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Ship Trivia Quiz

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  • Member since
    October 2009
  • From: Santa Fe, NM
Posted by stenscience on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 7:21 AM

You are correct RickF. Different versions of the dish are variously fried, stewed, or baked. The variety I have eaten is very similar to corned beef hash. Over to you-the next question is yours...

Regards,

Stenscience

  • Member since
    February 2006
  • From: Norfolk, UK
Posted by RickF on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 5:13 PM

I believe the book is called "Lobscouse and Spotted Dog", so I guess the dish in question is lobscouse ( or "scouse"), a Scandinavian delicacy, a stew made of meat, vegetables, and hardtack.. It became popular in Liverpool and is the origin of the nickname "scouser" for a native of that city.

Rick

  • Member since
    October 2009
  • From: Santa Fe, NM
Posted by stenscience on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 10:20 AM

Thank you Prof. Tilley. This would have been extremely difficult, but I am familiar with the merchant from several recent trips to London, so I tried to search that way. Turns out that the combination of Gilbert and Sullivan and WH Smith produced the answer.

Hint on my question: The dish mentioned in the Aubrey/Maturin series is also one of the words in the title of a recent cookbook about the series, and is actually a very tasty dish.

Regards, Stenscience

  • Member since
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  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 7:27 AM

Just to keep the record orderly - stenscience got it right.  And I have no idea what the answer to his question is.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
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  • From: Santa Fe, NM
Posted by stenscience on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 7:17 AM

Sorry, was trying to give others a shot. The stationer is WH Smith. The founder's son was First Lord of the Admiralty. The Gilbert and Sullivan tune was written about him.

Easy question (I hope):

What food dish was mentioned several times in the Aubrey/Maturin series and was also the main dish in the seaman's mess for the Norwegian American Line until at least 1970?

  • Member since
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  • From: Spartanburg, SC
Posted by subfixer on Monday, March 8, 2010 1:58 PM

bump

I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

  • Member since
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  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Thursday, March 4, 2010 1:20 PM

stenscience

I think I know this one, but since I recently did a question, I will hold off to give others a chance. Prof. Tilley-can you confirm that this question also has a G and S connection-the person that had the naval connection was not the founder of the eponymous chain, but his son, and the song "I am the Ruler of the King's Navy" refers to him because of his position in government?

Regards,

Stenscience

Yes on all counts - including the father/son connection.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    October 2009
  • From: Santa Fe, NM
Posted by stenscience on Thursday, March 4, 2010 11:17 AM

I think I know this one, but since I recently did a question, I will hold off to give others a chance. Prof. Tilley-can you confirm that this question also has a G and S connection-the person that had the naval connection was not the founder of the eponymous chain, but his son, and the song "I am the Ruler of the King's Navy" refers to him because of his position in government?

Regards,

Stenscience

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Thursday, March 4, 2010 9:53 AM

Hmmm....The most recent questions I've asked here have been real dogs (one of them got several electronic vegetables thrown at me), but I'll give it a shot.  At least one other participant may have an unfair advantage with this one - but if so, that individual will get the answer immediately and we can move on to something else.

There's a famous British chain of retail stores, named after its founder, that sell books, magazines, computers, stationery, and office supplies of various sorts.  Branches of it are found near most of the stations on the London Underground.  Many people aren't aware that its name has a naval connection.  What is the name of the chain, and what's the naval connection? 

 

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    February 2006
  • From: Norfolk, UK
Posted by RickF on Thursday, March 4, 2010 3:29 AM

"Of all the ships upon the blue
No ship contained a better crew
Than that of worthy Captain Reece,
Commanding of The Mantlepiece."

Well done, professor' - good to know that there at least two Savoyards on the site! The next question is yours.

Rick

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 6:12 PM

Captain Reece, of the Mantlepiece, in the non-musical poem "Captain Reece":  http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/bab_ballads/html/captain_reece.html .

It's one of a long series of humorous poems called, collectively, "The Bab Ballads."  Gilbert wrote - and illustrated - them years before he met Sullivan.

Great question, RickF.  I'm a G&S fan, but I had no idea about this one.  The hint that it was "pre-Pinafore" sent me to Gilbert's biography on Wikipedia; that has a link to a fairly lengthy article specifically on H.M.S. Pinafore, which has a section on "background."  That section mentions several of the "Bob Ballads" from which Gilbert drew inspiration for the libretto of the operetta.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    February 2006
  • From: Norfolk, UK
Posted by RickF on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 5:07 PM

Keep guessing, chaps... but  an opera only comes into the question indirectly. The clue was "predates Pinafore".

Rick

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: San Francisco, CA
Posted by telsono on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 12:15 PM

You also have the 'Pirates of Penzance" where at the end all the pirates marry the daughters of Major-General Stanley. There's the Pirate King who would be the captian. Frederic was supposed to be apprenticed as a "pilot" and was by mistake apprenticed to the "pirates" instead.

This operatta actually followed the success of "HMS Pinafore" The two prior ones are "Trial By Jury" and "The Sorcerer"  neither had a nautical theme.

Mike T.

Beware the hobby that eats.  - Ben Franklin

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out. - Ben Franklin

The U.S. Constitution  doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. - Ben Franklin

  • Member since
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  • From: Norfolk, UK
Posted by RickF on Tuesday, March 2, 2010 5:36 PM

Ha.... it's not that easy!  The work I refer to predates Pinafore.

Rick

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: San Francisco, CA
Posted by telsono on Tuesday, March 2, 2010 1:58 PM

the captain's name was Ralph Rackstraw who succeeds Captain Corcoran after Buttercup reveals that they were switched at birth.

Mike T.

Beware the hobby that eats.  - Ben Franklin

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out. - Ben Franklin

The U.S. Constitution  doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. - Ben Franklin

  • Member since
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  • From: Miami, FL
Posted by Felix C. on Tuesday, March 2, 2010 7:55 AM

HMS Pinafore

  • Member since
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  • From: Norfolk, UK
Posted by RickF on Friday, February 26, 2010 5:14 PM

Thanks - and now for something completely different....

In a work by W S Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame) the captain of a ship thought so highly of his crew that he allowed them to marry his mother, daughter, sisters, cousins and aunts. Who was that captain and what was his ship?

Rick

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: Seattle, WA
Posted by Surface_Line on Friday, February 26, 2010 9:37 AM

Actually, the four sailors were each the subject of their own issue in a series of stamps commemorating distinguished U.S. sailors.  I'm going to need to get a set of those and frame them for the wall somehow.

Thanks, Rick.  Over to you.

  • Member since
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  • From: Norfolk, UK
Posted by RickF on Friday, February 26, 2010 6:08 AM

All four sailors are featured on a recent US commemorative stamp.

Rick

  • Member since
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  • From: Seattle, WA
Posted by Surface_Line on Thursday, February 25, 2010 10:25 PM

As you say, the connection is not between the ship names.  It is between the sailors themselves.  You have now identified all four sailors.

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: USS Big Nasty, Norfolk, Va
Posted by navypitsnipe on Thursday, February 25, 2010 9:46 PM

the boatswains mate was John McCloy, and the Navy inspector of target practice was the then Captain(eventually Admiral) William Sims. as for the other connection besides the ship names i have no idea

40,000 Tons of Diplomacy + 2,200 Marines = Toughest fighting team in the world Sis pacis instruo pro bellum
  • Member since
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  • From: Seattle, WA
Posted by Surface_Line on Thursday, February 25, 2010 8:22 PM

on a roll, so far.

  • Member since
    April 2005
Posted by ddp59 on Thursday, February 25, 2010 1:03 PM

A cook who received the Navy Cross for his service with 50 caliber machine guns.

the cook is an afro-american Doris Miller who manned 1 of the 50cal machine guns on the West Virginia during the pearl harbor attack.

 A Destroyer Squadron commander who regularly pushed his ships to their absolute design limit, and was given a nickname for the reduced speed to which they were limited while one had a boiler casualty.

humorous nickname "31-knot" Burke .  Arleigh A. Burke

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: Seattle, WA
Posted by Surface_Line on Thursday, February 25, 2010 9:59 AM

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

There is a common thread between these:

-          A young American officer who was a proponent of improving naval gunnery and later became the Navy’s Inspector of Target Practice prior to WWI.

-          A cook who received the Navy Cross for his service with 50 caliber machine guns.

-          A boatswain’s mate who eventually received two Medals of Honor – one in the Boxer Rebellion and one at Vera Cruz.

-          A Destroyer Squadron commander who regularly pushed his ships to their absolute design limit, and was given a nickname for the reduced speed to which they were limited while one had a boiler casualty.

Each of these individuals had ships named after them, and another item of recognition in common.  Who are they and what is the common thread?

 

  • Member since
    March 2004
  • From: Spartanburg, SC
Posted by subfixer on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 10:15 PM

The floor is yours, Mister Line....

I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

  • Member since
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  • From: Warrington PA
Posted by oceano75 on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 9:59 PM

Nansen did the same thing when he took Fram into the ice in  1893 - 1896.  Just as an aside.

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: Seattle, WA
Posted by Surface_Line on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 9:59 AM

In Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton's trip to the Antarctic in 1901-1904 aboard HMS Discovery, one of their achievements while stuck in the ice was to build a windmill to provide electricity.

  • Member since
    March 2004
  • From: Spartanburg, SC
Posted by subfixer on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 7:19 AM

Sorry it has taken so long to get back to this, we've been giving a submarine a nuclear enema.

Okay,  here is one that should be quick and easy:

What is the deal with the windmill on this ship?

File:Discoveryboat.jpg

I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: Seattle, WA
Posted by Surface_Line on Monday, February 22, 2010 9:47 AM

subfixer provides an answer with a greater number of turret-looking things.

Go ahead, please.

  • Member since
    February 2006
Posted by Neptune48 on Monday, February 22, 2010 9:13 AM

I HATE it when I kill a thread! 

Hey, subfixer or surface_line...one of you gets the next question.

"You can't have everything--where would you put it?"
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