Naval History Forums

Illustrious all the way or Hermes.

Aurora.Dido or Penelope-all females

aurora

Acasta.

Little appears known of the origins of this name to the general public.
Acasta was one of the 3000 goddess nymphs, or Oceanides, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Acasta is associated with water movements.

The literal translation can be more sinister. Unstable or unpredictable.

It was on the 8th June 1940 that Admiral Marschall in his flagship Gneisenau, with sister Scharnhorst during operation Juno, discovered how unpredictable sea warfare could be when HMS Acasta, whilst escorting the already sinking carrier HMS Glorious, turned the tables on the Germans and placed 1 fish squarely into Scharnhorst, whose dead totaled 48.
Acasta slipped beneath the seas, following her sister Ardent and the Glorious.
Marschall ordered the twins ensigns be lowered to half mast, prayers and thoughts to be extended to their valiant deceased foe.
The men who manned and died in HMS Acasta.

Truly an unpredictable outcome. There is no beauty in death, whatever name your ship has.

Japanese ships. So poetic, yet so warlike to those willing to figure out what they mean.

Taiho, Hiryu, Furutaka and heaven forbid Yamato. Such beauty

Second place goes to the British. Such fearsome names: Invincible, Glourious, Indefatigable, Warrior..so long as they were not ironic.

The Japanese got many well named destroyers.

Hibiki (echo),Shigure(drizzle),which are also common girl names.

and of course, Yukikaze (snowy wind)

culverin wrote:Acasta.


Marschall ordered the twins ensigns be lowered to half mast, prayers and thoughts to be extended to their valiant deceased foe.
The men who manned and died in HMS Acasta.

Yes. Compare the conduct of Marshall with that of some of the Waffen SS units who routinely murdered British, Canadian and US prisoners of war simply because they had put up a fight before they surrendered to them.