Looks like A I is out thinking it's self!😀😀

Hi Stephen,
Yes.
Using the Trade Winds and following the Gulf Stream are well known practices to save time (and fuel if not wind powered).
I recall getting a brief glimpse of the colourful 'shower' and then the view as in attached screen snip. Much to my surprise and disappointment☹️
Some kind of glitch?
Was I unlucky enough to click A just as the server was busy with something else with a higher interrupt priority, unlucky coincidence?
If you can't find any evidence of such a glitch, always difficult I know, then I'll just have to assume that Capt. AI just doesn't like me coz I criticised him and suggested he be demoted, and take my medicine🙄
Cheers, Doug😎
PS Just saw the correction many thanks. Any clue how it happened?

Are you sure you answered A? 🤔😝

Stephen

What the heck???🤔
I answered A. (simple general knowledge) got the coloured shower and then immediately this🤔Grumble grumble😠
😎

Initially I had difficulty answering because the English term "cleat" was translated as "bitta".
In reality the term "cleat" is translated as both "bitta" and "galloccia" which are two very different things, even if they perform a very similar function.

The "bitta", depicted in the first image, is a low and sturdy column, generally made of cast iron, ending with a collar or a mushroom head, which is placed along the edge of the docks of ports (and also on the decks of ships) to tie the chains or mooring cables; there are also smaller "bitta", formed by two paired columns and joined at the base by a horizontal rod, which are fixed to the deck or to the walls to give direction to the cables.

The "galloccia", depicted in the second image, is one of the various fixed devices used to stop a rope or a rope or a cable.
The most traditional model consists of a flat surface (plate or base), which constitutes the contact area with the boat from which one or more short rods emerge vertically, from which, transversally (and parallel to the base plate), two pointed or more often flared ends (called gunwales or horns) branch out, which serve to prevent the cable from coming out.
The cable is then usually blocked by making a special cleat knot on the horns, which is done in two slightly different ways depending on whether the knot must be able to be untied quickly (typically when it is used to stop sheets and therefore in this version it is sometimes also called a sheet knot, even if this term can also be used to indicate the flag knot, since this latter knot is used to extend a sheet) or if the knot must be more resistant (typically when it is used to stop halyards and therefore in this version it is sometimes also called a halyard knot).
The connection between the cleat and the part of the boat is made with screws. However, given the considerable stress that this joint must withstand, the joint can be reinforced with the use of a powerful glue.

The material with which the cleat is made can be either metal or a resistant plastic.

From the answers I had guessed that it had to be the cleat intended as "galloccia", it could not be otherwise, but I had to check that the term cleat translated both Italian terms.

Ropework! Now we're talking!

Hi roycv,
CHEERS, that's interesting to know. !!!
I will have to just keep going for for the next 30 days in the hopes.
👍👍😊👍🚤🚤

Hi Boatshed, life is a b****r! That means your score cannot rise above 93% for a month, while the 30 days plays out!
Roy

Having done this, securing a mooring rope, it was a simple read but the correct answer was incomplete! Wi must have been the beginning of with, and then what?

These days the cleats have 2 legs and mooring ropes have end loops and you push the loop through the legs and stretch it across one end (horn) of the cleat and then the other. Impossible to come loose and easy to free.
Roy

roycv, I missed answering 2 days due to visitors and now I have dropped down to position 6 and you have overtaken me.
I was in position 4, I was at 80% I'm now down to 77% when I looked I was 73% until I answered todays question tonight.

There is an interesting follow up to this as the commander of U30, Fritz-Julius Lemp, was later in charge of U110. This is the submarine that was captured as the scuttling charges possibly did not go off. A boarding party then got hold of an enigma machine and code books, which were dispatched to Bletchley Park.
Lemp was seen swimming back to U110 but it is believed he succumbed to the cold Atlantic water.

If you have an Enigma machine lurking in your attic it may well be worth more than your house.

Roy

Another dodgy answer! I went with the premise that AI got it wrong so it was Athenia I clicked on. I think trying to out guess the question master also being wrong adds a new dimention to a quiz.

Many years ago when I would put a quiz together for a club evening, I said that any queries should be submitted in writing on the back of a non-returnable £5 note.

I was challenged once but eventually he chickened out, a shame as he was also wrong.

Roy

AI got his/her 😮🙈 knickers slightly twisted again.
The ship in question was launched in January 1922 and completed in April 1923. Not 1939!
She was sunk by U30 on 3rd September 1939 only hours after Britain had declared war on NAZI Germany. Her sinking is regarded as the beginning of the Battle of the Atlantic and caused a huge propaganda scandal for the Nazi Navy (DKM).

Good old docu/history channels again.
Plus I have some excellent documentary DVD/BluRays of the Battle of the Atlantic.
Deers, Choug😁 😎
BTW It was RMS Lancastria (Royal Mail Ship) not SS (Steam Ship).
Just by the bye😉

No, I was turned 5 and going to school!
Roy

Apparently a whole squadron, 16 planes, of P38Gs was sent.
339th Fighter Squadron.
In response to a decrypted Japanese signal detailing his itinerary.
Good old History and NatGeo docu channels😉

Exceptional, memory though Roy.👍
You musta bin about 4 at the time.
Cheers, Doug😎

From memory I think either 2 or 3 P38 fighters were sent to intercept his flight and 'do' for him. A bit of an assassination really but it was all out war by then.

Roy

Hi Roy,
"Now tomorrow 18th. what will be in store for us? It was the midnight ride of Paul Revere and also the date of the 'Doolittle' raid in WW2."
And Admiral Yamamoto, CIC of the IJN, was shot down and killed in Operation Vengeance in 1943

😎

As a point of order, (Mr. Chairman)! Many years ago we had a club member who thought he was at a union meeting! This was always his opening phrase!

The top scorers all 4 of them are equal 1st. the next score down should be equal 5th and so on. I should be 10th. not 3rd.

Roy

Now tomorrow 18th. what will be in store for us? It was the midnight ride of Paul Revere and also the date of the 'Doolittle' raid in WW2.
Today's question was too easy as the other 3 options were unlikely to say the least.

Still following anniversaries though.
Roy

Quite right Doug. I must confess, I did panic for a second after reading the question.😃

Simple process of elimination today (Bay of Pigs Day)😁

😎

Garth: Canadians are too busy digging out from the snow and putting up snow fences along the border ...

There is another thread with my go-to best fake news for a few weeks that Titanic was scuttled! As recent research shows that underneath the name Titanic it reads Olympic.
Roy

I think it is because todays date is also the anniversary of the event as well.
Roy

I'm sure that was the same question as yesterday, slightly rephrased. I got it wrong yesterday and answered exactly the same today - still wrong!

Yes Boatshed, the issue of the nation ranking was a bit controversial, it certainly didn't follow the same logic as the individual ranking. I agree.
In fact, I pointed it out in message no. 3669, four days ago (reread it if you want) about the 100% Czech.

With these individual ranking rules, disappearing from 100% to zero in just one day is impossible.
To get to 0 starting from 100 (if I understood the mechanism correctly) you have to answer badly (or not answer) for 30 consecutive times.
Evidently the nation ranking followed very strange rules, difficult to understand.

AI=Alleged Intelligence

What I don't understand?
On here it isn't showing one on 100%,🤔 where as previously when the other graph was presented there was some country showing 100%.
Where has that country disappeared to?? 🤔
And where is the person in it??🤔

Interesting to note how many of the high scorers contribute to the posts and interests on this web site.

This morning I have already prepared lunch, I shall have to resort to actual drawing the parts I have been trying to fit on my Wild Swan build. I am fitting a boomkin, looks easy but it is'nt!

Lovely day here but a bit chilly and have already had one day sailing at our lake.

Cheers for now
Roy

I hope I was clear. Now I'm going to reread the translation because I've definitely made a mistake.
If you don't understand something, you're right to ask.
I hope I explained myself well, but if you want, feel free to ask all the questions you want, there's no problem.

Hi SimpleSailor.
I'll try to answer you (even though I'm observing the trend carefully because some exceptions and inconsistencies still don't add up): There is no beginning and end of the month.
You have to consider your last incorrect answer (or not given). If from that date you have always given all the right answers then you can reach 100%. This is the maximum then each wrong question will lower your percentage. If, for example, after thirty days you have given 30 correct answers you will be (or should be) at 100%. If the next day you get the question wrong you will be at 29 correct answers out of 30.
Which means
30 : 29 = 100 : x
X= 29 x 100/30 = 96.67
97%
That wrong question will weigh on you for another thirty days.
For thirty days you will not be able to do better than 97%.
For thirty days you could make further mistakes and further decrease your score but you will not be able to reach 100%.
Logically, further errors (or omissions) will further postpone the thirty-day count.

Every day is a new 30 days. It rolls on.

Just a simple question and don't have ago at me me Doug 😉. When does the 30 days in the questions roll to the next 30 days? Or when does it start?

I love the new chart. Now I can spy on my fellow Canadians, and it doesn't seem to be a lot of participation from Canada. ☹️☹️

Jump,
Re: "Oh I get it. I have to answer more questions to improve my score! "

THAT'S what I'm talking about😉
Welcome to 'The League of the Enlightened Gentlemen'👍
Cheers, Doug😎

14th April 2025.
Oh dear oh very dear!🤔
AI stuck in a rut again?
Shucks! I gave everyone the answer to this yesterday🙄
😎

Yer pays yer money and yer takes your choice Michel😉
Ciao, Doug😎

A good pragmatic attitude and solution DG👍
Cheers, Doug😎

The problem with the AI search and response, she may not get the correct 'fit' for an answer, but you need to take the 'reasonable doubt' approach and choose the nearest of the 4 choices on offer. In this case there were 3 ships (a number of much dispute) that supposedly warned the Titanic of Ice on that night.. One of them and the one most popular ship to the TV documentaries was the one AI chose here as the 'correct answer'!!

It was the Mesaba after all!
👎
M-C.

Oh I get it. I have to answer more questions to improve my score!
😂😂😂

PS
"John George "Jack" Phillips (11 April 1887 – 15 April 1912) was a British sailor and the senior wireless operator aboard the Titanic during her ill-fated maiden voyage in April 1912.

Before the collision with the iceberg, Phillips and his assistant, Harold Bride, had acknowledged and passed along several ice warnings to the bridge. As the ship sank, Phillips did his utmost to contact other ships for assistance and coordinated a successful rescue effort with RMS Carpathia. He did not survive the sinking and his body, if recovered, was not identified.

On the evening of 14 April, in the wireless room on the boat deck, Phillips was sending messages to Cape Race, Newfoundland, working to clear a backlog of passengers' personal messages that had accumulated when the wireless had broken down the day before.[3] Bride was asleep in the adjoining cabin, intending to relieve Phillips at midnight, two hours early. Shortly after 21:30, Phillips received an ice warning from the steamship Mesaba reporting drifting ice, a large number of icebergs, and an ice field directly in Titanic's path in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Phillips acknowledged Mesaba's warning and continued to transmit messages to Cape Race. The wireless operator on the Mesaba, waited for Phillips to report that he had given the report to the bridge, but Phillips continued working Cape Race.

At 22:55, Phillips was again interrupted by another ship, this time the SS Californian. Cyril Evans, the only wireless operator on board the Californian, was reporting that they were stopped and surrounded by ice. Californian's relative proximity, and the fact that both Evans and Phillips were using spark-gap wireless sets whose signals bled across the spectrum and were impossible to tune out, meant that Evans's signal was strong and loud in Phillips's ears, while the signals from Cape Race were faint to Phillips and inaudible to Evans. Phillips quickly sent back, "Keep out; shut up, I'm working Cape Race", and continued communicating with Cape Race, while Evans listened a while longer before going to bed for the night. "

Enough disastricles for one day😮🙈, I'm going back to the snooker now.
Ciao All, Doug😎

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Phillips_(wireless_operator)

Hi Stephen,
Cyril Evans was the radio operator on SS Californian!
The operators on Titanic were Harold Bride and Jack Phillips who was on duty the night of the sinking. Following info was culled from witness reports and the proceedings of both Inquiries in London and New York.

"On Sunday 14 April at 18:30 ship's time, Californian's only wireless operator, Cyril Furmstone Evans (born 1892 in Croydon, Surrey, United Kingdom), signalled to the Antillian that three large icebergs were five miles to the south.[23] Titanic's wireless operator Harold Bride also received the warning and delivered it to the ship's bridge a few minutes later.[24]

Californian encountered a large ice field at 22:20 ship's time,[4] and Captain Lord decided to stop the ship and wait until morning before proceeding further.[25] Before leaving the bridge, he thought he saw a ship's light away to the eastward but could not be sure it was not just a rising star.[26] Lord continued to the engineers' cabins and met with the chief, whom he told about his plans for stopping. As they were talking, they saw a ship's lights approaching. Lord asked Evans if he knew of any ships in the area, and Evans responded: "only the Titanic." Lord asked Evans to inform her that Californian was stopped and surrounded by ice.[27] Lord ordered Evans to warn all other ships in the area, which he did.[28]

Titanic's on-duty wireless operator, Jack Phillips, was busy clearing a backlog of passengers' messages with the wireless station at Cape Race, Newfoundland, 800 miles (1,300 km) away, at the time. Evans's message that SS Californian was stopped and surrounded by ice was heard very strongly on Titanic due to the relative proximity of the two ships and drowned out a separate message Phillips had been in the process of receiving from Cape Race, bringing Phillips told Evans to stop transmitting in the straight diction of wireless operators: "Keep out. Shut up; I am working Cape Race." (or, in morse code, "DDD").[29][30] Contrary to belief, Evans was not offended nor took the common code for "stop transmitting" to be an insult. Instead, he listened in for a while before he switched off his wireless equipment and went to bed.[31][32] A few minutes later, at 23:40, Titanic hit an iceberg.[33] Shortly after midnight, she transmitted her first distress call. "

Californian was only 16km away from Titanic when it hit the iceberg so her WT signal would have been so strong it drowned out signals from further away. Hence Phillips' reaction!
Apart from the reference to Mesaba's warning (see table below) there is no other reference to her or her position / distance relative to Titanic, or if she received Titanic's distress signal, which only Carpathia, ca 100km away, appears to have heard and responded to.

More at links below, which tally with the docus I watched last night.
So in the context of the question set today Californian is the correct answer.
AI just got a little ahead of itself with the date, used today 13th April, instead of waiting until tomorrow for this question. Maybe nothing else happened on 13th April in the past?😁
Cheers, Doug
"Ice Warnings Received by the Titanic on April 14, 1912
Ship Time of Warning
Caronia 9:12 am
Noordam 11:27 am
Amerika 1:49 pm
Baltic 1:54 pm
Mesaba 9:54 pm
Californian 11:07 pm "



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Californian

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Professionalism/The_Sinking_of_the_Titanic

However, only one of the four response ships was in those waters at the time.
The SS Californian is much more famous for the failed rescue incident (of which it was acquitted).

A little iffy today, I think the answer should really be the SS Caronia given the date.

SS Caronia: Sent a warning on 13 April, acknowledged but not significantly acted upon.
SS Californian: Sent a warning on 14 April, but was dismissed by the busy wireless operator (Cyril Evans).
SS Mesaba: Sent the most detailed and timely warning on the evening of 14 April, but it never reached the bridge.

So, everyone knows that it is the SS Mesaba.
However, the options I see are: HMS Dreadnought, RMS Lusitania, SS Californian and SS Great Eastern.
Do these four appear to you too?
How do you choose the right one?

Vott a co-in-cidence!😉
I was just watching a couple of docus this evening about Titanic.
The sinking, The discovery, The investigation of hull materials salvaged.
BTW: The radio operator's name was Evans. He forgot to put the code MSG, signifying 'For the Master', at the beginning of his transmission. So it was not passed on to the bridge☹️,
Cheers, Doug😎

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Titanic#/media/File:Titanic_sinking_gif.gif

Now. The new score presentation I understand. 😊👍

Well, well, well! I am reinstated!
Roy

It still gets its knickers in a twist, e.g. today I answered the question, my score went up and the number of games played out of 29 was correct.

I opened this QoD and am presented with, Answer the QoD before you can read the posts ( I have already done this) and they are faded out. I again answer QoD with right answer and am told you have answered the question already but still blanks off the previous posts and my score has been reduced, which earlier today was 77% but is now 73%.

I wonder what tomorrow brings? Also will anyone be able to read this post?
Roy