Ship Trivia Quiz

The ship in "The Enemy Below" was a Buckley-class destroyer escort; the last scene was, I think, shot on board a Sumner- or Gearing-class destroyer.  I don't recall a Benson/Gleaves/Livermore-class ship in "Tora,Tora,Tora"; I imagine all, or most, of that class was gone by the time the movie was made.  Maybe somebody can correct me on that point.

In any case, even if "Tora,Tora,Tora" is right, we only have two of the three.

Yep - two more to go. 

This raises an interesting question:  what are we gonna do if two or three people contribute to the right answer?  Has that happened before?

Ok, here goes.  I'm not really a movie buff, but it seems that lots of my trivia questions have to do with Hollywood - so here's another one.  (It's conceivable that it may have more answers than the three I'm thinking about.  If that turns out to be the case, I will of course give credit to any correct answer.)

Name three Hollywood movies, all in color and all made after WWII, that feature destroyers of the Benson/Gleaves/Livermore class (or modified versions thereof).

Well done Professor! The coincidence of it being Trafalgar Day was too much to resist, coupled with the fact that I had read about Sir Christopher Myngs a few weeks ago and was struck by the uncanny similarities between him and Nelson.

They were born within 20 miles of each other in Norfolk (altough 133 years apart). Both were Vice-Admirals. Both were killed on board HMS Victory, shot by sharpshooters in the rigging of opposing vessels. Both were shot through the left shoulder...Spooky, eh?

The floor is yours.

Rick

   Rick....My hat tip to you. That was indeed a very clever question you offered about the VICTORY. I fell into your trap as you intended. I knew that there were several ships in the British navy starting in the late 16th century named VICTORY. On reading your question later, I thought you might be referring to Sir John Balchen's VICTORY, wrecked on the Casquets Rocks in 1744, but the historical record does not support this thought.

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

                                                   Crackers    

I think the answer may be Ridderschap van Holland. 

The H.M.S. Victory in question was the one built in 1620 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Victory_(1620) ), the event took place during the Four Days' Battle of 1666 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Days_Battle ), and the admiral who was killed by the sharpshooter was Adm. Sir Christopher Myngs ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Myngs ). 

Good question, RickF.  You sent us off quite skilfully in the wrong direction.  The giveaway was the statement that the admiral died some days later.  (Nelson, of course, died on the afternoon of Trafalgar.)

The subject of my question was definitely not shot by a marksman on the Redoutable.

Rick

No, the original one, my home over here in the UK.

Rick

No, it was not Redoubtable! Read the question again.

Rick

     Admiral Nelson was hit by a marksman from French REDOUTABLE, which was alongside his flagship VICTORY. The bullet entered Nelson's left shoulder, pierced his lung and entered his spine. He was carried below by a sargeant-major of the marines and two seamen. Nelson died three hours later after being shot.

     Today, marks the 204th anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar.

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

                                                         Crackers   

Guess that means I need to find another question? Here's an easy one....

This sailor was born in Norfolk. He was shot by a sharpshooter on the enemy's flagship whilst onboard his own flagship, HMS Victory.  He died two days later. What was the name of the ship from which the fatal shot was fired?

Rick

The cruiser HMS Newfoundland sank the Egyptian frigate Domiat on 31 October 1956 during the Suez Campaign. Is this the one?

Rick

The HMS Alacrity sank the Argentinian 3900-ton supply ship ARA Isla de los Estados with 15 rounds from 1 2.5-inch gun during the Falklands War in 1982, but is a supply ship a warship?

Praying Mantis is not the correct answer. Iranian frigates were either disabled or sunk by airfired missiles or shipfired missiles. I believe only one frigate was actually fired upon by surface ship artillery aftering be disabled by other means. The oil platforms do not qualify.

Please continue with the search.

Normally I would refrain from commenting on another person's answer, but this action was the first thing I looked at when the question was raised.

As near as I can tell, here was happened in Operation Praying Mantis, on Apr 14 1988.  There were three Iranian surface combatants sunk - Joshan, Sahand and Sabalan.  Joshan was sunk by Standard MR-1 missiles in the surface to surface mode from Wainwright (CG-28) and Simpson (FFG-56), and Sabalan and Sahand were sunk by bombs from A-6s from Enterprise.  That part is referenced from "Electronic Greyhounds", by Michael C. Potter, and it fits with my memory.

There was much, much 5" ammo expended during the operation, which was all from the DesRon 9 ships firing on the Iranian oil platforms with reckless disregard of the fact that they had zero resupply of 5" ammunition in theater.  The Commodore encouraged his commanding officers to continue firing at the platforms in an effort to "destroy" them.  This is referenced from my experience at the Ordnance Logistics office stateside, where resupply of 5" ammunition needed to be sent out to the Indian Ocean immediately from the West Coast.

And neither the missile fire or the bombs on the Iranian ships, nor the gunfire on the Iranian oil platform constitutes an answer to this question, so I did not offer this operation as a solution to the question.  I'm still interested in hearing what the last sinking by gunfire was. 

april 1988 U.S.-Iran Gulf Battle

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/24/world/us-iran-gulf-battle-powerful-lesson-in-how-naval-warfare-has-changed.html

I don't think the question restricts us to combat situations. There have been a lot of surface warships sunk as targets over the years since 1945. The difficulty is discovering one that was sunk by gunfire from only one ship as opposed to several.

Rick

Sorry it is after 1945

Question:

Last or most recent surface warship sunk by surface gunfire alone by another warship

OK - Let's bracket this.

The last true surface action in WWII saw the American DDs Ashburne, Braine, Shaw and Russel sink the Japanese DD Hinoki in night action on 7-8 January 1945.  After tha there were several skirmishes between PT boats and patrol boats, but nothing as large as a DD was ever sunk.  So the last DD or larger size ship sunk in WWII was the IJN Hinoki on 7-8 January 1945.

The incident you have in mind occurred before 2002.  Did it occur after 1945? 

Yes, it is prior to 2002.