HMS DEFIANCE etc

An excellent response David.

Now, How about a list of those A3 Racehorses and details of their race results...

Anyone up for that?

In message , David Costigan writes

One small error as I can see, HMS Tiger (RNs last cruiser) came out of service in the mid 70s and was scrapped around 1980, weren't the Hoovers not named until the mid 80s?

But of course at the time when 442 (later 50442) was named (4/10/78, I believe), HMS Triumph was not a nuclear submarine but a Heavy Repair Ship (ex- aircraft carrier). Also, the destroyer HMS Exeter wasn't launched until 1979, whereas 444 was named on 26/4/78, with the sequence of 444, 445, & 446 obviously recalling the Exeter, Ajax, and Achilles of River Plate fame. HMS Invincible had been launched in 1977 but not commissioned until 1980. HMS Illustrious wasn't launched until 14/12/78, whereas 438 had been named on 8/6/78. You didn't mention BULWARK (Commando carrier), perhaps because at the time

441 was named, the "Rusty B" was in the reserve fleet, and wasn't recommissioned until the following year. Similarly, however, HMS Tiger had paid off to the reserve fleet in April 1978 (sadly never to return to duty), and D428 wasn't named until the following month.

It was much closer than that: HMS Tiger: Paid off April 1978 into the reserve fleet. Disposal list 1980. Broken up by Desguaces Varela, Spain, 1986.

D428 was named 10/5/78.

(Blake, rather than Tiger, was the RN's last cruiser, as she didn't pay off until December 1979).

TEMERAIRE (RN

CONQUEROR

carrier);

submarine);

ILLUSTRIOUS

aircraft

HERCULES was

Interesting that it seems to be mainly submarines and shore establishments that have the inspiring warlike names. Am I right in thinking that nowadays surface ships mostly have pathetic namby-pamby names like HMS Neasden?

Andy Kirkham Glasgow

Up to a point, Lord Copper..

The Type 42 air-defence destroyers have "Town" names - pretty traditional for ships in a "cruiser" role and mainly taking their names from the Southampton-class cruisers of the 1930s (though many of the Town-names are much older than that, having been in more or less continuous use since the Commonwealth's Navy). The Type 22 and 23 Frigates have County names, by and large (again traditional for cruising ships since the Monmouth-class cruisers of the 1900s), plus a few extras like _Iron Duke_. For the rest - 'carriers are _Ark Royal_, _Invincible_, _Illustrious_ (a good set of names); the upcoming type 45 destroyers will be _Daring_, _Dauntless_ and _Diamond_; the amphibs are _Ocean_, _Albion_ and _Bulwark_..

namby-pamby

traditional

Town-names

That's good to hear.

At least the Navy doesn't have the sort of naming policy that seems to prevail on the railways nowadays: if they did we'd doubtless have vessels named "HMS institute of Marketing", "HMS Celebrity Big Brother" and "HMS Chelsea Flower Show" :-(

Andy Kirkham

/chomp/

OTOH the two new carriers which /may/ get built (I'm betting that specification-creep will kill 'em off, but I may be wrong on that) are slated to be _Queen Elizabeth_ and _Prince of Wales_ :( Yes, I know these names have been used before (for battleships) but it should be regarded as a crime to use them for these two ships when _Eagle_ and _Furious_ (let alone _Glorious_ and _Courageous_ or _Indomitable_ and _Indefatigable_) aren't being used. Pah.

Well, that crept in a long time ago. I think we can blame the GWR for starting it with an egregious bit of product-placement in the

1900s (Pershore Plum). Racehorse names, major events and celebrity names seem to be the ones with the longest history for railway engines - one of the Murray/Blenkinsop engines at Middleton was 'Salamanca' - named for the recent battle in Spain, no doubt, the Hetton engines were named for racehorses (one was 'Flying Childers') and Stephenson started by going for a celebrity name ('Bluecher').

You should see some of the names of the 'Flower' class corvettes- matelots must have been severely embarrassed to go into pubs with the hat-bands of some of them. Brian

And don't forget the inspiring Flower Class corvettes.

HMS Pansy will engage the Borg.

-- Cheers Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

Urban myth as far as the Corvettes were concerned, m'fraid. There /was/ an HMS Pansy in WW1 (one of the cabbage patch sloops - 'Anchusa' or 'Aubretia' class sloops, if you must) but the name got vetoed in WW2. The ship which might have ended up with the name commissioned as HMS Heartsease instead. There was, however, an HMS Petunia - with a famously tough crew.

is mildly amusing on this topic.

Fortunately wartime cap-tallies just said "H.M.S." - but nonetheless the crew of _Petunia_ were famed and feared in the pubs of many cities..

My favourite as a misplaced name was the Insect-class river gunboat HMS Cockchafer, which ended her life as a WRNS accomodation ship. Oops.

Was there a Pansy?

Not in Big Mistake Two. The name was allocated but its use was vetoed by the admiralty - the ship in question commissioned as Heartsease.

There had been a Pansy in WW1, mind.