Trivia!

Discussion in 'Full Scale' started by Gascan, Nov 10, 2008.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Knight4hire

    Knight4hire Active Member

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2008
    Posts:
    963
    Sounds like you are up B24
     
  2. B24

    B24 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2008
    Posts:
    61
    My homeport was at the mouth of the Chesapeake, I lost my flight deck, was once a world record holder, did ops with a couple of JEFFS, have turned turtle, was briefly berthed nearby the U.S.S. Constellation, my name is related to a president, I am open today to a select group of people only, and I have a couple of web pages. What ship am I.

    good luck
     
  3. eljefe

    eljefe Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2008
    Posts:
    489
    Location:
    California
    Hmmm. This sounds like a doozie. I'm pretty sure this guess is wrong, but it's the only one I can think of satisfying most of the clues. USS Utah? It was originally homeported on the east coast, was covered in wood mistaken for a "flight deck," capsized, and only a few are allowed to visit the memorial. However, I don't see how it would be a record holder in any way and its name doesn't have any presidential connection.
     
  4. B24

    B24 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2008
    Posts:
    61
    It is not the UTAH. I do know the flight deck came off but it's one of the things where you just don't tell everybody, even my original source removed it from the site. So I must pull that from the clues but will replace it with they called me Top Dog.
     
  5. eljefe

    eljefe Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2008
    Posts:
    489
    Location:
    California
    Based on the new info, I believe the answer is USS Spiegel Grove, which was named after the home of Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes. The ship was sunk as an artificial reef ("open today to a select group of people only") but accidentally capsized before the sinking was to have occurred. I'm not sure what would have made the ship a world record holder, but the other clues seem to match up.
     
  6. B24

    B24 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2008
    Posts:
    61
    Yes it the USS Spiegel Grove, She was station at Littlecreek, Virgina. The JEFFS were Jeff A and Jeff B the prototypes of todays LCACs. In 2002 she was sunk as the largest artificial reef (at the time) and during her sinking somebody remove a plate and flooded the aft of the ship causing her to capsize. She was rolled onto her starboard side at a cost around 1/4 million bucks. The part of the flight deck falling off happen prior to hurricane Dennis pushing her over on her back on her keel. A former shipmate (yes I was station on her at one time) has a website which is where I read about the flight deck coming off. For what ever reason it was removed from the site. The pics from videos don't show a flight deck. I saw her for the last time in the port of Baltimore several years prior to her decommissioning, She was a couple hundred yards from the U.S.S. Constellation.
    Good Job eljefe your on deck.
     
  7. eljefe

    eljefe Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2008
    Posts:
    489
    Location:
    California
    Interesting question, B24.

    I'm going to step back a little earlier in time on this next one. One of the most interesting periods of naval history, in my opinion, was the American Civil War. The naval aspect of the conflict is largely forgotten today having been overshadowed by land battles, but some pretty interesting and historic ships were created by both sides...

    I was a well known civil engineer from St. Louis who created diving bells and specialized boats to salvage shipwrecks in the Mississippi River. At the beginning of the Civil War, I risked my personal fortune to start a shipyard and built gunboats for the Union. The first class of seven river ironclads was completed in just five months. Named after cities, these vessels participated in virtually every battle along the Mississippi during the war. Two were lost in combat and another sank after the war, but one was discovered and raised a century later. The salvaged vessel is now a museum at a national park. I built many more ironclad steamships during the war, including a double turret monitor that sank after hitting a mine in Mobile Bay. The ship was raised after the war, towed back to St. Louis, and I salvaged its iron to build a bridge across the Mississippi River. The bridge was the first of its kind, was named in my honor, and is still used today. Who am I?
     
  8. Gascan

    Gascan Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2007
    Posts:
    920
    I've seen a model of the gunboat that was salvaged. it was built by Firepower Dan, who has also built USS Monitor with the intention of arming her for combat in the future. I don't know the name of the guy who designed that ship without looking him up, so I'll hold off for a while. If nobody has it in the next thirty seconds...
     
  9. eljefe

    eljefe Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2008
    Posts:
    489
    Location:
    California
    The person I'm asking about is not necessarily the designer of the ironclads, but they were built at his shipyard (which was actually on the Illinois side of the river and not in St. Louis, as my clue may have implied). A different person who was a naval architect is usually considered the main designer, and one of the nicknames of the boats is based on him.
     
  10. Kotori87

    Kotori87 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 8, 2006
    Posts:
    3,535
    James B. Eads.

    I read a book about one of his gunboats a few years ago. Very interesting history. Apparently he was also considering designs for timber-clads and cotton-clads, because of how many cotton bales were lying around unused at the start of the war.
     
  11. eljefe

    eljefe Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2008
    Posts:
    489
    Location:
    California
    Correct, Kotori!

    James Buchanan Eads is the engineer who built the "City-class ironclads." The design was created by another engineer named Samuel Pook, and the seven ships were nicknamed "Pook Turtles" and "Eads Gunboats." They were built to create a "brown water navy" to control the Mississippi and split the Confederacy in two. The boats were named after cities along the Mississippi and rivers that feed into it. The first was USS Cairo (pronounced CAY-roh). Cairo lasted less than a year when Confederates lured the boat into a trap on the Yazoo River near Vicksburg and detonated a mine near the port bow. The boat sank in 12 minutes but the crew survived. The sunken wreck was forgotten for a century when it was discovered and salvaged for display at the Vicksburg national park.

    Another of the class was USS St. Louis, later renamed the Baron de Kalb, that also sank on the same river due to a mine, but I don't think it's ever been found. USS Cincinnati actually sank twice (once by ramming, once by gunfire), but was raised both times and survived the war to be sold for scrap. The USS Mound City was also sunk and raised to fight again, but its most tragic moment came when Confederate gunfire burst a boiler and the escaping steam killed 85% of the crew (the Navy's worst loss of life in the entire war).

    My favorite of the class was USS Carondelet. This boat participated in the most battles of any ship in the US Navy until World War II. Like the other survivors, Carondelet was sold off after the war. Before she could be scrapped, a flood caused the hulk to break its moorings and drift 130 miles down the Ohio River where it grounded and sank. A research team led by the fiction author Clive Cussler was searching for the wreck in 1982, but two days before finding it, a dredge passed over the site ripping away everything but the keel.

    The double turret monitor Eads built that I mentioned was USS Milwaukee. Though sunk in Mobile Bay by a mine, the wreck was raised after the war and returned to St. Louis. Because of the decline in river boat traffic, Eads had designed a double-deck bridge across the river for road and rail traffic hoping to maintain St. Louis as a major transportation hub. Eads recycled the iron armor from the Milwaukee for use in the longest steel-arched bridge built to that time. Named in his honor, the Eads Bridge has been restored and is still used today. The upper road deck is for cars and pedestrians while the lower rail deck is used by MetroLink trains (I rode across it last summer). Port Eads in Louisiana was also named after him in honor of a jetty system he designed to improve river navigation.

    Here is a good link about the Cairo with lots of pictures:

    http://www.nps.gov/vick/u-s-s-cairo-gunboat.htm

    Kotori, you're next.
     
  12. Knight4hire

    Knight4hire Active Member

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2008
    Posts:
    963
    Quote (Another of the class was USS St. Louis, later renamed the Baron de Kalb, that also sank on the same river due to a mine, but I don't think it's ever been found.)
    Maybe someone should drop Clive Cussler a line about this. He might have "NUMA" do a search!
     
  13. Kotori87

    Kotori87 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 8, 2006
    Posts:
    3,535
    I am not a gun, nor a plate of armor, nor ammo nor engine nor fuel. I appeared just in time to play a crucial role in WWI and the Battle of Jutland, then disappeared soon after. Despite my historical significance, I am not mentioned in Conway's for any of the ships I served on. What am I?
     
  14. NickMyers

    NickMyers Admin RCWC Staff

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2007
    Posts:
    4,409
    Location:
    Federal Way, WA
    The zeppelins?
     
  15. BoomerBoy17

    BoomerBoy17 Active Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2008
    Posts:
    1,946
    Wireless communication in the German warships?
     
  16. B24

    B24 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2008
    Posts:
    61
    The sun setting on the horizon.
     
  17. eljefe

    eljefe Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2008
    Posts:
    489
    Location:
    California
    I'm surprised it's not listed on his web site. Sounds like the kind of ship he'd go after.
     
  18. Kotori87

    Kotori87 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 8, 2006
    Posts:
    3,535
    Close but no bananas, Boomer. hint: the British had two different versions of me, one developed within the Navy and one developed by an outside company. (not sure about the German fleet) I was also one of the revolutionary inventions MISSING from HMS Dreadnought. Lastly, a dessert commonly found in the frozen goods isle bears my name, but was not named for me.
     
  19. eljefe

    eljefe Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2008
    Posts:
    489
    Location:
    California
    Since it sounds like you're going for some kind of technology, I like the wireless telegraphy guess. But to be different, how about Admiral John Jellicoe? He took command of the British Fleet at the start of the war, made controversial decisions at Jutland, and was removed from command shorly thereafter. He served on a lot of ships, but I'd guess Conway's makes no mention of it.
     
  20. eljefe

    eljefe Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2008
    Posts:
    489
    Location:
    California
    Now that I see your latest message, never mind!
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.