www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/12/23/northern_fights_canada_navy
Michael
I'm sorry, but for some reason I find that highly amusing. I suspect our northern friends were counting on us not being educated enough to figure it out, hahaha!
The article brings up some very good points on how the U.S. and other navies name their warships after victories, so what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
But hey, Canada....good thing you have such a small Navy, because otherwise you would run out of names pretty damn quick ;)
I think this says more about Canadian politics. My understanding is that Canadians don't particularly care about the War of 1812.
The funny thing is that when I wrote this, I started checking around other navies. And discovered that the Dutch, for example, name the Tromp after the admirals who defeated the British. I've since learned that the Danish do the same thing.
All of which reminds us that today's enemies are tomorrow's friends. But of course you're going to name ships after battles you've won, current friendship or not.
Michael
We have a Burke named after Churchill. ???
What's strange is that looking at the Wiki list of current British warships, I don't see any Trafalgar or any ship named after a British victory. British ship names are my favorite - who can resist the Dauntless or the Audacious - but there is no more Trafalgar, Blenheim, etc.
Michael
The Royal Navy has (have?) given some oddly humble names to ships that preformed quite heroically. My personal favorite is the HMS Glowworm, a destroyer that, at less than 1400 tons displacement took on several German destroyers and the German Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper which displaced ten times that of Glowworm. The battle became so fierce that the Hipper and Glowworm actually collided, finally causing Gowworm to drift off and sink. Her captain posthumously received the Victoria Cross, supported in part by the written testimony of Hipper's captain who sent a letter to the Royal Navy via the Red cross because he was so impressed by the little destroyer's accounting of itself.
Quote from: DicedT on December 23, 2013, 06:55:59 PM
I think this says more about Canadian politics. My understanding is that Canadians don't particularly care about the War of 1812.
You average Canadian, much like your average American, is fairly ignorant of her/his nation's history.
That being said, we suffer from a national passive-aggressive inferiority/superiority complex when it comes to our southern neighbor and brother/cousin/friend (depending upon how ones looks at it). The ship naming is simply symptomatic of our complex.
Many a Canuck is proud of the fact that the Whitehouse got razed during the War of 1812, we just ignore the fact that fire toting Redcoats were mostly Limeys and not Canucks.
I don't see any problems with it. Unless you go forward to WW1 and ground combat (or further forward in history), what else would you name Canadian ships?
That is a great story on HMS Glowworm. Here's the whole thing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Glowworm_%28H92%29
Quote from: airboy on December 23, 2013, 08:53:45 PM
Unless you go forward to WW1 and ground combat (or further forward in history), what else would you name Canadian ships?
HMS Lend Lease ;)
Edmund Fitzgerald
^Technically, Lake Superior won that one, not the Canadians.
HMRCS Snowbird
Quote from: GDS_Starfury on December 23, 2013, 07:15:50 PM
We have a Burke named after Churchill. ???
He's an honorary US citizen.
Ticonderoga, anyone?
that's what I was thinking of, too :)
Quote from: airboy on December 23, 2013, 08:53:45 PM
I don't see any problems with it. Unless you go forward to WW1 and ground combat (or further forward in history), what else would you name Canadian ships?
They used to name them after aboriginals - like the Tribal Class destroyers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribal-class_destroyer_(1936)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_class_destroyer
Names, names, names :)
British sailors must sail alongside current U.S. warships such as the USS Bunker Hill, USS Cowpens, and the USS Lake Champlain (at least the cruiser USS Yorktown has been retired). And the Japanese have to put up with the cruiser USS Leyte Gulf and the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, the Germans with the USS Normandy and USS Anzio -- and I'm sure the Vietnamese will look forward to a port visit from the cruiser USS Hue City. Not even domestic enemies are spared; Confederate nostalgists can grit their teeth over the USS Gettysburg and USS Vicksburg. - See more at: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/08/revolutions_end#sthash.ZJrKhU8k.dpuf
my my my.... a wee tempest in a teapot methinks
Quote from: LongBlade on December 24, 2013, 12:42:18 AM
Ticonderoga, anyone?
That was the first thing that entered my mind when I saw the title of this thread.
Conspicuously absent from this list is HMCS Men's Hockey 2010, HMCS Women's Hockey 2010, and HMCS Blue Jays Back-to-Back World Series.
I also won a game of beer pong back in '88 against a bunch of WSU frat boys who thought Budweiser was a real beer. That should merit the naming of one of those crappy patrol craft that guard the Straight of Juan de Fuca from vacationing US fishermen who cannot seem to f**king figure out the salmon trolling right-of-way rules (hint...the boat with fish-on-the-line should turn away (not into) the trolling circuit, and has right-of-way over a boat with no fish-on).
Jack Nastyface
Shipping lane grog!!