Ships Are People Too Trivia Quiz

Answer: IJN Mikasa

Mikasa was a "pre-dreadnought" - a battleship built before the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought prototype of 1906. She was completed for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in England, and was Admiral Togo's flagship through the entire Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. She took part in several battles, including Tsushima Strait. Within a week of the wars' end, Mikasa exploded and sank at her Sasebo moorings. Raised, repaired, and upgraded, she served until 1923, when she was retired in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty.

Saved from the scrapper's torch, the vessel became a national historical ship in 1926. She fell into disrepair after WWII, but was again restored and reopened in Yokosuka in 1961. As a goodwill gesture, sailors from USS Nimitz repainted the ship in 2009.

This grand old warrior has a street named in her honor (Mikasa Street) on Walney Island, Barrow-on-Furness, where she was built in 1902.

Answer: All three were lost

Cyclops is the most well known of the three losses. An active Naval auxiliary ship, she sank (or was abducted?) sometime after 04 March 1918, while carrying a load of manganese ore. 308 passengers and crew were lost.

Proteus and Nereus were stricken after WWI, and sold to Canadian interests in early 1941. Proteus and all 58 of her crew disappeared in November 1941. And - in what is by now a familiar story - Nereus went down with all hands (presumably) in December 1941 while hauling bauxite.

All three vessels were traveling the same general route through the infamous "Bermuda Triangle." And while all three losses occurred during periods of wartime, no sinking claims were ever made by the German government, surface ships, or submarines. This is surely an incident for the X-Files.

General note: collier USS Jupiter (AC-3) is associated in several references as a sister ship to the three lost vessels, but Jupiter's dimensions and propulsion system appear to negate such a claim.

Answer: German High Seas Fleet scuttling at Scapa Flow, 1919

Between November 1918 and January 1919, 74 ships of the German High Seas fleet were interned at the British anchorage at Scapa Flow Scotland. While the victorious allies debated final disposition (the French and Italians each wanted 25% of the fleet as war prizes; Britain wanted all the vessels destroyed), demoralized German sailors languished in near prison-like conditions: forbidden time ashore; forbidden to visit other German vessels; censored mail; monotonous diets. Fearing that the Allies would arbitrarily seize the fleet, the scuttling plan was devised by senior officers, and German crews discreetly prepared the ships for sinking. After six months of internment, 21 June 1919 saw the scuttling of 52 warships; 22 others either remained afloat or were beached.

Beginning in the 1920s, 45 of the sunken ships were salvaged and scrapped. Seven vessels remain as protected wrecks in Scapa Flow, and are occasionally visited by divers.

Jutland cost 25 ships and about 9400 lives; The Battle of the Philippine Sea (aka "Marianas turkey Shoot") cost six Japanese ships and about 600 aircraft - US losses were 123 planes. Although several ships were "sunk" at Pearl Harbor, all except Arizona and Utah were refloated. Nearly all these ships saw action during the war. Oklahoma was not repaired, and sunk after the war while being towed to the scrappers.

Answer: explosion of powder in the ship's magazines

This particular HMS Vanguard commissioned in 1910. The ship displaced about 22,000 tons, and carried a crew of about 753. Although she was a Jutland veteran and actually fired 90 rounds during the battle, most of her short career was routine training and patrol. On 9 July 1917, Vanguard was safe at anchor in Scapa Flow. At about 2320, a huge explosion tore the ship in two, and she rapidly sank. Of the 845 men on board, only two survived. Vanguard remains at Scapa, in about 50 feet of water, but she is a "controlled site" under the "Protection of Military Remains Act," and may not be dived.

Mutsu's story is quite similar. She was commissioned in 1929, displaced 33,000 tons, and was crewed by about 1475 sailors. Her only combat action was four antiaircraft rounds fired at an American recon plane in August 1942. On 8 June 1943, while at a fleet anchorage in Hiroshima Bay, a huge explosion in her #3 turret magazine split the ship in half. killing 1121, and sparing 353. Mutsu was heavily salvaged from 1970 - 79. No further salvage is expected, and all that remains underwater is a 115 foot section from the forward part of the ship. The wreck is about 40 feet deep, and is noted as a "diveable wreck." Many artifacts from Mutsu are on display in various locations throughout Japan.

Battleships, with their "bag" guns - that is, the powder charge contained in numerous cloth bags, rather than in metal cartridge cases - were always highly at risk for turret and magazine explosions. The US Navy alone had at least four catastrophic events on board battleships in 1904,1924, 1943, and 1989 - one about every 20 years of active BB service. 169 sailors were lost in these tragedies.

Answer: all three capsized during Typhoon "Cobra"

On 17-18 December 1944, Halsey's Task Force 38 of approximately 86 ships was steaming east of the Philippine Islands. High speed operations during the preceding days made refueling the ships - particularly the destroyers - an urgent necessity. But TF 38 was overtaken by a typhoon (named "Cobra" by the Navy). Sea conditions made refueling impossible.

The barometer dropped to 26.8, sustained winds of 75 knots and gusts to 120 knots wreaked havoc. Many ships were damaged, and some were unable to maintain headway. Ever increasing rolls ultimately took their toll. Hull, Monaghan, and Spence all capsized and sunk. Of the 866 men on the three ships, 775 were lost. Over the next few days, 91 survivors from the three vessels were rescued. USS Tabberer (DE-418) - herself damaged in the storm - rescued 55 of them.

Answer: torpedoed and sunk by a British submarine in 1982

Phoenix was launched as a light cruiser (6' main battery guns) of the "Brooklyn" class. A survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack, she served throughout the war, earning 11 battle stars. Phoenix was decommissioned in 1946 and sold to Argentina in 1951. Renamed "General Belgrano," she was torpedoed and sunk by HMS Conqueror in May 1982 during the Falkland Island War. About 323 crew were killed in this attack; the remainder were rescued.

The battle for Okinawa took place in 1945, only six years after Phoenix was built. To "ship" a 10,000 ton ship to landlocked Phoenix would be virtually impossible and astronomically expensive. And of course, not a lot of shipbuilding OR ship scrapping is done in landlocked Switzerland.

Answer: all were captured by hostile foreign powers

The Federal steam frigate Merrimack (often spelled "Merrimac") was burned at Norfolk by Union sailors in April 1861, to avoid capture by the Confederates. The attempt was futile; she was raised and rebuilt as the ironclad CSS Virginia in 1862. After the famous - but inconclusive - gunnery duel with USS Monitor in March, Virginia returned to her moorings. In May 1862, in a "deja vu" evolution, the vessel was destroyed a second time in order to avoid capture by Federal forces.

USS Stewart was a destroyer commissioned in 1920, and served primarily with the Asiatic Squadron. She was intentionally blown up in dry dock in the Dutch East Indies in 1942 to preclude her capture by the Japanese. But the destruction was incomplete. Japanese forces raised and repaired the ship (is this plot line beginning to sound familiar?), calling her "Patrol Boat #102." As the war was drawing to a close in august 1945, American forces located the ship, and she was ultimately recommissioned back into the US Navy as "DD-224"; the name "Stewart" having been reassigned to a new vessel.

USS Pueblo was captured by North Korean forces in January 1968. Keep this in mind; you may need it later.

Answer: as Exxon Valdez - beached for scrapping in Gujarat, India, 2012

Built as a single hulled crude carrier by National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) in San Diego, Exxon Valdez was placed in service in 1986. Repaired after the disastrous 1989 oil spill, she operated under at least six additional names and two additional ports of registry through 2012. In 2008 the ship was converted to an ore carrier. As "Dong Fang Ocean." she was involved in a 2010 collision with MV Aali.

Deepwater Horizon was the BP oil rig blowout in the Gulf of Mexico (and is the #1 worst US oil spill, if you wondered); Costa Concordia was an Italian cruise liner that partially grounded of the coast of Italy in 2012

Answer: USS Pueblo AGER-2; captured and brought to Pyongyang, North Korea

The US Army's FP-344 was launched in 1944, and was later redesignated FS-344. The vessel was transferred to the US Navy in 1966 and renamed Pueblo (AKL-44). She was converted to an intelligence collection ship (AGER) in 1967. Pueblo was fired upon and ultimately captured by North Korean forces on 22 January 1968. One US sailor died during the capture.

Pueblo remains on display as a "historic ship" in Pyongyang. The US Navy retains Pueblo as an active, "in commission" ship since 13 May 1967. Only USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") has an earlier commission date.

Baltimore and Pearl Harbor are both "US waters," and (admittedly, a bit of arcane knowledge here) none of the three other choices are in commission, despite the "still active" myth about the Arizona.

Answer: HMAS Melbourne R21

The Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne served with the RAN from 1955 to 1982. On 10 February 1964, during evening flight operations, HMAS Voyager D04 was directed to take up plane guard station behind Melbourne. Instead of a wide circling turn away from the carrier, the destroyer turned into the course of the oncoming carrier. Despite communication, signaling and alarms, Voyager collided with Melbourne. The destroyer was cut in two, with the bow section sinking rapidly; the stern some three hours later. Of the 314 on Voyager, 82 perished.

Just five years later on 3 June 1969, a tragic repetition of the first collision occurred. The similarities almost defy belief. This time it was US Navy destroyer - Frank E Evans DD-754 - on Melbourne's port side. Evans was tasked to take up plane guard station on the carrier's starboard quarter. The correct action would have been a wide sweeping turn to port - AWAY from the carrier's course. The DD would circle behind, and safely come up on station on the carrier's starboard quarter. Defying logic, Evans turned to starboard - into the track of Melbourne. Again - a collision; again - a destroyer cut in half; again the bow section sinking quickly. 74 of Evans' crew were lost.

Melbourne was paid off (decommissioned) in 1982 and taken to China for scrapping. She was not immediately scrapped; Chinese naval architects and engineers studied her as part of the PRC's aircraft carrier design plan - positively inscrutable.