# Cool Ship or Boat Names. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 24, 2007, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756 "2007-08-24T13:40:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756/81 "2007-08-28T15:30:28Z")
[QUOTE=Civil Guy] First Pratchett fan here, I guess. _The Prid of Ankh-Moorpark_ These things happen when the guy painting the name on the boat gets distracted. [/QUOTE] Or, the _Silver Dollar/ Silver Dolar_ from the film ‘Local Hero’ (the fishermen can’t agree on how many l’s there are… ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756/82 "2007-08-31T16:48:06Z")
Not the exact name but…saw a yacht off of Miami beach called “I owe the Internal Revenue $36,000” ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756/83 "2007-08-31T21:18:30Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] The Royal Navy surely has the coolest names. _Victory, Illustrious, Indefatigable, Victoria._ [/QUOTE] You beat me to it. My all-time favorite is _HMS Unapproachable_. OTOH, the US Navy went from naming aircraft carriers after cool battles (_Lexington, Yorktown, Midway_) to naming them after lame-o’s that you never heard of (_Carl Vinson, John C. Stennis_). ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756/84 "2007-08-31T22:32:23Z")
I see a lot of funny or stupid boat names in my travels, and a lot of funny ones too. Racing sailboats are the best: Fat Bob Spirit of Elvis Crash Test Dummies Nixon was Cool Mary Don’t Surf (the horror, the horror) The Other White Meat (the tender was named “Tastes Like Chicken!”) Ho Lotta Luck There’s a real beat-up little runabout in our marina named “Never Again II”. That just cracks me up. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756/85 "2007-08-31T23:14:13Z")
I do like the names the RN gives ships and subs. The next generation of Fleet submarines (equivalent of USN SSNs) are the _Astute_-class: HMS _Astute_ (second use of that name) HMS _Ambush_ (ditto) HMS _Artful_ (ditto) HMS _Audacious_ (fourth use of that name) They will replace, more or less, five of the _Swiftsure_-class (_Sovereign_, _Superb_, _Sceptre_, _Spartan_ and _Splendid_) and both of the _Trafalgar_-class (_Trafalgar_ and _Turbulent_). (as far as I remember, it’s only the submarine fleet that uses names starting with the same letter) ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756/86 "2007-09-01T00:26:11Z")
Well, there were the [Revenge class battleships](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenge_class_battleship), sometimes called “the Five Rs” including the Royal Oak; and the Repulse and Reknown, (which appear to have been radically redisgned Revenges, hmm.) too. The RN has had a pattern, at least, of trying to make sister ships have similar names. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756/87 "2007-09-01T01:46:32Z")
Yanno, with 8 ships of the name HMS Vanguard, you’d think I’d consider it a pretty good ship’s name. Well, I’d have had no problem with the name until the [ninth of July, 1917](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vanguard_%281909%29). That was when HMS Vanguard, for reasons that are only guessed at today, blew up at anchor, taking all but two of her crew with her. Let me restate that: The ship blew up for no known reason, while at anchor. Now I’d let things go, except my mind is something of a lumber room: all sorts of odd things fall into it. I’d heard that it’s a tradition in the Royal Navy to never reuse the name of a ship lost to enemy action. Which is why there’s no HMS Hood, today. But there’s an [HMS Vanguard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vanguard_%28S28%29)! And that’s the _second_ ship of that name since the one that blew up at harbor in 1917. :eek: As a properly superstitious sailor type - I’m seriously discombobulated. Of course, part of it is that I have a petty problem with ships that sink on purpose anyways. They don’t need hints on _other_ ways to kill their crews. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756/88 "2007-09-01T15:27:10Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] That’s my understanding, too. I know of no Japanese warships of any era that use(d) the “maru” suffix. I remember reading years ago that it roughly translates as “Ship named [blank].” [/QUOTE] You’re right: Japanese merchantmen have “Maru” appended to their names, warships do not. It means “circle” (as in round trip). ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756/89 "2007-09-01T17:21:08Z")
Some of my favorites: From the Wing Commander series, there is the TCS _Tiger’s Claw_, a rather unusual name compared to any other Terran ships we see in the Wing Commander universe. From the Honor Harrington series, it’s hard to beat _Sovereign of Space_, but the _Hexapuma_ gets bonus points for it’s nickname: “The Angry Kitty” (for context, in the Honor Harrington universe, a Hexapuma is a creature native to the planet Sphinx, and basically looks like a giant mountain lion with two sets of legs. Very dangerous, and largely the reason why most people on Sphinx own high-powered firearms, unlike their fellow Manticoran citizens on Gryphon and Manticore) ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2007, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756/90 "2007-09-02T03:26:17Z")
In the _Chronicles of Narnia_ books are the _Dawn Treader_ and the _Splendour Hyaline_. I always thought those were cool. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756/91 "2007-09-02T20:08:18Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader] From the Honor Harrington series, it’s hard to beat _Sovereign of Space_, but the _Hexapuma_ gets bonus points for it’s nickname: “The Angry Kitty” (for context, in the Honor Harrington universe, a Hexapuma is a creature native to the planet Sphinx, and basically looks like a giant mountain lion with two sets of legs. Very dangerous, and largely the reason why most people on Sphinx own high-powered firearms, unlike their fellow Manticoran citizens on Gryphon and Manticore) [/QUOTE] Actually it’s _Nasty Kitty_. [QUOTE=The Shadow of Saganami] “Most crews end up bestowing nicknames on their ships,” she said. “Usually it’s a sign of affection. Sometimes it isn’t. And some are better than others. A friend of mine once served in a ship—_William Hastings_, a Grayson heavy cruiser—which ended up called \*Shivering Billy \* because of a nasty harmonic she picked up in two of her forward impeller nodes one fine day. Then there’s HMS _Retaliation_, known to her crew as HMS _Ration Tin_, for reasons no one seems to remember. Or HMS _Ad Astra_, a perfectly respectable dreadnought which was known as \*Fat Astor \* when she was still in commission. Given the alternatives, I suppose \*‘Nasty Kitty’ \* isn’t all that bad.” [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756/92 "2007-09-02T21:25:30Z")
When my high school calculus teacher retired he bought a boat and named it **Aftermath**. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756/93 "2007-09-02T22:58:39Z")
About 20 years ago I saw a sailboat named _Panta Rei_. If I ever get my shit together and actually buy a boat, I’m gonna steal that name. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-ship-or-boat-names/416756.md?page=4)