Write Your Ship, Mister! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pequod

"Moby Dick" was published in 1851. Captain Ahab, Ishmael and Queequeg are all characters in this classic story of Ahab's obsession with catching the large sperm whale known as Moby Dick; Ishmael and Queequeg are crew members on Ahab's ship, the Pequod. Ahab's obsession ends up leaving only the narrator, Ishmael, alive; he used his friend Queequeg's coffin as a buoy to stay above water when the Pequod sank.

Answer: A Voyage to Botany Bay

"A Voyage to Botany Bay" was written in 1795 and attributed to George Barrington. The sixth chapter of this novel makes reference to the Flying Dutchman, a "ghost ship" that can never make port, cursed to sail the waters of the world forever. The name "The Flying Dutchman" was used in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films as the flagship of legendary (fictional) pirate Davy Jones.

Answer: Roger Byam

The novel "Mutiny on The Bounty" is a fictional account of the real-life 1789 mutiny aboard the HMS Bounty, in which crew members, led by master's mate Fletcher Christian, put Captain William Bligh and eighteen loyal crew members off the boat in a launch in the Pacific Ocean. Christian and Bligh were both real-life participants in the mutiny; Byam was a composite character devised to narrate the tale and James T. Kirk is, of course, the captain of the USS Enterprise on "Star Trek".

Answer: Treasure Island

"Treasure Island" was first published as a series of stories in Young Folks magazine in 1881-1882, then as a novel in 1883. A lot of what we identify with pirate lore and treasure hunts on the open seas - like "X marks the spot", peg-legged buccaneers and parrots on the pirate's shoulder - originated with this novel. The best-known character from this novel is Long John Silver.

Answer: Marlin

"The Old Man and the Sea" is one of Hemingway's masterpieces of fiction and is based on a real incident in Hemingway's life in 1935 in the Bahamas. It was published in 1952, and tells the story of a Cuban fisherman who hasn't caught a fish in 83 days; he sets sail in a skiff and does battle with a large marlin. I'd tell you the rest, but I don't want to spoil it for you... :)

Answer: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" was published in 1870. In it, the United States sends a ship called the "Abraham Lincoln" to hunt down what they believe to be a harmful sea creature, but which turns out to be an electrically-powered submarine known as the "Nautilus", helmed by Captain Nemo. Three crew members from the "Abraham Lincoln" are captured and taken aboard the "Nautilus" - which is not affiliated with any nation - and Nemo explains their mission and takes them on a series of adventures, including one to the lost city of Atlantis.

Answer: USS Reluctant

"Mister Roberts" was made into a classic feature film in 1955 starring Henry Fonda, James Cagney and Jack Lemmon. Both novel and film tell the tale of an American cargo ship in the Pacific in World War II, and the crew's attempts to deal with the eccentricities of the ship's captain. Sadly, Thomas Heggen died in 1949 at the age of 30 before the movie was released.

Answer: Submarine

"Das Boot" is German for - not surprisingly - "The Boat". The novel follows German submarine U-96 during World War II; the "U" stands for "U-Boot" or "Unterseeboot" (not surprisingly, this is German for "submarine"). The story is about the crew weathering bad storms and avoiding enemy attacks while dealing with differences between the idealistic younger crew members and the hardened veterans on the crew.

They are delayed from returning to port, which they hope to reach in time for Christmas, and a bad fate awaits them when they do return to port.

Answer: Underwater earthquake that creates a giant tidal wave

"The Poseidon Adventure" was written by Paul Gallico in 1969 and was made into an epic motion picture in 1972. The story begins with a cruise/cargo ship, the SS Poseidon, capsizing on New Year's Eve as the result of an earthquake in the ocean floor, and follows a group of passengers who try to get to the bottom of the ship (now the top) before they sink.

Answer: Revenge

This modern classic, whose full title is "The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure", was written (on the cover, Goldman refers to it as "Abridged") in 1973 and, of course, inspired the Rob Reiner 1987 film that starred Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant and countless others.

In the story, Westley was supposedly killed at sea by the Dread Pirate Roberts, but it turns out that... seriously, if you don't know the rest, please read the book AND see the movie, and I'll say it in advance: "You're welcome."