Warships

See also World War II: Ships.

Types of ship

According to Wikipedia, modern warships are generally divided into seven main categories. Three of them are aircraft carrier, submarine, and amphibious assault ship – each of which (one would have thought) are too obvious to come up in any self–respecting quiz. The other four are:

Originally one of the small, lightly armed ships ordered by Winston Churchill at the start of World War II; based on a commercial whale catcher, its primary attribute was ease of construction as an emergency wartime anti–submarine weapon. Traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper warship		Corvette
A fast, independent warship; traditionally, the smallest warships capable of independent action; along with battleships and battlecruisers, they have largely vanished from modern navies		Cruiser
A fast and highly maneuverable warship, traditionally incapable of independent action; originally developed to counter the threat of torpedo boats, and now the largest independent warship generally seen on the ocean		Destroyer
In the age of sail, a small, fast ship used for patrolling and escorting larger warships; used since WWII for a variety of small, fast ships often not dissimilar to destroyers, cruisers, or even battleships, and used to protect merchant vessels and other warships		Frigate

Other types:

Term used in the Royal Navy, in the 18th century, for a vessel that didn't fit any of its usual categories		Bark (barque)
Traditionally the most heavily armed and armoured type of warship		Battleship
New breed of warship introduced before WWI – comparable to a battleship in size and arms, but less armour; designed to outrun and outgun enemy vessels. Three (Indefatigable, Queen Mary, Invincible) were lost at Jutland in 1916; the last and most famous example was HMS Hood		Battlecruiser
World War I: armed British ships disguised as merchant ships, used as decoys		Q–ships

Submarines: development of

Dutch engineer who designed the first underwater boat for James I of England in 1620		Cornelius van Drebbel
One–man submarine designed in the 1760s by David Bushnell – the first military submarine – used against the British in the US War of Independence, but without much success		Turtle
Submarine designed in 1800 by the US naval engineer Robert Fulton: demonstrated to the French and the British, neither of whom took it up		Nautilus
Naval submarine (submersible torpedo ship) launched by France in 1888		Gymnote
Designer of the first submarines to be formally commissioned by both the US Navy and the Royal Navy (in 1878 and 1900 respectively), and both named after him. (Born in Ireland in 1840; emigrated to the USA in 1873)		John Philip Holland

Arks Royal

The original Ark Royal was built at Deptford in 1587 for (and sold to the Royal Navy by)		Sir Walter Rale(i)gh
Original name of the original Ark Royal		Ark Raleigh

Ships

The Royal Navy's latest aircraft carriers: the largest warships ever built in the UK	Named 2014, due to enter service 2017		HMS Queen Elizabeth
	Construction began 2011, due to enter service 2020		HMS Prince of Wales

64–gun warship commanded by Nelson, 1793 – 96		HMS Agamemnon
Royal Navy frigate, detained in the Yangtze River for three months by Chinese Communist forces, in 1949, during the Chinese Civil War; played herself in the 1957 film about the incident, but was scrapped soon afterwards		HMS Amethyst
Royal Navy frigate hit by two Argentine bombs on 23 May 1982, during the Falklands campaign; sank next day (see HMS Sheffield)		HMS Antelope
Lord Admiral Howard of Effingham's flagship against the Armada		HMS Ark Royal
Nuclear submarine that ran aground while undergoing trials off the Isle of Skye, 2010		HMS Astute
Merchant ship, owned by Cunard, requisitioned during the Falklands War; hit by two Argentinian air–launched Exocet missiles on 25 May 1982, and sank three days later while under tow		Atlantic Conveyor
Charles Darwin sailed to the Galapagos Islands on board		HMS Beagle
The last surviving British cruiser of World War II – now a museum, moored on the Thames near Tower Bridge		HMS Belfast
Napoleon surrendered on 15 July 1815, to Captain Frederick Maitland, on board his (Maitland's) ship		HMS Bellerophon
Troopship that struck a rock off Cape Town in 1852, when the procedure "women and children first" was used – possibly for the first time in the Royal Navy; subsequently gave its name to this 'drill'		HMS Birkenhead
Small merchant vessel, built in Hull in 1784 and named the Bethia; bought by the Royal Navy in 1787, and renamed; sent to the Pacific Ocean under the command of William Bligh to acquire breadfruit plants and transport them to British possessions in the West Indies; that mission was never completed, due to a mutiny (1789) led by the acting Master, Fletcher Christian		HMS Bounty
Canadian submarine that suffered two fires while sailing from the Royal Navy base at Faslane, 2004, shortly after being handed over to Canada from Britain		HMCS Chicoutimi (formerly HMS Upholder)
Sank the General Belgrano (1982) – the only nuclear–powered submarine ever to sink an enemy warship		HMS Conqueror
The US navy's most famous ship; launched 1797, the world's oldest fully commissioned vessel; dry–docked in Boston Harbour (where it's been, with some interruptions, since 1820) to promote the US Navy; nicknamed Old Ironsides		USS Constitution
Crew members involved in the Iranian hostages incident, March 2007		HMS Cornwall
Royal Navy destroyer sunk by Argentinia's air force on 25 May 1982 (during the Falklands War – exactly 3 weeks after HMS Sheffield)		HMS Coventry
Ship that accompanied the Resolution on Captain Cook's third voyage		HMS Discovery
Name given to a ship of the Tudor navy (the forerunner of the Royal Navy) launched in 1553, and subsequently to seven ships of the Royal Navy (also one previously of the Commonwealth of England navy, so renamed at the Restoration)		HMS Dreadnought
The sixth Royal Navy ship with this name was the world's most powerful warship at the time of its launch in 1907 – so advanced that the name became a generic term for modern battleships. Ironically saw little active service (was being refitted during of the Battle of Jutland); decommissioned in 1919
The seventh ship with this name (1960–80) was the UK's first nuclear–powered submarine
Name given to the class of nuclear missile submarines commissioned to replace the Vanguard class – due to enter service in the early 2030s
Sunken British cruiser from which a large quantity of gold was recovered in 1981		HMS Edinburgh
Captain Cook's ship on his first voyage; also the flagship of Australia's First Fleet		HMS Endeavour
The two ships taken to Antarctica by Sir James Clark Ross (1839–43), and on Franklin's ill–fated 1845 expedition to find the North–West Passage; the first was found in 2014, the second in 2016		HMS Erebus
		HMS Terror
Commissioned in 1938 as USS Phoenix; survived Pearl Harbor, but was sold to Argentina and sunk during the Falklands War; the first ship to be sunk in wartime by a nuclear–powered submarine; captain at the time of its sinking was Hector Bonzo		General Belgrano
The first ironclad warship		La Gloire (1858)
US submarine that struck and sank a Japanese school training ship, 2001		Greeneville
Cruiser with which Lord Kitchener went down (struck a mine off Orkney, 1916)		HMS Hampshire
Name shared by the first submarines used respectively by both the US and Royal Navies (after their Irish–born US designer)		Holland 1
In the Falklands campaign, Prince Andrew served on		HMS Invincible
Jellicoe's flagship at Jutland		HMS Iron Duke
Russian nuclear submarine, lost with all hands when it sank in the Barents Sea in 2000		Kursk
Admiral Beatty's flagship at Jutland – badly damaged, but saved and repaired		Lion
French–built frigate: launched in 1779, one of 16 ships handed over to the British Royal Navy at the Siege of Toulon in 1793, to prevent her from falling into the hands of the Republicans; sank during a storm in the West Frisian Islands (off the Dutch coast) in 1799, with a large cargo of gold; little of the gold was ever recovered, but the ship is famous for a bell that was salvaged		Lutine
Blown up in Havana harbour, 1898, prompting a war between USA and Spain		USS Maine
Launched in 1510; flagship of successive admirals; rebuilt in 1528 and 1536; sank in the Solent in 1545 when sailing against a French invasion (possibly because the lower gun ports had been left open); refloated in 1982, now on view in Portsmouth		Mary Rose
French frigate that ran aground off the north–west coast of Africa (modern Mauritania) in 1816, when on her way to re–establish the colony of Senegal; 147 of its passengers and crew were cast adrift on an open raft, only 15 of them surviving to be rescued 13 days later; the raft was the subject of a famous painting by Théodore Géricault		Méduse (Medusa)
Admiral Byng was executed (1757) on board		HMS Monarque
The world's first nuclear–powered submarine (launched in 1954 by Mrs. Eisenhower); the first vessel to complete a submerged transit under the North Pole (1958)		USS Nautilus
Took Napoleon to exile on St. Helena, in 1815		HMS Northumberland
Royal Navy destroyer that grounded off a rock in a storm off Australia, 2002, and was carried back to Portsmouth on a "heavy lifting vessel" (barge)		HMS Nottingham
First ship to bring the news of Nelson's victory at Trafalgar back to England		HMS Pickle
Vaporised by Britain's first atom bomb test (3 October 1952)		HMS Plym
The second Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier, construction assured 2010, launch date etc. to be confirmed		HMS Prince of Wales
US naval ship, captured by North Korean forces in January 1968 (during the Vietnam War) and accused of spying; one crew member was killed during the attack; the remaining 82 (including 6 officers) were released on 23 December 1968, after the US admitted that the ship had been spying; the US then immediately retracted its admission		USS Pueblo
Royal Navy aircraft carrier due to enter service in 2020		HMS Queen Elizabeth
French ship from which the musket ball that killed Nelson was said to have been fired		Redoutable
Captain Cook's ship on his second and third voyages		HMS Resolution
Ship commanded by Sir Francis Drake in the defence against the Spanish Armada – the first of 13 ships of the English / Royal Navy (to date) to bear this name		HMS Revenge
Appropriate name given to the ship of the line that brought King Charles II back to England upon the restoration of the monarchy		Royal Charles
Collingwood's flagship at Trafalgar		Royal Sovereign
Flagship of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in the Spanish Armada		São Martinho (San Martín) san martin
First British ship sunk in the Falklands conflict (hit by an Exocet missile on 4 May 1982; foundered 6 days later)		HMS Sheffield
Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) ship set on fire by Argentinian Air Force bombs, while waiting to unload troops on 8 June 1982; towed out to sea and sunk on 21 June; Simon Weston was a survivor		Sir Galahad
US destroyer hit by an Iraqi Exocet missile in 1987 (37 died)		USS Stark
Second in line behind HMS Victory at Trafalgar, when she played a significant role in the surrender of the French ship Redoutable – largely as a result of which she is remembered by the epithet 'Fighting'; featured in a famous painting by Turner, being "tugged to her final berth to be broken up"		HMS Temeraire
Royal Navy submarine that sank on its trials in Liverpool Bay in 1939		HMS Thetis
Launched in 1817, named after a battle that took place in 1782 off what is now Sri Lanka; remained in service, latterly for training and accommodation, until 1986; now (after restoration) in Hartlepool harbour, the centrepiece of a historic dockyard museum; the Royal Navy's oldest warship still afloat (Victory is in dry dock)		HMS Trincomalee
The last and biggest British battleship (decommissioned 1960)		HMS Vanguard
Oldest ship currently on the British Naval List (in dry dock at Portsmouth)		HMS Victory
Britain's first ironclad warship (the first armour clad warship with an iron hull)		HMS Warrior (1861)
British battleship that survived action in both world wars		HMS Warspite
Famous warship built for King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (named after the royal house); the master shipwright died during construction, after which the king asked for the length and height of the ship to be increased; sank on its maiden voyage in 1628; raised in 1961, now restored and on view in Stockholm		Wasa (Vasa)
The world's largest battleships ever (both Japanese) – commissioned in 1941 & 1942, sunk in 1945 & 1944		Yamato, Musashi

Miscellaneous

Cargo of the Bounty at the time of the mutiny		Breadfruit plants
Captain of the Victory at Trafalgar		Thomas Hardy
HMS Victory is now at		Portsmouth

© Haydn Thompson 2017–21