# Writers: Fictional ships you've named? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 25, 2009, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479 "2009-09-25T04:10:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/21 "2009-09-25T21:19:57Z")
I wrote (sort of) in high school a story snippet about a large group of hapless wanderers in space aboard the Starship Zig-Zag. Oddly, I wasn’t a stoner. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/22 "2009-09-25T21:34:00Z")
[Jon the Intergalactic Gladiator](http://joninterglad.blogspot.com/) flies into adventure in his trusty spaceplane the _Danger Sled_. ---
**Author:** ![Jeu\_D\_Esprit\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b77776/32.png) [@Jeu\_D\_Esprit\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeu_D_Esprit_1)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/23 "2009-09-25T22:26:10Z")
A sailing ship (Brig) in a short story set in the 17th century called _ **Ma Coeur** _. An independent, first in survey/scout ship in an SF universe novella called _ **Van der Decken** _. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/24 "2009-09-29T23:32:24Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Another fantasy setting had sea ships named by full lines from various Romantic poets - IIRC, there was “_A homeless sound of joy was in the sky_”, “_Then stretches out my golden wing_”, “_O well for the fisherman’s boy_”, “_Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green_”, and some others. Of course, players rapidly shortened these to “skyjoy”, goldwing" etc, but the ships (animate - inhabited by spirits) always insisted on the full name before doing anything. Sounds very Andromeda Ascendant, only more so. Oddly, not very many of these come to mind, & I like naming things. From my ideas for hard-science solar system exploration stories: **Sakerdess** , inspired by a thread on this very board. Meant to be a corruption of _sacerdos_, & later a girl’s name. Also, I wanted to write about astronauts using the hollowed-out asteroid 26734 TerryFarrell (what this says about me wanting to get into Terry Farrell, well…) I’m sure I’ve come up with many others for stories I never wrote, or in games. I have come up with model or type names at various points, but that’s different. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/25 "2009-09-30T02:26:10Z")
Wow I thought for sure this thread would beabout the other kind of ships. Like Mulder/Scully and Kirk/Spock. 😃 I’ve been collecting cool names for characters/future children for years but I can’t find any examples of names for ships. Only two of my stories that I can think of even have ships in them, and I hadn’t come up with a name for either one yet. I think my favorite fictional ship name from other people is the “Farrago” from Robotech: Sentinels, a slave ship of aliens literally pieced together from the various ships of each alien race enslaved on it. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/26 "2009-09-30T02:43:48Z")
Not writing per the OP, but when I TT-RPG’d, I had a Y-Wing fighter named _The Meanstreak_, inspired partially by the AC/DC song. My wingman [del]Hero of the Rebellion[/del] partner in crime flew _The Lucky Strike._ We are both WWII aircraft fans, and had appropriate “cheesecake” nose art picked out for our birds. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/27 "2009-09-30T19:49:53Z")
Ah! I forgot one I was going to mention, if no one minds my butting in again— In a loose concept for a sci-fi setting, I dreamt up a mass driver “bomb ship” basically carved out of asteroid [216 Kleopatra](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/216_Kleopatra). It is/was to be named _King Ludwig II_. (Sister ships would include the _Elagabalus_, _Tsar Peter III_, and the _Jean-Bedel Bokassa_) ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/28 "2009-09-30T20:08:30Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > Wow I thought for sure this thread would beabout the other kind of ships. Like Mulder/Scully and Kirk/Spock. 😃 Naming ships like that…I guess like Ben + Jennifer = Bennifer, Mulder + Scully = Mully, Kirk + Spock = …:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/29 "2009-09-30T20:55:54Z")
**Baker** and I wrote an agreeable naval yarn on these very boards that featured ships called _Hector_, _Yarmouth_, _El Cordobes_, _Passamaquoddy_, _Leopard_ and _Infanta Isabella_ (captured and renamed _Gudrun_ in her role as a temporary “Swedish trader”). ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/30 "2009-09-30T21:06:25Z")
Not a fictional ship as the OP requested, but for about three months I lived aboard a 26 foot sloop I named “Child O’ Fortune” in homage to Norman Spinrad’s book _Child of Fortune_. I bought her for $600.00 and planned on fixing her up and sailing her all over the eastern seaboard and to the Carribean. Alas, she was a colossal piece of junk and ended up being scuttled and sold for scrap. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/31 "2009-09-30T23:16:24Z")
A while back I was working on a Star Trek Vs Star Wars fanfic in which Starfleet had assembled a battleship full of all the uber-tech ever come-across in the franchise: transwarp conduit/quantum slipstream consolidated drive, phased cloaking device, “batmobile” armor, quantum torpedoes, etc. To be christened the USS Ultimatum…prototype registry NX-99000. First in the Ultimatum Class starships, which include the USS Arizona, Bismark, Yamato, and Enterprise…USS-1701-F. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/32 "2009-09-30T23:45:23Z")
In one of the serial romances I wrote (shut up!) and shared with friends, the rich billionaire playboy had a yacht (natch) and, of course, he called it the Dionysus. Romances tend to go for the obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/33 "2009-10-01T18:05:39Z")
In a story I wrote once there were a couple of boats named _The Spanish Armada_ and _The Not For Sale_. In a roleplaying campaign I ran there was a series of ships that were all named after people who got hosed in ancient mythology. The two the players dealt with were called _The Iphigenia_ and _The Philoctetes_. In a science fiction story I wrote, the ship was called The _Spread Misere_. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/34 "2009-10-01T18:15:31Z")
When I play NavyField, I name my submarines after stations on the Montreal Metro system. Get it? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/35 "2009-10-02T02:47:13Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] In an as-yet-unplaced story about a trip to the moon, I named the ship the **Hans Pfall**. Look it up. [/QUOTE] Surely an unparalleled adventure 😉 > [@Enola Straight](#): > > Ultimatum Class starships, which include the USS Arizona, Bismark, Yamato, and Enterprise You were going well with the Ultimatum, but man… do you also have a _Hood_ and a _St. Istvan_ in that bunch…? > [@Ranchoth](#): > > It is/was to be named King Ludwig II. (Sister ships would include the Elagabalus, Tsar Peter III, and the Jean-Bedel Bokassa) “Sir, there’s an enemy Raving Lunatic-Class attack platform approaching the outer defense perimeter” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jellyblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e480ec/32.png) [@jellyblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jellyblue)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479/36 "2009-10-02T03:45:53Z")
An ocean liner named “Torpid Colossus” in a story to accompany a piece of artwork [here](http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15154143). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-fictional-ships-youve-named/511479.md?page=1)