Ship Trivia Quiz

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

on a roll, so far.

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

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

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

Rick

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.

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

HMS Pinafore

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

Mike T.

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

Rick

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.

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

Rick

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.

"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

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? 

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

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.

bump

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?

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

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

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

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

Thanks Stenscience. Time for another RN question...

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

This British capital ship was named after an admiral who was First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, 1885 -1886 and, after a short break, from 1886-1889. She was sunk after 23 years service. Where does she now lie?

Rick

Lord George Francis Hamilton GCSI, PC, JP (17 December 1845 – 22 September 1927)

??? No

Rick

PS - Pleae ignore the second line in my post  - some sort of computer nonsense!

First Sea Lord: Sir Arthur Acland Hood

Ship: HMS Hood

Present location: Bottom of the Denmark Striat

1 July 1885
George Francis Hamilton, cc Lord George Hamilton [First Lord]
Vice-Admiral Arthur William Acland Hood, C.B. [First Naval Lord]
Vice-Admiral Sir Anthony Hiley Hoskins, K.C.B. [Second Naval Lord]
Vice-Admiral Thomas E. Brandreth [Third Lord]
Captain William Codrington, C.B. [Junior Naval Lord]
Ellis Ashmead Bartlett [Civil Lord]

The list of the Lords of the Admiralty is correct. The location given for the ship in question is incorrect

Try again.

Rick

it lies in the irminger basin of the denmark strait between iceland & greenland at a depth about 9,200ft/2804m. is in vicinity of 632200n 0321700w, about 270 miles/400km wsw of reykjavik, iceland.

http://www.hmshood.com/hoodtoday/2001expedition/index.htm