X-Nico

46 unusual facts about Royal Navy


Abadan Crisis

In July 1952, the Royal Navy intercepted the Italian tanker Rose Mary and forced it into the British protectorate of Aden on the grounds that the ship's petroleum was stolen property.

Army Navy Match

The Army Navy Match is the annual rugby union match played between the senior XV teams of the Royal Navy and British Army.

Arnaud de Borchgrave

He served in the British Royal Navy (1942–1946), from the age of 15, after running away from home and using falsified papers to enlist.

Battenberg Cup

In 1905, Prince Louis of Battenberg, commanding the five ships of the Royal Navy's 2nd Cruiser Squadron, visited the United States, making port visits in New York City, Annapolis and Washington, D.C. Shortly after his return to England, Battenberg sent the cup to Rear Admiral Robley Evans who at the time commanded the US North Atlantic Fleet.

Battle of Fort Charlotte

He learned in April that additional reinforcements, including British Royal Navy vessels, had arrived at Pensacola.

British Hovercraft Corporation BH.7

Mk.2 first flew in November 1969 and was evaluated by the Royal Navy, being allocated the pennant number P235 and aircraft serial number XW255.

Burial of Drowned Persons Acts 1808 and 1886

The passage of the 1808 act was one of the consequences of the wreck of the Royal Navy frigate HMS Anson in Mount's Bay in 1807.

Christmas on a Rational Planet

It also contains the first casual reference to the Faction Paradox, which become an important element in the BBC books Eighth Doctor Adventures and subsequent spin-off series, and an explicit explanation that the mark carried by the Third Doctor during his exile on Earth was a branding used to distinguish criminals by the Time Lords (in reality, this mark was a tattoo of a cobra that Jon Pertwee picked up while serving in the Royal Navy).

Craighead County, Arkansas

Napoleon maintained grandiose plans to establish a vast French Empire in Louisiana but the Royal Navy prevented him from transferring troops or settlers to the acquired territories.

Ferranti Argus

The 350 was used in various military simulators, including the Royal Navy for frigate, submarine and helicopter based anti-submarine training, and the Royal Air Force for a Bloodhound Mk.II simulator and the Vickers VC10 flight simulator built at Redifon and delivered to RAF Brize Norton in 1967.

First National Government of New Zealand

At the start of the war it had been assumed that the Royal Navy would protect New Zealand, but the Fall of Singapore showed this to be a false assumption.

Harry Benjamin

Following an ill-fated professional visit to the United States, the liner in which Benjamin was returning to Germany was caught mid-Atlantic both by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, and the Royal Navy.

High-pressure nervous syndrome

"Helium tremors" were first widely described in 1965 by Royal Navy physiologist Peter B. Bennett, who also founded the Divers Alert Network.

History of the Halifax Regional Municipality

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn was ordered to live in at the headquarters of the Royal Navy's, North American Station in Halifax (1794- 1800).

While it had quickly become the largest Royal Navy base on the Atlantic coast and had hosted large numbers of British army regulars, the complete destruction of Louisbourg in 1760 removed the threat of French attack.

HMAS Eduardo

She was the Royal Navy's MFV 2045, which was loaned to the RAN and commissioned on 8 March 1945.

Hornblower in the West Indies

Hornblower in the West Indies, or alternately Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies is one of the novels in the series CS Forester wrote about fictional Royal Navy officer Horatio Hornblower.

Howard Townsend

His father was an industrialist, having carried on the business of the Stirling Iron Works which forged the Hudson River Chain that prevented the British Royal Navy from sailing up the Hudson River during the American Revolution.

John Bean

Initially he was a trainee navigator in RAF Volunteer Reserve and later as a sailor in the Royal Navy.

Julius Carlebach

Carlebach went to school in London, and was a soldier in the Royal Navy for ten years and managed an orphanage for Jewish children in Norwood.

Kyle of Durness

The danger area associated with the range includes sea areas to the north of the bay and the range is used for live firing from Royal Navy vessels as well as for bombing practice by the RAF.

Marcos Christino Fioravanti

He graduated in Medicine and went to serve in the Napoleonic Wars as a doctor in the Royal British Navy.

Marcos Christino Fioravanti (1775–1862) was an Italian surgeon who served in the Royal British Navy and co-founded the town of Santo Antônio da Patrulha in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Mathew Macnider

The MacNiders quickly became one of the leading mercantile families there, selling Canadian timber and supplies to the Royal Navy and trading in wine and spices from Europe and the British West Indies to Quebec, London and Scotland.

MV Dubai Moon

The ship sent a distress call which was picked by Royal Navy frigate HMS Chatham.

Naval Service Bill

Prior to the bill's introduction Canada did not have a navy of its own, a state of affairs that left the Dominion dependent on the British Royal Navy for maritime defence.

Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay

A state-of-the-art Magnetic Silencing Facility (MSF) provides degaussing services, including ranging and the removal of permanent magnetism for submarines of the U.S. Navy and the British Royal Navy, as well as for steel-hulled surface warships.

Pegasus class

five British Royal Navy ships carrying a single fighter launched by catapult, known as Fighter catapult ships

Penelakut Island

British sailors surveying the area in 1851 cruised into a tiny group of five unnamed islands in the Strait of Georgia, naming the two largest Kuper and Thetis, after their Captain Augustus Leopold Kuper R.N. (1809–1885) and his frigate, HMS Thetis, a 36-gun Royal Navy frigate on the Pacific Station between 1851 and 1853.

Public health

James Lind's discovery of the causes of scurvy amongst sailors and its' mitigation via the introduction of fruit on lengthy voyages was published in 1754 and led to the adoption of this idea by the Royal Navy.

Ray Cokes

His father was an officer in the Royal Navy, who was stationed at various navy bases around the world.

Redbone Coonhound

By late in the reign of George III much of the original oak forests of England, Scotland, and Ireland had long since been cut down to service the Royal Navy and many of the peat bogs were being mined for use as a source of fuel; with the exceptions of badgers, rabbits, and foxes much of the original fauna that would have inhabited these lands had become extirpated over time.

Requiem for a Wren

He is appalled to learn that the woman was, in fact, Janet Prentice - a former Royal Navy Wren and the former girlfriend of his dead brother Bill, and someone for whom Alan had spent considerable time searching immediately after the war.

Robert Patten Adams

Adams was married twice; his first wife, who died in 1867, being Harriett Matilda, daughter of the Captain George King, R.N. He then married Kate, daughter of the George Francis Huston, JP, of New Norfolk, Tasmania.

Royston Tickner

He served in the Royal Navy in World War II and from 1947 took a break from the theatre to work as a lighthouse keeper, miner, fireman and publican, before returning to acting in 1958.

Sam Malcolmson

Malcolmson served in the Royal Navy and in 1969, whilst stationed at R.N.A.S. Culdrose in Cornwall, he played 14 games (5 goals) for Falmouth Town A.F.C..

Satsuma Domain

In 1862, in the Namamugi Incident an Englishman was killed by retainers of Satsuma, leading to the bombardment of Kagoshima by the Royal Navy the following year.

Sidney, New York

On April 7, 1801 the town was named Sidney in honour of British naval officer Sir Sidney Smith.

Society of United Irishmen

In October, Wolfe Tone himself was captured when a supporting French fleet of 3,000 troops was intercepted and defeated by the Royal Navy near Lough Swilly.

Stilo

At 10 km from the city is the promontory of Cape Stilo, where in 1940 the Battle of Punta Stilo was fought by the Italian and British Navies.

Surveying in early America

When George reached school age, instead of a career in the Royal Navy, George went to school to study surveying and geometry.

Sylvia Breamer

Her father was Sir James De Courcey Breamer, a commander in the Royal Navy.

The Great War of 1892

The Great War of 1892 was a story of the genre termed "Invasion Literature" written by Admiral Philip Howard Colomb in which he sought to alert Britain to what he saw as the weakness of the Royal Navy.

Torpedo gunboat

A number of torpedo gunboats, such as the Alarm class and the Dryad class, were built for the Royal Navy during the 1880s and the 1890s; similar vessels were also constructed or otherwise acquired by a number of European nations and Japan.

UKN

The British Royal Navy, occasionally known as the United Kingdom Navy (UKN)

Win, Lose or Die

Beginning with this novel, and continuing for the remainder of the John Gardner series, Bond is promoted to the Royal Navy rank of Captain.


15 Cheyne Walk

On Balchen's death the house passed to his son-in-law Commodore Temple West (later vice-admiral), who had married Balchen's daughter Frances.

Action of 9 February 1945

The Action of 9 February 1945 refers to the sinking of the German U-boat U-864 in the North Sea off the Norwegian coast during the Second World War by the Royal Navy submarine HMS Venturer.

Africa Star

The sand of the desert is represented by pale buff, the Royal Navy (and Merchant Navy), British Army, and Royal Air Force are represented by stripes of dark blue, red, and light blue respectively.

Allied naval bombardments of Japan during World War II

During the last weeks of World War II, warships of the United States Navy, Britain's Royal Navy, and the Royal New Zealand Navy bombarded several cities and industrial facilities in Japan.

Carlyon Bellairs

In 1885 he entered the Royal Navy, receiving his education at Stubbington House School and HMS Britannia and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.

Daniel Oliver Guion

Daniel Oliver Guion (London, 20 April 1776 – Ringkøbing, 24 December 1811) was an officer of the Royal Navy.

Defence College of Communications and Information Systems

The College consists of a headquarters based at Blandford Camp in Dorset, the Royal Navy CIS Training Unit at HMS Collingwood, Fareham, Hampshire, The Royal School of Signals at Blandford Camp and the Royal Air Force Number 1 Radio School, collocated with the headquarters of the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering at Cosford, of which the Aerial Erector School at RAF Digby is a part.

Del Rio, Tennessee

According to family lore, Stokely was impressed into the British navy, but escaped and fought under American captain John Paul Jones.

First Battle of Algeciras

As a result, the British Royal Navy became dominant in the Mediterranean Sea and imposed blockades on French and Spanish ports in the region, including the important naval bases of Toulon and Cadiz.

George Vallings

Educated at Belhaven Hill School in Dunbar and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Vallings joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman in 1950 and took part in the Korean War.

Georgiana Molloy

However in December 1836, she received a letter from Captain James Mangles, asking her to collect botanical specimens for him.

Glen Iris, Victoria

Captain Thomas Henderson, of the Royal Navy, arrived in Melbourne on a ship called Iris in 1850.

Greene Inlet

The name "Deep Inlet" was probably given by Lieutenant Commander J.M. Chaplin, Royal Navy, of the Discovery, during his survey of the Undine Harbour area in 1926 but it is not used locally.

Grog

The word originally referred to a drink made with water or "small beer" (a weak beer) and rum, which British Vice Admiral Edward Vernon introduced into the Royal Navy on 21 August 1740.

Habeas Corpus Parliament

I must needs put you in mind how necessary it will be to have a good Strength at Sea, next Summer, since our Neighbours are making naval Preparations...

History of the Halifax Regional Municipality

He was instrumental in shaping that port's military defences for protecting the important Royal Navy base, as well as influencing the city's and colony's socio-political and economic institutions.

HMNB Devonport

Her Majesty's Naval Base (HMNB) Devonport (formerly HMS Drake), is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth).

HMS Berkeley Castle

Two ships of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Berkeley Castle after Berkeley Castle in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire.

HMS Brighton

Four ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Brighton, after the seaside town of Brighton.

HMS Hector

Eleven ships of the British Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Hector, named after the Trojan hero Hector in the Iliad.

HMS Ivy

Three ships of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Ivy named after the plant.

HMS Leven

Three ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Leven, probably after the River Leven, Fife in Scotland.

HMS Niger

Seven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Niger after the Niger River, whilst another was planned.

HMS Norfolk

Five ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Norfolk, after the Duke of Norfolk or the county of Norfolk.

HMS Queen Charlotte

Four ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Queen Charlotte after Charlotte, queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.

HMS Royal Charlotte

Six vessels of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS (or HMY) Royal Charlotte, for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, consort of King George III.

HMS Vesuvius

Twelve ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Vesuvius or HMS Vesuve, after the volcano Mount Vesuvius.

Irene Incident

In an attempt to surprise the pirates of Bias Bay, about sixty miles from Hong Kong, Royal Navy submarines attacked the merchant ship SS Irene, of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, which had been taken over by the pirates on the night of October 19.

Japanese cruiser Tsushima

From mid-1915 to 1918, Tsushima and her sister ship Niitaka were permanently based at the Cape Town, assisting the Royal Navy in patrolling the sea lanes linking Europe to the east.

John Quilliam

Captain John Quilliam RN (born Marown, Isle of Man 29 September 1771 - died Michael, Isle of Man 10 October 1829) was a Royal Navy officer and the First Lieutenant on HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Newfoundland Ranger Force

Those members who had departed joined a variety of military forces, including the Newfoundland Heavy Artillery, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Navy.

PULHHEEMS

PULHHEEMS is tri-service, which is to say that it is used by the British Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force.

Ray Michie, Baroness Michie of Gallanach

She supported the campaigns to end submarine operations of the Royal Navy and United States Navy in the Firth of Clyde, to hold another inquiry into the Chinook crash on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994, and the successful bid for the residents of Gigha to buy their own island.

Ring of Brodgar

The first formal survey of the Ring of Brodgar and surrounding antiquities was performed in 1849 by Royal Navy Captain F.W.L. Thomas of HM cutter Woodlark.

Royal Navy Recognised Sea Scouts

There are 101 Sea Scout Groups in the United Kingdom and one group in Gibraltar who are affiliated to the Royal Navy in order to foster a close relationship between the Royal Navy and young people in the Scout Association by making naval facilities and equipment accessible.

Salford Quays lift bridge

Except for Royal Navy visits and dredging, most vessels entering the Salford Quays turning circle are pleasure craft, and are most commonly seen between April and October, when Mersey Ferries operate the Manchester Ship Canal Cruise service from Liverpool to Salford Quays.

South Walls

South Walls has substantial remains from the WWII period, when Scapa Flow was used as a Royal Navy base.

Southgate River

Its namesake was Captain James Johnson Southgate, a retired ship-master, who came to Victoria in 1859 via San Francisco and launched a commission and general mercantile business, largely in connection with the Pacific Station of the Royal Navy at Esquimalt, operating as J.J. Southgate & Co.

Steam engine

Tower's engines were used by the Great Eastern Railway to drive lighting dynamos on their locomotives, and by the Admiralty for driving dynamos on board the ships of the Royal Navy.

Swords, Dublin

In attendance at this Presidential ceremony was Admiral Sir Jock Slater, R.N., a former British First Sea Lord then serving as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the R.N.L.I..

Tony Bastable

Bastable later moved into independent production, and he produced training and promotional films for companies such as the Ford Motor Company, the National Bus Company, the Royal Navy, the Department of Transport and the Institute of Advanced Motorists.

Wentwood

Many stands of substantial mature Welsh Oaks were felled to meet the demand for stout oak heartwoods in Royal Navy battleships and men o' war of the Napoleonic era of the 19th century, such as HMS Victory and others, but the heart of the forest remained preserved for charcoal production, a necessity for the iron industry and local ironworks.

William Pullen

Pullen was born in Devonport, Devon, the son of Royal Navy Lieutenant William Pullen and Amelia Mary Haswell.

Xavier Petulengro

Unusually among Gypsies at the time, he learned to read and write, later claiming that this was due to the assistance of Admiral Arthur Wilson VC of the Royal Navy and his sister, but also with the help of a farmer's wife, Martha Clark, in Whitehaven, Cumbria, where the family spent several winters.