Correct nomenclature

[Simba]

This is just a little aside from the 109E thread.

A quote from one of its messages: "Taking off short from the HMS Eagle . . . "

I'm the son of a Chief Engine Room Artificer, Royal Navy, and I've noticed an increasing tendency for journalists to use 'the HMS . . .', which is really bad writing.

I'll use one of Dad's former ships, the Colossus Class Light Fleet Carrier Warrior to make my point. H.M.S. stands for His/Her Majesty's Ship. The correct form to use when writing or talking about such a ship is either 'H.M.S. Warrior' or 'the Warrior', NOT 'the H.M.S. Warrior'; say it out loud in full, it sounds a bit daft, eh?

'The U.S.S. Enterprise' of course is correct. I speculate that the reason why 'the H.M.S.' has arisen is because lazy writers have just lifted 'the U.S.S.' straight off the page and modified it without thinking. Even BBC correspondents are doing it, so I've written to them too. Now that I've pointed out the error, I'm sure that the more intelligent people that fly AH will mend their ways.

Splice the mainbrace!

     

[Boxboy]

Heheh Simba all squared away in "Bristol fasion" 

[Ack-Ack]

When did your dad serve on the H.M.S Warrior?  Was it when the Warrior was in service with the Canadian navy?


ack-ack

[usvi]

The Canadian Navy in action...

[RTHolmes]

Even BBC correspondents are doing it, so I've written to them too.

no surprise there - journalistic standards at the beeb have been dropping like a stone for years. their news website has basic blunders on it almost every day, they are currently "obsessed" with "randomly" quoting words which arent "quotes" at all. the BBC3 newsflashes are dreadful tabloid nonsense too. "In the news today, Leona Lewis..." wtf? u got 3 mins to sum up the days events and Leona Lewis doing anything is news? And how about this for a leading statement: "Nick Griffin appeared on Question Time this evening, he denies being a Nazi. More news in an hour." Thank god we can at least still rely on Paxman

[Mace2004]

"The USS Ticonderoga" would also be incorrect.  "Ticonderoga" is a proper noun and "USS" is a title (just as is HMS) received on commissioning and removed when decomissioned.  Even your comment that HMS Warrior could also be referred to as "the Warrior" is incorrect because "Warrior" is a proper noun. Correct usage would be "Captain, lookouts report Warrior is on the starboard quarter."

The plethora of incorrect references by the press and, in particular Hollywood and TV, is horrible.  This should be surprising for the press given that they have standardized style books (most use the AP style book) that are supposed to provide the correct usage of things like names, acronyms, titles, etc. but they're generally quite lazy plus the AP doesn't always follow correct usage.  For instance, Lieutenant Commander is correctly abreviated LCDR but the AP insists on Lt Cmdr.

[RTHolmes]

I like The Economist's style guide, they write to a very tight style, plus its the only one thats ever made me smile:

Hikes are walks, not increases. Vegetables, not teenagers, should be fresh. Only the speechless are dumb, the well-dressed smart and the insane mad. Scenarios are best kept for the theatre, postures for the gym, parameters for the parabola.

[FTJR]

British Airways Pilots.... Callsign  "Speedbird" are always saying  "The Speedbird XX " drives me nuts to hear it.

[Simba]

Mace, fair comment, but take it from one who knows, the correct form of address for H.M. and United States ships is as I've given it, particularly when writing.

Ack-Ack, my father was CERA of the engine room in* H.M.S Warrior during her 1957 circumnavigation, when she served as Control Ship for the naval component of Operation Grapple, the detonation of Britain's first H-bomb. He took a series of photos using a Kodak Brownie; Nephew Richard has the photo album now, I'll grab some scans later in the month and see if I can post them to this thread. One of the pictures is of the last TBM Avenger to serve afloat with the Royal Navy, just after it was dumped off the stern, 'Aloha' painted on its side. Warrior had previously served with the Royal Canadian Navy.

I've been aboard the original Warrior of 1860 too. As the son of an ex-Warrior, I get free admission whenever I can spare the time to toddle down to Pompey for a visit.

 

* In Dad's time, all Royal Navy officers and seamen served in their ship, provided it was a surface vessel; it was home, after all, and you didn't live on your home. Perversely, a Royal Navy submarine is always called a boat and the crew lives on it. Don't ask me why, it just is . . .

  

[Ack-Ack]

Mace, fair comment, but take it from one who knows, the correct form of address for H.M. and United States ships is as I've given it, particularly when writing.

Ack-Ack, my father was CERA of the engine room in* H.M.S Warrior during her 1957 circumnavigation, when she served as Control Ship for the naval component of Operation Grapple, the detonation of Britain's first H-bomb. He took a series of photos using a Kodak Brownie; Nephew Richard has the photo album now, I'll grab some scans later in the month and see if I can post them to this thread. One of the pictures is of the last TBM Avenger to serve afloat with the Royal Navy, just after it was dumped off the stern, 'Aloha' painted on its side. Warrior had previously served with the Royal Canadian Navy.

I've been aboard the original Warrior of 1860 too. As the son of an ex-Warrior, I get free admission whenever I can spare the time to toddle down to Pompey for a visit.

 

* In Dad's time, all Royal Navy officers and seaman served in their ship, provided it was a surface vessel; it was home, after all, and you didn't live on your home. Perversely, a Royal Navy submarine is always called a boat and the crew lives on it. Don't ask me why, it just is . . .

  

Is the HMS Warrior from 1860 an iron clad?  Must have been nice to walk the wooden decks of the Warrior.


ack-ack

[Lusche]

 

[Simba]

Warrior was the world's first iron-built ironclad, at the time of its commissioning the world's most powerful warship. She was built in response to the news that the French had started building a wooden ironclad called the Gloire. Their Lordships of the Admiralty weren't keen to introduce new ship types that would render the old ones obsolete until they had to; as Gloire was considered a threat to British commercial vessels in the Channel, they stumped up for Warrior, which is regarded as the ancestor of all the metal-construction, screw-propelled battleships that followed.

Here in Bristol we've also got the honour of being the birth-place and home of the world's first iron-built, screw-propelled passenger liner, S.S. Great Britain (she was originally named S.S. The Great Britain but the Victorians decided that sounded as bad as 'the H.M.S.'). Ain't we Brits lucky?

 

Take your point, Mace, just the ship's name is good form too.

 

[Ack-Ack]

Warrior was the world's first iron-built ironclad, at the time of its commissioning the world's most powerful warship. She was built in response to the news that the French had started building a wooden ironclad called the Gloire. Their Lordships of the Admiralty weren't keen to introduce new ship types that would render the old ones obsolete until they had to; as Gloire was considered a threat to British commercial vessels in the Channel, they stumped up for Warrior, which is regarded as the ancestor of all the metal-construction, screw-propelled battleships that followed.

Here in Bristol we've also got the honour of being the birth-place and home of the world's first iron-built, screw-propelled passenger liner, S.S. Great Britain (she was originally named S.S. The Great Britain but the Victorians decided that sounded as bad as 'the H.M.S.'). Ain't we Brits lucky?

 

Take your point, Mace, just the ship's name is good form too.

 

So the HMS Warrior (the iron clad) could be considered the first 'dreadnought'?  Is the Warrior still sea worthy, like our Old Ironsides?

ack-ack

[Karnak]

So the HMS Warrior (the iron clad) could be considered the first 'dreadnought'?  Is the Warrior still sea worthy, like our Old Ironsides?

ack-ack

She is afloat, unlike HMS Victory, but I don't believe her engines are operable.

[Gianlupo]

Is the HMS Warrior ...

So the HMS Warrior...

You're never gonna learn, ack ack!