Portsmouth Historic Dockyard Trivia Quiz

Answer: HMS Warrior was the first, true ocean going ironclad built for the Royal Navy

HMS Warrior, launched in 1860, and her sister ship HMS Black Prince were the first in a class of ships that became known as "ironclads". Unlike the SS Great Britain that was designed by Sir Isambard Kingdom Brunel, HMS Warrior did not have a solid iron hull, but a composite design with plates of wrought iron between which was a layer of teak.

HMS Warrior was not the first ship to be driven by sail and steam. The Royal Navy and others had experimented with the same designs already. In addition, HMS Warrior was not the first ironclad ship either, as attempts to build such ships had already taken place including the French navy ship Glorie.

After she had been commissioned, HMS Warrior served the Royal Navy for 22 years before being decommissioned in 1883. By then, the arms race that HMS Warrior had fuelled had made her obsolete. Although decommissioned, HMS Warrior became a guard ship at various locations, a teaching ship, jetty and oil hulk, still serving the Royal Navy.

Although attempts were made as far back as the 1960s to restore HMS Warrior, this only began in earnest in the late 1970s when she was towed to Hartlepool, the main work finishing in 1987 when HMS Warrior was towed into its berth at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Renamed HMS Warrior (1860) - to distinguish her from a Royal Navy shore base - HMS Warrior attracts around 300,000 visitors each year.

Answer: Royal Air Force

When the Royal Air Force (RAF) was formed in 1918 through the merger of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and the Royal Flying Corp (RFC), there was a need to supply the RAF with launches to carry out various tasks, from seaplane tenders to maintaining marker buoys at seaplane bases.

Initially the Royal Navy opposed this move (which they saw as taking away part of their duties) by attempting to withhold launches from the RAF. Once the RAF had finally acquired the launches and tenders from the Royal Navy, the newly formed RAF Marine Craft Section found that many of the vessels were slow and inadequate for their roles, especially rescuing airmen that had crashed or parachuted into the sea. The RAF MCS therefore ordered a number of high speed launches based around torpedo boats to be used as rescue launches and tenders.

However, the rescuing of downed airmen at sea was an ad hoc affair, with the RAF MCS, the Royal Navy and civilian ships still performing air sea rescue. As the Second World War began, airmen downed at sea had around a 20% chance of survival.

As a result the MCS was reorganised in 1941 becoming what was known as the RAF Search and Rescue Force (SARF), which also saw flying boats used to rescue downed airmen as well as a search capacity. In addition, these aircraft could also drop supplies and in some cases small boats to rescue down aircrew. It was at this point the RAF Search and Rescue Force adopted the motto "The sea shall not have them".

After World War Two had ended, the marine section of the RAF went into decline with the introduction of helicopters in the search and rescue role by SARF, along with the contraction of the British Empire and long range transport aircraft, leading to there being less need for tenders for seaplanes.

Eventually, the Marine Branch of the RAF disbanded in 1986, its remaining craft sold to private buyers or becoming museum exhibits such as HSL 102 depicted in the photograph. As well as being an exhibit, HSL 102 is also used for private hire and listed on the National Register of Historic Vessels.

Answer: MGZ

Nicknamed "Spitfires of the Seas", Motor Gun Boats (MGB) were fast, agile, short range boats built for patrolling seas around coastal areas. To give them high speed, such boats usually had modified aircraft engines and ranged in size from 30 feet up to around 110 feet long.

The history of such boats can be traced back to the early 20th century, when the Royal Navy adopted small torpedo boats to attack enemy shipping close to British waters without the need of deploying larger ship. In addition, smaller gun / torpedo boats could also perform hit and run attacks on enemy convoys. However, these craft when hit were vulnerable, especially to underwater mines and rapid gunfire.

By the time the Second World War broke out, MGBs and their torpedo counterparts (MTB) assisted in attacking enemy convoys and their German counterparts E (S) Boats in the English Channel, North Sea, Mediterranean Sea and the Adriatic Sea. In addition, they could provide vital support for the Royal Marine Commando raids along the European coast such as that at St Nazaire.

Although similar in design to the MTBs, the MGBs - as their name suggests - carried more guns and also depth charges for anti-submarine hunting as opposed to the torpedoes and depth charges on the MTB. Such was the success of these boats that America adopted the idea for their own fleet on Patrol Torpedo (PT) Boats.

Many of these boats were built by manufactures already experienced in building small craft and speed boats, including such famous names as Thornycroft. Whilst the likes of Thornycroft built smaller motor boats for the Royal Navy a company known as Fairmile built Motor Launches (ML) from the Royal Navy, some of which were used for rescue and given the prefix RML.

Today, the Royal Navy still operates a fleet on high speed motor boats, mainly used for inshore use, fishery protection and anti-smuggling duties, along with training cadets at the University Royal Navy Units (URNU). These bear the letter P indicating they are patrol craft.

MGB-81 -the MGB pictured - is the last surviving MGB that the Royal Navy operated from World War Two. Like HSL 102 (moored close by), it is available for private hire and cruises.

Answer: Yes

Portsmouth's history as a port dates back to Roman times when the Romans used the harbour as a safe anchorage for their ships. To protect the area from Saxon raiders, the Romans built what was known as a Saxon Shore Fort, the outer walls now part of Portchester Castle.

With the departure of the Roman forces, various Kings of England used Portsmouth as bases to assemble ships, but it was Henry VIII who invested heavily in Portsmouth's dockyard, laying the foundations for the Royal Navy's presence at Portsmouth.

During the wars with the French in the 18th and 19th centuries, French prisoners of war were employed to dredge the harbour and expand the docks.

Portsmouth's history expansion as a commercial port can be traced back to the late 12th century when a merchant named Jean de Gisors created a small town on Portsea Island - where much of Portsmouth is now located. The port grew with the export of grain and wool and importing such goods as wax, dyes and iron.

By the time of the Industrial Revolution, Portsmouth had grown significantly as a naval and commercial port - with ships also being built for the Royal Navy in Portsmouth. Today Portsmouth is home to a ferry terminal with boats sailing to France, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Wight. Also there is a commercial dock where over half the bananas that enter the UK are unloaded.

Although the building of ships for the Royal Navy ceased in the early 21st century, Portsmouth still re-fits Navy vessels when they require modernisation or repair.

Answer: To carry them onboard submarines

Inside Boathouse No 4, there is a range of smaller craft associated with the Royal Navy from launches used on ships to Landing Craft. Among the exhibits are what were known as Mk 2 and Mk 7 collapsible canoes, made for the Commandoes - a unit formed from service men from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force.

Formed in 1940 - on the orders of Winston Churchill - The Commandoes were tasked with carrying out operations against enemy held positions, damaging to hinder the enemy's war efforts. Such was the effect of the Commandos that any Commando captured would be executed under what became known as "The Commando Order".

The most famous Commando raid that collapsible canoes were used on was Operation Frankton. In late 1942, a group of Royal Marine Commandos set out on an operation to attack German ships moored in the French port of Bordeaux. Twelve Commandos - plus a reserve set sail onboard the submarine HMS Tuna, with them the Mk 2 canoe known as "Cockles". These semi rigid canoes could be folded and stored on HMS Tuna before being assembled and taken out of the torpedo tubes.

Of the six canoes, one canoe was damaged and could not be used, two were lost at sea and one crew was captured when they set up a base on the French coast, leaving the remaining two crews carried on their attack. The crews of the remaining two canoes succeed in entering Bordeaux harbour attaching limpet mines to some of the ships in the harbour before trying to make their escape.

However, two more of the Commandos in one of the canoes were also captured, with only the two in the other canoe escaping, managing to be smuggled out of France by the French Resistance. Under the German's "Commando Order", the four Commandos captured were interrogated and executed. These men's bravery was immortalised in the 1955 film "The Cockleshell Heroes", a fictionalized account of Operation Frankton.

In addition, collapsible canoes were used in the Pacific in attacks on Japanese shipping by Australian forces to some effect.

Collapsible canoes - also known as kayaks - are still in use today by both military and civilians, useful for being easily transported and stored.

Answer: Monitor

Built as part of the Royal Navy's expansion during the First World War, HMS M.33 launched in March 1915, two months after she had been ordered.

Designed as a Monitor ship the role of HMS M.33 was that of coastal bombardment, being fitted with two six inch naval guns. Her shallow draft of less than two metres meant that HMS M.33 could anchor close to shore, bombarding enemy positions. As a result, HMS M.33 first saw action in the fateful Dardanelle campaign, supporting troops during the Gallipoli landings.

However, HMS M.33's shallow draft meant that she faced a perilous voyage, having to be towed to where she was stationed during the Battle of Gallipoli. There HMS M.33 gained the reputation of being a "lucky" ship, suffering no casualties or serious damage.

After the failure of the Gallipoli landings, HMS M.33 served in the Mediterranean, and then in 1919, supporting the White Sea Fleet in the Baltic during the Russian Revolution, again suffering no serious casualties or damage despite being hit.

After the war, HMS M.33 became a mine laying training ship named HMS Minerva, later being used as an office, workshop, boom defence and tender. In 1943 her engines and boiler was removed, eventually being retired from service in 1984, sold off to the Hartlepool Ship Preservation Trust.

A few years later, HMS M.33 returned to Portsmouth after Hampshire County Council recognising the significance of the ship's past history during WW 1. Placed in Dry Dock No. 1 (close to HMS Victory), HMS M.33 was restored as to how she would have looked during her service with the White Sea Fleet, her upper decks refurbished and restored. Inside, evidence of HMS M.33s post WW 1 service can be found as it is largely bare and unrestored.

In addition, leaving the inside of the ships hull gives visitors a sense of living conditions on board HMS M.33 as it is boiling hot inside during the summer, yet freezing cold in winter. Even the senior ranks quarters on the deck were cramped. It is little wonder HMS M.33 was described as "a metal box, lacking comforts".

Today HMS M.33 is open to visitors of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, a memorial to the disastrous Dardanelles campaign and the men who lost their lives at Gallipoli.

Answer: The battle resulted in a stalemate

Prior to the First World War, an arms race between Britain and Germany was sparked by the launch of HMS Dreadnought, a new class of battleship built for the Royal Navy. At the time the Royal Navy had one of the world's largest fleets of warships, one Germany intended to rival.

Prior to the Battle of Jutland, the German Navy High Seas Fleet had made only hit-and-run attacks on coastal targets along the British coastline. However, when the commander of the High Seas Fleet fell ill, command passed to Admiral Scheer who proposed a more aggressive stance of attack, hoping to lure the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet into a trap.

Scheer's initial plan was to use submarines to attack the Royal Navy along with Zeppelins to search for the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet. This failed as British Intelligence was able to crack the codes used by the German High Seas Fleet.

The Battle of Jutland took place from the 31st of May to the 1st of June, 1916. Scheer, along with Admiral Hipper set sail, hoping to lure the Royal Navy into a trap. Hipper's fleet of battle cruisers and supporting ships first made contact with Royal Navy ships under the command of Admiral Beatty. Beatty's incompetence lead to Beatty losing two of his battlecruisers, before turning north to rendezvous with the Royal Navy Grand Fleet under Jellico after Scheer's fleet of battleships was spotted coming to Hippers aid.

That evening, Scheer and Hipper's fleet engaged Jellico and Beatty's ships. As evening fell, Jellico withdrew hoping to cut of Scheer and Hipper's escape. Scheer though led his fleet of battleships across the wake of Jellico's fleet. As night fell, the battle continued with ships being sunk and damaged on both sides.

Both sides claimed victory, but ultimately it was a stalemate between Britain and Germany. The High Seas Fleet inflicted great damage on the Royal Navy, but they were unable to break the deadlock given the Royal Navy's numerical superiority.

The Royal Navy claimed victory on the ground the German High Seas Fleet never engaged the Royal Navy in another large scale battle. However, and enquiry into the battle and losses suffered by the Royal Navy revealed a number of inadequacies and failings. By the time of the enquiry though, Beatty had become First Lord of the Admiralty and tried to cover up his own failings during the battle.

Although the Imperial German High Seas Fleet escaped, they were never to see real action again. Plagued by strikes, mutinies and crew going absent without leave. As the First World War ended, the Imperial German High Seas Fleet surrendered, interred at the Royal Navy base in Scarpa Flow. On the morning of June 21st, 1919, the order to scuttle the fleet was given to prevent the allies from seizing them under the terms resulting in 52 ships being sunk.

HMS Marlborough (depicted in the photo) was an Iron Duke class. Launched in 1912, she served with the 1st Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet throughout the First World War. During the Battle of Jutland, HMS Marlborough sustained a great deal of damage, but was also able to damage a number of German ships - including the assisting in the sinking of SMS Wiesbaden.

Her post World War One career saw HMS Marlborough stationed in the Black Sea, supporting forces to the Russian Imperial family, helping some to escape, including the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.

When she was finally decommissioned in 1931, HMS Marlborough was used for target practice to adjudge the effectiveness of various shells and bombs. However, HMS Marlborough survived these tests, eventually being scrapped in 1932.

Answer: She capsized

When Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509, England had a very small naval force. Henry VIII set out to change this, by building a large of ships for what became the Royal Navy. Pride of this new fleet was the Mary Rose, a carrack-style ship launched in 1511.

Said to be named in part after Henry VIII'S sister - although some dispute this claim through lack of evidence - and partly after the Tudor emblem of a rose, the Mary Rose was refitted in 1536, adding an extra deck and increasing the tonnage of the Mary Rose.

In 1545, the Mary Rose formed part of a fleet of ships that fought the French fleet in what became known as the Battle of the Solent. It was whilst attacking the French fleet, the Mary Rose capsized, heeling over to starboard, water flooding through her open gun ports.

Many theories exist as to why the Mary Rose capsized, the most plausible being a combination of the Mary Rose having a high centre of gravity, a strong wind when too much sail was deployed and the gun ports being open close to the waterline.

Early attempts were made at salvaging the Mary Rose within days of the Mary Rose sinking. These achieved little other than to retrieve some of the ship's cannon and rigging. In 1836, the Mary Rose was rediscovered and another salvage attempt was made t retrieve items from her hull. This attempt was more destructive as explosives were used to try to gain access to the hull.

In 1965, the Mary Rose was found again by divers surveying the wreck in the area. After years of seeking legal protection to save the wreck from treasure hunters, The Mary Rose Trust was formed with the aim or raising and preserving the Mary Rose.

In 1982 -after excavating what remained of the Mary Rose - cables attached to the Mary Rose's hull, hung from a frame. The frame was then lifted out of the water onto a cradle situated on a barge. This operation was fraught with danger. At one point one of the supporting legs that made part of the lifting frame bent and was removed. Another occurred when the a corner of the frame slipped, letting out an audible "crunch".

Once back in Portsmouth, work began on preserving the Mary Rose, work that took 34 years of removing salt from the ships timbers, preserving them and drying the timbers out. Today, the remains of the Mary Rose lay in a dry dock covered by a specially constructed building housing many of the finds discovered in and around the wreck of the Mary Rose.

Even though the main remains of what was left of the Mary Rose have been recovered, searches continued for the missing bow and stern sections. When the wreck site was threatened by a dredging operation to deepen the channel into Portsmouth Harbour in 2002, a series of dives upon the wreck site took place, uncovering more timbers from the Mary Rose, along with a10 metre section from the stem.

Answer: HMS Victory

The sixth ship to bear the name HMS Victory, was ordered in 1758 with the first timbers being laid down the following year. In 1765, HMS Victory was launched at Chatham Dockyard. However, HMS Victory was not commissioned into the Royal Navy until 1778 when war with France broke out.

HMS Victory first saw action during the First Battle of Ushant the same year as she was commissioned - acting as Admiral Augustus Keppel's flagship. The battle resulted in both sides claiming victory, however, Keppel and his second in command Hugh Palliser were both court-martialled over the incident but later cleared.

In the Second Battle of Ushant - in 1780 - HMS Victory was part of a fleet that was sent to attack a French convoy. Despite being caught by surprise by the appearance of the French Navy, the Royal Navy managed to capture 15 ships belonging to the convoy. Two years later in 1782, HMS Victory took part in the Siege of Gibraltar that had been cut off by the French and the Spanish Navy.

In 1797, HMS Victory took part in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent - situated off the Portuguese coast as part of a fleet commanded by Admiral John Jervis. It was during this battle that the Victory's most famous commander Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson took part in, coming to the aid of Jervis whilst attacking the Spanish Fleet.

However, by 1797, HMS Victory was declared unfit for service, destined to be converted into a hospital ship in Chatham. The loss of HMS Impregnable meant the HMS Victory underwent a major refit in 1800, with Nelson making Victory his flagship in 1803.

Since HMS Victory was not seaworthy at the time. Nelson transferred to another ship to continue his campaign against the French. HMS Victory (under the command of Samuel Sutton, set sail a few months later. Once rendezvousing with Nelson, Sutton left HMS Victory and was replaced by Thomas Hardy, who was to become HMS Victory's most famous captain.

On October the 21st, 1805, HMS Victory took part in what has become one of the most famous naval engagements in history, the Battle of Trafalgar.

Under the command of Nelson and Admiral Collingwood, the British fleet formed two lines, attacking the French and Spanish fleet from the side. This was a risky manoeuvre given that Nelson and Collingwood's ships were under fire from the French and Spanish guns before they could reply. However, as Nelson and Collingwood's ships breached the French and Spanish line, they split it into three, with Nelson and Collingwood attacking two thirds of the enemies ships whilst the remaining third sailed on, unable to tack back.

Whilst surveying the battle from HMS Victory's deck, a sniper from the rigging of the French ship Redoutable shot Nelson. The spot where Nelson fell is marked upon the deck of HMS Victory with a brass plaque. Nelson was carried below where he died.

After the battle, HMS Victory made her way to Gibraltar to make repairs. After repairs were made, Victory then set sail for England, carrying Nelson's body on board preserved in a lead lined coffin filled with aqua vitae.

HMS Victory continued to serve in the Royal Navy for another seven year, before she was retired from service, becoming a depot ship moored off Gosport (opposite Portsmouth). For many years, HMS Victory lay largely forgotten in Portsmouth Harbour, briefly serving as a school of telegraphy.

In 1903. HMS Victory was holed by HMS Neptune below the waterline. Although repairs were made it was only the intervention of Edward VII that stopped HMS Victory from being scrapped. With the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1905, interest arose again in HMS Victory briefly. However, it was not until 1922 that HMS Victory was moved into the dry dock where she lays today.

Restoration was briefly suspended during the Second World War, with HMS Victory sustaining minor damage from a German bomb. Although German propaganda claimed Victory had been destroyed, the Admiralty denied this had occurred.

Years of neglect have taken their toll on HMS Victory, with measures to preserve the ship still carrying on today. These include fitting new supports to the hull to prevent further collapse.

Although a museum ship, HMS Victory is still listed as the flagship of the First Lord of the Admiralty. In addition, HMS Victory is one of the oldest commissioned ships of any navy in the world.

Answer: Yes

The gun depicted in the photo is a QF 4-inch Mk IV gun, which was part of the main armament of the Royal Navy ship HMS Lance, credited with firing the first British shot of the First World War.

HMS Lance was ordered from John I. Thornycroft & Company in 1912, forming part of a class of destroyers named the Laforey-class. Launched in 1914 from Woolston - Southampton - HMS Lance was assigned to the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla based at Harwich. With the outbreak of war, HMS Lance, along with her the light cruiser HMS Amphion and other destroyers set sail to investigate reports of a German mine laying ship.

The task force soon discovered the German minelaying ship, the SS Königin Luise laying mines off the Essex / Suffolk coast in an area known as the Outer Gabbard. Moving in to investigate with her sister ship HMS Landrail, HMS Lance opened fire on the SS Königin Luise. As the SS Königin Luise tried to flee to neutral waters, HMS Amphion opened fire as welll.

Given the heavy and accurate fire of the British gun crews, the commander of the SS Königin Luise ordered her to be scuttled. Out of the crew of 100 sailors, only 46 were rescued. As the SS Königin Luise sank, she became the first German ship to be lost at sea during the First World War.

During the First World War, HMS Lance saw action in the North Sea, including escorting the badly damaged HMS Marlborough (see question 7) after the Battle of Jutland. In 1917, HMS Lance was attached to the Dover Patrol, and later the same year moved to Devonport to form part of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla.

In 1919, HMS Lance was anchors near a sandbank in the mouth of the Thames Estuary, eventually being sold off for scrap in 1921.

The gun used to fire on the SS Königin Luise was put on display at the Imperial War Museum, London, and has been loaned to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard to form part of the dockyard's many exhibits.