For several years a friend of mine, the source for the bonus question here, posted a trivia quiz on another history board. He always posts this on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. I meant to start this tradition up here last month but things prevented me. So his is the first annual Boxing Day Warship trivia quiz. A little late.

I tried to include questions for each major nation but I’m mainly knowledgeable about American and British ships.

1.This British Battleship ran aground between the wars on an ironically named shoal. Name the ship, the shoal, and why it was ironically named.

2This US ship was given the nickname RAMP after WWII. What was the ship and why was she called RAMP?

3.The Italian battleship Giulio Cesare earned its place in history, along with the HMS Warspite. What is the Cesare’s historic claim to fame?

4.This Japanese I boat went down in history by performing a feat that, so far, is unique in military history. Name the boat and the feat.

5.These two US destroyers were basically destroyed. Their engines and machinery was used to make two new destroyers, which were given the same names and hull numbers, something unique in USN history. What are these two ships?

6.Several warships served under the flags of Italy, Germany, and Japan, at one time or another. Name any of them.

7.Prior to the US entry in WWII this US Coast Guard ship wandered into dangerous waters. Name the ship and why the waters were so dangerous.

8.In 1941, prior to the US entry in WWII, the US Navy captured a German merchantman off the coast of South America. Since technically the US wasn’t at war they had to come up with a plausible excuse for this action. What excuse, harkening back to the 19th century, did they come up with?

9.Most everybody has heard of the Graph Zeppelin. When it appeared she wasn’t going to be built what other sister ships were considered for conversion to carriers?

10.In the wake of Pearl Harbor the US navy was so short of battleships it turned to this South American country in the hopes of buying their battleship. What country and what ship?

11.Several nations made “cruiser subs” but only this sub had heavy cruiser guns. What sub?

The British were masters at coming up with nicknames for various ships. What were the following ships and explain the nicknames.

12.What were the “Cherry tree ships?”

13.What were the “Salmon and Glickstein?”

14.What were “Refit and Repair?”

15.What were the “Outrageous, the Curious, and the Spurious?”

16.What were the “Woolworth _______” with _______ being the type of ship?

Bonus Question. (This one isn’t mine but a friend came up with it and it’s one of the best trivia questions I’ve ever heard.)
This ship was for many years the most powerful warship in its country’s navy. December 7th found her nearly caught at Pearl Harbor with the other ships. She ended the war being prepared to escort the British pacific fleet carriers. What is the ship?

I will post the answers, with sources, at the end of the month, plus I'll let everybody know if they have the right answers.

Rodger thats evil ! Good questions. LOL! I have no answers off the top
of my head, this will take some thought!

Cheers,
Garry

Geeeeeez, yer killin' me HalfYank!! I'll never think of 'Boxing Day' the same way ever again!

Tread.

(sitting with mouth open, scratching head).

Heh-heh. I thought I almost knew the answer to two…but just couldn’t put my finger on them. This will be a good exercise in research. Don’t give us the answers too soon. Like a dog with a bone…I want to chew on this awhile.

Mike

O.K. HalfYank.........I'll throw some darts.

1) It's either the H.M.S. Howe or the H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth. The shoal was in South Africa.

2) The real name for RAMP was the U.S.S. Lexington!

3) The Cesare participated along with the H.M.S. Warspite in shelling the D-Day beaches.

4) The Japanese I boat was called the Kobiyashi Mayru, and it sailed into San Francisco bay.

5) The U.S.S. Frick & the U.S.S. Frack

6) The Nina, the Pinta & the Santa Maria

7) It was the Coast Guard Cutter 'Minnow', it had set out on a 'three hour tour' and was lost in dangerous waters for several television seasons.

8) They arrested the crew which made them criminals, and then they were transported to the 'big' prison island called 'Australia'.

9) The Tirpitz and the Graf Spee

10) Argentina

11) There are more than TEN of these!?!

12) The George Washington Class.

13) An economically sized yacht manned by accountants

14) Sister ship to the H.M.S. 'Wallace & Grommit'

15) There's still more of these bloody things!

16) It was a PX ship....but it wasn't worth a 'five & dime' !

Bonus: The Repulse or the Prince of Whales.

How'd I do!?!

Tread.

I would say that Tread definitely gets an "A" for Humor!

Here's my feeble stab at it (until I can hit the books... I'm at work right now!):

7.) Was it the USCG cutter Modoc, that accidentaly found itself between the Bismarck and a squadron of British Swordfish in 1941?

i feel so ashamed! is 1the warspite?14 is the renown and the repulse.

Score first "blood" for foxroe. Yes, number 7 is the USCG Modoc. Here is a link describing the action. http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/guard/wpg46.htm After reading this I found out something I didn't know, there were actually three USCG ships there, Modoc and two others. Modoc must have been closer to the action so she's the one I've heard of.

Good Job foxroe.

Mlb63 scores number two. Yes the Refit and Repair were derogatory names for HMS Renown and Repulse. They got these "handles" in WWI when they went through so many refits so soon after they were built.

Sorry thought Martin, number 1 isn't Warspite. Though I'm sure the old gal might have ran aground once in a while in her career she isn't the ship I'm talking about.

Honorable mention goes to Treadhead if for no other reason than he really made us laugh.

I believe #5 is the Cassin and Downes .....shared the dry dock with the Pennsylvainia at Pearl

Give that man, Blaster76, a cheroot. Yes Cassin and Downes are the US destroyers. Here are some links to their story.

http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/destroy/dd372txt.htm
http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/destroy/dd375txt.htm[url]

And based on the theory that a picture tells a thousand words.
[url]http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=members.aol.com/dolart/pennsy.jpg&imgrefurl=http://members.aol.com/dolart/pa-nmex.htm&h=603&w=504&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522Cassin%2Band%2BDownes%2522%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8

DANG!! And I was going to say the 'Cassin & Downes' too!....I swear it. I don't know where that 'Frick & Frack' stuff came from.......geeeeez!

Tread.

Hey fellas, for what it's worth. I'm really curious about the answers to this quiz HalfYank has put together for us.....maybe I'll learn something. I have always been game for that!

the Cesare was sunk by a radio controlled bomb the old lady was lucky not to have been sunk.if the ark royal was sunk due to poor damage control as some have claimed then the warspite was exellent damage control and plain old luck.

LOL......only too glad to help ya out garry! Hope you start feeling better.

Tread.

I got another (I think)!

12) The "cherry trees" were HMS Rodney and Nelson; named so because they were "cut down" by the Washington Naval Treaty.

Todd

These really got me scratching my head. I'll have a guess at a couple.
3. The warspite hit the Giulio Cesare at the greatest ever range for two ships on the move.
8. Was this something to do with suspicion of piracy?
15. The Glorious, Courageous, Furious, British carriers?
16. Carriers? The slang name for escort carriers.
Bonus question, The Warspite? She had left Pearl a couple of days earlier.

Wait! I've got another one!

15) HMS Courageous ("Outrageous"), HMS Glorius ("Curious"), and the HMS Furious ("Spurious")

This is fun!

Todd

See......I'm learning so much already!

Of course, all these reference's to the Warspite are making me feel a little like I should get on the 'short' bus. ;-)

Sorry, wasn't trying to jump on the question #15 band wagon (or should it be "battle wagon"...), Brandy. I stumbled across the answer while searching the web and just sort of blurted it out, not realizing that you had aleady answered it.

Todd

Answers so far

Mlb63, no, but this is a good guess. They both share that distinction but not what I was looking for.

Foxroe, yes on #12, the “Cherry three ships” were the Nelson and the Rodney. They were literally “cut down” by the Washington treaty. After the football game tonight I’m going to try and scan in some pictures of these two, the original designs, and some of the other ships I’ve mentioned. Two other names for these two were Nelsol and Rodenol because they looked like tankers and there was a series of British tankers with names that ended in "ol.


Brandydoguk, #3 Yes. That is the one I was thinking of. HMS Warspite hit the Cesare at over 24000 yards, a record that still stands for one moving ship hitting another. Just think, a WWI ship hitting from over 12 miles.
#8, no, but that might have been used also. It’s not the one I’m thinking of.
#15 Yes, Glorious, Courageous, and Furious. These three were rated as "large light cruisers" by the RN. Jackie Fisher, father of the Dreadnought and Battlecruiser concepts, called them this to get around parliament who were getting tired of battlecruisers. The three ships were the epitome of "eggshells armed with hammers." The Glorious and Courageous were armed with four 15" guns in a twin turret at both ends, the Furious with 2 18" guns, a single turret fore and aft. The guns were so big that Furious was quickly cut back to a single 18" gun but even that proved too much for her. Soon all three were converted to carriers, in which rig they served until their losses in WWII
#16, yes, the name I was looking for was Woolworth Carriers, which is how the early escort carriers, especially those derived from merchant hulls, were called.

Foxroe, yes on the Glorious, Courageous, and Furious. and you named them accordingly, but Brandydoguk beat you to it.

Keep it up guys.

I'll try a couple more
11. The submarine Surcouf
8. Smuggling?

Another one for Brandydoguk, Surcouf is the one. Here is some information on this interesting sub.
http://www.4reference.net/encyclopedias/wikipedia/French_submarine_Surcouf.html

Sorry, though, #8 I suppose you could say it was a type of smuggling but stil isn't what I'm going for. Want a hint?

For question #8, was it illegal slave trade?

Todd