The most beautiful name for a warship?

General naval discussions that don't fit within any specific time period or cover several issues.
George Gerolimatos
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Yamato and Musashi

Post by George Gerolimatos »

Karl,
There was a great samurai and teacher named Miyamoto Musashi (the Japanese had a famous serial of novels in the 20s and 30s devoted to him). His name was after a famous province in Japan. Similarly, the Yamato province contained the original capital of ancient Japan. It has a special meaning for the Japanese people to this day; sometimes they call themselves the "Yamato" people (or race). Thus, in both cases, the ships were named after regions and not people.
George G.
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Karl Heidenreich
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Post by Karl Heidenreich »

Thanks George!
About Miyamoto Musashi, as I wrote before, I was aware that he was a great samurai and poet who wrote a book called the "Book of the Five Rings", but I wasn´t aware that his name was after a province.
And Yamato is a more important name than I thought before, it is almost mytical. Both names are very, very cool indeed: perfect names for inmortal ships.
What about the Japanese aircraft carriers: Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, Soryu, Shinano, etc. Provinces and landmarks too?
George Gerolimatos
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Japanese warship names

Post by George Gerolimatos »

Hi again,
there is a fantastic website out there on the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). You can find it at combinedfleet.com. As to your question, no, Japanese carriers were not normally named after provinces. The only exceptions were those ships originally laid down as battlecruiser, i.e., Akagi (her name means "Red Castle"), Kaga, and Shinano. In other cases, Japanese carriers were named after mythical flying creatures. Soryu means "blue dragon", Hiryu "flying dragon" and so on. Isn't this so much cooler than calling a carrier Wasp or Hornet?! Cruisers were named after mountains, light cruisers for rivers, and destroyers after weather conditions. I'm biased, but the Japanese knew how to infuse war and poetry together!

George G.
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Karl Heidenreich
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Post by Karl Heidenreich »

Well, Hornet, Wasp, Enterprise are cool and agresive names. As I said Ticconderoga, Lexinton, Gettysburg, Nimitz are cool names too. The problem with American ship names are those John Stennis, Leahy, Vinson, etc. that are like those Antonio Bonomi signaled from the Italian ones.
I still think that British and Japanese are the better ones.
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miro777
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Post by miro777 »

hey
i am back after a break....
hmm the nicest name for a warship?
i would agree with that the british had real nice names, like repulse, thunderer, etc and that japanese sound cool for a westerner, but in fact those are just ordinary names like Bismarck or Tirptiz.

My favourite is a spanish one and its the name of the biggest ever build wooden battleship, the
Santissima Trinidad

i just think that's an awsome name

i wouldnt totally say that names of people are lame, cuz Bismarck or Hood or Rodney still bring up some power, but i generally agree that German ship names were not the best. Especially the ships in WW1 called Herzorgin, grossfuerst, kaiserin or after states like Bayern, wtc.
thos suck...lol

adios
miro
Die See ruft....
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Gary
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Post by Gary »

Scharnhorst.

Fantastic name for a warship :clap:
God created the world in 6 days.........and on the 7th day he built the Scharnhorst
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RNfanDan
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Post by RNfanDan »

Okay, I'll chip in with a name that rolls off the tongue quite well....

NORMANDIE !


Easy to say in any Western language, and it has a nice syllabic "curve".


While perhaps not as evocative or powerful or threatening as Japanese, German, or British ship names, the original question asked for "beautiful"
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Karl Heidenreich
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Post by Karl Heidenreich »

George Gerolimatos
Karl,
There was a great samurai and teacher named Miyamoto Musashi (the Japanese had a famous serial of novels in the 20s and 30s devoted to him). His name was after a famous province in Japan. Similarly, the Yamato province contained the original capital of ancient Japan. It has a special meaning for the Japanese people to this day; sometimes they call themselves the "Yamato" people (or race). Thus, in both cases, the ships were named after regions and not people.
George G.
Hi George:

a couple of days ago I saw a documentary at NAT GEO about samurais. Obviously it came to Musashi and the narrator stated that the WWII Battleship was named after the great samurai warrior. In the process they said nothing about the province with the same name. That doesn´t surprise me because documentaries are always a collection of trivia and little or poor investigation (just see Cameron´s Bismarck). Your explanation satisfies me.
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George Gerolimatos
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Names

Post by George Gerolimatos »

Hi,
Yes, I agree, documentaries can be sadly lacking in correct details. This is particularly offensive because there are great sites like this one and others which could correct all those silly mistakes. TV producers, just do your homework!

I'm not sure if this site has been posted before, but there is a site which can pronounce different languages. So, you can type in the name of your favorite warship and hear it in the original tongue! I tested the English and the German ones; they sound okay. I'm of course unsure if the French, Italian, or Japanese is accurate. Give it a try: enter "Senkan musashi" (Battleship musashi) or "corazzate vittorio veneto" (battleship vitorrio veneto) in their respective languages and enjoy! Are there Italian, Spanish, and Japanese speakers out there? How is the pronunciation? Here's the site: http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/f ... rame1=talk

George G.
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Re: The most beautiful name for a warship?

Post by DanFilson »

HMS Victory has it for me!
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Re: The most beautiful name for a warship?

Post by Bgile »

Enterprise.
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Glasisch
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Re: The most beautiful name for a warship?

Post by Glasisch »

Hello,

Germany: Derfflinger, FRAUENLOB = Women - praise :D
Great Britain: Warspite, Arc Royal
Russia/Soviet Union: Gangut, Avrora
Italy: Littorio, Zara
France: Dunkerque, Lamotte-Piquet
Spain: España, Méndez Núñez
USA: Wasp, Hornet
Japan: Yamato, Kaga

Regards
Mischa
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mike kemble
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Re: The most beautiful name for a warship?

Post by mike kemble »

I think to name a ship in an agressive nature eg: invincible; is asking for trouble.
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Karl Heidenreich
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Re: The most beautiful name for a warship?

Post by Karl Heidenreich »

I think to name a ship in an agressive nature eg: invincible; is asking for trouble.
Specially if the bloody ship blows up!
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
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mike kemble
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Re: The most beautiful name for a warship?

Post by mike kemble »

Well said Karl, and oh so true.
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