Military "Pictionary" Game II

[sydhe]

The caricature is by Sir Leslie Ward, or Spy, who drew for Vanity Fair in the late 19th century and early 20th. I don't recognize the person.

 

[sydhe]

The logo is Cammell Laird and the Spy caricature is John Laird. Is the ship the Birkenhead. Don't know what that has to do with the king of Prussia.

 

[sydhe]

I just realized, the answer may be Cummell Laird or John Laird & Co. John Laird was one of the founders, they built the Birkenhead and Alabama and probably built ships for Frederick William IV.

 

[privatehudson]

Well I think that's about as close as we're likely to get on this one.

The ship in the third and also the most recent picture is indeed HMS Birkenhead, one of the first iron hulled ships built for the Royal Navy. She was finished in 1845 and originally named the Vulcan, but in 1848 she was renamed the Birkenhead. She was indeed built by Laird and sons, and yes that is a caricture of John Laird. The renamed ship has special significance for Laird because his shipyard was (and via Cammell Laird who's logo you correctly identified still was until recently) in the town of Birkenhead. Birkenhead owes much of it's prosperity and development to Laird who eventually became it's MP. He was Scottish by birth though as I said, and did build the Alabama for the Confederate States of America.

Back to the ship itself though. In 1852 she left Portsmouth bound for the Kaffir Wars in Africa, transporting soldiers and their wives. She stayed briefly in Queenstown (now Cobh) Ireland and Cape Town in South Africa before sailing for Algoa Bay at all speed. Unfortunately at 2am on 26th February she struck a rock off Danger Point and more than 100 men were drowned almost instantly when water flooded into the troopdeck were they slept. The survivors were gathered on deck as if on parade and soon 60 had volunteered for the dangerous task of manning the pumps. The ship was obviously sinking so Captain Salmond ordered the boats launched. Unfortunately poor maintenance meant only three were able to be launched and were packed with the Women and Children.

Salmond then ordered that every man should try to save himself by jumping overboard and swimming for the boats. The senior officer present, Leutenant-Colonel Seaton saw that this would swamp the boats and instead ordered the men to stay put on the ship. Despite being mostly raw recruits the men obeyed his orders and didn't move even when the main mast crashed to the deck. The ship sank within 25 minutes and most of those onboard either drowned or were caught by sharks before help arrived the next day. Of 638 people on board around 193 are thought to have survived.

The term "Women and Children First" derives from this event in honour of the sacrifice made by the soldiers to ensure that the Women and Children survived the disaster, mostly at the cost of their own lives.

And the link to Frederich IV?

He was said to have been so impressed with the bravery and obediance of the soldiers that he ordered the story be read to every regiment in his army as an example of discipline and courage.

 

[soul_warrior]

very good, hudson
thanks for a great new piece of knowledge.
keep 'em coming...

 

[sydhe]

What battle is this? You'll need to specify the year or war since there are more than one battle by this name.

 

[Hornblower]

I think that this is the Battle of St Vincent in 1797 which was the third or fourth such battle in that area.
The captured Spanish two and three decker ships are the clue.

 

[sydhe]

You're right, both location and year.

 

[Hornblower]

What links these three locations?

 

[soul_warrior]

hornblower, you should link these pictures for easier viewing.

[j/k] maybe its all places "invaded" by the chinese?
looks like hongkong, new york and madagascar....

thinking of the answer now. it seems easy but just wont emerge into my sleepy brain :D

 

[El_Tigre]

Sydney (you can see the opera in the background), Madagascar and Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor and Sydney Harbor were both penetrated by midget submarines,
but I don't see a connection to Madagascar. Submarine warfare in general,
perhaps? The Germans (and Japanese?) presumably used Vichy Madagascar
to resupply their subs in the Indian Ocean.

Maybe a ship "touched" all three locations? Although that's unlikely, as the
Madagascar operation was conducted by the Royal Navy, which didn't have
ships at Pearl Harbor (I think).

 

[Adler17]

But midget subs were also used at Madagascar by the French fighting the English...

Adler

 

[Hornblower]

Sydney (you can see the opera in the background), Madagascar and Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor and Sydney Harbor were both penetrated by midget submarines,

El Tigre is first past the post and correct.
Adler17 got past the tricky Madagascar lure too.
It is well known that Japanese submarines penetrated both Sydney and Pearl Harbours.
What is not so well known is that the sinking of the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes forced the British fleet to retreat all the way back to Mombasa in Kenya. The Japanese Indian ocean raids made the British realise that Vichy Madagascar was in danger of being used by the Japanese as a base in much the same way as the Andamans had been. The British attacked Madagascar and landed in force at Diego Suarez in May 1942. Japanese midget subs penetrated Diego Suarez harbour that same month and torpedoed the HMS Ramilles.
The two subs in Madagascar were detected shortly after the attack on Ramilles and depth charged to destruction. Surprisingly the crew of one escaped into the jungle and remained at large for some days.
Just last week the wreck of the missing sub from the Sydney raid was also discovered on the seabed 20 miles to the north of Sydney harbour. And of course I just realised by coincidence the date today is a good connection with Pearl.

 

[El_Tigre]

Japanese midget subs penetrated Diego Suarez harbour that same month and torpedoed the HMS Ramilles.

Looks like midgets subs weren't completely useless...

Here's my question (probably too easy): Why does everyone want to have a look at the cockpit of this airplane?

 

[cidknee]

umm thats a P51 A or B mustang that was captured by the Germans. Why they are looking at the cockpit? to see what the germans did to the gagues and the radios?

 

[El_Tigre]

umm thats a P51 A or B mustang that was captured by the Germans. Why they are looking at the cockpit? to see what the germans did to the gagues and the radios?

Wow, that was quick!

This plane is indeed a P51 Mustang. It was part of "Zircus Rosarius", a special Luftwaffe unit that tested captured Allied airplanes. Those guys are German pilots studying enemy materiel. Your turn!

 

[dgfred]

Looks like midgets subs weren't completely useless...

Here's my question (probably too easy): Why does everyone want to have a look at the cockpit of this airplane?

Just a note- I watched an interesting show on discovery last weekend about
a picture showing an object 'inside' Pearl Harbor possibly letting loose a couple of torpedoes at the W.Virginia. They never really decided if the object
was actually a midget sub, or what, but they ran some experiments and stuff.
It was a good program- It looked like a sub to me, but with several small
American boats around, nobody saw it . Interesting.

 

[nonconformist]

Well, a sub was sunk` by a ship jsut before the attacks on Pearl Harbor (the same day, in fact), but the alarm wasn't raised.

 

[dgfred]

Well, a sub was sunk` by a ship jsut before the attacks on Pearl Harbor (the same day, in fact), but the alarm wasn't raised.

Yeah, they discussed that too. The Ward has not until recently been given
credit for that sinking when they located the sub, with a hit shot just below
the con tower .

This was a picture in the harbor, with the unidentified object near
battleship row, before the Arizona was struck, with waterspouts all
around from torpedo drops.

 

[cidknee]

ok heres one. Im sorry it took so long. When was this taken? By that I mean what conflict.