Ship Trivia Quiz

Well Bryan what do I have to do to stretch your eclectic knowledge bounds!

Three out of four ain't bad, but was George Washington's Grandmother notorious? a seaman I am looking for, whose mother incidently also lived in Whitehaven.

Care to have a stab at the full set?

I think the place is Whitehaven, Cumbria, England.

The two events are:

1. In 1778 John Paul Jones launched an attack on the port of Whitehaven.
2. In 1915 the German submarine U24 did the same, if only Jones had one of these.

The locals are:

1. John Paul Jones, he left the port of Whitehaven in 1760 when he first went to sea.
2. Mildred Gale, grandmother of George Washington.

I seem to be an unfortunate place, I am located 54 degrees 33 minutes North latitude, and 3 degrees  30 minutes west longitude.

 In the space of 137 years I have received on two occasions unwelcome attentions firstly by a returning local and secondly by means of which the returning local could only have dreamed .

A third local who also had notoriety was associated with me, but in the end all was forgiven.

Where am I?

What were the two events?

Who were the locals.?

Got it in one (and in under 15 minutes!). Next question, George.

Rick

Thanks George, but I think you are being overgenerous, since I did not get the correct ship. Still, here goes with another question, which is a little different.

At the time of the Battle of Trafalgar, what order would be conveyed by this single flag - in RN ships, of course?

Rick

You're there Rick -or as close as makes no difference.

I had thought that 166 would have been a giveaway on a ship modellers forum given the widely known Matchbox/Revell model of Snowberry, and of course Sackville is famous as the last Flower, now a  museum ship in Canada.

Once you have those, a search on the net for Flower Class Corvettes (Wikipedia) brings up a full list of Flowers with pennant numbers; K15 is HMCS Atholl, a modified Flower of 1943.

The number has been used before but not on Canadian Flowers.

My reference to ‘North American' as opposed to 'American', and my use of an ‘incorrect' capital K in the word ‘known' were also intended as subtle clues.

Still, you got there Rick and the floor is yours.

Looking as far north as the RCN, Flower-Class corvette K181 (HMCS Sackville) minus K166 (HMCS Snowberry) leaves us with K15. As far as I can tell, no RCN ship had that pennant number - but there was HMS Heartsease (K15), an RN Flower-Class corvette. She served with both the RN and the USN, as USS Courage (PG-70). Or did you mean K15, the ill-fated steam-powered submarine.

Rick

The USS President?

DD-181 (USS Hopewell) was named for Pollard Hopewell, a sailor aboard the USS Chesapeake, commanded by Captain James Lawrence, both killed when their ship was taken by the HMS Shannon during the War of 1812.

DD-166 (USS Bush) was named after William Sharp Bush of the USS Constitution, a US Marine killed while trying to board the Guerriere during the War of 1812.

The USS President was captured by four British frigates in 1815, technically after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, but before word of the end of the war reached the US.

Hey, it's a long shot, but I have no idea who DD-15 was named after, or if there even WAS one.  DD-8 was the USS Lawrence (Captain James Lawrence).

Correction: DD-15 was the USS Whipple, but Abraham Whipple was active in the American Revolution.

Perhaps you should concentrate on the numbers 181 and 166 to determine the identity of number 15.

Good lateral thinking Bryan, you're on the right lines in thinking beyond the arithmetic, but Louis Quinze is not the answer.

Ok, this might be a little far-fetched but I get really annoyed when I don't know the answer

181-166=15     15=fifteen     In French fifteen=quinze

So, it could be the French ship Louis Quinze!

The Flying Fifteen!?

An easier question eh? try this one.

If you subtract One hundred and sixty six from One hundred and eighty one what ship do you get?

GeorgeW wrote:

Best not to tempt fate, particularly when you are about to take the worlds largest liner out on her maiden voyage, eh Captain Smith.

He made that statement about five years prior to his last voyage as captain of RMS Titanic. Ye be correct, sir. Next question is yours, try to make it easier than your last one.

Best not to tempt fate, particularly when you are about to take the worlds largest liner out on her maiden voyage, eh Captain Smith.

Hmmm, from the top of my head: sure sounds like something Sir Edgar Britten could have said. Although I hope I'm wrong because I don't have a decent question ready yet

I'll take this one by backing up to it with my hand behind me as I don't really think I earned it. But, anyway.....

Who is the man who made the following statement?

"When anyone asks me how I can best describe my experience in nearly forty years at sea, I merely say, uneventful. Of course there have been winter gales, and storms and fog and the like. But in all my experience, I have never been in any accident ... of any sort worth speaking about. I have seen but one vessel in distress in all my years at sea. I never saw a wreck and never have been wrecked nor was I ever in any predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort."

Well, if the late Eric Newby was a member of this forum he'd know the answer straight away! So does (or should ) anyone who has read his book The Last Grain Race (or any similar book).

The keyword here is Sunday!

This day usually was a sailors' day off! The rest of the week the watches were occupied with all kinds of chores. Not a minute was wasted. All this accompanied by chronic hunger and fatigue. A sailors' life was hard.

But then there was Sunday. Apart from sailing the ship (obviously) no other work had to be carried out. Finally they had time for themselves. Cleaning, laundries, mending clothes, model making or just relaxing were favorite pastimes. Depending on the cook even the food might be a little more special. To put it simple: Sunday was sacred!

Imagine crossing the IDL from east to west. An extra day would then be added. If they crossed on a Sunday, the next day again would be...Sunday. Great!

Now imagine crossing the IDL from west to east. A day will be subtracted. Saturday is immediately followed by Monday. No Sunday at all....OMG. It all depended on the good will of the captain to provide any compensation.

I guess Subfixer kind of answered the question, he came up with Sunday. Let's move on, this was a bad question. Subfixer you're next!