Ship Trivia Quiz

1916 Battle of Jutland."Drifting in a wide circle, she appeared as a juicy target to the German dreadnoughts and took thirteen hits, inadvertently drawing fire from the hapless Warrior. This maneouvre from Warspite was known as "Windy Corner". Despite surviving the onslaught, Warspite was soon ordered back to port by Evan-Thomas."

 Warspite's service in 1943 focused mainly on support of British and American landings in Sicily and Italy.On September 15, 1943 a German glider bomb hit Warspite, tearing through her superstructure, her main deck, and her hull. Warpite had to be towed to port, and was never fully repaired.

This is for the 8th Warspite.

Jim

Sorry for the delay but i'm still not over the Patriot's loss. cruichin has had 5 days now to post a question, What are the rules on this? Does it go to RickF or subfixer but we do need the next question.

Jim

Jim, you draw us further down an interesting (to me, anyway) path, and while we are idling along, waiting for a new trivia question by cruichin, I'd like to dawdle with this issue of U.S. battle stars.

First, your articles were specifically NOT what I meant by U.S.Navy battle stars.  Those articles you provided were talking about the counterpart of the Army's streamers, and are pretty much Not Applicable for the Navy, since ships don't keep a "personal" flag, like a regiment's flag.  Maybe something ceremonial for the quarterdeck for display at a change of command, but...  The article was referring to campaign awards, similar to those that a military member (sailor, soldier, etc) receives for "being there", or commendation awards.  These are the very same ones that are represented on the ship's bridge wing, in just the correct order that a sailor would wear them.

The wikipedia article was also referenced from another one here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_stars, which is also full of distracting stuff that is not related to a ship's battle stars.  And the best discussion I have seen of the battle stars is on the discussion page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Service_star) for that article, where several folks also expound that there are a couple of subject areas being confused in the main article.  Not my favorite authoritative reference.

However, the tail end of the main article says that the battle stars were first authorized in 1942, and that does make some sense.  Poke through the "Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships" (DANFS)and look at old battleships like USS Texas who participated in an action off Mexico in 1914, then convoy duty and a short fleet action in WWI, then in WWII.

"Texas (BB-35) earned five battle stars during World War II." period.

Or look at the cruiser Olympia.  No reference to battle stars at all. 

So I believe we started this "tradition" pretty late, and can't come close to comparing with the Royal Navy with a given name geing re-used honorably over hundreds of years. 

Otherwise, we  could show proper honors for the first Wasp and two battle stars for CV-7, the eighth ship of the name and eight battle stars for CV-18, the ninth of the name.  (aha - there's my example - several carrier names were re-used, and their battle stars did not accumulate) 

Rick

Since your post I looked up Battle Stars and did not find alot. I have 2 links that are to large to copy in a message.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_streamer

http://tmg110.tripod.com/usnst.htm

Jim

That's true - one of the traditions that our former colonial Navy changed from the Royal Navy and her Dominions.

They associate Battle Honours with a ship's name, or an Army Regiment, forever down through the years.

We have Battle Stars that are won by a particular hull (ie, the sixth Enterprise). 

Oddly enough, our Army and Marine units do keep their battle  streamers on a unit's Colors down through the years - I don't know what they do if the regiment is decommissioned once and then brought back to life.

I was struggling with the idea of whether we have any ship names that have earned Battle Stars  assigned to different hulls.  I know that WWII ships were present as late as Vietnam, receiving Battle Stars, and I know that gallant WWII ship names have been present at the Gulf wars.  (Consider San Jacinto firing the first shot of each war - but did she actually receive a Battle Star for that?)

Hmmm.  Just thinking.

Rick 

Subfixer,

In the Royal Navy, the Battle Honours are related to the name - the last Warspite (the ninth - a Valiant-class nuclear sub) would have carried all the following:

Cadiz 1596 Orfordness 1666 Schooneveld 1673 Texel 1673 Barfleur 1692 Velez Malaga 1705 Lagos 1759 Quiberon 1759 Jutland 1916 Atlantic 1939 Narvik 1940 Norway 1940 Calabria 1940  Mediterranean 1940-41-43 Malta Convoys 1941  Matapan 1941 Crete 1941 Sicily 1943 Salerno 1943 English Channel 1944 Normandy 1944 Walcheren 1944 Biscay 1944.

Warspite carries the most battle honours of any ship in the Royal Navy, and the eighth ship carries the most for any individual ship.

Rick

cruichin found the ship I was thinking of so he should go next. I found the question from all the searching RickF has made me do on HMS ships. here is the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Warspite

Jim

RickF

You could be right, but the one I am thinking of has 15 battle honours with the first in 1916.

HMS Antelope's are pretty impressive - Armada 1588, Lowestoft 1665, Four Day's Battle 1666, Orfordness 1666, Solebay 1672, Banky Bay 1680, Guadeloupe 1690, Marbella 1705, Ostend 1804, Atlantic 1939-44, Bismark Action 1941, Malta Convoys 1942, North Africa 1942-43, Falkland Islands 1982

Rick

Thanks, next question is What ship carries the most battle honours of any ship in the Royal Navy?

Jim

The nine strong Majestic class was the largest class of battleships ever build, one bigger than the eight-strong King Edward VII class of 1892-1907.

HMS Caesar
HMS Hannibal
HMS Illustrious
HMS Jupiter
HMS Majestic
HMS Magnificent
HMS Mars
HMS Prince George
HMS Victorious

Jim

French Danton class of 1911 had six ships

German Kaiser class of 1912 had six ships

Rick 

I'm going with the South Dakota class, with 4 - assuming that the Kongo class is officially considered Battlecruisers.

There's probably a class with 5 somewhere, but I can't think of it.

OK:

What was the largest class of Battleships built, in numbers? 

Good, billy.  That's the one I had in mind. 

 You're up.

Rick 

Thanks, Rick.  Starting to get cautious about these things, as we see more and more frequently that our view of "the", "the first" or "the only" isn't the same as what's known by our assembled body of experts here.

 But here goes -

The only surface ship class built to carry intercontinental ballistic missiles (offensively, not as a tender or transport)? 

That was quick - I thought it was easy, but not that easy! Over to the other Rick for the next question.

Rick F

Futility was the name of a book written in 1898 by Morgan Robertson which appeared to foreshadow the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 at that location.

Rick H

Not utility, but futility. And that's my next question. What connects "futility" and 41°43N, 49°56′W?

Rick

RickF, you have it. Although utility aside, it was still the first steamship to make it around Cape Horn. But it was used in Peru, and Brazil.

Mike T.

Might we be looking for Thomas Cochrane, who in 1822 attempted to bring the Rising Star to be used in the Chilean revolution. Reputedly the worlds first steam warship, it was, by all accounts, fairly useless, and Cochrane left for Chile without it. It took so long to arrive that the war was over by the time got there!

Rick

Another clue:

Bernardo O'Higgins was associated with this vessel.

Mike T.