the purpose was destroyed by a storm.  Xerxes then ordered the sea to be lashed as a sign of his displeasure.  After venting his anger with the sea, Xerxes lined up his ships to form a bridge and his army walked across the Hellespont using the ships as a sort of a pontoon bridge. (alumni71's answer, which I think is right).

Tom Shema

You've got it Don. Actually I had bridge of boats in mind but pontoon bridges evolved out of those so that's also correct. Tom, your explanation was perfect, to bad Don beat you to it!

I'm glad you guys guessed it; last night I had a nightmare about rotten fruit and vegetables coming out of my computer

Don, you're next!

Alright - this should be easy - at least I hope it is, to ring in the new year.  And it has to do with the Royal Navy - so theoretically it should take a bit, since our brothers across the ocean are already celebrating the New Year.

The Royal Navy could be said to have introduced naval aviation to Europe in 1806 with this particular device.  What device was it, what person executed the mission, and what was the mission?  Sorry this is rather vague, but I wanted to get a question out here for everyone before I took off to celebrate.

 HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all!!

Not all of us are out celebrating - some saddos are still surfing!

In 1806 Lord Thomas Cochrane launched kites from the 32-gun frigate Pallas in order to drop leaflets on the French coast. The bundles of leaflets were attached to the kites with slow match, which burnt away and released them as they drifted shorewards.

Rick

There you go - Happy New Year!

Rick, you're up!

Thanks Don - good to see this thread staggering on.

Thomas Cochrane is one of my heroes. Stubborn, unconventional and always looking for a battle - and willing to fight for anybody! He used kites in a similar way on other occasions.

The subject of the next question is another personal hero. Identifying him should not be too difficult.

Which often controversial RN officer served under Jackie Fisher in, and later became the most famous captain of, HMS Excellent?

Rick

I'm not interested in answering the question - I couldn't come up with another one so soon after plumbing the depths of my limited resources for the past one.  But it never ceases to amaze me what can be found on the internet.  As of May 2008 the HMS Excellent in question still existed, albeit just barely - I'm including two links I came across with infor mation and photographs.  The second one also includes very interesting results of a survey taken recently to determine the most famous Briton.  The piece on the Excellent is about halfway down on that page; the first link references only the HMS Excellent in question.

http://nationalhistoricships.org.uk/index.cfm/event/getVessel/vref/16/pic/5

http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=32749&amid=30255996

Rick, I don't believe that either of these links give away your answer, but let me know if you want me to remove either of them and I will.

Hi Don - no probs. I'd forgotten that the old gunboat Hardy had been, at one time, one of the many HMS Excellents. It doesn't give too many clues, since we're not asking a question about the ship - which, in fact, is totally irrelevant, as the answer will reveal.

Rick

Was it Percy Moreton Scott? He was in command of HMS Excellent between 1903 and 1905. He was also known for his clashes with authority; especially Lord Beresford.

You are correct - Admiral Sir Percy Scott (1853-1924), probably the most important figure in modern naval gunnery and, as I said, a personal hero. Read all about him here

The floor is yours, Bryan.

Rick

Thanks Rick! Interesting man, this Percy Scott!

New QUESTION:

This piece of standing rigging appeared around 1690. It was eagerly adopted by the leading naval powers of that time like the English and the Dutch. That such a simple, but rather essential, piece of rigging hadn't been invented fifty or maybe even seventy-five years earlier is kind of a mystery.

What is it and what nation is presumed to be its inventor?

You are correct professor Tilley! We had the same source.

Up until the invention of the bobstay only the bowsprit gammoning provided any resistance against the pull of the stays of the foremast. But it (or they when two were fitted) was located too close to the bow to have much leverage.

Anyone who has ever build a model of a ship dating before 1690 sooner or later desperately wants to add a bobstay because the bowsprit gets pulled upwards by the tension of all the lines attached to it. I guess this happened in real life too although much less since the bowsprit was of course quite a heavy spar. But still....

You're next professor!

Well, this one's going to be real trivia.  It's inspired by the recent appearance in this thread of the unfortunate Admiral John Byng.

Byng was court-martialed and executed in 1757 for "failing to do his utmost" to defeat the French in the Battle of Minorca.  His fate was, and remains, controversial.  (The French poet and satirist Voltaire commented famously that "in England it is thought wise to shoot an admiral from time to time, to encourage the others.") 

On the same day as Byng's conviction, another court-martial found another British officer builty of an "error of judgment" for an incident involving combat with the French.  In this case the punishment consisted only of a written reprimand.  It turned out to be a minor setback to that officer's career; he eventually rose to the rank of Admiral of the Blue.  On the way, he played a prominent role in American history. 

The question is:  who was that officer?