Ship Trivia Quiz

HMS Furious

On 19 July 1918, she launched a historic air strike that destroyed two enemy airships and their support facilities at Tondern, in northern Germany

Sorry folks, that wasn't supposed to be that difficult.  And it certainly wasn't a Yank question.

 The answer I expected to hear was HMS Redoubt, who towed the lighter that SubLT Culley flew his Sopwith Camel from on August 11, 1918.  Culley took 30 minutes to climb up to the required altitude to reach the Zeppelin L53 that had been shadowing the cruisers and destroyers in the North Sea, and he then shot it down. http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/album/showphoto.php?photo=14598 

Camels were flown from lighters towed by destroyers earlier without achieving kills.  The earliest I have found is June 11, 1918, using a Felixstowe F2A flying boat on the lighter, towed behind HMS Teazer.

New question, and back to Yank Surface warfare specialty material (apologies to Mr. Death):

 On USS New Jersey's Viet Nam commission (kind of a British term, but I refer to her period of activity during the Viet Nam war), why were the forward 40mm gum tubs painted blue inside?

Rick 

That's it.  Trivial, wasn't it?

 Your turn.

Not too trivial, but after all, this is a trivia quiz. Here is a question that is not purely "Yank" in content:

What New Zealand ship was reversed lend-leased to the US Navy and where is it now?

Another clue: Movie and TV.

Bonus clue: US Army

Oops.  Having just done a little more web research, I want to rephrase the question slightly.  (I hope that's not against the rules.) 

Name three college-level history teachers who've had U.S. warships named after them.

I've got one, I would say that whoever can get the final one(s) wins this round.

USS King DDG-41, named after Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King. And, although I'm not quite sure if he actually taught any classes, Winston Churchill was well known as an historian and had some kind of relationship with Oxford University. So, the USS Winston S. Churchill, DDG-81 (the only US ship named after a foreigner [he was the first Honorary United States Citizen]) might qualify. But wait, Professor Tilley asked "who", not "what", so if I was taking one of his exams I would have got no credit at all for those answers. Therefore, my revised answer will be Ernest J. King and Winston Churchill, with King as my certain answer.

Well....I guess there's more room for "grey areas" in the question than I thought.  Neither of those people is among the three I had in mind.  If Churchill ever actually taught any history classes I'm not aware of it (though he certainly deserves the label "historian," in view of the wonderful books he wrote.)  I read Thomas Buell's biography of Admiral King a long time ago; my recollection is that he went directly from Annapolis into active duty, and stayed in the Navy till his retirement.  If he spent some time teaching college it's news to me - and if so, I guess he does belong on the list.  (Come to think of it - maybe he did a tour as an instructor at the Naval War College.  But was he teaching history?)

But you're missing the obvious ones, Subfixer.  Hints:  Think of what was probably the most influential work about naval history ever written, and think of one of the most honored - and prolific - American historians of our own time.  (My academic advisor - speaking in about 1975 -  called him "the greatest living historian."  And he spent many years on the faculty of an extremely well-known university.)

I've been following this thread because I love Naval history. I can venture one guess here, and possibly two.

My certain guess is the USS Samuel Eliot Morrison. Great historian, great writer.

My second guess, although noit certain, is USS Oliver Hazard Perry. although I think that may not be correct. 

The third one, I have no clue. 

That would be:

Alfred Thayer Mahan

I think he has had multiple ships named after him.

After Morrison and Mahan, I think the third might be Arleigh Burke (co-founder of the Center for Strategic and International Studies)

USS Maury (DD 100 & DD 401)

Matthew Fontaine Maury held the Physics chair at VMI after the Civil War, taeaching there until he died in 1873.

Rick 

Then there were Admirals Dewey (DD-349 & DLG-14) and Gleaves (DD-423), both Commander Generals of the Naval Order. Gleaves in particular was a noted lecturer and author.

Do they have to be listed faculty to count?

Morison and Mahan are right.  I don't think any of the others mentioned ever taught history - though I guess it's possible.  (The definitions of academic fields that we take for granted today are fairly recent.)

Nobody's gotten the third one yet.  Hint:  several ships have been named after him.

I guess I stuck my neck out dangerously far with this one, in that several folks have brought up names that I'm not absolutely certain don't qualify.  But to my knowledge neither Wilkes nor Bowditch ever taught history.  Wilkes's interests leaned toward the sciences, and Bowditch's toward navigation.

The name I'm looking for is that of a genuine, honest-to-goodness historian. 

jtilley wrote:

The name I'm looking for is that of a genuine, honest-to-goodness historian.

"honest"?Anyway, this is from wikipedia, Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History:

In May 1948, the President of the Naval War College Admiral Raymond Spruance recommended a plan to establish a civilian professorship of maritime history at the Naval War College. Approved by Secretary of the Navy John L. Sullivan (Navy) on 29 December 1948, the post was not filled "for lack of funds" until 1951, when Thomas C. Mendenhall of Yale University was appointed to the position. In 1953, Secretary of the Navy Robert Bernard Anderson named the chair in honor of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, recognizing King's great personal interest in maritime history. The Ernest J. King chair was named and first filled during the tenure of Professor Clarence H. Haring. At that point, there was only one other named academic chair in the United States for the field of maritime history, that held by the Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs established at Harvard University in 1948. The Naval War College's first permanent long-term civilian faculty member came in 1966 and its larger civilian faculty began in 1972. Between 1951 and 1973, the King Chair was regularly held as a one-year visiting appointment. It became a permanent faculty appointment in 1974.

This is where I got my erroneous answer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_J._King_Professor_of_Maritime_History

Understandable mistake, Subfixer.  "Chairs" in academic departments frequently get named after people who never actually occupied them.  (Often they're named after people who gave the university money.)

The distinction between "honest" and "honest-to-goodness" is indeed worth making.  I have the impression, though, that the individual in question actually did have a reputation for integrity.

Hint:  he taught (albeit briefly) at the same institution as one of the gents who've already been correctly named.