Ship Trivia Quiz

This could have been the USS Passaic, an iron hulled, single turret monitor.

 The Passaic was launched on August 30, 1862 and was armed with one 15 inch dahlgren smoothbore gun and one 11 inch dahlgren smoothbore gun.  There were ten ships of the Passaic Class, all were armed with either the 15in/11in dahlgren combination or two 15in dahlgrens.

Tom S.

OK, thanks. This time I'll chance my arm with a USN question.

Name the first USN ship to be built with 15-inch guns

Rick

Yes indeed. 
To name two ships in such a small class (only a dozen relatively small A/S frigates) after the same person seems like an awfully strange coincidence to me.

 Your turn, Rick.

Since nobody wants to play, I'll jump in and try HMS Exmouth (F84) 1955 - 1979 and HMS Pellew (F62) 1957 - 1971, "Blackwood" class (Type 14) anti-submarine frigates.

They were both named after Sir Edward Pellew, who was also 1st Viscount Exmouth.

Rick

OK, we did this drill for the US Navy a short time ago.  How about the Royal Navy this time?

 Please name two British ships in commission at the same time, named for the same person.  (Must be more specific than HMS Queen)

As ever, you may come up with an answer different from mine.  If you match mine you will find another feature of coincidence between the two ships also.

 
Rick Heinbaugh

Last class of US heavy cruiser was CA-134 Des Moines class.

Rick

eagle, that 3rd method that the japanese used was with armed powered & towed barges that met their fate with american pt boats.

what is the name of the last class of american heavy cruisers not including the alaska class?

ddp59,

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the question that I forget the obvious.  Your answer immediately reminded me that the Japanese, at first, used regular transports to reinforce Guadalcanal!  So, method 1, which I entirely overlooked, was transport ships, a correct answer!

US naval patrols and the Catcus airforce made this method impossible to sustain, so the Japanese used destroyers, (another correct answer) to make fast runs on moonless nights into the off-load area, unload their cargo and then get out quickly.  This 2nd method was called operation Nezumi, or, loosely in English, "Rat Transportation."  Increasing danger to the destroyers led to a variation of this method.  The Japanese filled 200-240 empty fuel drums half full of supplies, stashed them on the weather decks, got close to the beach, shoved them overboard and left immediately, leaving the troops onshore to haul in the floating drums using lines tied to them.

In a final effort to save their destroyers, the Japanese tried a 3rd method they called Chain Tranportation.  This method used small vessels to leapfrog from one safe hiding place to another, hiding during the day and running at night until they reached an off-load point.  This method failed quickly and the Japanese went back to Rat Transportation.

So much for this long story, which is documented in detail by Richard B. Frank in his book Guadalcanal, an excellent recent history of the battle for Guadalcanal.

ddp59, both of your answers are CORRECT, so you get the next question.

Tom S.

Among the many things the Japanese Navy was responsible for during the battle for Guadalcanal, was delivery of troops, supplies and food to the embattled Imperial Combatants on that island.  Indicative of their success was the Japanese nickname for the island.  The soldiers called it "Starvation Island."

QUESTION:  The Japanese Navy tried two distinctive methods to reinforce and supply Guadalcanal.  Describe the operation of either one of these two resupply methods.

Bonus:  What was the name the Japanese gave either of these two methods.

Tom S.

OK, I'll bite the bullet and give it a shot:

My limited research reveals four "unlucky ship names" from WW II.  There may be more, but I didn't locate them.  These names represent four pair of similar named ships that were sunk for a total of eight ships sunk. They are as followes:

1.  USS Shark SS-174 and USS Shark II SS-314

2.  USS Colhoun APD-2  ex DD-85 and USS Colhoun DD-801

3.  USS Little APD-4 ex DD-79 and USS Little DD-803

4.  USS Meredith DD-434 and USS Meredith DD-726

Of the eight ships mentioned above, only the 2nd Meredith, DD-726 was lost in the Atlantic.  All eight were lost to enemy action.

Tom S.

billydelawder wrote:

Next Question:   In WW2, the US Navy had 2 "unlucky" ship names. These 2 names were born by 2 ships each, and all 4 were sunk. Name the names.  Hint: 1 name was a sub name, 1 was a destroyer name.

I recently bumped into another piece of trivia related to the Normandie in, of all places, the little book that came with a CD album.  According to that source, a Hungarian violinist named Jeno Blau crossed the Atlantic on board the Normandy and took up residence in the U.S.  He decided to switch his specialty to orchestral conducting, and wanted a name that would be easier for Americans to pronounce.  Recalling his transatlantic voyage with pleasure, he deleted the first letter from the ship's name, changed the IE at the end to a Y, changed his name legally to Eugene Ormandy, and became one of the most famous conductors of his generation, leading the great Philadelphia Orchestra for more than forty years.

It's a nice story.  Unfortunately, though, it can't be true - at least in the form in which that booklet presented it.  A glance at any biography of the great maestro establishes that he immigrated to the U.S. in 1921, long before the ship was built. 

billydelawder is correct.

Although the RMS Queen Elizabeth's demise does share some of the same characteristics as that of the Normandie, ending life belly up as the Seawise University doesn't match the sheer drama of catching fire in downtown New York City and capsizing right at the pier because of firefighting mistakes.  The RMS Queen Elizabeth was never siezed under the right of angary, Normandie was.  The Normandie finished its career as the most expensive salvage operation in history.

billdelawder....the next question belongs to you.

billydelawder wrote:

Next Question:   In WW2, the US Navy had 2 "unlucky" ship names. These 2 names were born by 2 ships each, and all 4 were sunk. Name the names.  Hint: 1 name was a sub name, 1 was a destroyer name.

While I am sure that you have the correct answer, I didn't mean to take away eaglecentral's right to give you the go ahead with the next question, billy. Forgive me eaglecentral!

Next Question:

In WW2, the US Navy had 2 "unlucky" ship names. These 2 names were born by 2 ships each, and all 4 were sunk. Name the names.  Hint: 1 name was a sub name, 1 was a destroyer name.

billydelawder wrote:

Was it the Normandie?

I briefly hesitated when answering the last question as I did, but asked myself:  "If I were in a court of law would I have enough evidence to convict the HMS Termeraire of being a Brig?"  Any good sea-lawyer can easily see the answer to that question is yes!

Next QUESTION:

She was very grand, very beautiful, very fast, and very expensive, all attributes of a great lady! Her career was abruptly terminated when, through no fault of her own, she ran afoul of the law and was siezed by the right of angary.  A pile of life jackets brought her to her end, which was, like much of her life, very dramatic and very expensive.

What ship is this?

Well done,Tom, Temeraire it is, and here is a "Fred Mitchell" picture of her from Dixon's book "Ships of the Victorian Navy" - a must for all pre-Dreadnought fans.

She was,unfortunately, a real hybrid, both in propulsion and armament . The biggest two-masted ship capable of being propelled by sail alone, she had the largest set square foresail and largest for-and-aft trysail ever made. In 1890 she tacked to anchorage under sail alone - the last British battleship ever to do so. So, yes, Alan, she definitely qualifies as a brig!

Some of her 11-inch and 10-inch guns were mounted in centre-line barbettes and some were mounted broadside. She was the first British ship with barbettes. The barbette guns were fitted with hydraulic "Montcrieff Disappearing Carriages", as used in coastal defence - the only warship to be so equipped.

Launched in 1876, she spent most of her life in the Mediterranean, taking part in the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882.

She became a training ship and was renamed Indus II in 1904, Akbar in 1915, and was sold for scrap in 1921.

So, it's over to Tom for the next question.

Rick

Good research on Tom's part, but..... 

Temeraire was known as the "Great Brig", and with 25,000 sq. ft. of sail and over 8500 tons, was the largest brig rigged vessel ever built, but,

... note the two stacks. She had two boilers,over 7500 hp of steam power and twin screws.  

Does a steamer count as a brig?

Definitely not a quickie!

I think the brig in question is the HMS Temeraire, launched in 1876.  It was an iron hulled warship of 8450 tons, was 280 ft long with a 60 ft beam.  Most brigs at the time were between 100-200 tons.

Tom S.

OK, here's a "quickie"...

Which vessel was the largest ever to sail rigged as a two-masted brig? And, just to forestall any "off the wall" answers, I mean built as a brig, not some giant clipper which might have lost a mast and been jury-rigged!

Rick

RickF,

Yes.  The SS Great Britain is correct.  The next question is yours.

Tom S.

I think we're talking about the SS Great Britain.

She was designed by I K Brunel and launched in 1843. Between 1855 and 1858, she was used as a troopship during the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. Later converted to a sailing ship. After a fire in 1886, damaged beyond repair, she was sold to the Falkland Islands Company and used as a storage hulk until the 1930s, when she was scuttled and abandoned. In her role as coal bunker, she served to refuel the South Atlantic fleet that defeated von Spee's fleet  in the Battle of the Falkland Islands (1914). In the Second World War, some of her steel was scavenged to repair HMS Exeter, badly damaged in the Battle of the River Plate.

In 1970 she was returned to the UK, to the Bristol dock where she had been built and where she is now on exhibition.  www.ssgreatbritain.org

Rick

jtilley,

Your very interesting addition to Governor Cobb's story is icing on the cake of this historical ship!

New QUESTION:

This ship got around!  It claimed several firsts among its list of historic honors.  It bankrupted its famous builder.  It played a part in the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, World War I and even after it was all but gone and nearly forgotten, it assisted one of the heroes of the Battle of the River Plate get home.  What is the name of this famous ship and where is it now?