# So what was a 'good' ship, and are there any others? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 3, 2015, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536 "2015-06-03T14:39:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/1 "2015-06-03T14:39:29Z")
Lollipop (Shirley Temple) and Guppy (Cap’n Crunch) for starters, but were any real ships called the Good Ship [whatever]? And if so, what was a ‘good ship?’ ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/2 "2015-06-03T14:45:32Z")
Chumbawamba’s “This is the good ship Lifestyle”. Loudon Wainwright’s [“The Good Ship Venus”](http://www.metrolyrics.com/good-ship-venus-lyrics-wainwright-loudon.html) ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/3 "2015-06-03T14:50:54Z")
I have no idea how this gets attributed to Loudon Wainwright (whoever he is) but I was singing a version of this in the pub after rugby on a Saturday night over 50 years ago. The clever buggers would make up their own verses. I think ships became ‘good’ purely for scanning purposes. I wonder if other languages have anything similar. ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/4 "2015-06-03T14:58:15Z")
Discussion [here](http://old.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=472383&highlight=). Seems to be just a general description. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/5 "2015-06-03T15:07:52Z")
I think you’ve got good ships, and the rest are at the bottom of the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/6 "2015-06-03T15:19:30Z")
Thanks, all. > [@bob\_2](#): > > . . .I think ships became ‘good’ purely for scanning purposes. . . . That was actually my gut feeling. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/7 "2015-06-03T15:25:39Z")
FWIW, the “good ship Lollipop” was an [airplane](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLLSqpYyPD8). The song is also full of puns that don’t play now, and I don’t get all of them, but a few are landing on a “chocolate bar” meant making a home landing among military pilots, ie, the kind you’d need to make before you went on leave; a “Tootsie Roll” was a kind of dance, and for all I know may also have been a stunt pilot move (some others were named for dances); and a “cracker jack” anything (like the band here) meant a very, very good whatever. So I wouldn’t be surprised if “good ship” meant something specific, other than saying that the airplane was simply a good airplane. A “lollipop actress” was an actress in the 20s or 30s with a flapper body, and a big head (actually, more like big hair, like Clara Bow). Someone might jokingly call Shirley Temple that, but I don’t think that was on anyone’s mind in writing the song “The Good Ship Lollipop,” although, I am not privy to any insider information here, and for all I know, it could have gotten big laughs when the film premiered (which BTW was the film _Bright Eyes_ [1934]). ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/8 "2015-06-03T15:46:58Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > so, what was a ‘good ship?’ As opposed to a [Hell ship](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_ship) perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/9 "2015-06-03T15:48:48Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > I have no idea how this gets attributed to Loudon Wainwright (whoever he is) but I was singing a version of this in the pub after rugby on a Saturday night over 50 years ago. The clever buggers would make up their own verses. Wainwright is one of the best songwriters of the past 40 years, but you’re right – that’s not his song. One look at the lyrics and you can tell it’s not his style: he’s far more witty and clever than that. [For example.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc_R-3ooafw) ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/10 "2015-06-03T15:55:28Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I think you’ve got good ships, and the rest are at the bottom of the ocean. Not so. “With a load of iron ore 26,000 tons more than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty, that good ship and true was a bone to be chewed when the gales of November came early” ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/11 "2015-06-03T16:11:10Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > FWIW, the “good ship Lollipop” was an [airplane](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLLSqpYyPD8). [**Also a starship**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_XjXeWyfxM). ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/12 "2015-06-03T16:16:40Z")
The “Filthy Whore” sounds like a nice ride. But I’ve seen the documentary and the cabins are terrible. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/13 "2015-06-04T01:50:06Z")
There’s also the Good Ship Ragamuffin, from the song “Botany Bay”. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/14 "2015-06-04T02:12:24Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Chumbawamba’s “This is the good ship Lifestyle”. And is it you, the captain? Should I draw the curtains, tighter? Next your going to tell me there is no crew… That’s fine, as long as you don’t steer a course to nowhere, and do something stupid like drop anchor. 😉 I’ve heard there’s an island big enough for every castaway, you know, a few tracks further. ---
**Author:** ![TaoPilot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TaoPilot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TaoPilot)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/15 "2015-06-04T14:27:44Z")
There’s the Good Ship Planet Express Ship, which comes swinging the olive banch of peace. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/16 "2015-06-04T15:42:33Z")
The opposite of the “horrible old Leopard”. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/17 "2015-06-04T16:13:33Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I think you’ve got good ships, and the rest are at the bottom of the ocean. The aircraft carrier USS Lexington was known in the navy as a “good ship”, but was sunk by the Japanese\*. Meanwhile, its sister ship (the USS Saratoga) did not have a reputation as a good ship to serve on, buttwice survived torpedo strikes and a serious kamikaze attack during WWII plus the first of two bouts of being a target ship for nuclear weapons testing, and stayed afloat. Reputation isn’t everything. \*technically scuttled by a U.S. destroyer after being massively damaged by Japanese attack. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/18 "2015-06-04T16:47:00Z")
I’ve always had a similar question about the old-timey form of address, “Goodwife.” Were there also “Badwives” out there? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/19 "2015-06-04T19:25:55Z")
If I am in command, it is “the good ship SS _Minnow_.” If you are in command, it is “the vessel SS _Minnow_.” If he is in command, it is “that old bucket SS _Minnow_.” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536/20 "2015-06-05T01:00:21Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > A “lollipop actress” was an actress in the 20s or 30s with a flapper body, and a big head… That description is still very much alive, although it may simply be getting reborn periodically. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-was-a-good-ship-and-are-there-any-others/721536.md?page=2)