Ship Trivia Quiz

I believe that the gentleman in question may be George Washington, and his "error in judgement" was signing a confession that he assassinated a French diplomat!

George Washington was an Admiral of the Blue in the British Navy, blimey I never knew that, you learn something new every day

I was thinking it may be Billy Blue, one of two brothers who both had an involvement with American affairs.

whoops... I guess it pays to read the entire post.  Actually George was an American Admiral of sorts. Had his own navy of schooners.

Jumped to a conclusion! One of Washington's biographies of his early life is titled "An Error in Judgement", and covers the affairs in western Pennsylvania.

On second thoughts Billy Blue would have been too young to be court martialled in 1757.

I now believe it to be Admiral Thomas Graves who was court martialled in 1757 for refusing to take on a French ship of superior power.

His indecisive action at Chesapeake Bay in 1781, resulted in the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and ultimately led to the end of British rule in America.

There is a tenuous link to my first thought, Billy Blue - Admiral  William Cornwallis was the brother of General Cornwallis of Yorktown.

Graves took part in the Glorious First of June in 1794 under Howe, and was promoted Admiral, but received wounds which effectively ended his sea career.

GeorgeW got it.

Captain Thomas Graves, commanding the frigate Sheerness, declined to do battle with what he thought was a French warship of superior strength (but turned out to be an East Indiaman).  The court-martial only gave him a relatively gentle rap on the knuckles, and his career continued with some success - until, as George noted, he had the misfortune to be, largely by chance, the senior British officer at the Battle of the Chesapeake (aka Battle of the Virginia Capes) in September, 1781.  The failure of the British to defeat the French on that occasion was a serious setback for Graves (and several other people), but his promotions came on schedule during the long peace after 1783.  He had attained the rank of Admiral of the Blue when he served as Lord Howe's second in command at the Glorious First of June, in 1794.  His reward was a baroney, but he had received a severe wound in his right arm that ended his career.

I thought that one would take a little longer.  Next question's yours, George.

Following John's theme;

 I too was court martialled  in 1781 for losing my ship, something I seem to make a habit of.

I sound an unlikely member of the Royal Navy, being not quite English, but my loyalty is not in question, and I rose to the rank of Vice Admiral.

Having evaded capture by both Americans and French in the Americas, I was taken following a sea fight off Ushant, but was offered position in the French service which I declined.

An erstwhile enemy later pursued me with offers of a fortune, which was given, then taken away. I tried to recover my inheritance during the peace of Amiens but was unceremoniously thrown out of France.

In 1815 I again pursued my claim without success, and spent all my savings on litigation.

After a long and active career I died in sad circumstances in a London Hotel.

Who am I?

Can we have some hints please?

Hello Bryan, how are you, did you ever progress that navy board style conversion you were doing?

Additional clues.

He was born in 1754

His name sounds French

He took a stroll to Concord with the British Army on the day of the fight at Lexington, and also served at Bunker Hill.

He had to burn his first command on the Seaconnet river and walk back to New York.

He lost his second command following a fire fight with A French Frigate, and was taken prisoner.

He was court-martialled for wrecking his third command off the coast of Brazil.

Your home country eventually received the benefit of his inheritance.

Finally here's a picture of him.

Hi George,

I'm fine, how are you? I'm still working on HMS Prince, slowly!

I think I have the answer to your question. Is it Philip Dauvergne?

That is he Bryan,

Philip Dauvergne, a Channel Island man who became heir to the ducal lands of Bouillon, a sovereign territory  18 miles long by 15 miles broad.

Nevertheless his inheritance proved a poisoned chalice, which consumed his later life and it all came to naught.

After the Congress of Vienna Boullion lost its independence and was annexed to the Netherlands.

Philp d'Avergne died a lonely and broken man in 1816, suicide was suspected.

However, he seems to have led a naval career in the Hornblower style, and his exploits would be worthy of an adventure film.

Over to you.

Wow, that was a tough question! I couldn't have solved it without the additional clues and even then. Where the did you learn about this man . Interesting story though. BTW Bouillon isn't Dutch anymore; it became part of Belgium in 1839.

Next QUESTION:

What was the very first purpose-built steam battleship in the world?

Would the vessel in question be France's Le Gloire, launched on Nov. 24, 1859. she had two sisterships Invincible and Normandie. HMS Warrior was built in response to this ship's production.

Mike T.

Well you wouldn't want me to make it too easy, Bryan.

 When I was in Portsmouth last December I picked up a book by Nicholas Tracy - Who's who in Nelson's Navy, published by Chatham. d' Auvergne is one of the 200 Naval heroes covered in the book.

I do have an inkling about your new question, but perhaps I had better take a back seat!

@ Mike, sorry, not correct.

@ George, well, it certainly wasn't easy .

Depends on your definition of "battleship".

If it means "warship" I'm gonna guess that is was the US Navy's first steam warship, the Demologos, launched in 1815.  She was armed with 26 X 32 pders.

If it means "ship of the line", I think that the Royal Navy's first conversion of a sailing two decker to steam, before her launch as a sailing vessel, may have been the Sans Pareil, launched in March, 1851. The first SOL designed as a steam two decker to be launched was Agamemnon, launched in May, 1852.

I know there are many definitions for the word battleship. With your permission I would like to stick to the definition by 'The Oxford English Dictionary':

The word battleship was coined around 1794 and is a shortened form of line-of-battle ship, the dominant wooden warship during the Age of Sail.

In that case Demologos doesn't comply with the above description.

Neither does HMS Sans Pareil since she was, as you said, converted after keel laying while the question states purpose-build.

Unfortunately HMS Agamemnon is not correct either.

I seem to remember this coming up before. Isn't it the French battleship Le Napoléon, built by Dupuy de Lôme in 1850.

Rick

You've got it Rick; the Le Napoléon was the first purpose-build steam battleship ever. She was the first screw propelled battleship as well (paddle wheels obviously wouldn't be functional on this kind of ship). Alan was very close with HMS Agamemnon; she was however build by Britain as a response to the French effort.

Rick, you're up!

PS There might be something wrong with the search function of this site. Before posting this question I used it with Napoleon and Napoléon and it didn't came up, at least not in Ship Trivia Quiz. After Rick had guessed it, I tried again; still nothing....strange!

Thanks Bryan - and don't worry about the search function. I may well be confusing forums! Old age does that to you!

Now for another question....

Unbelievably, this ship was lit by electricity at 800V dc, so it is not suprising that among its many "firsts" was the first death by electrocution in the Royal Navy! Which ship?

Rick

Hello Rick,

Would that be HMS Inflexible of 1881.

You got it! But I did think it would run for longer than a quarter of an hour!

Over to you,  George.

I'll stay with the 'firsts' theme;

This warship was the first of her type specifically designed, naval ships were never to look the same again, a new age had dawned.

Who is she and what made her special?

HMS Dreadnought, as she was designed not only with an all-big-gun battery, but with turbine engines as well......

e USS Forrestal CVA59

Devastation class battleships. They were the first class of ocean-going battleships which did not carry sails, and the first which mounted the entire main armament on top of the hull rather than inside it.