Captains and Their Ships Trivia Quiz

Answer: HMS Bounty

William Bligh was also Governor of New South Wales, Australia. He was deposed in another 'mutiny' after attempting to end corruption in the rum trade.

Answer: Golden Hind

He led the second circumnavigation of the globe 1577 to 1580; and was second-in-command in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. King Phillip II offered a reward of 20,000 ducats for "El Draque", equvialent to millions of dollars in today's money.

Answer: RMS Titanic

We may never know exactly the details of Capt. Smith's last moments on the Titanic. Some say he calmly went down with his ship, while others say he shot himself moments before sinking. Still others say he jumped at the last moment, but all agree that he was on the job to the very end.

Answer: KMS Bismarck

The battleship Bismarck was actually the first, and last, ship that Lindemann commanded. Before that he had been commander of the Naval Gunnery School.

Answer: SM U-20

Walther Schwieger was the sixth most successful submarine commander of WWI. He was most noted for the sinking of RMS Lusitania as commander of the SM U-20 in 1915. (This was his second U-boat he commanded after beginning his career aboard SM U-12) He was later killed with all hands commanding SM U-88 in 1917.

Answer: SS Edmund Fitzgerald

The Edmund Fitzgerald may be the the most famous of shipwrecks on the Great Lakes, but it is one of many hundreds. Lake Superior is actually one of the most dangerous waterways in the world. The ship sank with all hands in hurricane-like conditions on November 10, 1975.

Answer: USS Indianapolis (CA-35)

Capt. McVay was the only US officer in WW2 to be subjected to court martial for the loss of a ship due to enemy action. He was blamed for not zig-zagging, thus making his ship an easy target for submarines. Even the enemy who sank his ship, Mochitsura Hashimoto, testified that zig-zagging would not have made any difference. Of 1,196 hands, 300 died in the initial attack, about 600 died of exposure and shark attacks after being left adrift. (There were very few lifeboats). Only 317 survived. After years of mental health problems, Charles McVay committed suicide in 1968.

He was eventually exonerated in 2000.

Answer: CSS Virginia (Merrimack)

Franklin Buchanan was the captain of the CSS Virginia, but due to a musket wound to the leg, it was Lt. Catesby ap Roger Jones who was skipper during the famous battle with the USS Monitor. Franklin Buchanan would become the only Confederate officer promoted to the rank of full admiral.

Answer: Adventure Galley

One of the best known pirates of all time. He is know for burying a cache of loot near Long Island, that was found, and used against at his trial.

Answer: I-58

Mochitsura Hashimoto was the captain of the submarine I-58, which sank the USS Indianapolis, as the ship was returning from its mission of transporting the atomic bomb. Capt. Hashimoto testified in the court-martial of Charles McVay. Hashimoto became a Shinto priest after the war.