Evil Joker asked for a vote on the "Most Famous Battleship" in the thread located at http://www.rcnavalcombat.com/Forum/...fault.aspx The original question posed was "What is the most famous battleship in the world, and why? Ask any random person in the street, and they should have heard of it. Keep it limited to ships that have seen service since 1900..." I've compiled all the options mentioned in the original thread that meet the 1900 requirement on this poll. Being from Chicago, I leave you with the advice of those crooked Mayors Daley to vote early and vote often!
I voted Bismarck for the reason that whenever I have been to a battle, and visitors come to watch, they always ask "Is that the Bismarck" regardless of whatever ship it is. It seems to me, that Bismarck is the ship that people don't know anything about ships has always heard of.
"HMS Dreadnought. For name-recognition, no battleship can beat it." ...for people who know anything about battleships or naval history. Your average joe off the street has no idea what a "dreadnought" is.
For the Non hobbyist Non ship naval historic familiarele it would be BISMARCK. No matter where I went with mine no matter what show I attended it's the first question I get asked. Is this the Bismarck? Hood then follows quicklly. Bismarck and Hood are known worldwide. Tirptiz pretty well known too. Missouri and Yamato rank right up there as well.
And the Bismarck has a song about her as well!!! I do not know of any other battleship that had a popular song.... Sink the Bismarck By Johnny Horton In May of 1941 the war had just begun The Germans had the biggest ship that had the biggest guns The Bismarck was the fastest ship that ever sailed the sea On her decks were guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees Out of the cold and foggy night came the British ship the Hood And every British seaman he knew and understood They had to sink the Bismarck the terror of the sea Stop those guns as big as steers and those shells as big as trees We'll find the German battleship that's makin' such a fuss We gotta sink the Bismarck cause the world depends on us Yeah hit the decks a runnin' boys and spin those guns around When we find the Bismarck we gotta cut her down The Hood found the Bismarck and on that fatal day The Bismarck started firing fifteen miles away We gotta sink the Bismarck was the battle sound But when the smoke had cleared away the mighty Hood went down For six long days and weary nights they tried to find her trail Churchill told the people put every ship asail Cause somewhere on that ocean I know she's gotta be We gotta sink the Bismarck to the bottom of the sea We'll find the German battleship... The fog was gone the seventh day and they saw the morning sun Ten hours away from homeland the Bismarck made its run The Admiral of the British fleet said turn those bows around We found that German battleship and we're gonna cut her down The British guns were aimed and the shells were coming fast The first shell hit the Bismarck they knew she couldn't last That mighty German battleship is just a memory Sink the Bismarck was the battle cry that shook the seven seas We found the German battleship t'was makin' such a fuss We had to sink the Bismarck cause the world depends on us We hit the deck a runnin' and we spun those guns around Yeah we found the mighty Bismarck and then we cut her down We found the German battleship...
The only "Other" that Ii could think of is the USS Maine. But then, I could not set any one ship above the top ten, so I did not vote at all.
Maine was left off because it's debatable whether it's really a battleship...and it was before 1900 anyway.
The Maine was classified ARC-1 or Armored Cruiser One, also known as a second class battleship. I know, i just finnished a 16 page research paper on her destruction.
From what I've seen, it's impossible to prove conclusively what happened to the Maine. There's still quite a healthy debate over an external vs. internal cause of the explosion.
Dreadnought is a fairly well known term, but most average people I've known were unaware that the name came from the HMS Dreadnought. The Bismarck and the Hood are famous ships for obvious reasons, followed by Warspite, Yamato, and Arizona. However, probably the most famous warship, if not battleship, is the USS Enterprise (even though most people think of the Star Trek Enterprise first and the carrier second.)
Try a Yahoo or google search on Battleship. Both for web sites and images. The game "Battleship" is what comes up most of the time. As for an actual battleship. Five to nine pages of hits need to be sifted through to find ten different battleship names. USS North Carolina, USS Alabama, USS Texas, DKM Bismarck, USS Maine, USS Massachusetts, Concrete Battleship Philippines, USS Oklahoma, Kongo Above list is what I notice from Yahoo. On the Google image search web site. images of USS Missouri, USS Wisconsin, USS North Carolina, USS Maine, USS Texas, FNJ Yamato, Alabama, New Jersey Tirpitz and Bismarck were the first ten names to come up. And I had to view 26 pages to get ten ships! I am begining to wonder if people know what a real battleship is anymore???
Well, most people get their information when it comes to weapons, tanks, ships, etc.. from movies, video games, or the news. Since battleships are no longer used by any country, you rarely see them anymore in any of those sources.
personally i would have to say Bismarck as everyone during or after the war heard about her. Yamato and musashi where mystery ships and it took years before small details where known the average 12 yr old in western europe could tell you about what planes he had seen and what type they where, same goes for ships, in japan there where no flyers with images of ships or planes till after the war, the japanese navy held their shipcount secret during the war. the germans didnt bother, each new ship was more propaganda for the third reich. the usn launched somany ships in such a short time that most people couldnt keep track, they also constantly replaced sunk names with new names so Bismarck it is .. the movie "sink the bismarck" added to her fame (inc. the mistakes) Krijn
Yepper, The Bismark had a Movie and a Song about her. The only other ship that I can recall having some media pay tribute to her is the Poem about "Old Iron Sides". I just remembered another movie... "Sailor of the King". But that was more about a British sailor and about the German cruiser. Found out that there was a Movie "Pursuit of the Graf Spee" I do not recall ever seeing that one.
