Name the Ship Game

[molasses]

This one is easier for certain.

You should remove the name/registration number out of the pics you post

 

Jan

 

I didn't notice the registration number at the bottom edge when I posted the photo, but I fixed that.

Edited February 8, 2014 by DFellingham

[Menno]

Are you sure its the same ship? In picture one the stem is slightly negative and in picture two it is clearly positive. I know ships where modified when getting a new task sometimes, but this?

[molasses]

All photos of this ship are from the US Department of the Navy - Naval Historical Center website.

 

She was extensively modified from a civilian freighter to a passenger/cargo ship in 1930-31 with a new name. This change lengthened her, gave her the new bow and increased her displacement by over 500 tons.

 

Re-acquired by the US Navy in December 1940, modified for war service and renamed for a US Marine general, Commandant of the Marine Corps and recipient of a Congressional Medal of Honor, she was commissioned in May 1941. Re-classified and re-fit for that role in February 1943 (the date of the second photo), she was awarded five battle stars for her participation in campaigns in the Mediterranean and Pacific during WW2.

 

This photo, dated February 1942, of the mystery ship (foreground) in convoy from New York to Belfast shows her prior to her re-fit and re-classification a year later.

 

 

No more clues, there is very little information left to give out - except one of her names.

Edited February 9, 2014 by DFellingham

[trippwj]

The clue about the Commandant USMC with the MoH gave this one away.

 

USS Neville (APA-9 and AP-16)

Edited February 9, 2014 by trippwj

[molasses]

Thank you, Wayne, Neville is correct. She was SS City of Norfolk as a passenger/cargo ship, SS Independence as a freighter and USS Independence during her very brief WW1 service of one voyage to England. She is the third ship named Independence posted here in recent weeks. 

 

Your turn, Wayne.

Edited February 9, 2014 by DFellingham

[trippwj]

This one is probably too easy.

 

[amateur]

American four masted schooner, around the turn of the centure (at least, going by the looks of the tug that's next to her)

 

Jan

[molasses]

I found very little about the four-masted schooner Mary Manning of Waretown, New Jersey, except accounts of the rescue of her captain, crew of nine men and a passenger on 4 March 1906 after 110 hours (!) clinging to wreckage on the deck of the waterlogged ship. Lightening struck her main mast on 27 February shortly before the worst of a freezing gale swamped her. Her deck houses and all but the foremast were washed away by the gale in the following days. The rescuing ship left Mary Manning in a sinking condition. It seems likely that her cargo of lumber helped keep her from sinking for so long.

 

Link to New York Times story dated 6 March 1906:  http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30E1EFB3E5512738DDDAE0894DB405B868CF1D3

[trippwj]

That be the ol' gal - the Mary Manning.  Your turn!

[molasses]

Name the Ship:

One of two sister ships purchased to participate in an on-going illegal activity.

[molasses]

I'm surprised there have been no guesses; although little known, the ship is easy to find.

[Stockholm tar]

Something to do with prohibition, perhaps?

[molasses]

The clandestine operation was not rum-running.

 

Both ships were purchased in March 1947 from the United Fruit Company by the F. B. Shipping Company. Officially, the initials stood for "Far Better" but actually meant "F*** Britain". (No disrespect intended, this is a documented historical fact.)

[KevinR]

The "Pan Crescent" and "Pan York" (renamed Atzma'ut and Komeimiut) were the two largest ships in the history of illegal immigration to Palestine.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Immigration/pams.html

Dave, I was looking for the wrong illegal activity all along. I started with prohibition then tried pirate radio with no success. This was a tough one.

[molasses]

Well done, Kevin, you found it the hard way - Google Image identifies the ship in a few seconds. The photo is of the Pan Crescent (Atzma'ut). The Hebrew names given to the Pans, Komeimi'ut and Atzma'ut, translate respectively to Sovereignty and Independence. 

 

The Pans carried over 15,000 Jewish immigrants from Bulgaria to Cypress 27 - 31 December 1947, then transported most of the Jews interred there to Israel later in 1948. The best known of the immigration ships is Exodus 1947, the basis for a novel by Leon Uris and a movie, both titled Exodus. The Royal Navy had the un-enviable task of preventing illegal immigration of Jews to pre-state Israel before, during and after WW2.

 

Your turn, Kevin.

[KevinR]

Ok, this has to be one of my favorite ships. Probably to easy.

[jud]

Was she a cable laying vessel? Comes from somewhere back in the cobwebs in my mind that is she might be the Atlantic..

jud

[KevinR]

Jud, you are half right. Cable laying was the only think she was successful at.

[Beef Wellington]

Great Eastern?

[molasses]

That's the Great Eastern, designed by Isembard Kingdom Brunel. Launched in 1858 she was taken out of service in 1863 because she was too slow to compete in the aggressively competitive trans-Atlantic trade. Sold at auction in 1864 for about 25% of her value as scrap, she was converted to lay the first successful trans-Atlantic telegraph cable in 1866. She was the largest ship ever built until 1899. Propulsion was by paddle wheels, a screw and sails. The image is of her appearance as the cable layer, she was originally built with five stacks.

 

I just now found that Jason beat me to it.    That's what I get for taking a break for breakfast.

Edited February 17, 2014 by DFellingham

[KevinR]

Jason, You got it.

 

Dave, my understanding of why the Great Eastern was not a success was that she was too big. There just was not enough passenger and cargo to fill the ship. If I remember correctly she was considered fast. Crossing in 9 1/2 days.

 

Your turn Jason.

Edited February 17, 2014 by Kevin from Hampton Roads

[Beef Wellington]

I always have such a hard time finding something, makes me regret guessing :-)  Anyway, hope this isn't too easy.  Name has been removed but no other changes.  I suspect its obvious if you know what to look for, otherwise looking at the lines will be of help. 

[molasses]

 

Dave, my understanding of why the Great Eastern was not a success was that she was too big. There just was not enough passenger and cargo to fill the ship. If I remember correctly she was considered fast. Crossing in 9 1/2 days.

 

 

The Wikipedia entry for Great Eastern quoted from an article by R. A. Buchanon in Technology and Culture: "...she was used in the transatlantic business, where she could not compete in speed and performance with similar vessels already in service." Being even marginally slower than her competitors made it more difficult for her to make use of her capacity in passengers and cargo. The same Wiki entry also commented that Great Eastern could not take full advantage of the square sails on the center masts because the sparks and hot ash from the stacks set the sails on fire.

 

Great Eastern should be remembered for the innovations she brought to ship-building that are now standard features: the double hull and a compartmentalized hold. These features saved her from disaster when a pilot grazed the Northeast Ripps (now known as Great Eastern Rock) near Montauk, Long Island at 2:00 am, 28 August, 1862, that cut a hole over 9 feet wide and 83 feet long in her port side outer hull - about 60 times the area of the gash that sank Titanic. The passengers never even knew of this accident.

Edited February 17, 2014 by DFellingham

[molasses]

The photo is used to illustrate both of the Royal Navy's Nelson-class battleships HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney. I'm unable to distinguish between the two. They were distinctive in that all of the main battery turrets were forward of the superstructure. The battleships were nicknamed Nelsol and Rodnol because of their superficial resemblance to Royal Navy oilers which all had names ending in -ol.

 

Edited February 17, 2014 by DFellingham

[Beef Wellington]

Congratulations DFellingham - ship is HMS Nelson (believe differentiated by the "NE" on the 3rd turret and before the anti-aircraft batteries were installed in 1932). Like the picture above, a very perculiar class of battleship.  Anyway, over to you...

[molasses]

I always have such a hard time finding something, makes me regret guessing :-) 

 

Agreed; finding an image of an interesting ship to post is frequently more challenging than finding the name that goes with a posted image, but I try to have fun with it.

 

 

Name the Ship:

Edited February 17, 2014 by DFellingham

[realworkingsailor]

USS Independance (CVL 22)

 

Aircraft markings kind of made that one a give away...

 

Andy

Edited February 17, 2014 by realworkingsailor

[molasses]

Andy, I have no idea how you got the name of the ship from the aircraft markings. Here's a 10X enlargement of three planes on her deck.

 

 

USS Independence (CV-22, later CVL-22) was the lead ship of a class of light carriers built during WW2 from partly completed cruisers. Commissioned 14 January, 1943, she served in several Pacific Theater campaigns earning 8 battle stars. After the war she was a test target for two atomic bomb tests then was scuttled near the Farallon Islands west of San Francisco in January, 1951. Besides being highly radioactive, it is rumored that she had barrels of nuclear waste on board which have contaminated the wildlife refuge and commercial fisheries near those islands.

 

Your turn, Andy.

[realworkingsailor]

Well... Even from the thumbnail photo, the markings were distinctly American (kind of the idea of aircraft markings, don't you think? )... After that simply looked up a list of US carriers and sort through until I found a match.

 

I'll have something tomorrow afternoon.

 

Andy

[realworkingsailor]

Still looking for something... Please hang in there

 

Andy