History Trivia Thread Reducks

[Admiral Yi]

Mauritius, If I'm not wrong.

Not Jack Aubrey's fault, he wasn't there!

[Caliga]

Mauritius, If I'm not wrong.

You are indeed not wrong.  The Battle of Grand Port, to be specific.  You're up.

[Viking]

Carolingian?

Nailed it.

You're up.

I looked these guys up, they also invented lower case letters.

[Alatriste]

An easy one. Galleys stank to heaven, so much it was said that even in the darkest night a galley couldn't approach unnoticed because the nose discovered it where the eyes couldn't.

Most countries usually let the thing stand but the Venetians actually tried to clean their galleys at regular intervals (perhaps because they used more free oarsmen) and they had a very efficient and cheap method. What did they do? 

[Admiral Yi]

Sank them.  Too easy.

[PDH]

They sank them to clean them out?

[Pat]

Put them under a waterfall?

[Viking]

burned them and replaced the burned bit?

[HisMajestyBOB]

Some sort of system for washing them out with seawater, without sinking the boat?

[Caliga]

Capsized them in shallow water?

[Alatriste]

Nope, Yi is right. They sank them in shallow waters, if possible where flowing currents would push the filth away.

[Admiral Yi]

Floor open.

[Strix]

What was the worst single shipwreck in American history?

For a bonus, what was the worst single shipwreck in history?

Oddly enough they had some very peculiar similarities.

[Caliga]

Do you mean in terms of loss of life?

In all of history it was that one at the end of WWII where a Soviet sub sunk a German liner in the Baltic overloaded with refugees and injured soldiers... I think it was called the Wilhelm Gustloff or something.... IIRC 9,000 died.

In the US I'm guessing it was that one right after the end of the civil war where a steamship blew up on the Mississippi near Memphis.  I can't remember the loss of life there, but I think the ship was called USS Sultana.

[Strix]

Do you mean in terms of loss of life?

In all of history it was that one at the end of WWII where a Soviet sub sunk a German liner in the Baltic overloaded with refugees and injured soldiers... I think it was called the Wilhelm Gustloff or something.... IIRC 9,000 died.

In the US I'm guessing it was that one right after the end of the civil war where a steamship blew up on the Mississippi near Memphis.  I can't remember the loss of life there, but I think the ship was called USS Sultana.

Correct on all accounts.

The loss of life on the Sultana was a few more than on the Titanic. It was loaded with soldiers and ex-POWs headed home after the war which was similar to the German ship loaded with soldiers and others.