military ship naming convention?

Generally yes.

One would assume Atlantic would be bodies of water, Fiery combustibles,and legendarily, Broadswords for pointy things.
 
Atlantic, Atlantia, Pacifica, Pegasus, Galactica ...

Fiery, Flaming, Burning, Combustible ... I'll skip riding in this class. But I can sell you a high passage on the M/S Venting Atmosphere.
 
Among their crews, CVE was sarcastically said to stand for "Combustible, Vulnerable, and Expendable".

HMS Explosion, HMS Convulsion, HMS Volcano, HMS Blast, HMS Furnace, HMS Carcass, HMS Pickle.
 
A non-canon TU could have a lot of fun with this...

Hospital ships - Suture, Needle, Scalpel, Clamp, Dressing, Tourniquet?
 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Broke_(D83)

As usual, the truth is strange. :-)
 
Linwood said:
A non-canon TU could have a lot of fun with this...

Hospital ships - Suture, Needle, Scalpel, Clamp, Dressing, Tourniquet?

Who says it has to be non-canon? All it'd take is a ship class only built by one group at one or a small set of shipyards, which group has some whimsy when it comes to naming the ships they build. There could very easily be a class of hospital ships with that naming theme. The wiki lists a "Relief class"; the article doesn't say what its naming practices are, but it's easy to imagine Relief, Soothe, Numb, Ease, and so on.
 
WingedCat said:
Linwood said:
A non-canon TU could have a lot of fun with this...

Hospital ships - Suture, Needle, Scalpel, Clamp, Dressing, Tourniquet?

Who says it has to be non-canon? All it'd take is a ship class only built by one group at one or a small set of shipyards, which group has some whimsy when it comes to naming the ships they build. There could very easily be a class of hospital ships with that naming theme. The wiki lists a "Relief class"; the article doesn't say what its naming practices are, but it's easy to imagine Relief, Soothe, Numb, Ease, and so on.

It won't matter where they're built. The yard doesn't choose the name.

These ships certainly could exist, and some current hospital ships do bear names like Mercy.

However given how the Traveller universe works it's very unlikey that a navy will use whimsy in warship names, and the crew's own religions (like dimming lights for jump) will prevent the use of an unlucky name. Maybe a minor religion organisation (i.e. cult) or NGO would name their ships suchly.
 
In my personal use, I always precede the ship name with the sector name or shortened identifier for e.g. for gazelle commissioned in the Spinward Marches
would INS Spinward Gazelle.

The reason for this is due to the size of the Imperium, nobody can have an accurate list of unique ship names that would be unique across all sectors,
Given the common types of names used Tigress, Plankwell, Gazelle Navy Yards in the Solomani Rim would have NO idea what the current
use of ships names in the Solomani Rim are. This would cause confusion in official reports and action histories.. if a historian is asking
exactly which Plankwell opened fire on Zhodani'.. was it the one built and commissioned in the Spinward Marches, or the one from
Deneb.

An empire with the history of the 3rd Imperium and its size would want unique identification of the ship, identified by where it was commissioned.
It not good enough to say "oh everybody knows it is the Spinward Marches ship when from the history of the Fifth Frontier War we know that ships
were brought in from other sectors, and can probably assume that ship transfers from other sectors are not only common but desired.
If you don't routinely transfer ships between sectors, you run the serious risk of having sector fleets with more loyalty to the sector duke
than the Emperor and Imperium. To have lasted this long, the Imperial navy must have a mechanism to mix personnel and ships from
different sectors to maintain an Imperium-wide loyalty.
Chumbly
 
Actually, it does make some interesting Role Playing possibilities, like the rivarly between the crews of INS Spinward Gazelle and INS Corridor Gazelle in
the Trojan Reaches as to which crew and ship best embody the "TRUE" spirit of Gazelle.


Also, think of this possibility. Imp Captain Juli Yuroshiino Captain of the INS Core Arbetralla is looking at the other Arbetralla INS Illeshi Arbetralla, on a rotation from its own sector, captained by Imp Captain Yko Mblieki, smiling to herself about the gentle ribbing that went back and forth at the Fleet Officer's Club over which ship
Arbetrella would have approved of more. Fine Guy,, told funny jokes.

Suddenly the Bridge Communication Officer announces the flash message from Capital....

Flash Zulu Zulu Warning this is not a drill, all ships and fleets immediately move to action stations, the fate of the Imperium is at Stake.
Word had just been received Archduke Dulinor has just assassinated Emperor Strepen and the Crown Princess Cienca Iphegenia and is attempting to seize the Throne.
She looks over at the fleet deployment hologram grid and intently stares at the name INS Illesh Arbatrella. Forgetting all thoughts of ribbing and funny jokes she makes a ship-wide broadcast .. "All Hands Action Stations... Power Up the Main Gun... Launch All Fighters Immediately..Designate INS Illiesh Arbetralla primary Target. When Ready Engage"

Chumbly
 
Chumbly said:
In my personal use, I always precede the ship name with the sector name or shortened identifier for e.g. for gazelle commissioned in the Spinward Marches
would INS Spinward Gazelle.

The reason for this is due to the size of the Imperium, nobody can have an accurate list of unique ship names that would be unique across all sectors,
Given the common types of names used Tigress, Plankwell, Gazelle Navy Yards in the Solomani Rim would have NO idea what the current
use of ships names in the Solomani Rim are. This would cause confusion in official reports and action histories.

Yard doesn't name the ship. Operator names the ship.

If its Imperial navy they're able to not overlap due to central control and meticulous planning, like the Azhanti High Lightning supplement giving all the names.

If it's a subsector navy under a duke, or planet under a ?, it's technically it's own navy, and there's no reason to prevent them overlapping with any other navy. The prefix may be different (INS vs RNS - it's not really explained how that works in Traveller, or when theu use the prefix. edit: As far as I can tell they use INS for everything).

It's not really any different from today when you have a multi-national force with both, for exmaple the USS Indepdenence and RSS Independence (apologies to RSN, I don't know if you put the "the" or not), or when a navy re-uses a ship name.

It's possible the smaller units might have numbers only and the name is unofficial.
 
I would think the IN would allocate blocks of ship designations by class to various shipyards to keep identifiers unique. Names - maybe there’s a pre-approved list?

But maybe it’s not much of an issue for larger ships with construction times measured in years. Plenty of time to get a unique name allocated.
 
Blockchain.

The Admiralty has prepared lists, subject to veto by their political masters.

You can bet that Nixon isn't going to be the name of a future aircraft carrier.
 
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