What's in a Name? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Queen Elizabeth

The battleships 'Warspite' and 'Valiant' were ordered as a planned class of six, which was eventually reduced to five, as part of the 1912-13 Naval Programme. The 'Queen Elizabeth' class was to be the first Royal Navy battleship class to be fitted with 15-inch guns and powered by fuel oil rather than coal. 'Warspite' entered service in March 1915, with 'Valiant' following in January 1916. Both served as part of the 5th Battle Squadron during the Battle of Jutland, with 'Warspite' suffering significant damage that required two months of repairs. Both ships were retained following the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922 that reduced the size of battle fleets around the world. Both underwent major reconstructions during the 1930s, and each saw extensive service in both the European and Indian Ocean theatres during the Second World War. Following the conclusion of World War II, both ships were decommissioned, with 'Warspite' sold for scrapping in 1947 and 'Valaint' in 1948.

Answer: HMS York

The 'York' class cruisers were designed for the Royal Navy under the terms of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, which limited the size of cruiser type ships. Following the commissioning of the 'County' class, the Royal Navy looked to scale this design down in an effort to build a greater number of ships but keep within the treaty limits. The 'York' class thus displaced a maximum of 10,000 tons, compared to the 'County' class displacing up to 14,000, and carried six 8-inch guns to the larger type's eight.

A total of seven ships were planned, with the first two, 'York' and 'Exeter', commissioned in 1930 and 1931 respectively. However, the remaining five ships were cancelled, with the Royal Navy opting instead for a policy of large numbers of ships armed with 6-inch guns instead. Both 'York' and 'Exeter' saw extensive service during the first years of the Second World War, with 'York' crippled by the Italian Navy in Souda Bay, Crete, eventually being scuttled in May 1941, and 'Exeter' sunk by the Japanese Navy during the Second Battle of the Java Sea in March 1942.

Answer: HMS Cumberland

HMS 'Cumberland' was the second of four Type 22 frigates of the third batch, which were significantly different to those of Batches 1 and 2. 'Cumberland' was built at Yarrow Shipbuilders on the River Clyde, being commissioned in June 1989. Entering service as the Cold War was coming to an end, 'Cumberland' was utilised as a constabulary vessel, undertaking a number of different deployments to the Caribbean, Mediterranean, South Atlantic and Middle East, undertaking various duties related to the United Kingdom's world presence.

This continued until the announcement in early 2011 that the ship, along with her three sisters, would be decommissioned as part of the government's defence review. However, en route back to the UK following her final deployment to the Persian Gulf in February 2011, 'Cumberland' was retasked to provide assistance in the evacuation of British citizens from Libya, before taking part in the blockade of Libya that followed the start of the Libyan Civil War. 'Cumberland' eventually returned to Devonport for decommissioning in April 2011, before being sold for scrap in 2013.

Answer: Chile

In 1911, the Chilean government placed orders for two battleships with the Armstrong Whitworth shipyard on Tyneside, to be named 'Almirante Latorre' and 'Almirante Cochrane'. While construction of the first was well advanced by the start of the First World War, leading to the Royal Navy purchasing and completing the ship as HMS 'Canada', work on the second was suspended for almost the entire period of the war. In 1918, having undertaken experimental work using HMS 'Furious' and HMS 'Argus', the Royal Navy purchased the incomplete 'Almirante Cochrane' for conversion into an aircraft carrier, renaming the ship as HMS 'Eagle'.

Launched in June 1918, 'Eagle' was eventually completed and entered service in April 1920, being utilised as the first aircraft carrier in the Royal Navy with an island superstructure. 'Eagle' was used for flying trials during 1920, before paying off for further reconstruction work, eventually being commissioned in 1924. During the inter-war period, 'Eagle' saw extensive service, first in the Mediterranean until 1933, and then in the Far East, where she was based on the outbreak of the Second World War. Transferred to the Mediterranean in mid-1940, 'Eagle' was eventually sunk after being torpedoed in August 1942.

Answer: HMS Invincible

The 'Invincible' class was planned as a class of anti-submarine ships, each carrying a squadron of large ASW helicopters. During the design process, it was decided to also equip the ships with a small squadron of Sea Harrier fixed-wing aircraft, leading to their redesignation as aircraft carriers. Of the three planned, only 'Invincible' had not previously been the name of an aircraft carrier, with the previous 'Invincible' being the name ship of the world's first class of battlecruisers, and which was lost at the Battle of Jutland. Both 'Illustrious' and 'Indomitable' had been part of a class of four aircraft carriers that saw extensive service during the Second World War, with 'Illustrious' involved in the attack on the Italian Fleet at Taranto in November 1940.

However, although the third ship was originally intended to be named 'Indomitable', prior to construction beginning it was renamed as 'Ark Royal', following disappointment at the decommissioning of the previous 'Ark Royal', also an aircraft carrier, in 1978.

Answer: HMS Repulse

HMS 'Repulse' was one of a class of two battlecruisers, laid down in January 1915. The ship, together with her sister 'Renown', was commissioned in mid-1917 and saw service during the closing stages of the First World War, most notably at the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917. 'Repulse' underwent two significant reconstructions in the inter-war period, in between a number of major flag-waving deployments, most notably accompanying HMS 'Hood' on a world cruise in 1923-24, and taking the Prince of Wales on his tour to South Africa and South America in 1925.

The ship was utilised during the opening period of the Second World War searching for German surface raiders and escorting convoys, until, in late 1941, she was transferred to the Far East as part of a plan to have a fast squadron of capital ships to deter potential Japanese aggression. In December 1941, two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, 'Repulse', along with the battleship HMS 'Prince of Wales', was sunk off the coast of Malaya following attack by aircraft of the Japanese Navy, becoming the first capital ship to be sunk at sea by aircraft alone.

Answer: HMS Glorious

HMS 'Ardent' was one of eight 'A'-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy and commissioned in 1930 and 1931. The ship saw much of its pre-war service in the Mediterranean, before returning to the UK for a long refit in 1937. On the outbreak of the Second World War, 'Ardent' was assigned first to the Channel Force, then the Western Approaches Command on convoy duties.

In April 1940, following transfer to the Home Fleet, the ship joined the Norwegian Campaign, serving as escort to both convoys to the theatre, and the aircraft carriers 'Ark Royal' and 'Glorious'. On 8 June 1940, 'Ardent' and her sister ship 'Acasta' were escorting 'Glorious' back to the United Kingdom when they were spotted by the German battleships 'Scharnhorst' and 'Gneisenau'. Despite the best efforts of 'Ardent', which attacked the German ships with guns and torpedoes, all three British ships were sunk, with 152 of 'Ardent''s crew lost. This was the second of three Royal Navy ships to carry the name 'Ardent' to be lost in combat in the 20th century - in addition to her successor, the Type 21 frigate, which was lost following air attacks on 22 May 1982, her predecessor, an 'Acasta' class destroyer, was sunk on 1 June 1916 during the Battle of Jutland.

Answer: HMS Nottingham

HMS 'Nottingham' was a 'Town' class light cruiser, one of eighteen built for the Royal Navy. Laid down in June 1912, she was commissioned in April 1914, four months before the start of the First World War, and was assigned to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet. On 24 June, 'Nottingham' was one of seven ships representing the Royal Navy at the re-opening of the Kiel Canal. Two months later, 'Nottingham' took part in a sweep to attack German patrols in the Heligoland Bight.

'Nottingham' participated in a number of actions in the North Sea, as her squadron was attached as escort to the Battlecruiser Force, which was the primary unit designated to intercept German naval raids, and so saw action following the German bombardment of Yorkshire in December 1914, the Battle of the Dogger Bank in January 1915, and the Battle of Jutland. On 19 August 1916, while responding to another planned German bombardment raid, 'Nottingham' was torpedoed by a U-boat and sunk with the loss of 38 of her crew.

Answer: HMS Vigilant

Unlike her sisters, HMS 'Vigilant' was not a name given to a major warship during the 20th century. The most recent 'Vigilant' was a patrol boat that was launched in 1975, and renamed 'Meavy' in 1986, while the ship before that was a 'V'-class destroyer commissioned in September 1943, before being converted into a Type 15 anti-submarine frigate in 1951.

The previous 'Vanguard' was the last battleship to be built for the Royal Navy, commissioned in 1946 and sold for scrapping in 1960; the previous 'Victorious' was an 'Illustrious' class aircraft carrier that saw extensive service during the Second World War before undergoing a major, seven-year reconstruction from 1950 to 1957 to turn allow her to operate the latest aircraft, before she was sold for scrapping in 1969; the previous 'Vengeance' was a 'Colossus' class light fleet carrier that saw brief service in the Royal Navy, and was loaned to the Royal Australian Navy, before being sold to Brazil in 1956.

Answer: HMS Lion

HMS 'Lion' was originally ordered as a 'Minotaur' class cruiser in 1942. However, although the ship was launched in 1944, work to complete her was suspended in 1946. Following discussion, work on two other ships of the same design was continued, but all three ships remained incomplete until the mid-1950s, when the decision was taken to finish all three to a modified design, becoming the 'Tiger' class, with 'Lion' eventually commissioned in 1960.

Five years after commissioning, the government decided that the ships were, in effect, obsolete in the roles for which they had been built, and put in place a plan to convert them into so-called "command helicopter cruisers", with a flight deck and hanger installed in place of the aft 6-inch turret. However, the cost of conversions of 'Tiger' and 'Blake' led to the decision not to convert 'Lion', and so she remained as a conventional cruiser until her decommissioning in 1972. 'Lion' was retained as a source of spares for her sister ships before being sold for scrap in 1975.