Your Ship Is Slowing! Quiz | Maritime

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Our little spark is Jonas Jonah, born in the Cornish village of Mystringvest, and member of a long line of misfit mariners who had a happy knack of picking the likeliest ship to go down. He was snatched from his home by a group of pirates and sold to the Romans in 264 BC to be a galley slave in what naval war?

Answer: The First Punic War

The Roman navy didn't really exist before the First Punic War against Carthage. In the beginning, Rome suffered great losses of ships and men until the invention of the Corvus, a grappling engine which meant it was easier to board enemy vessels. This allowed the superior Roman army to be used in naval combat in a totally new way from the tactics of other navies at that time.

2. Our next Jonah descendant served on board a Tudor warship which was one of the first purpose built warships of the Royal Navy. After more than thirty years of service, she sank in the Solent while fighting the French on 19 July 1545. Said to be King Henry VIII's pride and joy, what was the name of this vessel?

Answer: The Mary Rose

The remains of the ship were raised in 1982 and placed at Portsmouth Royal Naval Dockyard. Along with the ship, many artifacts and human remains were also discovered. A fascinating fact - some of the skeletons had bone formations showing that they had been trained in archery since childhood, using the mediaeval war bow, the pull of which is three times stronger than the modern, standard competition bow.

3. About 43 years later, another Jonas sailed at the head of the English Navy against the Spanish Armada. This ship was funded by Sir Walter Raleigh and lent to the Navy by him. She was the first Ark Royal. What happened to the later, third, Ark Royal in 1941?

Answer: All of these

"On 26 May 1941 Ark Royal was directly involved with the sinking of the Bismark, with her torpedo aircraft scoring two crippling hits. On 13 November 1941, the ship was torpedoed 30 miles from Gibraltar, sinking 14 hours later".

Info quoted from official Royal Ark website because it says it all far better than I could.

4. Some Jonahs travelled far and wide and this next one ended up in a whaling ship, 'The Essex'. Captained by George Pollard Jr, she was out of Nantucket hunting Sperm Whales. The ship was attacked and sunk by the whale in 1820 in the Pacific Ocean. If you think you've heard this one before, it's probably because this true incident inspired the book "Moby Dick". Who was the author?

Answer: Herman Melville

Melville actually sailed in whaling ships and started his literary career writing about his experiences and world wide travels. He had almost completed "Moby Dick" when he met Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne persuaded him to change the novel from a travel adventure into a far more complex literary work, which was to become one of the first significant works by an American author. And it is still a great read today, along with "Redburn".

5. "Women and children first!" - Jonas was too busy telling his captain the ship was slowing down (in 1852) to heed this command. But the soldiers who held fast on this ship would go down in history for their actions in not saving themselves before the women and children had been evacuated well away from the sinking ship. Kipling later wrote a poem called "The _____ Drill" She was named for the town where she was built, opposite the Mersey to Liverpool. What was her name?

Answer: HM Troopship Birkenhead

"To stand and be still
to the Birken'ead Drill
is a damn tough bullet to chew".
Wrote Kipling in his "Birkenhead Drill".

She was one of the first iron-hulled ships built for the Royal Navy. She was originally called 'The Vulcan' but changed her name after the shipyard in which she was built (John Laird's, Birkenhead). Because the navy was unsure of her usage due to being a paddle steamer she mainly operated as a troopship during the South African Wars. On 26 February 1852, while carrying troops mainly of the 73rd Regiment of Foot to Algoa Bay, she struck a rock and was wrecked near Cape Town, South Africa. There were not enough lifeboats for all the passengers, but the women and children were loaded first and the boats launched away from the ship. After the order to abandon ship was given, Major Seaton realised that if they all made a dash for the boats then the women and children would drown, therefore he ordered his men to stand firm, which they did. The incredible discipline and bravery of these men were praised in Kipling's poem.

6. Maybe it was just sheer coincidence that when this 'Great' ship ran aground at Dumdrum Bay, Ireland in November 1846, one of the crew was a certain J. Jonah. What was this Goliath of Brunel's which was called?

Answer: The Great Britain

The Great Britain was the first large ocean-going vessel to be built of iron and have a screw propeller. Brunel designed her for the transatlantic trade. There was grave doubt as to whether or not she could be salvaged and Brunel himself said the only one capable of doing it was the engineer, James Bremner.

He was engaged and succeeded, but the cost of the salvage operation bankrupted The Great Western Steamship Co. and the ship was sold and used in the emigration trade.

7. Of our next Jonah, nothing much is known since he disappeared in mysterious circumstances which still intrigue conspiracy theorists today. What was the name of the deserted ship seen entering the harbour at Gibraltar one Friday 13th 1872?

Answer: The Mary Celeste

She was actually called Mary Celeste and sailed from New York bound for Genoa with a cargo of American alcohol. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle probably added to the confusion with his short story, "The Marie Celeste". Many ideas have been put forward regarding the strange disappearance of the captain, his family and crew.

8. This poor little Jonah found more than he bargained for when he signed on for a voyage to South America! There was a delay entering the port on the homeward journey towards the end of the 1880's. He watched with feverish speculation as the ship slowly hove to outside the harbour and ran up a yellow flag. What did this signal mean?

Answer: Disease/plague aboard

The colour yellow represents the letter 'Q' in semaphore, which stands for Quarantine. There is no definite date when this became universally adopted but certainly it was in use by the mid 19th century. Plague ships were also used as isolation providers during the cholera epidemics of the 19th century among immigrants seeking entry from Europe into the U.S.A.

More people probably died in these ships than entered the country.

9. The Jonas Jonah of 1939 found himself in Liverpool for the launch of a new submarine - the third of the new 'T' Class boats built by Cammell Laird. Perhaps if he'd only been in another European city this tragedy might not have happened. What was the name of this 'other' craft with Liverpool connections?

Answer: HMS Thetis

Sadly enough, there were many civilians onboard that day including catering staff for the grand meal planned later. She probably had far more onboard than she would normally carry. There is no one reason why she sank; it was a catalogue of bad luck and errors. There are many internet references about this and of course the archives of the national and local press of the time if you'd like to follow up more information.

The submarine was in fact salvaged and repaired, and renamed HMS Thunderbolt. Under that name, she saw action in WW2 until being sunk again (this time by enemy action) in 1943.

10. Our last 'ship' was a change of direction for the Jonah line. Airships became the latest mode of travel, especially between Europe across the Atlantic and The USA. What terrible fate befell the Hindenburg at Lakehurst, New Jersey on Thursday,6 May 1937?

Answer: She caught fire trying to moor

Yes, it's one of the greatest documented air disasters of our times and even now the commentary is still able to grip the emotions- "Oh the humanity...!" (Herbert Morrison). It stopped the flights of Zeppelins and other airships commercially, which was a shame as they were far more eco-friendly and silent than conventional airplanes.

Source: Author skumma

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Your Ship Is Slowing! Trivia Quiz

Just picture the scene! Chaos all around, the ship's leaning dangerously to port in a force 20 gale rounding The Horn and some bright little spark decides it's his job to say this to the Captain! Here's a 'broadsides' look at some old Naval disasters.

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