Ships in Fiction Novels Trivia Quiz

Answer: 20,000 Leagues under the Sea

In Jules Verne's novel, 'The Nautilus' is the submarine captained by Captain Nemo. In honour of Verne's creation, the first all-electric powered submarine, designed in 1886, and the first nuclear-powered submarine, designed in 1955, were both named 'The Nautilus'.

Answer: The Antelope

Gulliver was the ship's surgeon aboard 'The Antelope' before he was shipwrecked. Swift was inspired by Daniel Defoe's 'Robinson Crusoe' when he wrote 'Gulliver's Travels', which was published in 1726. It was the only work for which he received any money - the princely sum of £200 - since most of the satirist's work was regarded as politically subversive.

Answer: Hispaniola

'Treasure Island' was inspired by an imaginary map drawn by R L Stevenson's 12 year-old stepson, Lloyd. Stevenson wrote a story based on it as an entertainment for the rest of the family during a rather wet holiday in 1881. The novel was published in book form in 1883 and marked the beginning of his popularity and his career as a profitable writer.

Answer: Billy Budd, Sailor

Many of Herman Melville's works were novels and stories about the sea. 'Billy Budd, Sailor' (or 'Blly Budd, Foretopman' as it was otherwise entitled) was unfinished at the time of his death in 1891. It was not published until 1924, and then not in its definitive form until 1962.

Answer: Orca

To write the book, Peter Benchley had to do a lot of academic research into marine biology - which he confessed was difficult since he had majored in English at university. He made his name with 'Jaws', his first novel, while the film version (for which Benchley also wrote the screenplay) established Steven Spielberg securely on his way to becoming a top film director and producer.

Answer: True

In writing 'Moby-Dick', Herman Melville was inspired by the tale of a maddened sperm whale that attacked and sank an American whaling ship, leaving its crew afloat in three small boats, thousands of miles from the closest known land. The ship was 'The Essex', made famous from the account by Owen Chase, the surviving First Mate.

The event was in 1820; Melville's novel was first published in 1851.

Answer: Lord Jim

The scenario at the beginning of Joseph Conrad's 'Lord Jim' is partly based on true events: in 1880 a British captain and his crew abandoned the steamship 'Jeddah', carrying Muslim pilgrims, when the ship started to leak. 'Jeddah' was brought by another steamship safely to port. Lord Jim is a ship's officer who is wracked with guilt and faces a Court of Inquiry when he left his ship, 'Patna', in a storm without taking care of the passengers.

Answer: Julia

'Omoo' is Melville's second novel and is the sequel to 'Typee' written a year earlier. It was published in 1847. Melville spent much of his late teens and twenties at sea, and 'Omoo', like many of his works, contained strong autobiographical references.

Answer: Compass

In 'The Cruel Sea', Commander Ericson, the captain of 'HMS Compass Rose', is faced with an intolerable moral dilemma, being forced to protect his ship and its crew by not stopping to pick up torpedoed survivors during a submarine attack. He consoles himself by rationalising, "One does what one must, and says one's prayers".

Although largely forgotten as a novel by a postwar readership, it was made into a successful film starring Jack Hawkins in 1953.

Answer: Konigen Luise

Charlie Allnut and Rose Sayer, a dishevelled trader and an English spinster missionary, find themselves thrown together by circumstance. They try to escape from German-held territory after the outbreak of WW1 aboard Allnut's rickety old river steamer, 'The African Queen'.

They sacrifice the old boat in order to sink 'SMS Konigen Luise', a German naval gunboat that dominated the open water at the mouth of the river down which they had been escaping. The story is probably more well-known for the 1951 film version starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn.