General culture, do you believe it?

  • '17 '16 '15

    was always fond of the BMT, so they should know about Italians anyway. Then again … : )


  • Most iconic warship was a Transport because it had AA capabilities, was a 4-4-2 and two hit leviathan of the seas and could carry two planes and had a sneak attack. It also could shore bombard and take capitals if it even looked at you…


  • Battleship.

  • '20

    Galleon


  • Baron’s question deals with two quite different issues: what should be considered to be the iconic warship and what kind of warship the average person would be sure to identify accurately.  I’m not sure that there’s any particular kind of warship that the average person would be sure to identify accurately, and keep in mind that the example Baron gave – 19-year-old-girls – is too specific (at least in my opinion) to fit the broad concept of the average person.  A submarine probably would have the highest recognition factor because its defining characteristic (its ability to dive underwater) gives it such a unique shape and because its diving abilities can be considered separately from the specifics of its precise military role (ballistic missile sub, attack sub, etc.).  On the other hand, the warship with the lowest recognition factor – or to put it another way, the ship whose definition is the most potentially confusing – is pretty clear in my opinion: the battleship.  To the general public (or to use Calvin’s phrase, “To the untutored eye of the ignorant layman”), the word “battleship” means the same thing as “combat vessel” and therefore is a generic term for “warship.”  That’s not what “battleship” actually means…but in fairness, even naval experts get into arguments over what a battleship is and where the distinction lies between a battleship and a battlecruiser (as in the case of the WWII German vessels Scharnhorst and Gneisenau).

    As for what “the iconic” warship is, the answer is: take your pick.  Or rather, choose your era and then take your pick.  In the age of oars, the iconic warship was (in my opinion) the Greek trireme.  Three-decked first-raters like HMS Victory would be a good choice as the iconic ships of the age of sail.  For the WWII era, my personal favourite would be fast battleships, which simultaneously reached the peak of their evolution and became obsolete at that time…but that’s just my preference.

  • '17 '16

    @Colt45:

    Galleon

    Do you meant the multi-deck sailship with howitzers on flank?

    Because avg Joe or Jane had saw Pirates of the Caribbean?

  • '20

    @Baron:

    @Colt45:

    Galleon

    Do you meant the multi-deck sailship with howitzers on flank?

    Because avg Joe or Jane had saw Pirates of the Caribbean?

    Yeah
    I chose my answer because I like 'em, were used in a versatile manner, and because i consider the Age of Exploration a fascinating era and uniquely important to history, whereas I don’t think the average Joe knowing what a carrier or battleship is would be very interesting to them or lead to a greater interest in that era’s history, unlike galleon’s case.
    Not much of a fan of PoC. I prefer the tv series Black Sails.


  • @Baron:

    I was amazed this afternoon, a few 19 years old girls asked me what was an Aircraft Carrier during a test.
    I had to show a picture so they can classify it amongst warships.

    Do you believe it?

    I always thought that Aircraft Carrier was the iconic warship.

    If you have to choose one warship type, what would you choose so the average Joe or Jane can know it for sure?

    They were able to look up from their phones long enough to ask?


  • @frimmel:

    @Baron:

    I was amazed this afternoon, a few 19 years old girls asked me what was an Aircraft Carrier during a test.
    I had to show a picture so they can classify it amongst warships.

    Do you believe it?

    I always thought that Aircraft Carrier was the iconic warship.

    If you have to choose one warship type, what would you choose so the average Joe or Jane can know it for sure?

    They were able to look up from their phones long enough to ask?

    NO they couldn’t look up from there phones. They had to Google to get the answer IF they knew what they were looking for !

  • '17 '16

    @SS:

    @frimmel:

    @Baron:

    I was amazed this afternoon, a few 19 years old girls asked me what was an Aircraft Carrier during a test.
    I had to show a picture so they can classify it amongst warships.

    Do you believe it?

    I always thought that Aircraft Carrier was the iconic warship.

    If you have to choose one warship type, what would you choose so the average Joe or Jane can know it for sure?

    They were able to look up from their phones long enough to ask?

    NO they couldn’t look up from there phones. They had to Google to get the answer IF they knew what they were looking for !

    With google, there is no need to learn alphabetical order. Just input correctly the first letters and you get plenty of pictures.
    It was not about identifying correctly a given pic. It was about not knowing at all what the word means and refered to.


  • @Baron:

    @SS:

    @frimmel:

    @Baron:

    I was amazed this afternoon, a few 19 years old girls asked me what was an Aircraft Carrier during a test.
    I had to show a picture so they can classify it amongst warships.

    Do you believe it?

    I always thought that Aircraft Carrier was the iconic warship.

    If you have to choose one warship type, what would you choose so the average Joe or Jane can know it for sure?

    They were able to look up from their phones long enough to ask?

    NO they couldn’t look up from there phones. They had to Google to get the answer IF they knew what they were looking for !

    With google, there is no need to learn alphabetical order. Just input correctly the first letters and you get plenty of pictures.
    It was not about identifying correctly a given pic. It was about not knowing at all what the word means and refered to.

    Probably still couldn’t ID the picture.

  • '21 '20 '18 '17

    Why, its clearly the Viking Knarr.  Most common ship of the 14th century.    Everyone knows a knarr from a longship!

    When the raiders come for their village–the longship can accommodate an entire clan but the knarr?  Classic raid.

  • '17 '16 '15 '12

    galley / trireme, preferably with a ram.

    they must have seen Ben Hur or whatever, by this age.

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