Every Breaking Wave Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sunrise

Claude Monet was a French painter who was the pioneering genius behind the Impressionist Movement in visual art. Despite being born in Paris, he was raised in Le Havre, a place which later inspired many of the images in his art. One such painting is "Impression, soleil levant" ("Impression, Sunrise") which depicts the harbour serene, still, and calm before the hustle and bustle of the day. Monet used muted blues and a red-orange sun to show the haziness over the water before the day is started.

"Impression, Sunrise" can be found in the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris. It was stolen from there in 1985 and was missing, briefly. In 1990, the painting was recovered and, a year later, it was back on display. Between 1868 and 1874 Monet made a series of seven paintings in total which depicted the harbour at Le Havre.

Answer: Octopus

The Beatles were a rock band that hailed from Liverpool, England, and were a worldwide sensation. In 1969, on their album "Abbey Road", the Beatles released the song "Octopus' Garden". It was just the second song written by drummer Ringo Starr, but it had a cheerful and peaceful quality to it, and it was sung by Ringo himself. It took 32 takes, but the band members were pleased with the addition of this song.

Incidentally, this would be the last song that had Ringo Starr on lead vocals. Many years later, in 2014, he would write a children's book based on the song.

Answer: White Squall

The 1996 movie "White Squall" is based on true events that happened to the brigantine Albatross in 1961. The movie stars Jeff Bridges as Dr. Christopher B. Sheldon, the skipper of the floating school-ship. He takes on a crew of eager and diverse high school and college men aboard the ship and teaches them the fundamentals of sailing as well as teamwork and independence.

However, a freak storm, a 'white squall' as it is described by sailors, capsizes the ship leading to some people drowning. The survivors must come together to overcome the loss of friends and family and find the inner strength to move on, despite a lawsuit against the Skipper.

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

"The Old Man and the Sea" was a novella written in 1951 and published a year later by the American author Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway was living in Cayo Blanco, Cuba, at the time, and this influence the setting for his story. It tells of an old fisherman, Santiago, who is down on his luck and has not had much success fishing lately. On Day 58 of this dry spell, out at sea, he manages to hook a huge marlin which he hangs onto for dear life as it drags him around for two days and nights. On the third day, the marlin weakens and Santiago is able to kill it, however, it is too large to fit in his small boat. Lashing it to the boat, Santiago makes for shore, however, the fish attracts sharks. By the time Santiago reaches the shore, only the head of the marlin remains.

When Santiago gets back to shore, does he ever have a story to tell! "It was THAT big..."

Answer: Treasure Island

"Black Sails" is a television show billed as a historical drama, but actually set about 20 years before the events in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Treasure Island". It follows the dreaded Captain Flint and his crew as they sail the Caribbean and search for the galleon Urca de Lima. It is a Spanish ship which is reportedly carrying a fortune in gold, and Flint wants to plunder it. However, 'Calico' Jack Rackham get to it first.

The show is filmed in South Africa and has won several awards, primarily for the sound and effects.

Answer: Sub-mariner

Namor McKenzie was created in 1939 by Bill Everett of Timely Comics (which later became Marvel Comics). Two years later, in response to his growing popularity, DC Comics released Aquaman, but only as a supporting character. Namor was also known as Sub-mariner, the son of a princess of Atlantis (the undersea hidden kingdom) and a sea captain. He not only possessed aquatic powers, but also the gift of flight and strength.

By many accounts, Sub-mariner is the first antihero in the comic book world. Despite wanting to do the right thing, he possessed a short temper and was very focused on wrongs done to the sea, sometimes overshadowing other priorities. Nevertheless, he did join, at times, the Avengers, the X-Men, the Illuminati, the Fantastic Four, and other 'good' superhero groups.

Answer: Claude Debussy

While all of the composers in the answers were part of the Impressionist movement in music, it was Claude Debussy who composed "La mer, trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestre". This means 'The sea, three symphonic sketches for orchestra' in English. He was also the only composer on the list to reject the label "impressionist" and, oddly enough, did not get any praise for when he debuted "La mer" in Paris in October, 1905. However, by 1908 audiences really liked the composition and is now one of Debussy's most-performed pieces.

Debussy felt a connection to the sea. Ironically, when he was composing "La mer", he rarely visited the sea in those three years.

Answer: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

"I started Early - Took my Dog" is a poem by Emily Dickinson, "Sail Away" by Rabindranath Tagore, "Song of the Sea" by Rainer Maria Rilke, and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. All of these are lovely poems about the sea.

Coleridge's poem tells of a mariner who is telling the story of his (mis)adventures to a man on the way to a wedding. The mariner tells how an albatross saved their ship from the Antarctic ice and of how the mariner shoots the bird and kills it. Though this is initially seen as a non-incident, it soon becomes clear that it was bad luck to shoot an albatross (and from this poem came the superstition). Though he is eventually absolved, his penance is to tell his story and to warn people not to make the same mistake he did.

Answer: Mulan

There have been several Disney movies that feature the ocean prominently, however, "Mulan" was not one of them. On the other hand, the list is long with movies that have significant parts in the ocean, like "Moana", "Luca", "Finding Nemo" and its sequel "Finding Dory", "Atlantis", "Lilo and Stitch", and even "Pinocchio". Of this list, two stand out for me:

1. "The Little Mermaid", released in 1989, marked the beginning of Disney's resurgence in both animation and music. It tells of a mermaid who longs to be a human, especially after she falls in love with a prince. Defying her father, Triton, the King of the Seas, she seeks the help of the sea-witch Ursula to make her dream happen.

2. "Luca", released in 2021, tells the story of the titular sea monster who is trying to gain independence from his overbearing parents. Meeting a friend, Alberto, who longs to fit in, the two become an unlikely pair of humans when they're forced to hide out in the nearby human village. Fuelled by the dream of buying a Vespa and touring Italy, the two join forces with human outcast Giulia and enter a team to win a local race.

Answer: Styx

Styx is an American band who were formed in 1972 but really only became widely listened to with their 1977 album "The Grand Illusion". This album contained the hit "Come Sail Away" released that year as a single and reaching no. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January of 1978.

It was written by Styx's lead singer Dennis DeYoung and he stated that this was a "song of hope", especially after some of Styx's singles that preceded "Come Sail Away" were commercial failures.