Ship Trivia Quiz

I understood Azov to be otherwise a standard Kara class cruiser (in NATO's eyes) or a project 1134 large ASW ship in the Soviet navy, but the after SA-N-3 launcher was replaced by a trial installation of the VLS SA-N-6 system.  So not a purpose-built trials platform, but a regular member of the class that was diverted for use as a trial platform, for this SA-N-6 system.

Thanks for putting this one out of its misery, and please, let's have a good straightforward question now!

Rick

 Thanks surface_line. OK> This question may or may not be straight forward but here goes.

 Which former WW1 well known vessel stayed in her original condition for 20 years until slightly enhanced in an overhaul. She was finally decommissioned in the very early 1960's. She also served for two Nations. Clue:- Both are European Nations. What were her two Navies and associated names. She also was not a small ship.

Since it's early in the morning here, I'll give an easy one.

Name the 2 Aircraft carriers of the 60's and 70's that weren't very friendly to destroyers. 

Uhh-

Wasp & Melbourne?

JFK wasn't very friendly to a cruiser?

During the 1960s-70s, there were at least four carriers that fit this category... the US carriers Shangri-La (vs. Perry, 1965) and John F. Kennedy (vs. Bordelon, 1976), the British Ark Royal (a Russian Kotlin class, 1970), and the top scorer, the Australian carrier Melbourne (vs. the Austrailian Voyager, 1964 and USS Frank E. Evans, 1969).

Wasp ran over Hobson in 1952. 

Duke Maddog wrote:

Wow, I'd love to hear the story of the Ark Royal and the Kotlin class! That should be interesting reading! Thanks for the list, this is awesome! I love this game!

That was Ark Royal's own 9/11 (9th November 1970) and there are quite a few things on the internet about it. Here are two links...

http://lionels.orpheusweb.co.uk/AirSea/ArkRoyal/Russkies/Ark7.html

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1970/nov/11/ark-royal-collision

And on a personal note; HMAS Melbourne was built (as HMS Majestic) just across the road from my house.

I was looking for JFK and Melbourne. 

Did JFK and Melbourne have little detroyer silhouettes painted outside the bridge windows???

Well, I want it to be clear that I defer to Mr. Bumm for having the correct answer to this one. 

Billy says he was looking for the Melbourne and JFK, and I plumb forgot that the JFK ran down the  destroyer Bordelon later on the same cruise after the Belknap.  All I could remember was the Belknap, and she was certainly no destroyer.

If the incidents described in the prior question had occurred on land, they would have been ascribed to Mr. Murphy.

What are two seagoing equivalents to "Murphy's Law"? 

You're probably thinking more well-known incidents than those times when I was on watch, right?

 Now there was this one time coming out of San Diego on Jouett in 1981, when...   No, that wouldn't be what you're looking for.

nope... "sailor's law" simply says "don't sail the boat where the birds are walking"...

the two forms of nautical jargon that I'm looking for refer to the concept that "unfortunate things always happen at the worst time and in the worst place", similar to the accepted modern concept of Murphy's, that "if it can go wrong, it will"

Since this is rapidly approaching page three after a week... I'll pass to SurfaceLine for the next question, since we did nearly tie for the last one.

Murphy's Law came into prominence in the early fifties, named after an American engineer working on a rocket sled program for the USAF. It became popular in advertising for a while and then became lodged in the popular lingo. But it was predated by at least a couple of hundred years.

Alfred Holt stated the premise in an 1877 marine engineering presentation, trying to make the same point as Murphy, you cannot be overprepared when dealing with complex systems or extreme environments. "Holt's Law" could be one answer.

But this is predated by at least another century with English sailors and "Sod's Law", also known as the "Law of Imbuggerance", based on the derivative of "Sod", an offensive slur in the 18th century for what was a captial crime under the Royal Navy's articles of war.

Even when I was growing up (in the last century), threads weren't stripped, they were still "buggered".

Rick, the floor is yours.

thanks for the floor - the pressure is huge to not get lost into trivia, so I will aim shallow.  :-)

What ship used the name "Enterprise Bay", and why?

A radio operator on USS Enterprise coined that name at Iwo Jima from participating in ops with a bunch of escort carriers that had names ending in "Bay". 

"just call us Enterprise Bay..." 

Not to be outdone, a flier from a jeep carrier is said to have asked Enterprise for her current active runway.

During the second half of the eighteenth century, the Royal Navy adopted two technical innovations which provided sigificant force multipliers, one for significantly increasing firepower at close range and another for effectively increasing the size and mobility of its operational fleet.

What were these innovations and what were the first vessels known to have incorporated them?

Copper sheathing, first applied to the Alarm, was a huge force multiplier for a navy with a maritime strategy based on blockade. Copper sheathing diminished marine growth, keeping vessels out of the dockyards and at sea maintaining usefull speed capability for extended periods and prolonging hull life by keeping out "the worm".

Most are aware of the galvanic corrosion issues associated with copper sheathing, but the most unusual issue I have found is from Capt. John Byron's journal of his circumnavigation of the world in the 24 gun ship Dolphin (third vessel to be coppered) in the 1760's. Even though he thought that copper sheathing was "the finest invention in the world", it did create a hardship on the crew, because Byron blamed the Dolphin's shortage of fresh meat at sea to the copper scaring the fish away! 

I dont think I need to discuss the carronade's effects at close range. Its first use is credited both to a Carron Company commercial vessel (the Paisley in May 1779 per Peter Padfield) and to a Liverpool privateer (the Spitfire in "early 1779" per Brian Lavery).

The first mounting to a RN vessel is obscure, with trials beginning in May 1779 on several ships.

But, sources are consistent in identifying the carronade's first success in the RN, the taking of the French 32 gun Frigate Nymphe (26 X 12, 14 X 6) by the English 36 gun frigate Flora (26 X 18, 9 X 9, 1 X 18c).  Based on the weight of metal, the odds were stacked in the Flora's favor, but the effect of the carronade in the battle was astounding; the single carronade, manned by the bosun and a boy "created havoc" amongst the "unsuspecting" French crew. The Nypmhe lost 139 killed, compared to 26 fatalities on the Flora.  

The carronade had been initially rejected by many RN officers in the "peacetime navy", the Admiralty relenting to pressure and arming vessels with carronades only at a captain's discretion (many RN officers questioned its efectiveness and were convinced that it would set fire to the rigging). The success of the carronade in actions during 1780 and 1781, and the lack of rigging fires, led to its rapid adoption within the RN.

SeaRat, the floor is yours. 

Good question, searat, but not one that can be answered with any real authority. There are several rival claimants for the origin of the word - the yacht "Sphinx" from the 1860s, a version of the word "spanker" or a Scots word "spoon" (or "speen"), meaning to run before the wind.

However, none of these really stands up, and most academic sources , as opposed to folklore and old salts tales agree that the origin of the word is...."unknown"

Rick